Kuznetsova def Radwanska 6/2 6/3

I just watched Venus Williams against a diminutive japanese player called Morigami and she is reminding me of some of the reasons why I do not like her as a tennis player.

Horrible screaming - and it is obviously tactical. She cranks it up ridiculously when the point is a big one, and draws it out so that it lasts for about a second and a half. She's almost still screaming when her opponent hits the ball. When the point is less pressurised she 'forgets' to do it. It's so obviously for effect. She then wins and does her little girly skip.

Ugh ugh ugh. What an unattractive, unsporting, and self-obsessed personality she shows on the tennis court (she may be lovely outside for all I know - I dislike what I see on the Court). I want somebody to knock her out soon - I really don't want to see her in the final.

I have to admit that she is a formidable player and a great competitor whose matches are rarely boring to watch, but she conducts herself on the Court with little or no grace at all.

Why was Venus' match not stopped when it started raining? They played almost the entire last game while it was raining and on a grass court that is dangerous.

I remember when Sharapova and Venus played last year the TV analysts all watched the match wearing ear plugs. :D

Also say what you want about Sharpie's grunt but Venus' is a hell of a lot worse, Maria's is loud and yes it can be annoying but it's quite a pure grunt and always reminds me of an owl, Venus' is incredibly gruff and crackly and is much harder to listen to......

But I agree with you barrystar, I found her incredibly annoying today....

The argument I often hear re. Venus' grunting is that it is due to the effort she is putting in. This is an invalid argument though, because Venus, on almost every point, tries to belt the cover off the ball, so why is the grunting only saved for the important points? Surely the grunting should be occuring all the time for that argument to stand?

:bow: :bow: :clap: :clap:

Glad I'm not the only one! ;)

Justine just scrapes by Schnyder 6-2 6-2 roflmao roflmao

:wub: :wub: :wub:

Love that woman

Sharapova fans saying Venus grunts are loud- that's a laugh. We;ve had the shrieking hysteria from that Russian for years. No players ever moan about venus grunting........

She won! :D :yahoo: :yahoo: Morigami is tough,really tough so Venus had to dig so deep. Her play is getting ready for the big matches now, she's getting ready to peform well. In the crunch moments, Venus was superb. Go Venus! :B&B:

Go Tamira as well! What a win :bow: 16 years old and will probably get a show-court oppurtunity now.

It's been a good day so far :D

Queen Justine - I enjoy watching your heroine's tennis, but for the sake of balance I would not say that I am magnetically drawn to her on-court persona either. I would say that she has lightened up a little bit, but she has some questionable antics in her past too.

That's the way with many winners - they don't temper that aspect of their characteristic that enables them to win. I entirely understand it, but I don't have to like it. In many ways, there is a case to be made that it is better than being entirely phoney (if that is what others are guilty of).

dl04 - I don't think you are pointing the finger at me, but I am not a sharapova fan. I don't like her grunting, but that is mainly because it is incessant (although I have noticed it changes in intensity - such as at the 2005 Wimbledon SF vs. Venus, what a screech fest that was!). What I did not like about Venus today was that she started wailing like a banshee at the business end of the match in an obvious attempt to intimidate.

Hi dl, nice to see you again :D

I was aiming it at SG, barrystar. I just think there are certain things you cant be hypocritical about, ie Sharapova fans thinking venus is the worst kind of gamesmanship ever :rolleyes:

Hi scolios, nice to see you again too :D I heard about your husband, i hope he's gettting back on the mend :hug:

I'm not saying that Sharapova doesn't use gamesmanship.....


I'm talking about grunting and in my opinion Venus' is a lot lot worse to listen to.....

Well ditto with Sharapova, as i think a lot of the tour would say.............

Well well well.... Elena goes from winning the first set on saturday with over 70% of first serves in and only one DF with me thinking that maybe she has finally found her feet on grass...only to come out today and lose tamely in the next two sets to Paszek. It makes me really hate the rain as if Elena had continued playing on saturday she could have probably won in two sets.... :angry: :rolleyes:

As for the Maria screech vs the Venus wail....well I personally find it hard to watch either play and personally would love to see them both fall before the QF stage.... both grunt out of effort like numerous players these days (my favourite Elena included) but these two (and a few other players too) raise the volume of their grunts during critical moments of the match to intimidate, irritate and distract the opponents which is think is unacceptable, but what can you do? All I hope is that some non-uber grunter pounds the sh*t out of both of these women even with their dubious 'grunts'.

Does she do it now Barrystar?

I note your words "in her past" :)

I'm sure you've done things in the past that you may not be proud of. Would you like people to judge you as you were then or as you are now?

Isn't that called "moving on"? :rolleyes: And Justine has moved on. What has she done recently then? Would you mind telling me because I haven't noticed anything :shrug: . Perhaps I've missed it. I'd really like to know. All I know is that Venus hasn't moved on, she is still doing it. So where is it that Justine is still doing it! I thought we were talking about NOW, not years gone by! Are we talking about now? :unsure:

dani's trying...up 4-2 in the 2nd.

serena is pain :( :(

Whats going on with Serena??
Is she playing stil?

the betting exchanges have just gone nuts.

dani went from 20 to 1 shot to nailed on favourite in 10 seconds.

she can't walk.

Don't let it put you off Dani, DON'T LET IT PUT YOU OFF PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


What's the betting Serena will win this match? :whistle:

dani just held for 6-5 and serena can barely walk.

serena's a 6 to 1 shot. her whole aim is to last until a rain delay or flop over the line.

Remember folks, this gal is an actress in Hollywood ;)

Ooh look, she's winning her game and Dani is put off :rolleyes:

How strange :angry:

surely she can't win this breaker?

dani had better not let her off...

Ooh look she's moving a little better :rolleyes: Who would have thought it? :rolleyes:

If it goes to 3 sets I'm sure she'll come out fighting and completely forget about it or if there's a rain delay even :whistle:

i admire her spirit but the girl can't move, she should forfeit.

oh you jammy cow, how lucky was that?

serena got her rain down 2-4 in the tiebreak.

way to go dani, you're done when the rain stops.

sorry i didn't mean any disrespect there, just a little annoyed but she has just had a huge slice of luck with that rain delay.

Exactly! :rolleyes: Bet she comes out later like nothing has happened. Don't you think if she was in THAT much pain she would have withdrawn? :whistle:

This happened in AO 2005 against Davenport. Something with her leg or arm and she ended up winning. :rolleyes:

I was just about to bring that up! It is strange how Serena is often injured when things aren't going well but as soon as her shots are on form again she's magically 'better' :angry: :rolleyes:

well id like to see you lot playing the 10th seed when you can hardly walk. If Dani loses this match its because she was far too weak mentally on Serenas serve at 6-5

Liam, do you HONESTLY believe there is something that wrong with Serena? You are far too gullible.

Unfortunately she forgot that she was injured once in that game and started to run roflmao

She'll definitely be up for an Oscar next year .... didn't you hear she's playing a part in a film about the great Althea Gibson ... I think she's playing Althea Gibson. :whistle:

it should be a set all with the rains, but dani let her hold serve like liam said :rolleyes:

How in the world were things 'not going well' for Serena? She'd just fought back from 2-5 down to draw even 5-all and looked for all the world to be able to pull it out in straights yet. Hardly the best time for her to kill her momentum voluntarily!

For all that, if it really is just severe cramping rather than a calf tear she probably was given more time than warranted to get back on her feet - that's lack of conditioning rather than a proper injury. At any rate even if she grinds out the tiebreaker to win when play resumes she'd be a sitting duck against Henin with her movement hampered, so I think I'd like to see Hantuchova pull it out now for the sake of a better QF.

Meanwhile Krajicek is in commanding position against Granville 6-3, 4-1, which is good to see since the anonymous American had already upset Bammer and Hingis and I was concerned she would take out another seed here. The Dutch teen looks set to make a breakthrough into the quarters of a Slam for the first time.

I apologise as maybe my comments about Serena were a little unjustified, I'm just p*ssed off about the Dementieva-Paszek match...ok so in this instance the Diva was in the perfect position so maybe her injury was at least genuine and maybe she was just playing through the pain, but Australian Open 2005? I really don't think she was injured, so I guess I was a little quick to condemn 'Rena.

anyone watching the match knows serena had a cramp. it was ugly. lucky for her it rained.

couple of things to say here:

1) serena wasn't faking or milking it. she was in agony and very brave to continue

2) she'll be grand, not because she's playing possum tactically, but because her condition is temporary cramp not injury.

a drink and a rub down and she may well win this tiebreak. that's no bad reflection on her this time.