Working It.

I’m kind of over the perennial “fashion” shows that these tournaments throw up. Unless, and this is important, people look hot.

Exhibit A: Santiago Giraldo.

Exhibit B: Yaroslava Shvedova.

Wimbledon Titlists: And the Rest

Congratulations to the other champions from Wimbledon 2010. It’s been an amazing fortnight for all sorts of people.

Mixed Doubles: Paes/Black d. Moodie/Raymond, 64 76(5)

I watched them lose last year, so this pleases.

Ladies’ Doubles: Shvedova/King d. Vesnina/Zvonareva, 76(6) 62

Tough day for Vera, but these two are adorable.

And my favourite team of the year …

Gentlemen’s Doubles: Petzschner/Melzer d. Lindstedt/Tecau, 61 75 75

To quote Petzsch, “I’ve fcking won wimbledon!omg.”

Classic.

And among the juniors …

Boys’ Singles: Marton Fucsovics d. Benjamin Mitchell, 64 64

Fucsovics? Yes please. Also delighted to see he’s carrying on the tradition of boys’ singles winners being cute as a little pie.

Girls’ Singles: Kristyna Pliskova d. Sachie Ishizu, 63 46 64

The Czech Republic = the new Serbia?

And a quartet of tiny Tims …

Boys’ Doubles: Tom Farquharson/Liam Broady d. Lewis Burton/George Morgan

I nominate all four to the GBR Davis Cup squad, effective immediately.

RG Day Five: So … Bye, Then.

I feel a bit like I did recently when I ran into my ex at a party, went out of my way to be friendly and nice, took it well when dismissed me with a promise of finding me for a chat later, only for him to leave without bothering to say goodbye. Well, screw you then.

Sorry. My stuff. What I meant to say is that we’ve unceremoniously lost some of the top ladies without me even having time to really get to grips with the fact that they were there.

Yaroslava Shvedova added another big Slam scalp to her resumee, echoing her defeat of JJ at last year’s US Open by taking out Agnieszka Radwanska in straights. And in an eerie echo of that day when JJ and Licky lost to Shvedova and Rodionova within literally seconds of each other … Vera Zvonareva lost to Anastasia Rodionova.

Whatever.

Alisa Kleybanova, meanwhile, had a crushing 63 60 win over Ana Ivanovic. Frankly I blinked and missed it, but it seems to have been a day to forget for the pumping one.

On you go, Kleybs.

WTA Saturday: Safs On Fire, Snappers Remember Thailand Exists

Paris

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lucie Safarova. She’s beaten Paszek, Schiavone, Peer and now Flavia Pennetta, 46 63 64, to reach her second Paris final (she lost out to Nadia Petrova in 2007). From what I saw of her match against Flavia today, she was on fire.

Safs will be facing another second-time Paris finalist after Elena Dementieva beat Melanie Oudin, 46 64 63. It was a good performance from the believer, but after she wasn’t able to capture the second set, her fitness really let her down in the third and after three consecutive breaks, Dementieva won five of the last six games to take the match.

It was an encouraging tournament for Oudin, though, who moves on to Memphis next week. Elena said that it was the toughest win of the year for her so far, which is nice, considering some of the people she’s beaten. Good stuff.

Pattaya City

Photos! Finally photos!

… Put it away now, Yaroslava.

Top seed Vera Zvonareva is into the final after beating fourth seed Yaroslava Shvedova 62 46 63. She’ll face hometown girl Tamarine Tanasugarn, who defeated Sesil Karantcheva 62 60.

Good stuff.

Hopman Cup: Team Tim Win, Are Adorable

First up in Hopman Cup yesterday, Team Russia edged a 2-1 victory over Germany – but Sabine Lisicki kicked off her 2010 in style with a 64 61 demolition of an out-of-sorts Elena Dementieva. Impressive stuff from Licky, but Igor Andreev randomly decided to become relevant again and beat Philipp Kohlschreiber in three before the Russians took the doubles 64 76(7).

The night session was Tim o’clock, and Laura Robson acquitted herself well for two sets against Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan before falling 46 63 60.

Luckily for Laura, big brother was on hand to rescue the situation, demolishing Andrey Golubev 62 62.

After sorting out some important colour co-ordination issues, it was time for the mixed doubles and much to the surprise of many, Team GB won it 63 57 76(10). I haven’t had a chance to watch all the highlights yet, but from what I’ve seen, they were good – a little lucky, but good. And more importantly, adorable.

 

Love them.

Party! (Like You Fell Through a Hole in Time)

The Hopman Cup player’s party. Surprisingly respectable ensembles.

I feel like I’ve seen this photo 97,503 times before.

The caption says this is Yaroslava Shvedova. I shall take the caption’s word for it.

The ghost of champions past.

When did Pat Cash become tennis’ creepy barfly?

Team Romania are rapidly becoming my favourites. Look at them, manfully working the Dracula/Bride Of look.

Well played, Laura. Not sure about the dress, but she looks adorable.

I don’t care what anyone says; Andy Murray is hot.

Just because Jez’s choice of footwear is making me giggle.

Melanie and her BFG.

In the interests of self-preservation, I’ve decided to enjoy Sabine’s fashion sense rather than despair at it.

USO Day Four: Another One Bites the Dust

Well, I guess upsets come in twos. Maybe more. Immediately following Dementieva’s loss to Oudin, Jelena Jankovic took the court and lost to Yaroslava Shvedova, 36 76(4) 67(6).

Says it all, really.

I wasn’t able to watch this one, or at least not most of it, because Licky was playing at the same time and I also had to have a life for a small window of time. From what I did see, JJ was making some uncharacteristic errors at key moments and not reading the game at all well. Twitter reports that JJ’s maternal grandmother passed away last night, which may have something to do with her patchy performance. Still, she lost a winnable match, and that’s that.

All credit to Shvedova though, who from what I saw was playing aggressive, hard-hitting tennis and more often than not, finding the chinks in JJ’s defensive armour. And after being a little timid and passive on big points, she finally stepped up in the tiebreak and played a nerveless couple of points, and that was all it took. This is by far the biggest win of her career. Congratulations to her.

Quite a day for the giant killers.

Roland Garros Results: WTA Day One

Just two seeds lost today – nineteenth seed Kaia Kanepi went down to Yaroslava Shvedova, the Queen of Qualifying. And as aforementioned, Momo lost 😦 Otherwise, all else proceeded fairly calmly.

Defending champion Ana Ivanovic made it through a fairly testing match with tricksy Sara Errani, and Li Na Na Li, Nadia Petrova and Victoria Azarenka fairly breezed through.

Julie Coin had a good win over Llagostera Vives, who pushed Daniela Hantuchova hard in Warsaw last week. Kudryavtseva, Barrois and Benesova progressed, and Gisela Dulko notched up a good win over Tamira Paszek.

Loving the Lacoste, by the way.

Sadness for home faves Johansson (l. to Diatchenko), Olivia Sanchez (l. to Rus), Loit (l. to Bacsinzky) and Bremond, who lost to Vesnina … also rocking the Lacoste,

All in all, good show, ladies.

Full results here.