Bonfiglio: 2nd quali day – I like global worming. And Berezov.

The forecasts were right and we had another day of rain, rain, rain; thus, again, the tournament was spread in the three different locations, as it happened yesterday. It seems that tomorrow the weather will start to improve, hopefully, and by Tuesday it should be just fine.

As promised, I followed Anastasia Berezov’s matches: actually I sticked to her and her father/coach all day long, also because he tried to explain to me what was going on in Anastasia’s matches, and in other girls’ matches we followed while we were waiting for Anastasia’s next round; this was quite a privilege to me, as one could imagine. Anyway, not that I have seen lots of girls this time in the quali, but the small Australian is for sure my favourite player of this edition, entering thus in the small privileged group formed by the Blessed Hand, BerghemIga, Diotisalvi and N.B.O (oooh… N.B.O.). I just need to find a suitable nickname for Anastasia, now.

By the way, N.B.O. has today won a 15k in Barletta; congrats to her and let’s hope that this win gives her confidence for a good tournament in Milan.

As it usually happens, in the second quali day, two turns are played, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

The first match (being thus, her second quali round) was simple enough for Anastasia: she was scheduled against Gubertini, who is an Italian girl born in 2003 and is a good player: she strikes hard, especially her first serve, but she didn’t seem to be used to fast courts (of course, today again, every match was played on indoor hard courts), as she was late on many shots for more than one set. In the last games of the match, Gubertini got more used to the whole thing and her level raised. I asked Gubertini if she had problems handling the surface and she replied me that she likes hard court tennis, but she has been playing the last months on clay and the sudden change made her lose the rhythm. The final score was 6-2 6-2 in favour of the Australian, but I am sure that Gubertini could have performed better in different conditions.

Anastasia’s last turn was harder: her opponent was the third seed, American de Falco, who was quite faulty throughout the match. Anastasia won by 6-4 6-4 and qualified to the main draw. In the first round she will play against another American, Robin Montgomerie. This will be a real tough match for Berezov, at least because Montgomerie ranks 100 spots ahead of her in terms of ranking: she is thus supposed to lose: I hope she manages to surprise me.

In today’s matches I had the opportunity to better evaluate Anastasia’s game. I confirm my impression that she gained some power on her serve, which is a decent shot, not worse than the serve of many other girls. From the baseline Anastasia is a killer: her best shot is her backhand, which she very seldom misses and which she can play two handed also countering very low balls: more than once I was surprised by how she could keep the ball in play. I had the impression that she is, instead, just a tiny bit faultier with her forehand.

I most appreciated also Anastasia’s attitude: she sometimes loses concentration and wastes a game, but she is able to immediately recollect and remedy, not being particularly affected by previous mistakes, both her own ones and the umpire’s, who made many dubious calls throughout her match (some of which also in favour of Berezov, anyway). Anastasia was ready to react also in very delicate moments of the match: on 3-3 in the second set, she made three unforced in a row and lost the game; though, she was able to win the difficult following game by hitting three winners. Soon after, she gained the decisive break.

That’s all for now about the Aussie girl; moving to other matches, Gaggini has confirmed to be a serious player and to own a very serious backhand. Banks had to work hard to beat her and I think she managed to do so also because Gaggini is highly unexperienced as per ITF tournaments (notwithstanding she is 18). Berezov’s opponent, Jenna de Falco, didn’t impress me so much in her match against the Aussie, but she impressed me more in her previous one, especially due to her ability to counter Alina Lebdeva’s tricky chops. The Russian plays a bit as Niculescu, as she only slices her forehand; thus, I guess she can be a very annoying opponent, being her style so unconventional. To play tennis as such is still possible for a girl, as the same Niculescu demonstrates; though, to be more effective, Lebdeva should hit her sliced forehand looking for lower trajectories or deeper ones: too many time I saw her forehands landing weightless and bouncing too high in the middle of the court, leaving her opponent fairly easy balls to handle.

I have also followed a few shots from Linda Noskova, a Czech girl born in 2004 and already holding a ranking within the top 150; though I was too far away from her court to properly follow her match; also, I was also distracted by Gaggini’s. Linda is extremely tall and she is an “ova” in every respect, playing big-big tennis. In her case too, her backhand is better than her forehand. I didn’t find her game particularly entertaining, but for sure she will become top notch player already in the next season.

The biggest upset of the quali rounds was the defeat of Kanapatskaya: the Belarusian, former top 30, has been beaten by an American girl born in 2004: Katrina Scott. This was a huge result for the young American and for sure she will be another interesting prospect to follow.