Tennishead on Tour: Eastbourne WTA
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People look at us a bit funny when we say we’ve got a soft spot for Eastbourne. Mention the East Sussex seaside resort to most people and they pull a funny face and start banging on about pensioners falling asleep in deck chairs on the seafront.
OK, it’s got its fair share of docile Octogenarians, too many shops full of seaside tat and a stony beach, but it’s also got one of the most laid back and accessible events for fans on either Tour calendar.
Put it this way, we wouldn’t like to encounter Kleybanova in a dark Eastbourne sidestreet
Today, 26 quid got you a Centre Court ticket (without queuing we might add), access to unreserved seating on Court 1 and standing room around another four match courts. For us, though, one of the best aspects of Eastbourne is its intimate practice court layout – you can watch some of the world’s best women from literally a few feet away. On a sunny day like today (Eastbourne is on the ‘sunshine coast’ after all) it has the feel of a relaxed English garden party, punters lazing about on the grass enjoying picnics while some great tennis goes on around them.
The double bonus for those with ground passes (just a tenner today) is that there’s a junior international invitation event and another women’s singles draw (The Eastbourne Cup), which features many of the first round losers desperate for some last minute match practice ahead of Wimbledon. For the fans, that means LOADS of great players and some of the stars of the future on show.
By Eastbourne’s standards, this year’s field isn’t one of its best. Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova both ducked out at the last minute and Lindsay Davenport withdrew at the beginning of the week. That left Svetlana Kuznetsova as the top seed, but she crashed out to Caroline Wozniacki today and Amelie Mauresmo quit after three games of her second round match. No matter. It’s a great opportunity for a kid like Wozniacki to step up to the plate and make their name on grass right before Wimbledon.
And it was the 17-year-old Dane’s day today. She destroyed Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-2 in the second match on Centre and has a serious shot at the title if she can continue that kind of form. We’ve always had a soft spot for the blonde from Copenhagen. Having watched her practice at close quarters just after arriving on site (more about the practice courts later), we were kicking ourselves that we hadn’t stuck a Tennishead Tenner on her to see off the Russian world No.4. Easy to say in hindsight, obviously, but she won Junior Wimbledon in 06, has had a great year since making the fourth round at the Aussie Open in January and is very comfortable on grass. Once she stepped onto Centre Court it showed.
Devonshire Park is known for its tricky, windy conditions (ask anyone who’s played the British Junior Nationals or County Week there) and they played havoc with Kuznetsova’s game today. Wozniacki simply dealt with the wind much better, hit through the ball well and used her funky two-handed sliced backhand when she needed it to get the job done.
The two players entered the arena to Jamelia’s ‘Superstar’ thumping out of the Centre Court speakers. Wozniacki’s performance was worthy of it. She’s a great athlete – tall at 5ft 10 with a powerful frame but without being too heavy. She also has a mature head. Already No.32 in the world a few weeks shy of her 18th birthday, surely the top ten beckons for the teenager.
Other matches we caught included the waif-like Gisela Dulko’s three-set win over the Maria Sharapova-like Olga Govortsova, second seed Marion Bartoli’s destruction of Sybille Bammer, three games of Sam Stosur against Mauresmo (before the Frenchwoman called it a day with a thigh injury) and an entertaining three-set victory for Russian qualifier Alisa Kleybanova against French glamourpuss Aravane Rezai.
What a woman young Kleybanova is. There are big tennis players and then there is the 18-year-old, 5ft 11 Kleybanova. Put it this way, we wouldn’t like to encounter the Muscovite in a dark Eastbourne sidestreet. As for Rezai, what a powerhouse. There’s only 5ft 5 of her, but she was one of the hardest hitters out there today.
Others to catch our eye were Aussie Casey Dellacqua (big forehand) who lost to Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru (bizarrely emotionless), Bethanie Mattek (coolest cat in her all-black outfit) and Virginia Ruano Pascal (wins the prize for most developed leg muscles).
Of the juniors, 14-year-old Brit Laura Robson stood out for all the right reasons. The young lefty (who already looks every inch a pro) is considered one of Britain’s hottest prospects. She’s already the second highest ranked British girl in the 18-and-under ITF world list and has been signed up – and so far sensibly protected from too much hype – by Octagon. Let’s hope she’s gracing the women’s event in a few years’ time with the same kind of results as Wozniacki, another player that once appeared in the Eastbourne junior event.
It was our first experience of the ‘get-my-coach-on-court-NOW!’ WTA ruling, which makes for some interesting exchanges. Most players seem to hit the panic button only when things are going pear-shaped. Wozniacki was the only player we saw who called for her coach in a winning position – after she took the first set 6-2. Another sign of her maturity, we suspect. Aravane (pronounced like ‘caravan’) Rezai’s coach (her dad and former car mechanic, Arsalan) could have also passed for a deckchair attendant and we felt for her opponent Kleybanova’s guru, who had to bring her back from the brink of a meltdown with some fast talking after she lost a tight second set.
Time and again, though, we were drawn to the practice courts. Providing you can recognise who’s who (not easy when not in their match kit), you can catch some of the world’s best at their most relaxed. And if you’re a keen player, you can also learn from some of the drills going on. We were often the only spectators as the likes of Wozniacki, Alize Cornet, Mauresmo, Dulko, Natalie Dechy, Elena Baltacha, Victoria Azarenka and Cara Black and Liezel Huber were put through their paces by their hitting partners and trainers. It’s amazing more fans don’t hang out there.
So, all in all, a big thumbs up – despite the sunburn. The good news is that it should get even better. From 2009 the Eastbourne event will combine a WTA and ATP tournament. We’ll be back in 12 months’ time.
