Day 2 provided some great drama after yesterday’s snoozefest. Plenty of top seeds and favorites were pushed in their opening round matches.
Li Na is the first top seed out of the tournament. For different periods of time there, Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic looked like they wanted to follow Li out of New York City. Then, Maria Sharapova was stunned by her opponent in the start of their match and almost sent me to my death. *Flashbacks to Melbourne* Yeeesh. I thought Rafael Nadal was going to make easy work of his opponent. Nope.
But today’s big star? The motherf***ing heat. There were atleast 50 tweets from spectators/journalists about how hot it was in New York today. Tough. However, I think the players prepare themselves for these types of conditions and shouldn’t be an excuse for poor play. And there weren’t plenty of poor play today. All the matches I followed provided quality tennis and some entertainment.
Notable wins and losses:
Kateryna Bondarenko def. Na Li [8] 2-6, 6-4, 6-2
Andrea Petkovic def. Nadia Petrova [17] 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(4)
Urszula Radwanska def. Anna Chakvetadze 6-3, 6-3
Maria Sharapova [14] def. Jarmila Groth 4-6, 6-3, 6-1
Jelena Jankovic [4] def. Simona Halep 6-4, 4-6, 7-5
Day 2 is packed with interesting match-ups. A few of my favorites are playing like Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal, Fernando Verdasco, Ernests Gulbis, Maria Kirilenko and Sabine Lisicki. Twitter favorite, Andrea Petkovic, is also scheduled to take the court.
Viktor Troicki vs Novak Djokovic [3] Cute Serbians! And friends! Jesus. This is going to be a tasty one.
Jarmila Groth vs Maria Sharapova [14] Like, duh. I remember that WTT match. Do not for a second think Mash has forgotten it.
Marcos Baghdatis [16] vs Arnaud Clement I don’t think I’ve seen an entire Clement match but whenever I see his name against one of my favorites, I always get nervous. I guess you develop that effect on people when you reach a Grand Slam final- no matter how long ago it was. The battle of the Australian Open finalists. Looks juicy to me.
Svetlana Kuznetsova [11] vs Kimiko Date Krumm Can Kimiko do it? Can she?
Coco Vandeweghe vs Sabine Lisicki I don’t know about you but I’m actually watching this for Sabine. I miss seeing her play.
Barbora Zahlavova Strycova vs Maria Kirilenko [23] Crazy Barbie better not try anything on Little Masha! All Kiri needs to do is keep colm and she should be able to get through all the craziness and crying and… Barbora.
Anna Chakvetadze vs Urszula Radwanska Goooooo Chakky!
Andrea Petkovic vs Nadia Petrova [17] Petkorazzi and Nads in the first round?! *sigh* Another tough draw for Petko. I hope it’ll be a good match. She needs one.
Jeremy Chardy vs Ernests Gulbis
Jeremy’s been playing well lately and we all know what Ernie is capable of. We should be in for a really interesting match. If not, we’ll always have pretty.
Mardy Fish defeated John Isner 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) in the finals of the Atlanta Tennis Championships in Georgia, USA. He defeated the first and second seeds, Andy Roddick and John, en route to the title. This is Mardy’s second title of the year and fifth of his career. He is riding on a nice 10-match winning streak and is in great form to do some damage in the US Open Series.
Chaky! I so happy.
Anna Chakvetadze won her first title in two years! She defeated Johanna Larsson 6-1, 6-2 in the finals of the Banka Koper Slovenia Open in Portoroz. I hope this win gives her the confidence she needs to tear shit up at the US Open Series again. Let’s party like it’s 2007!
Julia Goerges won her first career SEWTA title after she defeated Timea Bacsinszky 6-1, 6-4 at the Nurnberger Gastein Ladies in Austria.
Andrey Golubev won his first ATP World Tour title after he defeated Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 7-5 at the International German Open in Hamburg.
Great first title wins for Julia and Andrey. Now, both of you, get your butts to the hard courts.
These men stopped the world on it’s tracks and made it watch tennis for 2 days. No, maybe not just tennis but watch them defy whatever you knew a professional athlete or a human being was capable of doing. They shattered the record books and pushed their minds and bodies to extreme extremes. The will to win from both guys was inspiring to watch. Up to the last ball that was struck, no one gave in.
There were other things that went around the grounds at Wimbledon today. The Queen watched Andy Murray win his second round match over Jarkko Nieminen. She also watched both these guys awkwardly bow to her… twice. It was the cutest thing ever!
Rafael Nadal was pushed to a 5-set match by Robin Haase. It was a great effort from Robin but unfortunately, a knee injury hampered his movement in the fourth set and Rafa picked up his game and won the last two sets easily
Notable wins and losses: First Round
John Isner (23) def. Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-3), 70-68
Second Round
Serena Williams (1) def. Anna Chakvetadze 6-0, 6-1
Victoria Azarenka (14) def. Bojana Jovanovski 6-1, 6-4
Maria Sharapova (16) def. Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-1, 6-4
Hopefully we’ll get to see the completion of the most epic (couldn’t find a better adjective astronomic, colossal, enormous, mammoth, massive, monumental) match in any sport. Ever. In addition to that, the Queen (like the actual Queen!) will be at the grounds tomorrow! She hasn’t been to Wimbledon in 33 years! I had no idea it’s been that long. I always assumed she’d visit every so often when a Brit does well.
Jarkko Nieminen vs Andy Murray [4] Muzz will most likely be playing in front of Queen Elizabeth today. Yup, I just typed that. Let’s see if he can be at his best behavior. Jarkko won’t be an easy customer. Although he hasn’t had a stellar year, he did push Andy Roddick in Roland Garros a month ago and have been to the quarterfinals here in Wimbledon.
Serena Williams [1] vs Anna Chakvetadze Chakky’s been putting wins together in the past few weeks which is great to see. She’ll have to put together a super huge one on Court 2. Good luck with that! Chak leads their head-to-head 1-0 (a Serena retirement at the ’07 YEC).
Anastasia Rodionova vs Svetlana Kuznetsova [19] Upset special? I’m not too sure but it definitely smells like it. I hope Sveta pulls this one out. I want her to stick around so she can go on with her Twitter commentary on matches. Isner/Mahut are locked in an epic 5th set and she suggests a good substitute for Viagra to keep things uplike Mahut’s hair.
Alexandr Dolgopolov vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [10] Allez, Jo!
Ioana Raluca Olaru vs Maria Sharapova [16] Thrown down some aces today, okay? Also, first serves are nice to look at when they’re landing in the box. Thanks, Mash!
The drama in Day 2 was definitely toned down. Unless you’re Pam Shriver and James Blake then Day 2 was definitely drama-filled for you.
You can skip over to 4:30 to see the James and Pam smack talk. I can’t stop laughing at Pam’s knee-jerk jab, rabbit ears. Tracey tweeted the truth, drunk people can’t whisper.
On to the actual tennis.
Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, Robin Soderling, Maria Sharapova, Andy Murray, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka were only slightly contested in their openers. Meaning, no one served up a double or triple bagel. Unfortunately. There were bagels and Masha and Caro came oh so close but it wasn’t to be today.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Aravane Rezai and Anna Chakvetadze lost sets but were able to recover and win their matches. One of those three is not like the others but I thought I’d give her credit. All because she made an effort not to offend the tradition at SW19. Props!
Today’s carnage; Samantha Stosur, Fernando Verdasco, James Blake and Anne Keothavong.
Sam still could not find her footing on the green stuff. It’s weird how the grass courts work. It’s either the players love playing there and immediately feel comfortable after a 24-hour turnaround from the clay or they hate it and would rather skip the season altogether. (Carlos Moya? Nikolay Davydenko?) It’s such a short season that I can see how some players can’t really work their way into getting comfortable on it.
Nando and James (not that those two are alike) were just plain crap today. There’s no other way to put it.
Anne blew a 4-0 lead in the 3rd set of her match and lost it 4-6. She lost her focus, probably got too excited to get out of there and just like that *snap*, her opponent’s caught up.
Q. What went wrong today?
ANNE KEOTHAVONG: I think nerves just got the better of me, to be honest. You know, I really fought my heart out out there. You know, she held her nerve better than I did. She’s the one who walks off the court with a win.
Despite the missed opportunity (she *had* it), I still wouldn’t say she should be depressed and take fault for the failure of British tennis. No one’s at fault. You’ll get your champ, GBR, I swear.
Q. Obviously you’re disappointed on a personal level. How depressed are you on a more general level that once again we talk about a British failure for British tennis at Wimbledon?
ANNE KEOTHAVONG: It’s disappointing right now, but I’m not going to send myself into depression mode. I’ve got to find a way, pick myself up. In another few weeks, I’ll have another opportunity to compete at a high level. It won’t be Wimbledon, but you just have to move on.
You know, all of us girls, we’re working hard in each of our own ways. You know, Wimbledon’s important. Sure, we all want to do well here as British players, but that’s not the be‑all and end‑all.
You’re not doing any of these athletes any favors, British press. Thank you and go away.
ANNE KEOTHAVONG: You know, unless you’re kind of involved in tennis day in and day out, you know, if you could witness what we do, we train really hard. We put ourselves through a lot. It’s unfortunate that we get judged on just one tournament.
But I can tell you, you know, just to get myself fit, you know, in a position to compete here with the world’s best players, you know, I was working so hard. I was in the gym with physios, fitness trainers, last year learning again to walk properly. You know, you guys don’t see that. So it’s just that.
Notable wins and losses:
Serena Williams (1) def. Michelle Larcher De Brito 6-0, 6-4
Caroline Wozniacki (3) def. Tathiana Garbin 6-1, 6-1
Victoria Azarenka (14) def. Mirjana Lucic 6-3, 6-3
Maria Sharapova (16) def. Anastasia Pivovarova 6-1, 6-0
Aravane Rezai (18) def. Magdalena Rybarikova 6-7 (8-10), 6-2, 7-5
Svetlana Kuznetsova (19) def. Akgul Amanmuradova 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4
Anna Chakvetadze def. Andrea Petkovic 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
Anastasia Rodionova def. Anne Keothavong 3-6, 6-2, 6-4
Rafael Nadal (2) def. Kei Nishikori 6-2, 6-4, 6-4
Andy Murray (4) def. Jan Hajek 7-5, 6-1, 6-2
Robin Soderling (6) def. Robby Ginepri 6-2, 6-2, 6-3
Fabio Fognini def. Fernando Verdasco (8) 7-6 (11-9), 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (10) def. Robert Kendrick 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-4
Robin Haase def. James Blake 6-2, 6-4, 6-4
Day 1 was fun. And exhausting. But mostly fun. Here’s to Day 2 being even more fun but slightly less exhausting! Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Robin Soderling, Maria Sharapova and Samantha Stosur will take on the grass.
Coffee, popcorn, vodka or whatever will keep you awake at 4AM:
The Bollettieri Kids vs The World Number 1s
Serena Williams [1] vs Michelle Larcher de Brito If this were a third round match, I’d say Michelle’s ass will be handed to her but it’s Serena’s opener and she hasn’t played since Paris so she has to get her legs under her first. Or, you know, Michelle’s ass will be handed to her. Either way, this is going to be one loud match no matter what. Let’s see who gets annoyed first. Probably Serena but… probably Serena.
Kei Nishikori vs Rafael Nadal [2] This may or may not be an interesting match. I remember Nick blogging so much about Kei in the past years but he hasn’t really done anything for the fan-bloggers to talk about him. They (we?) are more important, clearly. He did suffer from a right elbow injury that kept him out for most of 2009.
I had a longer and more thoughtful post than this but WordPress ate it all.
The supporting cast. Sorry, I’m just going to bullets them because I’m not in the mood to write it all again.
Robert Kendrick vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [10] Kendo took Rafael Nadal to 5 in their second round here in 2006. It’s not going to be easy for Jo but he should come through in 3 or 4.
Robin Soderling [6] vs Robby Ginepri
Anastasia Pivovarova vs Maria Sharapova [16] Get ‘em, Mash!
Anna Chakvetadze vs Andrea Petkovic Chak Attack vs Petkorazzi. No fun that one of them will be going out in the first round.
Day 1 was wet but play continued on in Rod Laver Arena and Hisense Arena thanks to retractable roofs. If I’m not mistaken, they were installed so play can resume even if it’s 200 degrees out. Who knew they’d need it for rainy summer days down under?
The opening match on RLA was the one I was looking forward to the most. Because you know, I’m me. Other than that, I always look forward to battles between friends on court. I knew it was going to be tough for Big Masha, she always seems nervous against Kiri, but hot damn was she out of sorts. To Little Masha’s credit, she really hung in there after losing the second set when everyone thought, myself included, that she’d fade away. Big Masha apparently also thought the same thing and her mind set was all wrong going into the decider. Top that with fatigue and suddenly, a former champion is out on opening day.
In spite of the fact, don’t count her out just yet.
“I’m still gonna go back on the court and work hard and perform. I’ll be back here on a Saturday of the 2nd week, so… you’ll watch.”
The only upside to this (for me)? She won’t be one of the favorites going into Roland Garros so that will help her. A ton. But don’t tell anyone.
My apologies for the late reaction but HOLY HELL, VIKA! Does she look hot in this or what? I had no clue she had a little sexy vixen side in her.
Victoria Azarenka, Dominika Cibulkova, Anna Chakvetadze and Alona Bondarenko posed in sexy bikinis for the May 2009 issue of French FHM. I think Vika looked the hottest out of all four though.
These ladies are certainly giving Anna Kournikova a run for her money!
Sorry for the delay. I’m actually having some sort of fun outside of tennis. Go figure.
Marin Cilin won his first ATP Tour title at New Haven, CT. Marin defeated Mardy Fish in the final 6-4 4-6 6-2. The best of luck to Marin at the US Open!
On the women’s side, Caroline Wozniacki won her second consecutive title and second of her career as well defeating top seed Anna Chakvetadze in the finals 3-6 6-4 6-1. The best of luck to Caroline at the US Open!
