Sunday, May 3, 2009

Champions All

by Savannah

Baby You Can Drive My Car...

There is Good Svetlana and there is Bad Svetlana. We haven't seen much of good Sveta for a long time. Bad Sveta seemed to be having a ball losing her last six finals but today Good Sveta got the upper hand. Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated the woman now ranked as WTA Number One, Dinara Safina, in straight sets for her first significant win in two and a half years. Congratulations Sveta and enjoy that new Porsche!
By the way just in case you thought Dinara Safina's very conciliatory statement on achieving the top ranking meant she didn't think she should have it the BBC reports the following post match comment:
"She played very well and I didn't feel very well. But I am still number one. I was a little passive. I let her dominate."


The doubles pairing of Nadia Petrova and Bethanie Mattek-Sands are starting to draw attention. The duo won the Doubles trophy at Stuttgart. Good work and congratulations to both women.

The Forgotten Tournament

Anabel Medina Garrigues won the women's title in Fes over Ekaterina Makarova. Makarova then came back to win the doubles with her partner Alisa Kleybanova. The scoreline for the doubles was 26 64 18-16.


The Glory That Was Rome...

There was a lot riding on today's Rome Final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. If you remember last year Rome was where Rafa went out in the second round to Juan Carlos Ferrero. Novak Djokovic won it all here last year and was coming into the final as defending champion. Novak also had more at stake than a title defense. He needed to win the tournament to hold on to the Number Three ranking. Rafa went on a bit of a walkabout at the end of the first set but won the tiebreaker 7-2. I guess he enjoyed his walk because he came back firing on all cylinders and won the second set 6-2.
With that victory Rafa won his fourth Rome title and his 15th Masters Shield putting him ahead of Roger Federer and two behind Andre Agassi.
Djokovic not only lost the title but as of May 11th he will be passed by Andy Murray in the rankings falling to number four. More about that situation later this week.
For now I'll just say Congratulations to Rafael.

Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor defeated Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan to win the Doubles crown at Rome. They're on a tear of their own aren't they? Congratulations Nenad and Daniel.

6 comments:

Helen W said...

Congrats all!

I enjoyed seeing the interaction between Nole & Rafa during the presentation ceremony -- good natured and lots of cameraderie. I see Nole is getting dissed on some of the boards for his comic routine, but I have no problem with it -- in fact Rafa took away his plate to encourage him to oblige the crowd. Naturally he chose Rafa as his target, but he was not over the top and I thought it was all good fun.

I also see the boards are filled with whinging about how boring it is with Rafa dominating -- I wonder how many of today's whingers were also bored with Roger's domination; not many, I suspect.

Savannah said...

Hey even I give Djoke a pass on his routine today. Ms Pericole (sp) begged him to do it and Rafa had no choice but to go along with her and let Djoke do his thing.

As for the whining...

oddman said...

Congrats to all winners! The Spaniard Gladiator has conquered Rome - (must go watch that movie again, lol) - Vamos, Rafa!!!! Mighty Mallorcan!!!

So great that both guys were laughing and having a good time at the ceremony, I heard.

Let 'em whinge, Helen W - boo hoo hoo, I say.

sG said...

Yeah, I want to give a little "Whoo-hoo!" shout-out to doubles team Mattek-Sands and Petrova. I don't much bother watching doubles but I like Mattek-Sands and Petrova and they beat a very good team for the win so yeah, whoo-hoo!

The presentation ceremony was a hoot. I couldn't understand a lick of what they were saying -- Rafa's Spanish accent is so thick I wasn't sure he was speaking Italian at first -- yet I realized they were both mocking the song choice. Not that I blame them, I wasn't feeling 'Chariots of Fire' or the other selection, 'Macho, Macho Man'. Geez, did they never leave the seventies? It was so funny watching Novak and Rafa laugh themselves silly over it, to see Novak do a mocking little dance. Camaraderie is a good thing. ^_^

I laugh whenever a Fed fan writes about Rafa's current domination. Coming from some that stance is a joke. My parents are Fed fans and sometimes they'll say the same ridiculousness; I try very hard not to snort.

love40 said...

Congrats to Rafa on his 15th master shield. It would be cool if Andre Agassi was present when Rafa wins his 17th!

MariyaK said...

I want that Porsche. That is all