Agnieszka lost to Dinara at Stuttgart. It was not a bad match, but I was expecting a little more of a battle. Still Aga is not doing bad in matches with lower rank opponents, but cannot deliver a stunning/breakthrough performance with serious contenders. Her next match can be a tricky one, too. She is playing Alona Bondarenko, who last year on clay recorded her best results. Teoretically Aga has an upper hand in this one, but somehow I think she is not happy when playing any of Bondarenko sisters, especially after this year AO. So I don't even look further into the draw.
The Stuttgart champion added another quizzical turn to WTA maze. Veteran with the most lost finals wakes up and grabs a title! Kuzniecova got the course down to Safina, or maybe Safina got the number 1 spell (I am #1, I have to prove I'm worth it! OMG, I forgot how to play that game!)
So Act I of the drama " Spring clay season in Europe" got all the favorites underperform. Some of them got some decent matches, most of them lost too early to consider it a good start. In the beginning of Act II Amelie got early exit by Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (I just know she is not CSN, but with so many of them with such a long names, I am always lost, which Spanish player is this time) I wonder if this is beginning of the end for Mauresmo, she gets inspired and plays a few good matches and then goes again into her loosing ways (too bad she met Aga in Paris in her draw when she was into her winning ways!) The rest of the field performed accordingly, maybe with the exception of Na Li, but I somehow don't see Li always coming through (unless she plays one of the polish players...)
Tomorrow matches which may turn either way: Szavay/Wozniacki (Agnes coming back it seems, Caro not showing the signs that she maybe dangerous on clay), William/Safarova (what form is Venus in?) Cornet/Sugiyama (Alize is loosing everything these days!)
Question? Are we going to see Dinara in Rome? She mentioned she wasn't feeling good in the final, but she is not playing tomorrow, so she gets some rest after traveling from Stutgart. Anyway, with Serena showing up in Rome I expect Safina will try to defend some of her points and will be playing, regardless of her conditions.
The other tournament in Estoril holds some interesting possibilities for couple of ladies, Lisicki among them along with Kirilenko, Groenefeld, Peer, Benesova, Kvitova, Cirstea, and trying to win the main draw entry from qualies Michelle Larcher the Brito. It will be interesting to see if Kimiko Date Krum can win with Peer (the battle of old glory with unfullfilled potential) or how Sabine is going to handle Kirsten Flipken (should be easy win, no?)
On paper, after all the buzz about WTA next shooting star, Sabine should win this tournament, let's see how this one is going to play.
Of course the question of the day for me: is Aga going to stumble, or is this one going to be the beginning of something good? Let's hope for the latter!