Du Maurier Open Match Reports

by Chris Gerby

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Dominique vs. Kveta Hrdlickova
Singles: First Round
Court 1

The final match of the first round finally took place on Tuesday evening. The reason for the delay: Dominique van Roost was still in Los Angeles on Sunday, teaming with Els Callens to win the doubles title at the estyle.com Classic. It's been quite a turbulent year for Van Roost. After watching her mother tragically lose her battle with cancer in March, a distraught Dominique considered retirement. However, shortly after coming back she pulled off the biggest win of her life, upsetting Lindsay Davenport at the French Open. A few weeks later, she toppled Davenport again, this time on a grass court at Eastbourne. Across the net from her tonight was Kveta Hrdlickova, a hard-hitting Czech who bears a facial resemblance to Natasha Zvereva. Hrdlickova's results have been inconsistent, but her goal of reaching the Top 20 next year is realistic, since she can just about knock the cover off the ball.

The match's first nine games all went with serve, but only because Van Roost failed to capitalize on six break points and Hrdlickova squandered two. As in the Schett-Talaja match, most of the games were long, hard-fought, evenly-matched baseline wars. Now it was just a matter of which player would break through on a big point. It was Hrdlickova, ripping a forehand winner on her second set point to break Van Roost for 6-4. Never one to quit, Van Roost began imposing her will, snaring a 3-1 lead in the second set. Losing that fourth game even prompted Hrdlickova's first outward show of emotion, as she hit her shoe with her racquet. The Czech held for 2-3 and then earned a break point chance. Van Roost seemingly got back to deuce with a forehand winner, but chair umpire Lynn Welch overruled, calling it out. Van Roost looked up in disbelief, but didn't bother to argue. The set was back on serve at 3-all.

Hrdlickova's rocket forehand, which had gotten a bit out of control early in the set, was back in gear now. It carried her to a hold for 4-3 and a break for 5-3. The tournament's 12th seed was just one game away from elimination. Still moderately effective with her flat, deep groundstrokes, Van Roost took a 30-40 lead against Hrdlickova's serve. However, she buried a backhand in the net on break point. Two points later, Hrdlickova knocked off an easy smash to seal the 6-4, 6-3 upset. It actually wasn't a bad performance from Dominique van Roost -- she had more aces and fewer double faults than usual -- but Hrdlickova was just a little too powerful and was the better player on the big points. Kveta will look to extend her run on Wednesday, as she takes on Jana Nejedly, the last Canadian still going in this year's tournament.

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