Varvara Gracheva – another level
Welcome to the 59th edition of Trofeo Bonfiglio!!
The first day of quali was a weird one, as it most often happens: this is due to the fact that several players below 100th spot, who would be entitled to play the quali, do not participate as they believe (groundedly) that there is a high risk of not qualifying or, even if they manage to, of anyway losing in early stages; thus, often enough, such players prefer competing in other tournaments (such as the Grade 2 starting in these days in Hungary) in which they are directly admitted to the main draw, most probably as seeds. The consequence of this is that the quali draws suffer enormous holes, which are filled by players who do not have a chance to win a single game against a top 100, but they anyway give it a try in order to be able, one day, to tell their grandsons that many years before they have competed in what is known as “the fifth slam” (and should be known as “the third slam”, since most of the times the level – at least of the main draw -of the Italian Open is higher than that of the Australian Open and and the U.S. Open). As a result, most of first-day quali matches are hideous, as one ends up finding Gracheva, former top 20, against Gaggini, who does not even own an ITF ranking. Of course, the result of a match as such is, most of the times, 6-0 6-0 and you end up counting the points that the unfortunate rival of the top level players manages to score (often stopping before having reached 20).
Thus, today I didn’t follow any entire matches, but moved from one court to another to see if I could spot any interesting players. The first player I focused on is the above-mentioned Varvara Gracheva, a former top 20 on junior tour who, in recent times, mainly played in the pro-tour in which she obtained several wins and finals in a row in 15k; the Russian is thus trying now to raise her level, approaching some 60k and 100k. The focus on the pro tour made Varvara’s junior ranking materially drop and she was, thus, forced to play the quali. As said, her match was too easy, but what I noticed is that she plays at a different level compared to any other player I saw today: her tennis is just too big and the pace at which she conducts the rallies and her ability to hit winners from the baseline is immediately evident. Gracheva is very, very solid, with her forehand, backhand (both hit quite flat) and serve. I cannot tell anything about her net game, as she didn’t need to charge the net at all. Due to all the above, I have nicknamed Varvara (taking up again the old habit of mine, of attributing nicknames) as “But Why You Are Playing Here Today”, a.k.a. “But Why” for friends: her level is just too high for these quali draw. Even if Barbara does not play a kind of tennis which I love, relying mostly on her noticeable power and pace, I was very impressed by her: if it wasn’t love at first sight, as it happened with N.B.O. one year ago, but indeed some emotions kicked in.[1]
The next player I focused on (for some games) is Najah Dawson, the only American girl enrolled in the quali. I promised to pay attention to her to a new friend of this blog: Ms. Colette Lewis. Colette is the director of an American blog focused on college and junior tennis and named “ZooTennis” (which is much more serious and professional than ours’: I encourage my usual 4 readers to give a glim to it, as it is good), and I am happy to say that she accepted to host on her blog my articles on Bonfiglio, allowing TennisUnderworld to gain some visibility abroad; I take this occasion to thank Colette for her kindness. Going back to Najah, she is black, fairly small framed and a lefty; her tennis is quite peculiar, as she is really keen to go for the net: the first point I saw in the match was actually a serve and volley by her and several times she charged directly on return. Her volleying was not always excellent today, but the peculiarity of her style makes her fun to watch. Najah plays her forehand with a super western grip, which leads her swing to resemble a bit Berasategui’s; though her ball, even if highly spinned, is quite slow and I didn’t find her execution to be particularly effective. I much prefer Naja’s backhand, a classic doublehanded and flatter shot, with which she was much more consistent during the games I saw. Najah didn’t have a good day at all (as herself too admitted during a brief chat we had after her match was over) and she was forced to the third set by her opponent, Urelli Rinaldi, an Italian player I have never heard of before. The match between the two was very tight and the result was 6-4 5-7 6-4 in favour of the American. Though, Najah did most on her own, as throughout the bits of the match I saw she played one nice point followed by two inexplicable unforced errors. Najah must raise here level quite a bit, in order to qualify.
Then, I checked how two old friends of mine are doing: one is Noa Krznaric, of whom I still have to learn to spell the surname properly. Honestly, I didn’t find her so well: I was disappointed. She grew up enormously since last year, but all the rest didn’t really change: if one year ago, taking in account her at the time quite small frame, I was surprised by the power she could develop, today, also due to her “new” huge frame, her pace impressed me much less; further she still showed issues in consistency, hitting far too many unforced. I expected this season to be the one in which Krznaric would have exploded: in light of her results and of the game she displayed today, which I did not find improved in any noticeable way, my expectations were not met. Noa was opposed to a decent Italian player, Greta Carbone: the final score was 6-2 6-4 in favour of the Croatian, who possibly experienced a few too many troubles to get rid of her opponent. I really hope Noa just had a bad day, since I can’t figure that the potential she showed until one year ago vanished.
Last but not least, Helene Pellicano. The girl from Malta well impressed me already one year ago, even more she did this year. What I love most of Helene is her backhand, with which she can find brilliant solutions, especially down the line. Anyhow, also Helene’s forehand is very good and it’s hard to tell which shot of hers is the most effective. My impression is that Helene increased a lot the pace of her shots since last year; she was today the only player I saw (and I saw several others, at least or some minutes, besides those mentioned here) who can hit nearly as big as Gracheva, even if maybe she is not as consistent as the Russian (but take also in account that the Pellicano is two years younger than Gracheva). I was, instead, very disappointed with Helene’s serve (comparable to a slow version of Errani’s one) and with her high volleys, a couple of which were pure disasters: though, I learned from Helene herself (she is a nice smiling young girl) that she suffered from a little problem in her last match in Santa Croce; I didn’t ask her anything more precise as she was in a hurry, but it’s fair to assume that this might have affected the execution of such shots. Piangerelli, Pellicano’s opponent, another Italian girl I never heard of, showed actually to be able to play good tennis and it was easy for her to effectively attack the wet rags Helene was serving; the match between the two was quite intense and several rallies very good to watch: the final result was 6-2 6-4 in favour of Pellicano.
Unfortunately, Curmi, the other Maltese girl who is currently doing so well, is not playing in the quali: I guess she has been granted a wild card for the main draw, also because yesterday she lost the semi-final of the Grade 1 held in Santa Croce (in three sets) against Rogozinska Dzik: it would have been impossible for her to play the quali in Milan.
That’s all for today: as this article, as said, will be hosted in another blog and some readers may not be used to me, I clarify that also boys’ qualifying matches took place today, but I find boys’ tennis utterly boring and I never write on it (Stefanos Tsitsipas was the only exception: he is not boring at all).
[1] As usual, please note that I am only joking!!! My “love” is purely platonic and aimed at tennis skills
