©Colette Lewis 2007--
London--
Top seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was determined to give herself a 16th birthday present on Tuesday at Wimbledon, when the rains finally relented long enough for her much anticipated first round match with Michelle Larcher de Brito to be completed.
“I was so angry at everyone, I was like an animal. I don’t want to give her any points,” said Pavlyuchenkova, who prevailed over the 14-year-old from Portugal 4-6, 7-5 1-0 (10-5), with backhand winners galore in the ten-point tiebreaker. “It’s my birthday, and I want to win this match.”
Larcher de Brito wasn’t in a gift-giving mood. Although she trailed 4-2 at the first suspension in play, the Bollettieri prodigy reeled off four straight games to capture the first set when play resumed. Pavlyuchenkova held a break in the second set, but at 4-3, two doubles faults derailed her attempt at a straightforward second set. But Larcher de Brito chipped in with two double faults of her own at 5-5 and was broken, giving Pavlyuchenkova an opportunity to serve out the set. The black clouds had other ideas, however, and a second rain delay ensued. This return didn’t mirror the first one however, as Pavlyuchenkova easily held to send the match into the weather-induced tiebreaker.
“It’s just stupid,” said Pavlyuchenkova, the world’s top-ranked junior and 2007 Australian Open champion of the tiebreaker. “It goes really fast. It’s who can serve better, or return better. It’s just luck.”
But there’s no doubt that the 2006 Junior World Champion stepped up her game at five points all, and her backhand produced winners left and right.
“I was really focused in the tiebreak, and I played very well,” said Pavlyuchenkova, who called her early decision to bang groundstrokes with Larcher de Brito “stupid tennis.” But once Pavlyuchenkova abandoned that strategy, she was back on track. “She couldn’t do anything,” said Pavlyuchenkova of the tiebreak. “I just won that—it’s not like she did some mistakes.”
Pavlyuchenkova was obviously relieved to have avoided another first round loss like the one she experienced in the Wimbledon juniors last year.
“I was thinking, oh my god, I can’t believe it, I’m going to lose again, first round, at Wimbledon,” said Pavlyuchenkova, who keeps a placid facade over her lively conversations with herself. “I said I hate Wimbledon, the courts, and everyone. But then I played very well.”
For a sweet sixteenth birthday, after all.
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