Ashley Harkleroad and Laura Granville began
this week as teammates on the U.S. Federation Cup team. They'll
end the week today on opposite sides of the net on Stadium Court
at the Midland Community Tennis Center.
The top-seed Harkleroad and No. 2 seed Granville earned spots in
the final with convincing victories in Saturday's semifinals at
the Dow Corning Tennis Classic.
Harkleroad reached the final by disposing of Great Britain's
Melanie South 6-1, 6-0 while Granville knocked off fourth-seeded
Sandra Kloesel of Germany 6-2, 6-1.
"It feels real good," Harkleroad. "I'm excited with the way I'm
playing. She was a big hitter and I felt like I handled her
pretty well."
The Wesley Chapel, Fla., native hasn't lost a set in the entire
tournament. Dating back to last weekend's Fed Cup competition,
Harkleroad has won 12 straight sets.
"It definitely gave me confidence performing as well as I did
under that sort of pressure of playing for your country,"
Harkleroad said. "I definitely came out of that more confident."
Harkleroad also won the $75,000 indoor event in Pittsburgh and a
$50,000 ITF tournament in California last fall. She is 23-3 in
her last 26 matches.
Granville becomes the first player in DCTC history to reach the
singles finals four times. She won the 2005 championship and
lost the title match in 2003 and 2007. Midland native Meredith
McGrath appeared in three finals (1989, 91, 94).
"I love it here, but obviously Ashley is comfortable playing
here too," Granville said. "I just hope we both go out there and
play well and have a really good match for the fans."
In Harkleroad's victory, the opening set was much closer than
the score indicated. All seven games went to at least 30-30. But
Harkleroad was 3-for-4 in break points while South converted
just one of five break chances.
"My serve wasn't on today and I was giving away too many free
points with my ground strokes," South said. "It just didn't
quite happen today."
Harkleroad served to begin the match and had to fight off a
break point. But South committed two unforced errors and a
double fault on her serve to fall behind 2-0.
South, however, responded by breaking Harkleroad in the third
game to get within 2-1. But that would be the only game South
would win all day.
Even when she wasn't at her best, Harkleroad found a way to win
a game. She double-faulted twice in the fifth game, but still
was able to keep South at bay.
"She's great indoors because she hits such a big ball,"
Harkleroad said. "The first set was definitely tough, even
though the score didn't show it. But I out-toughed her, so that
was good."
Any hope for South to rally went by the wayside in the first two
games of the second set. South served to begin the set and built
a 40-15 advantage. But she squandered the next four points and
got broken again.
Then in the next game, South won the first two points on
Harkleroad's serve. But again, Harkleroad came back with four
straight points to take a 2-0 lead.
From there, Harkleroad won 16 of the final 22 points to close
out the match.
Despite the loss, South was still positive during her post-match
comments.
"It's been a pretty good week for me," South said. "I played
some pretty good tennis. Everyone here was so friendly and I'll
be back next year."
On paper, Kloesel may have been the favorite against Granville
by the way both were playing coming into the tournament. Kloesel
finished runner-up last weekend in California and two weeks ago
in Hawaii.
Meanwhile, Granville hadn't won a match since the opening round
of last August's U.S. Open.
"I was struggling just because I took the fall off to take some
classes (at Northwestern University) and I just really wanted a
break to travel," Granville said. "I lost three matches in a row
in Australia. I was kind of at a low point and really
struggling. So I'm really happy with this week."
But Granville came out and gained the upper hand early. After
squandering three break points in the fourth game, Granville
used a pair of winners to break Kloesel and forge a 3-1 lead.
"That was really big," Granville said. "A lot of times I don't
start matches off very strong so I was really happy to get up
early. A lot of times I get behind early on."
She turned around and broke Kloesel again four games later. The
key point came with the score tied 30-30. Granville ripped a
winner down the line to set up a break point that she
immediately capitalized on to close out the first set.
Kloesel won the first two points of the second set on
Granville's serve and later had a break point. But Granville
fought off the break and held serve. She then won 16 of the next
26 points over the next four games to build a 5-0 lead.
Kloesel finally held serve in the sixth game to slice the lead
to 5-1. But Granville was able to close out the match on her
next service game despite a pair of double faults.
"Laura played a solid match," Kloesel said. "It was just not my
day today. ... I was trying some things. But I always hit the
ball too late or the distance wasn't right. I just made so many
unforced errors which isn't so usual for me."
"I think she's played a ton of matches the last few weeks,"
Granville said. "I think she might have been a little tired
tonight so I tried to make her hit one extra ball."
Today will be the third meeting between Harkleroad and
Granville. Harkleroad won the previous two matches — a straight
set win (6-4, 6-2) in 2006 in San Francisco and a three-set
victory (2-6, 7-5, 6-2) last year in Charleston, S.C.
"Ashley and I are friends off the court so we're just going to
play the match," Granville said. "After the match, we'll still
be friends."
"Her and I are friends, but sometimes you have to play your
friends," Harkleroad said. "I think of her as my teammate but
(at the same time) I have to focus on myself."
Harkleroad will be a busy player today. She's also in the
doubles final as her and partner Shenay Perry outlasted Angela
Haynes/Mashona Washington 2-6, 6-4, 10-8. They'll take on
third-seeded Surina De Beer/Rika Fujiwara. They reached the
final with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over the top-seeded duo of
Christina Fusano/Ipek Senoglu.
Today's singles final gets under way at 1 p.m. with the doubles
championship to follow. The singles winner walks away with
$11,400 with $6,080 going to the runner-up. The doubles
champions will split $4,180. |
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