And just like that, Murray comes roaring back to win four games in a row. He’s serving for the match now- [EDIT] and he finished it off 7-5 in the fifth. That sure is a missed opportunity for Troicki, but he didn’t look too good in the third and fourth set. We’ll see if Schiavone can rally- she’s been living dangerously this tournament. She’s down 2-4 in the second set but has had four break points in this game. So far Pavlyuchenkova is hanging on.
I screwed this up. The matchups in the top half of the draw are Nadal-Soderling and Murray-Chela.
Forza Francesca!
Wow, Federer has barely had to break as sweat in this entire tournament. Could he win?
Schiavone survived again. She lost more games than she won, but she beat ScrabbleNighmare 1-6, 7-5, 7-5. Federer looked good in beating Monfils in a competitive straight-set match. He still hasn’t lost a set so far and he must be very happy that he won with relative ease. Monfils is was starting from a bad position here since he played a pretty long match Sunday and had to finish it with basically another two sets Monday. And of course, Monfils doesn’t strategize- he just runs after the ball all day and crushes it when he gets a chance for a spectacular winner, so he was cramping by the end of the third set against Federer.
So we get stage one of the matchup everybody’s been waiting for: Federer-Djokovic on Thursday. Other than Djokovoc getting a walkover, Federer’s gotten everything else he could ask for since he hasn’t lost a set and hasn’t had to exert too much energy to get to this point. He’s playing aggressive tennis and winning with offense. He should be fresh enough to stay with Djokovic if he sticks to his gameplan, but against Djokovic lately, he hasn’t done that. We’ll see if that pattern repeats itself. It looks good for a Nadal-Murray semifinal on the other side, but both matches feel a little shaky because Murray isn’t totally healthy and had to play a long match, and Nadal somehow doesn’t seem superhuman even though he has looked better his last few matches.
With Monfils down, the French still have one hope left- Bartoli beat Kuznetsova. The crowd seems to love Schiavone and Bartoli, so that could be an interesting one. I suspect they’ll mostly be rooting for homegirl.
Did Troiki really kick the ball away from a ballboy a few points after the let play? I’ve never seen a ballboy run out onto the court during a play, by the way. Quite rare.
Anyone have a clip of Troiki being rude to the ballboy later?
Actually, it happened a few weeks ago in Madrid, the event that has replaced traditional ball kids with comely young women in miniskirts, who are much slower, both mentally and physically.
She thought the point was over and ran out, then ran back to the sideline when she realized that play was still going on. Federer pointed to the girl just as his opponent (I don’t recall who he was playing) put the ball away. He stopped play and argued that his play was interrupted, but the ref didn’t buy it. The ref mildly chastised the girl to remain seated until the play had ceased. I remarked to my husband how I’d never seen that happen before.
Okay, not quite as I remembered it. Federer pointed to her after the put away. And, of course, the moment was captured on YouTube.
Nadal was the opponent.
Sharapova won the first eight games and for a while there it looked like she was going to double-bagel Petkovic. Na was too good for Azarenka. So the women’s semis look like this:
Schiavone (5) vs. Bartoli (11)
Na (8) vs. Sharapova (7)
The remaining men’s quarters will start soon.
Looks like some very interesting match-ups the next 2 days.
I’d love to see Nadal break Borg’s record.
I’d love to see Federer be a spoiler after many wrote him off.
I’d love to see Djokovic take over the #1 spot.
I’d love to see Murray get his first Grand Slam win.
Sharapova v. Li Na should be interesting if Li Na can play offensively against Sharapova. Both are looking sharp.
Bartoli and Schiavone – what an improbable line-up. I can’t wait to see them duke it out! Normally, I’d root for Bartoli but I just adore Schiavone. She’s like a terrier in a really ill-fitting dress. And I love that about her!
I’d taped the action yesterday and was uber-annoyed when they started out their noon coverage by announcing that both Sharapova and Li Na had won their rounds. After the Murray and Nadal matches, they went on to show us the matches that they’d just spoiled. Grrr!
I got them back, though, because I fell asleep after Sharapova broke Petkovic.
Li won the first set 6-4. It looked like she was getting timid when Sharapova broke her serve early in the second, but they’re back on serve with Li up 5-4. Sharapova really does look a lot better on clay than she used to. And it looks like it’s still really windy out there.
An interesting wrinkle, maybe, in the Bartoli match is that Bartoli has always had a difficult relationship with the French tennis program. While she plays for France, she’s lived in Switzerland for years. The French fans will probably pretend not to notice this since it’s not really unusual, but I could imagine it dampening support for her since everybody else loves Schiavone.
And Li gets to the final with a 6-4, 7-5 win. I’m impressed again. She doesn’t have a great game for clay, and while Sharapova doesn’t either, much was made of her improvement lately and she seemed like the hottest player on tour coming in. Li is another one of those winning personalities and it’s always good when those types of players are successful. Wikipedia says Li is going to improve to #5 in the world based on making the final, which is a new personal best. Today’s oh, those quirky rankings! factoid is that Li is going to move ahead of Schiavone in the rankings even if Schiavone makes the final and beats Li. Li lost in the third round at the French last year (to Schiavone, in fact), so she’s picking up a lot of points.
Does she have tiger blood? Is she related to Charlie Sheen and/or Adonis?
She’s Chinese, so for all I know, she travels with quarts of the stuff. Anyway she’ll be the underdog against Schiavone in the final. Schiavone really doesn’t give a damn, does she? When she won last year, everybody was happy for her and they were sure it was a one-time thing because she’s an older player and never put together that kind of tennis at a major before. She hasn’t made any finals since then, but she put together some other good results (quarters at the US Open and Australia) and kept her ranking around the top five, and now she’s back in the final again. Her whole attitude seems to be ‘Why not?’
I love both Schiavone and Li so I don’t know who to root for. I think the edge goes to Li because she’s been playing fabulous tennis, but who can count out Schiavone who plays with such passion? It’ll be a great finale, I hope!
Oh, and I’d like to pit ESPN/TTC/NBC for not airing today’s semi-finals live. I got up at 5am to watch it and couldn’t find it. They’re going to air it at 11am after the “Today Show” and my work won’t let me take off to watch it.
Bastids!
The semis will be getting started soon, but it’s true they won’t be on the air live. Nadal vs. Murray is scheduled for 8 a.m. Eastern and they’re probably warming up now.
I read yesterday that Murray actually has a partial tendon tear in his ankle from the Troicki match. You need a lot of luck to beat Nadal when you’re not healthy yourself, and Nadal is serving for the first set at 5-2.
Murray made a big push to take the first set, but fell just short. He’s definitely picked it up.
Murray is staying with Nadal in the second. Twice he’s gone down a break and then evened things up. I don’t think he can come back from down 0-2 against Nadal, so the whole match hingers on the next few games.
By the way, I’m calling out SI’s S.L. Price for stealing my line.
Nadal wins the second set. Murray is screwed.