Kournikova Victory Is Icing on the Cake

Another day at the State Farm Evert Cup, another fine mess Anna Kournikova had gotten herself into.

One round after winning 11 consecutive games to pull out a three-set grinder over Alexia Dechaume-Balleret of France, Kournikova was staring down the barrel of match point against Chanda Rubin Sunday at Grand Champions Resort.

Not once, not twice, but three times, pushed to the precipice again and again by Rubin’s scrambling forehand barrage . . . and two of her own double-faults.

Each time, Kournikova gripped her racquet a little tighter and scolded herself:

“I can’t blow this!

“It’s my mom’s birthday!”

When you’re 16 years old and already a marquee attraction on the WTA Tour, you take inspiration wherever you can find it. And so, after fending off three match points, forcing a third-set tiebreaker and finally salvaging a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) victory, Kournikova was pleased to announce she hadn’t spoiled her mother Alla’s birthday celebration.

And announce it Kournikova did.

Immediately after the final point, Kournikova grabbed the microphone from the chair umpire and implored the crowd inside the Stadium Court to “join me in wishing my mom ‘Happy Birthday.’ ”

Then, a WTA staffer handed Kournikova a chocolate cake specially prepared for the occasion and Kournikova carried it cross-court for personal delivery to Alla, who was seated in the first row.

Worth noting: It was not an ice cream cake.

Had it been, Alla might have been able to drink her birthday cake out of a mug, with Anna needing all of an hour and 58 minutes to go from first serve to dessert.

Kournikova, seeded 16th here, wasn’t the only seeded player to take the hard road to the third round. Fifth-seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain dropped the first set to Maria Alejandro Vento of Venezuela before settling down for a 6-7 (7-0), 7-5, 6-3 victory.

Other seeded players advancing included:

* Fourth-seeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Anne Miller.

* Ninth-seeded Sandrine Testud of France, a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 winner over Julie Halard-Decugis of France.

* Tenth-seeded Dominique Van Roost of Belgium, a 6-4, 6-0 winner over Barbara Paulus of Austria.

Kournikova is turning the Evert Cup into her own survival training course. In her first-round match Friday, Kournikova trailed, 3-6, 1-4, with Dechaume-Balleret serving with a 30-0 advantage in the sixth game of the second set.

But Kournikova held fast to win that game--as well as the next 10 that followed--for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 triumph.

The Russian teenager acknowledged she is having difficulty adjusting to the fickle Palm Springs weather conditions--cold and blustery one day, dry and calm the next.

“I still can’t figure out the air,” she said. “The atmosphere here is tough--totally different from the air in Florida. Hopefully, I’m getting used to it.”

Rubin, meanwhile, was chastising herself for striking out on three match points.

“I just didn’t close the match,” Rubin said. “I had it right there. I played well and I had it. But, you have to be able to close. And I didn’t do that.”

After back-to-back double-faults by Kournikova, Rubin was at break point, but a lively rally ended with Rubin banging a backhand into the net.

Kournikova saved the second match point with a service winner and the third when Rubin concluded another lengthy rally with a forehand that sailed long.