Three Times For The Ladies, Show Me Some Love

I just love Fed Cup photos.

Good luck getting the champagne out of your knickers, Kim.

Adorable Pavs.

Joyful Jarmila.

Quintessential Flavia.

Justine Henin: still retiring.

Boom boom pow.

Fed Cup faces.

It must be love.

Always have to do a double-take when I see Yanina smiling.

I could literally post pictures of Alize all day.

But I won’t.

And Sveta has the last word.

Fed Cup Results: Italy, Russia, Czech Republic & Belgium Kick Ass

Italy 4 – Australia 1

Jarmila Groth d. Francesca Schiavone, 67(4) 63 63
Flavia Pennetta d. Samantha Stosur, 76(5) 67(5) 64
Francesca Schiavone d. Samantha Stosur, 76(1) 36 75
Flavia Pennetta d. Jarmila Groth, 63 62
Sara Errani / Roberta Vinci d. Anastasia Rodionova / Rennae Stubbs, 26 76(1) 64

Woe for the home side in Hobart as Italy, once again, are just Too Good. Do you really think they’ll lose at all this year? After Jarka Groth’s surprise win over Francesca Schiavone in the first rubber, it was all downhill from there; Sam Stosur’s career writ large as she allowed winnable matches over first Pennetta and then Schiavone to slip away in a series of poor tiebreaks and timidity at crucial moments.

As for the Italians, Pennetta kept the tie rolling and was the backbone of the team, while Schiavone – visibly still suffering the after-effects of her Australian Open run – came up with some inspired play  to see off Stosur in the crucial third rubber.

Warriors. Then Rennae Stubbs bade farewell to Fed Cup. There were tears and a plastic kangaroo.

See you in the commentary box.

Russia 3 – France 2

Alize Cornet d. Svetlana Kuznetsova, 36 63 64
Virginie Razzano d. Maria Sharapova, 63 64
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova d. Alize Cornet, 36 63 62
Svetlana Kuznetsova d. Virginie Razzano, 64 64
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova / Svetlana Kuznetsova d. Julie Coin / Alize Cornet, 76(4) 60

Oh, Alize Cornet. What a rollercoaster you are. After slumping horrifically following some agonizing Fed Cup losses, you finally win your first ever live rubber – against Kuznetsova, no less – and go a set up against Pavlyuchenkova, on the brink of victory for your country. Then …

Pavlyuchenkova, subbed in for a possibly-injured, definitely-quite-useless Maria Sharapova, comes back and wins the match, letting Kuznetsova tie it up over Razzano. And then to add insult to insult, they pair up to win the tie in the doubles against … Alize Cornet.

Conclusion: never count on Alize Cornet, Pavs kicks Fed Cup ass, Sharapova’s still on the rocks, and Sveta is god.

Slovak Republic 2 – Czech Republic 3

Quite the performance from team dead-eyed lefty weapons of mass destruction, as I like to think of them. Between them, Safarova and Kvitova demolished Dominika Cibulkova and Daniela Hantuchova (twice) to take an unassailable 3-0 lead with more than a touch of WHAM! SPLAT! KABLAMMO! about it – and I mean that as the highest of compliments. Both were brilliant, so we can forgive them for letting the dead rubbers slide. Slovakia were simply outgunned.

 

 

 

Also, their kits are dead pretty.

Belgium 4 – USA 1

Yanina Wickmayer d. Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 61 76(6)
Kim Clijsters d. Melanie Oudin, 60 64
Kim Clijsters d. Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 67(10) 62 61
Yanina Wickmayer d. Melanie Oudin, 62 60
Liezel Huber / Vania King d. Kirsten Flipkens / An-Sophie Mestach, 63 75

We don’t really need to go into it, do we?

Wimbledon Daze: Upsets

Stick with me while I attempt to catch up on everything that I missed at Wimbledon while I was there. (And yes, I know I may be stretching the definition of ‘upset’ somewhat with some of these …) This is who we’ve lost so far that we wouldn’t have expected to …

Sam Stosur and Francesca Schiavone crashed out to Kaia Kanepi and Vera Dushevina respectively. That’s an entire French Open final gone right there. You’d almost think it was played on a different surface or something.

Verdasco lost to Fognini in five. And still needs a haircut.

Damn Croatians. You’re supposed to be the reliable one, Marin! Although why anyone thinks that, I don’t know. Anyway, I watched this match. It made me sad.

Oh, Boss.

Please don’t let that be your last Wimbledon, OK?

Grass is not Shahar’s best ever surface, it must be said. She lost to Angelique Kerber in three. Still, I’ve been vaguely touting Kerber as a thing-in-waiting, so there’s that.

Big win for bronzed god Daniel Brands, who took out Kolya in straights. Kolya is another one who doesn’t thrive on the grass at all, though. Plus that whole fractured wrist thing.

If a result doesn’t upset anyone, is it still an upset? I’ve decided that this qualifies on the basis that Robin Haase did the upsetting, which means he actually won a match. Shock face.

Not sure what’s the bigger not-really-a surprise, Mel losing in the second round or the fact that she made it.

And how about a big hand for our upsetters …

What depth.

Eastbourne: The New Heather

Huge congratulations to Heather Watson, who backed up her win over Tsvetana Pironkova by defeating Bojana Jovanovski in three sets to reach the main draw of the AEGON International.

The old new Heather, meanwhile, played her first match since her somewhat saddening loss to Schiavone in the French Open final, beating last year’s Heather, Melanie Oudin, in straight sets.

High school is cruel.

RG Day 14: Now With My Words

Sorry, I couldn’t resist turning things over to the eloquent Ms. Schiavone in my previous post. Who could? She fistpumped the end of her own national anthem. Fried gold.

Anyway. Tough day for Sam Stosur. She played such a great tournament, absolutely demolished JJ in the semis, looked to be rolling … and then came up short.

I feel for her. In fact, I started off the final rooting for her. And I don’t think she played her absolute best, with her big weapon just MIA one too many times, even when she had the chance to really unleash on it as she did with such success throughout the tournament. But I don’t know how much difference it really would have made, because at the end of the day, she came up against an opponent playing the match of her life.

What a performance by Francesca Schiavone. Hard to believe that she’s only five foot five – or that she’s almost 30 – because she played like a giant and with absolute fearlessness. It wasn’t quite Stosur’s day and it was 100% Schiavone’s. How does that happen?

My enduring memories of this match: the one-handed backhand returns Schiavone hit off Stosur’s phenomenal kick serve, and her reaction in the tiebreak, two points from the end of the match, when she celebrated like someone who wasn’t going to be denied. Oh, and of course her actual celebration when Sam framed on match point.

I honestly think Schiavone said it better than I could have, but really … pure heart. Pure passion. Pure will. And a women’s final that was purely fantastic sport.

Thank you, ladies.

Grazie mille, Francesca.

RG Day 11: A Change Is Gonna Come

So we have Schiavone and Dementieva on the one side, and on the other …

No matter what happens, we are going to have a maiden Slam champion at the end of Roland Garros 2010. And I am excited. Really quite excited. Anybody else? Or am I the only empty-headed seeker after perpetual change?

Sam was stunning today, even and especially after choking the match away when she served for it at 5-4 in the second set. And JJ … well, she won. This is what matters.

Sorry, Serena and Yaroslava fans, but they just can’t compete with my internal hallelujah chorus on this one.

Fed Cup: Warrior Princesses

A little shout-out to some of the performers of the weekend.

How about Fed Cup debutante and recent Australian Anastasia Rodionova, who came back from a bagel to defeat Alona Bondarenko and take the legs out from under the Ukraine team?

Or little Bojana Jovanovski, who beat Magdalena Rybarikova to keep the tie alive?

Sam didn’t face the highest quality of opponents, but gets the nod for delivering two singles points for her team under pressure.

Daniela Hantuchova beat Jovanovski, notched up another victory over JJ in the singles, then teamed up with Magdalena Rybarikova to clich the tie in the doubles. Good girl.

And my lovely Wicky, after being effectively demoted for the comebackers, turned out to be the heroine. She did what Henin and Clijsters between them couldn’t and took two singles points, clinching the tie for Belgium.

Poor Andrea Petkovic. She played so well against Parmentier and then upset Rezai for Germany’s second point, only for a woeful performance with Barrois in the doubles to lose the tie and leave her in tears.

It would be remiss of me, however, not to recognise the fact that Coin and Cornet put in a fantastic performance when it counted.

It would also be remiss of me not to call attention to the hotness of Nicolas Escude.

Consider it done.

Charleston: Sam Does It. Metaphorically.

Congratulations to Samantha Stosur, who won her second (and biggest) career title at the Family Circle Cup this weekend. I’m afraid I didn’t see any of it, but it doesn’t seem like I missed too much, after Daniela Hantuchova and Caroline Wozniacki were both forced to retire during the semifinals.

Wozniacki’s injury in particular does not sound good, in any sense. Hopefully it won’t set her back too much.

Anyway, Stosur demonstrated that she was not in the final by chance by putting the absolute smackdown on Vera Zvonareva, 60 63. I’ve hastily skimmed through and it seems like it was a ruthless performance by Sam and a reminder of just how dominant her game can be when she’s got it all together. Vera could do absolutely nothing to take control of the match, which is a shame for her, but good for us, because it brings the giggles.

Cool, calm and collected.

… Really not.

(thanks to Jacko for the link)

It was Sam’s show, though, despite Vera’s best efforts to steal it, and well done to her. She had Lyme disease, you know.

She’s in there somewhere.

Fed Cup Sunday: World Group II

So spare a thought for those ladies representing nations just outside the World Group and who spent this weekend battling to get back in – or at least a chance to play one of the World Group proper nations who lost this weekend to get back in. Clear? Good.

Australia 3 – Spain 2

After Sam Stosur took both her singles rubbers but neither Alicia Molik nor Casey Dellacqua could manage one between them, it came down to a live doubles rubber to decide the tie. Which is, as we all know, where scary Stubbsy lives and breathes. They won 6-4, 6-2.

Cute … although does anyone else think that Rennae is quite possibly the reason that Sam always looks ever-so-slightly scared?

Seriously want to go for a beer with this lot.

Poland 2 – Belgium 3

I said this match was one to look forward to. And I love being right. Wicky won it in the end, 16 76(6) 75, saving two match points to do it, but it was a proper epic contest. Radwanska was playing as well as I’ve ever seen her (and it’s good to be reminded just how well she can play when she wants to), but Yanina found her feet just enough in the second set to start causing Radwanska real problems, and the Pole was in the end powerless to figure out just how to deconstruct Wicky’s game when she was playing it with that much heart. Great stuff from them both but a truly courageous win for Yanina. I wonder if the ITF know exactly what they’ve created yet?

The tie, you would have thought, remained well within Poland’s reach, but Kirsten Flipkens had other ideas. She took down Marta Domachowska 63 76(6) to seal the tie for Belgium and put them within reach of the World Group in 2011.

Kim and Justine who?

Slovak Republic 3 – China 2

Didn’t watch a hit of this one, I’m afraid. All I know is that it ended the way it was kind of bound to, with no Li Na or Zheng Jie. And that Dominika Cibulkova’s on her way back.

And that Dani’s hair looks seriously silly.

Estonia 4 – Argentina 1

Where the hell was Gisela Dulko?

AO Day Eight: Everybody’s a Winner

Apart from half the people in this post who did, in fact, lose.

Your winners:

Your not-winners:

In conclusion: Victoria Azarenka really impressed me in toughing out a three-set win (including a bagel) over Vera Zvonareva; Jo lost his five-set virginity and didn’t seem to mind too much; Serena was on terrifying form; and Kolya goes into his showdown with Federer with his aura of invincibility more than a little battered.

Men’s Results:

Singles – Fourth Round
[1] R Federer (SUI) d [22] L Hewitt (AUS) 62 63 64
[3] N Djokovic (SRB) d L Kubot (POL) 61 62 75
[6] N Davydenko (RUS) d [9] F Verdasco (ESP) 62 75 46 67(5) 63
[10] J Tsonga (FRA) d [26] N Almagro (ESP) 63 64 46 67(6) 97

Doubles – Third Round
[3] L Dlouhy (CZE) / L Paes (IND) d J Isner (USA) / S Querrey (USA) 63 75
F Gonzalez (CHI) / I Ljubicic (CRO) d [11] S Aspelin (SWE) / P Hanley (AUS) 64 63
M Kohlmann (GER) / J Nieminen (FIN) d S Bolelli (ITA) / A Seppi (ITA) 46 76(3) 76(6)

Women’s Results:

Singles – Fourth Round
(1) Serena Williams (USA) d. (13) Samantha Stosur (AUS) 64 62
(16) Li Na (CHN) d. (4) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 64 63
(6) Venus Williams (USA) d. (17) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 36 62 61
(7) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. (9) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) 46 64 60

Doubles – Third Round
(15) Kirilenko/A.Radwanska (RUS/POL) d. (3) Llagostera Vives/Martínez Sánchez (ESP/ESP) 61 62
(6) Raymond/Stubbs (USA/AUS) d. Chan/Niculescu (TPE/ROU) 75 63
(8) Mattek-Sands/Yan (USA/CHN) d. (9) Vesnina/Zheng (RUS/CHN) 64 64