Fifteen-year-old Nicole Vaidisova displayed a maturity way above her years to knock out second seed Meghann Shaughnessy of the United States at the Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan on Saturday.
Czech Vaidisova won a tight contest 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (1) in just under two hours on a day very different from yesterday when it snowed. It was still cold but sunny.
Vaidisova plays Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano in Sunday's final. Razzano scored an unexpectedly easy 6-2, 6-2 win over fifth seed Anca Barna of Germany in the other semi-final.
Vaidisova and Razzano have never met before. For Vaidisova, it will the second final of her short career. The first was at Vancouver in August, an event which she won. For Razzano, it is her first WTAfinal.
"I'm not nervous about playing a final. I've been there before and I've won," Vaidisova said about tomorrow's final.
Vaidisova's mental strength was fully evident in the third set of a pulsating match, especially in the tie-breaker, when Shaughnessy served two successive double faults and caved in completely.
The Czech won the first set in 20 minutes and served for the match at 5-4 in the second. But Shaughnessy used all her experience to get out of that hole. She won five games in a row, to go 1-0 up in the third and even though she dropped serve in the third game, broke back immediately and seemed in complete control of the match.
Shaughnessy's serving was top-class and she kept Vaidisova's serve under constant pressure with her crunching returns. She was severe on the second serves to the ad court, hammering away inside-out forehands for clean winners. So severe was the pressure that, at one stage, Vaidisova had eight double faults in three games.
Shaughnessy also dictated the pace of the rallies, counterpunching winners or alternatively letting an aggressive Vaidisova commit unforced errors.
Despite all this, Vaidisova, 10 years younger than Shaughnessy, hung on and forced a tie-breaker. She was most impressive when she had to hold serve to stay in the match, in the 10th and 12th games. She blasted four first serves to win the 10th at love and produced two superb forehands to win the 12th, after being 15-30 down.
All this took a toll on Shaughnessy and she just collapsed in the tie-breaker, serving two successive double faults.
"She's a pretty mature player. She played very well. She's young but she's got a full-grown body. She plays aggressively," a dejected Shaughnessy said after the loss.
The American had come to this tournament hoping to revive her singles career, which has been on the downward trail for some time now.
She started the year ranked 17th in the world, and made the third round of both the French Open and Wimbledon, but has not been able to stop the slide in her rankings, which is 47 now.
At the same time, her doubles career has taken off. She has won six titles with Russian Nadia Petrova and is now ranked sixth in the world.
Razzano was totally dominant in her semi-final against Barna, winning in an hour and 23 minutes.
"I feel good about my game. It's a good match, make me feel good for tomorrow," a delighted Razzano said after the match.
"I tried to vary my game today, mixing up my shots. I tried to play fast. She wasn't moving well. Maybe, she was not able to read my game."
Barna commited several unforced errors. It saw her lose six games in a row, from 2-2 in the first set till 0-2 in the second. She had a point to make it 2-2 but lost the chance and with it the match.
Adriana and Antonella Serra Zanetti, the sisters from Italy, won the doubles title beating second seeds Marion Bartoli of France and Mara Santangleo of Italy 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
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