CommonwealthBank Tennis Classic 2008

PENNETTA AND PETROVA REACH THE QUARTER-FINALS

11 Sep 2008

by Barry Wood

Third seed Flavia Pennetta and fourth seed Nadia Petrova claimed their expected places in the quarter-finals of the Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic on Thursday. But seventh seed Sara Errani was upset by Tamira Paszek.

Pennetta was steaming after her 6-3 7-5 victory, and it wasn’t just from the heat and humidity. She didn’t take kindly to her Russian opponent, Anastasia Rodionova, trying to carry on playing when she was clearly suffering from the conditions. But more of that in a moment. Let’s start at the beginning.

Pennetta faced a break point in the opening game, and then failed to win any of four break points to lead 4-2. It wasn’t much of a match in those first few games as each player struggled to find a rhythm. Lots of errors and short points. But it got better as the players settled and the rallies got longer. Pennetta eventually broke to lead 5-3 on her sixth break point, but even then she needed to fight off a break point as she served out the set.

Then it got really interesting. Pennetta went down 4-0, but then started pulling herself back into the match. Still, you’d think three sets, as although the Italian broke in the fifth game games then went with serve until Rodionova led 5-2. Pennetta, though, held three break points to get back on serve at 3-4, so it was certainly becoming interesting. Then the Russian summoned the doctor, who checked her blood pressure and told her to place ice on the back of her neck.

Play continued, and this time Pennetta did break, with a fine winning return. 4-5. Then the trainer was called and Rodionova was laying on her back trying not to faint. When they resumed again Rodionova barely moved as Pennetta fired three consecutive aces, broke again to lead 6-5 and hit a further two aces as she closed out the match. Why was Pennetta steaming?

"For me, if you are like this on the court it is better that you go," she said of Rodionova. "If you have any problem and you cannot play, you cannot play. That’s it. You go. I was also very tired in the beginning of the second set. We made one unbelievable rally in the first game and I couldn’t breathe and I was tired.

"But I didn’t stop the match. A match like this is not good for the public. The last three or four games were very bad to watch, so if you have to play like this it’s better you don’t play."

Petrova had so such problems against Tathiana Garbin, winning 6-1 6-1 with no-one trying to faint against her. But it wasn’t quite as easy as the score, because Petrova had to save seven break points. She also won only five of the 12 break points she held against Garbin.

Pennetta might have played her friend Errani next, but she won’t, because her fellow-Italian was beaten 6-0 7-6 (7-2) by Paszek of Austria.

The other match of the day saw Yung-Jan Chan defeat Shuai Peng 6-1 7-5. Chan was broken as she served for the match at 5-4, but she broke back again at 5-5 and served out the match at her second attempt.

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