Tuesday 9th October 2007

Tammy Reaches The Second Round
by Barry Wood

Tamarine Tanasugarn set up the possibility of an exciting second round clash with Wimbledon champion Venus Williams when she defeated Edina Gallovits at the PTT Bangkok Open on Tuesday.

Tammy is under a bit of pressure this week, having reached the final last year and having a few ranking points to defend, and after breaking in the opening game she lost her first two service games. But she slowly pulled herself back into contention, and eventually took the set in style by giving up just four points in the last three games.

Tammy then won three of the first four games of the second set before her opponent retired with heat illness. The result - 7-5 3-1.

"It was probably my good luck that she didn't feel well today," said Tammy. "The first set was very close and she was playing well. It's the first time that I've played against her and I didn't really know how well she played so I really had to adjust myself a lot today.

"I feel pressure because I have a lot of points to defend, so it's good I made my first round. The next round is a very tough opponent . If it's Venus, I played her two weeks ago in Seoul and even though the score was like two and one I had a lot of break points. But she's a very tough opponent and I just look forward to play my game and try hard."

There were two Thai players in action. Wild card Noppawan Lertcheewakarn was hoping it would be sunny and hot, and that the weather would give her an advantage over seventh seed Flavia Pennetta. The sun beating down on you can mean a difference of 20 or so degrees, and when you aren't used to it that can be difficult to handle. It means playing in 50-plus degrees instead of 30-plus, and Jelena Kostanic once complained that she felt as if her brain was frying as she tried to deal with the weather at a Fed Cup tie in Phuket. But that isn't what happened on Tuesday in Bangkok. Instead, it was overcast, and Flavia was able to cope quite well.

In the end, it took the Italian a minute under an hour to win 6-0 6-2, meaning satisfaction for her and a lesson for Noppawan. But she's young, and things can only get better.
Noppawan actually held a break point in the opening game, and three more when down 2-0. She also held a game point when down 3-0, but she double-faulted. Then she held another, but Flavia held off the challenge. So, Noppawan could have won three of the first four games instead of being down 4-0. Frustrating for her. At least she got a couple of games in the second set.

"I thought I played pretty good," said Pennetta. "At the beginning she played well and then she started making a lot of mistakes. She's young, but I think she can play very good tennis.

"It's very tough to play in the heat. Now I know why the men play indoors here. It's very humid, but it's the same for both of us, and I was ready for this kind if conditions."

Third seed Shahar Peer had problems in overcoming a strong performance by Melinda Czink, eventually winning 7-6 6-4. Games went with serve up until 4-4, when Peer double-faulted to drop her serve to love and leave her Hungarian opponent serving for the set.

But in a tense few games, Peer saved a set point at 5-4, held for 6-5 on her fifth game point, and then took the tiebreak 7-3. In the second set, a fine run saw the Israeli lay the foundation for her victory as she claimed four straight games to lead 4-1.

"It was not my best tennis," said Peer. "I won the first round but I have to improve. Especially in the first set I didn't put any balls in the court. I was just serving okay, and that's it. She was playing pretty good and the whole match she was just attacking. She had a set point and I was pretty lucky, but after that in the tiebreak I played much better. I had so much support and I couldn't disappoint them.

"It's my sixth time in Thailand, three times in juniors and three times on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, so I'm pretty happy to be here. I like Thailand and I like to play here, so I hope every round will be better than the previous round."

What else happened? Olga Poutchkova edged past qualifier Anne Kremer 6-3 4-6 6-2, Anastasia Rodianova beat qualifier Akgul Amanmuradova 6-4 6-3, fifth seed Dominika Cibulkova overcame qualifier Maria Emilia Salerni 6-2 4-6 6-2, Klara Zakopalova defeated Aiko Nakamura 6-4 7-6, and recent Tokyo champion Virginie Razzano swept aside Lourdes Dominguez Lino 6-0 6-3.