‘There isn’t a big difference in
my game and the top players’
FROM THE BNP PARIBAS OPEN IN INDIAN WELLS –
There are year’s when the young players have been able to drive
truck through the massive black hole of the WTA top 20, get into the left
lane, accelerate and find themselves in the top 10 before they encounter
a speed trap.
But there will be no open highway for 18-year-old Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova,
the youngest player in the top 25 who crushed Karolina Sprem 6-3 6-1.
With decent play over the next four months, she should be able t claw
into the top 20, but the top 10 will be another feat, much less the top
5, even given her substantial potential.
A quick glance at the players ranked between Nos. 10 and 20 reveals five
players who could slip: Vera Zvonareva, Marion Bartoli, Francesca Schiavone,
Nadia Petrova and Shahar Peer.
A look at the top 10 revels four who are no
locks to stay there by the fall: Dinara Safina, Aggie Radwanska, Jelena
Jankovic and Na Li. But outside of Safina, all those players are also
capable of putting up decent results too, which means that Pavlyuchenkova
is actually going to have to put u very good results to get there. While
she’s capable, she’s also been erractic and displayed some
emotional fragility in 2009 after she reached the Indian Wells semis.
She believes she’s getting closer to the top players, but she’ll
actually have to start beating them on a consistent basis before anyone
is really going to believe she’s here to stay.
“There isn’t a big difference in my game and the top players,”
she told TennisReporters.net. “They are all playing well, but they
aren’t much better. They’re more consistent and experienced,
but I’ve proven that I can beat those players.” But its just
takes time.”
Actually, she hasn’t proven that yet, only shown that she can do
it on occasion. Last year, she scored wins over Jankovic, Radwanska, and
Venus Williams (twice). She also fell in the second round nine times and
went 0-2 in Fed Cup against Italy. She will play against the US in late
April in called upon.
After asking her brother Aleksandr to begin coaching her again, she’s
made much more progress this year, as the former junior No. 1 bested Alisa
Kleybanova in Brisbane and reached the quarters in Dubai. She took losses
to Ana Ivanovic in Brisbane, lost in the Sydney qualies, and went down
to Sveta Kuznetsova in Melbourne and Elena Dementieva at the Paris Indoors.
But then her tennis began to come around and she won her first singles
title at Monterrey, besting Daniela Hantuchova in the final.“I had
it somewhere deep inside of me and now it’s coming out,” she
said. “Mentally something clicked. I understand my game better now.”
Pavlyuchenkova has a very big game off the ground, although her serve
needs work. She can play hyper aggressive, which is fine if she's feeling
the ball well but not a good strategy on days when she wakes up on the
wrong side of the bed. But at least now she’s on the same page with
Aleksander, a 24-year-old former pro, and can clearly see where she wants
to go. Pavs is in Yanina Wickmayer's quarter.
Mal Tam
Mal Taam/MALTphoto
Marat hates big servers.
“I struggled last year after Indian Wells, I wasn’t enjoying
it and I was confused because my ex-coach and I didn’t agree on
how I should play,” she said. “It hurt me a little. My brother
is helping me improve and I’m opening myself up. The main thing
is to understand each other and communicate. We can talk to each tell
each other what we think.”
Pavlyuchenkova spent the off season training in the snowy mountains in
Europe, hiking and running and wishing she could do ski jumping but knowing
its far too big of a risk for a tennis player.
A bigger risk would be to let her early success go to hear head. But she’s
more measured than she was at this time last year and said that being
the youngest player in the top 25 wont go to her head.
“I don’t want another pressure on me, but it feels good,”
said the Russian, who will play eight seed Samantha Stosur in the third
round and is in a fairly open quarter with Zvonareva, Vika Azarenka and
Yanina Wickmayer.
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