It has been an exciting last couple of days in tennis for Poland. In Rome Agnieszka Radwanska won match with Ana Ivanovic. It went up and down, with first Aga taking first set, than Ana picking her game to take the second and leading 4 games in the third. But than Aga started playing much better and Ana couln't do anything about it. Aga took next six games and won the set 64 and match advancing into the quarterfinal. She played two very long matches in two days, and her next opponent was no other than one of the Williams sisters, this time Venus. Aga was already feeling the toll those matches took on her, having back pain which forced her to withdraw from doubles competition with Agnes Szavay. The match with Venus was rather short, and the score would suggest, easy win for Venus. It wasn't the best match for Aga, but still, the games were pretty close, but Aga was losing crucial points, being unsuccessful when coming to the net, or out of range with her groundstrokes. Venus on the other hand was really focused, not making many UE and serving pretty consistently. No chance for Aga this time, and again, she did awesome job with her first three matches, but she couldn't continue on the highest level required to beat the top player Venus herself. I was disappointed thou, that even after she played with Venus, the Tennis Channel showed the other 3 quarterfinals and not Aga! But that win over Ana, still considered top player (former Rolland Garros champion) made me very happy!
The young WTA stars this week did so so. Azarenka won with Wozniacki in 3 round, and than defeated Kanepi in Qt. She finally was eliminated by Kuzniecova in SF. She apparently played poorly and showed a lot of immaturity in handling the situations on the court. I guess she is still growing up and learning, but I wonder if that rage of her she is not always able to handle is leading her in the right direction. She won three titles with that explosiveness of her this year, so far she is considered the next big thing. Time will tell.
The current big thing is of course the consolidation of the current no 1 and possible the next GS champion, Dinara Safina. Dinara won the epic match with Venus, denying the veteran the good result on clay. She showed so much ability and maturity, that I am impressed! Everybody is saying that if she continue that way, it looks very promising for Rolland Garros. Personally, I am really rooting for Safina, so she continue be no 1 and prove that she is better than many other players on the tour. I am tired of reading and hearing about the greatness of WS and how they are above the rest! I am really hoping that someone will step up to the task!
While the young guns shot themselves out of the tournaments early (Lisicki retired in QF in Estoril, Michelle Larcherde Brito lost to Shahar Peer in the first round even after LL entry, later Peer retired in her match with Yanina Wickmayer of Belgia- who won tournament in the end) the other veteran, Svetlana Kuznecova did go all the way to the final week after her Stuttgart victory. This time she did not have any more weapons left for Safina, and so title went to the computer generated, not the "real number one", Dina!
While all of this was going on, the really surprising news were coming from Belgrade, where ATP tournament is being played, with the culmination of single and double finals tomorrow. Each day Lukasz Kubot of Poland was playing and when he lost in the final round of qualifying to Dominik Hrbaty , he got surprised lucky looser entry into the main draw, thanks to retirement of Darcis. Then he won the first round match, in the second round Igor Andreev retired with injury, Lukasz won the QF match with Kristor Vliegen, getting himself into semifinal competition with huge serving giant Ivo Karlovic. And Lukasz did impossible, at least for the Polish tennis, after 26 years when Wojciech Fibak played in the final of Basel in October 1983 we have the Polish player in the ATP tournament final. But not only that, he also did reach the final of the doubles competition with his partner Oliver Marach of Austria! He is facing Novak Djokovic in the final, and then after that match he will be playing the the doubles against Swede Johan Brunstrom and Jean-Julien Rojer of Curacao.
The Polish Sunday is going to spiced with the first round match in Madrit, where Agnieszka Radwanska is playing Samatha Stosur. If she wins, Anna Chakvetadze is awaiting her. Her quarter includes two recent double champions/finalists Kuzniecova and Safina. Not a good prognostic, if they continued their winning ways.
And after losing to Aga, Ana Ivanovic decided, that her injury is too much (or losing to Aga is too much, as many of her fans cried ) and decided to skip Madrit Open. I guess she can make more money doing photo shoots (she is losing her share of bonus pool payment if she is skipping mandatory event). But if she is not going to start winning immediately, she is probably on her way out of the top ten, so maybe it doesn't matter anyway...
The rest of the field is showing up in Madrit, and the third chapter of the "Dirt Drama in the Spring" is just about to unveil. The first victim - Marion Bartoli lost in the first round to Aleksandra Wozniak. Go Ola!
So I wonder how many wins for Polish players I wake up to tomorrow. Go Aga, go Lukasz!
No comments:
Post a Comment