Tennis: Weight of expectation worn lightly

Young American Jessica Kirkland beat ASB Classic qualifying field top seed Mariana Diaz-Olive 6-1, 6-3. Picture / Martin Sykes

Being tipped as the United States' Next Big Thing in women's tennis seems to weigh lightly on the teenage shoulders of Jessica Kirkland.

The 17-year-old from Dayton, Ohio, is ranked her country's best 18-and-under player and gave some hints why yesterday when she clipped qualifying field top seed Mariana Diaz-Oliva's ticket, sending her out of the ASB Classic event.

Kirkland beat the world No 102 Argentine 6-1, 6-3 and showed enough class in her ground strokes to suggest that her opponent in today's final qualifying round, Yuka Yoshida of Japan, has a tough morning ahead of her.

The qualifying is down to eight players, and the four winners today will be in the main draw, which also starts today.

Kirkland made the finals of three big junior events in the latter part of last year.

She reached the final of the US Open junior singles, losing to Dutch player Michaela Krajicek, the US championship-winning doubles partner of New Zealand's Marina Erakovic; then won the finals of the US Winter Championships and the Orange Bowl in Florida.

She got a wildcard into the US Open, losing in the first round, played a WTA tournament in Los Angeles, reaching the second round, and won two US$25,000 ($35,000) ITF tournaments as well.

That all adds up to the groundwork for a big charge at the top flight in the next few years.

Kirkland has been playing since she was four - "all my family play tennis so I kind of took after my siblings" - has her coach, Mark Baker, with her in Auckland and has her tennis plan mapped out.

Although her family are in Dayton, she spends plenty of time training in Florida, and has one more year of home schooling to complete.

She wants to be in the world top 50 (she is now No 245) by the time she turns 18.

"I have an age limitation. I am only allowed to play 15 professional tournaments a year [until then] so I am very picky and choosy about what tournaments I play. I am hoping that's when I'll make the jump."

Kirkland is no different from thousands of other young tennis players, has dreamed the usual dreams about winning Grand Slam tournaments, cracking the ceiling of the world rankings.

But Kirkland has also learned the value of not looking too far ahead.

"I take it one game at a time; I don't even know who I'm playing next."

The answer is Yoshida, world No 158, the only one of three Japanese players still standing from the last 16 in qualifying.

Six of the eight seeded players are gone; the only survivors are Canadian Marie-Eve Pelletier, the seventh seed, and No 8 Yoshida. That points to the depth of strength in the field.

After a depressing weekend for supporters of the New Zealand players in qualifying, Erakovic picked up the country's first win at the Classic.

Out on a secluded back court and before a small, but encouraging group of spectators, she combined with South African partner Chanelle Scheepers to win their opening qualifying match for the doubles, beating the more fancied Lindsay Lee-Waters of the United States and Pelletier.

The format was first to eight games with a two-game advantage. Erakovic and Scheepers could have closed it out at 8-6, but Erakovic lost her serve. But when it came to the deciding tiebreak, she and Scheepers were completely dominant, winning 7-0.

A win today over their next opponents, Taipei's Su-Wei Hsieh and Yoshida, will put them in the main draw against Americans Teryn Ashley and Laura Granville.
Ashley won the 2003 doubles title here, with compatriot Abigail Spears.

Qualifying matches

Final round qualifying matches, from 11am today: J. Kirkland (US) v Y. Yoshida (Japan), A. Kerber (Germany) v J. Husarova (Slovakia), M. Tu (US) v S. Peer (Israel), A. Bachmann (Germany) v M. E. Pelletier (Canada) 6-4 6-4.