Despite being hampered by the ankle-injury she sustained in losing to
Klara Koukalová in the second round of the Australian Open, Monica
successfully defended her final in Tokyo.

She started in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open with
another tough match against Ai Sugiyama, who had given her such a
torrid time in 3r Wimbledon 2002.

With her movement restricted, Monica battled to a 7-5 5-7 6-1 victory
in 1h55m - Sugiyama saving four match-points in the second set! Thus
Monica extended her head-to-head with Sugiyama to 10-0.

"I was not that comfortable with my game. I just tried to hang in and
fight for every point."

2r photos:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030131/161/35tag.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030129/168/35804.html


Monica won her quarter-final with a routine 6-4 6-4 victory over
qualifier Lina Krasnoroutskaya - a pretty 18-year-old girl with
flairsome backhand passing-shots, who so far hasn't quite made the
progress that many experts expect of her.

In the first set, Monica fell behind 2-3 with a break, after a double-
fault, but recovered to take it 6-4.

In the second set, Monica led 4-0, but Krasnoroutskaya fought back to
4-4 with an array of groundstrokes. Monica stayed in control to win
it 6-4 and book her place in the semi-finals.

"I'm just really happy my ankle has held up. It still hurts not doing
well in Australia, but getting this far here has been positive.
"The surface here is so fast and all of a sudden it was 4-4.
So I was lucky to get to 5-4 and then win it without going to a third
set. Lina hits it hard and flat, and that was giving me a lot of
trouble today."

qf photos:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030131/161/35tai.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030131/170/35thm.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030131/168/35stn.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030131/168/35stu.html


Monica celebrated the Selebbath with a 4-6 6-4 6-2 win over Chanda
Rubin, but it had almost ended in disaster when Rubin led a set and a
break!

Monica led 4-1 in the first set - then lost five games in a row to
drop the set 4-6! Rubin broke Monica with a big forehand to lead 4-3
in the second!

Then Monica's backhand started working properly. She broke back, took
the second set 6-4, and raised the pressure to take the third 6-2.

"It was frustrating to lose that first set. Something in me said just
try to hang in there. It's a fast court and things can change in a
hurry.
"I was nervous in my first match here. But I'm happy to be
back playing some decent tennis and hopefully I can play well over
the next two weeks."

sf photos:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030201/170/361k5.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030201/168/361pc.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030201/170/361t4.html


In the final, Monica took the first set on a tiebreak, but her bad
record against Lindsay Davenport continued as she was defeated 6-7 (6-
8) 6-1 6-2. Davenport now leads 10-3 in their head-to-heads, and even
had match-points in all three of the matches that Monica won -
including that thrilling victory in the first round of the 2002 Tour
Championships in Los Angeles.

Monica: "She places her serve very well, and on this surface it
becomes exaggerated because it's very fast. Lindsay picked up her
game and my serve went away. I tried to hold serve in the last set
but when she broke me the second time to go up 3-2, I knew I was
pretty much out of the match."

Davenport: "Monica is one of the best returners in the game, and I
knew I had to serve well to win. I started getting a lot of hard deep
returns, and that allowed me to break her in the last two sets."

It's Davenport's first title since October 2001 (she missed the first
three Grand Slams of 2002 after knee-surgery, but is now back to full
fitness), and the 38th of her career. Monica's 38th title came at the
age of 22, at the Tokyo Princess Cup in 1996.

This is Davenport's third Tokyo Pan Pacific Open title - a tournament
which Monica has never won, although she has been monotonically
improving: qf 1996, sf 1999, r/u 2002, r/u 2003.

Final photos:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030202/168/36bva.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030202/170/36chg.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030202/170/36cgt.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030202/168/36bmq.html

Trophy photos:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030202/168/36bn2.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030202/168/36bmu.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030202/170/36crb.html

Off-court photo:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030127/168/34lwj.html


Let us pray for Jeff Coetzee, who has been seriously injured in a car-
crash in which his five-year-old nephew was tragically killed. The
Selesian got to the semi-finals of the Australian Open men's doubles
with Chris Haggard two weeks ago. For more information about the
accident, see:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_153204,00070002.htm

--
Andrew Broad
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/seles/