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Malek vs. Petrova
Matthew Kiernan reporting from Wimbledon.
Our very own Tatjana Malek put up a spirited display at SW19 this week, before bowing out at the first hurdle of both the women’s singles and doubles tournaments.
The German number six faced a tough outing in the singles when drawn against 12th seed and nine-time WTA Tour winner Nadia Petrova.
Despite being 80 places apart in the current rankings, the pair were inseparable from the off, with Tatjana’s well worked baseline attack cancelling out Petrova’s formidable power in the early exchanges.
With early breaks of serve from both players, the first set was precariously balanced at four games apiece, before unforced errors from Malek and some ferocious ground-strokes from Petrova swung the set the Russian’s way 6-4.
The writing then appeared to be on the wall with Petrova stepping up her game significantly in the 2nd set, racing into a 3-0 lead with an early break of serve.
But far from throwing in the towel, Malek fought back with a mix of guile and craft to bring the score back on level terms at 3-3 to the delight of Court 5 crowd.
The 23 year-old then had chances to break her seeded opponent for the 2nd time in the set, but just fell short of delivering a killer blow, much to her visible frustration.
And unfortunately for Malek that proved fatal, with Petrova forcing the issue once more and wrapped up the second set 6-3 to book her place in the next round.
Tatjana then proceeded to team up with Andrea Petkovic in the women’s doubles to take on Timea Bacsinszky and Tathiana Garbin.
Again though it was a case of so close and yet so far for Malek, with herself and Petkovic losing out 4-6 4-6 in a tight affair. If they had won, they would have sealed a 2nd round clash against the Williams sisters.
thetalkofsport.com verdict: Although we are quite clearly biased, we really do feel that Malek has shown some very encouraging signs in her short stint here at Wimbledon this week. The straight sets score-line doesn’t reflect how close the match was, in a contest that on balance should have gone to three sets. She never looked out of place in baseline rallies, although admittedly her serve was 10-20mph down on Petrova’s, but showed that she could mix it with the best for long periods of time.
There’s certainly more to come from this talented 23-year-old, and you’ll hear all about it right here at thetalkofsport.com.
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