South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane and Japan’s Yui Kamiji were brave in going down to the pairing of the Netherlands’ Diede De Groot and China’s Zhenzhen Zhu 7-5, 7-5 in their US Open quarter-final on Thursday.
In a rain-affected match, the winners of the Roland Garros title, could not get the job done in a match that lasted 2 hours and 18 minutes on Court 10.
Twice the players had to stop play because of rain. This had a significant impact on Montjane’s ability to see the ball.
“Tough one for us. For me it was always going to be tough under lights. My eyes are not so good,” she said post-match.
“Today I miss hit a lot of balls because I couldn’t time it so well. I was not seeing like I would see it in the daylight.”
‘Pressure was on’
Kgothatso Montjane also described feeling greater expectations on her shoulders.
“I felt like the pressure was on me. Yeah, I felt like I gave away quite a lot. I’m kind of disappointed with that. I knew it was going to be tough under the lights.”
Montjane outlined how the rain delays did not help matters.
“The breaks for the rain killed my eyesight as I was already adapting and then I had to almost start from scratch when play resumed after the rain.”
Montjane added her displeasure at the number of times Zhu got out of her chair.
“They kept killing time when Zhu got out of her chair saying she was trying to fix it.”
“Something like this kills my momentum as my eyesight has to continually readjust. It was almost like a reset.”
On top of rain delays, it was also a very windy night at Flushing Meadows.
“The wind really affected my ball toss. It was quite a struggle to read the wind all the time.”
Stamina
Kgothatso Montjane was able to look at these outside factors philosophically.
“These are outside factors that we are not able to control.”
Kamiji’s stamina and powers of concentration were impressive as she backed up after a marathon three set singles match against Diede De Groot in which she triumphed 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Montjane was also suitably impressed by Kamiji.
“She only had an hour to rest. It was great how she showed up. I’m really grateful for a partner like her.”
“Out of four Slams, we managed to win one (Roland Garros).”
Montjane expressed feeling that it is time for her to have a rest.
“After this, I need a long break. Mentally, I feel like I need to take some time out.”
Dave Marshall is reporting exclusively from the US Open in Flushing Meadows for The South African.
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