Monday, May 14, 2007

Singles - First Round
(9) Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) d. (Q) Aravane Rezai (FRA) 46 61 62
(11) Shahar Peer (ISR) d. Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) 60 20 ret. (right wrist strain)
Meghann Shaughnessy (USA) d. Emilie Loit (FRA) 63 62
Ai Sugiyama (JPN) d. Maria Kirilenko (RUS) 64 57 75
Karolina Sprem (CRO) d. Eleni Daniilidou (GRE) 36 64 63
(LL) Michaella Krajicek (NED) d. Olga Poutchkova (RUS) 61 62
(Q) Galina Voskoboeva (RUS) d. (WC) Alberta Brianti (ITA) 62 63
(Q) Tamira Paszek (AUT) d. Nicole Pratt (AUS) 67(1) 60 62
(Q) Catalina Castaño (COL) d. (WC) Karin Knapp (ITA) 61 75

Doubles - First Round
Benesova/Voskoboeva (CZE/RUS) d. (6) Medina Garrigues/Ruano Pascual (ESP/ESP) 63 16 107
(7) Dechy/Santangelo (FRA/ITA) d. Dulko/Pennetta (ARG/ITA) 62 64
Husarova/Shaughnessy (SVK/USA) d. Gagliardi/Schiavone (SUI/ITA) 75 36 108
Brianti/Groenefeld (ITA/GER) d. Dentoni/Menna (ITA/ITA) 61 60
Garbin/Vinci (ITA/ITA) d. Loit/Pratt (FRA/AUS) 63 64
Knapp/Oprandi (ITA/ITA) d. Fedak/Uhlirova (UKR/CZE) 62 63
Krajicek/Tu (NED/USA) d. Brémond/Mauresmo (FRA/FRA) 62 26 103

Ninth seed Daniela Hantuchova avoided a second successive first-round exit when she came from behind to beat Aravane Rezai of France 4-6 6-1 6-2 in the first round of the Italian Open on Monday.

The 24-year-old Slovakian, who was knocked out by a qualifier in the first round of last week's German Open in Berlin, made an inconsistent start and seemed at risk of another early exit.

She came back strongly, however, to set up a second-round match against the winner of the first-round match between Sybille Bammer of Austria and Argentina's Gisela Dulko.

Hantuchova was the highest ranked player in action on the opening day of the claycourt tournament. The top eight seeds have all been given byes into the second round.

Former French Open finalist and 10th seed Elena Dementieva takes on Italy's Maria Elena Camerin later on Monday.

The field in the Italian capital has been weakened by the withdrawal of several leading players, including world number one Justine Henin, who is resting before the French Open and world number two Maria Sharapova, who has a shoulder injury.

In their absence, Amelie Mauresmo has become top seed. The 27-year-old Frenchwoman won in Rome in 2004 and 2005 but is struggling for form after returning from a two-month layoff due to an appendicitis.

Mauresmo lost to a qualifier in the third round of the Berlin Open last week.

Asked what chance she stood of notching up a third Italian Open title, she replied: "For now I'm far from my best level."

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Campo Centrale (from 13.00hrs)
1. N.Li vs. Oprandi
2. Schiavone vs. Stosur
3. Pennetta vs. Garbin
4. Krajicek vs.S.Williams (NB 20.00hrs)

Stadio Pietrangeli (from 13.00hrs)
1. Groenefeld vs. Dechy
2. Bardina vs. Schnyder
3. Morigami vs. Santangelo
4. K.Bondarenko vs. Ivanovic

Campo 6 (from 13.00hrs)
1. Bammer vs. Dulko
2. Tu vs. Vinci
3. Hantuchova/Petrova vs. Peer/Safina
4. Medina Garrigues vs. Zheng

Campo 5 (from 13.00hrs)
1. Dominguez Lino vs. Kanepi
2. Srebotnik vs. Muller
3. Yan vs. Bremond
4. Muller/G.Navratilova vs. Daniilidou/Woehr

Campo 4 (NB 16.00hrs)
1. N.Li/Stewart vs. Castano/Dominguez Lino

As a barometer of her current form (or rather lack of it), the home side's best hope Schiavone goes out in straights on her favourite surface to Stosur (hardly a force on clay) 6-3, 6-4. Santangelo makes amends for her countrywoman by rolling to a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Prague titlist Morigami and seems to be making her bid for No 1 Italian. I think Mauresmo will be glad for the reprieve, as she has been something of a nemesis for Stosur on the Australian's own admission in the past.

Schnyder dismisses Bardina in 1 and 2. Her Berlin revival appears to have been no fluke and she seems to have gone from unpredictable floater to a probable threat for the still vulnerable Mauresmo and perhaps even her quarter (!) if Serena struggles to adapt to the surface and match play in general (or aggravates her injury).

Li Na has withdrawn from rome :( was replaced by Yuliana Feda!

its a shame, as she had no ranking points to defend, and if she did well would of put her back well into the top 20. :(

Yeah both her and Ivanovic had to withdraw, shame :(

Vaidisova now out too :o

The bottom half is now ridiculously weak, it's basically a walkover to the final for Sveta.

Meanwhile in the top half we have Serena, Mauresmo, Schnyder and Peer all fighting it out in one quarter!

extremely weak bottom half of the draw... especially for a Tier I event and 2 weeks before roland garros

The top half looks like a tier one and the bottom half looks like a tier three that Kuznetsova has decided to enter :lol:

It does look promising for Kuznetsova--who however will pick up not much new points overall having reached the semis last year unless she can somehow win the whole thing--though I'm disappointed to see Ivanovic will be missing as the quarter would likely have been hers, especially with Vaidisova out. The Czech teen is a bit of a cypher at the moment, but as it stands it seems unlikely she'll come close to repeating anything near her SF finish at RG with virtually no match practice on clay (unless she still shows up to defend her Strasbourg title next week).

At any rate Serena has made a convincing return, seeing off Krajicek 6-4, 6-1 despite being down a break in the first set initially. It seems ominous for the rest of her quarter. B)

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Campo Centrale (from 13.00hrs)
1. Safina vs. Kanepi
2. Santangelo vs. Kuznetsova
3. Mauresmo vs. Stosur
4. Bondarenko vs. Garbin (NB 20.30hrs)
5. Brianti/Groenefeld vs. Sun/Yan

Stadio Pietrangeli (from 13.00hrs)
1. Dementieva vs. Castaño
2. Jankovic vs. Paszek
3. Bammer vs. Hantuchova
4. Shaughnessy vs. Petrova

Campo 6 (from 13.00hrs)
1. Tu vs. Schnyder
2. Peer vs. Sugiyama
3. Chakvetadze vs. Yan
4. Srebotnik vs. Medina Garrigues

Campo 5 (from 13.00hrs)
1. Fedak vs. Dechy
2. Voskoboeva vs. LUCKY LOSER
3. Camerin/Morigami vs. Errani/Gabba
4. Benesova/Voskoboeva vs. Müller/Navratilova

Campo 4 (from 14.00hrs)
1. Sprem vs. Bondarenko
2. Peschke/Stubbs vs. Castaño/Domínguez Lino
3. Krajicek/Tu vs. Dechy/Santangelo

Demenieva Schnyder through in straights.

Sveta and Jankovic both won their opening sets 63 (a bit of a rocky start for Jelena), and now Jankovic is up a break in the 2nd as Kuzzy has been broken 0-1 in the second.

Meanwhile, Peer has bagelled Sugi and is up 5-2 in set number two. Looks like a tough encounter with Serena is looming.

Peer wins 60 62

Jankovic wins 63 64 Svetlana wins 63 63

Both had minor closing out problems.

Momo/Stosur playing now. Mauresmo faces a break point early on serve, had adv then back to deuce.....

Mauresmo in trouble - lost the first set 7-5. On serve in the second.

Pretty bad for Amelie who normally destroys Stosur.

And Stosur beats Amelie for the first time :o

In a final set tie break no less! Pretty bad result from Amelie even though she is on a mini comeback right now.

I wouldn't put money on her to add to her 4r points from RG last year.

Pretty poor from Amelie, still I expect her to recover some kind of form at Wimbledon.

Agree, I'd be surprised if she wasn't in the quarters or semis there :ok:

Mauresmo was up 4-1 0-40 on the stosur serve in that final set :doh: :yikes:

Mauresmo gets so tentative under pressure, starts producing those tame slice forehand returns and lacks all confidence on serve. To be fair, Stosur played some brilliant angles on the forehand to start moving Mauresmo around. She was very audacious on the matchpoint against her as well, just hitting superb length.

Mauresmo is looking so ropey atm, just isnt producing the goods at all.

Shes terrified of facing Serena thats why

It might actually be good for her because the weight of expectations will be some what lifted by this run of bad form!

wow, mauresmo must loooove the lead up to RG...ouch. why hasn't that girl learned how to deal??

Not sure what the problem is but Petrova has retired in the first set against Dementieva who therefore goes through to the QF's.

Bad luck for Nadia who also got injured this time last year.

Daniela is 6-2, 5-1 up against Anna C. Go Danii..

Hantuchova playing very well this tournament - leading Chakvetadze 6-2, 5-1 at the moment. Her QF opponent likely to be Medina Garrigues which is a very winnable match for her.

If she makes it through to the semis it will bring her very close to the top 10.

Anna put up a bit of a fight at the end but Hantuchova wins 6-2, 6-3.

Jankovic leads Bondarenko 3-2 with a break.

Hantuchova seems to have experienced a Schnyder-like revival in Rome, edging out a tight three-setter against the tricky Rezai and with the boost in confidence notching convincing wins over dangerous opponents Bammer and Chakvetadze. She looks good for the semis, and may even have an outside chance to prevail over a fatigued Kuznetsova--still remains to be seen however.

Disappointing about Mauresmo, but I'm glad it was Stosur who got the win as she'd experienced several drubbings at the hands of the Frenchwoman (including a double bagel). The Australian seems to be doing well for herself on the clay of late.

As for Petrova, she seems to retire on a regular basis but I hope this isn't an injury she'll take into RG all over again. She has a vast opportunity to pick up points and get back into the Top 10 through virtually the entire summer and the three remaining Slams.

Schnyder defeated Stosur 6-4, 6-4

Patty's purple patch of form continues :ok:

Stosur did well to play the Swiss veteran close after her newfound hobby of dishing up bagels lately. :P

Kuznetsova nearly let slip the first set against the unheralded Fedak, from serving for it twice to 1-4 in the tiebreaker, but reasserted herself in the second 6-1. I wonder if last year's finalist Safina will be able to repeat her upset of last year, although now that they are both in the Top 10 this time round it would be less of one.

Jankovic leading Dementieva 5-2. Elena serving to stay in the set

Jankovic takes the first set 6-2, Dementieva has only held serve once :rolleyes:

Quite a fight going on in the 6th game of the second set.

Jankovic trying to make it 5-1, Dementieva trying to hold serve for 4-2.

There have been so many deuces I've lost count :yikes:

Elena's on 6 doubles so far.....

And Jelena got that break and served it out to love.

She wins 62 61, shame for Elena really as she didn't deserve to be beaten like that. :( Identical scoreline to their US Open match. Hope she does well in Istanbul :ok:

So Jelena's in the semis and will face either Serena or Schnyder!

The Jankovic win not much of a surprise, given as you say the way their last match went. Dementieva still needs matches under her belt I think but her current ranking seems about right.

Meanwhile sudden world-beater Schnyder is up 4-1 against Serena. No break chances for the American yet, either.

Serena chooses a timely moment for her first break of the Schnyder serve, in danger of dropping the first set 1-6. Will it be enough? She's still down 2-5.

patty has the early momentum, but can she hold it??

At least Schnyder had to serve it out, and she does for 6-3. We'll see how Serena responds.

Schnyder breaks to 15 and holds for same to go up 2-0 in the second. It's looking worrisome for Serena.

Two straight games in a row for Serena :phew:

Hold here! Destroy her! :angry: :moody:

Patty's got me all worked up :blush:

patty is starting to wilt...