Interesting quarterfinals it has been! Certainly with the power outage experienced in Sydney, not even the chair umpires could use their microphones, imagine! The wind was an important factor today, nonetheless: the show must go on (especially with the pink ballboys!)
Na Li defeated Lucie Safarova: 6-2, 7-6(3). In her press conference, the wind and her good game were analysed in depth. More fun was a question about her husband slash coach! She said: 'as a husband he's always doing a good job but as a coach sometimes he's doing some stupid thing.' You gotta love Na Li's talking skills! Next up for her is another lefty: Kvitova. She defeated Hantuchova in a mere 60 minutes to advance to the semifinals with: 6-0, 6-4. Hantuchova took her first game when trailing in the second set 0-2 with a happy smile though! There were too many errors in her game (and the serve suffered from the wind) and despite rebreaking Kvitova, the Czech sealed the match with an enormous amount of winners. Be aware of Hurricane Petra!
Highlights: watch here
Everything the Kvitova - Hantuchova match lacked, was made up for beautifully in the Radwanska - Wozniacki duel! An agressive start for Wozniacki couldn't withhold Radwanska breaking her serve in the opening game. From that point on, sublime rallies from both sides kept the score in balance. A weird break at 3-3 for Wozniacki due to some strange mistakes of the Pole meant she drifted out of the set (losing the next three games: 3-6).
Radwanska's second service caused problems but she found the will to carry on. She hold her first sevice game despite trailing 0-30 and winning a massive opening rally at 2-1 to secure herself a break against her BFF. Luck was on her side with three net services (the record is supposed to be seven what the hell?!) and Wozniacki being terribly bugged by...bugs! After a rebreak to level at 4-4, Radwanska lost her serve at quite an important time because Wozniacki could now serve for the match. Oh boy, did that turn out the other way! The Pole broke back right away and with some miraculous shots won: 7-5 to end the terrific second set!
Oh yes, it was geting a bit late at this point! Approaching three hours of tennis and midnight, a third set still had to be played. Kind of a fail here: the last train already left so many fans missed this fantastic ending. There were a lot of brilliant points but Wozniacki was definitely out of her usual rythm. But it was until a wrist injury showed his ugly face at the Danish side, nothing was certain about this match. I just hope we don't have to get Wozniacki checked in on the casualties list as well! From that point on, you were just waiting for the Pole to break and she did at 3-2. There was nothing the towel crew (what was up with that anyway?!) of Wozniacki could do, let alone the commentators who start to talk about nerves with Radwanska hitting some unforced errors just a minute later. It slipt away for the Dane, winning no more game: 2-6 in the final set.
Highlights: watch here
Radwanska is up against Azarenka next who defeated Marion Bartoli: 7-5, 6-4.
There's talk of Kvitova talking the number 1 position if she can win this tournament. Let's get through the semifinals first, stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment