[Waymninelia]

Scouting report continued:

Despite the score, that was pretty definitely the best set I'd seen so far. Bachmann was working hard, and not playing that badly, but Sequera was just too fast and too strong.

The second set began with Sequera breaking again, but then something definitely happened. Bachmann earned a break point in the next game when Sequera didn't play a ball and the chair ruled it good. A nice Bachmann winner made it 1-1. And, suddenly, Bachmann was playing better, and Sequera seemed all mopey. She seemed to be changing her game plan without really having a Plan B in mind. (And why change when she was doing so well?) Bachmann won the next three games also, for 4-1. Sequera should have won the sixth game -- she had two game points, and an open court on one of them, but she tried a drop shot that dropped a little too much. She hit about four drop shots in that game, and only one worked, and Bachmann broke for 5-1. Sequera had a break point in the final game, but more errors let Bachmann hold.

So which Sequera would come out for the final set? It didn't look promising when she started with a double-fault. And so it went. I won't describe the agony; Bachmann by this time was blistering the ball, and they were all and by the end of the third, Sequera was screaming at herself. Bachmann took out the defending champion 1-6 6-1 6-0.

Maybe it explains why Sequera has never really made it back; some mysterious thing goes wrong. But why doesn't Bachmann play like that all the time?

Making it worse for Sequera is the fact that she of course loses her champion's points from last year. They don't come off for a week, but when they do, she will probably fall to around #100.

The final singles match on center court featured Rosanna de los Rios, currently #193 based on a limited schedule, against #5 seed Ivana Abramovic. Last year, de los Rios came through qualifying here but lost in the first round. Since then, she has had only one WTA match,but she did reach the final at the Indian Harbor Beach $50K, and she won the San Diego $50K in December. And who did she beat in the final? None other than Abramovic.

You may remember de los Rios as the mom who once made a big splash at Roland Garros by reaching the fourth round in 2000. She's here with her family; her daughter looks about eight now. It looks like they have her scouting the opposition; she was watching the players on the practice court as her mom was breaking Abramovic to start the match.

Abramovic is a veteran, too, though not as experienced as de los Rios; he played her first WTA match at Bogota 2003. Her big results in the last year are a first round win at Bogota 2006 (one of only two WTA matches she's had in that time), a final at the Saint Gaudens $50K, and the San Diego final she lost to de los Rios. She came in ranked #165.

De los Rios looked to me as if she were tired, somehow. It was just an impression, though. Abramovic is a little bigger and taller, but I don't think she hits harder, particularly on the forehand. Both have two-handed backhands. De los Rios has a rather high toss -- no problem here, but not so good outdoors. And her specialty is clay. It looks as if Abramovic also prefers clay, but it's not as clear from her more limited record.

De los Rios in the first set was overhitting just a little -- she kept just missing the lines. And every drop shot she hit landed in the net. Abramovic was mostly letting her commit suicide. After that initial break, de los Rios lost six straight games to lose the first set.

De los Rios was faster to get upset than Sequera. She started talking to herself in game five. Her camp was pretty clearly telling her to calm down. It looked like the daughter was asking, "What's wrong with Mom?"

Game four of the second set seemed to provide the answer. In the middle of the game, de los Rios ran to the sideline and started putting eye drops in her eyes. With that low humidity, I can understand why. Certainly she seemed to be seeing better; the second set started with five straight holds. And then it was de los Rios who broke for 4-2.

And suddenly it was Abramovic who looked tired. It hadn't been that long a match, and she looks to be in good shape, but she was really sucking air between points. Was she running out of gas? She lot the next two games also, letting de los Rios take the set 6-2.

De los Rios on the changeover pulled a book out of her bag and looked something up. It didn't appear to be a Jim Courier-type thing; she was looking for something specific. Whatever it was, it was the wrong answer -- she was broken in the first game of the third set. Only to immediately break back. Looking at Abramovic, it appears that she looks most winded after a service game. Which probably says something about how she serves, though I didn't notice anything.

That was about the end for Abramovic. De los Rios, after the break-back, won five of the next six games to advance 1-6 6-2 6-2.

Her daughter Ana Paula by that time was on the practice court hitting with one of the club people. Kid has a pretty good forehand already.

The last match I saw was a doubles match, Sofia Arvidsson and Antonella Serra-Zanetti against Angela Haynes and Teodora Mircic. Great match, but I've probably talked enough for today. The two comments I would make are, Angela Haynes remains a player with a great serve and not that much else, and Antonella Serra-Zanetti -- yes, she still has that serve. The one that's 100% elbow and 0% speed. http://www.wtaworld.com/showthread.p...67&page=11