Japan Women’s Open Tennis, Tokyo

[57] Qiang Wang (CHN) vs. [123] Jana Fett (CRO)

It was an erratic match from both players; while it was obvious that the Croatian had more power consistently on her shots, it was also apparent that she was misfiring frequently on her serve and her backhand. Wang had a bit more consistency off the ground but her serve was a liability.

Both players got off to a nervous start and Wang quickly got frustrated, actually she appeared a tad petulant and had to be positively encouraged by her coach to keep fighting and believe in herself. Double faults played a big role in the first set, a sign that the players were anxious. They traded breaks four times before Fett was able to break and then consolidate the break to serve out the first set.

Just when you thought Fett had seized the momentum, she quickly dropped serve in her first service game. Yet, the pattern held and Wang would get broken to get back on serve. Holding serve became the priority for each player in this set. Fett lost her serve again. Wang served to take the set but she in turn was broken and once again the match was back on serve at 5-4. Fett unfortunately could not hold her serve and was broken for the third time to lose the set to Wang.

With the end in sight, it was a cleaner deciding set from the Croatian. She tightened up her game: she served better and perhaps the biggest difference was her positive attitude. In contrast, Wang descended into a pit of despair and lost her belief that she could win the match and she was broken first in the set. If you believe you can’t win then more than likely you won’t win and Fett won 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

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