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Fort Lauderdale, Florida • July 3-7, 2002

 

First Round Women's Singles

By Larry Hodges

This round brought us to the final 32 women. It was not a good round for USA, as all five women lost, four of them at the hands of Japanese players. All of the top seeds advanced except one, world #37 Olga Nemes of Germany, a semifinalist last year. Among the top eight seeds, six matches were quick 4-0 wins, with the top two seeds each losing a game: World #1 Wang Nan of China defeated Biljana Golic of Yugoslavia, 5,-9,9,6,5, and world #2 Zhang Yining, also of China, defeated Ligia Silva of Brazil, 6,4,-8,2,5.

Often in early round results, especially in women's singles, most matches are quick 4-0 whitewashes, and many matches this round were like that. But a couple of youthful Canadians battled with the veterans - and one pulled it out.

Canada's Petra Cada, ranked #167 in the world, pulled off the biggest upset so far, defeating Nemes, 5,-7,-10,9,-10,3,8. The tall Canadian relied on her strong countering game in the win. 

Canada's junior girls' champion Marie-Christine Roussy, #241 in the world, almost matched her teammate against Korea's Kim Moo Kyo, world #20. The Seemiller-grip junior (using one side of the racket for forehand and backhand, with a sheet of antispin on the other side to flip to for variation) confused the veteran, who might never have seen such a style before, and Roussy up 3-1. However, the experienced Kim figured the style out in time, -5,9,-8,-10,5,6,5. 

The five USA players left in the draw did not advance. They were:

For more women's singles results, see the women's singles draw.

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