Some early season strugglers came good in tournaments this past fortnight. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and Irina Spirlea found a little bit of form in the inaugural desert tournament in Cairo by reaching the final match. Both players came into Cairo with losing match records for the year and were questionable for form earlier in the tournament.
Irina Spirlea started the year well by reaching the semi finals in her first tournament at Hope Island. A virus which she had contracted during the off-season had halted this swing of momentum as she retired in the first round of Sydney and subsequently lost in the first round of the Australian Open for the second straight year. From there on, it proved to be a difficult task for Irina to gain pace for her 1999 campaign with more disappointing showings at Paris, Indian Wells, Lipton and Hilton Head (where she defeated Lindsay Davenport and Monica Seles in consecutive matches last year). And it showed in the rankings when she dropped to an ebb of #20, her lowest ranking in over three years. Much has been said about Irina's lack of mental strength and inability to focus in tough moments, and it is this characteristic of her game alone that has prevented her from really getting into top contention. One of the most talented players in the game who plays with both tremendous power and deft finesse, she possesses a lot of potential to play in major championship finals and to reach the elusive top 5. That is until she can maintain a swing of consistency in her game and also get herself into the best shape mentally.
Irina's lack of match play and lack of consistency showed in her second round match against #96 Kristie Boogert. Taking the first set 6-4, Irina dropped the second 1-6 and was stretched to a third set tiebreak. But the contrast was apparent in her next match against the heavy hitter Mary Pierce, whom she convincingly defeated in straight sets. However, her lack of focus was seemingly evident in the final against Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario who embarrassed her with a 6-1 6-0 rout, a match where nothing was going right for Spirlea with an incredible tally of errors and an inability to get any rhythm in her ground game.
Does this mean things are looking good for Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario? Things are definitely on the upswing but it appears to be too early to say how Arantxa's form is leading into the French Open. Winning the title in Cairo will do much for her confidence, and having the self-belief that she has been one of the premier claycourters in the game will help her win some tough matches on the dirt. However, it is right to say that she had not been stretched too far in this tournament. With a first round bye as the top seed, her second round match was against the #425 Egyptian wild card Peta Begerow whom she easily defeated 6-2 6-1. The real test was supposed to be provided by the Australian 16-year-old prodigy Jelena Dokic. Jelena had confidence as she came in as the world junior #1, also having just upset a top 20 player in Fed Cup the week prior (defeating Barbara Schett), and having the knowledge that she had defeated Arantxa earlier in the year in Hopman Cup. It was not meant to be this time, especially not on Arantxa's favourite surface. Irina Spirlea meant to provide Arantxa with a test, owning a 5-3 win-loss record against her more experienced opponent, but was unable to gather her game and her focus in an incredibly one-sided final. Contrastingly, Arantxa found some consistency and court speed in the final match and used these trademark features of her game to claim her first title of the year - the 27th of her career - and the winner's cheque of $27,000.
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