THE tennisreporters.net NEWSLETTER: SUNDAY, MARCH 2, No. 18

Laura Granville: best player out of college since Raymond
Aims for Roland Garros seed; Upset Schett, Rubin

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Fred Mullane/ Camerawork USA, Inc.

FROM THE STATE FARM CLASSIC IN SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. – The last women’s player to come out of an American college to have made a sustained impact on tour was two-time NCAA champ Lisa Raymond, a University of Florida Gator, and that was way back in 1993. Since that time, only former Stanford player Lilia Osterloh has made decent headway on tour and now she has all but completely fallen off the charts.

But Chicago’s Laura Granville may change this trend and if she does so sooner than later, it would be somewhat surprising. While Granville – another former Stanford Cardinal and two-time NCAA champ – was an absolute killer in college, she doesn’t have a knock-your-socks-off game upon first look. She is not overpowering, flashy, demonstrative or the owner of one killer shot, but as she showed in her upset of Chanda Rubin in Scottsdale, she is an extremely consistent, fit and mentally strong player.

"I’m so happy, Chanda’s such a great player," the No. 37-ranked Granville said. "I don’t know if I expected to beat her at all. It’s really surprising."
Granville has a good understanding of the game and isn’t afraid to mix it up from the back court or from the net. She lives for her sport, sets high goals and follows through. You don’t see that very often.

"My goal is to be seeded at the French and that’s the only goal I set at the beginning of the year," Granville said. "I probably need to redo my goals, but I really just need to improve."

It was pretty apparent when she reached the fourth round of Wimbledon last year that Granville had potential, but more than a few players who can hit a crisp volley have had a modicum of success on grass.

"My first nine months on tour weren’t that great," Granville said. "Then I made my breakthrough at Wimbledon and since then, my confidence really went up."
Granville didn’t stop there. She qualified for the Canadian Open, knocking off Silvia Farina before falling in two tiebreakers to Amelie Mauresmo, the same woman who beat her at Wimbledon. She was disappointed by her loss to Katerina Srebotnik at the US Open, but reached the quarterfinals of Luxembourg, taking down Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario before falling to Kim Clijsters.

She knew then that while she was making progress, Venus Williams and Clijsters were two players she didn’t have the goods to push into a corner. Not only do they kill the ball from the baseline and with their first serves, but they are also very fast.

"Playing Venus in New Haven and Clijsters at Luxembourg, I wasn’t used to the big matches in front of big crowds," she said. "Plus, I felt I was behind the ball all the time."

So in the off-season, the 5-foot-9, 130-pound Granville hit the gym and came back to the tour looking buff. But that didn’t help her in the South Pacific, where she lost to Gagliardi in Auckland, Bartoli in Canberra and Jidkova at the Aussie Open.

"I worked a lot off court during the off season and didn’t play much, which might have hurt me," she said. "I wasn’t hitting the ball as well as if I had spent more time on court. I had a couple of close losses and that hurt my confidence. I came back to the States and played Midland [where she reached the final], where I played a lot of matches and that helped my confidence."

Granville then reached the semis of Memphis (losing to Amanda Coetzer) and here in Scottsdale, took out Barbara Schett and Rubin before falling to Clijsters 6-3, 6-3 in the quarters. The Belgian was impressed.

She’s very steady and hardly makes any mistakes," Clijsters said. "She feels more comfortable. When I played her in Luxembourg, I would give her an easy shot and she would miss. Today she tried to take over some points. That has a lot to do with confidence and experience."

For Granville, the key will be whether she develops enough confidence to possess an elite players' game. Players like Clijsters and Venus Williams don’t back off the ball. "I’m getting better," Granville said. I’m fitter, working on different shots and staying aggressive."