She has beaten Clijsters for the first time 7-5 7-5 and ended Kim's hardcourt streak. Well done Maria!!!

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Does Kim's loss to Craybas at Miami not count in her streak because although it wasn't during the US hardcourt season, it was on a hardcourt and in the US???/


Well Done Maria, 2nd title of the year :D :D

Commiserations Kim :( :(

Shame. Kim was playing really well and wasn't hitting too many unforced errors. Haing seen the match, I really thought Kim was going to win but never mind.

Well done Sharapova but lets not hope you do well in any tournament with the big 3 in! :D

Hmmmmm...............probably not the result people were expecting at all. I myself thought Clijsters would out-duel Sharapova in the long baseline exchanges, but the majority were being won by sharapova. Kim's level of play wasnt consistently high throughout the match, her concentration never seemed totally there. She threw in some great games, and quite frankly some awful ones.

Her serve wasnt firing really at all was Kim's. I've never been a fan of the technique, as she generally has poor weight transfereance through the shot, and it was not deep enough to trouble sharapova. There was such a contrast in serves yesterday, and Sharapova's was undoubtedly the stronger.

I thought sharapova was controlling play well though. Her backhand in particular looked super, especially when she steps in the court and looks to take it on. Kim however, had another 'forehand-woe ' day, where the forehand just let her down at crucial times. I belive she hit about 2 forehand returns in the net to give Sharapova her 6-5 lead in the second, and her forehand went about 6ft long on matchpoint.

Still well done maria, and has ended Kim's US Open series dominance....

I agree with you dl04, except I did expect Sharapova to win for about the same reasons. If it came to simply playing from the baseline, sharapova has been the sharper of the two. After Pierce's match, I was thinking the only way KIM wouldn't be frustrated is if she drew Maria into the court more often and really varied her play.( You've got to make Maria think a little bit more when she seems to be gaining the upper hand)

Still not a terribly bad result for KIM, the scoreline was that tight, though she threw away points...she has already been through one tournament earlier. Fatigue, sometimes doesn't help with error counts when it comes to the crunch time.

Certainly a confidence Booster for MARIA, she likes to present her best face for the american crowds. We'll see how it goes in L.A, but I am waiting for Montreal.

Not much to add dl - great summary as always :)

Maria was consistently hammering Kim's second serve, putting more pressure on her and perhaps contributing to Kim's serving woes. She did say that it has troubled her in the past fortnight, and that was quite clear to see yesterday. Kim did move very well, but her suspect forehand again failed her at the key moments; she made two horrible errors to give Maria the first set and the match.

Still, credit to Maria - after a sluggish start (from both players) she played pretty well, though of course there's room for improvement. Her backhand was excellent, and as you say dl, the difference in serves was easy to see.

By the way, that 30+ stroke rally on Maria's first set point was amazing!

I think its a pretty scary scenario for Kim, serving-wise going into the Open. The fact that players like Sharapova are eating up her serve, doesnt bode well against players like Venus, Henin-Hardenne, Davenport, Serena etc..........

Somehow until Clijsters undoes the errors and starts serving with a more consistent rythm, she probably wont defend.

:2quiet:

I know, that serve has to improve. She also needs to maintain her concentration throughout the whole match; it seemed to drift at some points against Maria.

I too don't think she'll defend, but I wouldn't want to jinx anyone with a prediction :lol:

Me neither, i had my fair share of jinxed players at Wimbledon :lol:

Hmm, I wonder who? roflmao

Maria does look a good bet for the US Open at the moment, but I feel the key tournament for her will be Montreal, where practically every top player will be.

yeah, pretty obvious huh? roflmao

Yeah sharapova has to be seen as a more serious contender than last year, but the thing is her game hasnt changed that much. Its still the same one-paced game that players like Henin-hardenne and mauresmo mop up. She got away with against clijsters, but i wonder. Still much better form than at Wimbledon which must be good news for the Russian.

Exactly - she's still vulnerable at the net and when she's stretched (though her movement has been great this week). If she can grab a win over either Amelie or Justine it'll be a huge confident boost and help her mentally should they meet in the latter stages of the Open.

Yeah you're right, she's overcome Kim, so she must think she'll have a chance against Mauresmo and Justine, particular the latter who's never at her best on US hardcourts with the slightly higher bounce. I mean these players trouble her the most because of their artistrty as they are only a few who can beat Sharapova for pace, probably Venus and Serena.

Pretty much agree with everything you're saying here guys though isn't Dubai played on the same surface as the US Open? I remeber something being said about that when Nadal beat Federer there? Suggest Henin could handle Sharapova at the US Open in that case.

BTW hadn't noticed this before but Vaidisova is now top 10!

1 MAURESMO, AMELIE 3692 19
2 CLIJSTERS, KIM 3512 18
3 HENIN-HARDENNE, JUSTINE 3093 13
4 SHARAPOVA, MARIA 2700 14
5 PETROVA, NADIA 2134 24
6 DEMENTIEVA, ELENA 2060 22
7 KUZNETSOVA, SVETLANA 1954 18
8 SCHNYDER, PATTY 1793 26
9 VAIDISOVA, NICOLE 1656 19
10 DAVENPORT, LINDSAY 1587 12
11 MYSKINA, ANASTASIA 1575 20
12 HINGIS, MARTINA 1471 14
13 PIERCE, MARY 1411 9
14 SCHIAVONE, FRANCESCA 1336 22
15 SAFINA, DINARA 1286 22
16 GROENEFELD, ANNA-LENA 1252 26

You're absolutely right GS - both tournaments are played on DecoTurf :ok:

And nice to see Lindsay hanging on in the top 10 :lol:

Interesting dl. I never read anyhting about Kim's perfromance and I coudl nto help but think she must have been a bit off.

She just didnt keep the ball deep enough SB, the key in my mind to beating maria is constant depth, which normally Kim employs against Sharapova, hece the overwhelming h2h. However in this match she stayed so far back and allowed Sharapova to create and dictate the pace, which was very un-kim-like, more of a Mauresmo strategy. Some would argue maria's power-hitting forced Kim back and they may be right, but Kim's defensive strategy was her downfall yesterday.

That's right - I think Jo Durie summed it up perfectly when she said 'Kim can't just run around all day and expect to wear Sharapova down'.

Yeah because even though Kim makes you play one more ball, her defensive balls land in the hitting zone of most players. Its not like she can hit a forehand winner on the run from 6ft back, and it showed yesterday. It just gave Sharapova too much of a chance to hit winners, which you cant give her, especially on a hardcourt.

Thanks for that, your analyses are brilliant dl! :bow: I take it you gets to see these matches as you have more channels than me. I'm not allowed to have SKy, I cost enough to keep as it is apparently :D

A fine analysis, dl! :ok:

It was a little surprising to hear this, as kim's style is usually so attacking and is invariably the one pinning the opponent to the basline with her heavy groundstrokes. And depth with shots will of course stretch an opponent more, force them to move more, and movement isn't Maria's strong point.

It was strange to hear that Kim had been so defensive. It did remind me of the semi between Sharapova and Mauresmo, but Amelie's defence was fantastic in that match, and kept taking the pace of the ball, lots of slices, making Maria force the pace, and draw out the UF's.. I couldn't imagine Kim doing this..

The surprising thing about Kim, is that she seems to be relatively articulate and thoughtful off court.. and yet on court, sometimes I don't think that she has the best tennis brain. This seems most apparent when she plays a wily opponent such as JHH..

Fair play and well done to Maria though. I know what you mean about her attacking shots, taking the ball early.. It was the sort of play that really catapulted her to winning her SW19 title.

And also fair to say that Maria has had a good year on the hardcourts. and so seems to be continuing that form from earlier in the year :)