Before unrevelling the title, let me anticipate that today I saw some great tennis, which allowed me to forget about yesterday’s disappointment. Having said this, let’s immediately tackle the crucial matter of the piece: what’s an “Ova”? an “Ova” is to be defined as a female tennis player complying with the following features: 1) she is at lest 6 feet tall; 2) she hits nothing below 190 km/h; 3) if she uses a raquet or a shovel, nothing really changes; 4) even if the opponent’s court is virtually empty (e.g. the opponent felt down and lies on the ground, possibly injured), she goes for a line, sometimes ending up missing ; 5) no chance she will ever play something resambling a volley (and if she had done, she would have gone anyway for the line); 6) she screams on every shot (optional). You often find these kind of players in Eastern-European countries: therefore we usually nickname them the “Ovas”.1
Well, guess what: Nikola BartunkOVA from the Czech Republic, who has played the semifinal in Milan today, is not even close to be an “ova”; she is instead one of the last exponent of late 2000s girls’ tennis (i.e. the tennis of Radwanska, Schiavone, Klijsters etc.). The 15 year old girl is able to (today i like lists): 1) play serve and volley; 2) play volleys which are true volleys, those hit without that awful full swing which is usefull only to miss the court; 3) go for the net without hitting shots meant to dig holes in the ground, but through something similar to the old style chip-and charge; 4) change the direction of her serve. Her baseline shots are not particularly heavy; I think her backhand is better than the forehand, which she hits with a very flexed arm. The other noticeable feature of her game is her serving ability: her starting motion is real awkward, as her serving arm is all bent, dont’ know for what purpose; it’s quite awful to see, to be honest. But during her motion she turns a lot her shoulders and back, resembling a bit McEnroe: this seems to help her to dusguise the direction of her shot since, even if she serves not so hard, she was able to hit countless winning serves (no aces, just winners, but the final result is the same).
Her opponent Clervie Ngounoue is not a full time “Ova”, even if she owns many of the relevant features . Though, she is able to slice and sometimes play delicate dropshots, something which Ovas are not allowed to do. Nevertheless, Clervie passed all the day playing a “take it or breake it” tennis, scoring countells winners but also countless unforced (sometimes missing the court by 2 metres). She served no more than 20% of first serves in, before realising – when it was too late – that it was better to serve 3/4 speed and play an easy forehand after the serve instead than missing most of first serves and hitting few winning ones. During all the match, that Bartunkova won by 6-3 6-3, Ngounoue hold the initiative, but it was enough for the Czech girl to oppose 3 or 4 time (or even less) to Clervie bombing, that an unforced would arrive. As i already said: Clervie is only 14 and it’s amazing that she is able to strike the ball so well at her age. Now she needs to learn to play tennis, though, as currently she is playing a mix of baseball and Mixed Martial Arts. The nice touches that from time to time she shows and that do not allow her to be qualified as a full-time “ova” should be taken as a sign that she will be able to grow up in strategy and variety; most probably she will become a future star.
I was happy that the match was won by Bartunkova though, as to me it was the victory of the tennis i like against the tennis i don’t like. Though, Bartunkova must do something more to win tomorrow against Eala, as the Filippino girl will miss much less than Ngounoue did today. Eala in her semy has beaten 7-5 6-2 Andreeva and she was super. She kept opening the court with fantastic long the line backhands and forehands; she avoided rallies lasting more than 5 or 6 shots, as she was able to take the initiative so effectively and easily convert her attacks in points. From the baseline Eala is really good: she takes the right risks and she misses little. Her serve is not the best, instead, and tomorrow Bartunkova will have to return aggressively to have some chances. As per young Andreeva: she did waht she could and especially in the first set she offered great resiliance; though, the 2 year age gap didn’t give her a chance against today’s Eala. Mirra Andreeva owns a great great backhand and a solid serve; i don’t love her forehand. Differently from Ngounoue she is still a little girl: i would like to see her again in some time and i am quite sure she will come back to Milan in next years.
One last line on the males’ semis. You know i much prefer girls’ tennis, but i went to see to the first boys’ match, determined to write something on it. Still, I failed once more as I arrived to the central court when Perez Pena was losing the second set by 0-4: he was heavily injured and couldn’t basically serve. After having won the first set, he lost the following ones by 6-0 6-1. Any attempt of analysis of the match would be useless.
1 please note that i amjoking. And that many times the “Ovas” are really good players. If you want to know more about Ovas, you can read here.
