Haynes Gets Home-Court Advantage

If Angela Haynes has her choice of home cooking, she’ll take pork chops and mashed potatoes.

“That’s my favorite,” she says. “I love making that.”

The meal would have made a fine complement to the Compton native’s 6-4, 7-5 upset victory over Marta Domachowska of Poland in the first round of the JPMorgan Chase Open on Monday at the Home Depot Center, where Haynes has often practiced her tennis.

“I’m tired of the hotels. We’re staying at home this week,” said Haynes, a 20-year-old qualifier who is No. 106 in WTA rankings but who rallied from behind to upend No. 47-ranked Domachowska in front of about 100 spectators lounging around Court No. 4 as they watched her.

“It was just the neighborhood,” Haynes said with a smile. “I’m glad to have all these supporters out here, but they’re not out there with me. They’re not winning for me.”

Haynes, a 5-foot-8 left-hander who took Serena Williams to three sets before falling, 6-7 (12), 6-4, 6-2, in the first round at Wimbledon, took care of that by herself, rebounding after being broken in the opening game of the first set and then rallying from a 5-3 deficit in the second set.

“I’m feeling good this week, and plus, I’m home, so I have the crowd behind me, so that’s nice,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s tough to be at home, and people expect so much out of you. So if you go out putting pressure on yourself, and you’re just trying to play for them, then most likely you won’t win. So I just went out there focusing on my dad and I, and just playing.”

The approach worked wonders for Haynes, who came into the week having suffered qualifying losses in tournaments in Cincinnati and Carlsbad that were sandwiched around a first-round main-draw loss to Lisa Raymond in Palo Alto.

She posted qualifying victories over Kelly Liggan and Maria Alves to advance to play Domachowska, who beat Haynes in the players’ only other career meeting at a Challenger tournament two years ago.

“This is all about encouraging,” said Fred Haynes, Angela’s father and coach. “You’re going to have some bad days, some bad weeks, some bad months. I’m really, really proud of Angela. She could have easily threw the towel in.”

Another Southern California resident, wild card Marissa Irvin of Santa Monica, lost to Maria Kirilenko of Russia, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, in a first-round match. Dinara Safina, also of Russia, defeated Kristina Brandi of Puerto Rico, 7-6 (5), 6-3, in the featured night match, and Gisela Dulko of Argentina defeated 2004 Australian Open semifinalist Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia, 6-3, 6-3.