Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Postcard from Portugal: Kleybanova, the top seed

ESTORIL, Portugal?It?s early to have a favorite court at the Estoril Open, but the charm of Centralito is undeniable. ?Little centre,? flanked by colonnades and backed by the slanting pine trees covering the hills of Jamor, is a pleasant place to sit on sun-warmed stone bleachers and enjoy a soft breeze coming off the sea. There?s nothing soft or pleasant, however, about the manner in which Alisa Kleybanova dismantles Olga Govortsova, 6-2, 6-2. The tournament?s top seed has 90 ranking places on her opponent and seems determined to exact revenge for her defeat by the Belarusian in her last two matches.

It?s a match of short points and first strikes. Govortsova hits big, but up close, Kleybanova?s tennis is simply huge. She hits flat and hard, the ball popping cleanly off the strings each time to clear the net by inches. She is clinical and effective at net and willing to forge forward when she can. Type ?Alisa Kleybanova? into Google and the first two suggested search terms you get are ?fat? and ?weight,? but the woman I?m watching looks amazingly fit. Even the sudden jerk of her head as she hits through the ball looks different seen from close-up; more an organic part of her stroke, an expressive flourish that redeems her style from the clean and mechanical.

Kleybanova kept Govortsova waiting at the beginning of the match while she exchanged a few last-minute words with her coach at the top of the Centralito stairs, and keeps me waiting for the best part of an hour for a post-match interview, but she doesn?t waste time when she does arrive. Frank and straightforward, Kleybanova uses the word ?hungry? a lot?she?s hungry for matches, hungry to put her training into practice, hungry for the big tournaments. She doesn?t smile a lot, but when she does?noticeably when talking about her grandmother Zhanna, who is traveling with her for the first time?it transforms her face.

I ask her about the current state of the WTA and the sense that any one of a number of players, Kleybanova included, can win a big tournament or even a Slam if they get their form together. ?I would say that Top 30 is really very close to each other in the level, it?s very strong. So someone who is better shape and has a bit more luck during the week and I don?t know, finds himself [sic] on the court good has a lot of chances to win?Every match now is difficult, I mean for example I?m a top seed or a Top 4 seed, it doesn?t matter, you get a tough match straight away from the first round. Now any match you get, no matter if you?re seeded or not, you have to give everything and be ready for a fight.? As we talk, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, the fifth seed, is losing to Monica Niculescu, proving the point.

When I think about Kleybanova, I think of a player on the verge with all the talent in the world, seeking a way to put it all together. She can beat any player on tour on her day, as she says, but she?s also prone to bizarre losses - most recently a 6-1, 6-0 rout at the hands of Christina McHale in Charleston, a match she refers to as ?a bit of disaster.? It?s useful to remember that despite her imposing physical presence and air of maturity, she?s only 21, her big break coming at Wimbledon 2008 when she made the fourth round. She would love above all things to go further at Wimbledon, she says, and in an age where players are maturing later than they once did, it?s eminently possible.  
 
What?s interesting about Kleybanova on court is how self-contained she is, how unemotional. Her game is premised on rendering the opponent irrelevant by hitting past them if possible, through them if necessary; it?s mirrored by her self-absorbed body language, barely glancing down the other end of the court or looking at her coach, who reclines in his seat like he knows he doesn?t have much to do today. The other day I listened to Eleni Danilidou?s coach yell ?emotions out, Eleni, emotions OUT!? after every other point for three-and-a-half hours, but Kleybanova?s tennis is a world away from the Greek?s choppy, battling style; it?s not about engaging the opponent and breaking them down, as for example Caroline Wozniacki?s game, it?s about executing her own game well and trusting that everything else will take care of itself.

Something that sounds as simple as that has to be very complicated indeed, and Kleybanova gets her most animated when I ask about her inconsistent results. ?It?s not like I don?t know how to play,? she says, sounding for once as young as her years. ?Recently I tried to take my bad losses more quiet like, it?s OK, I know that it happens to me and I just don?t want to focus on it too much. When you can accept that you can play really bad, you go on the court and you just say, OK, I?ll try to do the best that I can. And if it isn?t working, I?ll try to win the match anyways, I?ll try to find the key to win?So maybe like step by step I am trying to make my game more consistent so it won?t be such a big difference between great matches and bad losses. I still have some strange matches going on but I hope it?s going to be less and less and I?m going to have my level more steady.?
 
It sounds like her biggest competition is herself, something that her childhood spent training as a swimmer alongside tennis has clearly prepared her for. She chose tennis because ?you can express yourself more, it?s more individual?In tennis you can be tall, you can be short, you can adjust to yourself and work on yourself and always find a way to be good.?

I point out that she?s doing pretty well in her chosen sport. 

?So far,? she says, smiling. ?So far.?

Source: http://feeds.tennis.com/~r/tenniscom-features/~3/ePEto-OS2qo/

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