Wildcard holds aces against top seed
Top seed Roberta Vinci has been bowled out of the ASB Classic by a 16- year- old expected to be the next sensation in women’s tennis.
Ana Konjuh, who has a world ranking of 259, beat the world No 14, 3- 6 6- 4 6- 2.
She celebrated her 16th birthday in Auckland on December 27 and this is her first WTA tournament.
Classic tournament director Karl Budge made the incredibly astute move of signing up Konjuh for three years and he may have locked in someone who will be a worldwide superstar by the end of that period.
Although she lost the first set, all the signs were there that she could still win this match.
Konjuh won the junior Australian and US Opens last year and, despite being able to play juniors for two more years, she has decided only to play senior events from now on.
Budge said Konjuh was a player they had their eye on and felt she was worthy of giving a wildcard.
‘‘ We keep a close eye on all of the junior Grand Slams and when she won both singles and doubles at the Australian Open and then backed that up with the US Open, it was pretty evident that this was a kid in the making,’’ Budge said.
‘‘ To then beat Ursula Radwanska in the Fed Cup at the age of 15, it was pretty clear that this girl had something special about her.’’
What is so impressive about Konjoh is that not only does she have a great game, but she also displays huge mental strength at such a young age.
Naturally, she was nervous going into the match, but when she was a set down she was still able to keep believing in herself.
‘‘ I was a bit nervous at the start of the match, until the second set when I was 5- 1 up and I started thinking about winning the set and that wasn’t good and she got to 5- 4,’’ Konjuh said.
‘‘ But my team helped me get through this and it was a great experience for me.’’
Konjuh said she was disappointed to find herself drawn against the tournament’s highest ranked player but said she was still prepared to fight.
‘‘ When I heard, I wasn’t that happy about the draw, but right now I realise that this was a great experience for me,’’ she said.
‘‘ It was a great match and I hope that I’m going to have a few of them in the future.’’
Earlier in the day, Ana Ivanovic had to dig deep to win her first round match, needing 1 hour and 57 minutes to defeat American Alison Riske 7- 5 7- 6.
Riske put up an almighty fight against one of the main drawcards at this summer’s tournament, with the Serbian second seed coming close to losing both sets.
However, as is so often the case when the top players get themselves in trouble, Ivanovic worked out Ana Konjuh ( Croatia) bt 1- Roberta Vinci ( Italy) 3- 6, 6- 4, 6- 2. 2- Ana Ivanovic ( Serbia) bt Alison Riske ( United States) 7- 5, 7- 6 ( 2). 3- Kirsten Flipkens Belgium) bt Monica Puig ( Puerto Rico) 6- 4, 7- 5. Sharon Fichman ( Canada) bt 4- Sorana Cirstea ( Romania) 6- 1, 6- 4. Ayumi Morita ( Japan) bt 6- Lucie Safarova ( Czech Republic) 7- 6 ( 2), 6- 3. Julia Goerges ( Germany) bt 8- Karin Knapp ( Italy) 4- 6, 7- 6 ( 3), 7- 6 ( 2). Kristyna Pliskova ( Czech Republic) bt Yanina Wickmayer ( Belgium) 7- 6 ( 3), 6- 0. Sachie Ishizu ( Japan) bt Anett Kontaveit ( Estoni) 6- 3, 1- 6, 6- 3. Lauren Davis ( United States) bt Marina Erakovic ( New Zealand) 6- 1, 6- 4. ways to get out of it and she ended both sets playing aggressive tennis.
The success of this tournament depends heavily on Ivanovic and Venus Williams going deep in it. Although they’ve both won their first round matches, neither was convincing.
The former French Open winner had two breaks of serve compared to one from Riske in the opening set and in the second both players struggled to hold their service games.
Ivanovic took a medical time out when 4- 2 down in the second and had the physio work on her right shoulder.
There were fears that she wouldn’t be able to continue, especially as players don’t like to take any risks with injuries ahead of the Australian Open, but there was a huge sigh of relief from tournament organisers a couple of minutes later when she got up out of her chair to continue.
Ivanovic was still in a hole in the set though and got herself into more trouble when down 0- 40 at 3- 5. But she then pulled out some incredible tennis to hold serve. She saved another set point in the next game to square it at 5- 5 and not long after that they were into a tiebreak.
Like Williams on Monday night, the more experienced player dominated at this point, with Ivanovic winning it 7- 2 to set up a match against Johanna Larsson from Sweden in the second round.
It was another day full of drama at the ASB Tennis Centre, with third seed Sorana Cirstea crashing out earlier in the day, losing to qualifier Sharon Fichman from Canada 6- 1 6- 4.
Playing out on court four, the world No 22 from Romania never got into the match against Fichman, who was in her fourth match of the week.
By
rights,
the
world
No 116 shouldn’t get close to someone of Cirstea’s quality but it’s often said that those who come through qualifying at the Classic are at an advantage because they’ve got matches under their belt and higher ranked players come into the main draw cold.
That’s an excuse 2010 tournament winner Yanina Wickmayer could use as she also lost on court four to a qualifier, going down to Kristyna Pliskova 7- 6 6- 0. Also going out was the No 6 seed Lucie Safarova from the Czech Republic, who lost 7- 6 6- 3 to Japan’s Ayumi Morita.
New Zealand No 1 Marina Erakovic admits it’s tough for her to deal with being the only local player with a chance of winning a match at the ASB Classic.
Erakovic lost 6- 1 6- 4 to Lauren Davis of the United States yesterday in the first round, making it eight years since she last made it past the second round of this tournament.
Attention and expectations are heaped on Erakovic before the tournament, but it’s also the first event each season, so players are still trying to get match fit.
These two factors have resulted in disappointing performances in Auckland over the years and she admitted after her defeat yesterday that she struggled with the pressure of playing here.
‘‘ I’ll be very honest, this tournament is very hard for me, mentally and emotionally,’’ Erakovic said.
‘‘ I get very nervous, I want to do really well here.
‘‘ I started out nervous, tried my best to get into the match but I couldn’t get into the game today.
‘‘ Against Lauren, if you don’t do that you’re not going to win. I’d like to do well here but it wasn’t meant to be today.’’