we're just about wrapped up the fourth round of the women's draw at the USO but things are pretty hot and exciting. i am no rabid fan of the women's tour but the past weekend brought about some interesting storylines for the bottom half. the quarterfinalists in the top half have been, we can say, predictable but nonetheless action- and drama-packed.here are my random thoughts and feelings:
with maria sharapova getting blown out of the bottom half, it's a matter of glass half-full/half-empty now, depending on whether you are a casual or non-tennis fan (which i can group with the cbs moguls in entertainment hungry new york), or a bona fide tennis lunatic like myself. not having the paris hilton in the draw, along with the sympathy losses of martina hingis, nadia petrova, nicole vaidisova, and patty schnyder, could have the tv executives wringing their hands over a possible anna chakvetadze or svetlana kuznetsova emerging from the bottom half to contest for the USO trophy. anna who? svetlana who? well, they're just strong top 10 russian girls who have been making splashes on the tournament circuit but not on the big stages of the grand slam. at least sveta is the USO champion from 2004, but one look at her arnold schwarzennegger looks and you know why cbs and usa network might be weeping come super saturday (men's semi's and women's finals played on the same day).
in the top half you have the more exciting matches that, even at this stage, can already be dubbed as de facto finals. check out the quarterfinal matches: serena-justine (this is the 3rd time these two heavyweights are facing each other before the final in a grand slam. they met at the french open and wimbledon quarterfinals this year. they also clashed at the miami final last march which serena won in an exciting see-saw battle over 3 sets). can the feisty belgian spoil the possible williams party in the semifinals? i'm putting my money on that one (plus i get live coverage here in belgium AND i believe justine and rafa's fates are totally intertwined at grand slams). jelena-venus. luckily for the serbian hottie, she has won over venus in their previous two meetings. she does seem to stand a better chance against the "gazelle"-like venus (as she was described by her father; serena was described as being like a "pit bull & mike tyson") with her better all-around court game, which includes grrrreat defense and net play. incidentally, these were the two exposed areas in ana ivanovic's game when she faced venus yesterday. couldn't help but wince every time she struggled to get to ground strokes pounded to her forehand side and hail, she only made 1 in 7 points at the net! this girl has got to learn how to put away volleys commandingly, and pronto!, if she wants to redeem herself in madrid by year's end. venus has been playing awesome tennis similar to her wimbledon campaign, and it takes one gutsy move to bet against her hoisting that trophy come september 8.
in the bottom half, the younger girls in agnes szavay, agniescka radwanska, shahar peer, julia vakulenko, and victoria azarenka are all scenting a golden opportunity to be in the final. i'm hoping that the polish version of venus williams (that'd be agniescka to her l'il sister urszula's serena version) will take out the aranxta-like peer in today's match on armstrong. i have picked vakulenko to get one over szavay simply because i saw her dismantle daniela hantuchova in the first round, although i have read that the hungarian teenager has been playing well all summer. my sentimental vote goes to sveta in the first match up on ashe against azarenka.
what can i say? the women's draw has not been this exciting this early in previous slams and i can only thank the rising serbs and comeback diva williams sisters for the upsurge in excitement. i think i've already bled dry the threat of the young ones nipping at the heels of the veterans for a piece of the glory pie. exciting days are now upon us!
*in photo: maria sharapova's plucky conqueror, the 18-year old agnes radwanska from poland. she now has to buy herself and her sister a louis vuitton bag each after a joke dare they placed before her stirring upset of the two-dressed siberian. (courtesy of pete bodo's blog at tennisworld.com)
24 comments:
my comment for this post went to the previous one
A
hello again A, allow me to answer parts of your previous comment here.
i'm quite impressed with szavay myself, seeing as how she dispatched of martina hingis easily in their last match (bagel in the third!). i had picked julia "kimmie killer" vakulenko to win in yesterday's match but she proved me wrong. i have yet to see her play, though.
did you see the Szavay-Kuznetsova match at the US Open Series Tour ( a week before the Open) where Szavay resigned while ahead by one set due to lower back injury?
whom do you pick to win the women's/ men's championship?
who would you like to win?
do you see a federer/nadal final? I wish we have more players like Patrick Rafter, John McEnroe, Sampras and Boris Becker. The serve and volley guys. Even the women could use someone like Navratilova. Whatever happened to Stephenson (Dr J's daughter)?
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I guess, this robs us of another memorable aphorism from Maria Sharapova, something along the same line of last year's: "At the end of the day, my life is not about bananas".
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hi A
i did not get to see the new haven tournament final where szavay retired against sveta while trailing in the second (i know she took the first). i had read, though, that she had won 8 straight games in 9 games, or something ridiculous like that, from the qualifying weekend straight into the final. no wonder she ran out of steam at the finish line.
for the winners, there is a difference between what i WANT and what i THINK will be the outcome, so here are my picks:
i WANT jelena to win the women's title but i THINK justine or venus will take it. i have not warmed up enough to chaki to root for her to win a maiden slam.
i WANTed rafa to take it all but after last night, my heart is broken. second to rafa, i WANT novak to win it, barring his posturing and preening on court that costs him to unnecessarily long matches every time (see five setters against baghdatis and hewitt in wimbledon, then to stepanek a few days ago, and then a tiring four setter yesterday to monaco). i THINK roger will raise the trophy for the fourth time.
i think it was great that haas and moya have gotten this far. i think moya will bow out to nole tomorrow unless he uses his career smarts to tire the surging serb. it's really a toss up right now who will make it out of the chela-ferrer match. i predict that to be a long slugfest between the two. :)
by the way, i like jelena's net play. too bad she's out. i had expected more from chaki, after all she's been compared to hingis by some, but realised szavay had a wilier game. u think the hungarian did too little too late in trying to come back in the second set. the burly russian was ready for anything szavay threw at her. oh well, next slam, next slam.
I have always thought that Roddick has the game to derail the Federer Express if only he could sustain his focus and intensity for five sets. Tonight he almost proved me right. Almost. He was good in the first two sets then waned somewhat expectedly in the third. If only his coach J.C. could impart some of that unrelenting tenacity he was so well known for in his time to his prized under study. In tennis, unlike basketball or other sports where time is a limiting factor, you have to be good till
the last drop. Or volley.
Another Williams looms huge before Justine. And she's a dismal 1 for 7 on this one. I love her backhand but I think she's going to need more than her backhand to hurdle this one. If she does overcome, then, I know, I will be in love with her forever.
But don't tell my girlfriend.
A
gah i had written a long reply and then it just disappeared. gaaah.
anyway, just wanted to say that venus' strength over justine is her ability to run long rallies and move very quickly. justine is like a cheetah, quick in bursts, easily fatigued, which might explain a bit venus' impressive head to head record against her. however, venus does have the propensity to spray errors all over the place as she did occasionally against jelena last night, but she also does know how to step things up when most needed, as best demonstrated in the tiebreak. pity the match had to end that way; i am not a fan of final set tiebreakers in a grand slam. i like the french open/wimbledon rule of having to break your opponent to win the match, not these tense tiebreakers that seem to nullify all the great work accrued in the preceding sets.
as for roger and roddick, i had hoped that roddick would pull of a miracle last night, and i did bet for him in another forum, but bad bad me, i didn't even watch after the score was 4-3 in the first set. somehow i knew that roger would step it up when most needed and win, and voilà, he does it in straights. short of an injury, roger is two matches away from a four-peat. he owns davydenko and whoever he faces in the final will most probably be nervous and tired.
the bottom half of the draw is still exciting for me at this point. in an hour nole will face moya. i think nole will take this but the sentimental part of me wants moya to possibly pull off an upset. but he might not be able to outlast ferrer OR federer in the final, so i fancy nole's chances better. the kid, after all, is raring to prove himself on the biggest stage of all, a grand slam final. i hope he does but without getting too swell-headed in the process.
I hate it when that happens. One time, I stayed up for 3 hours writing a very impassioned comment fueled by nothing but emotion and a sixpack of Coors and when I hit "publish" button the whole darn thing disappeared. Into nothingness. I didn't try to retrieve or reproduce it. I went to bed instead.
I also do not like the tie-breaker at the final set but I understand why they implement it. Without the tiebreaker the match has the possibility to go on forever. Remember the John McEnroe-Mats Wilander match in the Davis Cup? It was really something to watch but too draining for the players.
Against the top players, in the most important matches, Venus is able to raise her game to another level.
Novak Djokovic has the game and other attributes to win this tournament. He's tall(6'-2"), big (180 lbs.) and strong. He has an all-around game and, most importantly, he's funny. That shows you he doesn't get rattled. He can win this whole echilada even against Federer.
ok, ok. I was wrong about Roddick. You don't have to rub it in.
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anna charvedatze, under a surprisingly mild new york sun, and before a seemingly tiring and erratic but more persistent kuznetsova, wilts in the third set.
now, a word from your local sponsor...
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venus and justine are now playing...
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this is top rate tennis. it doesn't get any better than this...
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it's now official: I'm in love with Justine Henin.
not just with her backhand.
A
haha! i'm glad sveta won. anna is good but it is not her time. until she strengthens her mental game esp on the big stages (can you get any bigger than a semifinal in new york?) sveta, in spite of less than stellar tennis, will get the job done. well done for the former champion.
as for the justine venus match, goodnessssss! i thought the third set of the venus jelena match the other night was quite the match in and of itself, but this semifinal was the de facto final! from first to finish, these two warriors just didn't let up, but man, justine was simply the superior player when it mattered. she was simply amazing in the second set! their rallies were just brilliant. ok, i'm running out of superlatives here. you know who i think will take this final, right?
justine's smile at the end was really something. it lit up the entire ashe stadium!
ok, onto the men's semis. i'm rooting for novak but can't help but love nalby and rafa's conqueror, the indefatigable ferrer. a part of me wants nikolay to break the roger stanglehold on their head to head (can you get any worse than 9 - 0?), but i really think this is roger's to lose.
hey, I just saw 'happy slip' in an iphone ad immediately following the williams/henin match. this girl is getting ubiquitous. good for her. (you know who she is, right?)
I guess that was the ad from the local sponsor
now back to tennis...
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I missed the mens SFinals.
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A! how could you? i skipped a wedding reception so i could watch my clowning nole whip ferrer's ass back to spain! i did hope against hope in the kolya-roger match but of course the majestic one found a way to lift himself out of a service rut and win in straights.
am just waiting for the women's final to begin. i would give an arm and a leg to have eurosport just about now!
I had to choose between mens SFinals or womens finals, with no other tenable options, I chose the latter. they just walked in on the court.
there is no way I'm going to miss the mens finals. unless I die in my sleep tonight. which isn't going to happen because I'm working tonight. I work the night shift.
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they're on
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my girlfriend wins on a lob. And that's that.
the Open.
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you missed a wedding reception because of tennis?
are you nuts?
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re: wedding reception vs men's sf
no way jose! the bride wanted me to emcee the reception and i was like, wtf? i'd rather get wasted and pig out than have to host silly stuff like catching the bouquet and garter thingies... i mean, who nowadays goes for that cr*p? LOL
so no, was not nuts. and got to see the second and third sets of the first semi, and all of the second. :)
sveta got left behind in st petersburg. or maybe she thought she was anna chakvetadze and just didn't show up for her final. gaaah, what an anti climactic finish to a great week of tennis! it's soooo obvious now, even then, that the top half of the women's draw was the only half that mattered.
but you were right, the other one was the de facto final.
maybe roddick has hope now that mandy moore is out of the picture thank GOD!
i so love these tennis entries. gives me a healthy respite from football (soccer) which is soooo depressing me right now.
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