One Match Away.

Hold on to whatever you haven’t already shed in despair: Caroline Wozniacki is one win away from taking back the no. 1 ranking in Dubai.

She benefitted from a dramatic collapse from Anna Chakvetadze in the second round, who was suffering from the aftereffects of gastroenteritis, just when the Russian looked to be making an impact in the match:

Wozniacki then beat Ayumi Morita today after the Japanese qualifier upset Petra Kvitova in the opening round. She’ll play Shahar Peer in the quarterfinals. It was Peer who beat her in the third round last year, but she had a tough third-round match against Yanina Wickmayer, so I suspect that no. 1 trophy is headed back Wozniacki’s way, and why not.

Still, let’s not forget the conditions Peer is playing under to even be allowed to participate in this tournament. I hope she goes on winning just to stick it to them. It’s absurd and cynical that the WTA even has a tournament under these conditions, no matter how good the field is. Anyway.

Radwanska will play Kuznetsova after the former beat Bartoli and Svetlana reprised her Melbourne epic with Francesca Schiavone. Six match points went begging again before the Russian closed it out this time. Azarenka flattered to deceive in one of her patented pointless comebacks, taking Pennetta to a third set before losing.

Pennetta will face Alisa Kleybanova, who surprised Vera Zvonareva in straight sets earlier, but the Italian needed an MTO in her singles match and withdrew from her doubles with a leg strain, so maybe don’t expect too much. The remaining quarterfinal will be Sam Stosur against Jelena Jankovic, who came back from losing the first set 2-6 to Kaia Kanepi to win 7-5 in the third. Yay.

Singles – Third Round
(1) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. (Q) Ayumi Morita (JPN) 61 60
(15) Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) d. (2) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) 63 62
(16) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) d. (3) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 16 60 75
(4) Samantha Stosur (AUS) d. Patty Schnyder (SUI) 63 64
(6) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) d. (12) Kaia Kanepi (EST) 26 63 75
(11) Flavia Pennetta (ITA) d. (7) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 63 67(2) 64
(8) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) d. (10) Marion Bartoli (FRA) 63 62
(9) Shahar Peer (ISR) d. Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) 36 64 61

Doubles – Second Round
(1) Peschke/Srebotnik (CZE/SLO) d. Dushevina/Peng (RUS/CHN) 75 62
(2) Huber/Martínez Sánchez (USA/ESP) d. Groth/Zakopalova (AUS/CZE) 64 64
(WC) Kuznetsova/Zvonareva (RUS/RUS) d. (3) Chan/Zheng (TPE/CHN) 63 75
(4) Azarenka/Kirilenko (BLR/RUS) d. Kleybanova/Yan (RUS/CHN) 64 64
(6) Mattek-Sands/Shaughnessy (USA/USA) d. Pennetta/Schiavone (ITA/ITA) w/o (Pennetta: left lower leg muscle strain)
(7) Raymond/Stosur (USA/AUS) d. Niculescu/Peer (ROU/ISR) 75 57 107
Hantuchova/Radwanska (SVK/POL) d. Diatchenko/Poutchek (RUS/BLR) 61 61
Mirza/Vesnina (IND/RUS) d. Dulgheru/Sfar (ROU/TUN) 62 46 1210

RG Day Two: WTA Round-Up

Mixed fortunes for the seeds today.

Seventeenth seed Patty Schnyder fell to Kateryna Bondarenko, a.k.a the Brunette One. Bondarenko’s had good results so far this year, including wins over Agnieszka Radwanska and Alize Cornet. More importantly, she looks freaking hilarious in some of the pictures.

Please use the free time this will give you to work on your book or find a good therapist, Patty.

Anna Chakvetadze, the twenty-sixth seed, lost to Marina Duque Marino in the battle of the Russian Mafia vs. the Colombian Drug Lords. OK, it’s not a huge surprise, but as my commentator noted cautiously, “This may represent a new low for Chakvetadze.”

It’s a shame, because I rather liked her outfit.

 

 

 

 

Any chance we’re going to get to see Svetlana in that? Probably not. Still, well done to Mariana in the moated grange.

The biggest shock of the day was probably the upset of Flavia Pennetta by Alexa Glatch. The fourteenth seed was a quarterfinalist last year (and her outfit was lovely.)

But that’s a hell of a Fed Cup audition for Alexa Glatch, the hero of the U.S. tie against the Czech Republic. Even Venus dropped a set today. That doesn’t look too good when set against a pair of breadsticks served to an excellent clay-courter.

I must admit I’ve never seen Glatch play, but she’s making me sit up and take notice with these results.

Oh, and we lost another good outfit when unseeded Maria Kirilenko fell to Australia’s Olivia Rogowska.

Love the colour of the skirt and the wristbands. Actually, is this even Maria Kirilenko, or is it a captioning fail? I can’t freaking tell. If it’s Rogowska, then hey, we get to keep the outfit for another round.

Apart from that, the other seeds fared well, with Agnieszka Radwanska ending Paraguay’s interest in the ladies’ singles by defeating De Los Rios in straights, Dominika Cibulkova knocking out  and Zheng Jie Jie Zheng putting out local hope Cohen-Aloro – and looking mighty cute doing it. Great colour.

Outside the seedings, clay-courters-to-watch Carla Suarez Navarro and Agnes Szavay progressed in straights, as did Akgul Amandurova, Jill Craybas, Mariya Koryttseva, Jarmila Groth and Tathiana Garbin. Giant-killer-killing Polona Hercoq knocked out Alisa Kleybanova and half the suicide pool

There was woe for the home crowds as Camille Pin fell to Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn, but homegirl Aravane Rezai, who picked up a title last week in Strasbourg, knocked out veteran (i.e. ancient) Ai Sugiyama.

Believe me, if you didn’t see her goth all-black additionally-frilled version of this outfit c. the Australian Open, you should be so relieved she’s wearing this one.

Oh, and all the Brits are now out, as Mel South fell to Michelle Larcher de Brito (after a bagel first set, no less – it’s de Brito’s second match where such a thing has occurred) and Katie O’Brien was summarily dismissed by Olga Govortsova. Now on to suck and fail at Wimbledon!

Full ladies’ results here.