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Indian Wells Preview
March 5th 2003
by Matt Donaldson Pacific Life Open, Indian WellsTier One events eh? You wait ages for one and then two come along one after the other. In a fortnights time comes the Nasdaq 100 in Miami, but this week sees the start of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells in California. A massive purse of $2.1 million is available, with the winner taking a handbag-boosting $332,000 and 325 points for the rankings. An event with such a huge image and purse brings big name sponsors. Along with the obvious Pacific Life sponsorship, Mercedes, Fila, Bank of America, Aero Mexico and Michelob all contribute their names to the tournament, the man charged with the task of orchestrating all these sponsors, not to mention the small matter of a Tier One tournament is one Jerry Milani, who can be contacted at jerry@alantaylor.com should you have any questions you want answering yourself. Just for a change, those of us in the UK get to see some tennis for a change. In the UK, matches are being shown on Sky Sports 2 throughout the tournament. However, if you live outside the British Isles, you can check out your own countries programming at http://www.pacificlifeopen.com/en/tournament/tvschedule.asp, so you need not miss a stroke. With temperatures expected to reach 85F over the weekend, we should be without the hassle of rain this week, and can look forward to some excellent tennis over the next two weeks with a great deal of the top players playing. However, there are some notable absences. Neither of the Williams sisters will play, nor will Justine Henin-Hardenne, and a foot injury has forced Monica Seles to pull out also. With the above players absent, top seed Kim Clijsters will be hoping for a victory, although there is a glut of talent who would make similar claims, as Davenport, Capriati Mauresmo and even last years winner Daniela Hantuchova will all strive to push the top seed. But can there be another unexpected victory like Hantuchova's victory last year over Hingis? Every Little Bit Helps I think its a little too optimistic to hope for a Maria victory from this tournament. Dont get me wrong, but spending too much time with Glyn has ruined any fairy tales i may like to hope for in favour of a much more boring rational approach to life. There will be a somewhat nostalgic feel for Maria. She made her WTA debut at this event last year, and defeated Brie Rippner before losing to 4th seed Monica Seles. This time around, she will face a tricky run if she is to build on her debut success last year.
Maria opens with a tie against Samantha Reeves. Both these players were at Midland a few weeks ago, and i predicted that Maria would beat her in three sets. Unfortunately, the tie never happened as Maria lost in the first round after suffering from a bout of the flu. This time round, she should be fit to face the world number 111. Reeves reached the quarter final in Midland, but since then has struggled, losing in the first round the week after in Bogota and then failing to qualify for Acapulco. Maria however has not played since her surprising defeat at Midland, and should be fresh to face Reeves and gain a good victory that will give Maria a well needed boost. She has only played in Midlnad since the Australian Open, so the next few weeks could be really important for Maria's progress this year. Should she get the win i expect (or is that hope?) she will play Paola Suarez, the 20th seed. This isnt one of my predictions, i can say this for certain as the world number 28 has been given a bye. She will obviously provide a much sterner test for Maria. Her form has been indifferent this year though. A third round exit at the Australian Open was followed by a loss to Lisa Raymond in Tokyo. She then reached the semis in Bogota, where she was top seed, but suffered another first round exit in Acapulco as 4th seed to Mariana Diaz-Oliva. This may encourage Maria a little. Suarez's results suggest that against lower opposition, she can struggle if her opponent gets on top of her. A lot therefore will depend on Maria's frame of mind going into the match. If she goes out with the intention to get at her opponent, then theres a small chance she can capitalise. She certainly has the game if she plays to the best of her game. Whether we will see it is another matter. I think this year will see another second round exit for Maria. She can however take something from it. She has been playing for a year now on the WTA, and can it is a sign of her progress that she has a chance, should she play well, to push the world number 28. This time it will only be a push, but much to the annoyance of Glyn, one can dream.
1st R: Maria def. Samantha Reeves in straights 2nd Round: Suarez def Maria in three 3rd Round: Bovina def Suarez in straights 4th Round: Davenport def Bovina in straights Q Final: Davenport def Mauresmo in three S Final: Davenport def Capriati in straights Final : Davenport def Clijsters in three Visit the Maria Sharapova page here
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