Wimbledon day 8

It was quarter-final day at the lady’s side and I was pissed by the end of it. What a huge chance for a Wimbledon final Kimmie threw away yesterday. Venus Williams was the first player to lose and it was big time 6-2 6-3. Tsveti Pironkova played outstanding and with slice forehands, loopy shot and great running she simply outplayed Venus. Venus was not in the best of form and you always assume she will bring it to Wimbledon but since the Billie Jean King Cup in the beginning of the year, Venus has not played that great. Kim Clijsters had to play Vera Zvonareva, I like both girls but Kim obviously more and she should have won that match. Yes, Zvonareva played great, dictated at the net and served fantastic, but Kim has never lost to Zvonareva and yesterday should not have been any different. Her serve and forehand really let her down. Serve is just not powerful enough and with the forehand she goes for too much. Zvonareva won 3-6 6-4 6-2. I really hope I am wrong but I doubt Kim will ever win Wimbledon. I think at the Australian Open and even Roland Garros her chances are bigger. Serena Williams had to play Na Li from China and this was a good match as well. Na Li is great on grass with her fast and flat shots and she stayed on course until 5-5 40-0 on her serve. She started to get heavy and nervous and made lots of mistakes to give Serena the break and basically the match. Li kept fighting but Serena kept bombing her first serves in and it was 7-5 6-3. Longest match and most even was that between Kaia Kanepi and Petra Kvitova. Kvitova beat both Azarenka and Wozniacki in straight set but she should have been beaten by Kaia Kanepi.Kanepi had 3 matchpoints in the second set but lost that in the tiebreak 8-10. In the third set it was all Kanepi again leading 4-0 and having 2 more match points but she choked it all away big time. Kvitova played good when it mattered but still, I hardly ever saw someone lose it like Kanepi. She can be proud for making it to the quarterfinals as a qualifier but Kanepi should have really won this match.

Wimbledon day 6

Again there was no 3 set match in this part of the bracket and so far the tournament did not have memorable matches yet but that might start in the round of 16 that will feature some classics! Yesterday Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki all won their matches easy. Unfortunately that was not the case for my favorite Flavia Pennetta, the number 1o seed. She lost against Klara Zakopalova, someone who seems to be having 1 good tournament a year and this time it is at Wimbledon. Outsider Vika Azarenka lost surprisingly as well 7-5 6-0 against Petra Kvitova. Azarenka played horrible and this really is a missed chance for her.

Round of 16 matches will be Serena -Sharapova, Li- Radwanska, Wozniacki- Kvitova, Zakopalova- Kanepi(lucky Wozniacki with that draw!!) Clijsters-Henin, Zvonareva-Jankovic, Pironkova-Bartoli, Venus-Groth. I pick Serena, Wozniacki, Clijsters and Venus in the semis. With my predictions for the last 16 , I had 10 right. Hope only Kim is right this time!!

Wimbledon day 4

Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki and Viktoria Azarenka all won thier second round matches fairly easy in two set. Biggest upset was the loss of Svetlana Kuznetsova against former Russian and now Australian Rodionova. Rodionova, one of the biggest bitches on the tour,

Wozniacki

has a good game for the faster courts but a Kuznetsova in good form should beat her simply. That Kuzzie has not shown up in almost a year, so it was a tough 3 set loss yesterday. One fav, Daniela Hantuchova lost in typical mental crazy matter while another ,Flavia Pennetta won in 2 sets. Other players losing were lady in form Aravene Rezai and former semi-finalist here, China’s Jie Zheng.

Wimbledon day 2

It has been a disastrous 2 days for British women’s tennis. All 5 ladies bowed out in the first round. Youngsters like Watson and Robson played decent and will have plenty of time in the next few years. Baltacha and Keothavong though, who are both top 75 level choked away their matches, Baltacha being up a set and 5-3 on monday and Keothavong 4-0 in the third yesterday. Media will have a field-day with them. Being in the final of Roland Garros was not a good sign here either, Schiavone lost monday and yesterday it was Samantha Stosur. Her game just does not translate well to grass, mainly her forehand. On clay it is a huge weapon, here in London is was a liability. With her big serve and net-game you would think she could play well on grass but no… Kanepi played very well to beat her though. Only other seeded player that lost was Safarova but against Cibulkova that was not a huge surprise. Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Vika Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki all won in straight sets. A fun match was Kuznetsova against giant Amanmuradova. With her manly build and way of playing Amanmuradova can beat a lot of players on grass. She hit tons of aces and made it very difficult for Svetlana to pass her at the net. Kuzzie is not in great form lately but scraped by 6-2 6-7 6-4 and I hope she will do good at Wimbledon for a change this year. Her serve is good and so is her game at the net. Maybe too much spin on the forehand like Stosur but also mentally better. she could make the quarterfinals.

Justine wins on the grass

At the only dutch female tournament on the WTA tour, Justine Henin was the best of the field. The Belgian beat German Andrea Petkovic in an exciting finale. 6-3 3-6 6-4. The tournament in Rosmalen is one of only 4 tournaments on grass and a great preparation for Wimbledon.It is close to the Belgian border so most people watching were Belgians. The Netherlands had to play their second match at the World cup so most people were somewhere else. In Eastbourne Russian qualifier Makarova was the surprising finalist with wins over Pennetta, Petrova, Kuznetsova, Stosur and Azarenka in the final. A sign that on grass anything can happen. Tomorrow Wimbledon starts and I just had a look at the draw. My predictions for the round of 16 will be Serena Williams- Maria Sharapova, Na Li- A Radwanska, Wozniacki- Azarenka, Penetta(Rezai)- Stosur, Clijsters-Henin!!!, Wickmayer-Jankovic, Bartoli-Schiavone, Ivanovic-Venus Williams. I bet many will be wrong because that is the thrill of Wimbledon.

Tennis, Grass Court Season

After a long clay season it is always fun to see how many early upsets there are in the second biggest grass court tournament of the year in Eastbourne. This year is no different. Yesterday and today in the first and second rounds Wozniacki, Petrova Pennetta and Roland Garros champ Schiavone lost. All did great at the clay of Roland Garros but showed playing on grass is something else. Kim Clijsters though, who came back after a few months of injury timeout, proved she is a class above the others just mentioned and beat fellow Belgian Wickmayer(with icy handshake by Wickmayer) and Safarova 6-1 6-1 and 6-1 6-0. Hope this is a good sign for Wimbledon for Kimmie.

Roland Garros day 12

Wow, what a finale. Italy’s Francesca Schiavone against Aussie’s Samantha Stosur. While maybe before the tournament started, some people might have picked Sam as a dark horse, after her draw with first Henin and then Serena, most people probably picked someone else. And Schiavone is of course a total surprise, but what a happy one for me. Even though I like Stosur as well, I am definitely rooting for Francesca. She played a good match against Elena Dementieva, but not as great as against Wozniacki. Elena D had to give up after losing the first set 7-6 with a leg injury. She had been playing and winning a few matches in a row with it but yesterday the opponent and the injury just were too much. Stosur had no problem at all with Jankovic. With great serving and her beastly forehand she gave Jankovic no chance whatsoever. I wonder who will win the final?,I am going with Stosur but if it gets tight I think Schiavone is mentally the strongest one. We will see, I hope it will be a good match

Roland Garros day 10

Hurrah, two of my favs have to play each other in the semi-finals. Cannot even remember the last time that happened in a slam. Francesca Schiavone played the match of her life and beat world number 3 Caroline Wozniacki in 2 sets 6-2 6-3. And she played fantastic. Deep spin mixed with short balls and balls going wide, good defense and also serve-volley, slice and kick. Wow, this was one of the most entertaining women’s matches I have seen in a long time. Wozniacki did not even play that bad. In the semis 29-year-old Schiavone who made the top 10 for the first time in her career ,will play Elena Dementieva who beat an injured Nadia Petrova. Even though I was rooting for Elena, I felt sorry for Petrova. Playing a great match in the round of 16 to beat Venus Williams and even with a slight thigh injury playing a great first set against Dementieva winning 6-2. Dementieva took over the initiative and Petrova could barely move in the end losing 2-6 0-6. Even though I am happy with the 2 semifinalists I also know that my ultimate favorite Kim Clijsters could have really done some damage here at Roland Garros if she could have played.

Roland Garros day 8

4 whole women’s matches and a set were played yesterday and I watched almost all. Every single one except 1 went as planned for my taste. Flavia Pennetta unfortunately could not beat world number 3 Caroline Wozniacki. She could and should have though. Against a boring retriever like Wozniacki all you can do(except for overpowering which skinny Pennetta never can) is making angles and waiting for your chances to go for winners. Pennetta did just that, only in the execution she made some errors and failed to close out the first set after having a set point and lost 6-7. She won the second 7-6 but after doing all the work for 3!!hours she was exhausted in the third, losing 2-6. Great clay-court match though. Better player lost.  Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova had to finish their match that was suspended saturday night for darkness. By then Justine had won an easy first set in the rain with 6-2 but in the second set the rain got less and ” Giant” Sharapova played fantastic, putting a lot of pressure on “ant” Henin and won that set 6-3. In the third on sunday Sharapova overpowered Henin big time and lead 2-0 40-0 but then Henin’s class and great mental strength came in to play and she won the game and the set /match 6-3. Sharapova(self-proclaimed “cow on ice” on clay) played pretty damn good though and on other surfaces she probably would have beaten Henin. Venus was out-hit by Nadia Petrova and once again showed she is just mediocre on clay. She will definitely be back at Wimbledon though. My personal favorites Francesca Schiavone and Elena Dementieva both made it the last 8, the first by playing some fabulous tennis. Great spin and angles and went for the net successfully a lot as well. Dementieva did not play that well but had number 142 of the world Scheepers as an opponent. She seriously needs to get those double-faults down though, if she wants to have a change against Petrova.

Roland Garros Day 6

It was a busy day yesterday in Paris with both second and third round matches to be played. Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova both won their matches easy and will play each other tonight. I think Henin should win, definitely after the rain that makes the court a bit slower. But who knows, Sharapova on a good day… Both top chinese players lost yesterday, I do not like them at all so I was happy. Jie Zheng lost against Pivovarova in round 2 and Na Li against my fav Fran Schiavone in round 3. My other italian fav Flavia Pennetta also won her third round match and will play Wozniacki next. The 2 top russians both a hard day at the office. Dementieva played decent enough and fought very hard to beat Canada’s Wozniak 6-7 6-3 6-4. Title defender Svetlana Kuznetsova lost against Maria Kirilenko 3-6 6-2 4-6, and will be out of the top 10 for the first time in 10 years.