WTA Championships Day one results.

By Asif Islam
November 13 2004

The opening night saw wins for both the Americans as well as the US open champion amidst one of the longest games in tennis having 18 deuces.

The opener of the WTA championship had a lot to be desired. It promised so much but delivered very little. Two ladies from the Russian brigades Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anastasia Myskina went head to head in this round robin Gala event that also features the likes of Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport and Maria Sharapova.

As for the match, it was more offer lop sided affair as in the opening set, apart from the first game which saw a few hiccups for Kuznetsova, it was all smooth sailing for her as she easily won the set 6-2 with two breaks of serve with a bit of help Zvonareva who gave away series of unforced errors including some double faults.

The situation worsened in the second set for the number eleven ranked Zvonareva although she gave traces of fight back straight away by Clinching two break points, but as was evident throughout the battle Vera was aimed able to take a foot hold on big points, and in a matter of blink of an eyelid Kuznetsova ranked fourth in the world romped to a 5-1 lead with some flawless tennis combined with magnificent fore hand returns.

But when it seemed all lost for the lowest ranked Russian in the fray, nerves set into the game of her opponent who was until that point was playing error free tennis and eventually she made her first double fault to hand over a game to Zvonareva. That seemed harmless until Zvonareva with a little bit of trouble of her own held serve and wan a series of points to cut down the lead to just 5-4. Three back-to-back games meant that the smooth sailing ship of Svetlana was rocking a bit and repair works were needed which came in time as she broke back immediately to snatch the match in 68 minutes 6-2,6-4.
Next up on court was Anastasia Myskina who was taking on the crowd favorite Serena Williams. It seemed that the day would only belong to errors as Serena Williams started the trend again which the Russian later followed.

For starters it was all Myskina as she raced to a 4-1 lead with two breaks of serve before the American found her footing and skimmed the lead to just a game . The eighth game saw a series of deuces as Williams tried her level best to even out the match but the Russian held on by the skin of her teeth to win her first ever set against Williams.

The stats showed that it was one of the dullest days in terms of quality tennis as there were 24 unforced errors from the American and half of it from Myskina. The trend continued in the second set as errors flowed like rivers , the only difference being that this time it was Myskina leading the way . It was a sea-saw battle in which racing to a 3-0 lead was the Russian before Williams started a tremendous fight back as she won eight games in a row to not only take the second set but also take a 2-0 lead in the decider.

The bleeding was healed to an extent as Myskina won three games of her own in a row to get back into the match. But Williams reminded us all why she is the best in the business by breaking the Russian in the seventh game to eventually close out the match 4-6,6-3,6-4 in two hours of gripping battle.

After witnessing two error prone encounters, the crowd badly needed a tie filled with winners. They had there hopes pinned on world no.1 Lindsay Davenport who was taking on another of the five Russians Elena Dementieva in the second match of the red group.

It seemed like tonight the Russian Roulette was a bit out of rhythm as lady Lindsay raced to a 6-0 4-0 lead inside 40 minutes of the match before the Russian won her first game.
Throughout the match Dementieva was showing the crowd the ways of making unforced errors that also included 12 double faults.

The best part came in the sixth game of the set which went on for nearly thirty minutes and had a whopping 18 deuces, Dementieva frittered away break points after break points before Davenport killed all her hopes by winning the everlasting game and soon the match in an hour and seventeen minutes 6-0,6-1