Twits

Saturday, April 23, 2011

The sovereign Queen of Clay, Her Royal Highness, Agnieszka Radwanska.

Agnieszka Radwanska has always been a player I feel has underachieved. While her friends and contemporaries Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka have gone onto much better things – rising to number one and reaching the top 5 respectfully, Radwanska has found herself beating most players she should beat and then being soundly beaten by the first elite player she meets.

She seems to think the same too, because so far this year a lightbulb seems to have flicked on. She used to play the role of a counterpuncher who stood far behind the baseline and beat players mostly through consistency. However, nowadays that variety seems to be the rule rather than a ploy to keep her opponents guessing. Against Schiavone she played some brilliant tennis, looking to take the initiative on every ball – whether it be to take it early and be aggressive, to hit a dropshot, to move forward and so on. That coupled with the new-found power on her serve, and this ‘new Agnieska’ really is a joy to watch.

Speaking of her contemporaries, there were mixed results for Wozniacki and Azarenka Wednesday. Top-seeded Wozniacki made light and easy work of Kristina Kucova. Her match made for quite hilarious watching as she toyed with her opponent for most of the match, and by the end she was experimenting with her two-handed dropshots and random forays to the net, with comical results. For Azarenka however, it was the complete opposite. After looking impressive in cleaning up the first set on Goerges, out of the blue she walked up to the net and retired, citing a shoulder injury.

But once again, the Germans ruled the roost in Stuttgart with Andrea Petkovic, Sabine Lisicki, Julia Goerges and Kristina Barrois all advancing to the quarterfinals, making it the first time since 1994 that four Germans made the quarters here. I had a chance to speak to Goerges after the match and she was understandably excited about her quarterfinal clash against Lisicki; “I think we are German rivals, but not in a bad way. We push each other, and it’s nice having a player from Germany in the semifinals, so we will see tomorrow.”

However, Petkovic once again stole the show in her own press conference. Speaking about her relationships with the top players, she said; “People really think we hate each other, but actually we’re all good friends. And you know what is funny? The top players are friendlier than other players sometimes [..] I cannot think of anyone I don’t get along with.” And then, with a wink and joked “and I’m still not Paris Hilton”.

16 comments:

Carlos said...

We have to thank Caps321 for anointing Aggie "Queen of Clay".

Now to my crticism of Aggie -sorry Caps321- last I saw Aggie was at AO 11 against Peng, she didn't have the fire power that you are speaking of, trickery was in her arsenal. At that moment I saw her game was best for clay. Her "friendenemies" The Big Stuffed Bunny and Angry Bird not only have winning records against Aggie but at least have one of the 7 Rings Of Hell. Someone with power can easily defeat Aggie aka ball bashers but as everyone knows balll bashers don't do well on clay because clay is the kryptonite for power shots. A queen needs rings and crowns if Aggie falls to The Big Bunny she will be left with "nice run Aggie" and no titles! While her "friendenemies" each have achieve a title on clay this year.
I'm hoping Aggie begins her dominance on clay by defeating The Bunny and taking the title.

Not sold on this German run at all! First of all they were at home and the three that lost in the quarters lost in straight sets, they folded like... If it wasn't for Angry Bird pulling out it would have a straight flush, pun intended. :P

Petkovic is rubbing me the wrong way that is why I don't find her amusing.

PS: How do you like your nickname?

Anonymous said...

I called her the Queen of Clay because she beat the French Open champ on clay!

If Aggie pulls out her bag of tricks the Bunny will be throwing her racket and on the losing end today.

One has to wonder how that 'friendship' will be doing if Aggie starts hitting droppers and behind the Bunny.

I don't think the Bunny's 'temper' will be dormant for long. Maybe Aggie will need to find a new friend to frolic on the beach with!

Anonymous said...

I'm really liking Goerges' game! She just won the first set 6-4.

Carlos said...

Just came from work and Stosur won the second set 6-3. 1-1 in the third.

Good points as usual Caps321.

Heck, next time Aggie hits the beach she can call me haha. :P

Anonymous said...

Georges wins it... YEAH!!!!!!

She is now in my stable of favorites!

Anonymous said...

Aggie loses the first set 7-5. While she played good, its unfortunate she didn't use more droppers along with hitting behind Bunny.

Carlos said...

It is already Sunday in the Land of Plenty so I'm going to wish you Captain and Clefairy Happy Easter! :) If you ladies see a big bunny hopping it might be The Easter Bunny not Caroline. :P

Captain I bet you are celebrating Stosur demise by toasting Pims. :P

Dinara pulled out from her semis match singles and doubles, the cause cited was gastro intestinal illness. I feel for her my mother got food poisoning on Thursday. I had Dinara winning the whole thing now I have Halep.

I see the The Big Stuffed Bunny keeping her stash of eggs and raising the trophy, again. Booooooooo!

Lucinda Perry said...

Thankyou Carlos for your wishes! Emily is spending Easter with her family at their beach house, that's why she has been away from the blog, if you were wondering! Happy Easter to you and Caps321 for tomorrow! (I think)

I am sure Em is very happy! I think this cause of celebration needs more than just Pims! :)

I feel sorry for Dinka, she just can't catch a break! When ever she is back, she gets back down again! Hoping for a quick dash to the RG QF's or SF for her! Then again I felt bad for Pivovarova? I think that is correct spelling! If she had more expirence she could have won that match! And as soon as she switched from jouniors to seniors she got plagued with injury!

I think Gorges could win, with a home crowd, strong form! Germany looks to be rising as the new power house of womens tennis! (Petko, Gorges, Lisicki on the way back!)

PS. I am happy with the nick name! I think you need one too! Ahaha :P

Anonymous said...

Happy Easter Carlos, Lucinda, Emily!

Why don't y'all like Stosur? Personally, I think she's a big choker.

The showdown for the EGGS will be on here at 10am tomorrow morning -- its 9:05pm now. I'm in the Eastern time zone.

Carlos said...

Thak you and Happy Easter to you too Caps321!

I do also think Stosur is a choker, anyone can predict when she is going to caugh up a fur ball.

9:45pm West Coast time, 6:05 am start time for "The Showdown For The Easter Eggs".

Caps321 I asked the Captain about her dislike towards Stosur, she has good reasons it had to do with Stosur being over hyped.

Clefairy, yes that is her correct spelling Pivovarova for the cute Russian. FYI my nickname in high school was "Shotgun Man" it later just became "Shotgun". After high school I picked up couple of nicknames one of them still follow me.

Anonymous said...

Goerges wins the first set 7-6!

Btw, you think she wants a little bacon with her eggs?

Anonymous said...

I'm absolutely ECSTATIC!!!!!!!!

Gorgeous (new nickname?) wins its 7-6, 6-3.

Carlos said...

I could only catch the first game of the second set. The Big Stuffed Bunny had the deer caught in the headlights look, I knew it was over so I turned off the computer. How about an omlet to celebrate?

Anonymous said...

Omelets for everyone!

Wow, you sure missed a good one.

Surprisingly, Bunny didn't throw her racket but I did see steam coming out of her ears along with bewilderment.

Basically, Bunny couldn't handle Julia's serve. She didn't double fault at all. And Bunny was having a lot of trouble with her second serve as well. Sometimes it had a high kick.

Also, Julia only tried one dropper and Bunny had zero! (Contrast that with the Aggie match the other day.)

I will expect big things to come along with at least a top 15 spot before 2012 for Gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

"Wozniacki considering Navratilova as consultant"

http://www.tennis.com/articles/templates/news.aspx?articleid=11630&zoneid=25

My favorite part has to be, "It is obviously not cheap—the price to hire her may well reach about $300,000 and we’ll have to pay out of out own pockets."

Funny how this comes out after Bunny's loss yesterday..

Anonymous said...

Seems my post in the other thread vanished; lets try again.

Wozniacki considering Navratilova as consultant

http://tinyurl.com/3flk3jp

This has to be my favorite line, "It is obviously not cheap—the price to hire her may well reach about $300,000 and we’ll have to pay out of out own pockets."

Funny how this new information comes out after Bunny loses.

Post a Comment