WTA: July 11-17 2005 Internazionali di Modena Modena, ITA Tier IV $140,000 - 32 players - outdoor: red clay Live Scores schedule draws, .pdf draws, .html tourney photo gallery Modena WTA Photo Gallery Modena: forecast - Radar - map # 23 Francesca Schiavone # 24 Flavia Pennetta # 49 Marta Domachowska # 61 Anna Smashnova

Palermo: 2006 - 2004 - 2003 previous   other tourney pages     next Modena: #65 Anna Smashnova 5' 2", 117 lbs, RH, 1H-BH Modena: #95 Tathiana Garbin 5' 7¾", 150 lbs, RH, 1H-BH

    On Sunday in the final of the Internazionali di Modena, 29-years-old-yesterday 5th-seeded # 61 Anna Smashnova won the unfun way, defeating unseeded 28-year-old # 95 Tathiana Garbin from Mestre, Italy, 6(3)-6(0) retired (both players are shown during Sunday's truncated final).
    The temperature was 95°F., and Tathiana is the type of athlete who always plays at full speed. Anna had broken Tathiana and was ahead 5-3 when Tathiana broke back. They then held serve to 6-6. Anna had taken a 3-0 lead in the tiebreak--on three errors by Tathiana--when Tathiana asked for a break in play. Tathiana then collapsed, suffering from cramps, and nearly passing out. After the tourney doctor had a look at her, Tathiana was taken on a stretcher to the infirmary. She was later reported to have recovered from the sunstroke. AP story

    Anna now leads Tathiana 2-1 in career matches. Anna's win was way back in 1999; Tathiana defeated Anna last year in the round of 64 at the Athen Olympics. Both those matches were on hardcourts (both players like clay courts). Anna Smashnova has never lost a WTA singles final.
    On Saturday, Tathiana said: "[Anna] makes few mistakes and is difficult to beat. It will be up to me to vary my play and cause her problems."

    Five-foot-two Anna Smashnova is now 10-0 in WTA singles finals. After winning 4 titles in 2002, she finished that year and 2003 ranked in the top 20; her career high was # 15 in 2003.
    Anna was born in Minsk, Belarus, and her family moved to Israel when she was 14. She was Tennis Magazine Rookie of the Year in 1994, graduated from American Int'l HS outside Tel Aviv in 1995, and completed mandatory service in the Israeli Army in 1997. Anna married her coach Claudio Pistolesi in December, 2002, and for a short time was known as Anna Pistolesi. Then she became Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi for a while, and then dropped the Pistolesi and became Anna Smashnova again (there is no report that she dropped Claudio, however).
    Anna wears Lotto and chops with a Babolat Pure Drive axe, favoring her 1-handed backhand and clay courts.
Smashnova career record

    Tathiana Garbin is best known for defeating then # 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne in the 2nd round at Roland Garros in 2004; Justine was the 2003 (and 2005) French Open champ. Tathiana is now 1-2 in WTA singles finals, bot those final appearances were in 2000 (she won in Budapest; lost in Bogota). In 2000 she also reached her career-high rank of # 38.
    Born in Mestre, where she still resides, Tathiana began playing tennis at age 3; she trains at the Olympic Federal Centre in Tirrenia, Italy.
    Tathiana wears Lotto and swings a Fischer Pro Tour bat. She prefers clay courts (and Rebound Ace hardcourts, the Australian Open surface), and says her strongest shot is her serve.
Garbin career record

   The Modena tourney photo gallery has some very nice, good sized (typically 580x388) photos by Elisa Pozzo. Unfortunately, the pics are not posted until the following day, or later.

    The Internazionali di Modena was a new tourney in 2005; it replaced the tourney usually held in Palermo for only one year. The last minute additions of Italian wild cards # 23 Francesca Schiavone and # 24 Flavia Pennetta, the top 2 seeds, likely boosted tourney attendance substantially.
    The main draw for Modena has 8 seeds, with no 1st-round byes. There are 4 qualifiers, 4 wild cards, and 2 Lucky Losers in the main draw. Qualifying finals were on Monday.
    Modena time is GMT (UCT, ZULU) + 2 hours (US Pacific Daylight Time +9, EDT +6). Early round play begins at 11am local time. Modena has have live scoring by points, including qualifying.

WTA SCOREBOARD: Modena s=seed, #=rank, *=upset, LL=lucky loser ranks are for the previous week How do players get into the "draw"?

Modena, 1st Round, Mon-Wed loser's prize: $1,000 US; points: 1 #23 s1 wc Francesca Schiavone ITA d #149 Marlene Weingartner GER 6-3, 6-2 Tue Francesca's twist serve #24 s2 wc Flavia Pennetta ITA d #115 V Ruano Pascual ESP 6-2, 6(7)-7, 7-6(2) Tue Flavia after winning a point *#229 Zi Yan CHN d #49 s4 Marta Domachowska POL 2-6, 7-6(6), 6-1 Mon Marta congratulating Zi #61 s5 Anna Smashnova ISR d #209 wc Adriana Serra Zanetti 6-3, 6-1 Tue Anna's backhand #63 s6 Jelena Kostanic CRO d #143 q Katerina Bohmova CZE 7-5, 6-0 Tue Jelena after winning a point *#112 LL Ekaterina Bychkova RUS d #69 s7 Antonella Serra Zanetti ITA 6-4, 6-1 Tue Ekaterina's forehand #71 s8 Mariana Díaz-Oliva ARG d #91 Julia Schruff GER 7-6, 6-1 Tue Mariana serving *#97 Emilie Loit FRA d #77 Alyona Bondarenko UKR 6-2, 6-3 Mon Emilie Loit #78 Martina Sucha SVK d #107 Maria Sanchez Lorenzo ESP 6-2, 6-3 Tue Martina's western-grip forehand #81 Zuzana Ondraskova CZE d #114 Ludmila Cervanova SVK 6-1, 6-3 Mon Zuzana's backhand #87 Sanda Mamic CRO d #113 Emmanuelle Gagliardi SUI 6-1, 6-4 Tue *#93 Arantxa Parra Santonja ESP d #90 Michaela Pastikova CZE 6-2, 6-4 Tue Arantxa, right-handed, plays 2-handed on both sides *#95 Tathiana Garbin ITA d #94 Stephanie Cohen Aloro FRA 6-4, 6-0 Tue Tathiana serving *#298 q Agnes Szavay HUN d #116 LL Anastasiya Yakimova BLR 6-2, 6-4 Tue *#121 Marta Marrero ESP d #119 q Melinda Czink HUN 0-6, 7-5, 6-3 Tue Marta's backhand #205 q Elena Vesnina RUS d #433 Maja Matevzic SLO 6-3, 6-1 Tue Elena after winning a point     Elena has won 2 ITF singles and 6 ITF doubles titles; her biggest career wins have been over Evgenia Linetskaya and Lucie Safarova. She will have a chance to improve on that in the 2nd round, where she will face 2nd-seeded # 24 Flavia Pennetta.     Maja reached a career-high rank of # 38 in 2003, then her rank plummeted due to a left wrist injury during 2004. This year left elbow and right shoulder injuries have kept Maja mostly offcourt; hopefully she will be fully fit again soon.

Modena, 2nd Round, Wed-Thu loser's prize: $1,825 US; points: 12 #23 s1 wc Francesca Schiavone ITA d #121 Marta Marrero ESP 6-3, 6-0 Wed Francesca delivering a backhand, and applying ink with her forehand after the match #24 s2 wc Flavia Pennetta ITA d #205 q Elena Vesnina RUS 7-6(3), 6-2 Thu Flavia slicing a backhand #61 s5 Anna Smashnova ISR d #93 Arantxa Parra Santonja ESP 6-4, 6-0 Wed *#95 Tathiana Garbin ITA d #63 s6 Jelena Kostanic CRO 6-2, 6-3 Thu Tathiana flying to hit a forehand #71 s8 Mariana Díaz-Oliva ARG d #78 Martina Sucha SVK 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-3 Thu *#298 q Agnes Szavay HUN d #81 Zuzana Ondraskova CZE 6-3, 6-1 Wed Agnes launching a backhand, and serving to the ad court     16-year-old Agnes, from Kiskunhalas, Hungary, is playing in only her 3rd WTA main draw. Agnes has had a very good year, winning the French Open juniors singles and doubles (with Viktoria Azarenka), and the Wimbledon juniors doubles (with Viktoria), while reaching the juniors singles SFs there. Agnes also reached the juniors singles final at the Australian Open (where she lost to Viktoria).     Agnes will play in her first WTA Tour quarterfinal on Friday-- against top-seeded Francesca. #87 Sanda Mamic CRO d #229 Zi Yan CHN 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 Thu Sanda engaged in a little hair maintenance #97 Emilie Loit FRA d #112 LL Ekaterina Bychkova RUS 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 Wed Emile serving (or smashing?), and delivering a running forehand volley

Modena, QFs, Fri loser's prize: $3,400 US; points: 24 #298 q Agnes Szavay HUN d #23 s1 wc Francesca Schiavone ITA 6-1, 6-4 Agnes lines up a backhand     Agnes was born in Kiskunhalas, Hungary (pop. 30,100), about 80 miles south of Budapest, near the Serbian border. She started playing tennis at age 6, likes hard courts as well as clay, and offcourt likes horseback riding and listening to music. She is coached by Jozsef Bocskai. #24 s2 wc Flavia Pennetta ITA d #71 s8 Mariana Díaz-Oliva ARG 6-0, 6-2 Flavia's forehand #61 s5 Anna Smashnova ISR v #97 Emilie Loit FRA 6-1, 6-4 Anna's strong 1-handed backhand, and after match point *#95 Tathiana Garbin ITA d #87 Sanda Mamic CRO 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(4) Tathiana's forehand     note: The "quarterfinal" photos above were originally posted at the Modena marked July 15th. Later, the same pages were relabeled July 16th, indicated the photos were from the semis, not the quarters. This left no photos for the quarters. It looks like the photos for the QFs & SFs are posted together on the pages labeled July 16. I am leaving the pics where they are, above, they might be from the quarters or the semis.

Modena, SFs, Sat loser's prize: $6,300 US; points: 43 *#61 s5 Anna Smashnova ISR d #24 s2 wc Flavia Pennetta ITA 7-5, 6-3     Anna said: "It was a very, very tough match. A few points made the difference... I hope to play my best possible tennis tomorrow." story #95 Tathiana Garbin ITA d #298 q Agnes Szavay HUN 6-3, 6-0     Tathiana said: "[Agnes] is very dangerous when she can take command of play. I imposed my tactic from the very first game, and it paid off."     About playing Anna Smashnova in the final, Tathiana said: "[Anna] makes few mistakes and is difficult to beat. It will be up to me to vary my play and cause her problems."

Modena, Final, Sun loser's prize: $12,000 US; points: 67 winner's prize: $22,000 US; points: 95 #61 s5 Anna Smashnova ISR d #95 Tathiana Garbin ITA 6(3)-6(0) retired-- heatstroke Tathiana recovered enough to come out and smile for the award presentation (she is standing with a little assistance); Anna had time to shower and change before picking up her trophy & check

Modena, Doubles Final, Sun loser's prize: $3,475 US winner's prize: $6,500 US cdr184 Yulia Beygelzimer & Mervana Jugic-Salkic d cdr74 s1 Gabriela Navratilova & Michaela Pastikova 6-2, 6-0 Gabriela, Michaela, Mervana, & Yulia Modena, Qualifying Finals, Mon Jul 11 loser's prize: $550 *#119 Melinda Czink HUN d #112 Ekaterina Bychkova RUS 6-2, 6-3 *#298 Agnes Szavay HUN d #116 Anastasiya Yakimova BLR 6-3, 6-1 #143 Katerina Bohmova CZE d #308 Petra Cetkovska CZE 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 #205 Elena Vesnina RUS d #236 Yulia Beygelzimer UKR 6-3, 6-2 Elena's backhand Modena, Withdrawals #38 Virginie Razzano FRA left ankle #40 s3 Klara Koukalova CZE illness #51 Dally Randriantefy MAD #73 s9 Maria Elena Camerin ITA right shoulder tendonitis

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