Brisbane update: FINAL!

Hi everyone,

So Kaia Kanepi v. Daniela Hantuchova as a surprising final in Brisbane!

I tuned in at 2-2, just in time for a dominating Kanepi to step up. The dropshots and netball winners of Hantuchova were completely in vain against the many backhand winners and aces of Kanepi. Set 1: 6-2. Kanepi was just playing on a whole different level, it wasn't Hantuchova who played bad, there was nothing to do about the strong game of the Estonian. Two love breaks shattered Hantuchova in the second set. In a blink of an eye, it was 4-0 with Hantuchova just winning one point in that second set. One point! Right?

It took hawk eye to get Hantuchova back into the game (not my blog, the actual device you know). With the overturning of a point, she was launched to finally win her own serving game to get herself on the score board. What followed was a hilarious reaction (it was like a: ‘great…whatever…’-look). The momentum shifted back into balance with amazing tennis in the sixth and seventh game of the match. There were a lot of ‘TAKE THAT!’ en ‘auwtch…’ points with the according reactions of course. Imagine, those two games lasted as long as Kanepi’s 8 winning games in a row!
At 5-1 and Hantuchova to serve, it took Kanepi 4 championships points to finally end the match. I was totally enjoying the ‘calm-down!’ speech Kanepi gave herself. It was obvious she was nervous to end it, remember she just had one WTA-title in her career at Palermo beating Pennetta on clay. Now she has two titles and with her great game, more are destined to follow. Well done Kaia Kanepi (her Estonian fans were loud and clear to agree with me!).

To watch the highlights (it's got everything except the crazy Estonian fans!): click here

To update you some more: the women's final in Auckland is postponed to tomorrow 11am -local time- due to rain (Pennetta v Jie Zheng). Further, in the Hopman cup the Czech republic won in the final against France (Kvitova/Berdych - Bartoli/Gasquet). USA lost all of their rounds (with Wozniacki even acing Mardy Fish: watch, he knows it's a burn!) as did China (with Na Li and Wu Di, are they just trying to make us laugh?).

So, no rest for the tennisbloggers! Next up: Apia International Sydney which starts tomorrow. Stay tuned!