Tuesday Report

By Barry Wood

Anyone hoping to watch one of the most exciting young players in the world, Dominika Cibulkova, in action at the PTT Pattaya Open was disappointed on Wednesday. But not nearly as much as she was about not being able to play.

The 19-year old Slovak, the number three seed here, was forced to withdraw with a viral illness. She described it as flu, and it would be indelicate to ask her for details. Enough to say that she was unable to eat for most of the day before trying a little something in the evening. She thought it likely that it was brought on by all the travel she has been doing recently, and the stress of representing her country in the Fed Cup in Bratislava last weekend. It sound glamorous, doesn't it. Going from Slovakia to Australia, then flying back home from the blistering heat of Melbourne to the cold of Europe, and then turning around again within days and heading halfway back to Oz to play in Thailand. Sounds glamorous, but actually it's extremely tough.

"We came here on Monday night and last night I got a fever," Cibulkova told us. "I flew like 10 hours here and I can't play so it's very disappointing. I think for sure it was because I have done so much travelling and we had a lot of stressful days at the Fed Cup. Now I'll rest and go to Dubai on Friday and I hope I'll get better."

At least she didn't have to go through what Kimiko Date Krumm went through. That's Dar-tay not Dait, by the way, so you don't make a fool of yourself discussing her down the pub. She's 38 and not getting any younger, and she had to do a lot of running about before finally going out to the eighth seeded Slovakian, Magdalena Rybarikova. It was 6-2 4-6 6-4, but the old lady had a point to lead 4-1 in the fourth set. If she had got that point that would probably have been enough to guarantee the win, but she admitted afterwards that because it was such an important point she got tight and that's why her forehand went into the net instead of over it.

She also started cramping, as she had done in another long match at the Australian Open, but she doesn't think it's because of her age. We could get technical here but we won't. But it involves the amount of body fat she has (not enough, apparently) and other such stuff. She's consulting people who know about these things.

Sixth seed Tamarine Tanasugarn won, beating Akgul Amanmuradova 6-2 7-6. It got a bit tight in the second set and Tammy was down in the tiebreak, so she did well to win in straight sets and not delay us unnecessarily for dinner. She said she had trouble in the second set adjusting from natural daylight to the floodlights.

Fourth seed Sybille Bammer had struggled to win her first match and so it wasn't too much of a surprise that she lost her second, against a much better opponent. Vera Dushevina beat her 6-4 7-5. Fifth seed Shuai Peng came through to the quarters, but it took her a while to sort out Galina Voskoboeva. That ended 7-6 6-0.

"We had never played each other before and she has a big serve and it took me some time to get used to her game," said Peng. "After the first set my coach told me to relax, and after I broke her (for 2-0) I felt I was more in control and I attacked the ball more."

Actually, she said much the same thing after her first round match. Two more matches were played. Ryoko Fuda, who replaced Cibulkova, was beaten 6-3 1-6 6-3 by Vitalia Diatchenko, and seventh seed Shahar Peer faced up against Thailand's junior world number one, Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, and won that 6-1 6-0 in only 50 minutes. Welcome to the real world, Noppawan.