Academy Trio Suffer Semifinal Sadness

 

Monte-Carlo Tennis Academy trio Anna Fitzpatrick, Ana Veselinovic and Wesley Moodie suffered semifinal heartbreak in their respective doubles tournaments last week, as their North American summer circuits began in earnest.

 

Fitzpatrick and Veselinovic played what coach Antony Hampson described as “world class doubles” in the first set of their semifinal against No. 2 seeds Surina de Beer and Stephanie Dupois in the $25,000 tournament in Hamilton, Canada before losing in three sets, while Moodie and fellow South African Jeff Coetzee suffered a 6-4, 7-6(4) loss against top seeded Americans Bob and Mike Bryan at the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles.

 

For Fitzpatrick and Veselinovic, the loss was compounded by the withdrawal from the final of Michaela Johansson and Paula Zabala, which handed de Beer and Dupois the title following their 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over the MCTA pair.

 

“The first set was absolutely world class doubles,” said Hampson. “Everything clicked into place and the crossing in general play was much better than previous matches. At 6-3 1-0 they weren’t aggressive enough and let their opponents off the hook, after which they stopped looking for the ball as much at the net and the trend of the match changed.

 

“The goal now is to win one of these challengers and go from there – Vancouver [in two weeks] is not out of the question.”

 

Both girls now head to the $10,000 tournament in Calgary looking to build on their performances in Hamilton, where Fitzpatrick went down in three sets to Johansson in the singles, while Veselinovic saw a 5-0 third-set lead slip away against Heidi El Tabakh also in the first round.

 

Meanwhile, Moodie put his back problems behind him to reach the doubles semifinals of the ATP hard court tournament in Los Angeles. The 28-year-old South African was forced to retire mid-way through the second round of his singles against Hyung-Taik Lee with a back injury, but an acupuncture session helped him recover in time for the doubles.

 

Ironically, it was a back injury to Fernando Gonzalez that handed Moodie and Coetzee a walkover into the semifinals, but the South Africans went down in straight sets against the World’s No. 1 doubles pairing of the Bryan brothers.

 

Moodie now has a week’s training before heading to Washington for the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.