Annie Miller vs. Erika de Lone
Singles: First Round
Court 7
If you're a regular On The Line reader, you're probably familiar with
the Annie Miller story by now. Just as she was climbing to a career
high ranking of #40 in the world in 1998, Miller left the WTA Tour
and enrolled at the University of Michigan. Two years and one
surgery later, Miller is tentatively embarking on a comeback. It
didn't start promisingly -- she took a humbling 6-1, 6-2 loss to
Anna Kournikova at Stanford and lost a pair of three-set qualifying
matches in subsequent hard court events. For the time being she
carries a protected injury ranking of 43, but her winless record over
the past 12 months gives her an actual ranking of 866. If Miller's
comeback were to gain any momentum, it would have to start here
against De Lone, a solid veteran who works hard but doesn't have any
big weapons. De Lone's perserverance did pay off last year, as success
on the challenger circuit valuted her into the Top 100.
De Lone survived a double fault in the opening game, snuck out a break
in the second game, and took a 3-0 lead with a winning backhand down
the line. Miller removed her Nike cap during the changeover -- perhaps
deciding that was the problem for her slow start -- and promptly
notched a service hold for 1-3. De Lone won Game 5 handily, though,
and with the early afternoon sun beating down, Miller decided the cap
was a good idea after all. Shaky as her serve and returns looked
early on, Miller can still do serious damage with her hard, flat
groundstrokes. A great running forehand from Miller forced a De Lone
error to close out Game 6. Forehand winners then carried Miller to a
15-40 lead against De Lone's serve. The game went to deuce, but Erika
finally gave it away with back-to-back double faults. Miller actually
mumbled "sorry," unhappy to have gotten her first service break in
that manner. From that point forward, though, she started earning
her success. Big Miller groundies were key to a hold for 4-4 and a
break for 5-4. Suddenly serving for the set, Annie stormed out to a
40-0 lead and crunched a forehand winner down the line. First set to
the semi-retired Michigan native, 6-4.
De Lone finally got back on track, serving well in a hold for 1-0.
Not yet used to the new changeover rule, Miller sat down for a few
moments before realizing her mistake and apologizing. She then got a
bad case of the yips on her second serve. Miller overcame two double
faults in holding for 1-1, but threw in her sixth and seventh doubles
of the day as De Lone broke for 3-1. Undeterred, Miller broke back
for 2-3, once again being bailed out by her forehand. Game 6 was a
back-and-forth doozy, going to three deuces before De Lone drilled a
swinging backhand volley winner (which Miller sportingly declared a
"good shot" as it whizzed past). That gave De Lone a break point,
converted when Miller netted a backhand. After an exchange of service
holds, De Lone's 4-2 lead was 5-3. Miller was gallant in fending off
a pair of set points, but her form was really fading in and out. De
Lone put an exclamation point on her 6-3 win of the set, ending an
all-court rally with an accurate forehand pass.
At 1-1 in the final set, De Lone grabbed a 0-40 lead against the
spotty Miller serve. Staring down the barrel of another disappointing
loss, the Michigan native regained the form which once upon a time
enabled her to defeat Lindsay Davenport and Mary Pierce. Striking
deep, accurate groundstrokes, Miller won five points in a row to
secure a 2-1 lead. As Miller's quality of play improved, De Lone's
started to fall off. Annie broke at 30, held at 15, and broke at
love to go up 5-1. At 15-15 in Game 7, De Lone badly butchered a
backhand volley and groaned. She could obviously see the match
slipping away now. Two points later, a defensive shot from De Lone
fluttered in the air and seemed to be going wide, but Miller swung
anyway, ripping a forehand winner. It was a decisive end to an
impressive third set performance -- Annie Miller earned her first
victory since the 1998 US Open by a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 count. Whether a
showing like this will compel Miller to postpone her studies and
return to the Tour full-time remains to be seen, but finally getting
over that first hurdle had to feel good. She'll face a considerably
higher hurdle on Tuesday afternoon, meeting # 3 seed Conchita Martinez
on Centre Court.
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