Monday Report

By Barry Wood

It was a bit of a strange day at the PTT Pattaya Open on Monday. A player injured her ankle but then retired sick. That doesn't happen too often.

The beneficiary of the retirement was the number five seed from China, Shuai Peng (that's pronounced Pong for those who think it isn't), and the retiree was Mara Santangelo, who hails from Italy. Although she had beaten Santangelo without giving up a set on the two other occasions they had met, Peng struggled this time.

She did hold a break point in the first game when Santangelo double-faulted, but she netted a backhand and didn't manage to earn another chance in the entire set. Instead, it was Santangelo who got the break, to lead 4-2, after Peng made another backhand error. The real drama though came in the second set.

1-1, Peng leading on serve 40-30, and Santangelo went over on her ankle and called for the trainer. Out came the tape and Santangelo continued, but this time it was a different Santangelo as she dropped her next service game to love to fall behind 3-1. She did continue to fight, although keen observers could see she was tentative on a couple of points when she didn't want to risk more damage. When she retired it wasn't a huge surprise, and everyone assumed it was because of the injury. But it wasn't. The official reason given was sickness. The score was 3-6 5-2. And the reason Peng was struggling?

"At the Australian Open the bounce was really slow and very high, and here the court is faster," she said. "And her forehand and backhand plays different from all the girls. With her slice the balls don't come up and the bounce is really low and really fast. Even when she came back (from the treatment to her ankle) she still played well."

Vera Dushevina beat compatriot Elena Bovina in straight sets, but shouldn't have. The score was 6-4 7-5, but Bovina had broken to lead the second set 5-3. Should have been a doddle to take the match to a third and deciding set, but it didn't happen as Bovina first allowed her opponent to level at 5-5 and then double-faulted to give her a 6-5 lead. Handed a reprieve, Dushevina took it.

Only two other first round matches were played on Monday, and they saw Russia's Ksenia Pervak sweep aside Tomoko Yonemura of Japan 6-1 6-1, and Kazakhstan's Galina Voskoboeva beat Slovak Jarmila Groth 4-6 6-2 6-1.

As well as those matches, the qualifying rounds were completed, and this is what happened. Ivana Lisjak of Croatia defeated Magali de Lattre from Portugal 6-1 6-0, Bulgaria's Sesil Karatantcheva overcame Ryoko Fuda of Japan 6-2 6-2, Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia struggled to beat Astrid Besser of Italy 6-1 5-7 7-6, and Yuliya Beygelzimer from Ukraine defeated Shiho Hisamatsu of Japan 6-2 6-2. Karatantcheva now plays fellow qualifier Lisjak, Beygelzimer plays Australia-based Russian Anastasia Rodionova, and Diatchenko plays third seed Dominika Cibulkova of the Slovak Republic.