Huber Stumbles but Makes Spirlea Fall

Anke Huber was experiencing all the wrong feelings at just the wrong time. She was up, 4-0, in the third set, leading Irina Spirlea after fighting through a zone of bad play in the second set of a quarterfinal match at the Acura Classic at Manhattan Beach on Friday.

It was a time in the match when Huber should have been at her most emphatic, a time to capitalize on momentum and finish it out, having already squandered a match point in the second set.

Rather, for Huber--the tournament’s second-seeded player--it was a time for doubt.

“The last few matches I’ve played have been in three sets,” Huber said. “Maybe it’s in my head that I can’t win in two sets. I wasn’t sure I could win at 4-0--at that [point] you should be sure you can win the match.”

Spirlea sensed her opportunity and came back, but was herself a victim of unsteady play at key moments. Huber prevailed, 6-3, 6-7 (7-1), 6-4.

The match took 2 hours 3 minutes on a warm and windy day and offered stretches of sparkling tennis from two players willing to go for shots at all costs.

Such recklessness was costly to both. Spirlea’s insistence on going for a big first serve caused her to fire in six aces, but she got in only 49% of her first serves.

Her serving improved in the second set, as Huber’s failed. The German had nine double faults in the match, a handful at key junctures. Her frustration intensified as the set wore on, culminating in a forehand service return that sailed long--on match point in the second set.

Spirlea dominated the tiebreaker to draw even.

“I was leading, 4-0,” Huber said. “It shouldn’t happen that she would come back. I let her back into the match. I wasn’t cool enough. If she hadn’t missed a few easy shots. . . . I was a bit lucky I won.”

Huber lost her composure repeatedly during the third set. She was broken in the eighth game, to bring the set to 4-4, and was given a warning for racket abuse.

Huber collected herself enough to break in the next game, when Spirlea double-faulted on break point. She held serve to win the match.

Huber, 21, has been on the rise for some time. Now ranked No. 5, she began the year well, getting to the finals of the Australian Open before losing to Monica Seles.

She has struggled lately. As Friday’s match illustrated, Huber has been having trouble closing out matches. All three of her matches at the Olympics went three sets and Friday’s match was Huber’s third three-setter at this tournament.

Spirlea, 22, has also been a player to watch, for many reasons. The Romanian has worked her way into the top 20, getting as high as No. 16 this year, and plays an exciting, powerful game.

She also became a historical footnote when, last month at a tournament in Palermo, Italy, Spirlea became the first player on the WTA Tour to be defaulted from a tournament.

Spirlea, who trains in Italy and speaks the language fluently, made highly insulting remarks to the chair umpire, in perfect gutter Italian.

“I was reacting badly after bad calls,” she said. “I was getting angry. I said him a bad word. There was no warning, none. They just throw me out.”

Spirlea, whose on-court demeanor is fiery but seldom offensive, said she was not proud of the default but managed to find the bright side.

“At last,” she said, laughing with arms raised in mock triumph, “I am first at something.”

Acura Classic Notes

In other matches, fourth-seeded Lindsay Davenport of Newport Beach defeated fifth-seeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, and seventh-seeded Karina Habsudova beat third-seeded Kimiko Date, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Date closed out the match with a pair of double faults. Davenport will play top-seeded Steffi Graff in a semifinal match at 1 p.m. Huber will play Habsudova in the other semifinal at 7 p.m.