Chakvetadze Melts in Australian Heat
Medibank International
2008-01-07
By Ben Rassieur
On another hot Sydney afternoon Katernina Srebotnik and Anna Chakvetadze took to Court 1 to start things off for the girls on Day 2. Although today is nowhere near as humid as yesterday. Chakvetadze holds a lead over Srebotnik, 3-2, in career meetings having won the last two. Both Chakvetadze’s wins came on their only meetings on hard courts, the last being a quarterfinal show down at Stanford last August going three sets in very hot conditions.
The first set was close with both players swapping a pair of breaks early in the set. But after getting back on serve it looked as though the set would go to a tie-break. Chakvetadze was serving at 5-6 (30-15). But Srebotnik was not going to allow a tie-break and got things to deuce. After saving a couple break points Chakvetadze served what she thought was a winner. But after Srebotnik shanked the serve the Chair-umpire overruled the no call saying it was long. Chakvetadze yelled at the umpire, “Come on! Can’t you see that line!” and served again, a let. After finally getting a good serve she was pulled wide by Srebotnik and just got the racquet on the ball but was unable to return it. Chakvetadze then yelled, “I know you like to overrule, but come on.” Clearly frustrated Chakvetadze lost the set on the next point.
Chakvetadze could never recover in the second. She was only 44% on first serve but only had one double fault. This allowed Srebotnik to attack her second serve, and she did. Srebotnik won 80% on Chakvetadze’s second serve and broke her three times. Although Chavetdze’s game melted she was able to take one break against Srebotnik.
It was disappointing loss for Chakvetadze. It was her first Sony Ericsson WTA match of the season. Last week she played at an exhibition tournament in Hong Kong, losing to Maria Sharapova in straight sets. Clearly, 2008 isn’t going as planed for the young Russian. Maybe her off-season troubles are affecting her play. Chakvetadze’s vacation home was broken into and her and her family was bound as the thieves got off with $106,000 in cash and another $100,000 in goods.
Hopefully Chakvetadze can regroup for the upcoming Australian Open. 2007 was a great year for her as she rose to a career high of 5, made her debut at the Sony Ericsson Championships, 3 titles, 2 Grand Slam quarters, and 1 Grand Slam semifinal. We’ll see if she can get past the horrendous events of the off-season next week in Melbourne.
Katarina Srebotnik moves to 3-1 on the season. She also looks rather fit which will help her during this Australian Summer. This week she also kicked off her doubles season, teaming up with Ai Sugiyama. The duo won their match yesterday and hopes to continue their success from last season where they made the Sony Ericsson Championships. Next Srebotnik will face Sybille Bammer.