A fast rise for the Malagasy lassie
TENNIS: Stephen Bierley
SUDDENLY and — judging by her performance this week — refreshingly, a talent of quite exceptional ability has emerged from Madagascar.
Dally Randriantefy is only 18 but already has poise beyond her years. It would be invidious to liken her to any of the greats for she is very much a woman of her own time and her own continent, yet memories of Evonne Cawley and Maria Bueno flick through the mind. Already she is ranked considerably higher in the world than Britain’s number one Clare Wood.
Her potential first drew international attention to itself at this year’s Australian Open. She fought her way through three qualifying rounds and then in the first and second rounds proper swept aside two Argentinians, Florencia Labat 6–3, 7–6 and then Patricia Tarabini 6–2, 6–0. “I did not expect it at all,” she laughs with engaging modesty.
Next up came France’s Mary Pierce, seeded number four and now ranked number three in the world. Randriantefy duly lost 6–3, 6–3 but played well enough for the critics and her fellow professionals to take a careful note.
Since then, and before this week’s match, she had played in only one tournament, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne where, as the number one seed, she was hustled to defeat by a younger French girl, Anne Sidot. In this cramped and viciously competitive world rising stars have rising stars upon their backs to bite them.
In the spanking new Hampshire Tennis and Health Club this week a further first-round defeat appeared ominously likely. Her opponent, Sophie Georges, yet another of France’s talented crop, rattled off the first set 6–0 and immediately broke Randriantefy in the second.
The rainy season is coming to an end in Madagascar. Perhaps the violent drumming of a winter shower on the PVC roof was enough to remind her of home, the outdoors she so much loves, and the fact that important ranking points were at stake. Her game was transformed. On both wings, double backhand and fluid, wristy forehand, the yellow balls wanged to right and left of Georges, whose game broke apart under such ferocity.
Randriantefy’s Swiss manager, Nicolas Possa, breathed a large sigh of relief and ordered himself a tranquillising beer. Before the Australian Open his protege was ranked 247th in the world. Startlingly she is now 135th.
This has been no hot-house rise to fame. Throughout her early childhood Randriantefy played only for fun, although her father, Max, was a player himself and coached in the Malagasy capital, Antananarivo. “When I was 10 I read in a magazine about professional tennis players and asked my father if I could do that. He didn’t want me to.” But talent must out.
She had no role models other than local champions. Her dream was to become Malagasy champion, which she duly achieved. Possa, on business in Madagascar, first saw her play when she was 12. He had no professional interest in tennis but, captivated by her obvious talent, he set up a management company to promote and nurture her career.
Her father still coaches her, and all the family — her mother Olga and younger sisters Natacha (who is on the junior circuit) and Tatum — now live in Sion, Switzerland. “She has had to get where she is the hard way,” says Possa.