Archives for June 2011

Who can stop another Serena vs. Venus Wimbledon final?

Maria is looking for that 2004 magic.

 

TOP HALF, FIRST QUARTER

Even though she won Copenhagen on indoor hard the week after Roland Garros, No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki is not expected to do much at Wimbledon

Wimbledon mens’ draw breakdown

Rafa will go for his third double-double

TOP HALF, FIRST QUARTER

Rafael Nadal will go for his third Roland Garros-Wimbledon double and regardless of his mentally tiring Roland Garros and sporadic play in Queens, he has to be seen as the favorite until someone knocked him off. he opens against US veteran Michael Russell, could play the big hitting Ryan Sweeting of the US in second round and maybe confront the dangerous Milos Raonic in the third round; that

Azarenka’s angst

Vika cannot seem to stay healthy.

If Victoria Azarenka is going to win a Slam, she has to find a way to get healthy because her retirement count is now off the charts. On Thursday at Eastbourne, she retired for the fourth time in eight tournaments and twelfth time since the start of 2010 when down 62 20 to Marion Bartoli, she quit with a right groin injury. Whether its mental or just purely physical is hard to know, but what can be said is that it highly unusual and is happening right around every Slam. Someone in her camp better discover why or she never going to be consistent, serious threat.

Daniela Hantuchova finally found a way to best Venus Williams and took her out for the first time in 11 tries, 6-2 5-7 6-2. Give credit to Hantuchova who has had a fine month, but let’s not forget that Venus was playing just her third match since missing four and a half months of action due to hip and abdominal injuries

“The wind didn’t make it very predictable, but I give her credit for hanging in there. On a day like today, you have to just hang in there,” Williams said. “I think Daniela had a lot of motivation – we’ve been playing I don’t know how many years, and I am sure she has wanted to get a win against me for a long, long time…It wasn’t the best luck today, but I feel good about my preparation. More than anything I was able to get a lot of great competition. This has been ideal.”

Hantuchova will face Petra Kvitova, who came back to defeat the confounding Aga Radwanska 1-6 6-2 7-6(2). The lefty Kvitova certainly has a shot at Wimbledon and while Radwanska is a very smart player, she’s having trouble closing again and does not have a powerful enough game to do huge damage on grass.

No grass court lover, Sam Stosur came back from 6-4 4-2 down to best Vera Zvonareva 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4, the second marathon match in a row for the Russian who had edged Serena Williams the day prior.

In Den Bosch, Roberta Vinci took out Yanina Wickmayer and Romina Oprandi upended Kimiko Date, Oprandi will face Jelena Dokic, who could be very dangerous at Wimbledon.

How about Kei Nishikori in rainy Eastbourne, first besting Rainer Schuettler 6-4 4-6 6-2 and then Radek Stepanek 6-2 6-3 in the quarters? Other semifinalists are Igor Kunitsyn, Janko Tipsarevic and Andreas Seppi…Irina Falconi qualified for Wimbledon, but Ryan Harrison was down two sets when the rain struck.

Oh so close for Serena, but not so far

Serena fell to Vera but played tough all the way through.

Serena Williams lost her first match of the year, which came on the heels of her first win of the year, and really, her 3-6 7-6 (5) 7-5 defeat to Vera Zvonareva in the second round of Eastbourne had more positives than negatives, given that she cam close to win despite dripping with rust. However, it may have been the first time that Serena has served for a match on grass and not won it, which means she has plenty of work to do in getting the world

A positive return for Venus Williams

Venus is the best grass court player of her generation

We are just a week away from the start of Wimbledon and thankfully given how few excellent grass court players there on the WTA Tour, Venus Williams showed up in a big way and took a 7-5 5-7 6-3 victory over Andrea Petkovic at Eastbourne. That does not mean that the five-times Wimbledon champ will win another crown, not when she

Splendid on the grass

Murray will face Roddick who once knocked him out at Wimbledon

The tours have been back on grass for five days now and it took that long for Rafael Nadal to almost redline in Queens when he went down to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-7 6-4 6-1 in the quarters. Give credit to Nadal for honoring his commitment by contesting Queens after an exhaustive title run to the RG final but really, was it a wise idea to play.

“Probably after losing the second set mentally I lost my concentration,” he said. “The negative thing is I lost; the positive thing is I have few days off and can stop a little bit mentally. I can be a little bit more relaxed, because every day I play with pressure. “That’s what happened for me the last four months every day.”

Tsonga will face British wildcard James Ward who took down defending champion Sam Querrey 3-6 6-3 6-4 and then France

Rafa suffers, Rafa’s brilliant, Rafa wins 6th French title

Nadal just cannot be stopped at the French.

PARIS- Roger Federer sensed that Rafael Nadal was tiring in the third set. In fact, he thought that had he managed to push their most hotly contested match at Roland Garros to five sets that he would have won it. But the great Swiss is nowhere near as competent, driven or as chock full as clay court skills as the Spaniard is, which is why Nadal won his record-tying sixth Roland Garros crown in a 7-5 7-6(3) 5-7 6-1 victory.

It was yet another hearty, extraordinary performance from Nadal, who withstood one flurry after another from Federer, who played the best three sets that he ever has against Nadal at Roland Garros and still found himself laid on the short end of the now 10-times Grand Slam champion

Li’s RG title victory for Chinese Federation’s flexibility

RG Notebook: the legend of winner Li

Francesca's clay court skills mattered little.

The last and only great women

The Breakdown: How Nadal can beat Federer & vice versa