Anna Tatishvili

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Tatishvili Leads @AustralianOpen Wild Card, But Do Americans Care?

Posted by Admin on November 3, 2015
Posted in: Australian Open, Steve Fogleman, USTA, WTA. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Anna Tatishvili (Photo: R. Limpert)

Anna Tatishvili is leading the USTA Australian Open Wild Card Challenge by virtue of reaching the finals at the USTA Pro Circuit Tennis Classic of Macon last weekend. Good for her. Maybe not so good for USTA marketing purposes. In my 4 1/2 years of covering pro tennis on this website, no other American woman has produced so little interest during my coverage. No retweets. No youtube views. Crickets.

What’s up with that? It’s like she’s an American Kate Makarova.

Most state-side tennis fans associate with players ranked outside of the top 50 from certain states and regions and universities. I suspect some kind of institutional apathy that American fans project on naturalized players. If she were born in Georgia instead of Georgia, things would be different. I promise. I mean, look at Varvara Lepchenko. Please! She never draws a crowd either and she’s a consistent top 50 player.

And that’s whats fun about the participatory democracy of the Wild Card events. It’s not always the 16-year-old phenom from {insert city/region/college here} or the grizzled journeyman from {insert city/region/college here} nabbing a ticket to a grand slam, but sometimes it’s just a someone, a Jan Brady, from nowhere you know, in between. And that someone could be Anna Tatishvili, if you’d just pay attention to her.

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ANNA TATISHVILI (@AnkaTati) TAKES @USTAMacon25K BUTLERCARS.COM TENNIS CLASSIC CROWN

Posted by Admin on October 13, 2013
Posted in: USTA, WTA. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

ANNA TATISHVILI (@AnkaTati) TAKES @USTAMacon25K BUTLERCARS.COM TENNIS CLASSIC CROWN

Anna Tatishvili (Photo: R. Limpert)

MACON, Georgia, (October 13, 2013) After a week of great weather, outstanding support shown by the Macon tennis community and world class women’s tennis, we arrived at “Finals Sunday” at the 2013 ButlerCars.com Tennis Classic of Macon presented by the W.L. Amos Foundation held at Stratford Academy’s Jaime Kaplan Tennis Center.

The best two players all week have been Anna Tatishvili and Ajla Tomljanovic, so Macon tennis fans were treated to a match that could happen in any grand slam tournament around the world.

Let me give away the result saying Tatishvili took the match 6-3, 1-6, 7-5, but both competitors earned the respect of all the spectators.

The points were long and it was high calibre tennis.

Tatishvili got off to a 4-1 start in the first set, but she said it may have been too good of a start.

“Ajla stepped it up in the second set meanwhile I was having a hard time keeping up,” explained the 23-year old from Georgia. The third set was much closer, I was down 1-4, but felt I could’ve been up 4-1.”

Tomljanovic did up the ante in the second set with a blistering array of serves setting up her forehand.

Tomljanovic continued that hot play until 5-3 in the third and that is when Tatishvili started thinking her way around the court and moving Tomljanovic around.

“I never try to quit, “summed up Tomljanovic. “Whenever I go on a court, it’s two to three hours of my work.”

Tatishvili took the third set 7-5 and the inaugural ButlerCars.com Tennis Classic of Macon.

In the doubles final, the American duo of Emily Harman and Elizabeth Lumpkin won a first set filled with service breaks 6-3 and got up 5-3 in the second before former University of Mississippi players Kristi Boxx and Abigail Guthrie caught fire.

Boxx and Guthrie took the second set in a tiebreaker and then went on to close out the match in the Match Tiebreak 10-4 to claim the 25K title.

After the match, Boxx said she had predicted a three-set win all along.

“I woke up this morning and talked to my mom and said don’t do what Ole Miss did (in football) last night. Take care of business. I texted her back and said we are going to win this one in three sets.”

Which they did.

Great weather and great fan support for professional women’s tennis in Macon all week.

—RICK LIMPERT

Tatishvili, Tomljanovic To Battle @USTAProCircuit Macon Final

Posted by Admin on October 12, 2013
Posted in: USTA, WTA. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

Tatishvili, Tomljanovic To Battle in Macon Final

Ajla Tomljanovic (Photo: R. Limpert)

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.

Anna Tatishvili (Photo: R. Limpert)

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

Semifinals Set @USTAProCircuit Tennis Classic of Macon, GA

Posted by Admin on October 12, 2013
Posted in: USTA, WTA. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Semifinals Set @USTAProCircuit Tennis Classic of Macon, GA

Ulrikke Eikeri, Photo: R. Limpert

MACON, Georgia, (October 11, 2013) Ask ButlerCars.com Tennis Classic tournament director Eric Hayes what his favorite day of tournament week is, and you will hear him say, “they all a great, but Friday, when all the quarterfinals are played is special.”

“For many of the players, Friday is the day that determines whether they had a successful week or not,” offers up Hayes. “If they win, in many cases, they earn enough points to significantly boost their ranking.”

Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri is looking to boost her ranking back up to where it was before she injured her ankle back in February. Eikeri was approaching the No. 250 mark in the world rankings when she sustained an injury.

Now, she has put three great matches together in Macon and feels good about her game.

Playing almost flawless tennis, Eikeri took down American and seventh seed Allie Kiick in a little over an hour.

“The first set was perfect,” Eikeri said of the 6-0, 6-3 victory. “I wasn’t making any errors and everything was perfect in that first set.”

Eikeri was happy with the quick victory, that will allow her to spend the rest of Friday resting and recovering.

Eikeri said her confidence has risen since her first round upset over second seeded Michelle Larcher De Brito.

“It has helped my confidence, beating a player like that- it makes me feel like I can beat anyone.”

Anna Tatishvili (Photo: R. Limpert)

Eikeri will next face Anna Tatishvili of Georgia, not the state of Georgia, but the Republic of Georgia. Tatishvili, a former world No. 50 took out two-time NCAA singles champ Nicole Gibbs 6-1, 6-3 in a match where Gibbs frequently chided herself for unforced errors.

Tatishvili noticed her opponent Gibbs, get visibly frustrated, but she didn’t let it affect her game.

“I just try to focus on myself and I think it was because her serve was a little off today,” stated the 23-year old from Tbilisli, Georgia.

In the other semifinals, tournament top seed Ajla Tomljanovic jumped on American Julia Boserup quickly, winning the first set 6-2, but she had to hold on in the second, taking it 7-5.

Ajla Tomljanovic/Photo: Rick Limpert

“It was 6-2, 5-2, playing very solidly,” explained Tomljanovic. “But I have to give credit to her, she really stepped it up and made it more difficult for me to miss some shots I shouldn’t have- but that’s tennis.”

Tomljanovic will face American Madison Brengle in her semifinal match. Brengle defeated fellow American Jacqueline Cako of Seattle, Washington.

In doubles semifinals action, Emily Harman and Elizabeth Lumpkin defeated Lauren Embree and Allie Kiick and the other doubles semi went three sets with the team of Kristi Boxx and Abigail Guthrie defeating Boserup and Samantha Crawford.

The two singles semifinals will take place today starting at 11 am.

—R. Limpert