Martinez vs Molik Preview

by J.M.

Many people thought that Conchita would fall early to 4^th seeded Ai Sugiyama at the Sarasota tournament today. However, she was quick to prove such people wrong, easily dismissing her Japanese opponent in straight sets, winning 6-2 7-5. Her draw has also widened up considerably, as there is only one seeded player left in her draw after Jelena Dokic fell to unheralded Paola Suarez, and Tatiana Panova lost to Uzbekistan player, Iroda Tulyaganova. As a result, Conchita has a great chance of progressing to the final. Next up in the second round is Aussie Alicia Molik, who is red-hot at the moment!

Molik has had a fantastic start to the year. In the Hopman Cup at the beginning of the year, she defeated the likes of Daniela Hantuchova, Silvia Farina Elia and Daja Bedanova, only losing to Serena Williams in the final. After this tournament, she then moved on to Hobart where she defeated the first, second and fifth seeds to claim her first WTA tour title! An injury, however, forced her to withdraw from the 1^st round of the Australian Open and she was therefore forced to take a couple of months off to recuperate. This seemed to be the best medicine for her as she roared back in Miami to reach the 4^th round at the prestigious Nasdaq-100 event last week. It was here where she defeated top 10 player Daniela Hantuchova, former top 10 player Barbara Schett, and the 28^th seed Elena Likhovtseva. This did all the good for her rankings as she is now ranked 71^st, which is still a low rank considering her potential to be a future top twenty player.

After poor results in Australia, Conchita has also made a solid comeback to the tour, where she reached the quarterfinals at Doha and Dubai, and made the semifinals of the tier 1 event at Indian Wells two weeks ago, which was a remarkable feat for any player to accomplish on the tour!

Style of Play:

Molik:

Alicia has a huge serve that can often give her free points. She can serve the ball very fast or put tremendous amounts of spin on it in which her opponent is often forced to hit a short ball off the return. Apart from her serve, her biggest groundstroke would be her forehand, which can penetrate deep into the court with topspin. Her backhand is usually a slice that can cause many unforced errors for the young Aussie. However, she has recently been working on this shot with confidence to allow her to hit the ball with topspin as well. Nonetheless, both shots are forms of typical clay court play that could be quite troublesome for Conchita.

Martinez:

Conchita is the biggest moonballer in the game and it was this style of play that has led her to win many titles on clay as well as making the final of the French Open a few years ago. Her forehand is very solid as she can generate the pace when necessary. Her backhand is equally as good, as she can hit the shot with both slice and topspin. Similar to Molik, she is a one-handed player from both sides and this can be advantageous for either player as it can allow her to get most balls back with reasonable control. Overall, Martinez and Molik have similar styles of play, although Molik only has a win/loss record on clay of 7/13 since 1996, compared to Conchita’s 104/40! Experience is bound to be the key to winning this match!

Career Meetings: Can Conchita make it three in a row?

Alicia and Conchita have played each other twice and their head-to-head record is as follows:

Fed Cup Final 2001   Martinez d. Molik 2-6 6-0 7-5

2 Sydney               Martinez d. Molik 6-4 6-7 (8) 6-3

As is evident, each match has been tough for both players, with Conchita becoming victorious in the third set in both of them. Molik has proved, despite her record, that she can play on clay as the Fed Cup Final was played on clay and to stretch a player of Conchita’s caliber on clay is a very good accomplishment. Conchita should be very wary of Molik’s confidence heading into this match and her ability to fight to the end, which was evident when she beat Hantuchova at Indian Wells after being down 6-2 5-2 and match points to win the match, 2-6 7-5 6-0.

Prediction:

Martinez defeats Molik in 3 sets.

Visit the Conchita Martinez webpage here

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