Anyone watching Sharapova v Kudryavtseva? Not a good match but interesting to see this new girl who despite losing the first set 6-1 was 3-0 up in the second, seems to have made a lot of mistakes due to the pressure of the situation, but is hardly threatened by Shara's power - seems able to match it.

Well that's Maria through, 6-1 6-4 very messy though and let off my the inexperienced 19 yr old qualifier to a fair extent. 5 Df, 26 UE to just 9 winners. I can't see her going much further with play like this, seems to be struggling and looks vulnerable prey for more experinced opponents.

Ana wins 6-2, 6-0 :clap: :wub:

Kuzzzzzznetsova about to go through in straights against Cibulkova.

Schynder making a meal out of her match with Knapp... dished out a breadstick in the first set but is struggling to stay in the second. 4-5 down, deuce on her own serve.

I saw the match too.. it was ugly tennis, for the most part.

Agreed, any player that is half-decent on clay will beat Maria. It's safe to say that clay isn't her surface! ;)

I can't forgive Ana for knocking out Mirza :wub:

Well I could if she offered some favours.... :o

One pretty girl who gives the ball an ugly belt beats another pretty girl who gives the ball an ugly belt..? :shrug:

When either Ivanavic or Mirza is vaguely off-key then their game is pretty dreadful. And even when on song it's just power hitting, knocking the other player off the court.

Unless you fancy them rotten then they have a "good game", of course.. :coffee:

Yeah, neither of them are contenders for much that's for sure. Ivanovic has some potential though. Mirza used to have potential a few years back but never did anything.... Pretty lass tho and was only really teasing ;)

Was teasing just a little too :)

Ana and Sania have quite similar games.. Ivanovic is a better player it seems..

Sania was quite badly injured, hence the reason for her disappearing off the scene this year, at least..

Here's an interesting article about her:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtm...01/stphil01.xml

Nice to see Amelie being mentally strong as usual, she had a couple of points for a 3-0 lead in the first set and instead she loses the first set 6-3 :doh:

She went off court for a medical timeout towards the end of the first set, I think, so perhaps not firing on all cylinders?

Oh dear, did she? Oh well she is still recovering from that op I suppose....

This may be looking ahead, but I can see the women's final being a one-sided affair.

Also, the fact that Serena, Justine and Jelena are drawn relatively close to each other (esp JHH and SW) is a shame..

A JHH/ Serena v JJ semi would have been a better final.. shame one of them wasn't in the bottom half of the draw..

Exactly my thoughts! The first thing I thought when I saw that draw was "oh crap Serena's got Justine in the quarters" and second thing was "another boring final" :rolleyes:

Saying that, if Jankovic made it through against say Ivanovic, I think that could be a very interesting final :)

And who knows it's still possible we could have a Serena Patty rematch roflmao

Yip.. the WTA fans on CC would love it if Patty were to make the final!! :lol:

She's playing Sharpie in the next round, and if her match today is anything to go by then Patty must fancy her chances.. :rolleyes:

Peer as a possible outside bet for the final??

The quarters in the top half would be Serena v JHH.. and JJ v Vaidisova.. quite a contrast.!

I really don't know :lol:

I tipped Patty to beat Sharpie before the tournament (on the presumption she wasn't still injured), and I picked Ivanovic to make the final, so Im still hoping those two things will happen :D

the bottom half of the draw is there for the taking for any of the top 16 players in that part if they show some decent form..

I'd say that your predictions look pretty promising, although I'd be more surprised if the Ivanovic one happened..

But given the relative cakewalk of the lower half of the draw, then who knows? :shrug: :lol:

She actually did go 3-0 up in the first, then lost 6 in a row! Looks like the same thing might happen in the second too... 3-0 up with a double-break, but it's 3-3 now. A l'année prochaine Amelie :wave:

Chakvetadze serving for the match against Sugiyama at 6-4, 5-3. But she gets broken... this girl has a bit of a problem with finishing matches off it seems, she barely crawled over the line in her last match.

Peer demolished Srebotnik in the first set but is a break down in the second.

Garrigues and Hantuchova on serve in the first.

Sarafova looks useful, decent groundstrokes, good mobilitiy, but Amelie really ought to beat her.. :shrug:

But Amelie is indeed showing some capacity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory..

Dani wins the first set agasint Medina Garrigues 6-4 :)

Srebotnik now 5-0 up against Peer in the second set.. :o

Sharapova seems to still have a problem with her shoulder; her serve has really made her struggle in her matches here. I guess she's said as much in interviews.

Mauresmo is also having big trouble, due to an injury, it seems. She's now in big trouble staying in the match.

The forehand is a good barometer of any player's form, it seems.

The erratic forehands of the likes of Venus, Maria and Amelie speak volumes..

Looks like Amelie does have a real battle on her hands to stay in this match. :(

Safarova a game away, leads 6-3 5-4*

Peer fighting back...

Tie break for Amelie...hope she stays in the match

Peer does well to pull back from 5-0 to 5-4, but Srebotnik takes the second set 6-4 to force a decider.

Amelie holds serve well to force a tie break.. but double faults in that.. 2-0 to Sarafova..

And Sarafova returns the favour.. good grief!

2-2

GSM Sarafova 6-3, 7-6 :(

Amelie :(

Well played Lucie.. deserved winner..

Amelie :angry:

Peer in real trouble against Srebotnik, a break down in the third :blink: I thought Srebotnik was one of those nothing seeds, so this is a bit of a shock. Although she's just broken back, so maybe not.

Garrigues serving for the second set against Hantuchova... vamos Anabel.

Chakvetadze went through 6-4, 6-4 against Sugiyama.

The Peer Srebotnik match looks a good one.. Katarina had broken in the third set, was up 2-0, and Shahah has now broken back and it's back on serve at 3-2 :)

Medina Gerrigues is 5-4 up against Hantuchova in the second set. M-G was 5-1 up I think and now it's 5-4.. good fighting from Dani, even if it does go to a final set.. :ok:

Srebotnik had a great season last year, often reaching the finals of admittedly lower-tiered tournaments. Quite a dangerous opponent.

And Dani breaks back against A M-G after a monumental 10th game..

Vamos Dani!! :P

And Peer staves off umpteen break points on her serve to level the final set against Katarina.. 3-3..

And A M-G promptly breaks Dani again to go 6-5 up..

Bit of a see-saw set this, considering A M-G was 5-1 up..

Peer breaks Srebotnik to go 4-3 up..

both of the women's matches seem to be real tussles at the moment. Makes a nice change from the usual steamrollering/ players just not performing.

Dani breaks back to force a tie break..

'le jeu decisiv' sounds more dramatic :)

GSM Peer 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, after being 0-2 down in the final set.. good fight tback, esp a monumental hold of serve when 2-3 down..

A M-G is storming the tie break to force a third set against Hanutchova..

Hantuchova pulled it all the way back to a tie-break only to lose, which seems a bit of a waste :lol: Still, I predicted a 3 set victory for Garrigues so no complaints there.

Peer clawed back to win the final set against Srebotnik quite comfortably in the end. Her match against Kuzzzznetsova could be interesting, she's had the recent upper hand over the Russian.

The second set of AMG v DH lasted for 75 minutes!

That's longer than most women's matches! :lol:

82 points apiece, 1-1 in final set after 2 long service games..

GSM A M-G 4-6, 7-6, 7-6

Dani :(

Bravo A M-G!

Epic match though..

Duration 3 hours and 4 minutes! :o

Break point conversion:

A M-G 4 of 17
DH 4 of 14


Points Won:

A M-G 120
DH 115


Good contest..! :ok:

oh dani :( :( :(