Tennis: Tenacity meets power in Classic final

By TERRY MADDAFORD

They are not household names in Auckland but back home Yoon Jeong Cho and Eleni Daniilidou are big news.

And today the headlines got even bigger.

The unheralded pair won their ASB Classic semifinals to qualify for tomorrow afternoon's final. It will be a contest of contrasting styles with unseeded South Korean Cho's persistence certain to be tested by the power of second seed Greek Daniilidou.

To reach her second WTA final 23-year-old Cho beat top seed and defending champion Anna Pistolesi.

In an anticlimactic finish to the first semifinal, Israeli Pistolesi cried off with "heat illness" which led to leg cramps when trailing by a set but level 2-2 in the second.

It had, from the outset been the expected arm wrestle.

After going 3-0 ahead and later leading 4-2 and 5-3, Pistolesi lost her way as Cho found the angles, scrapped for the points and clawed her way back to force a tiebreak.

Pistolesi won the first point but then slumped to trail 5-1 before losing 7-2.

The 1h 6min needed to complete that first set took more court time than many complete matches at the ASB Tennis Centre this week.

With so much of the match played from the baseline there were more unforced errors than winners.

Again, service was not part of either player's armoury - no aces and just one double fault.

But there was little hint it would end so abruptly.

Both players held serve for 1-1. Pistolesi then broke Cho to love but immediately called for the trainer, took a 10-minute break, returned to the court, won the first point, served the match's only double fault and later dropped three successive points and the game.

At 2-2 she quit.

For Cho, the last player, through the gold/silver exempt, to make the main draw, it was a dream come true.

"I'm happy today," she said through an interpreter. "I felt I was playing well until the point where the match ended. I never expected to make the final. I came to this tournament as a build up for the Australian Open.

"I'm happy as a lot of Koreans came here to watch. I expected Anna to play a lot of top spin - which she did.

"It is the biggest win of my career. The second time I have beaten a player in the top 20."

And her thoughts about the final?

"I will be more comfortable to play either Gagliardi or Daniilidou than Pistolesi," said Cho before the second semifinal.

Pistolesi said it was the first time she had retired from a match.

"I am disappointed I lost the match," said Pistolesi, the world's 16th-ranked player and defending ASB Classic champion.

"Even when I felt it [cramp] I was doing my best. I gave all I could.

"I'm still happy. I won three tough matches here."

In the second semifinal it was apparent Gagliardi was in for a tough time when she was taken to deuce five times before losing the first game.

While never totally dominant in winning 6-4 6-3 in 1h 35m, Daniilidou made fewer unforced errors, hit more winners and served the better.

Quickly down 4-1, Gagliardi was struggling but turned it around to claw back to 4-4 but then promptly handed the advantage back to her opponent by dropping serve for the third time.

Daniilidou served it out, dropping just one point.

Thirty-three minutes later it was all over.

For the only time in the match, Gagliardi held in successive service games to lead 2-1. In dropping her next service to love she was gone.

Inevitably, Daniilidou finished her misery by breaking again in the ninth game.

"I'm disappointed to lose for sure, but it is a good start for the year for me to reach the semifinal," Switzerland's fifth-ranked player said.

"It did not go my way. She gives you no freedom especially on the backhand. Eleni [Daniilidou ] stayed very relaxed. She is one of the best players in the world."

Disappointed that another chance of a first WTA title had gone, 26-year-old Gagliardi said she would not stop trying for that breakthrough victory.

"You always aim for that. Sooner or later if you play good it will come. I think I'll be back next year."

Daniilidou was obviously pleased with her win - especially as she managed it in just two sets as the temperatures fell only slightly from the mid-afternoon high of 35C.

"I started to have more focus at 4-1 after losing it a little," said the 20-year-old Greek.

"When I'm really confident I'm more aggressive.

"I know I have to move more. I have to work more. I have to improve to stay in the rankings."

Having never played or seen Cho in action, Daniilidou goes into the final cold but determined to give it her all. "She will try and move me around." That will not be easy.

Despite her best endeavours, Cho will be up against it.

To win her only WTA title, in Holland in June, Daniilidou beat, among others Amelie Mauresmo, Justine Henin-Hardenne and Elena Dementieva.

Cho, ranked 61 places lower than Daniilidou, does not, surely, strike the same fear.