Twits

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Home is where the heart is.

Defending champion Francesca Schiavone and Marion Bartoli, two of the tour's most intense players, have set-up a French Open semi-final duel.

Schiavone, the 30-year-old Italian, battled from a set and 4-1 down to defeat Russian teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Bartoli became the first French player since Mary Pierce in 2005 to make the semi-finals thanks to a 7-6 6-4 win over 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Schiavone, the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam title when she defeated Aussie Samantha Stosur in last year's final, clinched a 1-6 7-5 7-5 win over 19-year-old Pavlyuchenkova in a sloppy quarter-final that featured 13 service breaks and 79 unforced errors.

Despite being 11 years older than the Russian, No.5 seed Schiavone said her experience had paid off in a tense finale.

"On 6-1 4-1, I said, 'Keep going'. The key is to hit three, four, five, six, seven balls, but I couldn't hit three, four. So at 4-1, I played two really good games,"' she said.

"Then she went a little bit down, and when I caught her, I say, 'Keep going. I am here. If I have to lose, I have to lose in the right way.'"

Over on Court Suzanne Lenglen, 26-year-old Bartoli and Kuznetsova fought out an untidy first set, which featured seven breaks of serve in 13 games.

Bartoli, an emotional jumping jack of nervous energy, clinched the tie break when No.13 seed Kuznetsova misdirected a forehand off a deep approach.

The Frenchwoman, a Wimbledon runner-up in 2007, was a break ahead in the opening game of the second set and backed it up with another break to lead 5-2.

But the experienced Russian clawed a break back in the eighth game as Bartoli served for the match.

Kuznetsova held for 4-5 but Bartoli claimed victory on her first match point when Kuznetova ballooned a forehand into the stands.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Diva just dominated Petko in the first set 6-0.

Anonymous said...

I am absolutely shocked that Na Li beat Angry Bird 7-5, 6-2.

The Diva wins 6-0, 6-3.

Anonymous said...

Vesnina/Mirza win against Huber/Raymond!

Carlos said...

I did said in a previous post that the winner of Ostrich/Na match was going to shoot down Angry Bird. Frankly I think she is overrated, she has a lot of potential that is underachieving, add all the retirements (snap, crackle and pop type of player), and her out of control temper; equals a great player that is not. The Bird can't win a major title outside Miami, right now she is a better version of Dani H. I'm still waiting for Angry Bird to prove wrong.


Good for Divapova to dismantle the Imbecile's Apprentice. The weather is perfect for Divapova to win RG. The winner of Na/Divapova match will take the title; unless the weather changes.


QF matches were competitive matches on paper that didn't translate on court.

Carlos said...

I'll go ahead and give my predictions for the semis.

Divapova in three sets.

I'll take the Furry-less Furby in two.

Caps321, on a previous post you made great points about Francesca's play on her QF match. I think Sponge Bart had a mini choke on the second set of her QF against Queen Choker Kuznetsova. Leading 5-2 and serving for the set, Kuznetsova broke Square Pants (nerves)and close the gap 5-4. Here are my points why Sponge Bart will win 1)The pressure will be greater for Square Pants than Furby. 2)Furby has been there Square Pants hasn't. 3)Furby is a better player on clay than Square Pants. 4)Yes, I'm talking about tennis not toys. :P

Carlos said...

I meant Furby will win. Crap, I hate making mistakes.

Post a Comment