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Conchita vs Lucie Ahl Preview
February 12th 2003 by J.M. In a recent interview, Conchita indicated that she was going to use this tournament at Doha as a real warm up event to her 2003 season after some disappointing results during the Australian summer…. And by the looks of it, she certainly meant it after thrashing young Croatian Jelena Kostanic in straight sets 6-2 6-2! Well done Conchita! So as she moves into the 2nd round, her opponent has already been decided in the top women’s British player, Lucie Ahl. This player over the past year has gained some experience and success in tennis after she stretched the current world number 10 in the world in the 2nd round of Birmingham before being defeated 7-6 (4) 6-4. She is currently ranked 229 in the world and after qualifying for this event, played an amazing match to defeat the 80th ranked German, Martina Muller. As a result, this tournament has equalled her best match performance in any WTA event after reaching the 2nd round of Wimbledon in 2000. High on confidence, the British veteran could cause Conchita a considerable amount of difficulty in their match, especially because her favourite surface is hard courts. Now the biggest difficulty Conchita will have in this match is lack of mental concentration, which would also prove troublesome for Ahl. The reason being because both of these players have not contested with one another before so the first few games will most likely consist of broken serves until they both figure out each other’s style of play. Ahl should be able to take full advantage of this situation, however, because Conchita is well known for her deep moon balls and slices, something which Ahl may have had the opportunity to play against in her practise session with her hitting partner. Hopefully Martinez will not lose her mental concentration after winning the 1st set as she did in both Sydney and Melbourne earlier this year. Another factor that may influence this match is the fact that the victor will most likely take on the number 1 seed and defending champion, Monica Seles, unless she falls victim to the highly talented Russian, Lina Krasnoroutskaya. This opportunity might have some bearing on important points where hopefully the experienced Spanish will be able to take full advantage of! PREDICTION: Martinez d. Ahl 6-3 6-4. VAMOS CONCHITA, VAMOS! Visit the Conchita Martinez page here
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