Bad Gastein Day 2 review

Viktorija Golubic def. (5) Kiki Bertens 6-2 6-2

Heading towards this match, the latest results of the two couldn't be more different as Bertens was living a really difficult moment of her career, with only 2 wins in the past twoelve weeks, while Golubic was on a roll, her results improving week from week and after having failed to qualify for her first WTA main draw in Palermo, she could make it here in Bad Gastein by winning all her matches in the qualies.
Yet no-one would believe the young Swiss could dictate the game and control the match as much as she eventually did. Bertens soon lost confidence and her errors increased as much as Golubic shots became more accurate and deep. Viktorija's one handed backhand was the shot of the match, she could do everything with it from drop-shots to powerful winners and the Dutch had no answer to the variety and consistence of her opponent despite the enormous gap in the ranking (around 200 places between the two).
The match was over really fast and the Swiss never looked as if she could lose it or feel the pressure of the moment. There's a lot of quality in her game and mental attitude, so it won't be surprising if we get to hear more from her in the future.On the following link, you find the post-match interview i took with her.

(WC) Lisa-Maria Moser def (Q) Elena Bogdan 7-6 (6) 2-6 6-4

The Austrian Wild Card, ranked 770 in the world lived her fairytale day, by defeating Romanian qualifier Elena Bogdan in a close and long match, which featured a lot of emotions and quality too. It was clear right after a few games tat the Austrian's ranking wasn't telling much about the real value of her level of tennis, because Moser showed a great fighting spirit and solid shots as well as smart solutions and class. On the other side of the net, the Romanian had much more experience on bigger stages, even though for both of them it was the first appereance on a WTA main draw.
After a really tight first set where the local player had to save a set point in the tie-break, the Romanian took the lead in the second by forcing Moser to hit more and more shots before hitting a winner, or, often, an error. As she said in her post-match interview that you find here, Lisa-Maria lost a bit of focus after the huge effort to win the first set and her level dropped.

In the third set the Romanian took the lead once more, but the Austrian didn't want to let the match go without fighting, she found her first serve back and a few aces made it easier to hold, while elegant and effective drop shots started to expose the Romanian movements to the net and her position really far from the baseline. The momentum suddenly moved to the Austrian side and the crowd supported her way to the win appreciating her brave attitude and shots, which in the end paid off by making her advance to the second round.

(2) Annika Beck def Shahr Peer 7-5 6-3

After the intense and quality-worthy match of the local youngster, this match failed to cope with the expectations given by the names featured. The German young hope played a solid match, which didn't show much more than consistence though, while Peer looked like the shadow of the former self, who few years ago was one win away from the top 10.
The two played a very similar game, based on flat and medium speed shots in the attempt to win for a shorter ball to attack, which rarely happened because of the ability of both to susbtain such rhythm. Nonetheless Peer looked to be the one to try and go for winners the most, but her attempts often ended up in errors, expecially with the forehand, which on the other hand was the shot that gave more points to her opponent.
Both girls struggled to hold serve for the whole match, but the reason of that wasn't due to great returns of serve, but to the instability of their serves: Beck in the case often hit double-faults, whose second serve would barely stay within the base line.
The match wasn't indeed pretty at all, but in the end the German could stay calmer on the important points and let Peer feel the pressure of those, so that she often committed unforced errors in such moments and that in the end gave the edge to Beck to win the match.

Alexandra Cadantu def Maria-Joao Koehler 6-2 6-4

This match was a really interesting one, expecially because it showed a great development in the career of the Romanian, whose game impressed me as much as her great attitude on court. Cadantu is indeed the kind of player that made it to the top 100 by winning match on her consistence, expecially in the ITF circuit, but this year she started to give glimpses of a newer attitude and game in WTA matches too (she routined future Wimbledon Finalist Lisiscki on the indoor clay of Katowice for exemple).
Her shots became a lot heavier and expecially with her forehand she can produce great pace and dictate the rally until she has the chance to close with winners. Her dropshots can be really effective and she rarely abuses of them and her first serve has grown stronger and it's pretty hard to read. Of course she still has flaws in her game, but she looks to be a hard worker and her strenght lies in the winning mentality, which motivates her as much on court as off and this match gave another proof of that. In the second set she was sailing to a straight sets win, when Koehler, with a burst of pride, started to hit heavier shots, painting the lines

from both wings and making the score tight again. Many players at this point would have waited for the storm to pass and hope it would be over before the match is, but Alexandra, after a couple of games of dizziness, got herself back and instead of letting the Portugues assaulting her, she started to change the rhythm of her shots costantly by using back and top spin, so that she could get closer to the base line and finally go for winners. On 4-4 she broke and went on serving for the match closing with a blasting ace.



Petra Martic def (4) Andrea Petkovic 6-7 (5) 7-5 6-3

There is so much to tell about this match between German former top ten and champion here in Bad Gastein a few years ago and the young Croatian hope, because the two played each other twice before and Martic won both of the matches, by recovering from a one sided first set loss. What's more both girls are known for the bad luck they sadly witnessed in the past because of numerous and serious injuries. Nonetheless, the match, which could have easily been the final with another draw, was clearly the most interesting round one match-up.
What really made this match interesting, though, wasn't the quality, because both players played way below their standards and way too many errors were hit from both sides, but the tension and dramatic developing of the match kept the crowd well aware. Under this light, Petkovic surely stood out and not for good.
I want to make it clear immediately, that I am not a fan of hers, so maybe I am biased, but her behaviour was quite rude even from a neutral point of view. She later said to have been ill, but I don't think that's an excuse.
Starting from the first set she look tense and she channelled her rage towards a ball kid as she yelled "are you dumb?" because he had left her towel on Petkovic's bag during the court-change. Then she said other bad things to ball boys because they were slow in giving her balls for serves (which was actually true, but not a reason to insult them).
She then went mad at the umpire, Nouni, because he gave her two warnings for losing time, once on serve and once on return, she started to question every call and was moaning about every line hit by Martic, but on the other hand she was hitting as many or more and never apologized for bad-bounce winners. She did even scream a couple of loud come-on's on Martic errors and double faults.
What's more I think she expected the crowd to be fully behind her, because she's German, a former top player and champion here, but after she insulted the kid, the crowd went tepid and more and more people were cheering for Martic. She looked really bothered by that and more than once made

gestures and faces to mock the crowd.
As for the match, it was much of a rollercoaster and Martic had to blame herself for the first set loss as she wasn't able to serve it out in all two attempts she had. In the second set, she once more failed to convert her advantage and she got broken back and tied at 5 games each, but at this point she could hold her serve and finally break for the second set.
In the third Andrea was quite unfocused and her fights with kids, crowd and umpire took away energies from her running, which was the way through which she could prevent Martic accelerations from becoming winners. What's more her shots started to be shorter and less accurate and by the end Martic could take full control of the set and close it and the match, without too much troubles.

Postmatch interview with Viktorija Golubic

(Q) Viktorija Golubic def (5) Kiki Bertens 6-2 6-2

Young, nice and with an powerful one handed backhand, surely the Swiss made a great impression on the second day of Bad Gastein's WTA international. Viktorija, at her first main draw appearance took down the 5th seed and world n°66 Kiki Bertens, by giving her no rhythm and producing great winners, making the almost 200 places in the ranking of difference look impossible and probably, in not much time, the gap won't be as big. Following the interview I recorded with her after the match:

Congrats on your win today, I think it was the biggest of your career so far. Since the ITF you’ve won in Brescia you’ve been doing really well, what happened?

It was actually, at the beginning of the year, when I started I was 700 in the world, but I started to play better and better and I won two 10k and 25k Brescia, starting from qualifies. You know, it’s just a process, it’s not like something of two weeks, but it’s been the work of 10 years and, yeah, it’s getting better.

Today you played a really solid match against Bertens, while she was evidently bothered by your game. I was really impressed by your backhand, it’s not common to see young women playing with one handed backhand. How come?

Well, I actually played both-handed forehand and backhand when I was small, but then I switched to one handed and well, it fits better my game, because, you know, many different things and I feel very free with it. I think the backhand now it’s a very good shot of mine.

Definitely, you can produce so much power and pace through it. At the moment what are you working on though?

I am working on…everything. Everything has to get better, it’s not like, you know, it’s like step by step and it doesn’t go quickly. You have to be patient and, you know I am still working on my game everyday on court.

Have you had the time to check the draw?

Yes, tomorrow I am playing Hlavackova. I don’t really know her well, I’ve seen her playing now and maybe on television once (laughs). Well, I don’t know now, but I’ll prepare the match and be ready for the next round.

Of course best of luck for tomorrow.

Thank you.

Anyways, what are your next goals?

Oh well…my next goal now is to qualify for Grand Slams, you know, to play Qualies on such big tournaments first and then of course top 200 and, you know…(smiles)

Before leaving you, just one more question, which surface do you prefer?

That’s actually a really interesting question, because, I think I love all of them…and this year I also played on grass, not a match, but a practice but I liked it too, I think it’s really good for my slice…I don’t mind, I like everything actually.

So maybe we’ll see again next year in Wimbledon?

Who knows? (laughs)

Thank you for your time and kindness and best of luck for tomorrow.

Thank you.

A few comments from Rome early days (day 1)

Monday May 13th

[WC] N Burnett (ITA) b. A Cornet (FRA) 62 62

I could watch only the last few games because of an enormous crowd at the ticket office and a bug in the system which was slowing down the whole process. 

Anyway Cornet looked very far from focused and the low crowd all behind the local rising player didn't help her finding the calm to limit Burnett's firepower and force her to hit a lot of balls before winning the point. 
It wasn't so, Nastassja had much of an easy day, all her shots were working well and she was solid with both forehand and backhand, dictating the pace of the rally and so being always on the lead.
The Italian had no problem closing the match, despite playing a bad game on 5-1 on Cornet's serve, she served well on the next game and closed under a waterfall of clapping.

[Q] G Muguruza (ESP) b. [Q] M Johansson (FRA) 16 60 62

I was able to follow this match because court 1 and two share parts of the stands and so while watching Oudin's match, I could spy the next court and enjoy some rallies.
In the first set what one might have expected to happen seemed indeed to happen, but in a completely unexpected way. What do I mean? Well, Johansson was playing the exact match I expected Muguruza to, she served and raturned hard and deep, dictating the rallies with powerful shots, forcing Garbine to run and hit out of her comfort zone. I have to admit I was really surprised by the power and accuracy of Johansson, who had no problems in taking a first set lead of 5-0, while the Spanish youngster looked tight and lost on court.

Something changed in the last games of the set, Johansson slowed down her shots and from then on she barely ever could trouble the Spanish, who started to gain confidence and could rely on a lot more errors coming from her opponent. But if the first set could still somehow end in the French player's favor, the second set was as fast as the first, but the other way round. 
Suddenly it was Muguruza looking flawless and Johansson lost and the rage that soon took control of the French player didn't help her out of the hole, rather killed her last chances to win the match. 
Garbine now could count on much easier balls to attack and most of the times Johansson tried to be more aggressive she ended up missing. On 2-0 down in the third Mathilde tried a desperate attempt to get back, but the close game lost definitely killed her last chances.

[Q] M Oudin (USA) b. E Makarova (RUS) 26 75 4-2 rit.

By far one of the most interesting matches I was witnessed to watch. The two girls played some spectacular tennis all through the match and the quite big crowd watching totally enjoyed it.

I reached the court to see Makarova serving for the first set 5-2 up, but you could tell that she wasn't in complete control of the match. The great form showed in Madrid just few days before was still there, but the slower conditions weren't helping her, while on the other hand Oudin looked the best I've ever seen her on the dirt. Melanie was running much and retrieving many balls back with depth and often with power, so that Makarova could hardly ever charge for easy shots at the net.
Serving for the set Makarova found herself down of two break points after a couple of great defensive shots of the American that found the Russian out of position. Nonetheless Makarova could find a streak of great shots and with a big winner and loud scream she closed to set at her very first chance.
The first games of the second set seemed to lead towards an easy match for the Russian as Oudin looked little tired and frustrated too, after the missed chance to re-open the set. Her balls were too mild and Makarova couldn't ask for anything better, she stepped inside the court and hit many winners to take the lead.
Then suddenly Oudin found that spark of pride that took her far in her best days and with courage and

humility started to make Makarova feel her presence on court: her ball suddenly found power and depth, there was no ball too far to be reached or too powerful to be handled. With two impressive backhand winners in a row she could get the break back and from 2-2 the match found an incredible new quality and intensity.
Both girls wanted badly to win and you could tell by the screams and grunts, the efforts and the "come on's" on winners that made the crowd go wild. Makarova started to look tight and called the trainer on court complaining about all the balls that was defending, but the trainer didn't sort the effect she hoped for as she got broken and Oudin could serve for the second set.
Melanie was a little unlucky then, as she took the initiative and three times in a row she missed backhands that would have been winners and after having wasted 3 set points she was back to tie on 5 games each.
The wasted chance could have hurt her mentally, but she could see Makarova feeling insecure and instead of surrendering, she kept being aggressive and mixing up her game with deadly slices. The combination often took Makarova out of her comfort zone and many times Oudin found the space for a winner, that happened on 6-5 up as with two outstanding winners she closed the set.
The burst of power used to close the set probably took its toll on the American that again started the set below her level, so that Makarova could take a 2 games lead, but once more Melanie fought back and by exploiting her winning tactic to the best, she suddenly re-found the form of the late second set and won four games in row, while Ekaterina seemed to grow tired of fighting and running for every point.
On 4-2 Oudin went to serve, when Makarova called for the physiotherapist, she didn't seem particularly on pain, but the tiring week of Madrid and the 2 hours on court against Oudin probably took their toll on her shoulder and she preferred to retire instead of getting injured before the French Open, mostly because she seemed in no position to win at this point.
It felt like a great win even for the American, who needed this one for her motivation and she looked overjoyed while signing autographs at the end.


J Jankovic (SRB) b. T Pironkova (BUL) 63 60

I could watch this match only from the middle of the first set, but there wasn't much to be said about it. Jelena looked a little rusty at the very beginning and couldn't find the time off the weird shots of Pironkova, who tried to mix her game with spin and slices, but soon started to be too inconsistent to trouble Jankovic. The Serb on the other hand, once she could find the right timing had no problem closing the match and giving no hope to the Bulgarian, who seemed to accept her destiny and soon gave up fighting.


[Q] S Halep (ROU) b. S Kuznetsova (RUS) 61 61   



Probably the biggest surprise of the day and a really pleasant one. Svetlana didn't play bad at all, but Halep looked the best I've ever seen her playing, being really consistent and yet able to be aggressive and hit winners whenever she had the chance.

Kuznetsova didn't enjoy a good service day, but soon she had to ask too much out of it, since Simona was stepping inside the court from the return and winning almost every rally. Svetlana's serve stats then obviously started to get worse as her risks grew higher, while on the other side of the net Halep had no problems with her own serve, beind solid and hitting even a few winners with that shot, which is probably her "worst" weapon.
The Romanian looked very comfortable on the Italian clay and moved smoothly on every ball threw by the Russian, who on the other hand was struggling to read her opponents shots and was often caught on the wrong feet and "dropshotted" many times.
By leaning on Sveta's shots, Halep often found great accelerations and in no time the match was over on her favor with a double 6-1.


K Bertens (NED) b. F Schiavone (ITA) 76(5) 61

The first match of the night session was featuring two players with a great gap age-wise, since Italian only slam champion Francesca Schiavone is 11 years older than the Dutch player. Sadly for her and the home crowd, experience wasn' enough for her to get through this match, despite her will and pride, Schiavone never really looked in control of the match and her game was not enjoying a good day.
Despite coming from the victory in Marrakesh, Schiavone looked as if she had problems adjusting to the court's speed and bounces, but at first it was not that clear, since Kiki was missing too much as she gifted away at least 10 of the first 15 points with errors.
The Italian couldn't capitalise the advantage and soon got broken back and drawn to a set where every point needed to be fought for, even though the quality wasn't often involved in the making.
Only a tie-break could close this first set and Bertens played slightly better there, while Schiavone was too inconsistent and in the end had to surrender to Bertens's powerful strokes 7 points to 5.
Everything happened really fast from then onwards, Bertens finally looked steady and whether in the first set she gifted many points with silly errors, in the second she didn't allow any of that to happen, whilst Schiavone completely lost the plot and in the end couldn't really do much to prevent Bertens from winning it.

[16] K Nishikori (JPN) b. [WC] P Lorenzi (ITA) 62 64 

Coming from a good week in Madrid, where he defeated Roger Federer en-route, Kei Nishikori probably had not much time to adjust to Rome's different courts and you could see that from the first points against Local Wild Card Lorenzi. The cold night had slowed down the courts and the Japanese struggled to produce winners as easily as in Madrid, but that didn't hurt the gap between the two players. Despite looking a little rusty and often missing shots that he shouldn't have, Nishikori never really seemed on the edge of suffering an upset, mostly because Lorenzi's only shots able to worry him were the serve and the dropshot, but the first inevitably started to suffer smaller percentages, once he tried to serve more aces, whilst the second was very hard to be tried on the heavy and deep balls of Kei. Had to leave at the end of the first set.

My WTA Linz review from day 4

Linz, October 11th 2012

Irina-Camelia Begu def Kiki Bertens 6-4 7-6 (7)

We arrived in the hall that the match had already started, but it was still all tight up. 3-2 for Begu with no breaks and for a couple of games more none of the two girls dropped the serve. The quality in all honesty wasn't the one you would expect, mostly the dutch lady didn't come up with my expectations, showing nothing special in her game.
Begu somehow broke and took the first set being slightly more consistent than her opponent, still playing very far from her best days.
The second set was quite a mess, Camelia broke early and seemed quite in control, while Bertens started to misshit a lot of easy balls. Still the romanian couldn't really take advantage of that being very negative on court, arguing with her coach and the umpire - who was one of the worst I've ever seen, she couldn't call the right score twice in a row-.
Bertens changed her game around half of the second set taking advantege of the really uninspired FH of Begu, the dutch would indeed use her slice more and added topspit to her CC forehand. On those short slices Irina always rushed to the net, but her FH wasn't deep and fast enough, so Bertens could easily pass her. That new strategy and famous Irina's mental strengh let Kiki come back when the romanina served for the match on 5-4, but couldn't keep up her moment being forced to the tie-break.
In one of the opening points of the tiebreak Bertens hit an ace, the umpire called the score, but then called a net touch and made replay the point. Kiki went mad and her on court talking grew as much as her game let her down.
On the other side of the net Begu showed all her fears for tiebreaks and wasted 3 MPs (one of them by not closing a very easy FH from middle court) and was forced to save a SP from the dutch, funny enough saved with a stunning FH down the line that painted the line, Bertens tried to argue, but it was clearly on the line, the next point was messy but somehow Begu made it, Bertens after several attempts contained smashed her racket and this mess was over.

PS: Begu's mum was probably the best fact of the match :sobbing: she would move left and right with her whole body during every shot in the tiebreak joining her hands as if praying on every ball hit by her daughter. When Begu saved the set point from with that FH DTL she stared at bertens and shaked her hand with a meaningful "NO-NO-No" that cracked me up :lol: a true boss

Victoria Azarenka def Simona Halep 6-1 6-1

what to say about that match? Nothing, but a training session for Azarenka. Halep plays exactly the same game as Victoria, maybe she moves better, but her ball is far too light for the world number one, who would just move the game around and close with winners. Halep looked a little too thin, to be honest, but being back on the topic, she really fought with all herself and made some great points by counterpunching, using Victoria's power to hit winners, even though she often made errors out of that. Point of the match: in the first games of the second set Azarenka hit a great FH cross court and rushed to the net, Simona very far from the court hit a terrific sliced CC with forehand passing the world n°1.

Petra Martic def. Patricia Mayr 6-2 3-6 6-0

easily the best quality match of the day, really funny to watch with great rallies and all the crowd being behind Patricia without ever being rude to Petra. Great for the sport, really.
But to be back on facts, Patricia looked very nervouse out there and didn't hit a single serve in on the advantage side during the practice. I wasn't really surprised that she got broken to love in the very first set and was fast down 30-0 in the second. Martic didn't do much until that moment, so she got quite surprised by the comeback of Patricia who broke back, but again failed to hold. This time Martic didn't let the austrian getting back and secured her break, Patricia started to figure out her opponent and to find a better depth with her Backhand - that is far from being a bad shot, she has a great confidence on it and hits with a terrific anticipation, that makes it very tricky even when it is not that fast.
Martic closed the set, but everything suggested that Mayr wouldn't give up and so it was. The second set was really amazing to watch, Mayr played a really smart tennis, being aggressive when needed and fast went 5-1, some tension and a few bad mistakes costed her the game, but could close the set on the second attempt to serve out.
Probably the effort to take the set and maybe her shape far from her best days took their toll and she looked very tired in the 3rd. Martic hold easily in the first game and Patricia started to give up her hopes when she served badly in her first service game of the 3rd. From that moment on Martic sailed to her win by 6-0.
Mayr has always been hardly criticized over this bord, but from what I saw on court, she's a very nice game and with a better phisical preparation she would be again a very solid top 100 player. As for Martic, I know that she's coming from an injury, but her BH is not a shot worth of her ranking and if she cannot fix it she won't go far as her slice isn't anything but avarage.