Colin B
Jan 29th, 2003, 02:04 AM
As a recent 'convert' to Challenger Tennis I was thrilled to see Stephanie Cohen Aloro come through the quallies to beat Tatiana Panova (6-0 6-3!) in r.1 of the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
I followed her progress to the title in the Cardiff $25 K last October, beating Selima Sfar and only dropping one set (to Marion Bartoli) and here she is breaking into 'the big time'!
I just hope a few of her British contemporaries like Elena Baltacha and Anne Keothavong (whom Stephanie also beat in Cardiff) can draw some inspiration from her achievements.
I'll be following the Challengers even more closely now.
england_rules
Jan 29th, 2003, 03:16 AM
Well Bally already has a win matching that against Mandy Coetzer at Wimbledon last year! It wasn't as easy but she still won and I think Coetzer's better than Tati!
Colin B
Jan 29th, 2003, 04:20 PM
Originally posted by england_rules
Well Bally already has a win matching that against Mandy Coetzer at Wimbledon last year! It wasn't as easy but she still won and I think Coetzer's better than Tati!
Yes, Ballie's win against Coetzer was brilliant and I'm not trying to belittle her achievement that day, particularly as we now know she had health worries..........but it happened at Wimbledon, the one place you would expect her to break through (and I really hope she can repeat or better it this year!) Had Cohen Aloro's win come as a wild card at RG, I wouldn't be pointing it out.
When* Elena, Anne, Jane or any other up-and-coming UK player qualifies at a tour event abroad (ie. out of her 'comfort zone') and beats a top 25 player in the first round, you can be sure I'll be on here shouting about it.
(* I do mean 'when', not 'if'!)
The main point of my original post was to celebrate the fact that I 'picked out' Cohen Aloro (as she progressed at Cardiff) as a player who was going places and it looks like I may have been right. I'm sure many other 'Challenger followers' have similar experiences all the time.;)
BTW, I've stopped posting good luck messages for GBTG's just in case I 'jinx' them. :rolleyes:
monster
Jan 31st, 2003, 05:04 AM
stephanie has been doing really wellm over the last 6 months- I thinhk its odd and if anyone can explain why she came to australia for our $25K season in nov-Dec- went home via Asia challenger (Thailand I think) and then didn't play the australian circut only to re appear in Asia in Tokyo.
Why palm the ausie summer mainstream circut including the OZ Open?
also- why did Bacheva not come to OZ?