Tatishvili, Tomljanovic To Battle in Macon Final
MACON, Georgia, (October 12, 2013) Saturday is usually a day reserved for college football in the South, but don’t tell that to the tennis fans of Macon, Georgia.
Saturday means the semifinals at the ButlerCars.com Tennis Classic of Macon held at the Jaime Kaplan Tennis Center at Stratford Academy.
It also meant a time for the favorites to step up their game and shine.
Saturday’s first semifinal featured former top-50 pro Anna Tatishvili of the Republic of Georgia and Ulrikke Eikeri, the No. 1 player from Norway.
Tatishvili jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead over Eikeri, but she said it was no time to relax.
“Obviously you try to win every game, but a fast start sure helps.”
Eikeri fought back to even the first set at 4-4, but Tatishvili broke and then held to get the one set advantage.
When a reporter said this may have been her best match of the tournament so far, Tatishvili agreed.
“I played pretty solid today, I was in good position for my shots.”
The second set was more of the same with Tatishvili staying ahead the entire way to close out the win.
Tatishvili broke Eikeri six times during the match.
There wasn’t much suspense in the second semifinal as top seeded and world No. 86 Ajla Tomljanovic took the first four games of the match with a dominating array of serves and forehands keeping her opponent, Madison Brengle off balance, looking for answers, and questioning line calls.
It’s possibly the first match all week where Tomljanovic, who didn’t face any break points, was pleased with her play.
“Today, not much to complain about, I played as well as I could and didn’t make any mistakes, but credit to her, she fought to the end,” explained the 5’11” righty from Zagreb, Croatia.
The 6-2, 6-1 match only lasted 61 minutes, but Tomljanovic said that was a good thing.
“It was kind of tough, she’s (Brengle) the type of player that doesn’t give you much time in between points. so my heart rate was always up.”
Tomljanovic and Tatishvili have played once before with Tomljanovic taking a three set win in 2009 at the USTA Pro Circuit event in Albuquerque.
The action on Sunday begins at 1 pm with the doubles final and the singles final will follow.
Saturday’s Results (Winners Listed First)
Anna TATISHVILI (GEO) [4]Ulrikke EIKERI (NOR) WS 6-4 6-3
Ajla TOMLJANOVIC (CRO) [1]Madison BRENGLE (USA) [3] WS 6-1 6-2
—Rick Limpert
Tennis Atlantic 