I’m very late, I know: sorry, I was busy. Even if some time has passed from the introduction I wrote to the final of Torneo Avvenire (which I would recommend to read because it’s closely linked to this article), I still would like to speak about that match, which was played between Daria Vidmanova (borne in January 2003), from Czech Republic and Carole Monnet (borne in December 2001), from France.
Starting from the latter, Monnet is not very tall, but she is hugely built; she owns a good and fast first serve; yet during the final she did not gained much from it because, most of times, it was quite central and this allowed Vidmanova to somehow return. Her most distinctive shot is the forehand, which she can hit at amazing speed. I did not see much more from her, last week. Her backhand was weak: she just hit the ball to the other side of the net with that shot, being able to reach nor particular speed nor pace. She also showed a weak net game and her placement at the net too was not always good: several times, during the second set, while attempting an attack, Monnet found herself in the “no one’s land” and offered to her opponents easy passing shots, or wasn’t anyway able to volley effectively. I must say that those times I saw Monnet volleying, it was not an unforgettable experience: her feel didn’t seem to be top notch.
Vidmanova, by contrast, is very tall, much taller than Monnet, but she is very, very skinny: I guess she weights around 25 kgs: she is still a kid, really. Overall, of course, she showed less pace in her shots than Monnet, even if with the backhand she was much more consistent. There is one feature of Vidmanova’s game I appreciated and I evaluate a lot, considering she is only 14: she is very smart on the court. She hit no cracking shots, yet she made Monnet run wherever, always keeping enough depth and trying to find more angles than her opponent did. In my view, that’s why she won. Her serve is still little: sometimes she hits the ball on the frame and hardly reaches the net; the backhand is smaller than her forehand, which, on its turn, is not supersonic yet, but it can still be harming. She hit many “service line drop shots”, but was able to hit a true drop shot which was a real beauty; plus, she managed Monnet’s “wannabe dropshots” better than Monnet did with her own ones. Overall, I had the impression that Vidmanova’s tennis is more reasoned and rich than Monnet’s: the French mostly relied on the power of her forehand and, having gained little results from such strategy, she started trying unsound attacks, not really having a “plan B” to exploit; Vidmanova, instead, was able throughout the match to understand her opponent’s weaknesses, to play against them, to make her opponent run much more and, finally, to win, overcoming the power and age gap between her and her opponent. For this reason, I found Vidmanova’s tennis much more interesting, for instance, than the tennis showed by last year’s younger finalist, Denisa Hindova.
I arrived to the club when the match was already started and the score was 1-1; Monnet was in the lead of operations though, whilst Vidmanova was very defensive: from time to time the Czech was trying dropshots which were “service-line” ones, in the attempt to break her opponent rhythm: even if such drop shots were badly played, those were the only balls Monnet at this stage missed: Vidmanova could not really handle Monnet’s higher pace and the French was able to break her and gain a 4-2 lead. But then the inertia of the match changed: Monnet continued to hit big shots with her forehand, but missed several of them and, most importantly, she was very central and short, offering to Vidmanova balls that were easy to punch back; moreover, Monnet backhand was not harming at all. Vidmanova, instead, having lost some points on the forehand diagonal, was more consistent than the Freanch with her backhand and started to play more and more on her opponent weak spot, also helped by the lack of depth of Monnet, which allowed the Czech to maintain a decent pace during the struggles and to change diagonal quite easily. Vidmanova was thus able to take control and make her opponent run: she just had to wait for Monnet’s mistakes, which evenctually, each time showed up. Thanks to all this, Vidmanova managed to equalise on 4-4 and, on the following game, which lasted a long time and which both of players had opportunities to win, she managed to take the lead and, shortly after, to win the set.
Before the second set started, Monnet had the good idea to take a toilet break and came back on the court with a better attitude: she tried to hit her forehand more deep and that was enough to immediately break Vidmanova; but her improvements lasted only for a short time: in the following game she was central again and the Czech broke her back and then successfully defended her serve. The match basically ended as such. Monnet was gaining nothing from trying to overpower Vidmanova from the baseline, because her forehand was so imprecise and because Vidmanova showed amazng defensive skills; plus, when in troubles, it was just a matter for Vidmanova to find the French’s backhand to equalise each struggle and eventually win it. Monnet then tried to variate her game and started to go more and more often to the net, also by attempting several sneak attacks. Even if the change of strategy was sound, due to Monnet’s abovementioned problems in placement at the net and in volleying, the results were poor. In the last game the French even tried a serve and volley: the outcome was not great and the match finished in that moment; the final result was 6-4 6-1 in favour of Vidmanova.
In my view Monnet had a very bad day, being betrayed by her forehand, by far her best shot. Vidmanova, instead, was really good: she played not flashy, but very smartly throughout all the match. More, she never got emotional even if, possibly, this match was the most important one she has ever played: her self-control and coolness were stunning. I think Vidmanova only needs to develop physically and add power to her game: when this will happen (and it will happen, she is already very tall), we will end up with a new and very Dangerous… “-ova”!
Finally, a few results from the ITF pro tour.
Kaja Juvan, the Beloved One, has won her first tournament of the season, a -honestly quite weak- 15k held in Maribor. She has beaten players all ranked around 600th spot or worse (except for the first seed, who ranked 350th and was easily dismissed by the Slovenian) and found troubles only in two matches: in the second round against Italian Giulia Pairone, a very good and unlucky player born in 96, who was stopped for two years by serious health problems and still plays only few tournaments per year: the final result was 7-6(5) 2-6 6-1 in favour of Kaja. The other difficult match was the semifinal, in which the Beloved One has beaten her compatriot, Nastja Kolar, by 5-7 6-2 7-5. Kaja was the favourite to gain that tournament, in my view, and she managed to meet the expectations: something which is never easy to do.
Though, the most interesting last week’s event was, to me, the ITF pro held in Warsaw, since it was Iga Swiatek ‘s debut in a 25k (actually the event was held at the club where Iga trains). I was curious to see how BerghemIga would have performed: and she has been so unlucky. In the first round Iga was paired against Martina Trevisan, an Italian girl ranked around 200th spot and second seed of the tournament: not a particularly lucky draw, actually. More, BerghemIga got injured to her leg on the last point of the match, and left the court crying and jumping on one foot. Nevertheless, I think Iga performed well: she lost the first set by 6-2, displaying very bad serve stats (maybe also due to comprehensible tightness); though she managed to win the second set with the same result; finally, she lost the third set, again by 6-2. The gap between 15k and 25k is a consistent one: to gain a set in the first 25k of her career against a good player, possibly the first real pro BerghemIga has ever played against, is a positive result for her, and she must be proud of it. I have no news up to now on how Iga is; I hope the best for her.
Also Ylena In-Albon played in a 25k, held in Switzerland; she was not lucky either. Ylena was opposed in the first round to the 4th seed, Giorgia Brescia, raked around 250 WTA and who’ve reached the semi-finals (still to be played, at the time I am writing): worst aspect for In-Albon was that the two are trained by the same coach, i.e. Gonzalo Vitale: I guess that little Ylena could not even count on the “surprise” factor to come in help: she really had no chance this time and she lost by 6-2 6-1 against a much more experienced player.
