Wickmayer sends another Aussie packing

Yanina Wickmayer is seeded 20 at the 2013 Aus Open and now is the number one ranked Belgian follwing Kim and Justine removing themselves from the tour.  At once as high as 12 Yanina thought she was in good form with a final appearance recently against Agnieszka Radwanska in Auckland, but that thought disappeared with her first round defeat in Sydney at the hands of a qualifier.

Still any of her worries about form paled when compared with Australia's Jarmila Gajdosova who has the consistency of a jar of cream left in the hot sun.  2012 was forgettable for Jarmila, so anything -even successfully finding a car park at the supermarket - is reason for celebration these days.  Seven times she has made the main draw in Melbourne for the Aus Open and each time she has left a loser.

Wickmayer opened the match with a service hold and Gajdosova not offering too much resistance.  And then at 30-30 in the second game Jarmila decided to throw in successive double faults to hand the break to her delighted Belgian rival.

Although Yanina built some momentum on the 2-0 lead, and with her ground stroke power and placement troubling Jarmila, she appeared ready to break again, it was the Australian who had chances in the 5th game to draw it back to 2-3 with 2 break points of her own.  Wickmayer's solid play and poise avoided the disaster and instead of 2-3 it eventually reached 5-1 after Gajdosova's fragility at the line cost her another service game.

The first set was basically a forgettable experience for Jarmila who appeared set for another quick exit.  Fortunately she is tough in character and it showed in the second set.  Rather than retreat into complete defensive mode she chose to release herself from self imposed shackles and attack, playing the kind of baseline tennis of which we know she is capable. 

After saving a break point in the first game Jarmila broke the Belgian serve with her fifth try to lead 2-0.  It became Wickmayer making mistakes and playing tentatively while the Australian took risks and excited the crowd inot believing this could go three sets.
With the risk taking rewards can be reaped, but equally so costs incurred, and so the Gajdosova serve immediately suffered.  At 1-2 Yanina could not apply the pressure as in the opening set, though, and Jarmila assaulted her with enough power until all she could offer on a break point was a double fault.

The fifth game saw Gajdosova hold serve to lead 4-1 with all hopes for a deciding set brightening.  Sadly that was to be the last time in the match that she would hold serve.  The two players traded service breaks for Jarmila to lead 5-3 but from that point it was all Belgium and the 20th seed won through 6-1 7-5.  Rather like Hewitt the previous night, chances were there but not taken by Jarmila -still enough signs that 2013 will be far more productive than last year.