Dy, Lehnert find Korean aces hard to beat

FIL-GERMAN Katharina Lehnert shows mean form during her match with Jang Seu-jong of South Korea in the team singles at Yeorumul Tennis Court in Incheon. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

INCHEON, South Korea—At 6-0, 5-0 and on the brink of a crushing defeat, Denise Dy managed to dig out a break from out of nowhere to win her first game in her opening match Sunday at the 17th Asian Games here.

She mock-raised both hands and yelled, “Thank God, I finally won a game!”

The crowd at the show court of Yeorumul Tennis Courts, where the Philippines battled host South Korea, laughed.

The show of relief wasn’t exactly because Dy had averted what was looming to be a shutout at the hands of homecourt heroine Han Na-lae.
It was more a sign of exasperation after she had finally scored a breakthrough in a match where she was actually competitive.

“I don’t think the final score showed how well she really competed,” said coach Czarina Mae Arevalo. “Those two early breaks really did her in.”
The women’s team, made up of Dy and Filipino-German Katharina Lehnert, were surprisingly competitive indeed against the hosts before crashing out of the team competition.

Han trimmed Dy, 6-0, 6-3, while Korean top player Jang Seu-jong later iced the hosts’ advance with a tense 6-3, 7-5 win over the gutsy Lehnert.
“It was a match I felt was winnable,” Dy admitted.

But after dropping her first two service games, Dy dug a deep hole in her morale that was difficult to climb out of.

Dy said that had she held one of those two service games, things might have turned out different. And she proved it right after making it to the scoreboard.

Dy reeled off two more games, putting a little pressure on Han, before finally succumbing in the 52-minute match.

“It was just the little things,” said Arevalo. “But she really fought hard.”

Lehnert fought even harder. Right off the bat, she broke Jang, sending a message that she wasn’t fazed by the tennis credentials of her foe.
Jang had qualified for this year’s US Open and is one of the top women aces in the competition. But Lehnert had Jang on her heels several times during the match.

Both players traded crisp winners, well-placed shots, fist-pumps and primal screams—much to the delight of the animated crowd.
“She played really, really well,” said Arevalo. “She was really going for her shots.”

Lehnert gunned for winners all match long, fighting off match points with the ferocity and aggressiveness of someone who was playing for the first point of the match. She was fearless, and chose to err on the side of attack.

“Maybe I took too much risk sometimes when I should not have,” said Lehnert after the match.

Arevalo sensed the gung-ho attitude but did not want to interfere just yet.

“That’s her game,” Arevalo said. “But she’ll learn to pick her spots eventually.” Lehnert agreed. “I have to learn to find a balance, maybe,” she said.
The 20-year-old rising star felt she let the team down, but Arevalo told her to keep her chin up.

“She really felt bad but I told her she played a good game,” said Arevalo.

Lehnert’s performance, plus a bothersome shoulder nagging Dy, might force the tennis think tank to tinker with the tandems for the mixed doubles event. Dy would have been the easy choice to pair with Treat Huey.

The two won a gold medal in the Indonesia Southeast Asian Games after all. But Huey might eventually end up with Lehnert and Dy with Ruben Gonzales once the competition starts two days from now.