Wimbledon Diary: Thirteen-year-old Amy Bowtell of Greystones came up just short in the final of the Under-16 Girls European Tennis Association event in Birkerod, Denmark.
The young player found the top seed, Evilina Virtanen of Finland, in top form.
Bowtell never found her range and missed too many backhands against her hard-hitting opponent. Chasing at 3-0 down before she got on the scoreboard with a classy drop shot, her opponent always had an answer and followed with an ace, an un-returnable serve and two backhand winners to go 4-1 up. While the Irish girl held serve again, she lost the next two games and the set 6-2.
The second started better with a hold of serve but once again the backhand errors surfaced and with the loss of the next three games, the match was slipping away. She then held serve and earned four break points to level the set but just couldn't do it and the match fell to the Finn 6-2, 6-2.
There was some revenge when Bowtell and national squad partner Lynsey McCullough took the doubles title with a solid 6-4 6-2 win over Virtanen and Sweden's Asa Bengtsson.
Ciarán Fitzgerald, also of Greystones, played well but he and German partner Denny Shwarz of met a Dutch pair in hot form and went down 6-2, 6-2 in the under 16 boys doubles final.
Sharapova shoulders on
Players are known to try anything that will give them an edge or get them healthy when they are injured. Even with the best medical expertise money can buy, they will go the extra mile.
Maria Sharapova, who came to Wimbledon suffering from a shoulder injury is no different. Asked what treatment she was having, the Diva replied: "Between matches I have a lot of treatment on it," said the 2004 women's champion. "It needs a couple of hours a day, or even two-and-a-half hours a day. Ice, massage, strength work, acupuncture - you name it, I do it."
Just what the doctor ordered, although, maybe playing Wimbledon wasn't part of the advice.
Djokovics Serb notice
Get used to Serbian names staying at the top of the sport and others coming into it. Novak Djokovic is already in the top 10 in the men's side, while "Jolly" Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic are up there in the women's rankings.
But Djokovic's latest message on his website was: "The train with the Djokovic family is arriving at a very fast speed and it has no intention of stopping."
His younger brothers, Marko and Djordje, train at Niki Pilic's school in Munich. Marko is the Serbian under-16 champion and Djordje (12) has also the talent to follow in his brother's footsteps.
Pain in the Arsalan
Aravan Rezai, whose match on Saturday against Ana Ivanovic was suspended due to rain, makes for one of the more interesting players on the WTA tour. She is a Muslim of Iranian descent, born in St Etienne, France and coached by her father. Said father, Arsalan, has a mind of his own.
This tennis game seemed so easy that he gave up his day job as a car mechanic and took to coaching his daughter. Following a number of clashes with the French Tennis Federation, they withdrew their funding for the 20-year-old. Watch this space. There could be a touch of the father from hell here.
