by Savannah
Andy Murray's loss to
Stanislas Wawrinka in four sets is being called bizarre by many in the tennis world. I watched the match. It wasn't "bizarre". Wawrinka played better, stayed focused and stuck to the match plan he and Peter Lundgren had worked out. The loss is a major upset but it's not "bizarre".
If You Repeat Something Often Enough...The following blog post was found on
YahooChris Evert. Steffi Graf. Monica Seles. Serena Williams. None of them were ever as dominant in the opening week of the U.S. Open as Caroline Wozniacki was this year. So much for the talk that the 20-year old Dane was an undesesrving top seed.
According to WTA stats guru Kevin Fischer, Wozniacki lost the fewest games through three full matches of any woman since the draw was expanded in 1981. In the first three rounds, Wozniacki dropped just three games. She defeated wild card Chelsey Gullickson in the first round, 6-1, 6-1; Chang Kai-Chan, 6-0, 6-0 in the second; and Chan Yung-Jan 6-1, 6-0 in the third.
Before we start putting Caroline into the pantheon of women's tennis let's gain some perspective on her wins.
Chelsey Gullickson still carries amateur status and has no singles ranking.
Chang Kai-Chan is ranked #84 in the world in singles.
Chan Yung-Jan is ranked #77. The first seed she will face is
Maria Sharapova who has won both of their previous meetings. Is she playing more offensively? Yes. But look who she played. Not to diminish the women who were slotted to face her but I can't believe it's being implied that her victories so far at the US Open compare with the careers of the women mentioned above.
Another Victim of the Hype MachineWhen the same people talk to the same people over and over again their world view becomes a shared one and there is nothing anyone not part of the group can say to counteract it. I thought the match between
John Isner and
Mikhail Youzhny was a toss up at best since I'm not convinced Isner has fully recovered from that nonsense in London. But who am I? I don't really talk about the mens tour that much for my own personal reasons so I don't get into the whys and wherefores of the predictions often made by other bloggers.
There is no way Isner could not play the US Open and he found himself out there tonight with the crowd urging him towards success. Instead of succumbing to the pressure Youzhny simply played his game, height disadvantage be damned. And he won much to the chagrin of the American tennis establishment. There was a lot of criticism of the French Tennis Federation for not giving
Nicolas Mahut it's wild card into the Main Draw but maybe they did him a favor.
The good thing is that Isner can now get the rest he needs. Maybe.
Notice the silence about
Ana Ivanovic's match today? The tournament director in Montreal is lucky he wasn't drawn and quartered for not giving Ana a wild card into the Main Draw of his event. Every subsequent tournament gave her one allowing her to avoid the indignity of having to qualify. Well today she played on Ashe against
Kim Clijsters who freed her to go back to following her golfer boyfriend around the world.
I'm gonna call the baby ugly and say that Ana has not played well since her break up with
Fernando Verdasco. What? Prove me wrong.
Glam at the SlamWho knew?
Venus Williams has a day version of the sparkly dress. It seemed to be a bit more snug than the night version and when Venus was playing it was more of a tunic than a dress.
I still like it though. We've seen Venus expressing herself via fashion a lot this year haven't we?
Serena Williams, in full Hollywood mode, was cheering her sister from the stands. It's amazing how her commentary the other night has inspired so much talk about
Rafael Nadal's footwork. She did a good job and it remains to be seen who she works with once she hangs up her racquets. I hope she ends up with Tennis Channel. Can you imagine Serena and Martina calling matches?
What Not To WearUnless
Elena Dementieva and her boyfriend have something to tell us this outfit should be put in a burn bag. I'm not saying Elena needs to come out in pasties but she's worked hard to get herself fit and all this does is make her look as if she's making her mother a grandmother a few months from now.
1 comment:
Hype kills. I read Ana's presser and if there is anything she is being treated with kid's gloves by the world's press.
On another note, have you ever visited Matt Cronin's twitter page? OMG, if you have not, you need to. Creepy and scary
I know Federer does not get much love around these parts, but if anything, he was spot on with his criticism of Murray's game. I think both Fed and Nadal are being ingenious when they keep saying that Murray will win a major. I just do not see it. he was being out hit from all areas of the court yesterday. It was sad to see. Clearly it is not only old man Fed who is susceptible to big hitters or Nadal with his loopy shots on hard courts who is susceptible.
Commentators: stopped listening to them a long time ago. They are always on the latest flavour of the month.
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