with newly wed and newly preggers kim clijsters taking a pass on tennis now, this title is up for grabs. not an outstanding lineup for a II with 5 of the top 20 and only one top tenner, cincy winner chakvetadze. bartoli, hantuchova and schnyder round out the top 4 seeds.

now if dani wanted to show that she could do well on a different hard court, this would be the time :clap:

(1) Anna Chakvetadze (RUS) V BYE
Amber Liu (USA) V Eleni Daniilidou (GRE)
Victoria Azarenka (BLR) V Maria Kirilenko (RUS)
Olga Poutchkova (RUS) V (7) Katarina Srebotnik (SLO)

(3) Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) V BYE
Shuai Peng (CHN) V Elena Bovina (RUS)
QUALIFIER V (WC) Catalina Castano (COL)
QUALIFIER V (3) Shahar Peer (ISR)

(6) Tatiana Golovin (FRA) V QUALIFIER
Akiko Morigami (JAP) V Sania Mirza (IND)
Julia Vakulenko (UKR) V QUALIFIER
BYE V (4) Patty Schnyder (SUI)

(8) Sybille Bammer (AUT) V Ai Sugiyama (JAP)
Meilen Tu (USA) V Meghann Shaughnessy (USA)
Lilia Osterloh (USA) V Jill Craybas (USA)
BYE V (2) Marion Bartoli (FRA)

This draw is a real example of how tournaments can be affected by the preferences of the top players.

In the past Clijsters, Davenport, Serena (& Venus) have all played here and are big fans of the tournament. It's never attracted people like Henin, Mauresmo or the top Russians though so with Kim and the others all not here for one reason or another it's going to struggle to attract a strong field.

That said it's packed with the second tier players. Chakvetadze has a nice draw which she'll probably need as she has played quite a few matches in the last few weeks and should make the semis at least.
Hantuchova has done well here in the past and a QF with Peer could be interesting. Both of them will be looking to restart seasons that started well but have fizzled out recently.

Golovin will be looking to get back on track after her injury problems but has a tricky 2nd round draw with Morigami & Mirza just having very good weeks.

A Schnyder/Golovin QF would be nice as their matches have tended to be very good in the past. Schnyder mmay struggle against Vakulenko though.

Bammer is another one who needs to get things going again but Sugiyama is a horrible draw.

Then of course Bartoli and it will be very interesting to see how she reacts to her Wimbledon run. If she plays like she did there she should make the final but consistency has never been her strong point. She'll have to play against the home crowd as well since 4 of the 5 Americans in the draw are in her section! A good run here and she'll make her top 10 debut - interestingly she lost to Bammer in the first round here last year in a tight match so a QF between them here could be good.

It's not the best line up but looking at the draw, all top 8 seeds are ranked in the top 25.
Would love to see Dani :wub: win this one! :pray:

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Stadium (from 11.00hrs)
1. Azarenka vs. Kirilenko
2. Bammer vs. Sugiyama
3. Golovin vs. Kutuzova
4. Daniilidou/Kirilenko vs. Azarenka/Chakvetadze
5. Golovin/Peng vs. Kops-Jones/Osterloh
6. Morigami vs. Mirza (NB 19.00hrs)
7. Pin vs. Peer

Court 11 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Govortsova vs. Castaño
2. Vakulenko vs. Shvedova
3. Amanmuradova/Bachmann vs. Castaño/Craybas (NB 15.00hrs)


A pretty decent day of play here really considering the overall weakness of the tournament.

Azarenka is a tough draw for Kirilenko - it would be nice to see Maria winning the occasional match again but there's a good chance it won't come here.

Golovin also has a difficult youngster in Kutuzova who came through qualifying - Tati should win this though.

With youngsters all around them Bammer v Sugiyama is the veteran highlight of the day. This could easily go either way.

Morigami and Mirza are both in good form and climbing the rankings - this should be another tight match. I think Morigami could have the edge as long as she is not too tired.

Peer should have the easier route to the next round though Pin can be tricky sometimes and should be a little more match sharp having come through qualifying.

Main Singles Draw
Official Website

today's quarters...

1. Bammer vs. Osterloh
2. Hantuchova vs. Govortsova
3. Chakvetadze vs. Srebotnik
4. Mirza vs. Schnyder

bartoli, peer, and golovin disappoint.

the first three should be routine for bammer, dani, and anna. but could mirza be up to pulling off the upset?? we'll see...

Why is this tournament so weak this year? I'm sure I remember this being a pretty star packed tournament back in the day.
Didn't Graf etc used to play (going back some I know)
Has it been downgraded?

The problem with this tournament is that most of the stars it has attracted in the past aren't here for various reasons.

Clijsters & Davenport are both retired.

Serena is injured and had to pull out & Venus hasn't turned up (perhaps to avoid playing Serena when it looked like she would play)

Since most of the current top 10 (Henin, Sharapova, Mauresmo, Kuznetsova) seem to like starting the US hardcourt season late Stanford is going to struggle. Jankovic who might have played is having a well deserved break & Vaidisova is injured.

It's more about player preference than downgrading of the tournament.

(1) Anna Chakvetadze (RUS) d. (7) Katarina Srebotnik (SLO) 46 62 62
(3) Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) d. (Q) Olga Govortsova (BLR) 75 63
Sania Mirza (IND) d. (4) Patty Schnyder (SUI) 76(2) 61
(8) Sybille Bammer (AUT) d. (WC) Lilia Osterloh (USA) 62 61

mirza pulls off the upset!! well done.

today's semis

sania v. sybille
anna v. dani

c'mon dani :clap:

Sania can sometimes play a mean baseline game...but it is actually promising the speed at which she is shaking of her surgery and is back in the thick of things.
Personally I want to see more variety..just a shame Patty easily gets ticked off and lets games run away from her..she does have some skills..


But ,the nice one is Daniela, at least her game is a bit more varied, just her fragile mental psyche..but I know she loves to do well on the north american hard courts... :) good for her .!

well it's anna v. sania later today :rolleyes:

And its Anna who triumphs 6-3 6-2!

Indeed.. and it sounds like she was a worthy winner, by all accounts..

well done Anna C!! :clap:

Was a great run by Sania too.. no doubt a nation of a billion sufficiently distracted from their national team's dominance in the cricket against England to follow their star player on the women's circuit.. :)

Mind you, Sachin 'done' out of a centuy for the taking, and Sania losing 2 and 3.. well, was good to see Sachin post a good score and Sania reach a final :ok:

they both played well this week. what a pleasant coming out of sorts for chakvetadze. really dedicated and keen to perform well. i hope for good things in the future...