Bravo, Belinda

Press, 15 January 1986, Page 30

Bravo, Belinda

A sunburnt hose, a thick slab of white barrier cream, shorts and a sunhat — enter Belinda Cordwell, destined to become New Zealand’s top women’s tennis player. Her appearance at the Canterbury under-age championships many years ago did not draw any cocked eyebrows, but her playing style did. Here was a . 13-year-old that looked like any other “tennis kid” in her group, but this one had the audacity to charge the net and volley returns all over the court. It mattered little that the net was just below chest height. Seven years later, Belinda Cordwell is ranked 70 in the world. She has achieved in one year what others have taken many years to do. A year ago, however, she was playing the overseas circuit with mixed feelings. “I had a ranking of 258 and I felt I could end up a drifter, playing tennis but never breaking through. I felt I should perhaps take a tennis scholarship and get study results at the same time,” she said when in Christchurch last week for the Canterbury Open. Always a successful academic pupil, she worried about whether she should be at university. “I decided to set a goal for 1985 and if I didn’t make it I would give up my tennis.” Her goal was to improve from 258 to 130 by the end of the year. “It seemed too steep a rise, overly optimistic, and it scared me to think I was putting myself and tennis on the line in that way. But it worked.

“It made me push that much harder and want success just that much more.” Her resolution made, she set off for Australia where she won two tournaments and dropped out of two others in the last round of qualifying.

From there it was on to Wimbledon where she again missed out on the main draw, losing in the last round of qualifying play. But it was at Wimbledon that things began to look

up. She teamed with her fellow New Zealander, Julie Richardson, in the doubles event. The pair came up against fifth seeds, Barbara Potter and Sharon Walsh-

Pete, and had their much vaunted opposition on the ropes in the final set. At 5-2 up and serving for the match, the New Zealanders went off the boil and dropped another three service games and eventually the match, 3-6, 6-7, 7-5.

That disappointment served only to instil more determination in Cordwell.

“It really is hard when you come this close to such a win. I began to feel that my tendency to lose my singles in the last round of qualifying was a developing pattern,” she said. Annoyed, and a little dejected, she set off for NewGjrt, Rhode Island, in the nited States, and once again lost her singles rubber in the last qualifying round of a tournament there.

“Then I had a lucky break. Someone didn’t show and I gained lucky loser entry into the main draw. “I won the first game and the opportunity to play one of the top women in the world, Kathy Jordan.

“Perhaps she was slightly off that day but near the end when it looked like I might win, I became nervous. I thought of those two match points we had had at Wimbledon and I turned to Julie, who was watching from the sideline, and I said ‘I won’t lose this one’.

“I remember sticking my backhand out on match point and catching the ball. I remember it dribbling down the line and she wasn’t there. I’d won! “I was ecstatic. All those years of work had paid off.

My ranking jumped from 165 to 105 and I gained entry into the main draw of the major tournaments, especially the United States Open where every game is a big opportunity. I won two rounds there,” she said.

“You create your own luck by being ready when an opportunity like that arises. I had been so close so many times that I was ready and waiting. If you have the ability the opportunities are there,” she said.

Perhaps Cordwell’s greatest performance, albeit a losing one, was against the top women’s player in the world, Martina Navratilova. Cordwell fought all the way against the mentally and physically imposing champion at the . New South Wales Open in Sydney, losing in a tight match, 4-6, 6-7.

“Luckily her first serve was not as accurate the day I played her — but her serve and ability at the net were amazing. Above all though, I was impressed with her sportsmanship. She was under threat from an unknown player who was all out to do well, but throughout she remained pleasant. A real sport,” she said.

Cordwell will leave for the United States and the tough winter circuit after the national championships in Wellington this week, and then on to Wimbledon. The goal for this year is fixed firmly in her mind — to climb further up the international ranking ladder.