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Tournament Preview
USTA 25K Sea Island: May 5th
The Quest
for knowledge
by Matt Donaldson After a brief break, Maria continues her preparation for the French Open in this 25k tournament at Sea Island. Despite the reletively low level of prize money and ranking points on offer, the event should get a great level of interest from the tennis world, and indeed the general sporting public. The reason for this high profile is the presence of an attractive blonde Russian player with an ever increasing fan base. Unfortunately, im not talking about Maria, although she does meet the above criteria. Anna Kournikova will be playing in the evnt along with Maria, as she looks to come back from this season's injuries and rumours in the press regarding her private life.
The fact that
Kournikova is playing at the event is
something of a god send for me on a
personal level. Even with her presence,
there is little information on the
event. Had she not have been appearing,
chances are there would have been more
information available regarding the
prescription details of the Glyn James
fan club. As it is, there is some
available information, and so for the
time being at least, we can all remain
confident that despite his admirable
cheekbones, Glyn remains unpopular
throughout a great deal of society.
The lack of
information obviously means that this
preview will be a little shorter than
previous ones, but one always looks to
try ones best in the face of adversity.
The event is hosted
by the Cloisters hotel, who aswell as
the tennis club offer ample
entertainment for those who go out in
the early rounds with a yacht club, a
golf course and a beach club. However,
at $195 a night, you would hope for a
little more than merely a mint on your
pillow and a couple of sachets of coffee
to take home. Obviously, as many are
preparing for the French Open, the
surface provided is clay, offering Maria
more experience of playing top class
players on this surface.
Unfortunately, thats
about it on the information bit. I can
tell you that the balls are provided by
Wilson, as is normally the case for USTA
events, but from there im in the dark!!
if you are really desperate to find out
more info, then you can go to
http://dps.altdc3.va.twimm.net/usta_master/usta/doc/content/doc_13_2505.pdf
but other than that,
there isnt a great deal left to say, so
its onto...
The Draw
Maria has been given
the third seed for this event, and so
hopefully even before the draw was made
she would have been hoping for a kind
draw to boost her ranking. The higher
she gets the more chance there is of her
getting seeded for the qualifiers at
Roland Garros. However, the draw has
brought up the interesting possiblity of
a semi final against Anna Kournikova,
where the young pretender comes up
against the 'old pro' if i can use such
a term without causing offense.
Kournikova really picked up the ball on
the attractive tennis player theory and
ran with it, leaving many in her wake.
Unfortunately, many believe that all
that 'running' has sacrificed a
promising tennis career. The simple fact
that Maria is Russian has led to her
being bracketed the new Kournikova, but
she will look to dispell any fears
suggesting that she too will simply run
and put tennis on the back burner. She
will prove (to an extent) to a majority
of the tennis world that she is more
focused shuld she beat Kournikova. But
that match is of course a long way away
yet.
Unfortunately the
draw isnt the easiest thing to work out.
Infact it would probably be easier to
understand what on earth Keara sees in
Glyn, but thats another story. What does
matter is Maria's provisional route to
the final, which as regulars here will
know i run through anyway, so the state
of the draw doesn't really matter
anyway.
Maria opens against
American Julie Ditty. She is ranked at
number 325 in the world, and turned 24
in January of this year. Looking at
the macth from Maria's prespective, she
can be reasonably confident, as her
opponent has only reached one tournament
this season, falling short in qualifiers
in most. When receiving entry to the
first round directly, she lost to a
qualifier two weeks ago at another USTA
25k event.
In the second round,
Maria will face a qualifier, who will
most likely be the world number 338,
Slovenian Petre Rampre. Like Maria's
opening opponent, she is yet to appear
in a first round proper in an event, and
this year has not passed the second
qualifying round to date this
year. Fingers crossed that nothing goes
totally wrong, Maria should reach the
next round with ease.
In the Quarter
final, Maria is likley to face a strong
opponent in the Canadian Jana Nejedly.
Currently ranked just lower than Maria,
she has been in electrifying form in
recent events, taking two 25K events in
succession in March, one of which she
came through the qualifiers, and went
unbeaten in the recent Fed Cup fixture,
where the two real global powers of
womens tennis fought it out, in an epic
tie between Canada and El Salvador. She
should prove a worthy opponent, but i
think that Maria should have enough.
Although Nejedly's confidence will be
high, she will be relatively
tired, having won two tournaments, then
playing in 4 Fed Cup matches. W ith a
bit of intelligent play, making her do
the hard work, Maria should win a close
first set and then take the second set
with relative ease.
So then to the semi,
which in all likelyhood should be
against Kournikova. Her injury combned
with her poor run of form has seen her
slide to number 72 in the rankings, and
she will obviously be looking to reach
the final. However, i think that Maria
has the game in her to challenge
Kournikova, and ot ask some serious
questions. It has always been the case
in her previous tournaments that Maria
has perhaps lacked a little stamina and
composure against top opponents, and
despite her low ranking, Kournikova
remains a top player. With victories
under her belt though, i think the
match will be a great one for the
spectators, and not just in the biblical
sense of the term. The court will be
packed as the two of the most attractive
players on the tour battle it out for a
place in the final. As a prediction, i
will again demonstrate my faith, and say
that Maria will take her. Kournikova has
lost a lot of matches she should have
won this year, and a match with Maria
falls into the catagory of a tricky tie,
and doubts might start to kick into the
back of Kournikova's mind.
And so to the final.
One would expect that she will face the
top seed Amy Frazier. She too recently
returned from a long absence from the
game, and has only played one tournament
since the Australian Open. At number 43
in the world, i think she is a mountain
too far for Maria at the moment.
However, the week should have
provided Maria with a return to playing
tennis throughout the week, and with
another 25k to come next week, her
confidence should be high, and her
fitness should be a lot better when it
comes to facing higher profile names at
Rome, and eventually Roland Garros
1st Round: Maria def
Ditty in straights
2nd Round: Maria def
Rampre in straights
Quarter Final: Maria
def Nejedly in straights
Semi Final: Maria def
Kournikova in three
Final: Frazier def
Maria in three
Any questions, or
problems, then just drop my e mail a
line:
mattydonaldson@maria-sharapova.net
Visit the Maria Sharapova page here
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