Sunday, January 13, 2013

A new year, new hopes for Gajdosova

by Peter Newlinds in Hobart

Updated January 08, 2013 00:54:39

Hobart International first-round winner Jarmila Gajdosova is in high spirits as she continues to build towards next week's Australian Open.

Gajdosova, who has received a wildcard into the Australian Open, enjoyed a first-round Hobart win over Switzerland's Romina Oprandi 6-4, 7-5.

Returning to the tournament she won two years ago Gajdosova is making up for lost ground in 2012.

Last year while playing a tournament in China her mother died unexpectedly during the course of her treatment for throat cancer.

Gajdosova, who had been having a poor year on the court, took eight weeks away from the game and to spend time with her family in Slovakia and think of things other than tennis.

'That time away from the sport gave me time to think of a tennis match for what it is," she told Grandstand.

"It's about having a bit of fun out there. There are so many worse things that can happen to you other than losing a tennis match.''

Her world ranking slipped to 183 but Gajdosova is optimistic about making big strides in 2013 on the women's tour.

"When you lose someone close to you it's never easy but it's a new start, a new year."

"I guess all the bad things have already happened so I'm looking forward to this year."

An upbeat Gajdosova described her win over Oprandi as a decent match and took some confidence out of last week's Brisbane International, her first tournament since September.

In her first round she managed to upstage Italy's Roberta Vinci but was eliminated in the second round by little-known Ukrainian Leisa Tsurenko. Her world ranking has improved to 167.

"It was a good start (in Brisbane)," she said.

"Beating the world number 16 wasn't too bad even though the second round didn't go as well as I had hoped."

Gajdosova said she has been back training foe eight weeks as is in fairly good shape heading into the Australian Open.

"It's more of a confidence thing than anything else," she added.

"Playing these tournaments enables me to build concentration and improve my preparation more than training does."

Gajdosova will meet Olga Govortsova of Belarus in the second round.

In the late match on Monday night, Australia's Ashleigh Barty was defeated by ninth seed Mona Barthel of Germany 6-2, 0-6, 1-6.

The biggest shock of the round was the defeat of number one seed, Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan, who was beaten 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4) by China's Peng Shuai.

Another to bow out was 2010 French Open finalist and sixth seed Francesca Schiavone of Italy, who was beaten by Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3).

Among other results, South Africa's Chanelle Scheepers beat Frenchwoman Alize Cornet 6-1, 6-2 and Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova downed Irina Begu of Romania 6-3, 6-4.

Australia's Bojana Bobusic was beaten by American Lauren Davis in three sets, 6-1, 2-6, 6-7 (5-7), while other winners included Romanians Monica Niculescu and Simona Halep, Russia's Elena Vesnina, Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova.

Tags: tennis, sport, hobart-7000

First posted January 07, 2013 12:58:19


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