Tennis: Webb weaves magic with win

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Knocking out Austrian Barbara Schwartz yesterday at the ASB Bank Tennis Classic earned Canadian Vanessa Webb the biggest win of her tennis career.

Schwartz was ranked 99 places ahead of Webb and the fourth seed at the tournament at Auckland's Stanley St.

Webb's 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 victory was her first in a Sanex WTA main draw match and a far cry from the days when, as a 6-year-old in Toronto, she started playing in family round-robins at Thanksgiving and Easter.

Those good times were still obvious throughout yesterday's upset as the rangy 23-year-old left-hander's infectious smile won over a patient crowd who sat through numerous delays at the start of the match and through a brief second-set rain break.

"I was having so much fun. I felt pretty good and was quietly confident as I had beaten her in last year's Canadian Open in front of my home crowd. It was a bit like that out there today as I felt I was almost playing in front of my home crowd again."

With the advantage of having played three ASB Bank Classic qualifying matches just to make the main draw - beating 1997 winner Marion Maruska first-up and going through without dropping a set - Webb, ranked 141 in the world, raced through the first set.

"I wanted to start strongly as I had played three matches and she hadn't played any."

Webb dropped her serve for the first time in the 12th game of the second set after leading 30-15. She then dropped her first serve in the third to trail 0-2 before fighting back to 2-2. Breaking Schwartz in the fifth game was crucial. She then held serve in the sixth for 4-2 and simply coasted home.

It was an intriguing battle between "two tall lefties" with Webb never shy in racing to the net to maintain the pressure.

While she knows yesterday's win will improve her world ranking to who knows where, Webb also realises she will not avoid having to play qualifying ahead of the Australian Open later this month.

"You have to pay your dues," Webb insisted. For many at Stanley St she already has.

Elsewhere the madness continued as the third seed was toppled and qualifiers kept winning.

But, sadly, New Zealand participation in the tournament ended last night when Kiwi No 1 Leanne Baker, ranked 280, was beaten - after a second-set fightback - by second seed and world No 31 Anne Kremer of Luxembourg.

Kremer raced through the first set 6-1 but Baker broke Kremer's second serve and went on to lead 5-3 and was serving for the set before Kremer broke back and took the game to a tiebreak which she won 7-3.

Three of the four players who came through qualifying made it to the last 16.

While Webb led the charge in tipping out Schwartz, third seed Mario-Antonia Sanchez Lorenzo (Spain) followed soon after, beaten in straight sets by Switzerland's Miroslava Vavrinec, who is 63 places lower on the WTA rankings.

Jill Craybas (US) joined Webb as another from the qualifying tournament to win through. She beat Bulgaria's Lubomira Bacheva in straight sets while the third qualifier to get through, Spain's Nuria Llagostera, playing her first WTA tournament, beat 92nd-ranked Marlene Weingartner (Germany) 6-4, 7-3 to win a next round clash with Vavrinec.

The fourth qualifier, Florencia Labat, almost completed the clean sweep for the underdogs but went down in a third-set tiebreak to top 100 player Meghann Shaughnessy, who will meet Webb first up on court two this morning in what promises to be a battle royal.