TennisGrandStand » Eric Lord

Madison Brengle thrown into the Fed Cup Fire

Eric Lord — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:38:17 +0000

Faced with injuries and illness to several veteran players, captain Zina Garrison named a team that will rely on youth for the United States’ Federation Cup semifinal in Moscow, Russia. With Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport and Ashley Harkleroad all out of the tie, 18-year-old Madison Brengle may be asked to carry a heavy workload in her Fed Cup debut.

Brengle may see action as a singles player and that means facing top ten players. Russian, even without Maria Sharapova, has a formidable singles lineup with world number three Svetlana Kuznetsova and world number six Anna Chakvetadze on the team. Brengle will be a heavy underdog against either Kuznetsova or Chakvetadze.

The Dover, Delaware native is coming off a solid junior career in which she reached two junior grand slam finals in 2007, losing in the Australian Open in two tiebreaks to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and to Ursala Radwanska in 3 sets at Wimbledon. She captured the 43rd Astrid Bowl Charleroi, Belgian International Junior Champion-ships in 2007. Brengle has one career singles title on the ITF tour. She has not faced anyone the caliber of Kuznetsova or Chakvetadze this year.

Brengle will have to raise her game to a new level to pull off an upset if she is called upon. She will need to use her speed and good court movement to get a lot of balls back. She has a lot of fire and is a battler and that will serve her well. Chakvetadze lost to Dominika Cibulkova at the Bausch & Lomb Championships. Brengle‘s game is similar to Cibulkova’s, not quite as developed, but similar. She will have to give it her all and see what happens.

The one advantage that Brengle and the rest of her teammates will have is no expectations. Few expect an American team of Brengle, Vania King, Ahsha Rolle and Liezel Huber to be able to beat the Russians on their soil. Brengle and her teammates may have been thrown into the cauldron, but all the pressure is on Russia.

Dominika Cibulkova Has Officially Arrived

Eric Lord — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:54:35 +0000

Everything seemed to be stacked against Dominika Cibulkova heading into her 3rd round match at the Qatar Total Open last week. After all, she was facing the sixth seed and six-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams. Plus, at 5’3”, Cibulkova is 10 inches shorter than Venus, who stands at 6’1”. None of that fazed the 18-year old Slovakian, as she came out and shocked the tennis world with a 6-3 6-3 victory.

Cibulkova took advantage of the windy conditions and hammered away from the baseline. At 3-3 in the first set, she broke Williams to go up a break and never looked back. She finished off the set by taking the next two games and darted out to a 5-1 lead in the second set. Williams won the next two games, but the young Slovakian closed the door and ended the match with a forehand winner to advance to the quarterfinals to face Agnieszka Radwanska.

The win over Williams was the biggest of Cibulkova’s young career. Her biggest win to this point had come a few days ago, when she beat the ninth seed Patty Schnyder. Prior to this week, she had not beaten a top 20 player. She has now beaten two in the span of two matches.

“It feels unbelievable to have beaten Venus. She was one of my heroes growing up and to have played so well out there makes me feel so proud. I played some of my best tennis today and it’s amazing to have made the quarterfinals with all the great players in the draw,” Cibulkova said. “Before this week I had come close to beating some top players, but never quite done it and now to have got wins over Patty [Schnyder] and Venus in one week is amazing.”

Although she would lose in the quarterfinals in Doha, Cibulkova made her breakthrough. This tournament will give her confidence as she moves forward. Confidence and belief play a huge roll in the diminutive Slovakian’s success. She lacks the power her stronger opponents have, and due to her height, her serve is anything but big. Cibulkova relies on her ground strokes and her Kim Clijsters-like court coverage. She even has Clijsters’ signature split move. And she relies on her heart. Similar to another small player from the recent past, Amanda Coetzer, Cibulkova will fight to the end.

One thing is now certain. When players see Dominika Cibulkova’s name in the draw, they will take notice.

Dominik Cibulkova: Fed Cup - Final Day

Eric Lord — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:46:51 +0000

Domi had a tough day. She had 2 hard fought matches, but came up short both times and Slovakia fell to the Czech Republic 3-2 in Fed Cup World Group II play.

In the 1st match of the day, Domi took the 1st set off of Nicole Vaidisova 6-3, but dropped the next 2 sets 6-3 & 6-1. Magdalena Rybarikova got Slovakia back to even by defeating Petra Cetkovska 6-4, 6-3.

The doubles match proved to be the decider. The Czech team replaced Iveta Benesova with Nicole Vaidisova. Vaidisova & Kveta Peschke beat
Domi and Janette Husarova in a tight 3-set match, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4.

Domi was thrust into the #1 singles spot and she performed well. She came up short today, but she gave it all she had and fought to the end.