| |
2009 WTA Tour - LA WOMEN'S TENNIS
CHAMPIONSHIPS Held at the Home Depot Center, Carson, Ca.
Tournament
Coverage - Day 1 | 2 | 3
| 4 | 5 |
6 | FINALS Home |
| |
KING TAKES FORMER NO. 1 IVANOVIC
TO THREE SETS
By Kelly Richards
|
Ana Ivanovic (SRB) |
|
Photos by
Adam Davis |
CARSON - Eleventh in the
world, Ana Ivanovic stands head and shoulders above Vania King
and for a while it seemed as if her tennis game would also tower
over the wild card from Long Beach, California at the Los
Angeles Women’s Tennis Championships Tuesday night.
Down 5-1 in the first set, the spunky 20 year old rallied,
trading hard fast groundstrokes with the Serbian slugger. “I
felt she was overpowering me. So I played to her backhand,
returning deeper. I didn’t give her too much time to play the
ball,” said King.
King lost the first set 6-4, learning quickly you can’t hit a
short ball to a six-footer.
Starting the second set, Ivanovic saved two points, successfully
challenging line calls. But it wasn’t enough. A composed King
hung in to take the set 6-4.
“She got nervous.” Said King.
“It was my first match since Wimbledon and I made some bad shot
selections,” explained Ivanovic.
About the second game of the 3rd set Ivanovic seemed to find her
inner champion and easily commanded play winning 6-1.
“I was in control until then and lost it,” said King.
Ivanovic explained, “I could see in her body language that she
got a little disappointed so I used that.”
This is the third time the two have met on the court. While she
lost badly the first two, King is happy with her performance
this time. “I’m feeling more confident,” she said. “My coach
tells me I can play there with the top players.”
Ranked 106, she said “I’m doing a better job of staying tough
mentally.”
Serves may have been a factor. King’s serves rarely broke 90 mph
while Ivanovic’s were consistently over 100 mph. Still Ivanovic
said her serves were off a little bit. “The serve was getting me
frustrated.”
Ivanovic said she’s happy with the win and to advance to the
next round. She will play the winner of the Samantha Stosur-Maria
Kirilenko match Wednesday.
|
Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) |
Mattek-Sands Out In The First
Round
After a close first set, American
Bethanie Mattek-Sands seemed to lose steam early in the second
set against Canadian Aleksandra Wosniak.
After giving up the first two games, Mattek-Sands dug deep to
even up the score 2-2, hitting an astonishing dropper from the
baseline.
At 4-2, she reached wide and softly placed another short shot
just feet from the net to get another game 4-3. However when she
could have tied the match 4-4, she lost two critical deuce
points into the net, losing the match 7-5, 7-5.
But Wosniack barely had time to savor her win before her coach
had her practicing returning drop shots on a nearby court.
Spear, Shaughnessy Unable To Overcome Italians
San Diego native Abigail Spears
lost all hope for a 4th WTA doubles title Tuesday afternoon.
A strong Italian team steamrolled over Spears and her partner
Meghann Shaughnessy to an easy win 6-1, 6-4.
It seemed as if Tathiana Garbin and Franchesca Schiavone could
read each other’s minds, time and again placing the ball where
their opponents weren’t.
But still the US team Spears and Shaughnessy showed their
championship stripes with some brilliant exchanges that seemed
to include every shot in tennis, drives, lobs, volleys, touch
and overhead smashes expertly returned.
|
|
|
|
RESULTS - TUESDAY, AUGUST 4,
2009
Singles - Second Round
(6) Ana Ivanovic (SRB) d. (WC) Vania King (USA) 64 46 61
Singles - First Round
(12) Li Na (CHN) d. Ayumi Morita (JPN) 60 20 ret. (GI illness)
(13) Samantha Stosur (AUS) d. Monica Niculescu (ROU) 61 62
(14) Zheng Jie (CHN) d. (Q) Olga Savchuk (UKR) 75 16 62
(17) Sabine Lisicki (GER) d. (Q) Kimiko Date Krumm (JPN) 76(5)
26 75
Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) d. (Q) Melanie Oudin (USA) 67(3) 62 62
Sorana Cirstea (ROU) d. (WC) Michelle Larcher de Brito (POR) 64
75
Aleksandra Wozniak (CAN) d. Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) 75 75
Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) d. Melinda Czink (HUN) 36 64 61
Maria Kirilenko (RUS) d. (Q) Chanelle Scheepers (RSA) 46 63 61
Urszula Radwanska (POL) d. Julie Coin (FRA) 61 62
Doubles - First Round
(2) Hantuchova/Sugiyama (SVK/JPN) d. (WC) Craybas/Gullickson
(USA/USA) 64 61
Garbin/Schiavone (ITA/ITA) d. Shaughnessy/Spears (USA/USA) 61 64
A.Bondarenko/Vesnina (UKR/RUS) d. Kleybanova/Makarova (RUS/RUS)
64 76(4) |
About the Tournament
The LA Women’s Tennis Championships presented by Herbalife, in
its 39th year, is one of the most historic events in women’s
tennis and is being held for the sixth consecutive year at The
Home Depot Center. The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Premier event
offers prize money of $700,000 to the 56-player singles and
16-team doubles draws. The distinguished tournament champions
list includes Dinara Safina, Kim Clijsters, Serena Williams,
Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, Chris Evert,
Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King, all of whom have also
been ranked No. 1 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour during their
careers.
The LA Women’s Tennis Championships presented by Herbalife is
part of the prestigious Olympus US Open Series, which links nine
summer hard-court tournaments to the famed U.S. Open. This
year’s tournament marks the sixth year players competing in the
U.S. Open Series tournaments will be vying for bonus prize money
at the U.S. Open. Players competing in the “summer season” of
tennis at the participating Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tournaments
will receive Olympus U.S. Open Series points, which will
ultimately earn the series winner the opportunity to double her
U.S. Open prize purse. |
|
|
|
| |
|
