My visit to WTA Paris Indoors 2014 (Open GDF Suez)

So, I’ve enjoyed the Open GDF Suez so much in the last two years I decided to attend for a third year in a row!  In 2012 and 2013 I witnessed a German winner but that wasn’t to be this year.

But like 2012, there was a special occasion.  That year, a special exhibition took place to commemorate 20 years of the tournament.  This time a commemoration to honour Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli, in a special presentation made by WTA Chief Executive Officer Stacey Allastar.

 

I stuck to the format of attending quarterfinals day on Friday and the final on Sunday.  Friday had some interesting matchups.  The first match took place between 2012 champ Angelique Kerber and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.  I knew it was going to be a good match and could go to three sets.  Anastasia was someone I identified in my preview of the 2012 season to be a talented player who could challenge at the top of the game.  Since then Anastasia has not progressed as quickly as I would have thought but what we now know is that it is perfectly normal for players to mature and play their best in their mid 20s as opposed to their teens as so often happened in previous decades.

The match started with Kerber taking a 4:1 lead early on but Pavlyuchenkova got the break back to level.  However, at 5:5 Kerber broke again and served out the set for 7:5.  It was a good set but Pavlyuchenkova made too many errors and was unable to punish Kerber’s 2nd serve delivery consistently.

Pavlyuchenkova did manage a break early in the 2nd set and held serve impressively throughout to take it 6:3; she served quite a few aces and was the more enterprising player.  The tactics were also interesting, trying to get Kerber stretched out wide as often as possible to hit winners into the open space.

The 3rd set was keenly contested with both players holding serve until Pavlyuchenkova got the break to serve out the match at 6:5.  Kerber managed to break right back to take the match to a deciding tiebreak.  As the tiebreak was about to commence my mind was immediately drawn to what commentator and ex player Frew McMillan said in 2001.  During the famous US Open quarterfinal between Sampras and Agassi, Frew said that in a tiebreak the player with the bigger serve usually wins.  With that in mind I immediately thought that Pavlyuchenkova would take it as she had been serving better all match and Kerber has been struggling on 2nd serve in recent times.  That proved to be the case as Pavlyuchenkova ran away with the tiebreak and Kerber made some uncharacteristic errors at critical moments, betraying a lack of confidence she has been suffering of late when matches have got close in the 3rd set.  Pavlyuchenkova deserved to take the match, a good come from behind confidence booster.

Marion Bartoli

The next match on was Maria Sharapova and Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium.   The first time I saw Sharapova play was in Wimbledon 2004 when she beat Daniela Hantuchova in the 3rd round that day.  I knew she would win Wimbledon but didn’t expect it to be that year.  Meanwhile it was the first time I would watch Flipkens live.  

Well, this was one of the easiest victories Sharapova would have had in a long time.  Flipkens was just too over reliant on the slice backhand, a throwback to previous generations, like Vinci, but unlike Vinci has a two handed backhand but has no confidence to use it, which is very unusual.  The final score was 6: 2 6:2 and as the saying goes, nothing new to see here…

The 3rd match was the first of the evening session between Alize Cornet and Andrea Petkovic.  It was good to see Petkovic after so many injuries in the last couple of years, as she tries to re-establish herself as a top class player. 

Petkovic raced to a 4:0 lead in the first set and was hitting the ball as hard as I’ve ever seen a player hit the ball off the ground, looked like it would be a quick match.  But then Petkovic got visibly nervous when serving for the set at 5:2 and Cornet started to make a comeback.  The first set ended up in a tiebreak and despite two set points, Petkovic contrived to lose the tiebreak.  

In the 2nd set, Cornet got the break late on and served for the match, where she held two match points at 40:15 playing well, then the wheels came off big time and after a series of deuces, got broken to level the set at 5:5.  Then serving to stay in the set, Cornet was broken again and that was it, 7:5 to Petkovic.  Having watched tennis for over 20 years, Cornet is one of the most up and down players I think I’ve seen play live.  

At that point, I decided to take my leave as I was “tennised out” and was mentally not prepared for another wacky races set of tennis where each player hands the initiative to the other on an almost point by point basis.  Another thing worth mentioning, maybe I was in need of some food and drink but throughout the match, unless my eyes were deceiving me, there were some very dubious decisions going on, where the ball looked in but called out and vice versa.  It would be an idea for Tournament Director Amelie Mauresmo to consider installing Hawkeye.  It’s a prestigious tournament and what Hawkeye does is make the Umpire and Officials raise their game as their decisions can be challenged by the players. 

I would hear later on that Cornet took the match 6:3 in the deciding set.

On finals day, the officials moved the singles final to be played first followed by the doubles final.  I wonder if that was because last year’s semifinalist Kristina Mladenovic made it through to the doubles final.  The final saw Sara Errani again for the second year in a row, having lost to Mona Barthel in straight sets in 2013.  In Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova she would play another final against a player who likes to make the play and make things happen. Both finalists came through tough three set semifinals.

Pavlyuchenkova got an early break and was playing very well.  But Errani came back from 40:15 at 3:1 down with the most amazing retrieving you will see, side to side, saving smash after smash and forced Pavlyuchenkova into errors which not surprisingly made her very cross.  After a series of games in a row Errani served out the first set 6:4 with some good play of her own, especially using the drop shot and then pass at net combination.  

Errani got an early break in the 2nd set but was visibly tiring and Pavlyuchenkova was able to take advantage and really upped her serving, winning six games in a row to take it 6:2.  In the 3rd set Errani got an early break again and despite the obvious tiredness, it did look like she was about to win her first premier WTA title.  However, Pavlyuchenkova seemed to believe she could turn the match around, and that’s exactly what she did with brilliant shotmaking.  Perhaps she knew all the running Errani was doing wasn’t helping and she needed to keep hitting the ball into the corners. 

Pavlyuchenkova broke back for 3:3 and held her serve for 4:3.  At which point she broke Errani again and impressively served the match out to win her first premier WTA title.

What impressed me most was Pavlyuchenkova’s adjustment to her tactics.  As I mentioned before, Pavlyuchenkova was hitting a lot of smashes throughout, coming to net to force the action but Errani kept getting them back with high lobs which incredibly never quite touched the roof or lighting fixtures (which would have meant her losing the point).  But in the 3rd set, Pavlyuchenkova started to let the ball drop a little and hit drive volleys instead into the open space, giving herself a bit more time to wrong foot Errani on a number of occasions.  It was nice to see a player thinking about how to change things around.  

The remainder of the crowd who stayed saw an entertaining doubles match.  Pesche and Greonefeld came from a set down to beat Mladenovic and Timea Babos in a champions tiebreak, Stacey Allastar stayed to help dish out the trophies.  And that was that for another year!