For now, I'll comment on a player I had not seen in quite some time that I got to watch against Bartoli this week - Magalena Rybarikova of Slovakia.
"Magda", as she is affectionately called, started out the match beautifully with a flurry of good serves and powerful forehand approaches to the net. She looked like an extremely confident player who was capable of upsetting Bartoli. That didn't last long, however. Here's a breakdown of her game:
Serve - can't decide. She can hit some great first serves and it has the potential to be a great set-up shot for her, but wasn't very good against Bartoli. She hit a lot of bad second serves which is a tough thing to do against a player like Bartoli who goes nuts on easy serves. She has the necessary knee-bend to create power, but she tended to slow down her racquet speed when the game got tight. She had nothing to lose so she really should have gone for her first serve a bit more instead of just spinning it in. A lot of room for improvement on this shot, but it is already fairly decent.
Forehand - good for claycourts. At the start of the match she was crushing forehand and really dominating the rallies with that shot. But as the match wore on, her forehand became very loopy and short. I suppose she got tight, but her forehand went from very impressive to kind of a pusher-shot. I think her forehand will be great on claycourts since she is capable of mixing it up. With more experience she will know when to be agressive and when to use all of that spin.
Backhand - non-existent. Her backhand drives were some of the worst I have seen since Schnyder's last match. No pace, no depth, no angle, just a blunt shot up the middle of the court. Her slice was completely useless. There was no bite to it and she never used it to approach the net. Her technique was terrible, but she has good hands so she was able to keep it in the court. She desperately needs to work on this side before she thinks about moving up farther in the rankings.
Volleys/transition game - very good. Not much to say on volleys except that hers were very, very good. She could potentially make a great doubles player with her serve and nice feel around the net. She kept her racquet out in front and used her wrists to get under the ball nicely.
Verdict - promising. She is famous for making the Junior Wimbledon final in...'05, I believe. Though she got stomped by Bartoli 64 60, I sensed a lot of talent and room for improvement. If she is willing to put in the hours, she can get her ranking up in the Top20 and maybe have a deep run at a Slam.
I'll get a Davis Cup and Monterrey round-up going sometime this week.
$25K Fort Walton Beach sees an unexpected final between Gabriela Paz and Ekaterina Dzehalevich. Dzehalevich is the player who upset both of my personal interests in this tournament, Evgeniya Rodina and Stefanie Voegele.
