Friday, 8 August 2008

Catchup on WTA Tour

Ok so I have been away for about two weeks or so well I finally got something to get onto the internet with, my cousin had this Wi-Fi, HSDPA and 3G gadget thing which he lent me. Well a lot has happened since I have been gone and I am so dissapointed I wasn't able to follow it; I will talk about each and every detail that shocked me during these weeks and I'm sure all of you would know what I am talking about.
Well let's start off from the beginning the Banka Koper Slovenia Open, Maria Kirilenko was the to seed but sadly fell to eventual winner Sara Errani. Besides that I congratule Katie O'Brien for making the second round. Now the Nordea Nordic Light Open. Radwanska was the top seed but lost to eventual winner Caroline Wozniacki. Agnes Szavay also continued her unremarkable year losing to Dushevina this time around. The main tournaments of interest are the East West Bank Classic and the Rogers Cup, both amazingly won by Dinara Safina - go girl you finally show your potential that I knew was in there.
Well first let's talk about the East West Bank Classic. Now that Justine Henin is gone I find that the womens draw is blank, anyone could win now! I think nobody is going to dominate the scene this year, maybe Sharapova will fight for the spot next year but this year I find it very gloomy unless the William's sisters have anything to say. Well Jankovic played easy opponents until Nadia Petrova got in her way (I see her as a resurgent power in the womens game currently), Jankovic was eventually stopped by Safina in a humiliating second set. Alla Kudryavtseva is also showing some promise taking her fellow russian Dinara Safina into a tense three sets. On the other side FLAVIA PENNETTA got to the final - great! I was in slight shock when I saw her name at the finalist section. Anyway that draw was weak so anyone could have come out the victor really. Sadly Nicole Vaidisova has still not found her form or she would have been able to capitalize on this weak draw. I feel so sad nowadays because she has been overtaken by fellow teens. Anyway congratulations to Bethanie Mattek and Melanie South for achieveing good results. Rogers Cup was packed with more top seeds but as I have said without the Williams or Henin the draw seems vacant.
Well where do I begin, Ivanovic as I have always said is probably the weakest No.1 (or least dominant) we have ever seen, she is not ready for this title and I think it would hurt her more than help her as the pressure will build on her to keep this title - she has also got it easy as her competition are all falling by the wayside. However it did shock me when Tamira Paszek beat her! Anyway on the other side the dominant Safina took the stage again and went straight to the finals, other notables include Flavia Pennetta who sadly lost to Larcher De Brito - probably because of fatigue. On the other side my demons began! MARION BARTOLI got to the semis!!!! Well I have to sauy it is mainly because of a weak draw, out of the top 8 Chakvetadze is the weakest to be honest and then Sugiyama is much too old to make a threat to the draws. Sharapova retiring also solidified my opinion that the womens game is weak currently. I thought with Justine gone at least Sharapova would take the spot but she looks so out of sorts lately, come on William's sisters play more - if you do I am sure that you would win most competitions you play in. However the spotlight was on Cibulkova, she thrashed Vesnina in the first round and then took out Dementieva, Petrova, Jankovic and Bartoli - a total of four seeds. As I said the womens game is the weakest I have ever seen it.

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