Tennis: Plan of attack came too late

By Foster Niumata

As her feet were burning and her strokes were being torched, a gameplan came to Rewa Hudson.

It was so simple you wondered why she hadn't thought of it before her first round ASB Bank Classic encounter yesterday at Stanley St: the plan was attack.

Rip into Florencia Labat's serve. Crush her moonballs. Tear apart the slicing, skidding shots of the Italian who turned pro when Hudson was in Standard 2.

Alas, Hudson realised the idea too little, too late, with half a mind on her feet being seared through the soles of her sneakers by a rubber court boiling in mid-afternoon.

"I should have put on two pairs of socks," said the 18-year-old 351st-ranked wildcard from Opotiki, for whom there would be no heroics like last year as 64th-ranked Labat beat her 6-3 6-2.

Hudson, however, did deliciously reveal there is a Jana Novotna-type serve-volleyer inside her just waiting to break out. Unsolicited, she rushed the net and made sterling volleys with the confident air of her Kiwi peer and doubles partner Leanne Baker, who makes her debut today.

"It felt good, it did actually," Hudson smiled. "I felt in control. I probably should have been more aggressive, could have been, but wasn't." She laughed: "Next time."

On a day when the higher-ranked beat the lower-ranked, the biggest surprise was the crowd, which began queueing an hour before play started for a record first-day attendance of 2500, all of whom consumed about five icecreams each judging by the litter.

Another accomplishment was Barbara Schett's, the lithe Austrian ranked 23, who ended three years of frustration in the Classic by winning her first-rounder against German Elena Wagner in a harder-than-it-looks 6-1 6-0.

"Finally," beamed Schett, who said she has kept coming back to prove she can win here.

"I've been coming here four years and never won a round. I'm really excited that I finally did it." Maybe this year she might also break her duck at the French
Open, where she has five successive first-round defeats.

Also advancing were second seed Silvia Farina, third seed Julie Halard-Decugis, who will play Labat, and eighth seed Maria Alejandra Vento.

Today, one of the tournament's first-time headliners will exit the singles in an all-American bash between sixth seed Chanda Rubin and unseeded Mary Joe Fernandez, both former top-10 stars. Fernandez has a 2-0 record against her Fed Cup pal.

Also, Classic titleholder and 12th-ranked Dominique van Roost begins her defence against Italy's 59th-ranked Rita Grande, trying to defy history. No champion has retained the title, or No 1 seed won the Classic, since Patty Fendick in 1989.

Two-time New Zealand Residential champion, Te Awamutu's Baker, makes her Classic main draw debut against the Netherlands' Miriam Oremans, in a battle for the net.

Meanwhile, Brett Steven lost in the last round of qualifying in Adelaide yesterday. Steven had beaten German Dirk Dier and Australian Sandon Stolle, but German Oliver Gross won 6-2 6-3. Steven and James Greenhalgh are in the doubles main draw.

Pictured: Rewa Hudson in action against Florencia Labat, of Italy, at Stanley St yesterday. HERALD PICTURE / PAUL ESTCOURT