Winds add to player difficulties at Coleman Vision Tennis Championships
Experience comes out on top in Friday’s matches
As if the loaded field of highly ranked players wasn’t enough, high altitude and gusty winds only added to the degree of difficulty players faced this week trying to navigate their way to the weekend of the Coleman Vision Tennis Championships.
It’s no wonder, then, that the four women left standing in the semifinals of the $75,000 ITF Pro Circuit event have many years of professional experience under their belts.
Composure, experience and patience were key in Friday’s quarterfinal matches at Tanoan Country Club.
COMPOSURE: Tempers were running high on stadium court Friday.
Simply put, one player controlled hers, one did not.
Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak, the former No. 21-ranked player in the world before her 2014 shoulder surgery, didn’t drop a game in the first set of her 6-0, 7-6 (2) win over 23-year-old Paula Kania of Poland.
The younger Kania made a match of it in the second set before letting repeated close calls that went against her derail
her — repeatedly throwing her racket to the ground, questioning the chair umpire and on two occasions smashing her racket against items next to her chair during a changeover.
Her antics went largely ignored until earning a “code violation” warning in the second set tiebreaker after breaking her racket during one fit.
“Can you get a code violation for all the wrong calls?” she fired back at the chair umpire when the warning was announced.
Her concentration clearly broken, Kania lost the next six points in a row to lose the match.
“I find it was disrespectful for me, the opponent and for the crowd, obviously,” Wozniak said of the repeated outbursts from her opponent. “It was every point, and she broke so many rackets. I thought it was disrespectful. Usually a ref gives a warning or a point, and you’re not allowed to show that image. This is professional tennis.”
Wozniak, meanwhile, is in just her second semifinal since her return to tennis after surgery and said she feels great. And she got there by being a fast starter this week, winning the first set of her three wins so far by a combined 18-3, including 6-0 scores the past two rounds.
“That’s good, right?” Wozniak joked. “I just have to figure out how to carry it over now after the first set.”
EXPERIENCE: No. 1 seed Mandy Minella, the 30-year-old from Luxembourg ranked No. 112 in the world, cruised through her quarterfinal match with 18-year-old Marie Bouzkova 6-1, 6-4.
Minella did not drop a set in any of her three matches, all played on stadium court. Bouzkova, meanwhile, came out of the qualifying draw, was playing her sixth match since Sunday, has played the two longest matches of the week — a 3-hour, 1-minute win and a 2:42 win — and had not played on stadium court until Friday.
“For me, all those details were definitely positives,” Minella said. “I played on that court; she didn’t. She had long matches; I didn’t. I tried to keep all of it in mind when I played and if there would be a third set, I would be fresher . ... It’s experience.”
Minella and Wozniak play in one semifinal today.
PATIENCE: No. 2 seed Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium knew her opportunities against defending Coleman Vision champion Michealla Krajicek would be few and far between.
So she waited and waited, seizing her opportunities when she could in a 6-2, 6-4 win.
“It was tough because she was serving pretty well, and it’s tough to break her serve,” Van Uytvanck said. “I had to wait to have opportunities. That’s what I had in the last game of the second set. I’m pretty happy with my play today.” OTHER MATCHES: In an all-Paraguay quarterfinal, Veronica Cepede Royg beat Montserrat Gonzalez 6-3, 6-2. Cepede Royg in one stretch of the second set won 11 consecutive points.
She plays Van Uytvanck in the other semifinal today.
... All was not lost Friday for Krajicek. She and doubles partner Maria Sanchez punched their ticket to Sunday’s doubles final, beating Kristie Ahn and Chanelle Van Nguyen 6-4, 3-6, 10-6.
The other doubles semifinal is today with Aliz Lim and Valeria Solovyeva against the No. 2 seeded team of Elise Mertens and Minella.