Definitely have enjoyed the last few weeks of women's tennis - as it is finally showing some depth. Instead of no drama til the weekend, now everyone is playing every week and thus some good matchups (and consequently upsets) in the 1st or 2nd round every week - definitely love it! For example, Bartoli, Sharapova, and Mauresmo all lost last week in round 2 in Moscow. And again, may be some upsets this week in Zurich as most of the top 20 are in the tournament (e.g., Serena, Mauresmo, Zvonereva, Schnyder, Dementieva, Ivanovic, Jankovic, Henin, Kutzy, Peer, Vaidisova, etc.). Unfortunately, though, the tennis channel still needs a clue on broadcasting - basically need to add an additional channel (e.g., similar to ESPN and others) so they can show a good men's and women's tournament during the same week instead of just showing one live during the week/weekend and the other one taped - oh well - perhaps they'll get it right one of these days. Also, something learned this year is that ESPN Deportes shows early rounds of the Miami and Pacific Life tournaments so if you have/get that, you'll have full 2 week coverage unlike the other channels.
And more great upsets yesterday and today - with Radwanska beating Hantuchova, Golovin beating Ivanovic, and Vaidisova beating Janko (although kind of strange that actually Vaidi is 5-3 career against Janko); always thought Vaidisova could achieve greatness if she puts her mind to it - looked great in person when I saw her at the '06 French Open.
4 comments:
And not to mention Serena's match! She and Venus need to step up to the plate and play the kind of tennis they're capable of playing! The commentator said she and Venus (in a different tournament) were trying to earn enough points to get into the end fo the year tournament. As much as I know it will make for a more exciting tournament, I hope they dont' make it and I'm so glad Dementieva won. Maybe then they will be fully committed in 2008!
We'll see how it goes - Serena looked pretty bad in her loss to Dementieva. And looks like Venus only cares about getting some work in and maintaining a decent ranking - seems to be intentionally avoiding all tier 1 or 2 tournaments, and still loses to a nobody in the final :-)
Yes that may be true that Venus is trying to avoid playing Serena or Tier 1/2 tournaments but with a few weeks left in the season I think she made a wise decision considering she won the Korean Open and was runner-up in the Japan Open. Venus gained valuable points torward the season-ending championships and her overall ranking. Had she played in the higher level tournaments the outcome might have been different for Venus and Serena might not have earned enough points to qualify for the Sony Championships.
Think that Venus and Serena should both have the confidence and ability to beat the top 10 players - otherwise no one is going fully appreciate or respect you if you're winning against players outside of the top 30 on a regular basis. Henin doesn't seem to avoid anyone - she plays in Tier 1 tournaments consistently, don't see why the Williams sisters can't. And also, getting tired of Serena defaulting constantly - just withdraw like Sharapova did and do more of a service to your fans and fellow players.
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