Tuesday 6th February

by Barry Wood

It was a very long day at the Pattaya Open. Tuesday is often the busiest day of the week, after players arrive from wherever they played the previous week. With a full programme of 11 singles matches and three doubles, the last thing the tournament needed was rain. But it got it, an unseasonal but fairly prolonged and heavy downpour that flooded the courts and held up play for around an hour and a half.

By the end of the day, second seed Maria Kirilenko was gone, along with seventh seed Vasilisa Bardina. Even top seed Marion Bartoli struggled, blaming her transfer from indoors in Tokyo to a humid evening in Pattaya. Still, she beat Spain's Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-3 6-4.

What of Kirilenko. She lost 7-6 2-6 7-5 to Nicole Pratt, who had actually also won both of their previous meetings so perhaps another was on the cards. But it was desperately close. In the final set, Pratt recovered a break and then held a break point at 4-3 to serve for the match. Then Kirilenko held two break points at 5-5 that would have seen her serve for the match. Instead, Pratt held, and then broke for 7-5 and a very satisfying victory.

"I thought I played pretty well the whole match," said Pratt. "The second set, I just lost a little bit of concentration but she played well, and it was a battle for the third set. I was down a break and I fought really hard to come back. "I'm just so relaxed playing. I figure that in situations like that I'm just going to fight as hard as I can and if I get the opportunity I'm going to go for my shots. That's what paid off tonight."

Why was she so relaxed? Now just a month shy of her 34th birthday, the fiesty Queenslander found a new lease of life after failing to make the main draw at Roland Garros last year. Rather than fade away, she re-dedicated herself to the game and has reaped the benefits.

"I was pretty close to retiring last year," she revealed, "but there was a turning point at the French Open where it was the first time in 35 Grand Slams that I hadn't been in the main draw. I lost in qualifying and it really hurt emotionally, so I worked really, really hard those two weeks and from then on I turned it all around. I've been having fun and it's been great.

"As long as I feel I'm getting a little bit better every day then I'll keep playing. I love to travel, I love the lifestyle. That's not a problem. It's more being out on the court every day and loving what I do.

"I've been in really good shape for a long time now, but I think I've even stepped it up a bit of a level again. I worked really hard pre-season on my fitness and it's been paying off."

What of the Thai players. Noppawan Lertcheewakarn had exceeded expectations by qualifying, and she looked as if she might spring an upset over eighth seed Aiko Nakamura from Japan as she took the first set. The way she did that was impressive. She broke for 2-1 after Nakamura led 40-0, and then held for 3-1 from 0-40. But in the end her challenge faded as Nakamura raised her level to win 3-6 6-3 6-1.

Tamarine Tanasugarn beat Taiwan's Yung-Jan Chan 6-2 6-7(4) 6-4 and on Wednesday she'll play Sania Mirza, so we'll talk about her then.