The Tennis Thread

[constanceMafioso]

btw,isn't this maria's first win over a player of lena's calibre since she returned?

Yes Maria's first top ten win this season - As fo the match, it wasn't overall great. Maria's serving and returning stats really were atrocious... On the other hand I was quite surprised of how Elena played a great match after her injury time out but she sure will be at her best anytime soon. Also Happy Birthday to my love Vika hope she makes it to the final and wish to her lots of succes, joy, health and happiness.

 

[colourmepretty]

Maria was playing great in the first set and also really well during the second set. She always has spells of bad serves but I think that will go away with more matches and practices.

 

[anaa lpz]

Maria´s game was...weird! 40 winners and 40 unforced errors
I´m following her career since I don´t know when, but she keeps surprising me, and freaking me out sometimes
but I´m really really happy for her...I slept only 8 hours the last two days because of her matches, so we deserve the win!

I love the hardcourt season, it´s the best part of the year, but following the matches with the time difference is terrible

 

[Scott]

i have such a newfound appreciation for aggie radwansksa. it's such a pleasure watching a player,a young player that is,with all her touch and craftiness. one thing i really wish would happen is that her serve would improve....develop it into more of a weapon. that first serve there are flashes that she can hit it with a decent amount pace but that second serve seriously needs a revamp. i mean she doesn't have the kind of game-style that somebody like elena dementieva has which sort of counters her serving and still keeps her in the running for big wins so aggie really needs a weapon like that. last night she had too many opportunities in that third set and just could not get a stranglehold on very many of them.

 

[Chaky]

Jelena Dokic just won a $75k in Romania and she's now ranked back in the Top 100. I wonder what her entry status is as regards US Open. Not sure what their cut-off date is, but surely she's worth a wildcard even if she doesn't get direct entry. Don't the USTA have a reciprocal arrangement with Tennis Australia?

 

[colourmepretty]

Her game goes through spells of ups and downs and hopefully that will improve as she plays more games on tour. But one thing about Maria is that she'll never give up and she will continue to fight until the last point; that kind of relentlessness really helps players who're coming back from injury/time off. Hopefully she wins the title today against Victoria Azarekna! But Azarenka's been playing great as well so...we'll see what happens.

Go Masha!

 

[Scott]

egads was vika flawless in that second set! what a way to end a title drought though...she was pretty impressive just in her intentions on the court this entire week. good for her. and happy birthday....a nice present to give yourself.

chaky,that's fantastic news! did she beat niculescu there?

 

[colourmepretty]

Vika played really well; very well deserved!

 

[Chaky]

chaky,that's fantastic news! did she beat niculescu there?

No Camerin beat Niculescu. Jelena also won a $50k the week before so she's on a bit of a winning streak.

 

[Scott]

^chaky,there's also news that apparently she parted ways with bikic and was alone during RG and wimby. she revealed also that she's been working with nadia petrova's and dinara's ex-coach glen schaap for a couple months now. perhaps that explains the new resurgence?? glen schaap did some great things with petrova....she probably had the best period of her career working with him.

this is from tennis.com

Jelena Dokic is now working with Glen Schaap, former coach of Nadia Petrova and Dinara Safina. Dokic, who is coming off two straight challenger wins at Contrexeville and Burcharest, is playing the Vancounver challenger this week and said she had been working with Schaap for a couple of months. "Glen has changed a few of my strokes, tried to shorten them up a bit," the Vancouver Sun quoted her as saying. "But he and I have been working mostly on my fitness. When you're winning and get to play a lot of matches that's a big help. There's nothing like being match fit."

 

[Chaky]

Dokic just won $75k Vancouver beating Virginie Razzano in the final in straight sets. This means Jelena is on a 15-match winning streak with three titles in a row! What an incredible comeback... again!

Her ranking will be up in the 80s now so I think she's looking at qualies for WTA tournaments. Maybe she can get a more consistent season going.

I wasn't aware she'd split with Bikic. She always said that he was the one who helped her through really difficult times, but I know among many of her dedicated fans he was not popular as they saw him as a bad influence on her game.

 

[Scott]

^wow that's a great win! razzano is no chump by any means. and in straights?!

just spotted this...great read and really positive to see.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Dokic+coach+click/3376330/story.html

but yeah,it's been some weeks of the comeback,no? jelena,anna and now sveta has finally started to find her groove again.

 

[Scott]

you guys must have a gander at this. best feature i've ever seen on female players. rather than over-sexed objects,they are purely beautiful athletes here....like poetry. the images and films are stunning to say the least.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/08/29/magazine/tennis-hard-hitters.html

 

[Chaky]

Oh I was gonna post that here too. It's fantastic.

I'm captivated by Vera's eyes.

 

[Chaky]

Have to mention Anna Chakvetadze just won the $100k ITF tourny in the Bronx, beating four higher ranked players including Lucie Safarova en route. Pretty good preparation for the US Open I think.

 

[Scott]

how about that set of sam stosur? wow! something about her movements and the way her muscles were flexing and that rawness,really took me aback. then that very enigmatic shot of her in that red dress.

and jelena was unfortunately beaten in the first round of qualies to laura robson. disappointed but not deeply so. i think with the new relationship with schaap and the adjustments he's made in her game it is still a bit fresh at the moment. i think it might take her a bit longer to really get a strong groove going on the wta and the majors.

hopefully though it doesn't discourage her because she's still playing great tennis. and maybe she'll be able to qualify for a few more events preceding the open and into the indoor season.

 

[Chaky]

I was taken aback by Sam. She looks very... sinewy. Certainly looks very striking when captured in slo-mo like that.

The thing with Jelena was she was on this fantastic winning streak but she didn't play much leading up to qualies. I think Laura took her by surprise and it was over very quickly.

Sadly Laura just lost in the final round.

 

[NakedIfIWantTo]

Sam looks unreal...Can somebody post them in a way that I can save them?

 

[Scott]

^i can a little later. in the meantime,if you're on a mac you can actually use the snapshot feature-shift+command+3 and crop the images. on a pc if i haven't forgotten it's control+alt+print screen and paste into your paint programme.

chaky,i agree i think jelena should have at least played one event prior to the qualies. she probably would have been a little bit more match-tough.

looking at that draw,i think anna could be a very dangerous floater in that part of the draw. kuzy better keep her focus at a high level.

caroline's half doesn't look much easier either. she's potentially got suarez navarro(returning from injury i know but still a tough early round),safarova,rezai and maybe sharapova.

 

[Chaky]

Women Who Hit Very Hard
Ph: Dewey Nicks





nytimes.com