Again the desert in the early morning offers a revelation. Walking onto the grounds at 10:00, godawful local radio ringing in my ears—really, is there a need for “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’” to be heard in 2008?; a pox on The Sopranos for exhuming Steve Perry from his shallow grave!—I see that a woman, for the first time this week, has joined in the soccer play at the center of the big rec field here. It doesn’t take long to recognize Svetlana Kuznetsova. I can’t imagine any other woman player at this tournament dribbling, kicking, heading, and running as confidently or naturally—or gleefully—as Kuzzie. She leaves little doubt of her status as a world-class athlete—her family is filled with top-level cyclists—and she looks much happier than she ever does on a tennis court as she booms a long kick halfway across this small pitch. A woman nearby says in Southern-accented surprise, “She is really ag-ile.”
Kuznetsova is one of the four women who, long after it was written off, have managed to make the women’s draw at Indian Wells worthy of a Masters-level tournament. She joins the other three top seeds, Sharapova, Ivanovic, and Jankovic,in the semifinals. Before the two Serbs and two Russians face off tomorrow, I’ll take a look at what I’ve seen from each of them this week.
Jelena Jankovic vs. Ana Ivanovic
The tournament began as a kind of referendum on the idea of Ana Ivanovic as a No. 1 seed. I confess that I was skeptical when I first saw her practicing early in the week. In her practice shorts and T-shirt, there was nothing intimidating or even particularly impressive about her. As I said, I thought that her forehand looked terminally inconsistent and liable to let her down when she most needed it.
Ivanovic has seemed unsure of how to approach her new status. How does the cute bashful girl transform herself into the alpha female? It’s a “different kind of pressure,” Ivanovic has acknowledged, but she has dealt with it as well as could be expected here. Shunted onto a smaller court late in the evening, she fought back from a set down to beat a feisty Schiavone; and today she won the second set without her best against Zvonareva.
Ivanovic’s press conferences have the feel of auditions. No human could light up any more brightly or earnestly than she does at these things, or try harder to answer our questions pleasantly and politely. Even though she dresses in a warm-up jacket for her pressers, you would have trouble guessing that she just played a tennis match, or that she was a professional athlete.
So she's trying her best to live up to all kinds of expectations. I hope she doesn’t try too hard and begin to exert her own pressure. So far, so good—she’s addressed any fitness issues she once had, made herself the player that her talent has always told us she could be, and improved her performance in her latest Slam final. Winning the first big event that she's seeded to win—with a three-time Slam champ, Sharapova, in the draw—is the next step up the ladder, and may give us an idea of just how high she can climb on it.
It won’t be easy. First up is Jelena Jankovic, her countrywoman and spiritual opposite. Where Ivanovic sits forward eagerly before the microphone and answers with fast, happy generalities, Jankovic, long earrings dangling, will spend 10 minutes leaning all the way back in her chair and having a rambling, virtually one-way conversation with the press about the $4000 Louis Vuitton bag her father bought her (she always tries to go shopping with her dad because “he can’t help buy his daughter something”); how she just bought a house in the San Diego area but it will probably be so big that she’ll get lost in it (it will also have a gate to “keep you guys out”); and how she and Ivanovic will “play each other millions of times in our careers.” She pretty much charms even the most hard-bitten reporters in the room.
It’s the same story on the practice courts, where I stand with a group of people watching Jankovic work on her serve. She looks over at us with a smile, as if to say, “I can’t believe people are here watching me work on my second serve.” When she comes off the court, she’s gently, moderately mobbed, but doesn’t rush away. Just as she’s ready to leave, a woman from a dog-adoption agency walks up with a golden retriever and gives Jelena her leash so she can take a picture of them. Jankovic says, “I’m scared! Will she bite?’ But she leans down and poses, moving her face right next to the dog’s and smiling like she would for any family photo.
Later Jankovic got a free pass from Lindsay Davenport, who retired after the first set with a back injury. But I thought the Serb was playing well enough to beat a healthy version of her opponent. Her serve is stronger than it has been in the past, she was painting the lines with both strokes—her down the line shots function like most people’s crosscourts, opening up the court—and she was anticipating Davenport’s serves well. She looked sharp.
Will it be enough against Ivanovic, who has beaten her the last three times they’ve played? I’m going to say yes. Jankovic hasn’t lost a set here; her last match with Ivanovic on hard courts, in 2007, went to 7-5 in the third; and she seems to be the more relaxed Serb. She’ll have less to lose and less to prove than Ivanovic.
Winner: Jankovic in three
Maria Sharapova vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova
There have been a few chinks in the Sharapova armor this week. She couldn’t find her range for long periods against Alona Bondarenko, and had to scrap her way out of the first set against Hantuchova Wednesday night. This was inevitable—Sharapova is hardly consistent enough to own the tour for a long period of time. And, more mysteriously, she has never embraced the expectations that come with being No.1. Her brief tour their at the beginning of 2007 led to disaster.
For that reason, the Sharapova question is similar to the one surrounding Ivanovic—basically: Does she have what it takes to be the best? Up until now, she’s been closer to the Andre Agassi model than she has the Pete Sampras model. Sharapova thrives when expectations are low and specializes in ambushing the rest of the draw for one brilliant fortnight.
Now is her chance to change models and embrace those expectations. She may not be true No. 1 material, but she’s better than what she showed last year. Until now, she’s been a product of the us-against-the-world mentality her father has always fostered—she’s at her best when she has something to prove (and endorsements to gain?).
This week, despite the relative mediocrity of her form, has been a positive one for Sharapova thus far. She’s refused to concede her perfect record for the year and found a way to win when all looked lost. Late in the third set against Bondarenko, after spending two hours spraying balls far beyond the lines, she righted herself by taking aim at a crucial backhand down the line. It was an all or nothing heave, and she nailed it. That’s what elevates Sharapova: The years of grinding work with Lansdorp and Bollettieri have given her a core of confidence that lets her keep firing no matter how many times she’s already missed the target. Her next opponent, Kuznetsova, is the tennis player as uber natural athlete. Sharapova is the opposite, a taught player—hence the need to be told to eat a banana during the U.S. Open final—but that’s what helps her keep her form in the clutch. She’s not the natural athlete that Kuzzie is, but Sharapova has something just as important in her background. She's been taught to win.
Winner: Sharapova