Clever Tanaka stuns Van Koot to book Australian Open semi-final spot
It is often said that playing tennis and playing chess are very similar. Watching Manami Tanaka’s Australian Open quarter-final against Aniek Van Koot demonstrated just that.
A physical chess game which took not just the players but also the fans watching on a two-hour ride full of cleverly constructed points saw world No. 9 Tanaka come from a set down to claim a 1-6 6-3 6-4 victory, and a place in the semi-finals.
“I’m so happy. It’s a really good result and I’m so happy with how I played,” Tanaka said.
At the end of the first set it looked like momentum was firmly in Van Koot’s court. The world No. 3 created spaces and made painting the lines with her powerful groundstrokes look effortless.
But as the second set began Tanaka adapted to the onslaught, changed up her game plan and, like the diagonal-moving Bishop on the chessboard, waited patiently in the rally until the opportunity to hit a beautifully angled shot that forced her opponent to move presented itself.
“I’m always thinking about who I’m playing and preparing ways that I can play to win," she said. "That makes me very confident as I imagine different ways I can do what I need to do.
“In the first set today I made many mistakes so I just thought before the second set 'just make her move'. So from the second set I didn’t try to make too many winners I just tried to make her move and move and move and that’s what made the difference.”
Tanaka’s astute tennis brain is something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by her opponent in her singles semi-final tomorrow, Diede de Groot, who defeated Momoko Ohtani in her quarter-final 6-2 6-0.
“I played her in one of the preparation tournaments last week and she’s a very good defensive player," said the world No. 1. "She can also hit quite a fast ball to change things up when she needs to.
“She’s a very impressive young player and it’s nice to see her coming up the rankings into the top ten and be in the Grand Slams now because of the bigger draws.”
And on other side of the draw Tanaka’s compatriot Yui Kamiji was putting in equally as impressive performance.
The world No.2 came out on top against the USA’s Dana Mathewson 6-0 6-2 in her quarter-final, setting up a semi-final meeting with Dutchwoman Jiske Griffioen, who won her quarter-final against Zhenzhen Zhu in three thrilling sets 6-4 4-6 6-4.
Kamiji’s form at the start of the 2023 season has been impressive and in particular her solid serve has proved to be a great weapon in those moments when opponents are putting pressure on her.
But many will be surprised to learn that the consistency we are seeing with the Kamiji serve hasn’t come about because of anything in particular she has been doing on the training court, it’s been helped more by one aspect of the Melbourne weather we’ve seen a lot of this year.
“The last two weeks tournaments in Australia, especially the Melbourne Open, we had three matches in one day for two days because of the rain and I served a lot, really a lot because of that,” she said laughing.
“So now I feel really confident with it and that’s helping me, I’m not sure that the weather is supposed to help me but it has.”