Anne-Marie Stark
Matthew Cronin enjoys a laugh with Svetlana Kuznetsova
during a pre-tournament interview.
Situational therapy:
Kuznetsova, Bartoli, Hantuchova on defeat and expectations
Plus: Myskina, Fed Cup, Sharapova, Olympic no-shows
FROM THE PACIFIC LIFE OPEN IN INDIAN WELLS –
There is always learning to be had at some sorry food joint off the Interstate
5. On Tuesday night, while racing gamefully down the highway, I pulled
off for a lot of high-priced gas and a little low-priced chow. The takeout
food didn't come quickly, so I went outside to breath in the warm air and
stood next to four young local guys who began to discuss a TV reality
show, the title of which was unclear.
"Have you seen that show about situations?" one
asked his buddy.
"No."
"It's about situations,
and they put you in them to see if you can handle them, guey (Spanish
slang for dude)."
"Situations. Oh."
"Some people can
handle them, but some are bien duro, guey."
"O,h yeah, hard ones.
Do they have good ones?"
"Not really, guey.
They just ask you if you can do it. Can you do it? I don't know, guey."
"Me, neither."
Such is tennis, too. Most situations are precarious,
and it's up to the contestant to find the proper amount of courage and
face the music - good, bad, or ugly.
Take Indian Wells defending champion Daniela Hantuchova,
who in January reached her first Slam semi against Ana Ivanovic, got
off to a 6-0, 2-0 lead and eventually fell apart.
I asked her on Wednesday what if anything, would
she have done different?
"Not getting scared because I didn't know
what to expect," Hantuchova said. "Being up like that it was
all happening too well and I got afraid."
Hantuchova has rarely been scared of anything in
the desert, where she's won two of her three career titles.
"I can't even believe we are talking about
winning three titles somewhere," the Slovak said. "It's a great
honor to be that it is even being mentioned."
It sure is, given that
the Pacific Life Open is a Tier I with a standout field. It's
not a Slam draw, nor as terrific as the year-end championships or occasionally,
Miami, but it's quite strong.
Losing here hurts. Just ask Svetlana Kuznetsova
who went down to Hantuchova in last year's final. This paper tiger No.
3 still hasn't found the proper mental state to contend with defeats.
She's three-and-a-half years post her '04 US Open final run, and considers
herself a much better player now. While she's very consistent; she's
not racking up titles.
The favorites at this tournament are Maria Sharapova
and Ana Ivanovic, both who reached the Aussie Open final (won by Sharapova)
and both who have legitimate designs on No. 1. (See my piece on foxsports.com.)
Sveta is still trying to get around her large and
complicated psyche.
"I hate to lose
and I'm a big-time competitor and it brings me down for few days and
I have to find a way to keep improving and trying to find strength
and ways to win. I hate losing even more now because my expectations
are bigger and I'm better and have more self-belief. I know I can do
better and it's much worse, like 90 percent of the time. If I lose
to someone worse, it's my fault. I'm too much of a perfectionist. I
see what I did badly and know what I have to do better. I always put
pressure on myself, but I'm honest with myself. I'm not going to blame
someone else for an injury."
NOT ENOUGH IMPROVEMENT SINCE SLAM CROWN
The rap on
Kuznetsova is that she hasn't improved enough since the '04 US Open,
that she still tries to overly dominant the court with her forehand,
hasn't added enough variety to her serve, doesn't come into the net enough
and is predictable. But under her coach of three years, Stefan Ortega,
she believes that she made measurable improvements.
She thinks that her 2004 breakout in New York as
an 18-year-old was premature.
"There were no expectations.
I was hitting well, playing perfect and it was great. No one thought
I was going to win, so I just kept playing and doing it. Then in 2006,
I got more consistent again. Then I started to think and accept pressure
more and I really do feel much better."
But will the Russian end her career as a one Slam
wonder? She prefers not to think about it.
"I don't want to say I'm going to achieve
something and then not do it," she said. "I just want to keep
going."
On court, that's not the same for Kuznetsova's
friend, Anastasia Myskina, who won '04 Roland Garros and is now pregnant
and off the tour indefinitely. Myskina tried to come back last year at
the French Open and couldn't run in a sorry first-round loss. Her bad
feet hadn't quite healed and now, it's conceivable that the first Russian
woman to even win a Slam may not return.
"Now she's focused on the baby," Kuznetsova
said.
Kuznetsova will play Fed Cup against the United
States on clay in Moscow in April, while Sharapova, who led the team
against Israel is opting out - for now. Kuznetsova didn't want to play
this year due to the heavy Olympic-loaded schedule, but was begged back
in. She and Sharapova are sharing No. 1 duties.
"They are going to joke that I was the smart
one because it's in Moscow, but that's not true because I wasn't going
to play at all," Kuzy said. "I gave all I could to Fed Cup
and in my heart, I give everything to my country."
Sharapova wasn't expected to play on clay. It's
more than probable that both she and Kuznetsova will be named to the
Olympic team.
"I'm very doubtful for that and it's going
to be on clay. Sveta and I had an agreement and she said, 'You are going
to Israel and I'm going to play the next tie,' Sharapova said with a
laugh. "She didn't give me much a of choice. But if someone pulls
out, I'll be more than happy to play."
Mal Taam/MALTphoto
Marion Bartoli tries to regain some of the glory
she earned by
reaching last year's Wimbledon final.
BARTOLI DAD WOULD LET HER GO TO FED CUP WITH HIM
Marion
Bartoli, the No. 6 seed, isn't playing Fed Cup or the Olympics, joining
Andy Roddick as a notable player on the sidelines. France's top player
hasn't done much since reaching the Wimbledon final behind a quarter
here and a semi there, but she's not totally unhappy with the way her
game has gone.
However, she is not a player who likes to be put
into intense situations. In some ways, you could imagine her back home
in Switzerland with her paints and easels, conjuring up another idea
for the canvas. She just finished another oil painting, this one with
a very young boy and girl in black and white clasping hands and looking
for hope, which they see the sole color in the piece: a long stemmed
red rose. Bartoli has 10 paintings that she likes and that are hung
in her home.
"It's like on the court, I'm also crafty," she
said. "There's even an artistic part of me going on in me, but I
think I'm a better tennis player than painter. I don't want to have a
show though … only for fun."
The double two-hander also has difficulties with
the French press, whom she thinks expects too much of her. It's a double-edged
sword, though. If there are expectations that means that analysts think
you are good. If not, you aren't worth writing about, and that can lead
to a great deal of sadness, too.
"The media expected me to play well in Australia
be in the semis or the final and it's hard to deal with it," she
said. "The French media are the best at putting pressure on you."
Bartoli will not compromise with the French Tennis
Federation when it comes to the inclusion of her father, Walter, as her
coach on national teams. So there will be no trip to Beijing this year
and no Fed Cup. But she believes that next year a compromise could be
in the offing.
"I told the federation
that I won't play the Olympics this year and it's hard anyway to put
the Olympics in my schedule, to go from Wimbledon, to Montreal, to
Beijing and back to the US Open. I don't like Beijing as a city, so
it's not hard for my real goals, and for me it's to play the one at
Wimbledon in 2012. I won't miss that one for anything in the world.
"We have to talk
with all the players and try to find a solution, I'm only 23. There
is a solution. They will compromise. The new generation is coming up
and Amelie [Mauresmo] won't play beyond another two or three years
and I will be the No. 1. We can find a solution so I can play one or
two years. I love playing for my country the most. Anything is possible.
But I need my best possible preparation and that means I need my dad."
Marion says that her dad did offer to back away
at times, but she definitively does not want him to do that. She's an
unusual 23-year-old in that respect, failing to even put a nick in the
proverbial umbilical cord, but she revels in their unique bond.
"He said, 'It's your career and if you want
to play Fed Cup without me, that's okay," she said. "But I
don't want to feel like I'm not ready to compete and be unprepared and
without him. I don't feel the strongest."
She feels that her dad was once misunderstood,
but not any more and thinks he has garnered respect.
"Since the day I
made the final of a Grand Slam, it's changed. I'm not a great athlete.
I need to have everything right and precise to compete well and people
didn't think I could be a Top-10 player and now I'm there and he gives
me the harder preparation that I need."
Quickly: Elena Dementieva is out with a shoulder
injury and Tatiana Golovin with a cyst. Vince Spadea is trying to play
through a cyst at the bottom of his foot.
© TennisReporters.net 2008
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