Sweep semifinals to reach title match at PNC International Classic

Sunday, November 09, 2003

By Maria Sciullo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The sore shoulder, the strained thigh, the torn abdominal muscles -- for professional athletes, it's always something.

That's why Meilen Tu was grateful to reach the final of the $50,000 PNC International Tennis Classic in good shape.

Tu, 25, reached the championship at 1 p.m. today with a 6-3, 6-4 victory yesterday against Russian Alina Jidkova at The Oxford Athletic Club North. Her opponent, Teryn Ashley, 24, of Brookline, Mass., swept doubles teammate Shenay Perry of Coconut Creek, Fla., 6-2, 6-0.

Tu, a diminutive 5-foot-4, 110-pound player who likes to charge the net, had her left thigh heavily wrapped. Her leg was strained last week after she played eight matches in the Quebec City tournament.

"The tape is more of a preventative," said Tu, a Tampa, Fla., resident.

"It's great if you win matches every day, but you want to leave healthy."

Tu was forced to sit out for six weeks because of torn stomach muscles in February. When she came back, she was hesitant and discovered she was changing little things in her game without realizing it.

Only recently has she felt like her former self.

Yesterday, Jidkova, the Pittsburgh Challenger winner in 2001, tried to work Tu's forehand, feeding her a succession of soft backhand chip shots, then waiting for errors.

"I'd lost to her the last few times, and she did the same thing. Then, you give her the short ball, and she cranks the forehand," Tu said.

"I think she was surprised I was hitting so well. I was not going to sit back and play her game."

At first, Jidkova's strategy worked. Tu sent a few swinging forehands into the net, then had an uncharacteristic double fault at break point to fall behind, 3-1, in the first set. But she broke right back at deuce and won the next four games.

"It's not like I broke her three games later. I felt better after that," Tu said.

Tu artfully took the ball on the rise and worked her way to the net often. She jumped on another chance to break early in the second set with two cross-court winners and clinched it with a great return of a ball that the sixth-seeded Jidkova later sent wide down the line.

Jidkova closed to 5-4 in the second and was serving to tie the set, but she lost the game at love.

"She wasn't missing much; she had a lot of winners and hit the angles. She had a better day than me today," said Jidkova, who had some minor coughing fits on the court.

"Also, I'm sick and have a fever. My legs don't have that push."

If the first semifinal often was a tennis-court version of Stratego, the second was dodge ball. Ashley and Perry are big hitters, although the latter favors slice backhands to alter the pace.

"I sliced a little too much, maybe," said Perry, 19. "She approached and put a lot of balls away."

Ashley was good at keeping the ball in the far corners, and her serve was big.

"I needed to be," she said. "Shenay's a tough player. She's an awesome athlete. I just don't think she was 'on' today."

The previous time they played, Perry won, 7-6, in the third set. This time, Ashley took less than 45 minutes to win.

Ashley came back from love-30 in the first game to get the break, then never trailed.

"She played well, she kept the ball really deep," Perry said.

The day was hardly over; Ashley and Perry played American Amy Frazier and Taiwan's Janet Lee in a doubles semifinal last night, falling in three sets, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.

Tu teamed with Argentina's Gisela Dulko to defeat American Amanda Augustus and Melaine Marois of Canada, 6-3, 6-4, in the other semifinal.

At first glance, it appears there will be a contrast in styles in the final, although Ashley said she, too, enjoys serve-and-volley. She added that "I like to end the points quickly."

Tu, who seemingly was everywhere at once yesterday, doesn't have a booming serve. Instead, she has big groundstrokes.

She also has a way with languages.

Tu speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese and would yell the occasional foreign phrase after points.

"Oh, that wasn't Chinese," she said.

"My coach is French, so, when I say something [on court], that's usually in French."

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