Sony Ericsson End Notes
Serena Williams Sony Ericsson Open Women's Singles Champion 2008
Nikolay Davydenko Sony Ericsson Open Mens Singles Champion 2008
The Revenge Tournament is over. In my opinion both finals winners are surprising. Serena, through sheer force of will overcame her own mental meltdown and the shenanigans of her opponent Jelena Jankovic to win the women's final in three not at all beautiful sets. Serena can't be happy at needing thirteen match points to finish off Jankovic.
As for Nikolay's win anyone who saw his match against Andy Roddick could see it coming. Nikolay was not going to be denied and he played better tennis today than the man across the net.
The Bryan Brothers won the Mens Doubles, their first title of the year so in a way it was a revenge win for them.
Katerina Srebotnik and Sugiyama Ai won the womens doubles crown. I'm not aware of any revenge factors here.
The Clay Court Season
I'm happy that real tennis will now take center stage. I'd be happier if I didn't know some of the drama that's going on behind the scenes.
Apparently CBS was not going to allow live tennis to interrupt it's coverage of March Madness. CBS has the rights to air the Miami finals. The only weekend it could be bothered to show live tennis was, you guessed it, this weekend. This resulted in both the Pacific Life Open and the Sony Ericsson Open (I kinda miss Indian Wells and Miami but it is what it is.) being pushed back a week.
I still don't get how March Madness made the ATP schedule the three clay Masters Series Events virtually back to back to back though. Is Mr. Disney still upset about the protests the European players made about the ATP decision to downgrade their favorite events? In case you're not aware of what will be going on the next few weeks here is the schedule:
Estoril, Portugal April 14-20
Masters Series Monte Carlo April 21-27
Open SEAT Barcelona April 28-May 4
Masters Series Roma May 5-11
Masters Series Hamburg May 12-18
French Open May 26-June 8
Both Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych have spoken up about this nonsense. Not that it will do anything, the schedule is set. It should be noted that Nadal is the defending champion at Monte Carlo, Rome and Roland Garros. Barcelona is his home tournament so to speak. Stacked deck much? Oh, and don't forget Davis Cup is this weekend. Philipp Kohlschreiber's boasting about Germany defeating Spain this weekend may not be idle after all.
And all this talk about a changing of the guard? I'm just sayin'
I should note in passing that there is a move on to oust Etienne de Villiers before his contract expires. Gee, ya think?
Sony Ericsson Open/Miami - Some Final Looks
Serena
Andy's Posse
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Mikhail Youzhny
Jo-Wilfrid Tsonga
Jelena Jankovic
Maria Sharapova and her friend Camilla Belle
Mario Ancic
The Davydenko's
Rafael Nadal
4 comments:
Hi again Savannah,
Like you, I am disappointed that Rafa didn't win today. But I can only agree with you that the better player won, at least this afternoon. Rafa plays with such focus and concentrated energy -- sometimes I think we expect him to never let up, but he's only human.
The clay court schedule is obscene. I hope Rafa is not playing Estoril. But why should he have to forego an important tournament because of idiotic scheduling? I also hope he doesn't feel he has to play Hamburg because of his stand on the ATP downgrading it, like he did last year.
Ah well -- bring on the clay!
Rafa is not playing Estoril. The defending champion Mr Djoker is not playing Estoril. Mr. Federer is as of now.
I'm sure everyone is playing Rome. I'm sure Rafa will play Barcelona. I'm pretty sure most players will come to Monte Carlo.
Helen he'd better not play Hamburg. As you say, he's only human.
How about avenging the WTA Tour finals loss against Black/Huber as a nice revenge factor for Katarina and Ai?
Good point Mariya. Thanks.
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