Day 6: Is That What You're Wearing? (Wimbledon Edition)
As noted before, when the rain takes over, everyone becomes a fashion critic. So...
Hmmm, it looked like Venus' alarm clock didn't go off this morning and she decided to come to the court wearing whatever she wore to bed last night, didn't it? Of course, what she wore against Akiko Morigami on Saturday was the same thing she wore in her Doubles match with Serena on Friday... so I guess it's no big deal, huh?
Oh, well. At least it filled a few paragraphs on a day where very little happened.
And so ends Day 6's fashion report, which is just about all there is to report considering only two women's singles matches (plus one Mixed Doubles match) were actually completed on Saturday.
(2009...2009...2009...)
With the traditional quiet middle Sunday scheduled for tomorrow, it's a very uneventful weekend at Wimbledon... and, considering all the other things going on in Britain at the moment, maybe not nhaving to deal with thousands of spectators and additional security isn't such a bad thing when you think about it.
Oh, but there WAS enough action today to scratch out a...
Love-Love... Amelie Mauresmo and Maria Sharapova completed staight set 3rd Round wins over Mara Santangelo and Ai Sugiyama, respectively. Plus, with the impending weather bearing down, all the other women's singles matches were scheduled early and were able to get a large chunk of action completed. At the moment:
#6 Ivanovic is up a set on Rezai
#11 Petrova is up a set & 3-1 on Ruano-Pascual
#14 Vaidisova is up a set & 3-2 on Azarenka
#5 Kuznetsova is up a set & 4-3 on A.Radwanska
#12 Dementieva is up a set on Paszek
#23 V.Williams is up a set on Morigami, but is down 1-4 in the 2nd
Venus' match is scheduled to resume Monday on... yes, Court 2. So the ol' "Graveyard Court" will get another crack at her.
=============================
15-Love... the only other match completed on Day 6 featured one all-British team (James Auckland & Claire Curran) defeating another (Lee Childs & Katie O'Brien) in straight sets.
Perhaps the most interesting interrupted scoreline on Day 6 was in a 2nd Round Men's Doubles match, where Amer Delic(USA)/Bobby Reynolds(USA) are knotted with #10 Arnaud Clement(ESP)/Michael Llodra(FRA) 3-6,4-6,7-6(5),7-6(9),9-9.
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30-Love... here are the stats on the completed top half of the Women's & Men's Round of 16:
*WOMEN'S FINAL 16 - TOP HALF*
[by nation]
2...United States (Granville, S.Williams)
1...Belgium (Henin)
1...France (Bartoli)
1...Netherlands (Krajicek)
1...Serbia (Jankovic)
1...Slovakia (Hantuchova)
1...Switzerland (Schnyder)
[by age]
18...Michaella Krajicek
22...Jelena Jankovic
22...Marion Bartoli
24...Daniela Hantuchova
25...Justine Henin
25...Serena Williams
26...Laura Granville
28...Patty Schnyder
[by rank]
#1....Justine Henin
#3....Jelena Jankovic
#8....Serena Williams
#12...Daniela Hantuchova
#15...Patty Schnyder
#19...Marion Bartoli
#45...Michaella Krajicek
#77...Laura Granville
*MEN'S FINAL 16 - TOP HALF*
[by nation]
3...France (Gasquet, Mathieu, Tsonga)
1...Germany (Haas)
1...Serbia (Tipsarevic)
1...Spain (Ferrero)
1...Switzerland (Federer)
1...United States (Roddick)
=============================
40-Love...
*WOMEN's ROUND OF 16 PREDICTIONS*
[TOP HALF]
#1 Henin d. #15 Schnyder
...Patty's luck has to end soon.
#7 S.Williams d. #10 Hantuchova
...just biding time until Justine vs. Serena.
#3 Jankovic d. #18 Bartoli
...a hunch, though Bartoli has looked very good on grass the past few weeks.
Granville d. #31 Krajicek
...I can't go with chalk on EVERY pick, though it's hard to call a #31 seed winning "chalk," whether or not her brother won the '96 Wimbledon title or not.
*MEN's ROUND OF 16 PREDICTIONS*
[TOP HALF]
#1 Federer d. #13 Haas
...Haas won't be intimidated, but it won't matter.
Tipsarevic d. #20 Ferrero
...#4.
#3 Roddick d. Mathieu
...Paul-Henri isn't Roger.
Tsonga d. #12 Gasquet
...Gasquet usually disappoints at some point, why not just get it out of the way?
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MATCH, "Sunday was supposed to be a much-deserved day of rest for the Daily Backspin, as well"... but since today pretty much served as that, I guess I'll just have to wish for that time machine to take us to 2009 instead. By the way, it's raining then, too... but it doesn't matter.
TOP QUALIFIERS: Su-Wei Hsieh/TPE & Olga Govortsova/BLR
TOP EARLY ROUND (1r-2r): Amelie Mauresmo/FRA
TOP MID-ROUND (3r-QF): (vacant)
TOP LATE ROUND (SF-F): (vacant)
=============================
FIRST SEED OUT: #30 Olga Poutchkova/RUS (1r-E.Vesnina/RUS)
UPSET QUEENS: (vacant)
REVELATION LADIES: French (Bartoli & Rezai to 3rd Rd.)
LAST QUALIFIERS STANDING: Olga Govortsova/BLR, Nika Ozegovic/CRO, Tatiana Perebiynis/UKR, Hana Sromova/CZE & Agnes Szavay/HUN (2nd Rd.)
IT GIRL: (vacant)
MISS OPPORTUNITY: (vacant)
COMEBACK PLAYER: (vacant)
DOUBLES STAR: (vacant)
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: (vacant)
All for Day 6.
posted by Todd Spiker @ 3:28 PM
4 Comments:
(seriously, it's kind of freaky that we always pick the same pics...when i go through the yahoo pics or SI pics, i note intesting ones or the ones i like and then i go to your blog and voila! it's right there staring me in the face)
i think that the roddick-mathieu match is going to be interesting...roddick has a losing record against him and there's just something not right about a guy with a triple-first-name name...and look at the guys he's beaten to get to R4...he's (P-H M) really playing well right now
sidenote: i think that the hantuchova - s.williams match is going to be difficult for serena...i mean i'm rooting for serena, but hantuchova is playing damn well right now
so my dream team...(and sorry this took so long, i spent the weekend in chicago and i didn't have access to a computer)...umm...it's kind of hard to say since the women's game is relatively open and since it is kind of a transitional time (have you noticed that men's tennis is more of a 5-year cycle, while women's is more of a 10-year cycle...which makes sense since women with talent can be start starting in their late teens all through their 20s while men take a little time to mature and develop before they can dominate)...
(for the next couple of years)
1. henin (her ability to play top tennis consistently)
1. s. williams (her ability to fight consistently)
3. sharapova (definitely no. 2 in consistency and mental departments compared to henin and s.williams; i think that being a competitive being, she will revel in the challenge of proving her worth against her contemporaries now that they have closed the gap somewhat...she has the experience edge and will at first be able to beat them even if they have more talent than her)
4. ivanovic (kind of a distant fourth at the moment; she has the ball-striking skills and serve to win; but still a girl, not yet a woman...which makes a difference when you're being bitchslapped by a real woman - aka henin, s.williams, sharapova; get the feeling she's not as barbaric, for lack of better term, as other three which could prove detrimental)
5. vaidisova (kind of so distant she's a WC; on talent alone she makes the list; definitely has the firepower - serve, forehand, backhand - and touch; mental explosiveness is biggest liability; reminds me of young s. williams in that she has all the talent in the world but mental isn't quite there...she isn't really concerned about ranking and plays tournaments selectively...she has power and touch, untamed mental explosiveness...and when she puts everything together no one will be able to stop her...she hits such a clean, powerful ball...besides a GS at 17, she's serena incarnate)
HM (hey, it's backspin and that's the way it's done here :D ) v. williams (she has all the skills and experience...but now lacks focus...only is able to conjure it up at wimbledon...but again, if everything's going right, she can win...i really think she should change rackets like serena did...)
people who might win slams:
jankovic (the davenport, clijsters of her time...will probably win one here and there)
chakvetadze (the pierce of her time...will probably win one or two sporadically -- too emotional >.<)
kuznetsova (wtf...i hope she will, but her window is closing rapidly...or might be closed already)
mauresmo (i think she has another one or two in her...but it remains to be seen...hopefully she will win a French one day...definitely always a contender for wimbledon)
dark horse slam winners:
li (fighting time; needs to learn to not go for broke all the freaking time)
peer (needs more variety -- hitting balls out all the time won't cut it against top players)
people who have the ability and talent but probably won't win slams:
petrova
hantuchova
future slam winners
a. radwanska
paszek
wozniacki
perhaps future slam winners
azarenka
krajicek
i started with a dream team, but i got carried away (kind of want to see if i get your seal of approval...)
do you think davenport is going to make a comeback?
wow, sorry for all the typos...and for peer, i mean 'balls out hard' (really hard) not hitting the balls out of the court
my bad
time for bed...gots an exam tomorrow...summer school blows :(
and by summer school, i don't mean remedial summer school, i mean summer semester at Purdue...
damn, i'm making it worse...err....yeah...kinda wishing these things had edit options...
anyway, who's on your dream team?
Hmmm, well the obvious top 3 would be Henin, Serena and Sharapova. After that, it's always a shot in the dark.
But I'd give Kuznetsova a better shot than you did. She's still only 22 and consistently reaches Tier I finals, even if she doesn't win most of the most. One of these times, I think she'll get slam #2.
I think there's a good shot Vaidisova will get one, but maybe not for a few years, when Henin and Serena are less of a factor. As for the Serbs... I'm not sure. I'm tempted to say that either both will win one (with Ivanovic with a better shot at 2 or more), or neither will win any at all.
Also, I think Mauresmo's got one more in her. Probably at Wimbledon. Same with Venus.
As far as the youngsters, I'm not willing to commit on any of them just yet... but give me another 6-9 months on Paszek, and I might just agree with you. :)
It'll be interesting to see how Pavlyuchenkova pans out, as well.
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