Club Court is the place to be early in week at Family Circle Cup
The box seats in Family Circle Stadium are nice.
An even nicer place from which to watch a match at Family Circle Tennis Center is the roped off member area on the stadium-side of the Althea Gibson Club Court. That's prime real estate.
Actually, the views from the bleachers on both sides of the member section are great, too.
Some of the most memorable matches I've seen at the Family Circle Cup have been played on the Club Court. It's almost as when a good pairing is placed on this outside court, it automatically becomes a super matchup.
You could spend the first four days of the main draw simply staked out at Club Court and feel you saw the best of any Family Circle Cup. Of course, you miss most of the stars, such as Caroline Wozniacki and Samantha Stosur.
I haven't seen a better match than last Sunday's Alexandra Stevenson-Coco Vandeweghe qualifying match. Or Tuesday's Sania Mirza-Vania King second-round match. Past tournaments are full of memories of other exciting matches on the Club Court. That's where many local fans first recognized the excellence of Elena Dementieva's groundstrokes.
The intimacy of the court is special. The setting provides a unique matchup of nature and tennis.
Fans are just a few feet from the players on one end and the sides, and the open end is just a short distance from the marsh. In Thursday's loss to semifinalist Peng Shuai, former champion Nadia Petrova fought off a swarm of bees with her towel.
The Club Court's capacity is approximately 2,500. A large number of the seats are located on the sun-baked side late in the afternoon when most of these marathons seem to end.
Five hundred or so additional seats on the good side would turn this site into a true second stadium court that would maintain its intimacy, yet make the layout more suitable for continued great matchups that attract so many true tennis fans.
No miracles from Vesnina
Caroline Wozniacki finally played well Saturday.
Poor Elena Vesnina. She has to be tired after a full week of singles and doubles. I don't think she has a chance in today's final if Wozniacki plays anything like she did in dismantling former champion Jelena Jankovic, 6-4, 6-4, in the semifinals. And that prediction isn't influenced by Vesnina's doubles success.
But if Wozniacki plays the way she did earlier in the week, Vesnina wouldn't make a bad champion. The 24-year-old Russian is a talented player who is ready to break through. She hits great groundstrokes and has a solid serve.
Wozniacki has all of that, plus the heart of a lion that enables her to get to balls that Vesnina never would dream of reaching. Wozniacki simply doesn't like to lose.
I expect Vesnina to commit errors before she has a chance to win points. Wozniacki will make her work.
Against Jankovic, Wozniacki turned up the pressure at 4-4. That pressure likely will come a game or two earlier today. How's 6-3, 6-2, Wozniacki, sound?
Observations
--What player is best at turning a negative situation into a positive one? You say, Wozniacki. Yes, in singles. But what about doubles? Try out Bethanie Mattek-Sands. This odd-sock girl appears to be the best at getting her racket on the ball in the most hopeless situation, and not just keeping the point alive but actually taking charge of the point and putting the other team on the defensive.
Mattek-Sands can be running away from the net heading to the sideline in full stride, and some way make a stab near the surface that enables her to get her racket in front of the ball enough to hit a lob on a point everyone thought was over. Not one of the those fancy Roger Federer between-the-legs shots that he obviously practices, but just sheer reaction to a desperate situation. You can see Mattek-Sands today for the second time in three years in the doubles final.
--One of the best matches played in Family Circle Stadium came late Friday night. The match ended about 12:15 a.m. Saturday morning when Vesnina, who had just advanced to the singles semifinals in the previous match, and Mirza, who had lost her singles quarterfinal in the afternoon, pulled out a 3-6, 6-2, 10-8 win over Alla Kudryavtseva and Anastasia Rodionova, the same pair that eliminated the Shelby Rogers/Patty Schnyder team.
The crowd of about 150 was exhausted by the riveting play, but realized that the best way to win a big point is to slam the ball as hard as possible directly at the net person. That's the way they play doubles now on the tour, but I'm not sure who picked up the tactic first: league tennis or the pros.
Reach James Beck at jamesbecktennis@gmail.com. See his columns on pro tennis at ubitennis.com/english.
