Regions Morgan Keegan Ch'ships
And The Cellular South Cup Memphis, Tennessee
February 16-25, 2007
Mirjana Lucic Stages Comeback In Memphis Qualifying
Reporting From Onsite In Memphis, Tennessee By Tripp Mateschitz, Lawn Tennis Correspondent, Posted: Friday, February 16, 2007 3:30pm CST USA
Q1: M. Lucic def. M. Oudin 1-6, 6-3, 6-3
MEMPHIS--(lawntennismag.com) At the Cellular South Cup in today's qualifying round one, Mirjana Lucic of Croatia defeated Melanie Oudin of
the USA 1-6, 6-3, 6-3
in one hour and 11 minutes. Playing her signature style of all or nothing power baseline tennis, Lucic regrouped quickly after hitting a doublefault
into the net on set point to lose the first set in only 12 minutes. Mirjana Lucic, who was once grouped together with Serena Williams and
Anna Kournikova as future stars of the WTA Tour made a rare appearance on the tennis court today looking much fitter than in recent years.
Dressed in a one piece white polo shirt type dress over dark blue Adidas biker shorts, Lucic appeared lean and mean hitting extremely hard
groundstrokes to oftentimes either overpower Oudin or lose the point only due to her own error.
On the changeovers Lucic seemed to be fighting a cold; blowing her nose and eye dropping her eyes, but on the court she was all business;
ripping crosscourt forehand winners at ease with a mix of "come on"s and fist pumps. Playing almost exclusively short points, Lucic found herself
up setpoint in set two only 38 minutes into the match. Another huge Lucic forehand crosscourt forced an error in the net from Oudin and the set
was Lucic's.
In set three Lucic mixed dropshots and winning net play into her game as her confidence seemed to soar. Lucic held then broke to go ahead
3-0. Moving a foot or more inside the baseline to punish second serves, Lucic scored return winners or her returns floated long. A flurry of forehand
and backhand winners later, Mirjana unleashed two aces to save breakpoints up 5-3. Lucic ended the match hitting down the line winners from
her forehand and backhand followed by a huge smile and celebration. Is Lucic back from the brink? It could be with the amazing power tennis she
played today, but only time will time for sure.
In round two Saturday, Lucic plays the winner of the Natalie Gradin/Story Tweedie-Yates match which is being played on court now.
