The middle of Bianca Moldovan’s 6-2, 6-3 victory against Lauren Gollick on Tuesday in the championship match of the USTA’s Midwest Region Open Championships turned into a boxing match.

Shadow boxing.

Even though Cleveland’s Gollick was on the other side of the court, Moldovan was fighting herself.

Between her grunts of effort on a hot, humid morning at the Columbus North tennis courts, Moldovan continually scolded herself for the slightest error. Those watching might have thought Gollick was dominating the match.

In reality, Moldovan had the match firmly in grasp from beginning to end, with the exception of a brief slip at the beginning of the second set.

After cruising through the first set with a superior serve and sharper ground strokes, Moldovan broke Gollick in the opening game of the second set. It looked like the title match had been decided.

However, the wheels came off for Moldovan just a bit in that second game of the set, as Gollick broke back for a 1-1 tie, then held her service game for a 2-1 lead in the set. Meanwhile, Moldovan was beating herself up verbally.

It appeared that Gollick had an excellent opportunity to get back into the match, but unforced errors and a couple of key double faults let her service games, and the match, slip away.

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