Her diamond hairclips sparkling in the mid-day sun, Iroda Tulyaganova reaffirmed her status as the jewel in the crown of Uzbekistan tennis.
Playing her first competitive match after a year-long layoff due to surgery on her right elbow, the 22-year-old delighted her home crowd fans by knocking out top seed Marion Bartoli of France 6-4, 6-4 at the Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan on Tuesday.
Tulyaganova raised her right arm in triumph as a Bartoli forehand sailed long to seal her win in an hour and 28 minutes. She then basked in glory in front of an adoring media at the post-match conference which seemed to go on forever. A disappointed Bartoli, meanwhile, slunk away from the Tashkent Tennis Centre, declining to talk to the pressmen.
It was a fiercely competitive match, controversial at times, and produced some scintillating shotmaking by both players. But the high-octane pressure of the situation meant that there were moments of inconsistency, which was reflected in the 10 breaks of serve, seven of them in the second set.
For Tulyaganova, the pressure was self-made. She very deliberately chose to make her comeback at the Tashkent Open. Her coach, Dmitry Tomashevich, wanted her to played a few matches before the event but Tulyaganova insisted on making it here.
"I wanted to make my comeback here, in Tashkent, my hometown, where my fans will come to watch me."
She knew it would be difficult but did not anticipate fate playing a cruel trick on her, by making her play the top seed in the first round. It didn't affect her then but she admitted that this morning she was very nervous.
"It struck me suddenly this morning and I told my friend (and fellow-player) Marto Marrero, 'How can I play?'"
But play she did, overcoming her lack of match fitness with the mental toughness that had seen her be a top 20 player two years ago. Her serve was most affected, she served seven double faults and her second serve was a sitting duck for Bartoli's aggressive returning.
"I practiced only for one month," Tulyaganova said, "and that is not enough. My serve is only 50 percent of what it was when I was at my peak."
Still she overcame her weaker moments, like when let slip a chance to go 5-1 up in the first set, and when she was broken at love while serving for the match at 5-3 in the second.
For Bartoli, being top seed and playing the hometown favourite was always going to be difficult. It didn't help when Tulyaganova began with supreme confidence, holding her serve comfortably and then breaking Bartoli with a series of stunning returns and drop shots.
Bartoli fought back with her powerful two-handers on both flanks as Tulyaganova could not sustain the intensity of her stroke-making and made it four games each. Then came one of the controversial moments. With Tulyaganova serving 40-30 in the ninth game, a Bartoli shot landed close to the lines. The linesman called it wide and umpire H J Ochs agreed.
Bartoli's father, sitting in the stands, lost his cool and began shouting. He went on for a long time and the tournament supervisor had to come and warn him before he quietened. Bartoli herself had a few words with the umpire and then called for an injury timeout.
Tulyaganova put the whole thing in perspective later.
"I understood because they are playing in my country, my hometown. They believe that all linesmen and women and officials were in my favour. I didn't think they were biased."
But she smiled and added: "But I needed that point."
TANASUGARN TUMBLES OUT
Russia's Evgenia Linetskaya knocked out eighth seed Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 in just over two hours.
"She played very well, hit every ball back, hit very hard," a disappointed Tanasugarn admitted later of her opponent.
"I tried to come back but she didn't allow me."
Much was expected from the 76th-ranked Thai, especially after semi-final showing at the Japan Open last week, where she lost to Maria Sharapova. But she simply didn't get going, dropping her opening two service games and being forced onto her back foot all along.
"I really didn't get my serve going and that didn't help me at all," she said. "There was no concentration at any stage of the match.
"Maybe I didn't have enough time to prepare it's not easy to go from tournament to tournament, the balls flew, it was so different from Tokyo."
Second seed Meghann Shaughnessy of the United States opened with a 6-2, 6-2 win over lucky loser Ryoko Fuda of Japan. The American was inconsistent in her display but said later that she found it tough initially because she didn't know anything about her opponent's game.
Fourth seed Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain just about avoided joining top seed Bartoli and Tanasugarn as losing seeds. She got past Italian Mara Santangelo 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 in a hard-hitting encounter getting the match-winning break in the 10th game of the third set.
Meanwhile, two lucky losers, Russian Ekaterina Bychkova and Ukrainian Olga Savchuk made it to the second round. Savchuk (526) was really lucky, making it into the main draw only today, with the late withdrawal (for unknown reasons) of Czech Alena Vaskova. She defeated 104-ranked Anne Kremer of Luxembourg 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-1 while Bychkova (234) defeated 107 ranked Silvija Talaja of Croatia 6-1, 6-4.
