And Venus wins her opener 61 62 nice display from Venus, a few glitches serving it out at 40-15, went to deuce but she took it on her third match point :D

Patty wins 61 61, and she continues her great clay form! (bar one match :rolleyes: )

Go Venus! :D :yahoo:

Didnt even offer a breakpoint B)

BTW loving Serena's volley technique in that pic SW19 :D

I know I think it's a great one, she slides right upto the ball and get's it right in the sweet spot,and I love how Serena always splays out her hand for perfect balance and poise :D

Sharapova's match is underway.

Plus a doubles match I hadn't noticed in the draw - the Radwanska's versus the Bondarenko's!

Maria's only in her second game serving and she's already thrown in 3 DF's!!!

Guess the serving problems are still there!

Actually make that 4 as she DF's on break point!

Pironkova leading 3-1

Her backhand volley is so BJK-esque :D

Great win for Vee :D

Sharpie up 6-4 3-1*

Sharapova has lost her second set break and is now 4-5 down serving to stay in the second set!

7 DF's now!

Sharpie breezes through the tie-break to win 6-4 7-6(1), very unconvincing though...

Well done Maria :clap:

9 DFs though :wacko: That's not much better than during her Miami match with Venus, which was was 3 sets, although to be fair this was a long match at 2 1/4 hours.

Im confused, has Dementieva played yet? She's not down to play today.......

I've finally realise now! Elena has a first round bye because she's the second seed so doesn't have to play until tomorrow. :doh:

Heh, that's a clever match-up. I see the Radwanskas won it handily 4 and 1, however. Perhaps in future as they continue improving we'll have all-sister finals at the odd tourney again. B)

9 DFs for Sharapova in two sets not so encouraging. Assuming her shoulder injury has healed for the most part, allowing for her return to the tour, there must be other issues underlying her sudden troubled serve which don't bode well for her upcoming results. Still it was her first match back in a while and perhaps it's something she can only resolve with more matches under her belt. Might still be some tenderness there as well.

I guess the Pironkova v Venus rematch everyone has been waiting for just wasn't meant to be. :P

Sharapova on clay- blah :rolleyes: roflmao

She is going to get exposed by quality clay-court players on this surface..........

Put it this way, if Venus doesn't beat her here, Im going to kill myself :rolleyes: :lmaao:

exactly :rolleyes:

Why cant Venus be emphatic like serena roflmao

We still have that 2005 semi ;)

If Venus can beat Maria here, and then gets her again at Wimbledon the head to head will be even :D

I know, revenge!!! :D :victoryboy:

Im hoping Serena will double bagel Patty in Wimbledon for her revenge :D

Knowing Patty at Wimbledon though, she won't get that far roflmao

Patty at Wimbledon, its like getting milk from a toaster roflmao

She barely got past Antonella ' clear the room i can serve at 50mph ;) ' Serra zanetti last year, so dont hold your breath Serena roflmao

I know roflmao

Still as long as she puts the beat down on her at some point this year I don't mind :devil:

yeah, i love to see that look of sheer terror on Patty's face when she plays the William sisters :D roflmao

Serena's let the side down twice now :rolleyes:

Patty won't want to face Serena now as she knows she'll be pissed off :lol: A bit like Amelie in 2003, she beat Serena in Rome and that really put Serena on the war path as she thrashed her 62 61 at RG, :bow: Amelie couldn't even look her in the face :yikes:

It was even more emphatic SW19- 6-1 6-2 :bow: :bow:

That's the same...except with the sets the other way round :lol:

All these easy sets I can't remember what order they came in roflmao

Well moving on from Williamses worshipping here ( :rolleyes: ), this tournament is pretty darn good for a Tier III.
Maria, Venus, Patty and Elena, will be interesting to see if they make their semi final seedings and get to the final four.
I am hoping Elena can win but can't see it! :(

Im hoping for a Venus Elena final :D

Venus loses 6-4, 6-4 to Rezai!

Looks like her second serve may have been off - she only won 20% of points on it.

All in all Rezai had 15 bp's converting 6 of them.

WTF?!?? :wacko: :wacko: :yikes: Venus! :rolleyes:

What is she playing at? :doh: She is beginning to make Virginia Wade look consistent! :blink:

I dont know whether to :( or roflmao , but mostly i'm gutted :( :(

She dealt with her so easily in amelia island too :rolleyes:

Ah well, at least she has time to prepare moere extensively for RG now, but still Venus! :doh:

This cannot happen again :lol:

Venus will shape up when the grass comes along I am sure.

But whether she will be strong enough to win is another thing entirely. She isn't the player she was.

2 and 1, I just don't get it :shrug:

I've heard that pre- Wimbledon before roflmao

I have confidence in her ability :D

Fair enough. I would certainly like to see her face her sister on the grass at SW19. I think that would certainly tell us if she has any of her old self in her.

indeed :D

she's still got the goods, but she just needs to provide it.....

I would like her to face Justine more, on any surface, just to see the score....would be interesting.

It's not Venus abilties that worry me, and she can click into gear amazingly during any tournament, even the French. It's for example how easily she can click out of gear that worries me these days :wacko: a la: today!!!

Still it's only one match, and Im naturally optimistic, so bring on the French :D

so both sisters have obscure losses on the red clay this year :wacko:

Serena less so, but it was Patty roflmao

In retrospect I quite enjoyed that match (with Patty), Serena was moving quite well, getting to a lot of balls. Problem was too many errors, and not enough first serves.

So you guys must be the biggest supporters of Venus and Serena on here.....

How do you two rate their chances against Justine on clay?

You think Gav roflmao

Re your question, I think Serena stands a decent shot if she's playing well.

Justine may lead their clay head to head 3-1, but I think it's important to remember that two of those losses were very close, and that they've both beaten each other in straight sets on clay as well.

The key for Serena is her movement, if she can get enough balls back, then I think she's in with a chance. She can definitely duel with Justine from the baseline. And if she's hitting enough first serves in, she's not easy to break even on clay.

Re: Venus well you never know with this girl do you? :rolleyes: Justine doesn't like Venus' game though. Venus can move nearly as well as Justine on clay and she has an agressive game where she can charge forward and push Justine back out of her comfort zone.

That said, if she plays like she did today, she is going to get her ass whooped. I don't think she can beat Justine on clay at the moment though. Against anyone else....if she's playing half decent you've got to give her a shot though.....