Monday, September 22, 2008
Ditty Prevails in ColemanVision Title Match
By Toby Smith
Journal Staff Writer
A Ditty double.
In Ditty World, the tennis sphere that Julie Ditty has existed in all week at Tanoan Country Club, winning is only one part of living.
In Ditty World, opponents get mowed down like crabgrass, smiles show up often, rackets never thrown, autographs signed until fingers hurt, thank-yous handed out like pennies, boring interview questions gracefully answered, and, just for fun, somersaults made off the top of the Sandia Mountains.
No truth to that last act, though in Ditty World, anything's possible.
On Sunday afternoon, Ditty, the ColemanVision Championships No. 2 seed, knocked off the No. 1 seed and defending champion, Rossana de los Rios, 6-4, 7-6 (3) to take the singles title.
Twenty-five minutes later, Ditty, 29, returned to the court to capture the doubles with Carly Gullickson, 6-3, 6-4, over Argentina's Jorgelina Cravero and Betina Jozami.
In Ditty World, though, surprises sometimes happen.
Against the stalwart De los Rios, steady as a metronome at 33, Ditty failed to convert seven match points, six in the second set and another in the tiebreak. That sort of of tension left many in the sun-drenched crowd of 250 spent from excitement.
"Believe me," Ditty said later as she scribbled her name on tennis balls for a mob of ballkids, "I didn't want to make it exciting. I think we were both nervous out there."
Indeed, after zipping through the first set, mostly by sending mini-lobs and slow stuff to De los Rios, Ditty led 4-1 in the second. At that point, fans began collecting their belongings; Ditty World seemed impregnable.
Surprise!
"I didn't play my game then," said Ditty, acknowledging that she shifted to wailing from the baseline with De los Rios, who is a master of that.
Serving for the match at 5-3, Ditty World shook. Four straight times Ditty failed to convert and suddenly the score was 5-4. Just as quick was 5-all, then 6-all. In the tiebreak, Ditty jumped out to 4-1, and at 6-3 De los Rios double-faulted to end things.
In Ditty World, when you win you don't do a Roger Federer and roll around on the court. Nor do you scramble up into the stands and hug family members. (None were around). You walk to the net with your head up, smiling (of course). You shake hands and then exchange a kiss.
When all was done, De los Rios was smiling, too.
"It was not like a normal match," she said. "There were so many match points."
For winning, Ditty received $11,400. De los Rios' runner-up check was $6,080.
In doubles, Carly Gullickson, slamming unreturnable overheads left and right at the Argentines, carried the pairing that reached the third round of the U.S. Open. The two Americans will split $4,180. The Argentines will do likewise with $2,090.
The proceeds for this year's ColemanVision Championships totaled about $20,000, according to tournament director Sue Jollensten.
Next up for Ditty World? Today, she leaves for her hometown of Ashland, Ky., and a $10,000 Pro Circuit event there run by her father, Dr. Jack Ditty, a dermatologist.
De los Rios, from Paraguay, will have her eyes checked by Dr. Stephen Coleman. If everything goes right, she'll return to Albuquerque in a couple of weeks and have Lasik surgery.