ROLAND GARROS, DAY 8: Notes on a Draw Sheet

Vera over Venus
Petrova challenges, then defeats JCap; Tuesday's quick picks

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

FROM ROLAND GARROS – We've been propping 18-year-old Russian Vera Zvonareva for a year now, so we weren't shocked when her airtight ground attack was punching pockmarks in Venus Williams' long legs at Roland Garros.

But we didn't know until Sunday in Paris whether Vera would be able to sustain her strokes on the big stage. Now we know that the red-faced Russian with focus of Lenin when he was rewriting Marx only hears the ball being struck when she has a few million eyes upon here. Vera is vicious.
Although she isn't a tall person, she makes the most of her gymnast's body. Her 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Venus on the Phillipe Chatrier court was a nice first chapter on how she plans on undoing American capitalistic play by bringing forth a tireless proletariat style: Keep moving those tireless legs while heaving heavy bricks of copper into the molten fire. She had Venus cooled down and ready to twist into steel bar after the match was an hour and half old.

Venus – who has been struggling with a stomach injury – was wide-eyed at the ferocity of Zvonareva's groundstrokes and how willing she was to chase down Venus's most lethal blasts. Zvonareva felt no nerves when she broke Venus to 5-4 in the third set by cleaning the baseline with a forehand and she impressively closing out the match when she stood strong with Venus in a long crosscourt forehand rally and finally forced her into a backhand error.

"She did really well and stuck in there," said Venus, who committed whopping 75 unforced errors. "I had a lot of opportunities. Sometimes I felt like I went for too much, sometimes I went for too little. When she was able to get her opportunities, she hung in there. That's what it takes to win such a match."

The all-business Russian barely celebrated the victory because she's looking ahead to greater glory. "Of course, it's big," said the No. 22-seed Zvonareva, who recently won her first title in Bol. "But the tournament still continues for me. I have to play on Tuesday and try to play my best game again."

It's easy to get on Venus' case for not coming up with the goods in the third set, but she due to her stomach injury she didn't have enough matches coming in here and couldn't serve or move like she normally does.

But let's get a couple things ironed out here: Venus is not committed to improving. Her mom and dad – or someone she trusts – needs to get it in her head that she desperately needs to fix her serve and make it a weapon again and charge the net at least 10 times a set. She's beginning to waste her talent and she doesn't want to wake up in mid-career with only four Slam titles when she has the potential for 15 more.

Petrova challenges, then defeats JCap

Susan Mullane/ Camerawork USA, Inc.

Russian 20-year-old Nadia Petrova is another case all together. She convincingly called out Jennifer the day before they played, telling tennisreporters.net that she had the weapons to deal with Capriati.

"I played her tough in Rome and just let go of a few chances," Petrova said. "But I'm very confident now. I'm not afraid of playing in the big stadium. I have done it before. We both play powerfully so the mentally tough player will win."

But who would have guessed that Petrova was mentally sound enough? At 5-foot-10, a muscular 143 pounds, the hard-hitting Petrova was considered one of the most promising Russians when she turned pro at in 1997. She reached the fourth rounds of Roland Garros and Wimbledon in '01, but has been riddled with injuries. She entered 2003 ranked a lowly 112, but has grinded her way back into the top 80, knocking off Ai Sugiyama in Japan and winning four matches (including qualifying) in Sarasota. In Rome, she upset Monica Seles before falling to Capriati 7-5, 6-3. In Paris, she upended Seles in the first round and only dropped eight games before going up against Jen in the Bull Ring.
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Petrova out-muscled Capriati 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, employing an effective strategy of rushing the net behind short balls and believing that her improved fitness could carry her to victory. The contest was an out-and-out war, with both women launching heavy balls from the baseline, going for the corners and trying to knock each other out of the box with service returns. But Petrova was the far superior server, nailing four aces, three service winners and forcing Capriati backward.

The American thought she would be able to exhaust the Russian in long rallies, but it was Petrova who shifted strategy and frequently charged the net, winning 17 of 25 points to only one from Capriati.

The American jumped out to a 2-0 in the third set but Petrova stood strong, winning four straight games. Petrova won the match when Capriati committed a backhand error.

"I thought there was no way could win because she looked fitter, but I told myself, 'Go get every point you can.' It turned around. … If I let myself go in third set, I'd be damn disappointed," Petrova said.

Jennifer was crestfallen, but why should she be, really? It's been obvious over the last year that she needed to add new elements to her game and has refused to do so. She's a tremendous retriever and can whack winners off both wings, but it's not that difficult to break her because her serve is so lousy and it's not that hard to get back into points against her because she plays too far back in the court.

Capriati was very angry after the match, snapping at questions and giving at least three different reporters the evil (surgically repaired) eye. Jennifer has some great qualities, but she's one of the least refined and conscientious people on tour. To the few friends she chooses – like Corina Morariu – she's a good buddy, but she's already ready to fight someone when she gets her back up, which happens as often to Jennifer as it does to a skinny, old alley cat trying to defend its food from a flock of hungry pigeons.

When asked whether she and Venus have to step their games up to another level now that's it's obvious that the youngsters can take them on occasion, she sneered, "Yeah, first it's Venus totally dominating her and Serena and now she's going to have to raise her level."

What Jennifer meant to say was that all of you having been propping up the Williamses (and me) for the past couple years and now you're saying after a couple losses that we need to improve. How dare you!

Whoever has been writing that either one-title Venus or Jennifer was dominating this year was watching the wrong sport, but it's still fair to say that Serena – win or lose the title here – is a cut above the rest.

Title-less for a year and half now, Jennifer has fallen back in the pack. She can rage all she wants, but she'll stay there until she open her mind to change.

Tuesday's quick picks
Serena over Mauresmo in 3, Henin over Rubin in 3, Clijsters over Martinez in straights and Vera over Nadia in 3.

The men: Agassi over either Coria or Zabaleta, Moya over Verkerk in four.