Myskina Escapes the Graveyard
cEPA/ G.Penny Monday, June 20, 2005
The court dubbed the Graveyard of Champions almost claimed another luminary
at Wimbledon today, when Anastasia Myskina was forced to come back from
behind to defeat qualifier Katerina Bohmova, ranked 146 in the world.
The ninth-seeded Russian scraped through the Court 2 encounter, 5-7, 7-6
(7-4), 6-4, in 2hr 30min. After securing her place in the second round she
could only offer an apologetic wave and weak grin to the crowd.
When Myskina beams it can light up any arena. When she won the French Open
title 12 months ago her brilliant smile was dazzling. But a lot has changed
in that time. Myskina may still be ranked world No.10, but she has done
little to reflect her elevated position of late.
A series of early losses reached its nadir earlier this month when Myskina
became the first female Roland Garros champion in history to lose the next
year in the first round, falling to Maria Sanchez Lorenzo from Spain. She
ended a run of four successive losses by reaching the quarter-finals at
Eastbourne but then lost to qualifier Roberta Vinci, the Italian world ranked
111.
And for a set and a half of today's first round encounter against the rookie
Czech, Myksina's demeanour reflected her looks - dark. Left-hander Bohmova,
match tough on grass having battled through the qualifying event, had nothing
to lose and went for it. If Myskina had a game plan it was not clear.
Unforced errors littered her play; she ended with 40. She constantly hit too
long and misjudged drop shots which her 18-year-old opponent pounced upon
with glee.
Myskina screamed "crazy!" at herself after one point went begging and threw
her racket on the turf at another mistake. When she was broken a third time
to concede the first set she plonked herself down hard on her seat to
contemplate how she might get back into the match.
Things seemed to be getting worse when a shoulder problem revealed itself at
the beginning of the second set and Myskina went 1-4 down. But after two lots
of treatment she levelled the match in the tie-break.
But Bohmova didn't cave in, and in the final set she raced to a 3-0 lead.
Again Myskina was down for the count - and again, somehow, she managed to
save herself.
Written by Mike Donovan
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