An excellent comeback by Medina Garrigues who take the first 7-5 after being 1-5 down to Dominguez Lino (not really sure who the latter is :unsure: )

Garrigues through in straight sets.

First 'shock' of the day is Schiavone going down in straight sets to Paszek - not much of a surprise in my book though. 6-3, 7-5 to the promising young Austrian.

Vakulenko, conqueror of Hantuchova, looks to be in control of the first set against Kostanic.

Isn't Dominues Lino the spanish number 2???

I don't know much about her but I know she's never won a title and that she's a 'claycourter'

Go Chakvetadze, you are heading straight for the quarters girl :clap:

I thought she was in trouble at a few points there though, Pratty put up a good fight!

Hingis has started well in her second round match winning the first set 6-2 against Parmentier, she is now serving at 0-1 in the 2nd

Azarenka has just broken Cibulkova for 3-2

Vakulenko is winning 6-2 5-1.

Schnyder serving for set 2 and the match against Bremond at 6-3 *5-0

Good win for the rising star Paszek over the in-form Schiavone, 6-3, 7-5

Makiri has taken the first set against Srebotnik, 6-4!

Will be a bit of a shock if she wins one. I don't know the stats, but I get the impression that her record against half-decent players is pretty poor..

YEah but only because last year she suddenly couldn't hit a winner to save her life....

I really hope she wins this one though.

:) otherwise Welshboy will be really dissappointed...

Yes, 'not being able to hit a winner to save your life' usually doesn't do one's cause much good in tennis, does it?

You are the master of understatement petalp! :D :lol:

You stole my Makiri quote SG :lol:

Consider it an homage..... :rolleyes:

Makiri wins 6-3 6-4 :ok:

I'll take that :lol:

That's a good win! :clap:

Anyone watching the Vaidisova match? :lmaao:

She's choked a few times already in this second set, and it ended up going to a tiebreak... she wasn't too happy and absolutely mangled her racket against her chair.

Forza Pennetta!

EDIT: Vaidisova takes the tiebreak without dropping a point and goes through 6-2, 7-6. Good fight from Pennetta though, who was looking particularly gorgeous. :wub:

She played well Flavia, such tremendous defense against the forehand barrage coming from the Czech. Ultimately by the end, too many holes had been punched into the Italian's game :( Still very impressive after her awful year so far, looks to be getting back into some kind of form.

Nicole, very assured again. Great serving under pressure :ok:

Agreed. Must have got the hang of that 'hitting winners' malarky after all..

That was the story for some time now, but the summer hardcourts have revived the Russian's game somewhat. She's strung several wins together (including a tight 7-5 in the third upset of an ailing Jankovic which seems to have given her confidence), reaching back-to-back quarterfinals in San Diego and LA. I'm not too surprised to see her reach the third round here as a consequence, especially against one of the least convincing seeds. The good news for Kirilenko is that she has a winnable next match against Vakulenko, who staged her own upset in the first round.

Some good third round match-ups are taking shape, Chakvetadze v Mirza being the standout in a rematch of the Stanford final, and Vaidisova v Peer being another (and tricky to call, with Vaidisova still only newly-returned and Peer struggling all summer). The Swiss veterans Hingis and Schnyder will have to be at the top of their game to fend off strong challenges from up-and-coming teens Azarenka and Paszek. Petrova will have her own youthful competition to worry about in either Szavay (coming off the New Haven final) or Krajicek (who reached the quarters at Wimbledon but hasn't done much on the hard courts yet). As I type that Szavay has just pulled out the first set tiebreaker 7-6(4) in what looks to be a tight contest.

This was probably the women's match of the day. (Mirza v Granville wasn't so bad either, surprisingly, and the Indian had her own difficulties closing it out.) So many twists and turns, and as dl says a nice clash between Pennetta's tough defence and Vaidisova's relentless offence. Good to see Vaidisova pull through - ideally I'd like to see her reach the fourth round to play Sharapova for the first time. For all the comparisons the Czech teen gets to the Russian (though less so now that she is more firmly established in her own right), it seems amiss that they haven't encountered each other yet.

Kuznetsova made a meal of her match, with a second set walkabout, but bounced back with a bagel to quash any doubts about her game. But Pin seems to always give the top players trouble for some reason.

delighted to see my Hingis win :wub: I'm just gutted I didn't get to watch it, as sky sports were showing the Murray match, and Eurosport Louis Armstrong court, and I don't have sky, so I couldn't use the red button, and it looked like a good game too :(
Oh well, at least she's through, and she'll gain more points :clap:

Pin just has amazing consistency. So lacking in power, depth and angle, but has so much margin for error can expose players who have a lack of margin for error. Pin is a really well conditioned tennis player too, and has great resilance in the face of the brutal hitting of her peers. She realy does frustrate people into error, so i'm not at all suprised Kuzy( who never really constructs points that well) struggled today.

Great win for makiri too :ok: Has had a lousy couple of years since her breakout 2004/05, but seems to be really on a upward tilt this summer. The problem with makiri is her lack of real weapons on the court, but at her best, she can manilpuate the angles well and has a really good net game, superb backhand volley technique. Hopefully she can go far here :D

I'm liking Martina's attitude right now Obliv. She's just so carefree and relaxed, but at the same time quietly motivated. It's good having that kind of Hingis back :D

She could go deep in the draw :ok:

yeah I really think she could be in the semis, because I think she'll beat Kuznetsova if they play, and then probably Petrova in the qtrs. I think whoever wins the likely Hingis-Kuznetsova 4th round will beat Petrova quite comfortably. Although I am quite worried with Hingis sometimes, and I thought she might lose today :lol:
And she will probably have a tough encounter with Azarenka, but I think she'll have too much for her, and win in straights :)

Yeah Azarenka wil be tough......... she hits the ball a ton :unsure:

Though i'm sure if Hingis is solid and moves the ball around the court well, she'll win :D

I duno about Kuznetsova, she could just turn it on like she did last year at zurich :shrug:

:clap: :clap: Aga wins against Razzanno 6-2 6-3


I think she's fnally losing the tag as being a former junior No.1 and getting to be recognised as a strong threat these days :ok:

Yep, no longer a junior now and a player to watch. She's already top 40 and going to go a lot higher. Top 20 at least :ok:

Sharapova breaks immediately *1-0 :clap:

I never knew Venus was 18-2 in night matches at the USO :clap:

Maria is 9-0 :clap:

I agree .... she has so much potential ... saw her play Justine at Eastbourne and it wasn't an easy match for Justine (mind you, it was Justines first match on grass) ... Aga's passing shots are just :yikes:

Hmm.. I see that Sharpie is busy pummelling her opponent. :coffee:

Looks like a 40-45 minute straight set demolition.

Business as usual then.


I can't believe how skewed the women's draw is once again, with 5 of the top 6 players (and I count both the Williams in this) all in the same half of the draw!! (A little late on this, I know.. :unsure: )

Winner ratio in the Sharapova match 21-2 :lol:

Ergo "Pummelling"

well done martina :)

TBH, venus has 10 years worth of night match experience :lol:

Maria got through i see. Wasnt going to struggle in this match, blindfolded playing with a severed left arm, Dellaqua is that kind of competition, ie- non existant..........

I think the winners ratio cleared that up :lol:

Makiri!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :yahoo:

you knew it was coming :P

she has a real chance to finally get to the 4ht round of GS

:pray: hopefully she'll beat Vakulenko just like at the AO

Maria recorded a 129mph second serve last night :lol:

























Unfortunately she thinks it was a mistake...

MAria played really well again last nigth 30 winners to just 2 from Dellacqua, admittedly not the hardest match but what I think is important is that Maria tries to serve & volley in these sort of matches and that can only be good for her game because if she keeps practicing her weaknesses in match situations she will ultimately be able to do it in tougher matches.

1st serve % a small worry but other than that :ok: