Juvan – other side
Here we are back for you, readers, after a long pause. Happy new year to everybody.
In this first article of 2019 I want to focus on the performances of my favourite junior girls, or very young pro girls, in the qualification rounds of the pro Australian Open, which took place during last week. I managed to see matches or at least bits of matches of three players: i.e. Iga Swiatek vs. American Danielle Lao (169 WTA); a bit of the match that Marta Kostyuk played vs. Spanish Badosa Gilbert (142 WTA) and a set of the match between Kaja Juvan and Brazilian Haddad Maia (176 WTA).
Let’s start from Iga, who left me with the best impressions. The match against Lao was played in the third round of the qualifications; in the previous rounds Iga has beaten her peer Olga Danilovic, in a very tight match which ended with the result of 1-6 7-6 7-5, and Bolsova Zadoinov, by 7-6 6-2.
The match against Lao seems to have been the easier for the Polish talent, as she won it by 6-1 6-3. I have spoken many times about Iga (nicknamed in this website BerghemIga) and her matches: thus, I will just try to highlight the differences I found in her game between the match against Lao and the previous matches of her I watched.
First: Iga’s serve worked noticeably well: her first serve has always been quite powerful, and it still is of course; it allows her to gain some direct points, which are always welcome. But I found the second serve to have improved a lot: she crafts it well, so that it results deep and decently powerful; most importantly, the series of three double faults in a row which occasionally she used to hit and the double fault per game she most of the time hit, didn’t show up, at least against Lao. Iga’s serve stats show 54% of serves in and 74% of points won with first serve and an amasing 70% of points won with the second serve (the latter stat I guess won’t be easy to replicate).
Though, it’s in Iga’s baseline game I have noticed the most surprising changes. It seems to me that against Lao she was much more keen in manoeuvring, instead than trying to hit 3 winners every 2 shots; especially with her forehand she tried to craft more the ball, only occasionally hitting the super-shots that leave her opponents 3 metres from the ball and that demonstrate (in my view) that she may become, if nothing strange happens, a super star. Also, I had the impression she does not jump as much as before when she hits, and that her motions are more ordered. Actually, overall, she was less spectacular to see than in previous matches, but her game resulted much more effective and solid: she seems to have become more aware tactically than she was some months ago. Finally, her black-outs, of which I have spoken many times, have manifested only once, and lasted for a couple of points only. All the above made Iga unplayable for her opponent (who is very small and also paid a gap in power compared to her opponent), so there basically was never a real match between the two.
Iga will play the first round of the main draw against Anna Bogdan: a difficult but not impossible task for her. If she wins, a very interesting match against Camila Giorgi could materialise. That would be fun to see.
Let’s switch now to Marta Kostyuk. I have seen only the second set of her defeat against Badosa Gilbert, as the match was played at the same time as Iga’s. One set is very little and no serious judgement can be expressed. Though, since I have to write something, I write that what I have seen from Marta disappointed me a bit: I would make on Marta the exactly opposite statements I made for Iga: since last time I saw her, 1 year ago, her game didn’t change at all; actually, her lever was lower, since last year the Ukrainian, during this period, was on fire. Yesterday, she was much more faulty than Swiatek: whilst Iga didn’t leave any chance to Lao when the latter hit a shorter ball, the opposite applied to Marta: she made far too many mistakes on clothing shots (and in one of such occasions she was broken). More, she always plays extremely flat and remains very faulty with her backhand. I sadly noticed that her game became also less various, as in the set I followed I didn’t see a single charge to the net nor a change of rhythm. Serve is also a bit shaky as it always was, as her foot still goes far too high, leaving her unbalanced at the end of the motion.
After last year Australian campaign, during which she triumphed, Marta quitted ITF tour but didn’t achieve any further good results on the WTA. She was born in 2002 and maybe her schedule was a bit too swift for her: I would have played, in her place, a couple more of 60k or 100k, alternating with some WTAs. Though, it must be also noticed that this week Marta had to defend an awful lot of points, which is something new for her. This might have added extra pressure on Marta and affected her game. Anyway, I still have no doubts at all on the huge talent of this young girl nor, most importantly, Ljubicic seems to have any: the disappointment of having failed to qualify after last years’ glorious matches is an absolutely normal inconvenient to step in, especially for an extremely young player as Marta.
Last, Kaja Juvan, my beloved one (and this is how I usually refer to her): she was very good in getting through a difficult first round, having baten Yanina Wickmayer; though I really didn’t like (the set and the bit of) her match against Haddad. Kaja is smaller and less powerful than her opponent, who has already beaten the young Slovenian 1 week ago in Auckland, in three sets (which is fine). This time the Brasilian won 6-3 6-4, but the score could have been more severe had the latter not missed 5 match points on 5-2 and 5-3 in her favour.
Kaja didn’t serve powerfully, but she hit a high percentage of first serves in, so she worked it out decently in this respect. I was more doubtful with Kaja’s base-line game: where the slice has gone? Where are the killer drop shots that she mastered so well? Why she went for the net only once in a set and a half, considering she owns such a lovely hand? Kaja’s best qualities are not in her strength power and I do not think she can obtain great results by constantly playing one metre behind the baseline. Maybe it was not easy to attack a big hitter as Haddad as it was to attack Patty Schnyder; but for sure, as much as I enjoyed Kaja’s match against the Austrian legend, I got bored with Kaja’s tennis against Haddad. More, I also noticed that Kaja missed many times in handling shorter balls or loose shots from her opponent, a kind of mistake that a classy player as the Slovenian should not incur in. Again, I saw only a set and a half of one match: maybe it was a bad day for Kaja or maybe she suffers Haddad’s type of game. Anyhow, the recent results demonstrate that the Slovenian is finding her own way, much faster than most of her peers.
Switching to other girls: Bianca Andreescu, who I followed only a in a few occasions also due to the fact that it’s a long time she does not play on junior tour, has crushed her opponents, losing 6 games overall in two matches and a half (in the third round Katie Swan has retired at the end of the first set, that she lost by 1-6); Xiyu Wang has easily dismissed beaten Claire Liu in the first round, but she lost as easily her following match.
The main draw of the AO, beside Iga Swiatek who was the only junior to qualify, will star other young players: current junior n.1 Clara Burel, as winner of the last year’s junior Australian Open (she will play against the glorious backhand of Suarez Navarro); Whitney Osuigwe, who benefitted of a wild card and will play against the above mentioned Andreescu; Anastasia Potapova, who owns a good enough ranking to access the main draw, will play against the French Parmentier – she may win that match –; finally, top 100 Amanda Anisimova, will play against Niculescu: Amanda will have to prove again if for a junior huge talent as her, playing against a tricky player such as Niculescu may prove more difficult than to play against a top 10.
Let’s close with just a few news on the junior tour: the grade 1 in Traralgon is currently on its way and the third round was played today (Saturday). Both the boys’ and girls’ draws are strong, as the cut is set around 100th spot. As per the boys’ tournament, there were no great upsets up to the third round, as most of the seeded players have qualified (the second seed Yunchaokete, didn’t play at all). In the fourth round, though, several of the top seeds -including the first seed Musetti, third seed Virtanen and seventh seed Svrcina- have been dismissed.
As per the girls’ tournament, some higher seeded have been dismissed, most noticeably Diane Perry. Other players I used to follow, such as Curmi, Pellicano, Frayman, Pigato, all suffered early losses (and the scores weren’t good). Clara Tauson, a hot favourite to become 1st in the world this year, is doing fine, and the same applies to the second seed Zheng.
