By TERRY MADDAFORD
Selima Sfar knows what it is like to hit the wall.
Not just any wall, mind.
As Tunisia's sole tennis professional, Sfar had a wall for a hitting partner as she grew up in Tunis learning to play the game she loves.
Tennis: Power of one topples Tu
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She heeded those lessons well - well enough to oust defending ASB Bank Classic champion Meilen Tu, from the United States, in straight sets yesterday, giving the tournament its first upset.
Broken in her first service game, Sfar returned the compliment by breaking Tu in the next and again in the sixth game for 4-2.
After a battle, Sfar took the first set 6-3.
Two aces in the second game of the second set gave her the confidence to press on.
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She broke Tu in the third and coasted home 6-2 after bringing up three match points with a great cross-court shot.
"She had more pressure on her than me," said 24-year-old Sfar, who ended the season with a ranking of 82 on the WTA list.
Tu went into the match ranked 45.
Forced to leave Tunisia as a 13-year-old to continue her career in France where she lived and trained with former world No 3 Nathalie Tauziat, Sfar now splits her time between Biarritz and London when she is not on tour.
"It [the win here] will be a big deal back home," said Sfar, who is seen as a trailblazer for women tennis players in Arab countries.
In February last year she became the first Arab woman to reach a WTA quarter-final, in Dubai.
She went on to reach the second round of the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
Pitched into the first match of the day - and on centre court in the warm-up to the Anna Kournikova show - Sfar said it had not been easy coming from a country where tennis was hardly played.
"I lived across the road from the tennis club and the school," she said.
"It was only natural, I suppose, I played tennis."
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It was the first time Tu and Sfar had been on the opposite side of the net in a WTA match, but they did practise together a few days ago.
Aware that the tournament has often been a launching pad for better things, Sfar said she hopes she can continue that trend.
"I have started the season ranked about 80, I hope by the end I'm up to at least 60," she said.
Today, she meets unseeded Spaniard Medina Garrigues in the second round.
For Tu it was a disappointing end to her reign as champion.
"It was just a bad day. I didn't feel any real pressure. It [being the defending champion] was something new - and something good.
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"I did the best I could.
"I think she served pretty well, but this was not the reason I lost. That was in my mind."
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