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.

Hirscher from Fail to Glory in Adelboden

Grasp all, lose all

Sometimes the proverbs of the olds aren't just a fixed idiom, but they see in every-day life their reflection. So it was for Marcel Hirscher, who had to come into terms with the famous one in the heading as he blew away a certain win in Saturday's giant slalom of Adelboden.

But going on step by step, the first run of one of the most famous and spectacular Giant Slaloms of the circuit gave already a big deal of emotions, surely a great entreé for what would have been the second leg.
Once again at the lead of the race after the first run there were the dominants of the discipline for the past two years, Marcel Hirscher and Ted Ligety, the latter only few hundreds away from the Austrian, despite a big mistake which almost set him out.
All the others, starting from Fanara were more than one second away with only two slightly big surprises happening: the first was the comeback on good levels in the discipline by Svindal (4th) and Kostelic (6th), the second the qualification of a bunch of athlets coming down with high bibs such as 52 for Caviezel and 54 for Muffat Jandet.

In the second run Swiss youngster Caviezel was the first one to get close to break the limit of 1'14" and with such a time he could step by step climb the ranking in his very first appearance in a second run of World Cup. From the 23rd place of the first run he could lead the race until the 19th came down, that one being Italian Davide Simoncelli, who seemed another athlet from the first run as he passed the swiss on the lead, but together with him led the race for long as the two finished 10th and 11th.
But today it was the day of the come-backs from behind as first Manfred Moelgg and then the German duo of Dopfer and Neureuther signed the best three times of the 2nd run to raise the ranking in spite of their first runs.
The Italian, who was 12th at the middle of the race, showed to be the most in form of his team in the technical races once again as he rose as high as 4th with his terrific 2nd section. The podium finished very close for him, but the raise of the Germans prevented him from achieving it. First Neureuther and then Dopfer indeed, were the only one in the top 10 to get close to the time of the Italian and bettered it; the two who were 8th and 9th after the first run took the lead in front of Moelgg and saw one by one all the other top tenners finishing behind them.
When the top 3 were to go down the situation had still Dopfer ahead of compatriot Neureuther and then Moelgg. Thomas Fanara, after the great first run fell into one of the many trapts of Adelboden's slope and crashed after very short time.
Secure of his great lead Ted Ligety skied a little more wary than usual, but that still was enough to take the lead and put all the pressure on Hirscher's shoulders.
The Austrian maybe by knowing how close Ligety had been in first run in spite of his mistake, or maybe to show how better than him he could be, attacked all the way down the swiss slope and approached the last steep with a terrific advantage of more than one second on the American. But if you grasp all, you lose all. He wanted too much and tried an impossible line to enter this very last steep and almost jumped on the entering wave, that costed him an almost fall, which led to a complete stop. Only thanks to his incredible reactivity he could still finish the race, but far behind the top names, 16th.

3 on 3 wins in the last slaloms

Whatever passed in the mind of Hirscher the night after the giant slalom surely seemed to affect his first run in the slalom, where he looked far more wary than usual, a little blocked even as he tried to finish the run without too big mistakes, but this time it wasn't enough to stay on top.

The lead after the first run was taken by Manfred Moelgg, whose raise to the top after a couple of complicated seasons seems finally completed, who led by a very short distance evergreen Mario Matt and the more and more costant Felix Neureuther. But the race was far from being decided as the 11th, Alexis Pinturault was just 1second away from the first place and so everyone had his chances to be played in the 2nd run.
The man of the come backs, Japanese Naoki Juasa, after the fabulous fairytale of Madonna di Campiglio, did something surely not as big, but worth of mention here, as he could rise in the 2nd run from 25th to 14th place. Even better did American Chodounsky, whose 2nd run time let him gain 10 positions worth of a 10th place by the end and best career result.

In the early runs of the top 10 little did Missilier and Dopfer, but then it was Hirscher's turn, who at the start arrived without the ghosts that probably frightened him in the first run as he went down like only he can do in this season. Unstoppable he set a terrific time, one second faster than everybody else and even though his gap from top was quite big, the chances he could finish not on top were very slim.
Indeed, one after another all the specialists of the slalom had to surrender to the Austrian and so when the top 3 was about to start, he was still leading the race with a big margin on Kostelic and Pinturault.
Neureuther skied well, but a couple of mistakes held him back and placed him right behind the Croat and eventually 5th.
Mario Matt started with a great fighting spirit, hence risking a lot, but that didn't make him fail or fall into the traps of the setter and in the end he was the only one who could even if for little scare Hirscher as he lost a lot in the upper part of the course, to eventually make up by the end, but not enough to stop the team-mate.

First run leader Manfred Moelgg had on his shoulder the burden of the mediocre day of his team and the awerness that he needed something extraordinery to stay ahead of Hirscher. He tried his all cards, but this time it wasn't enough, he skied well and took many risks, but Hirscher had been just too good. The Italian could still be happy at the end as he finished 3rd, first podium in slalom after 3 years.

Vonn back to top in Lake Louise

A lot of talking has been going around the health conditions of Lindsey Vonn since the very misterious hospitalization she underwent a few weeks ago; she looked very tired in Aspen and everyone was wondering whether or not she would have done well in the speed events, mostly because she has always shown a great feeling with the Canadian slope.
All the doubts were cleared, or at least the questions about her chances here in Lake Louise. In less then 48 hours the American won both the downhills making it extremely clear, that on such slopes there's no chance she gets defeated by anyone - it's not a case that with those two wins she's on a 6 races winning streak here-.
In the first Downhill on Friday Stefanie Moser from Austria, with the low bib number of 2 led the race for quite a while thanks to a very impressive first part and an overall solid steep before scoring good sesctions in the final flat again.
The real surprise came few numbers on when American Stacey Cook surprised anyone by exploiting her gliding abilities in the upper and bottom parts, but most of all by hazarding a very brave line to begin the steep in the middle, which eventually paid well as she bettered Moser's time and one after the other saw a lot of big names finishing way behind her.
First to go down in the top group was Lindsey Vonn and she immediatly started to score the best timings in each session and her advantage over the team mate wouldn't but get bigger: one the steep she seemed not once troubled by the speed or the big turns set, like a missile she crossed the finish line with an actualy gap of almost two seconds on everybody else.
Nothing could Maria Riesch do, but see her sectors being one after the other sign the growing distance between her and the American, whilst Tina Weirather from Liechtenstein gave the illusion to be able to stay close to Vonn, before eventually lose distance on the last long flat section at the end. The two finished tie on third place, while Stacey Cook, with the 2nd place, scored her best result ever in World Cup.

The second day the conditions where tougher and the first 15 girls had much of an advantage as after the fog-break a big wind started to blow and none could do much against it, none but Vonn. But let's start from the beginning.
After a couple of rather colourless performances by the first numbers, Swiss Kaufmann-Abderhalden took the lead by using her gliding abilities to the very best of her chances and despite a pretty poor couple of turns in the steep, she could create an impressive speed on the flat session by the end that secured her the lead for many runs after.

Called to the remake of yesterday's unexpected result Stacey Cook didn't fail: she made again a terrific entry to the steep and could accumulate a terrific advantage over the Swiss, but the latter had an unbelievable flat section, so the gap in advantage of the American started to grow thinner and thinner, but by the end it was enough to take the lead.
As it has already been said above, after the longer break caused by the fog, a big wind started to blow on the upper part and almost none could deal with it and lots of them suffered major gaps from Cook already after less than 40 seconds of race.
That didn't happen to Italian Mereghetti, one of the best in the trainings but only 7th yesterday. Dada started with an avarage upper part, unless starting to recover by the middle, when suddenly she almost fell at the beginning of the steep. The huge mistake cost her quite a bunch of hundreds, but in the end she would still finish 5th.
Of course Lindsey Vonn had to leave her trademark on the race and after killing the race just one day back, she did something even great today, by first staying ahead of Cook in spite of the wind blowing, but then by almost stopping on the big turn before the steep because of a bad mistake. The American didn't let this bring her down and despite the error, she gained an unbelievable speed to launch the flat and there she simply blew everyone else's assault to her victory away, by finishing ahead of her team-mate of more than half a second.
In the wind none of the other expected prtagonists could do much but trying not to lose too much, but Lindsey not only made up for that, but with a mistake that would kill anyone's chances for a good placement, she won the race and with margin...just unbelievable!