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HowardH · Mar 17th, 2009, 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danker

Di will face Alenka Hubacek in the 1R of $10K Hamilton.

If she wins, she may face Zhang Ling again.

Thanks danker. This is a really tough draw.

Not only is Zhang in great form, having won the futures in Auckland last week, but even Hubacek is a very tough first round. She was one of the players I watched last week, she's young with a strong serve, good volleys, and a fair amount of power. Her coach, a woman who for some reason reminds me of Lleyton's mum, watches her matches and was videoing the match with a camera on a tripod. She seems to call her "Lenky" and she encourages her a lot. She lost in the third set tiebreak to the top seed, Sandy Gumulya, in a long match that took about three hours, and really could have won, but for a few naive decisions at big points. She had a good chance to go up a minibreak at a crucial time with an easy short ball but chose to dropshot instead of going for a regular winner (which would have been easily successful).

Quite frankly, if Dianne can get through these first two rounds she can probably win the whole thing. But these rounds are quite hard, probably among the toughest matches in the draw.

OZTENNIS · Mar 17th, 2009, 04:11 AM

Dianne beat Alenka 4-6 6-4 6-2

HowardH · Mar 17th, 2009, 04:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OZTENNIS

Dianne beat Alenka 4-6 6-4 6-2

Thanks for putting the score up. That was a good win, Alenka was dangerous. Now she probably plays Zhang again, in another very tough match.

Golovinjured. · Mar 17th, 2009, 08:15 AM

Great win

My favourite kiwi after Liam Finn, Ladyhawke, and the cast of Outrageous Fortune.

HowardH · Mar 17th, 2009, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golovinjured.

Great win

My favourite kiwi after Liam Finn, Ladyhawke, and the cast of Outrageous Fortune.

You have good taste.

I always forget that things from New Zealand are sometimes seen by the rest of the world. Or at least by people in Australia.

I tend to think we're pretty much invisible here. I can never tell who is actually famous overseas as opposed to just famous in NZ.

Dianne lost her doubles match with Luci Barlow (the tiny one) after winning the first set 6-0. They lost the second 6-1 and then went down 10-8 in the match tiebreak.

Oh well, I guess she can concentrate on her singles then.

HowardH · Mar 19th, 2009, 03:37 AM

Dianne lost today to Zhang Ling again, this time it was 7-6(3) 6-1. Zhang seems to be pretty tough, since she is solid on pretty much all shots, with a good serve, but Dianne was close in that first set. She probably needed the first set. I still think Dianne will rise quite a lot this year, when her forehand fires she can beat some pretty good players. I bet in the second set her serve started to falter again.

I can just see it in my mind.

HowardH · Mar 19th, 2009, 06:01 AM

A pic of Dianne from the futures in Hamilton:

Golovinjured. · Mar 19th, 2009, 06:51 AM

Zhang Ling is an absolute cow, go play in China.

Where next for Dianne?

Rising Sun · Mar 19th, 2009, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golovinjured.

Zhang Ling is an absolute cow, go play in China.

Where next for Dianne?

Rather than telling Zhang to play in China, it'd be more beneficial for Di by encouraging her to keep improving against better opponents.

Bad luck Di, but at least she got points! Hopefully a more favourable draw next week at Wellington, as she received another MD WC!

HowardH · Mar 23rd, 2009, 05:15 AM

Yeah, we'd like Dianne to win these matches, but of course that's the whole point of the tour being international, you have to beat these players from other countries, and you have to go to other countries. But it was unlucky of Dianne to draw Zhang the last two times, since she is one of the best players in these tournaments.

But I think Di is up to the challenge. This week she has drawn the 5th seed, Chae from Korea. I saw Chae in practice and in a match in Auckland, she is a lefty with a very big but flat forehand. In practice, Chae's forehand is absolutely massive, but in a match she gets more conservative with it so I think Dianne's forehand will be just as big if not bigger, since Di has more spin. Chae beat Kairangi in 3 sets in Auckland, K had good chances. Her weakness is that her serve is a bit soft, and she is a bit out of shape, so her movement is a problem. So Dianne can move her around in order to win, I think. It will be tough but in my opinion not impossible, Chae is probably not as tough as Zhang. Hopefully.

HowardH · Mar 23rd, 2009, 05:46 AM

A pic of Dianne after losing to Jelena 4 and 4 in Fed cup after being up 3-0 in the first set and 2-0 in the second. Yes, Jelena can be very shakey, so I'm not sure we can count that as necessarily a great result, but it's a good one anyway. Di looks so much smaller than Jelena

Dianne's serve during fed cup this year

. Notice how her grip slips in her hand

. She hits it really low too and the follow-through is awkward sometimes. I wish she could fix this, it's the only really major weakness she has.

Also from fed cup

Here's a pic of Dianne after she won the NZ residential's a couple of years ago.

And a couple more pics from the residential's that year (2006)

OZTENNIS · Mar 23rd, 2009, 10:46 AM

Thanks for pics

One of the few shining lights for New Zealand in 2009, it seems.

Are Sacha and Ellen ever going to make it back on tour?

HowardH · Mar 24th, 2009, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OZTENNIS

Thanks for pics

One of the few shining lights for New Zealand in 2009, it seems.

Are Sacha and Ellen ever going to make it back on tour?

I'm sure Sacha and Ellen will be playing again sometime soon. I saw Sacha supporting her brother in the futures in Albany, she drove in in a little bright yellow beetle and walked off to watch him. She looked fit as always. So she must be close to playing again. She obviously has a training plan that is taking some time, and I think that could be a good thing, hopefully she might improve a few things. Ellen, well I don't know how her rehab is going but hopefully it's all good.

Dianne is no longer unranked, she now has a ranking of 802 in singles

(940= in doubles). Her career high singles ranking is 699, I'm sure she'll easily beat that this year. She is playing doubles with Alenka Hubacek in Wellington, I guess they talked after Dianne beat her in the last futures and decided to team up. I think they could be a good team, Alenka serves well and volleys well too.

HowardH · Mar 25th, 2009, 07:17 AM

Dianne lost to the 5th seed, Chae from Korea. She had a good start, leading 3-0 at the start, but eventually lost 6-4 7-5. Dianne could have won I think, but Chae isn't easy, with her big lefty forehand. Wish I could have seen it, then I would know more what to say.

On the plus side, Dianne and Alenka Hubacek are in the semis of the doubles in Wellington after beating the 3rd seeds, Alison Bai and Renee Binnie 6-2 6-3. I thought that Dianne and Alenka could be a good team. They will face Chae's doubles team.

HowardH · Mar 25th, 2009, 07:34 AM

From Dianne's 3 set win over Alenka in the Hamilton futures.

From the final of the money tournament in Hawera in January, on grass courts. Dianne was third seed but really was the favourite and won her seventh money tournament of the season, beating Kairangi Vano in the final (again) 7-6(2) 6-2.