The Olympic tennis tournament is going so fast, I can hardly keep up! So let us mash-up the third round and quarterfinals in one post, shall we.
The third round featured either easy wins or hard fought battles.
Kvitova defeated Pennetta: 6-3, 6-0. Wozniacki outplayed Hantuchova: 6-4, 6-2. But the most impressive player this round was Serena Williams. She handed over just one game against Zvonareva: 6-1, 6-0. In the quarterfinals she left nothing standing of Wozniacki, crushing her: 6-0, 6-3. These Games are all about: who is going to take away Serena's gold medal?
Azarenka faced more difficulty against Petrova but overcame the Russian after undoing a break in each set: 7-6, 6-4. We saw some of Venus Williams old form against Kerber where she battled twice to a tiebreak. The German had to give her all to win it: 7-6, 7-6. It was obvious Kerber was tired from that match when playing against Azarenka in the quarterfinals. The number one didn't get it for free though and settled it with Belarussian power, sweat and screams in two sets: 6-4, 7-5. Serena and Azarenka will face off in the first semifinal.
Another tough match in the third round was played between Lisicki and Sharapova. I didn't expect this kind of intensity, they just threw everything they had to each other. If they would have had anvils, they would've thrown that as well! The German was surprisingly serving for the first set at 5-4 but Sharapova forced her to a tiebreak. But Lisicki wasn't done yet and took the first set 7-6, the crowd was stunned!
Lisicki kept pressuring Sharapova and took an early break in the second set as well. But Sharapova wouldn't be Sharapova if she didn't gave it all to fight back. Lisicki was overpowered from that point on and the Russian won: 6-7, 6-4, 6-3.
Sharapova faced Clijsters in the quarterfinals after the Belgian defeated Ivanovic with a very strong performance: 6-3, 6-4. I kinda hoped Sharapova would have been a bit tired from her marathon match against Lisicki but the Russian showed nothing of that sort. On the contrary, she served extremely well in her windy match against Clijsters and took the first set: 6-2. The Belgian showed more resistance in the second set when battling back from a break down but Sharapova didn't have to wait long to break at 5-5 to seal Clijsters faith in two sets: 6-2, 7-5.
I think it's pretty good for Kim Clijsters to get to the quarterfinals, being ranked just 36th. But all of Belgium called her one of our biggest chances for a medal (that tells you something about how desperate we are!), so everybody sounded disappointed when hearing she lost to Sharapova. In my opinion, Clijsters could have defeated Sharapova a few years ago, but now she belongs to the subtop among Ivanovic, Na Li, Errani, Zvonareva, Bartoli and so on. And I didn't see one of them getting to the quartfinals, right?
Ok, maybe just one: Kirilenko. She won against Goerges in the third round and Kvitova in the quarterfinals, twice with: 7-6, 6-3. She'll face Sharapova in the second semifinal. The Russians always rise above themselves in the Olympics!
The next two rounds are decisive for the medals, so keep posted!
No comments:
Post a Comment