Vera Zvonareva and Victoria Azarenka will meet in the fourth round after both cruised through their third round matches in straight sets. Yes, unbelievably, both Vera and Vika had matches without drama.
Well, there was a little drama with rain showers forcing the Hisense roof to be eventually closed. But then it was all plain sailing, as Azarenka destroyed Tathiana Garbin 60 62 with the Italian putting up only token resistance.
And she did it all dressed like an ’80s pencil sharpener. Sadly things will get tougher, as she’s due to meet Vera Zvonareva in the next round. Not only did Zvonareva batter Dulko 61 75, but she’s played Azarenka four times and won in straight sets every time. Ouch.
Sam Stosur also came through, scoring a solid 64 61 victory over Alberta Brianti, and will meet the winner of Serena Williams and Carla Suarez Navarro. Which will be Serena.
A tip of the hat to those who came close to rocking the boat … First up, Alize Cornet, who bagelled Francesca Schiavone before losing the second set 57 and being bagelled herself in the third.
Alicia Molik came very close to being this year’s Jelena Dokic, leading Julie Coin 63 41 before capitulating 62 in the third.
Fernando Verdasco dropped the first set to inspired fellow lefty Carsten Ball. I actually saw some of this and Ball was playing some great tennis. What, you thought I was going to make a pun? Would I?
Ballsed it up.
Samantha Stosur lived dangerously against Xinyun Han, dropping the second set before taking the third and the match, 62. What do you expect if you put the poor girl on Rod Laver?
But the “THIS close” award of the day has to go to Igor Andreev, who played (by all accounts) brilliantly to take a set off Federer, was a break up in the third and shipped three set points before losing in four.
All I can say is that this was so worth staying up until 4.30 a.m. for. I laughed until I cried and had several moments of rampant sentimentality. At the risk of sounding like someone who collects kitten plates, it made me so proud to be a tennis fan. They did a good thing here.
Come to Romania, ladies and gentlemen, where wild animals will steal your fruit and they have some quite good tennis players. Sixth-seeded Team Romania upset the Australians in both senses of the word in the first session of the Hopman Cup to take an early lead in Group A.
Sam Stosur looked to be well in charge of her match against Sorana Cirstea, outplaying the Romanian to take the first set 63, but Cirstea’s tenacity paid off in the second set and Stosur eventually wobbled just enough to give up the match. Lleyton Hewitt evened things up by coming from behind to beat Victor Hanescu 36 63 76(2), but the visitors took the mixed 75 61 and the tie with it.
Those whacky hemispheres. I was trying to figure out why the title was ‘Summer of Sam’ when the summer – which, in fairness, could be referred to as Sam’s summer – was long past and it is in fact snowing.
Anyway, here’s Sam Stosur appearing in and indeed on Inside Sport.
I’m assuming the tournament asked them all to show in black, which was a smart move – with some minor hiccups, like whatever it is Schiavs is wearing and Marion’s navy blue – because they look lovely. I even like Caroline Wozniacki’s dress, and Kimiko Date-Krumm looks fab. Like a sexy hairdresser.
If you’d asked me at the beginning of the day to name two players who were an absolutely safe pick to get through the day, then Agnieszka Radwanska and Samantha Stosur would have been near if not at the top of the list.
Well, it shows what I know. Agnieszka Radwanska lost to Maria Kirilenko (seriously), 64 26 64.
Agnieszka was not playing great, but I’ve seen her get through matches on similar form. All credit really has to go to Kirilenko, who was not only looking great in her new Adidas gear after being dropped as the Stella face, but playing beautiful, clever and consistent tennis. Kudos.
She held her nerve brilliantly in the end to serve it out, and unlike her boyfriend was on the right side of one of the upsets of the Open. Good for her.
As for Samantha Stosur, I have no idea what happened. I hear she was playing bizarrely listless and defensive tennis. But how someone with her game loses 75 64 to Vania King, I do not know. I mean, who the hell is Vania King?
The top laydeez opened their accounts in New York today in fairly crushing style. First up, Kim Clijsters destroyed Viktoriya Kutuzova 61 61, while Victoria Azarenka did the same thing to Warsaw champion Alexandra Dulgheru and Agnieszka Radwanska only allowed Patricia Mayr one more game. You’d think they were racing to be the first to knock someone out of the tournament, had not Anastasia Yakimova stolen the show by retiring after just three games, sending Vania King through to the second round.
Also in the mood for baked products? Marion Bartoli, singlehandedly ending Paraguay’s interest in the ladies’ singles by defeating Rosana de los Rios 61 60. Vera Zvonareva and Flavia Pennetta continued the identical scorelines trend of the day, beating Nuria Llagostera Vives and Edina Gallovits respectively 60 64.
Can’t decide whether I love or hate Vera’s outfit. The colours are a tad ‘shades of diarrhoea’ for my liking, perhaps. Anyhow, Momo (unsurprisingly) made almost the heaviest weather of the top ladies, giving away a whole seven games to Tatjana Malek.
That honour in the end must go to Samantha Stosur, who squeaked by wily veteran Ai Sugiyama 64 46 64. And looked good in her outfit, if not tennistically speaking.
All in all only one women’s seed fell today, that being Kaia ‘how am I still seeded’ Kanepi, who was knocked out by Taipei’s Kai-Chen Chang in three sets. Maria Kirilenko, Aleksandra Wozniack and Anna Chakvetadze both progressed, albeit with a slight hiccup in Chakvetadze’s case (dropping a set to Yurika Sema). And how about Sania Mirza, beating Olga Govortsova 62 36 63?
I live for the day when she and Querrey set up a tennis academy and the tour is populated by their freaky off-hand offspring.
