Good afternoon everyone – the on and off-court festivities have concluded for the day here in Stowe, so let’s dig a bit deeper into what occurred on the first day of the United States/Russia Fed Cup semifinal.
As a journalist, it’s nice to see your assertions and hypotheses backed up when they are put to the test in “real life”. Yesterday, I thought one of the glaring missteps in U.S. Fed Cup captain Zina Garrison’s order of play was leaving Meilen Tu on the sidelines as opposed to Vania King. Today’s action on court may have proven that correct, but I certainly didn’t anticipate that the evidence would have been so clear. In the first singles match of the tie, King fell – hard – to 20-year old Anna Chakvetadze by a 6-1, 6-3 score. Honestly, the score doesn’t even do the Russian proper justice.
One aspect of playing King that I neglected to mention was that her rubber was the first match to be played in the tie, which puts an added element of pressure on top of an already heavy burden. That may have factored into why King couldn’t muster much of a fight today against the world number eight, and combined with some more technical problems, the writing was seemingly on the wall for this rubber long before the opening ceremonies began today.
The most apparent distinction in the games of King and Chakvetadze was how they each strike the ball. King exerted much more energy and effort into each of her shots; nearly every one today appeared to be a challenge. Conversely, Chakvetadze’s hits were simpler in execution, yet infinitely more effective. If I could describe Chakvetadze’s play in one word, it would be “economical”. Anna’s movement and position was almost never out of sync, and her motions on the court were far more compact and fluid than her opponent’s. Her shorter and swifter ball toss also accented these qualities – and it came as no surprise that her service games were rarely threatened.
Chakvetadze’s play was even more impressive considering that this was her first match on a hard court since early April in Miami. I asked her if the adjustment from months of clay and grass was a welcome sight:
Q. This is the first time you played on hard courts since early April in Miami. Do you attribute that to the surface at all or do you see yourself as an all-court player; surfaces are sort irrelevant?
ANNA CHAKVETADZE: I prefer hard court and grass court. I didn't play that well at Wimbledon. Hopefully I will play better at the US Open.
An economical response – much like her ground strokes today.
The marquee rubber of the day, Venus Williams vs. Nadia Petrova, commenced shortly afterwards. The capacity crowd, which was lulled into silence for most of the opening match, expectedly did a 180 when the reigning Wimbledon champion stepped onto the Stadium at Topnotch. Two hours later, after Venus took the match in three sets (7-6, 0-6, 6-4), the crowd in Stowe exalted in praise not often heard in this quaint town. Venus later stressed the importance of this atmosphere, citing the intimacy of the stadium (which is true) as a huge boost to her play on court.
On the other side of the coin, Petrova had to contend with this often-distracting presence. I asked her how she dealt with the crowd, which got on her case a few times after letting her emotions show on court:
Q: You have a lot of experience in international team play – Fed Cup, Hopman Cup. How do you deal with very partisan crowds you run into, today in particular?
NADIA PETROVA: You know what, I really didn’t pay attention. It’s not the first time playing in a big stadium in front of a big crowd, cheering some other players. I just learned through all these years that just, you know, try to perform and try to focus on every ball. When you get into that zone, whatever happens around doesn’t really matter.
You could tell today that even in the heat of the moment, Petrova was having fun with the high-stakes situation, and with the crowd itself. It was a sharp contrast to the opening rubber, where instead of gallivanting, Chakvetadze exhibited qualities akin to a stoic assassin.
In equal contrast was the play of the American team representative. Williams’ play throughout the match was exciting, powerful, and relentless – basically, just like she played at Wimbledon. In an erratic first set that featured four breaks of serve, she came out on top in a tiebreaker, despite being down 5-2 and three set points. Venus was then shut out in set two – an “emotional letdown”, as she later referred to it in the press conference. Thinking back on it, that’s all I can chalk it up to from my vantage point as well, since I don’t feel that Petrova particularly lifted her game to new heights in the second stanza.
If you watched Venus at Wimbledon, the combination of her speed and power was the deciding factor in many of her close encounters. It was much the same today in Vermont, as another set filled with service breaks (five of them) ended this rubber. Venus’ offense was strong, but even more impressive may have been her defense, as well as another “D” word – dexterity. It was truly a sight to see up close, and after witnessing some amazing gets, I would warn onlookers to count Venus out of points at your own risk.
Tomorrow’s play will start with a bang, as Williams and Chakvetadze will duel to see who will emerge from singles with an untarnished record, and to see which side gets the 2-1 advantage. From then on, it gets very interesting. In her press conference, Zina Garrison suggested that she might go with Meilen in the second singles match, based on King’s lackluster play today. But I have a strong feeling that no matter what path is taken by Garrison, this semifinal is going to come down to the last rubber of the tie – the doubles.
- Ed McGrogan