Well, that was a surprise, wasn’t it? She’s only 19, but Tatiana Golovin has been on tour for five years, just long enough to make me start writing her off as a major threat—or any kind of a threat, for that matter. The little Russo-Floridian Frenchwoman pops up for a good match, makes you think her all-court feel is what today’s tour needs, then does something to an ankle and disappears.
Before this weekend in Amelia Island, Golovin had the look of a young star who had leveled off—playing-wise, motivation-wise, work-wise—after officially making it on tour. But that was before she played three excellent matches in a row to beat Venus Williams, Ana Ivanovic, and Nadia Petrova for her first pro title. In the process, she again made me think it can be safe for touch, rather than power, to find success in the women’s game. Any fan who been heartened by the return of Martina Hingis should be happy with any success Golovin has. She’s the closest thing to the Swiss among today’s teenagers.
If anything, Golovin has even less power than Hingis. Against Petrova, she sat well behind the baseline, happy to move the ball from corner to corner and subtly wrong-foot Petrova every chance she got. Rather than go crosscourt with her backhand to Petrova’s backhand, she went up the line and into the forehand countless times. This produced few winners, but it threw Petrova off. The normal rhythm of a baseline match was broken up, and Petrova couldn’t find any rhythm herself. Like Hingis, Golovin changes directions with the ball at will, particularly on the backhand side.
Golovin has improved her serve over the last couple years, shedding the kind of extra motion that has led to serving breakdowns among many women. She’s using a version of the extremely abbreviated swing favored by men like Fernando Gonzalez. It hasn’t completely cured her of the yips—as soon as she got up a set and a break, she started the next game by firing two double faults—but she gets more juice on the ball than you would expect for someone her size.
Unfortunately, that’s not true of the rest of Golovin’s game. I like the feel and variety she employs—the drop shot especially—but even yesterday she was pushed back and had to rely on Petrova’s unforced errors in key situations. How high can Golovin climb with this game? She’s No. 19 as of today, one spot below her career high. This week Dinara Safina is No. 11 and Elena Dementieva is No. 12; there’s no reason why Golovin can’t compete with them, particularly with the slow clay season upon us, though it’s hard to see her established in the Top 10 anytime soon (Golovin got smoked last month in Key Biscayne by world No. 10 Anna Chakvetadze 6-1, 6-3). She’ll need to stay injury free and show the kind of mental consistency that has so far been lacking. This, her first championship, was the only way to start.
On the other side of the court, what did this loss tell us about Petrova? She’s had a pretty good run in finals in the past year, and she could once again be a dark horse at the French Open in a couple months. But yesterday was not encouraging. Petrova said she gave up in the second set, and she looked to be (vaguely) ailing during the match; more problematic, though, is her continued lack of what I’ll call mental efficiency. Petrova held to go up 1-0 in the second set, then lost the first point of the next game when Golovin hit a nice crosscourt pass winner. For no good reason, Petrova decided to choose this time for a display of anger, smashing the net with her racquet. There are times to get angry and times to keep your concentration in check; 1-0, 15-15 was clearly the latter. At least wait until your behind in a game to go ballistic. Like Marat Safin, Petrova lets her emotions get the better of her rather than using them to her advantage. This rollercoaster style will likely keep her from ever holding it together for the seven matches in a row needed to win a major.
Can the U.S. take home the Davis Cup for the first time since 1995? For the first time in a while, it’s beginning to look at least possible. After solid, smart performances from James Blake and Andy Roddick against Spain, the U.S. suddenly finds itself in the semifinals against a beatable Swedish team (rather than having to make the dreaded trip to the clay cauldron in Argentina). The Swedes used Thomas Johannson, Robin Soderling, and the ultimate Cup vet, Jonas Bjorkman (he’s been on three Cup-winning teams) to beat the Argentines. The semi will be in Sweden. These guys aren’t clay-courters, but you’d have to think they’ll choose dirt for this match, simply because of the U.S.'s long recent run of frustration on it.
If they get past the Swedes,the U.S. will face the winner of Germany and Russia. They’d go on the road to Germany, but get the Russians at home. The latter will be favored to make the final. Their depth is positively lethal (Dmitiry Tursunov, last year’s hero, didn’t even suit up), and it’s the one place where Safin, who won another clinching match yesterday against France, is still motivated enough to use all of his many talents. It would be nice to see him get a chance to do it against Blake and Roddick in the U.S. in December, wouldn't it?
I'll be back tomorrow with the latest installment of the Book Club with Kamakshi. We'll be deconstructing Vince Spadea and his (sort of) tour tell-all from 2006, Break Point, which he wrote with TENNIS contributor Dan Markowitz.