Garbin has unfinished business
Garbin has unfinished business 
By Daniel Pace
Former Australian Captain December 31, 2007
ITALY’S Tathiana Garbin declared she had unfinished business at the Australian Women’s Hardcourts tournament on the Gold Coast after eliminating No.2 seed Nadia Petrova.
Garbin advanced to the semi-finals at the Tier III event last January and was leading 4-3 in the opening set against former world No.1 Martina Hingis, who has retired from the tour.
But the Italian was forced
to withdraw from the match due to breathing difficulties resulting from a viral illness that struck her during the week.
“I feel like I didn’t finish the tournament last year,'’ Garbin said after upsetting world No.14 Petrova 5-7 7-5 6-3.
“It was very bad luck because I was sick in the semi-final against Martina (Hingis).
“To come back here and win this match first round was very tough because Nadia is one of the best players in the world. I’m proud of myself today.'’
It was Garbin’s first win over Petrova in five attempts stretching back to 2001 and she was made to work hard for it.
The world No.36 ran down almost every shot and blunted the impact of Petrova’s powerful serve.
Garbin led 5-0 in the deciding set when she began to suffer some nerves in closing out the match, allowing Petrova to claw her way back to 5-3.
But the pressure was too much for the powerful Russian, who hit a forehand into the net to hand Garbin the match.
“The key was to give her back every ball,'’ said Garbin, who has been training in Marbella, Spain in the lead-up to this $200,000 event.
“I ran so much today - three hours almost - I ran for everything.'’
Petrova praised the tenacity of Garbin, who reached a career-high world ranking of 22 this year before injuries hampered the latter part of her season.
“I think she played over her limit and had a really good match from the beginning until the end,'’ said Petrova, adding her signature shot, the backhand down the line, didn’t work.
“She was like a wolf. She was going for everything and getting every single ball.
“Well done. Hopefully she can continue playing all her matches here like that.
“I could do nothing about it. I didn’t play any matches in almost three months.
“To be honest I felt at the end of the match I might make a comeback but it just didn’t work out.'’
The 25-year-old Petrova, who also struggled with injuries in 2007, said she would decide over the next two days on whether to enter the Sydney International starting Sunday.
In an earlier first-round clash, two-time Gold Coast champion Patty Schnyder of Switzerland cruised to a 6-1 6-3 win over Russian Alisa Kleybanova.
Heavy rain led to the postponement of matches on the outside courts.
AAP