Wk.6- ACME Co.'s "Art of Survival"

It's a good thing Nadia Petrova has strong fingers, because she needed them as she ran her game off a cliff and then clung to the rocks -- cartoon character-style -- on the precarious edge of defeat in Paris this weekend.



Sure, many players have Wile E. Coyote personas at times. One day they flame out no matter how many Acme Co. products they utilize, only to pick themselves up and try to erase the bad memories the next time out... all the while knowing that there might be another cliff out there with their name on it. But how many cliffs does a player have to fly off the side of before she finally learns how to avoid the edge?

Petrova is in the process of finding out.

In Paris, she nearly did a nose dive on several occasions. But she held on, and won her seventh career title with a 4-6/6-1/6-4 win over Lucie Safarova in the final. After taking until age 23 to win her first tour singles title in Linz in late October '05, Petrova has shown signs of "getting the hang of things." In the nearly sixteen months since her intitial title, no women's player has won more of them than Petrova. Not Justine Henin. Not Kim Clijsters. Not Amelie Mauresmo. Not even Maria Sharapova.

Of course, none of that mattered in Paris. Or did it?

In the semifinals, Petrova faced down a 4-1 3rd set deficit against Mauresmo, saved a match point and finally won the match on her own second match point with a blazing passing shot that whizzed by the Frenchwoman with bullet-like velocity and pinpoint accuracy. After having failed in moments of adversity in her eary twenties, Petrova is finally escaping her Wile E. Coyote past in the back half of her third decade of life.



Surely, there's something to be said for not giving up... not to mention that it can bring a little luck your way on occasion. Consider, on Mauresmo's match point, Petrova saw her shot hit the net cord and pop up for her net-approaching opponent. The opportunity to end the match was on Mauresmo's racket, but when she failed to do enough with her shot, Petrova made her pay with a winner of her own. She didn't give Mauresmo another chance to end it all.

In the final, Petrova struggled to avoid the cliff again, after overcoming dropping the 1st set to Safarova, Petrova eventually found herself with match points at 5-1 and 5-2 in the 3rd. She didn't convert. Two straight double faults broke her own serve for 5-3. At 5-4, she faced another break point and that cliff was getting close yet again.

But that's when those strong fingers came in handy. Petrova hung on one more time, and finally put away the match before the Czech 20-year old morphed into the Roadrunner. Ol' Wile E. Coyote would be proud of her survival skills, but even he would have to wonder when she's going to stop flirting with such cliffs.

Did Petrova learn enough in Paris to be better equipped next time out to avoid such danger, or was it the past sixteen months that made the difference this weekend? What about the next time, or the time after that? Maybe we'll find out this week in Antwerp... or not, considering the fact that Nadia seems to have a touch of Coyote in her blood. But, hey, how many trophies does HE have?

"Beep-beep," indeed.

*WEEK 6 CHAMPIONS*

PARIS, FRANCE (II-GSI)
S: Nadia Petrova d. Lucie Safarova 4-6/6-1/64
D: Black/Huber d. Navratilova/Uhlirova

PATTAYA CITY, THAILAND (IV-HO)
S: Sybille Bammer d. Gisela Dulko 7-5/3-6/7-5
D: Pratt/Santangelo d. Chan/Chuang


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Nadia Petrova

... career singles title #8, no matter when it comes, won't likely come by way of the come-from-behind feats that led to #7 in Paris, but as long as Petrova recognizes that fact maybe she won't find herself in quite as many back-against-the-wall moments sa she did last week. But, then again. Petrova opened her season with a Hopman Cup title, and her Paris crown means we've already seen three different Russian singles champions (Chakvetadze & Safina) in the season's first six weeks -- and that's with the Supernova still sitting on zero.
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RISERS: Gisela Dulko & Sania Mirza
... after two seasons of topping "sexiest" and "most beautiful" tennis player lists off the court while racking up a slew of disappointing results on it, Dulko finally reached a singles final in Pattaya City. The last time she did that was in Hobart in January 2005. Along the way, Dulko beat Mirza in the SF, but the Indian Princess will likely take her second SF result of '07 (after reaching just one in all of '06), which included wins over Tamarine Tanasugarn & Mara Santangelo, as further proof that her career rebound is more than just a faint hope.
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SURPRISES: Sybille Bammer & Maret Ani

... if nothing else, Bammer's first career singles title in Pattaya City erases some of the belief that her pre-Oz win over Serena Williams might have been more than 50% fluke. Surely, stringing together wins over Vasilisa Bardina, Anastasia Rodionova, Martina Sucha, Shuai Peng and Dulko is a pretty nice retort for the 26-year old Austrian. Meanwhile, 25-year old Estonian Ani won her second ITF title of the season (and third of her career) with a 5-7/7-6/7-5 win over Elisa Tamaela at the $25K in Tipton.
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VETERANS: Nicole Pratt & Jill Craybas
... with Martina Navratilova retired (that was GABRIELA Navratilova who was a doubles RU in Paris this weekend), the nearly 34-year old Pratt is carrying the banner as the oldest player most likely to be picking up multiple doubles titles in '07. She got her first of the season in Pattaya with Santangelo (and got some nice singles wins over youngsters Maria Kirilenko and Vania King en route to the QF, too). Craybas, 32, defeated Laura Granville in the final of the Midland $75K event.
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FRESH FACE: Lucie Safarova
... the Maiden is in Vaidisova's rear view mirror again in the race for Czech supremacy. In Paris, at least temporarily, she passed her by getting revenge for her Melbourne QF loss with a quick win over the Dynamova in the 2nd Round. Safarova ultimately lost to Petrova in three sets in the final, but her three Top 10 wins (Vaidisova, Kuznetsova & Henin) mean she's not going to let herself be satisfied with her surprise Australian Open showing.
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DOWN: Agnieszka Radwanska
... sure, this could have gone to Amelie Mauresmo for failing to close out Petrova in the Paris SF, but Radwanska's week might have been even more discouraging. After losing in the final round of qualifying in Paris, she slipped into the draw as a lucky loser... only to register just one stinkin' game in her 1st Round match against Martina Muller. Nothing "lucky" about that.
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1. Paris SF - Petrova d. Mauresmo
...5-7/6-4/7-6. Amelie falls to an unseeded player in Melbourne, then loses a big lead and fails to convert a match point here. Is this a sign of "year after" things to come?
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2. Paris F - Petrova d. Safarova
...4-6/6-1/6-4. Safarova showed great grit in fighting off two match points while overcoming a 5-1 3rd set deficit, but it was too little too late for her to notch a fourth straight Top 10 victory.
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3. Patt F - Bammer d. Dulko
...7-5/3-6/7-5. Bammer missed out on her first career final in Hobart when she lost to Bardina in the SF. In Pattaya City, she finally knocked off the Russian in the early rounds then went on to finish what she started last month.
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4. Paris SF - Safarova d. Henin
...7-6/6-4. Henin's string of seven consecutive appearances in singles finals has ended... but at least the Queen is back.
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5. Paris 2nd - Safarova d. Vaidisova
...6-4/6-2. Nicole would surely have taken her Melbourne QF win against Safarova over one here if she had to choose, but still...
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HM- Patt Q3 - Noppawan Lertcheewakarn d. Melinda Czink
...6-4/6-2. Czink was the #1 qualifying seed, so this was quite a nice little upset. But I really just included this because I wanted to use the Indian wild card's name.


**MOST SINGLES TITLES - since week of Oct.24, 2005**
7...NADIA PETROVA
6...Justine Henin
6...Amelie Mauresmo
5...Maria Sharapova
5...Kim Clijsters

**MOST CAREER TITLES - RUSSIANS**
15..Maria Sharapova (2003-06)
10..Anastasia Myskina (1999-05)
9...Olga Morozova (1969-75)
8...Svetlana Kuznetsova (2002-06)
7...NADIA PETROVA (2005-07)
6...Elena Dementieva (2003-06)
5...Vera Zvonareva (2003-06)
5...Dinara Safina (2002-07)

2007 FIRST-TIME FINALISTS**
JAN - Vasilisa Bardina (Hobart RU)
FEB - SYBILLE BAMMER (PATTAYA CHAMPION)

**2007 DOUBLES TITLES**
[doubles/mixed]
2...CARA BLACK [2/0]
2...LIEZEL HUBER [2/0]
2...Elena Likhovtseva [1/1]
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ANTWERP, BELGIUM (II-DecoTurf Indoor)
2006 FINAL: Mauresmo d. Clijsters
2007 TOP: Mauresmo/Clijsters
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SF: Petrova d. Mauresmo; Clijsters d. Dementieva
FINAL: Clijsters d. Petrova

...sheesh! I should just give up trying to pick Petrova's results, as last season's criss-cross continued last week as she won a title in a week when I didn't predict her as a champion (if I'd gone with her, she'd surely have failed in her comeback against Mauresmo). So, while I'm going with Clijsters in what will be her final WTA tournament in Belgium (remember, Hasselt is off the schedule in '07), don't be surprised if Petrova's momentum carries over. I certainly won't.


BANGALORE, INDIA (III-HO)
2006 FINAL: Santangelo d. Kostanic
2007 TOP: Santangelo/Mirza
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SF: Kostanic-Tosic d. Santangelo; Mirza d. Bardina
FINAL: Mirza d. Kostanic-Tosic

...a year ago, Mirza went home and lost in the 2nd Round in singles, but managed to take the doubles title. I'll take her here again, as I did in '06, and hope she doesn't lose that tough 1st Round match against Sucha.


All for now.