All eyes on Anna in Trilogy thriller

THOSE of us who rarely, if ever, have the chance of watching the world’s top players in action delighted in last night’s action at the Trilogy Tennis Challenge at the RDS.

Indeed, one colleague was so impressed with the performance of one time world number one Lindsay Davenport in beating the Swiss girl Barbara Schett that he asked what chance the Williams sisters (who will be in doubles action here tonight) would have against their male equivalents.

“There is no comparison,” she responded unequivocally, as Ms Schett emphatically nodded her agreement. “Men’s tennis, women’s tennis, two separate things that you can never compare. It wouldn’t be close.”

However, that didn’t deter last night’s assembly from enjoying themselves hugely, not least when Anna Kournikova, the 21 year-old Russian glamour girl with the dazzling looks but a dodgy tennis game, took the court against Monica Seles, who is no bad looker herself!

However, it seemed as if the fans only had eyes for Anna and some of the more red-blooded males couldn’t restrain from wolf whistling when she removed her tracksuit top at the end of the knock-up!

Anna herself is adamant that her tennis rather than her beauty will do the talking from now on and she certainly started last night’s match with a series of lovely shots. Furthermore, she has been helpful and not a little charming since her arrival in Dublin. Such characteristics have not always been associated with her in the past, which is something that certainly couldn’t be said of Lindsay Davenport who has invariably been a wonderful ambassador for the sport.

She went on to beat Barbara Schett 7-5 7-5 although it was an outcome that hardly looked likely when Schett claimed the Davenport serve in the fifth game to love, but the former world number one broke back immediately and it was then that you gained the decided impression that she could claim the vital points whenever she wanted. Schett saved a set point at 6-5 with a beautiful backhand and even when she double-faulted to again open the door, produced a superb drop shot to prolong the proceedings. However, once Lindsay was given a third chance, she made no mistake with a powerful forehand drive.

This was much to the satisfaction of Zina Garrison, a former Wimbledon finalist who was captaining the American side, and much less so to the English lady Annabel Croft, employed in a similar role with the Europeans.

Ms Croft looked far more like some of the fashion models who had graced the Simmonscourt arena the previous evening, her pencil-slim six-foot

figure clad as it was in a figure-hugging pair of cream slacks.

To be truthful, the Davenport-Schett match was pretty moderate stuff, something the two girls attributed to “a slow court and heavy tennis balls”.

There were precious few prolonged rallies and while the Swiss player used the drop shot to useful effect on occasions, she overdid the tactic somewhat and paid in the end. The second set went with service all the way to the 12th game before the Austrian capitulated.

The combatants couldn’t have been more pleasant to each other, to such a degree that you wondered if this was more an exhibition rather than a serious tennis occasion. When pressed, neither girl denied that this was the case.

“I think it’s a great event and we all come here hoping to play well and to do the things we have been working on and also try to enjoy it,” said Davenport.

“We are in a team event, so we want to do well for our team-mates and also want to get the crowd involved as much as possible and enjoy it more than you would a typical tour match.”