Monday, 30 June 2008

Happiness: Overload (review of events)

Well isn't Wimbledon such an exciting event. Today has probably been my favourite day in Wimbledon for a long time! I have to say the positives far outweight the negatives. To be very honest there are only possibly two players who I would have liked to see the back of, but as long as my favourites are still intact it makes me all the happier.
Unfortunately I was unable to watch the matches until about 3pm which meant I just had enough time to see one of my favourite players beat Anna Chakvetadze (this being Nicole Vaidisova by the way). I sadly missed all the drama that supposedly went on court and was only able to see about one and a half games of the match. So it means Channel 301 (freeview) for me tonight! Anyway besides Nicole's fantastic win which lifts my spirits up from a very boring and tiring day, Jie Zheng also made it through. I never could have believed that Zheng would make it to the Quaters, could she pull of another upset - I hope not! As she will play Nicole Vaidisova next and I am praying for a Nicole/Serena semifinal!
Both Serena and Venus seemed to swat their opponents. Kleybanova having previously beaten Hantuchova and Mattek having beaten Bartoli.
Petrova (an unlikely quaterfinalist) also made it through after defeating the Sharapovaslayer Alla Kudrysvtseva. If only Sharapova was in this Quaterfinal section, it would be much more interesting. Instead we have a sure fire finalist from section 4 (most probably Venus Williams, but Tanasugarn could cause a huge huge upset!). If only I hadn't started to like Sharapova this year I would have had one of my favourite draws of the decade, but sadly I had to also jump on the Sharapova bandwagon and become a slight fan! It also saddens me that Henin wasn't here either.
At the time of this post there are still two matches being played to fill the Quaterfinal draw. One is between the highest seed left (amazingly) Kuznetsova and Radwanska (they'll be beaten by Serena anyway) and the other between Dementieva and the unlikely Peer (and I thought Peer was supposedly out of it this year). Either way the winner of that match against Petrova would be my least favourite match of the 4 - as the other three include my 3 favourite players of the tour.
As I am typing Ancic has won the match against Verdasco, but he'll need much more to beat Federer, who though I think is losing his game I have to admit he is still looking dominant on grass.
Also looking at the draws, on both sides the third section looks unexpected. What should have been easy taking for Sharapova and Roddick, now sees Dementieva or Peer pitted against Petrova and four unseeded players in the mens draw hoping to get a semifinal spot.
I just hope Safin will continue to play well and defeat possibly Baghdatis - who I think will be a Quaterfinalist.
Well now that the Doubles look like they are reaching a climax (as I never like looking at the draws of Doubles in the early stage; as there are so many I don't know) I will post about it.
I have never really understood how the seeds in the doubles game sometimes don't even matter. Of course the top 3 or 4 seeds look in shape but after that it seems to be all for the taking. Well anyway my favourite doubles team - the Bryan brothers (I am all for Americans!) are through to the Quaters, against a team I have never known of their existance. Then another team who I never heard of will play the winner of Lopez/Verdasco against Bjorkman/Ullyett. I just hope it is the Bryan brothers who get to the finals!
I recognize the teams in the second half, being the 3rd and 9th seed. Hopefully Mirnyi/Murray will give the second seeds a run for their money.
In the Womens doubles Black/Huber are going strong. Safina/Szavay Vs. Azarenka/Peer will be their opponents. I am clueless about rankings in the womens doubles and I am still in the day where I thought Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur were in the top 10, but amazingly they are the 16th seeds.
Be nice to see Yan/Zheng get far also aswell of course the Williams duo.
One little thing to add. By the time I finished the post (as I was swept off to meet my cousin) Radwanska had beaten the 4th seed - will Ivanovic therefore keep her No.1? If Dementieva can get to the semis could she get higher than No.5? If the Williams win who will lose their rankings to them? Anyway the tournament is definitely getting exciting.

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