WINS TWO MATCHES SUNDAY

Sugiyama takes Scottsdale as Alexandra and Kim misfire

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

FROM THE STATE FARM CLASSIC IN SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. – Four and half hours of pounding on hardcourts wasn't enough to exhaust Japan's Ai Sugiyama, but just over two hours of watching some of her most forceful shots slung back at her was enough to mentally melt Kim Clijsters, who fell
3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Sugiyama in the final of the State Farm Tennis Classic.

Give all the in the credit in the world to Ai the Warrior Princess for winning back-to-back singles matches on Sunday and then going out and contesting two doubles matches, but neither Clijsters nor Sugiyama's semifinal foe, Alexandra Stevenson, were impressive when they had Ai ready to sing Yai, Yai, Yai.

Stevenson was especially shaky, because Sugiyama did not play that well in the morning, but Alexandra was as wild as a rabies-ridden coyote in the desert. Stevenson committed an incredible 83 unforced errors in the match while knocking off 36 winners. She only managed one winner from her backhand side, a sure sign that she needs to step into the ball more – especially when going down the line. Her forehand down the line is also a less than notable shot.

Sugiyama committed 49 unforced errors while registering 17 winners.

Despite that, Stevenson held three match points in the tiebreaker. With Stevenson serving at 6-4, Sugiyama returned a 119-mph blast from her foe and then ripped a forehand passing shot at a net-rushing Stevenson that the American plopped into the net.

On Stevenson's second match point at 6-5, Sugiyama creamed a running inside-out backhand winner. On the American's third match point at 7-6, Stevenson missed an easy backhand and threw her racket to the ground. Sugiyama then passed Stevenson with a backhand crosscourt and won the match when she ripped a 98- mph serve into Stevenson's body.

STEVENSON CAN'T CLOSE
"I screwed it up," said Stevenson, who received a warning for coaching from her sometimes tutor John Austin at 3-3 in the third set. "I can't believe I lost. I should have walked away the winner but I just handed the match to her. I played dumb."

Siggi Bucher

Clijsters wasn't exactly a master strategist in her loss either and was as frustrated as she ever been in a match, unusually firing two balls into the wall.

In winning her first Tier II, the No. 18-ranked Sugiyama gamely hung with Clijsters in long backcourt rallies and basically dominated her from the backhand side. Clijsters forehand was an out-and-out disaster and she didn't go down the line enough to open up the court.

"I've played so many matches when I wasn't playing well but I managed to get through," said Clijsters, who has reached three finals this year, buy only won one. "It was just mentally frustrating because I was trying to get a leg up and she made me work for every point. In the beginning I was placing the ball better, but in the second set she hardly made any more unforced errors and was standing on top of the baseline and hitting with the same pace. I made too many mistakes and she made me make the mistakes."

Clijsters broke Sugiyama to 5-4 in the second set and appeared to have the match in hand, but failed to serve out the match when she committed to slew of forehand errors and gave the break back to 5-5. "It's always easy to say afterward that I should have held but she returns serve really well," said Clijsters, who might think differently when she sees a tape of the match.

Sugiyama held to 6-5 and then Clijsters mentally collapsed, double faulting to hand Sugiyama the set 7-5.

At 5-4 in the third set, Sugiyama dug in her heels with Clijsters serving. Amazingly, Clijsters went for an ill-advised drop shot at 30-30 and was wide with it. Then she missed another forehand to give Sugiyama the contest.

BIGGEST WIN
Sugiyama called it the biggest win of her career.

"This is unbelievable to me," said Sugiyama, who broke down in tears during the trophy presentation. "Beating Lindsay Davenport, Eleni Daniilidou, Alexandra Stevenson and Kim here, this is like a dream for me. I was working hard physically and mentally and I knew it would come, but the results were coming later than sooner. This gives me a lot of confidence for the future."

The No. 3 ranked Kim's confidence isn't completely shot, but it is tattered. Since she won Sydney in early January, she choked a 5-1 in the third set to Serena in the Aussie Open semis, didn't put up much of fight against Venus playing at home in Antwerp and, on Sunday, lost to player she is clearly better than.

She'll go into Indian Wells this week as the No. 1 seed and should Clijsters fail to win the title, she and her coach, Marc Dehous, will need to have a long sit down about how she should approach the rest of the season.