Thursday 8th February

by Barry Wood

Top seed Marion Bartoli failed to survive the second round, losing 4-6 6-3 6-3 to Slovakia's Martina Sucha.

Bartoli can hit the ball hard, but she failed to match the consistency of Sucha in the furiously-contested rallies and paid the price. To add insult to injury, she lost her serve in the final game to love.

But to more positive news. Nicole Pratt built upon her upset of second seed Maria Kirilenko by dominating Vania King, beating the young American 6-2 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals of the Pattaya Open on Thursday. The victory might have been even more decisive as the veteran Aussie served for victory at 5-2, but a couple of close line calls didn't go her way and she dropped her serve for the only time.

In fact, she had served really well throughout and up to that stage had given up only seven points on serve in the entire match. That was part of the key to her victory, said Pratt.

"I served particularly well today and that's what put Vania under pressure. There were a couple of tight line calls at the end, but that's all part and parcel and I think I calmed down and just got on with it."

The comprehensiveness of her win against such a promising newcomer was all the more remarkable given that when they had played in Bangalore a year ago, Pratt got just one game.

"She was a new player on tour and I didn't know much about her, and to quite honest she just overwhelmed me," said Pratt. "The court was particularly fast and I never got into a rhythm. She's a player that takes the ball extremely early, but I've been practising a lot with my doubles partner, Mara Santangelo, and she takes the ball early too and I think that helped me today because I had to be that little bit sharper and I knew what to expect."

As well as serving well, Pratt knew where she should and shouldn't put the ball.

"Part of the game plan was to keep it deep down the middle and not to give her angles, because she's a player that likes to run side to side. So I had a specific game plan that I was going to make her hit a lot of balls down the middle of the court, and to serve well so she couldn't take control of the point early. So the longer I got in the rallies, the better I felt about them falling my way."

So it's become a busy week for the 33-year old, who admitted she had come to Pattaya to relax a little.

"I've just come off a pretty hectic Australian summer, so this week was actually about taking it easy, trying to relax and enjoy the resort because it's absolutely beautiful here. Winning or losing tennis matches these type of weeks, it's always good to win but it's also nice to be able to sit back and enjoy a place like Pattaya which is so much fun to be at.

"They have great crowds here so I feel like it's a show and you want to put on good entertainment, and that's when I play my best tennis, when it's a form of entertainment. "I'm just enjoying being here day by day, point by point, and whatever happens happens. I know that I'll do my best and fight really hard. That's what I do well and that's what I'm going to continue to do throughout this tournament."

Despite her defeat, Vania could be the salvation of women's tennis in the United States, after the probable retirement of Lindsay Davenport, the as-yet unofficial retirement of Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati, and the unpredictability of Serena and Venus Williams.

Now just a few days past her 18th birthday, her singles ranking improved more than 100 places last year, with a semi-final in Bangalore and her first career title in Bangkok. Now ranked 65, she has also established herself strongly in doubles, last week reaching the final in Tokyo to earn a place in the top 30.

A Chinese-American born to parents who emigrated from Taiwan in 1982, she has been coached by her father, David, and Australia's experienced Ray Ruffels, and she has been actively establishing herself beyond the confines of the court.

She draws anime art, and with singing one of her off-court interests she was chosen to sing "America The Beautiful" live and a cappella on Arthur Ashe Stadium last year, just before Andre Agassi's second round match against Marcos Baghdatis. She also wrote a blog during the recent Australian Open for Tennis Channel Online.

What of the other matches. One didn't get on court, because Alicia Molik injured her left hamstring during a doubles match and was unable to play against sixth seeded Gisela Dulko. In a minor upset, eighth seeded Aiko Nakamura of Japan fell 3-6 6-1 6-1 to Israel's Tzipora Obziler.