STANFORD — Some pundits might claim that Aleksandra Wozniak’s title run at Bank of the West Classic was a fluke; that the Canadian qualifier only won the tournament because Serena Williams retired with an injury in the semis and a hip-hobbled Marion Bartoli could barely run in the final.
But that would be entirely unfair to the 20-year-old, who logged more than 11 hours of court time, kept her cool, expanded her repertoire, ripped the ball during tight moments and all but dared eight-time Slam champ Serena and ‘07 Wimbledon finalist Bartoli to make her nervous.
“I really wanted to win,” said Wozniak after defeating Bartoli 7-5, 6-3 in the final. “I guess I made them run too much because Serena pulled out yesterday and today Marion got hurt. I kept playing aggressive and doing what I needed to.”
The tournament was fortunate to have Serena around as long as it did. Wimbledon semifinalist Elena Dementieva, who would have been the No. 3 seed, pulled out a full week before the event started with so-called flu-like symptoms. Former champ Lindsay Davenport and her bum knee couldn’t make it, either. Defending champ Anna Chakvetadze went out to Bartoli in the quarters, and ‘07 finalist Sania Mirza flamed in the first round.
For the first time in her career, Serena had embarked upon a heavy summer schedule. After falling to Venus at Wimbledon, she upheld her commitment to World TeamTennis and was scheduled to play Stanford, L.A. and maybe Montreal before heading to Beijing for the Olympics; hen, just after that, to the U.S. Open. In short, a very un-Serena-like schedule.
“I’m feeling good,” the fifth-ranked Williams said before her nail-biting opening round win over 15-year-old Portuguese sensation Michelle Larcher de Brito. “I have goals and have almost no points coming off this summer. I can only move ahead.”
She did for two matches before the semis, when her surgically repaired left knee shut down on her again. She retired trailing 6-2, 3-1 against Wozniak.
So why did she decide, after reaching the Wimbledon final, to play (count ‘em) four World TeamTennis matches? (Could it be the $200,000 or so she was said to earn for playing?) She believes that the switch of surface from grass to hard courts may have affected her, but wouldn’t admit that the extra week of WTT play was a bad decision. It certainly didn’t help.
“You know that risk going into it,” she said. “It is what it is. I can’t blame that. I’ve been playing a lot of tennis, for me, since Miami. Maybe I just need to take a day off.” (Three days later, she pulled out of the L.A. tournament, and was possibly looking at three weeks off.)
While she never displayed the go-get-’em attitude that she did in upending Chakvetadze or outlasting Ai Sugiyama in the semis, the 15th-ranked Bartoli began the final striking the ball fairly well and nullifying Wozniak’s second serves. She broke the Canadian at 4-all, then attempted to serve the set out. Had she done so, the complexion of the contest might have changed, but Wozniak caressed a sharply angled one-handed backhand drop shot winner, ripped two beautiful crosscourt backhand winners and then saw Bartoli err on a backhand of her own to grab the break back.
Wozniak then held at love and in the final game of the set. Her hooking crosscourt forehand seized the day and she won the set when she forced Bartoli into a forehand error.
“I doubled up my speed on my groundstrokes and I was going after it,” she said.
Down 2-1 in the second set, Bartoli took a medical timeout to attend to a left hip injury. After that, she did little more than limp and try to rip winners when she got balls into her wheelhouse. The Frenchwoman, who later claimed she suffered from mono from January through Roland Garros, saw her hopes of winning her first Tier II title and pushing herself back toward the top 10 vanish.
Plenty of elite players have won matches in worse shape than either Serena or Bartoli were in when their inexperienced foes faded. But not Wozniak, who keeps her emotions in check and, at least during the BOW, wrote a deep thesis on how to play matches point by point. It’s not beyond reason to suggest that someday Wozniak could reach a final four at a Slam and really scare someone. Regardless of the injury-devastated field, Tier II titles are very hard to come by. She may never be a world-beater, may never crack the top 20 or even go deep at the Grand Slams, but she does have decent sized weapons of the ground and appears to be relentlessly ambitious. “I can definitely can be top 10,” said Wozniak, who cracked the top 50 and won the highest-level title of any Canadian woman in the Open Era. “Everyone has their time when they feel more mature and learn to control their emotions when they play the big champions. The quicker you believe in yourself, the more success comes.”
EVENT FUTURE AT STANFORD
Bank of the West just celebrated its 16th year as sponsor and has shown an incredible commitment to the sport. Next year, the tournament will be forced to significantly up its prize money as it becomes a premier level event in the WTA’s new tournament structure, even though it is not guaranteed any more top 10 players. But as it stands, the facility, which seats just over 4,000 people, is not big enough.
WTA CEO Larry Scott says it’s the smallest of the any of the WTA’s 20 premier events. Tournament director Adam Barrett of IMG has stated that Stanford is going to have to work to increase its capacity in a substantial way, or he will be forced to look for other spots in the Bay Area, where Bank of the West is based. Stanford and IMG’s contract expires after the ‘09 event, which might be it for the university as the tournament site, unless it decides to blow out one of its courts (No. 4 on the east end) and allow IMG to build up the permanent seating and add luxury suites. But one university official said, “Maybe they should try selling out the 4,000 seats before they talk about adding more.”
Bank of the West wants to keep the tournament in the Bay Area, where it does a lot of business. But it’s going to be complicated for both sides, as Stanford has restrictions on expanding the footprint of its facility, and at this point, there is no other outdoor tennis facility in the Bay Area that could house 6,000-plus fans. They may end up playing in a public park or parking lot (hello Shark Tank?), not exactly an A-1 option.
