The action today includes:

Central court

Not before 13:00
1 Davydenko Nikolay (RUS)
Vanek Jiri (CZE)


Not before 15:00
7 Safina Dinara (RUS)
Chakvetadze Anna (RUS)


Not before 16:30
Schiavone Francesca (ITA)
Kirilenko Maria (RUS)


Not before 18:00
Safin Marat (RUS)
Mahut Nicolas (FRA)


followed by
3 Youzhny Mikhail (RUS)
Kohlschreiber Philipp (GER)

Davydenko has just double bagelled Vanek!!!! :o

Davai Nikolay! :bow:

Everyone makes fun of Nikolay but his is an amazing playing with brilliant ground strokes and really deserves some credit for how hard he works....He is like a male Nadia Petrova, it will just take time for people to warm to him. Whats not to love with his premature balding and pulled up socks. He's geek chic. :bow:

Yeah. I'm not sure why Davydenko seems to get so little respect at times.

Safin is playing now, btw. He leads Mahut 6-3 2-3 (on serve)

Come on Marat!!! :wub:

Marat won 6-3, 6-4 :)

It amuses me how it's always such a relief when marat gets thru any match - no matter what round it's in!!!!

roflmao

"The Geek shall inherit the earth" :D

I know the feeling....but not for marat as amazing as he is (he waved at me last year at the Kremlin cup when he was injured and not playing)....every time Elena steps out on court I get so tense....

Come on you have to admit that Nikolay's slightly loserish nature is kind of endearing :D

Fantastic - i'll take it now if you don't mind!! (says Little Miss Geek!!!)

Youzhny isn't doing so well against Kohlschhreiber - he's already a set down :(

And may it be yours for the taking!! (this being from a fellow geek! :ok: )

He hasn't done much since reaching the USO semis

Ooh, I think that he gets terribly short shrift, and have stuck up for him on several occasions.. again, like Nadia Petrova, he could probably walk into a hotel lobby without anyone knowing who he was.. good, solid pro, and merits respect :)

yes.. watching Marat is never an entirely comfortable experience, is it... I'm thinking of the 'Good Goran, bad Goran' analogy that Ivanisavic used to apply to himself..

And I like Elena too.. well, what can you say, her game can remind me of the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead (when she was good, she was very good, etc etc..)

I particularly like Elena as a person though.. I loved her quotes about oncourt training, when she went against it, saying that her time on court was her the only time that she gets away from her mum, and why encourage her to get even more involved? (or words to that effect!).. :D

:o Petalp!

Sticking up for Nikolay

Valuing Nadia and Vera

Liking Elena

I think I have a rival to the Russiafan name :unsure:

Hmm.. well, I like Myskina (such a DIVA!), and have a lot of time for Kuzzy too...

Maybe you're right! :lol:

But having never been to the Kremlin cup, nor have Marat wave to me, I feel that the Russiafan mantle sits pretty well where it is right now :)

Mind you, if I do ever get to the Kremlin cup, then I will let you know..! ;)

Oh.. glad to see that Vera Z won the battle of the Veras yesterday btw!!

:phew:

I'll keep the crown for now then.

The battle of the Vera's was tough for me because I have a soft spot for Vera D since she won Junior Wimbledon (beating a certain Shazza in the final) 2002 and feel apart from the Eastbourne final and 4th round of Australian Open she has really under-performed since joining the seniors.

I loved Myskina's comments about Jankovic at Wimbledon - she made it clear that Jelena spent more time flicking her hair then concentrating on the match roflmao

Move over Martina there's a new bitch in town :bow:

Yes.. I read those comments about JJ! Ooh, catty!! roflmao

Thing is, I think that JJ is probably just a normal(ish) 21 year-old, and she is certainly one of the more cheerful players on the tour..

But certainly Anastasia wasn't backwards in coming forward about her, was she..

Yes, it was a shame about Vera D.. She doesn't seem to have fulfilled her potential.. Hasn't she had more than her fair share of injuries too, which is always disruptive...?

I did think that Vera Z might be odds-on fave for yesterday's match though. She really has got it together since June, and hopefully it will be onwards and upwards for her next year.. Would really like to see her break top 20 at the very least in 2007 :)

Not sure about Vera D's injury history, I think she has oftened opted for higher tier tournaments when she could have benefited from winning more matches at a lower level and getting greater confidence (I mean she was really taking the fight to Kimmy in the first set at Eastbourne then bam she collapsed as Kim raised her game).

I think Jelena is as you say a regular 21 year old, but really she was only getting her own medicine really if you look at her post match interviews at the US Open

I also hope Vera Z will reclaim her place in the top 20, top 10 might be asking for too much but she surely has another Grand Slam QF in her, I can't believe French Open 2003 will be her only one.

Ah.. I didn't read JJ's post-match interviews during the USO.. I only read that she was feeling confident, which was understandable with the way that she was beating top 10 players..

I thought I'd read something about Vera D having been injured, but maybe these days being injured is part and parcel of the women's game.. very few have haven't sustained a few injuries over the last year or two..

Here's hoping re: Vera Z in the top 20! :ok: Top 10 would of course be a bonus, but I wouldn't put it entirely out of her reach.. :)

Incidentally, an mod on another board (Worldwide Tennis Forum) is a serious Vera fan! The forum has subtections for playres of each nationality and amongst the Russians, Vera Z has 60-70 (!!) pages of postings about her! I couldn't believe it... :wacko:

Here it is.. and Nick is the mod (what is it about mod's called nick?? :D )

http://tennisfan1.proboards33.com/index.cgi?board=russian


This board has been advertised on CC before, and CC has been advertised on this board, so all kosher to post this link.. I think.. :unsure:

It's not the fastest of moving boards, which is a shame as it has been set up pretty well, imo, and teh people there are really nice...

Cheers :hug:

I didn't realise Vera was so popular :o , I'm glad she has some dedicated fans :D

I kind of like Jelena, cause she has a fluid open style of play. It reminds me of P. Suarez the doubles specialist. But, she is more aggressive and definately has a sharper harder game. Plus, she has shown hereself to be really hardworking...

The only russian who makes me happy and sick all in a single game, not even a set or match or even a tournament...is Elena.

I have said a ton of prayers , done all the rain dances I can think for her....

I am not giving up , one day ..surely soon enough I hope she comes good and wins something big..and not only FED cups.....at least from that you know she does love Russia dearly... we'll see :)

Fans of Tim Henman often mention what a rollercoaster his matches are (as does Sue Barker at every opportunity) but Dementieva fans get it twice as bad, perfect example was the Srebotnik match last week. Still I know my girl will win big at some point, she just has to.

Back to Mens tennis: Nikolay "Geek Chic" Davydenko won his second round match 6-4, 6-2. Hopefully he can put last years early exit behind and reclaim the title :D :bs:

Tursonov's playing Stakhovsky at the moment. Come on Dimitry!!!

And of course tursonov is already a break down....i'm not doing well today am I???

Dima lost the first set 7-5 :hide:

:cry:

Dima has broken in the second to go 4-3 up on his serve! :D

:yahoo: he won the second set!!!

Dima - NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's all over :cry: Poor Dima :cry:

I see safin decided to lose the first set!!!!

But he appears to be kicking ass in the second so i'll let him off :wub:

LOL more like the Gremlin cup :P

Yipee Safin is through :D :yahoo:

Seems to be fighting through his matches, which is good to unleash real competitveness. lets hope he steps it up a gear in the latter rounds- it's been so long :pray:

Go Safin :D

go safin indeed :D

a possible tussle with clement in the semis would be pretty sweet.