Olympic Games - Third Round & Quarterfinals

Hi everyone,

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!

Olympic Games - Second Round

Hi everyone,

The second round was over in a jiffy; they had to speed things up after the rain so the complete round was finished in a day and a half.

There were no major surprises in this round. Venus and Serena Williams, Kerber and Azarenka cruised through their second round. The only one I thought was going to go further was Pironkova. She lost to Pennetta in two sets: 7-5, 6-1. Goerges, the Radwanska killer, continued her great form in the second round by winning against Lepchenko: 6-3, 7-5. Zvonareva seems to rise to the occassion here at the Olympics by producing a solid win against Schiavone: 6-3, 6-3.

My personal favorite match was Wozniacki against Wickmayer. Not only because you can say Wozzy is playing Wicky (sounds like a child's program!) but also because of the quality of the match. The Dane took the first set 6-4 but the Belgian replied with a second set win with 6-3. In the third set, Wickmayer tried everything to undo an early break. Their fifth game (at 3-1 for Wozniacki) lasted at least 15 minutes and surpassed the 17 deuce mark. You could feel the importance of this game that eventually went to Wozniacki. Wickmayer still gave it everything she had, but the Dane smelled the victory and took the third set: 6-3.

So one Belgian is out, but Clijsters got through her second round match against Suarez Navarro, the one who outplayed Stosur, with: 6-3, 6-3.

Three British players fell this round: Baltacha against Ivanovic with 4-6, 6-7, Robson lost to Sharapova in two sets: 6-7, 3-6 and Watson against Kirilenko: 3-6, 2-6.

The eight mash-ups in the third round include:
- Azarenka vs. Petrova = normally the number one should win this but maybe Petrova will make her break a sweat this time
- Venus Williams vs. Kerber = power against power, should get interesting!
- Serena Williams vs. Zvonareva = their head to head may be 6-3 but I don't see how the Russian can break down the strong American mental power this time
- Hantuchova vs. Wozniacki = long time since I've seen Hantuchova this far in a tournament so my guess is, she won't go any further than this
- Clijsters vs. Ivanovic = certainly the match where I will pull out my hair, bite off my nails and sweat like a pig because of the excitement
- Lisicki vs. Sharapova = this match has the potential of a long and hard threesetter but I personally think Lisicki isn't in the best form to threaten Sharapova
- Kvitova vs. Pennetta = the Czech needed three sets in every round so maybe Pennetta has a chance of doing the same
- Kirilenko vs. Goerges = this side of the draw opens up with the defeat of Radwanska so who knows what will come out of this!

Keep posted!

Olympic Games - First Round

Hi everyone,

It was a magnificent first round of tennis at the first three days of the Olympic Games. It's a bit of a shame they don't have such good live scoring like in Grand Slams but I'll survive (with just a little frustration). Also the rain made it impossible for all the matches to be played in two days.

With such a packed draw, it's not really a surprise there were going to fall some high ranked players in the first round. But of course, very typically, the first one had to be Stosur again. Why Sammy do you do this to me, your biggest fan?! ... Too theatrical?

She lost in a close match against the Spanish Suarez Navarro: 6-3, 5-7, 8-10. The Australian isn't very good on grass, but it's also not Suarez Navarro's best surface so it's quite disappointing. I would have loved a set-up against Kim Clijsters in the second round!

But the biggest upset was yet to come! Radwanska lost to Goerges in the first round in a very tight match: 5-7, 7-6, 4-6. This is the number two, the one who got to the final of Wimbledon not a month ago! She looked without that same determination and the German profited in an excellent manner. Still, that means I'm two personal favorites down already in the first round (go Clijsters!).
Na Li is also out, she couldn't win against Hantuchova: 2-6, 6-3, 3-6.

There were quite some players who needed three sets to get to the second round.

Schiavone won with: 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 against Zakopalova. Also Kvitova with 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 against Bondarenko. Wozniacki knocked her way past the British Keothavong: 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. The number one Azarenka couldn't finish her battle against Begu in two sets, but eventually won: 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.

Ivanovic impressed against McHale with: 6-4, 7-5. Kim Clijsters did the same against Vinci in two sets: 6-1, 6-4. Pironkova had a tough first set against Cibulkova, winning in the tiebreak. The second set went the Bulgarian with 6-2. Pironkova is a real grass specialist, maybe she can force a big upset somewhere down the line. Venus survived her tough first round match against Errani: 6-3, 6-1.

Serena had no trouble with Jankovic: 6-3, 6-1. She'll face the younger Radwanska sister in the second round after she defeated Barthel: 6-4, 6-3. Sharapova made her intentions clear against Peer: 6-2, 6-0. The Russian is definitely here for a medal!

Keep posted!

Olympic Games - Preview & Draw

Hi everyone,

It's finally time for the Olympic Games! I'm so glad to be home and have absolutely nothing to do, so I don't have to miss a second.

Four years ago all the medals went to Russian players: gold for Dementieva (she is retired already), silver for Safina and bronze for Zvonareva. Only Zvonareva has the chance to prolong her Olympic title but there are a lot of contenders!

We'll look at the draw first, because the Olympian rules make it much more interesting than usual. The seeded players are seperated from each other like in any other tournament (so they will meet in later stages), but fellow country women are also seperated! For example the two Belgian competitors (Wickmayer and Clijsters) can only meet in the final. The four American contenders are in other quarters of the draw.

To check out the draw: click here

So who has to play in the same quarters:

- Upper draw = Azarenka, Petrova, Errani, Venus Williams and Kerber

- Upper middle draw = Serena Williams, Jankovic, Schiavone, Zvonareva, Li, Wozniacki

- Down middle draw = Stosur, Clijsters, Ivanovic, Lisicki, Sharapova

- Down draw = Kvitova, Cibulkova, Goerges, Radwanska

My prediction of the medals: gold for Serena Williams, silver for Sharapova and bronze for Azarenka. Don't shoot me if it's completely different, I myself would kill for a medal for Clijsters! Photo of Serena when winning Wimbledon shows her in a gold dress, is she confident or what?

Obviously there are a lot of interesting matches to come, so I'll just sum up for the first round:

- Venus Williams vs. Sara Errani

- Serena Williams vs. Jelena Jankovic (both William sisters get a tough opponent!)

- Mona Barthel vs. Urszula Radwanska (two coming women mash-up)

- Li vs. Hantuchova

- Clijsters vs. Vinci

- McHale vs. Ivanovic (a bit of a shame to be losing one of them in the first round already!)

- Pironkova vs. Cibulkova (a top player on grass against the winner at Carlsbad recently)

- Radwanska vs. Goerges (quite tough for the number two, will be a good wam-up to say the least!)

And who are we missing from the top 20? Bartoli (10) was excluded due to an argument with her French committee. Kaia Kanepi (16) would have been a real addition for the Estonian team, but she's sidelined due to a heel injury. Also Petkovic can't compete at this year's Olympic Games, still with her ankle injury. But that doesn't mean she's not enjoying herself by almost falling in the bushes when getting shit on by a bird:

Yesterday's opening ceremony featured two women tennis players to carry the flag of their nation. Radwanska for Poland and Sharapova for Russia!

Keep posted for some more Olympic tennis!

Update: Stanford & Carlsbad

Hi everyone,

I've missed two WTA tournaments while on vacation, so let's take a quick look at them. It's both interesting for the coming Olympics and the US Open Series to be played after that.

First up was Stanford for the Bank of the West Classic Tennis Tournament:

If you looked at the draw, there weren't much contenders for the title who could keep Serena from a second consecutive win here. Many players decided to focus on the Olympics, so we got: Serena, Wickmayer, Bartoli, Jankovic and Cibulkova as seeded players. But it was Coco Vandeweghe who made it to the final by defeating Jankovic and Wickmayer on the way. Serena took the title as expected with 7-5, 6-3.

The tournament at Carlsbad, the Merury Insurance Open, got more unpredictability. Bartoli started as number one seed and got to the final quite easy. In the down draw, Cibulkova had to overcome the powerful younger Radwanska sister and Petrova to get into the final. Cibulkova took her second title at Carlsbad by defeating Bartoli: 6-1, 7-5.

Fun on court - Rebels in white

Hi everyone,

I've learned something interesting about the Olympics that will be played at Wimbledon, they won't be in white! So we're finally going to see some color on the grassy courts in London, that's gonna be something you're going to see just once in a lifetime.

Azarenka was politely asked by the Wimbledon fashion police to change her yellow shirt to white when practicing during the Grand Slam. If you ask me that's quite drastic, considering she wasn't even competing in a real match.

Azarenka has always been somewhat of a fashion rebel, playing in shorts during the Australian Open for example. But who else was slightly giving the British people a heartattack during Wimbledon by not following the only-in-white dresscode?

Let's look at our two finalists:

Radwanska was trying to be subtle with black shorts, while Serena went with pink one and matching hairband. More obvious was Zvonareva with a colored band on her dress. And suddenly, that disappeared in her second match, fashion police mob or what?

They will have to bite their tongue because colors, here they come! Will the players get something flashy and colorful out of their closet or will they stay in quite modest white? Keep posted!

Wimbledon - Final

Hi everyone,

I'm back to blog again! So let's take a more thorough look at the Wimbledon final. I'm not exaggerating when saying nobody thought Radwanska had a shot at the title. But this was also the case when Serena lost to Stosur at the US Open.

The second game on the Radwanska serve took almost 10 minutes before Serena sealed her third breakpoint! I was surprised by Radwanska's serving and agressive play, but it was fire battling a nuclear bomb. The Pole lost her cool quite quickly, obviously nervous she couldn't grid her teeth this early already in the match.

Serena on the other hand didn't have such troubles on her own serve and cruised to a 5-0 lead in the first set. Radwanska was desperate to grab a game and did so in style after facing a 15-40 score (thus two setpoints for a bagel) with two aces, a superb dropshot and a hell of a lot of mental strength! Serena wasn't bothered by this and served out the set: 6-1.

It looked quite game over when Serena took an early break in the second set but Radwanska created breakpoints out of thin air and knocked herself to 4-4. The crowd went estatic! Serena started to produce more unforced errors and the Pole was the more patient and calm one: 7-5. It was a huge difference from the first set where Radwanska saved herself from a bagel just barely.

At 2-2 in the third set, Serena overclassed the Pole completely. She battled off a lot of break points but the American just kept them coming. After two hours Serena got her 14th Grand Slam: 6-1, 5-7, 6-2. She reacted accordingly:

Radwanska was quite disappointed afterwards and had to shrug off some tears in her interview. But I actually think she has to be very proud of what she achieved. She never took a set before against Serena, so that's a great development. Can't wait for the Olympics!