England's Lucie Ahl was physically drained after a three-hour marathon semi-final on her 25th birthday in yesterday's Rover sponsored Irish women's tennis championship at Riverview.
She clearly defined the type of hazard that touring tennis players must endure: "It's the first time I will not be celebrating a birthday. I have to go to work tomorrow and after that catch a plane for a tournament in Spain."
Ahl got tied up in the most absorbing match of the week against a text book player in Australian Trudi Musgrave (21) who refused to bow to the English woman's bouncy play until after saving a sixth match point in a final set tie break decided on the 16th point.
Enduring well plotted rallies were fought out with great regularity. Ahl's speed and anticipation complimented her application off the ground. Musgrave's volleys, ground strokes and shot selection enabled her to prise open the court and bash winners into unguarded spaces.
Ahl said that her own hunger for the win probably decided the match. "In terms of ability, the dividing line between us is almost invisible. It was a gutsy match," she said.
Musgrave was stubborn to the last shot. She won an 18 point game in the first set to level at 4-4 before taking the set 7-5. Then, as the second set was drifting away form her she battled to take a 20 point sixth game, her first in the set.
"My big mistake in that set was to be too anxious to go for the winner when I should have had more patience. Ahl took the set 62 and led 3-1 before Musgrave came back at her once more. Stunning rallies pursued, two match points were saved by Musgrave in the 12th game and a further four in the tie break before Ahl could claim a hard earned win.
By comparison, an erratic French 19-year-old Marina Caiazzo handed victory to the unseeded Russial Julia Lutrova on a plate in the second semi-final that lasted only an hour.
Caiazzo's pumped up display in her dismissal of Ireland Yvonne Doyle in the quarter-finals was in total contrast. Although she got an early break and led 2-0, Caiazzo became frustrated with her wayward game. Two court violations, racket abuse and ball abuse, cost her a $100 fine.
"I wasn't mentally prepared for the match and I had no motivation," she said. This amused Lutrove who retorted: She's only 19, you would think that reaching the semi-finals of a $25,000 event would be sufficient motivation for her."
Caiazzo's all too infrequent winners out of the back hand court were stunning and clearly indicated how good she can be.
