Daily Updates April 21-28
from the ITF Challenger in Dothan, Alabama
Hopefully pictures will begin to be up Saturday or Sunday
4/26/02 After watching most of the players this week, one thing is for sure. Ashley belongs here. She's as good as anyone else and could have beat anyone at the tournament. Also after talking with some of the people in the tournament that are see this girls more often than I do the consciousness seems to be that Ashley can definitely move up in the rankings this next year. She has a couple of things to work on and playing against the higher level of competition will help improve her game.
One thing that was noticed by almost everyone. She doesn't have the finesse game she had last year. She has gone to more of a power game. The thought seemed to be that she needed to keep the finesse or a least do more to win points earlier. She seems to have become almost exclusively a "baseliner". It's not that she ever wasn't a baseliner but she seemed to just want to stay on the baseline and return volleys. She didn't seem to try to move her opponents around a lot. Also she seems to have a manufactured "blow" now when she strikes the ball. When she went back to her "grunt" all the sudden her game improved. She does have a new coach now and he may be developing Ashley in a particular direction for a particular reason. Naturally none of us know what that may be. It will be a year to watch, wait and see.
Ashley can make the top 50, I don't think there's any doubt about that anymore. The only question now is how quickly can she get there and how much farther can she go?
4/25/02 Ashley and Gisela lost their doubles match today in three sets. They played Brie Rippner and Melissa Middleton. It went three sets. It went 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to Rippner and Middleton. Dulko wasn't playing well. Dulko lost her singles match a bit earlier in the day. She had her chances in the singles match and couldn't close it out. Rippner and Harkleroad were both playing well while Dulko and Middleton struggled and seemed to make most of the errors.
Ashley looked good in both her singles and doubles losses. A little more work and match play with some experience at closing out sets and match play at higher levels will help her improve.
4/24/02 Good news and Bad news today. The good news: Ashley hit more winners today against Sarah Taylor than she hit in her 3 previous matches combined, or so it seemed at least. (Sarah Taylor by the way reminded me a lot of Steffi Graf, especially with the slice backhand.) Ashley had more Aces today and probably even less unforced errors overall than any of her previous matches. Stats are hard to come by since I'm usually working the match and taking a few pictures hopefully to be posted by next Monday.
Ok, the bad news: The first set went to a tiebreak. Ashley was up 6-4 and serving for the set. She double faulted. Taylor then went on to win the tiebreak 8-6. Good news: Ashley came out on fire in the second set. On her serve Ashley only lost 6 points. Several winners an Ace or two very few unforced errors. Ashley wins the set 6-1.
Third Set: Ashley had a little opening in the first game at 0-30 and all the sudden you had a feeling that the Harkleroad Steamroller was well on its way. It didn't work out that way however. Taylor ended up winning the game and then broke Ashley's serve. Ashley then broke back and held serve for 2-2. Ashley then faced another break point and double faulted. Taylor was now up 4-2 and held for 5-2. Ashley then was down 0-40 and saved one break point before finally losing the match, 6-7, 6-1, 2-6.
Ashley said that she had her points set up but just wasn't able to convert on the critical points. If you watched the match you could see that, exactly. She only had 5 or 6 double faults but 3 of them were in very critical points of the match. She also said she liked the pace Taylor was giving her, she just didn't finish when she needed too. (The last paragraph is a paraphrase of what she said to the Dothan Eagle reported and isn't the exact words she said or used.) Ashley played a very good match, probably the best match this week. The breaks just didn't go her way today.
My analysis: Ashley could have won the match and some may say should have won. However, the match play against the higher talent level in the $75,000 tournaments has to help her out. After watching her today there isn't any question that Ashley has the talent and skill to get into the top 50. How much higher she can go will take a little more time and experience to tell.
Ashley plays doubles tomorrow with her Wimbledon Jr. Championship partner Gisela Dulko. Dulko upset #3 seed Mashona Washington 6-3, 6-7, 7-5 in a 2 1/2 hour match that was very intense and entertaining.
4/23/02 Ashley avenges a loss. Ashley played Marielle Hoogland today at around 12:15 P.M. Ashley chose to serve today while yesterday she chose to receive. The match started off with both players holding serve until the 6th game where Ashley got the break for a 4-2 lead. She then held for 5-2. Hoogland held for 5-3 before Ashley went up 40-0 on her serve and at 40-30 won the next point to win the first set. Ashley did struggle holding serve in a couple of games going to deuce several times and even faced a couple of break points.
The second set was all Ashley. She broke in the first game and won the second game at love. She then broke Hoogland at love to take a quick 3-0 lead. Ashley won 10 or 11 points in a row before finally netting a ball in the fourth game to go 15-15. Ashley did struggle a little bit in the fourth game and faced a break point but reeled off 3 straight points to win the game. Ashley then broke Hoogland in game five to go up 5-0 and then served out the match going up 40-0 before winning the final game at 15.
Ashley had a few winners in the match and did make a few errors in the first set. Overall it was a consist match for Ashley. She didn't hit very many into the net and wasn't long or wide by much when she did miss. Hoogland did have quite a few errors early on in the second set. That helped Ashley out, by giving her an early lead. Later in the set Hoogland was still making errors but Ashley was dictating the play a little more forcing Hoogland into errors that were likely scored unforced.
Ashley get revenge for the match she lost to Hoogland in Michigan earlier in the year, 6-3, 6-0.
OTHER NEWS: Ashley is playing with Gisela Dulko in Doubles. They are in the main draw and didn't have to qualify. Ashley's next opponent is #4 seed Sarah Taylor. It will be a 10 A.M. match on Wednesday. Gisela Dulko plays #3 seed Mashona Washington at around 1 P.M.
4/22/02 It was a typical match for Ashley tonight. She lost the first set 1-6 after breaking Tiffany Dabek in the very first game. Ashley probably should have been up 4-1 or at worst 3-2 in the set but just wasn't getting the breaks. Not a lot of unforced errors, just all at critical spots, break points, game points etc..
The Second set was all Harkleroad. She won the first game at love and broke at love at one point in the set. Ashley's only blunder in the second set was actually allowing Dabek to win the 6th game. She then went on to serve and close out the set. The 3rd set started off well. Ashley broke in game one and three but allowed Dabek to stay in the match by having her own serve broken in the second game. They played even to 4-3 with Ashley still up a break. Ashley then closed out the match by holding serve and then breaking back (I believe at love but it may have been 15.)
There were a lot of great shots in the match. Both players fought hard in the 3rd set. Ashley made some great down the line winners and a couple of drop shots that were masterful. Again in this match Ashley got to a couple of balls in a game on back to back strokes that would have won the point for most players, Ashley returned them.
Ashley plays Marielle Hoogland as predicted. Ashley lost to Hoogland in Midland, Michigan at the $75,000 qualifier. It was 5-7 in the 3rd. This will be a test for Ashley. How well can she handle the ground stokes with a little more pace. Hoogland hits a very hard and fast ball. Should be a great match.
4/22/02 Ashley plays tonight at 6:30 Central Daylight Time. She will play Tiffany Dabek. It will be the feature match on center court. The picture below is of the Saturday before the tournament workout.
4/21/02 ASHLEY WINS Ashley played Evgenia Subbotina in the third match of the day on center court. Ashley received the first game of the match. The first game went to deuce where each player had an ad before Ashley broke on her 1st break point opportunity of the day. Ashley then was down 0-30 in the second game before winning the next 4 points to go up 2-0. Ashley then let the 3rd game get away after 0-30 and 30-40. Ashley then won the fourth game at love. In the fifth game Ashley was up 0-40 and hustle for two great "gets" before finally losing the point but won the game on the next point. Ashley then won at 15 and broke Subbotina at love to win the first set 6-1.
In the second set Ashley started off quickly winning the first game at love but losing the second at 15. Ashley then won at 15 to take a 2-1 lead. The fourth game was a the only game contested in the whole match. Ashley had two break points before Subbotina fought back to deuce. Subbotina then had the ad before Ashley brought it back to deuce. Ashley then failed to capitalize on two more break points before finally breaking on the 5th chance of the game. Ashley then won the next two games before giving up a break herself while serving for the match. It looked like maybe Ashley was trying to try a couple of things different with such a big lead and they didn't pay off. (Can't say that for sure that's what she was doing but she seemed to play that game different than all the others during the match.) Finally Ashley closed it out, breaking back in the last game at love.
One thing of note. Mareille Hoogland is on the horizon. She will likely have to beat her to get into the main draw. She lost a close match, 5-7 in the 3rd to Mareille at Midland Michigan earlier this year. It was her first DNQ.
4/20/02 It's finally official. Ashley will make the tournament in Dothan. Kim Meeker (tournament director) received and email from her today stating that she was going to play in Dothan. She was offered the wildcard but was unable to accept it. She is not allowed to accept another wildcard until she turns 17 on 5/02/02.
4/18/02 Late tonight the update was: Ashley is playing! Not much more than that to report at this time.
4/18/02 Latest word out of Westgate Tennis Center is that Ashley does have an injury. The extent of that injury is unknown at this time. She was on the players list at Jackson but was a no show. At this time the officials in Dothan aren't sure if she is going to make the show. Check back here this weekend. As soon as I find out I'll post it. I should know for sure by Sunday afternoon.
4/12/02 Reports from Westgate Tennis Center in Dothan Eagle indicate that Ashley has put her name in the qualifying section of the tournament. Ken Meeker of Dothan's Department of Leisure Services is considering giving Ashley the host site's wildcard into the main draw. At this point it seems all he needs to do is to confirm she is coming and Ashley will be in the main draw.
4/11/02 The Movie Gallery $75,000 USTA Pro Tennis Classic is almost ready for the first serve. Besides information on this website which will exclusively cover Ashley Harkleroad you can get updates on the tournament website. They have or will have player information, schedules, ticket information and highlights form the 2001 tournament. There are 3 pictures of Ashley on the 2001 Tournament link. Go to www.dothanprotennis.org for all the information.