Top seeds fall to confident upstarts
For the athletes on the USTA Pro Circuit, playing each match of a tournament is a game of confidence. They're trying to get it, cultivate it, and keep it, and it can slip in and out of their grasp with each successive shot. In the Women's $50K Challenger event this past week at the Sportsmen's Tennis Club in Roxbury, the field included players ranked from 99 in the world to 753, with most between 100 and 300. They've got the shots, they just need to go after them. That takes confidence.
In yesterday's semifinals, the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds were eliminated by unseeded players, who found that playing with confidence only brought them more of the precious stuff. No. 2 Stephanie Dubois, a Canadian ranked 100th in the world, was beaten in a seesaw battle by Chin-Wei Chan from Chinese Taipei, 7-6 (10-7) 3-6, 6-3, and top seed Julie Ditty was routed by 18-year-old Anna Tatishvili, 6-2, 6-2.
"I believed in myself, that I could win the match," said Tatishvili, a native of the Republic of Georgia, who is ranked No. 212. "So I just tried to attack as much as I could."
Though Ditty seems old for this tour at 29, she is actually a bright young thing just as Tatishvili is. Ditty took time to go to college (Vanderbilt, 2001) before tackling the professional game. In the last year, she has moved into the top 100. She's at 99 this week. But this was her ninth consecutive competition and Tatishvili sensed Ditty's vulnerability. She attacked early and often, hitting away on nearly every shot. Ditty was pinned to the baseline, and repeatedly netted ground strokes in response to Tatishvili's power.
Ditty seemed tired, but not discouraged. "I didn't feel like I was on my game," she said, "but she did play well."
Steady improvement over the last year has given Ditty confidence that one poor match can't shake her.
"The end of last year is when I really started to break through," said Ditty, who is getting used to getting automatic slots in the 128-player main draws of major tournaments. She has lost in the first round of the Australian Open, the French Open, and Wimbledon, and is focused on getting further at the US Open.
"I feel like my game's improving and I'm still enjoying it," she said. "Right now, I'm just focused on that first round, and trying to get through it."
Tatishvili is in a new spot, too; in her second year on the circuit, she has reached her first $50K final. "I'm pretty excited. I saw the ball early and my legs moved well today. Your legs, your brain, your racket - you've got to get them all working well together."
Tatishvili will face Chan in today's 11 a.m. final, another player in her first $50K final. The 23-year-old Chan, ranked 281, had risen as high as 152 in October 2006, but needed to take time off last year for surgery on her left wrist. She defeated defending champion and fourth seed Varvara Lepchenko in the quarterfinals, and against Dubois, her confidence surged and ebbed.
"I have nothing to lose; I just do what I should do, try to be more aggressive, try to take the chance," said Chan, who teamed with Natalie Grandin to win a doubles semifinal yesterday over Alexa Glatch and Dubois, 6-4, 6-3. Chan and Grandin face Yulia Fedossova and Lepchenko in today's final.
