Things got interesting in Rome today. Jankovic, Ivanovic, Wozniacki, Zheng, Penneta, Kanepi along with the bunch of Russians all came through. Aga won a thriller against Rezai, but Bartoli, Wozniak, and Cornet weren't so lucky. Guess who is missing: Miss "I am the best player in the world and true #1" lost in the first round to Patty Schnyder- ungraceful looser Serena Williams! After declaring herself the best, she again cannot deliver (after loosing in the first round in Marbella). So what will be her excuse this time?
Aga won her first match with Alona Bondarenko 60 61 in under an hour. The match with Aravene went completely opposite. She lost the first set, picked up her game and even out in the second, got to 51 lead in the third and than started falling apart. Rezai even out, they score a tie and went to play tie breaker which Aga was already down to 3. Finally she escaped with 97 score but that match put me on the roll coaster!
So next for Agnieszka is Ana Ivanovic, who defeated her 3 times with one walkover in Doha last year for Aga. Is Aga going again to serve as confidence builder for Ana like last year in Linz? I hope not, but Ivanovic looked good today in her match with Schiavione.
On the men side we got one surprise today, with lucky looser Lukasz Kubot winning his first round match in Belgrade, setting up a match with Andreev.
And down there in Bukarest Marta Domachowska playing ITF tournament won her first match also, I really hope she can do something good with that little tournament!
Ladies playing in Estoril got seeds through, and Michelle Larcherde Brito didn't do much with that lucky looser opportunity, she lost to Shahar Peer. It took three sets, but almost maybe two separate matches, since the score was really strange, 46 60 60. So the seeds and the stars are on their way to second round confrontation.
Let's hope the weather holds in Rome tomorrow, since some interesting matches are scheduled: Kuzniecova (Stuttgart winner) against in form Penneta, Venus Chakvetadze (who won today with Wozniak) Azarenka Wozniacki (which one ladies is going to perform on this red stuff better?) Martinez Sanchez Petrova (is Nadia going to eliminate another Spanish player of multiple names?). Of course the most exciting one is Aga against Ana. The consensus is Ana wins this one. I will say, wait a minute, not so fast...