In the Wimbledon final rematch between Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova, we looked as if we were going to have a great match on our hands. With only one break point seen in the match and Sharapova seemingly found her serve. Thing went on serve and continued that way until Kvitova led 4-3 15-40 which is when Sharapova unfortunately landed awkwardly on her ankle. After a medical time out Sharapova was forced to retire, with what is believed to be a slight ankle sprain. The russian is now likely to withdraw from Beijing, and to be honest the injury could not have come at worse time for the three time Slam champ as she was on the verge of reclaiming the number 1 rank. Unless Maria gets a quick turn around, wins Beijing and does incredibly well at the Year End Championships, it would appear her bid for year end number one is seemingly over. If you missed here are some highlights, including the injury.
In the semi's Kvitova will meet with Vera Zvonareva. The world number four won her match with fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko, who as been in fine form starting from the US Open. Zvonareva prevailed with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Kirilenko and improved her lifetime head to head against her compatriot to 6-0.
In the top half of the draw Victoria Azarenka recoverd from a minor first set choke to prevail 7-5 6-0 against Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli and Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Estonia's Kaia Kanepi 6-2 7-6. Kanepi has defeated Caroline Wozniacki in the previous round.
22 comments:
Am I still allowed to play on this blog? :P
Sorry for being out, I was sick with fever and I felt like a bubble head. I wouldn't have made sense anyway not that I do anyways. I'm still weak but getting better.
So Kanepi took out the Big Stuffed Bunny, Yeah! The WTA furious leader is showing why she is a Faux Number One Ranked player. Hahaha yes what you heard was my evil laugh.
Divapova:the gods of tennis have seen the true ways of the Diva and are not happy with her. Hence the all injuries.
I take Angry Bird to win the semis match but I'll root for Aggie.
Vera Z. over the Ostrich.
I know I'm late with my prediction but there you go.
BTW the Princess took out The Fist Pumping Imbecile. Well done Princess!
Of course Carlos :P
That is okay, wishing you a speedy recovery!
Yeah, Bunny falters once again, and fails to prove anything. Evail laugh is music to my ears.
The tennis gods want to keep Caroline an embarrassed number 1 she gets because of Serena's injury and keeps because of injuries to Kim and Diva.
Angry Bird for the title, Ostrich choked lead 5-1 in the first set.
Princess been playing very very well lately.
PS Neither Lucinda or I will be likely to post until Monday Aus time, Sunday US. Long weekend in Australia and AFL Grand Final.
Hopefully you're all still ere when we get back
Thank you Captain. At least I can indulge myself in some junk food and I didn't lose much weight. :D
Aaaaaaah the AFL final your version of our NFL's Super Bowl. I wonder if the AFL final there is over the top hype and half time spectacles like the Super Bowl.
Vera and Aggie won. I can sense Caps smiling about Aggie's victory and frowning about the Ostrich's loss. Ostrich laid an egg on the second set.
I'm punching my ticket to be back Captain.
I was sleeping and couldn't watch the matches! Glad I missed that Ostrich gagfest.
Well, at least one of my women made it to the final. Not sure if Aggie can take out Vera or not but she seems to be on a mission as of late to regain her top 10 spot.
Get well soon, Carlos!
This Tokyo is a typical WTA rollercoaster, LOL.
I must say these two are surprise finalist and it could go either way. I'd be happier seeing Radwanska win, I really like her variety.
Petra is really the Ostrich she digs her head deeper in the sand with every tournament. Her post-Wimbledon form has Ivanovic-esque dimensions.
Poor Maria, I saw the match and it was such a bad luck.
But the most important is Caroline RULES!!! Only a few weeks and year-end no.1 is hers again. Yay,so happy!
Preparing some nice flattering articles already ... although you probably won't celebrate with me ,LOL.
Thank you Caps.
My prediction is that Vera Z. will win but Aggie will a fit to Vera. I really like this new Aggie and Princess.
What's the real scoop on this one?
Serena skips China Open in Beijing
BEIJING (AP)—Serena Williams will miss the China Open after being left out of Friday’s draw.
Williams had been expected to play, and organizers did not explain why she was not in the draw.
Looks like the Vera/Aggie match starts at midnight Eastern...
Marat Safin: Dinara's career is over
tennis.com
Marat Safin says that his younger sister's Dinara Safina's career is over. Former No. 1 Safina has struggled tremendously with a back injury over the past two years and has not played since May.
"Dinara was injured two years ago, in Beijing, remember?" Safin was quoted by Russian Eurosport as saying at a press conference in Beijing, where he was promoting a match against Pete Sampras. "She left, but never recovered completely. She tried to return, but only aggravated the crisis. Now she needs to keep her back to be able to walk normally and live a normal life. [Her back] will continue to be treated, but she will play no more...She will make an official statement herself, but as her brother, I believe that there is no chance of return."
Thanks for both bombshells Caps.
It would be interesting to hear from Serena and from the tournament organizers. Could there be the possibility that organizers just forgot to put Serena's name on the draw? If that the case someone must be fire and ridicule.
Too bad it had to this way for Dinara. The choke at RG 09 was a killer for her career. She was a mediocre player that reached a high level of play after she changed coach, I believe his name is Goran (not sure). Dinara like her brother was head case that at time her nerves betrayed her.
Stop the presses Aggie won! She sure has the number on Vera. I bet Caps hasn't stopped smiling.
YEAH!!!!!!!!!
And now for the photos of Ms. Aggie with her new hardware!
http://www.daylife.com/search/photos/1/grid?q=radwanska+agnieszka
Btw, does Aggie look like she's getting in better shape or is that an optical illusion since she wears one piece dresses with her new sponsor?
Saw Na Li went back to having her husband as a coach.
*n58 q Monica Niculescu ROU d n5 s4 Na Li CHN 6-4, 6-0
That's not exactly what I would call results!
Anyway, the China Open seems to have some interesting matchups:
K. KANEPI vs. S. LISICKI
D. CIBULKOVA vs. SCHIAVONE
GOERGES, Julia vs. KIRILENKO, Maria
M. BARTOLI vs. MCHALE
Also some intriguing possibilities of later matchups as well.
Results so far:
Beijing, 1st Rd, Sat-Mon 12:30pm
losers' prize: $11,817 US; points: 5
n1 s1 Caroline Wozniacki DEN v n49 Lucie Hradecka CZE Mon cNS m2 3pm+
*n58 q Monica Niculescu ROU d n5 s4 Na Li CHN 6-4, 6-0 Sun
n7 s6 Samantha Stosur AUS d n45 Tsvetana Pironkova BUL 6-4, 6-0 Sun
n8 s7 Francesca Schiavone ITA d n57 Bojana Jovanovski SRB 6-1, 6-3 Sat
n10 s8 Marion Bartoli FRA d n56 Iveta Benesova CZE 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 Sun
n11 s9 Andrea Petkovic GER d n28 Lucie Safarova CZE 7-6(5), 6-4 Sat
*n54 Tamira Paszek AUT d n12 s10 Jelena Jankovic SRB 7-5, 6-4 Sat
n15 s12 Shuai Peng CHN v n23 Flavia Pennetta ITA Mon cNS m3
n16 s13 A Pavlyuchenkova RUS d n46 B Zahlavova Strycova CZE 7-5, 6-4 Sun
n17 s14 Sabine Lisicki GER d n38 Irina-Camelia Begu ROU 6-2
retired—right shoulder injury Sun
n18 s15 Roberta Vinci ITA d n55 Rebecca Marino CAN 6-4, 6-3 Sat
n19 s16 Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS d n59 Alexandra Dulgheru ROU 6-2, 4-1
retired-bilateral knee injury Sat
n20 Julia Goerges GER v n27 Maria Kirilenko RUS Mon cM m1 12:30pm
n21 Ana Ivanovic SRB d n68 Kimiko Date-Krumm JPN 6-1, 6-1 Sun
n22 Dominika Cibulkova SVK d n120 wc Shuai Zhang CHN 6-0, 6-2 Sun
n25 Daniela Hantuchova SVK d n85 q Eleni Daniilidou GRE 6-4, 6-2 Sun
*n32 Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez ESP d n26 Shahar Peer ISR 6-1, 7-5 Sun
*n34 Jarmila Gajdosova AUS d n29 Anabel Medina Garrigues ESP 6-3, 6-0 Sat
n30 Nadia Petrova RUS v n48 Klara Zakopalova CZE Mon cM m2
n31 Petra Cetkovska CZE d n39 Sara Errani ITA 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 Sat
n35 Polona Hercog SLO d n146 q Laura Robson GBR 6-4, 6-3 Sun
n41 q Chanelle Scheepers RSA d n327 wc Yue-Yue Hu CHN 6-0, 5-7, 6-0 Sun
*n51 q Christina McHale USA d n42 Ayumi Morita JPN 6-2, 0-6, 6-3 Sun
n43 Kaia Kanepi EST d n268 wc SaiSai Zheng CHN 6-0, 6-3 Sun
*n61 q Carla Suarez Navarro ESP d n44 Ekaterina Makarova RUS 7-5, 6-1 Sun
n60 Alberta Brianti ITA v n75 wc Jie Zheng CHN Mon cL m1 12:30pm
n67 wc Gisela Dulko ARG v n112 q Virginie Razzano FRA Mon c1 m2
n84 Sofia Arvidsson SWE d n153 sr36 Alona Bondarenko UKR 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 Sat
I see Peer, JJ, and Makrarova already got dumped out in the first round!
Thanks for the Aggie photos and the results Caps321.
I noticed how McHale gets bageled often.
Robson lost (I bring it up to annoy the Captain) as well as Pennetta.
I wonder if Bojana will have the success of JJ or The Fist Pumping Imbecile?
In this tournament I have a good feeling about the Princess.
The furious leader of the Bunny lost the first set 3-6 but won the second 6-0. Rooting for the upset.
The Princess downed Julia G. in straight sets. 11-9 in tie break of the first set. Too bad Caps.
Bunny down 3-4 in third set. I'm smiling.
Bunny up 6-5 in the third and to serve for the the match.
Bunny held at love taking the match. Boooooooooooooooooooooooo!
So the Bunny has an early loss in Tokyo and instead of laying down the law in China, she does this poor performance. Hey Bunny your stash is going to be stolen in the next round.
RANKING MOVERS
Notable singles ranking movers the week of October 3, 2011
Petra Kvitova (CZE) No.6 to No.5
Top 5 debut; Wimbledon champion breaks into new ranking class
after reaching semifinals of Tokyo [Pan Pacific], falling to Zvonareva
Angelique Kerber (GER) No.33 to No.30
Top 30 debut; US Open semifinalist cracks Top 30 after reaching
second round at Tokyo [Pan Pacific], falling to Radwanska
Ayumi Morita (JPN) No.42 to No.40
Top 40 debut; Japanese No.1 breaks into Top 40 after reaching
second round at Tokyo [Pan Pacific], falling to Bartoli
WITHDRAWALS
Beijing
Clijsters, Kim (BEL) Abdominal muscle injury
Domínguez Lino, Lourdes (ESP) Right foot injury
Kleybanova, Alisa (RUS) Illness
Mattek-Sands, Bethanie (USA) Right shoulder injury
Sharapova, Maria (RUS) Left ankle injury
Vesnina, Elena (RUS) Left wrist injury
Wickmayer, Yanina (BEL) Low back injury
Williams, Serena (USA) Medical reasons
Williams, Venus (USA) Sjögren’s syndrome
What's wrong with Serena now? Medical reasons?
I've always thought Princess had a fundamentally 'sound' game.. But, of course the choking and lack of a big weapon were her weaknesses. That said, she's leaps and bounds better than a lot of higher ranked players if she doesn't get blown off the court.
*n27 Maria Kirilenko RUS d n20 Julia Goerges GER 7-6(9), 6-3 Mon
*n22 Dominika Cibulkova SVK d n8 s7 Francesca Schiavone ITA 6-2, 6-2 Mon
Carlos, not sure what to think about Bojana at this point. I thought she had potential but haven't seen any of her matches she's been losing. Perhaps its just getting tough draws? Not sure.
Pennetta downed Peng in straight sets.
Unfortunately the Fist Pumping Imbecile won in straight sets, under an hour, against Kuznetsova. Just how disinterested is Kuznetsova? Can the gods of tennis open the earth and swallow the Imbecile? Pretty please. :P
Caps I like Morita I've been keeping an eye on her she is a tough out. She lost in China to McHale in three sets 6-2, 0-6, 6-3. The bagels continues for McHale.
Maybe McHale gets down a couple games and just throws the set and saves her energy? Or is she really trying on the bagel sets?
Btw, not sure if there was a court change on the Julia/Princess match yesterday. But, I was up and it was listed as coming on earlier in the day. But, near match time it had vanished.
Also I was going to watch Ostrich's match this morning but it also vanished.
Yikes, looks like she lost to #85 Arvdisson 6-7, 6-4, 3-6.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I so the scoreboard and the match was close. I had gut feeling then, that the Ostrich was going to lose. What happened to her high level of play?
On her lose I second the Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Nice little article on Aggie:
http://blogs.tennis.com/thewrap/2011/10/the-good-hands-club.html
Not sure what is going on with Ostrich.. But, the times she's lost when I've watched has been due to being erratic.
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