17 October 2003

Belarussian Tatiana Poutchek battled the sapping afternoon heat to stop Tunisian Selima Sfar 7-6, 7-5 and move into the quarterfinals of the 6th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge at the Metropolitan Resort and Beach Club yesterday.

Sfar could well blame herself for the defeat as she held the advantage of leading 4-1 in the opening set. But as the set dragged on, the Tunisian seemed to falter in her concentration even as Poutchek started mixing her game well to catch her napping with some perfect down the line winners.

And if the heat was getting too much for both the players, so were their nerves as Lebanese chair umpire Waleed Samaan issued a racquet abuse warning to Poutchek when she trailed 3-5.

But Sfar failed to capitalise on this psychological dent as Poutchek broke her and then held serve to drawl level 5-5. After holding serves one more time, it was Sfar who was more erratic with her shots going down in the tie-breaker.

"No excuses for such a pathetic performance," Sfar lamented. "But there I was giving it to her on the strong points rather than exploiting her weakness."

The story repeated itself in the second set, the only exception being the focus of both players. Once again, it was Sfar who made the first move breaking her Belarussian opponent in the ninth game to lead 5-4. But all her hard work went in vain as she lost her serve, only to see Poutchek take the next two games and the match 7-5.

"I had my chances, and I did not utilise them. I should have won 6-3, 6-4 in two sets," Sfar complained.

Poutchek's quarterfinal opponent is seventh seed Lubomira Kurhajcova, who breezed past Lenka Nemeckova 6-3, 6-1.

Commenting on her win yesterday she said: "I wanted to stick to my tactic of keeping her pinned to the back of the court so that she does not get an opportunity to come to the net." Also living up to her seeding as the No. 8 was Martina Sucha as she got past Nadejda Ostrovskaya 6-3, 6-1. She will meet No.4 Arantxa Parra in today's quarterfinals.

Another casualty for the evening was Germany's Barbara Rittner, who despite a promising start lost to Jelena Jankovic of Yugoslavia. Rittner did well to win the opening set 6-4. But Jankovic held on to her poise and skipped through with the next two sets 7-6, 6-3.

Results
Singles: Tatiana Poutchek bt Selima Sfar 7-6, 7-5; Martina Sucha bt Nadejda Ostrovskaya 6-3, 6-1; Jelena Jankovic bt Barbara Rittner 4-6, 7-6, 6-3; Lubomira Kurhajcova bt Lenka Nemeckova 6-3, 6-1; Henrieta Nagyova bt Andriana Serra Zanetti 6-3, 6-4; Severine Beltrame vs Flavia Pennetta.

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