I’m a little frustrated that the slight time difference & that once again there are staffing problems at my work mean I’m not getting to see the matches I want to. I’m hoping there will be a replay of the Nadal/Tomic match today.
I saw the Peer & Pennetta match. Pennetta looked to be down & out & fought back. it was a really absorbing struggle. Unfortunately just before the end they cut to the Stosur/Kvitova match. Understandable since it was Australian coverage & she was their only realistic finals hope, but disappointing just the same.
Pennetta will have to be tired now. I’m a fan but I think Kvitova might prevail.
I might have to Google Wozniacki’s outfit. I haven’t seen her play yet. For becoming, sporty & sensible I have to mention Kuznetsova, Pennetta & especially Peer.
Well Cilic is still paying $101 and meets Nadal tomorrow. Feeling despondent, I looked up their head to head record and it turns out they have only met once, on a hard court too, in Beijing in 2009. Cilic won 6-1 6-3 and a week later Nadal was in the Masters final.
So I backed him again and backed him to beat Nadal at $10.
Here in the States, tennis coverage is very American-centric. They’ll be an awesome pairing – such as Baghdatis v. Hewitt – and what will they show here? Andy Roddick v. anyone because Roddick is America’s sole hope for a Grand Slam final. And just to frustrate us more, they’ll occasionally show a highlight from the magnificent 3 hour 5-setter before returning to the Roddick ace fest. Woot.
Also Na Li - not only a great, determined player but a fun personality off court! I was already a Schiavone fan!
I didn’t like Roddick’s outfit - made me think of a penguin. & his habit of hitching his shoulders like he is still wearing clothes 3 sizes too big for him didn’t help.
I’ve seen Wozniacki’s outfit now. While its not my favourite , its not as bad as the horrors that were Petrova’s & Venus’s 2nd one. I didn’t like the shirt of Schiavone’s (was she wearing that one last year as well? It looks familiar.)The skirt would have been OK with a plain t shirt.
I saw one of the Sampras-Federer exhibitions in New York a couple of years ago and I remember the program said the Australian Open is traditionally a tournament where champions add to their legacies as opposed to new faces bursting onto the scene. I’m not sure that was true anyway - I’m thinking of Baghdatis in the final in 2006, Djokovic winning in 2008, and a couple of fluke winners in the late '90s and eary 2000’s - but it’s definitely not true this year. Did anybody have Dolgopolov (22, Ukraine) in the quarters, Raonic (20, Canada) in the fourth round, and Tomic (18, Australia) in the third round? I didn’t get to see Dimitrov, but he made the second round, too. I never thought Dolgopolov would take out Soderling. Soderling’s record in majors other than the French Open still isn’t very good, and he lost in the first round in Australia last year, but I thought he had a chance to challenge Murray this year. Murray has looked amazing. Raonic lost to Ferrer but he looks like a beast. He has a huge serve, his second serve is fantastic, and he plays very smart.
About the only match I saw yesterday was the first set of Raonic-Ferrer and part of Murray’s beatdown of Melzer. But I did force myself to stay up until around 5 Sunday morning so I could watch the end of Sciavone-Kuznetsova. That was great stuff. A lot of twists and turns and they seemed to get better as it went on. As much as sports commentators overhype this kind of thing, you do have to love the joy in Schiavone’s game. She said that as the third set wore on, she’d look at the clock and think to herself “Brava, Francesca!” She doesn’t have much chance of beating Wozniacki, but she’s going to move up to at least #4 in the world based on her showing here. I don’t think anybody believes she’s “really” a top-five player, but she’s done a very good job of building on her French Open win.
Her performance at the French Open victory certainly won me over. Even though people have criticized her lack of beauty here, her joie de vivre certainly makes her a joy to watch.
And bravo for Kuznetsova for her grace in losing. She’s come a long way and has many victories ahead of her, IMO.
While she competed very well, I don’t know about that for Kuznetsova. For her this has to be a very disappointing loss, and she’s only going to have so many chances to win another major. Despite the two she’s won, she has a habit of coming up small in important matches and hasn’t made a whole lot of deep runs into major tournaments. It’s pretty surprising that she’s only managed to win one major in the last six years, and with no Serena in this tournament, she really missed a chance to add another one. I still like her game, though.
Saw Dolgopolov (sp) trounce Soderling. Fred Stolle pointed out that Soderling doesn’t appear to have a plan B when things aren’t working for him. Also saw part of Raocic’s game against Ferrer. Good to see 2 new, promising guys.
I tried to watch the Murray/Melzer clash but it was dull, dull, dull. Likewise Peng/versus Radwanska - but have to make allowances for Radwanska coming back from injury.
Ferrer is my favourite & I would love to see him do well against Nadal. But I don’t think he will beat him.
Stanislas Wawrinka SUI (19) vs. Roger Federer SUI (2)
WOMEN
Caroline Wozniacki DEN (1) vs. Francesca Schiavone ITA (6)
Andrea Petkovic GER (30) vs. Na Li CHN (9)
Agnieszka Radwanska POL (12) vs. Kim Clijsters BEL (3)
Petra Kvitova CZE (25) vs. Vera Zvonareva RUS (2)
There’s a clear favorite in all of these matches; I think the closest thing to a tossup is Djokovic vs. Berdych. Don’t overlook Li against Wozniacki in that semifinal, if it happens. She doesn’t get talk about very much and I haven’t thought of her as a potential slam winner, but she’s very good and if you think Wozniacki is a bit of a paper tiger, I could see Li taking her out. Zvonareva is becoming a steady contender but I like Clijsters to make the finals.
I’m not seeing any vulnerability from Murray, at least not against someone who’s never gone this far in a major tournament. I’ve never seen Murray play this well. Then again I didn’t think Dolgopolov was going to beat Soderling either.
Uh, Schiavone just took the first set off Wozniacki. In fact she just served and volleyed to get herself to set point, and then charged the net and hit a slice volley deep into the corner to win the set. I’m pretty sure this is not possible.
I didn’t think Federer was going to blow Wawrinka off the court like that, but Wawrinka is just not in his league. That easy win might help Federer a lot against Djokovic or Berdych.
Schiavone took a 3-1 lead in the second set, but Wozniacki rallied. She won the last five games and just broke Schiavone’s serve to start the third. Starting around the fifth game of the second set (I think she had a break point in that one), it started to look like Schiavone’s body was tiring at last. Her shots aren’t going where she wants them to and she’s missed a few easy ones, pulled a few wide. But just as I was respectfully writing her off, she pulled even with a break of Wozniacki’s serve. Wozniacki broke right back, so now she’s up 2-1. It’s going to be a tall order but I won’t say Schiavone has no chance.
Wozniacki pulled out the third set 6-3. Schiavone almost cut the deficit to 4-5 (one break) but couldn’t quite get there against the #1 player and after her long match the other day. You could see how heavy her legs were. She played a very good match and they both did a great job covering the court. Wozniacki’s match with Li should be a good one.
Bummer about Schiavone. Didn’t get to see it, but I’m glad that Schiavone gave Wozniacki something to chew on.
Watched Li v Petkovic. Petkovic just couldn’t get her head into the game. Li played spectacular tennis; her groundshots were consistently deep. If she can keep up her mojo, she has a real shot at being Wozniacki, whose defensive game works best against heavy hitters.
Saw a bit of the Wawrinka v Federer match. It was painful. At the Cincinnati Tennis Masters this past summer, I watched Bagdatis play against Federer. Let me just say that the difference in talent level between a player like Bagdatis and Federer & Nadal is profound when they play head-to-head. It reminded me of the Wawrinka match – just a complete one-sided blow out. I guess that explains why Nadal/Federer have taken 21 out of the last 23 Grand Slam titles.
Did anyone catch Bud Collins’ on TTC last night? Martina and Bill were commentating the Li/Petkovic match and Bud came in to wax philosophical. He told stories that were completely unrelated to the match, and completely ignored the match at hand. And when he DID stay on topic, I thought that they might have to cut him off. Talking about Chinese women coming up the ranks, he finished with: “The Chinese are going to take over.” Martina tried to keep it light and joked, “We’re still taking tennis, right?”
Should the top half of the draw stick to the script we should be in for a treat – both in the semis and final. Nadal/Murray & Fed/Djoko; great matchups with no clear favorite in either one.
If you’re in the prognosticating business it only gets harder from there. For I’d normally pick Nadal over either Fed or Nole – really, anyone – in a GS Final as his all-time leading 81.82% (9-2) speaks for itself. That said, Murray really gives Nadal fits, especially on the big stage: 2008 US Open semis, 2010 AO quarters and even in losing, really gave him a physical beat-down at the recent WTF in the London semis. Of course, the same comment applies to the other semis as well as Joker & Fed can, and have, extended each other to near exhaustion (last US Open a perfect example). So, in my mind, it’ll all come down to who gets through in cleaner fashion.
Having said that, I still like Rafa’s odds over anyone in a GS Final. Especially now, with tennis history riding on his shoulders.
For becoming, sporty & sensible I have to mention Kuznetsova, Pennetta & especially Peer.