Rubin, Martínez and Maleeva foil French foes
Pacific Life Open, Indian Wells (March 7, 2003)

by Ed Toombs


Another beautiful, sunny day created perfect conditions for today?s second round matches in the top of the women?s draw. The favourites made it through the day through safely. Top seed Kim Clijsters and defending champion Daniela Hantuchova advanced in straight sets over Fabiola Zuluaga and Petra Mandula, respectively.

The highest-profile upset victim was Jelena Dokic, not that an early round loss by the distracted Yugoslavian is news these days. Dokic committed 76, count ?em, 76 unforced errors in a 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 loss to Barbara Rittner. Rittner was no great shakes herself (42 errors to 15 winners), but at least she looked interested in winning the match.

Yesterday, we concentrated on the fate of the young Russians. Today we turn our attention to another European nation turning out a number of good young players. France, in light of the stream of talented young men and women emerging from its tennis programme, may want to change its national motto from ?Liberté, égalité, fraternité? to ?Jeu, set et match?. Today, French teenagers Marion Bartoli, Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro and Virginie Razzano took the court in search of what proved to be an elusive upset win.




Chanda Rubin (8) def. Marion Bartoli (Q), 6-4, 6-3
Second round
Main Stadium
Previous head-to-head: First meeting

Marion Bartoli, an 18-year-old out of Retournac (in France?s Loire valley), is the most dominant player to come out the qualifying ranks here this year. Coached by her father Walter, a doctor who quit his practice several years ago in order to guide his daughter?s tennis career, Marion steamrolled through her two qualifying matches and then impressively brushed aside veteran Henrieta Nagyova Wednesday in the first round, 6-1, 6-4. Already ranked in the top 100 (at 96th), Bartoli was a semifinalist in Canberra this year.

Bartoli is an unorthodox player. She has what they call in basketball a ?wide body?, with a thick, muscled torso and broad shoulders. She plays two-handed on both sides and takes the ball early in a Selesian manner, except that she seems more willing than Monica to venture to the net (19 trips to the net today). Her trademark is a very aggressive return of serve, sometimes standing a good five feet inside the baseline to return even first serves.

We were interested to see how she would handle one of the tour?s more solid veterans. Chanda Rubin, ranked 12th in the world but coming off a disappointing second round loss in Scottsdale last week, was playing her first match in Indian Wells since 2000 (assorted injuries kept her away the last two years). Rubin has had success here in the past, reaching the semifinals in 1999 and the quarterfinals on three other occasions.

While the French teen had some good moments with her returns and aggressive play, it was a composed and proficient Rubin on the other side of the net. Chanda?s lethal forehand was working well (14 forehand winners), and Marion?s sometimes sluggish movement prevented her from defending against Rubin?s attacks effectively. It was a routine win in the end for the American.

After the match, Chanda admitted that she had to overcome problems caused by Bartoli?s unique game. ?She?s an unorthodox player who forces players into errors. She plays her style of play very well. She?s a good player who forced me to be quick, to work on my game and work on my shots.? The likeable Louisianan was pleased with her match and with the way her game is coming along. ?I feel like I?m building, hitting the ball well,? she said with her well-known beaming smile. ?I?ve improved my timing com pared to last week.? Rubin will be a heavy favourite in her upcoming third round match against the 99th-ranked Croatian lefty Jelena Kostanic.




Magdalena Maleeva (10) def. Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro (WC), 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7-1)
Second round
Stadium 2
Previous head-to-head: First meeting

Another French up-and-comer, 19-year-old Parisian Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro, made news two days ago with her upset win over Barbara Schett. Cohen-Aloro came close to pulling off another surprise, but failed to put away the dogged and wily Maleeva. ?Maggie? may have been ripe for an upset -- she has started the year slowly, with just one quarterfinal (Doha) in five tourneys. Cohen-Aloro has had two good wins this year (#16 Anna Pistolesi and #26 Tatiana Panova) in addition to the triumph over Schett, and is showing rapid improvement under new coach Pierre Cherret (the former coach of now-retired Cédric Pioline).

Maleeva is a wily veteran who seems to play a lot of close matches against young upstarts, but usually refuses to lose them. In the final set, with the Frenchwoman serving for the match at 5-3, Maleeva broke her at 15. Then with Maleeva serving at 4-5 Stéphanie was two points from winning the match, and again the Bulgarian came up with the goods. The decisive tie-break was all Maleeva: Cohen-Aloro was unable to win a point until she was already down 0-6. Maleeva painted the line with a perfect backhand on match point, and raised her fists happily in the air to celebrate a narrow escape.

We were impressed with young Cohen-Aloro?s potential. The best weapon in her arsenal is an explosive one-handed backhand. ?I played two-handed until I was ten,? explained Stéphanie after the match, ?but I changed it. I had the physical strength to use it, and my coach at the time encouraged me.? Cohen-Aloro is a bit of a late bloomer on the tour, only starting to play full-time last year. ?In my head I wasn?t mature enough, and I wasn?t sure enough that this was what I wanted to do,? said the affable, soft-spoken Frenchwoman. ?But now I am enjoying it, and I?ve shown that I can play at this level and perhaps win against good players like this. Today it was not about tennis, it was a question of experience, just 2 or 3 points here and there.?

Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro not only seems to have the talent, but also the attitude, to have a good career in the sport, and she's a nice young lady too. We wish her well.

As for the upset-resistant Maleeva, her third round opponent on Sunday will the rampant 21st seed Ai Sugiyama. Last weekend at the rain-plagued Scottsdale tournament, Sugiyama accomplished the rare feat of winning four matches in one day, the semis and finals in both singles and doubles. Not only is Sugiyama still standing after all this exertion, she is still winning. She clipped Claudine Schaul today, 6-4, 6-4.




Conchita Martínez (8) def. Virginie Razzano, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3
Second round
Stadium 2
Previous head-to-head: First meeting

Of the three young Frenchwomen, 19-year-old Razzano (pictured at right) came closest to pulling off an upset. Her opponent, former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martínez, is in the twilight of her fine career and might have been considered a prime upset candidate. Razzano had her chances, but was after winning the first set was unable to hold leads of 4-1 in the second set and 3-1 in the third.

Unlike the burly Bartoli and Cohen-Aloro, Razzano is a slender young woman who hits a comparatively soft ball. Her game is to limit errors and win points with guile and strategy, in short, not unlike her veteran opponent. Today her best play was to approach the net to Conchita?s backhand. She employed this tactic often, yet was reluctant to do so when she most needed to, in the most crucial stages of the match. The veteran Spaniard was looking was to yank Razzano around the court with her changes of pa ce and spins, and look for an opening to drive winners with her money shot, the forehand.

Razzano, despite blowing the second set lead, hung on to force what turned out to be a competitive tie-break:

  • VR serving: Razzano tries a backhand down the line early in the point, it lands wide. 1-0 CM
  • CM: Razzano?s second serve return is long. 2-0 CM
  • CM: After a long rally, Martínez pushes a forehand wide and bounces her racquet. 2-1 CM
  • VR: Service winner to backhand. 2-2
  • VR: Excellent, deep backhand approach by Razzano to Martínez?s backhand, Conchita can?t return it. 3-2 VR
  • CM: A textbook Martínez drop shot. 3-3
  • CM: Razzano overhit?s a backhand. 4-3 CM
  • VR: Razzano comes in behind a forehand and converts the volley. 4-4
  • VR: This time the Razzano forehand approach is good enough. 5-4 VR
  • CM: Razzano?s backhand is long. 5-5
  • CM: Martínez follows a forehand approach and feathers a nice drop volley. 6-5 CM, set point
  • VR: a strong Martínez forehand down the line forces the error, Martínez levels the match.

In the third set Razzano jumped ahead 3-1, frustrating the Spaniard, who whacked her racquet against a sign board in anger. But Virginie again failed to hold the lead. Serving at 3-4, Razzano made her last stand, and things looked desperate after a pair of double faults and a nifty Martínez lob winner made it 0-40. Razzano fought back to deuce and saved five break points in this critical game, but on the sixth struck an errant backhand. Martínez served out the match quickly, making good on her second mat ch point with an unreturnable forehand.

Make the final: 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3. The venerable Spaniard has a berth in the third round, and the young Frenchwoman is left to learn from her lost chances. The draw has worked out well, at least on paper, for Martínez. Next up for Conchita is a fellow veteran of the tour wars, Dokic?s executioner Barbara Rittner. Martínez has not lost a set in their six career meetings.




Wandering in the desert

Sampras a scratch, men's wild cards named

To no-one?s great surprise, Pete Sampras officially withdrew from the men?s event today. It seems he?s still not ready? Also confirming their withdrawal were Guillermo Cañas, Nicolas Escudé, Tommy Haas, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Greg Rusedski. Wild cards were awarded to Michael Chang, Todd Martin, Mark Philippoussis and Mario Ancic.




Quotable quotes

In between coughs (she said she has a slight cold), Daniela Hantuchova admitted to the media that she was nervous in her first match as the tournament?s defending champion. ?I felt a lot of pressure, so that?s why I?m glad it went so well today.? She also said she felt good vibrations when she walked onto the court that was so good to her last year. ?It?s very nice to get back to this court and prove my tennis was there. As soon as I stepped on the court it reminded me so much of last year. It fel t great!?

By the way, our photographer friends are convinced that the rail-thin Hantuchova is even skinnier this year than she was last year. As hard as that might be to believe, we think they?re right.