Day 9: No Holds Barred

#1 vs. #4. #2 vs. #3. The Australian Open champion vs. the Supernova. The Battle of the Belgians, Pt. XXII. In the rectangular circle, it'll be a pair of no holds barred death matches.

After a week and a half of tip-toeing around the grass (and Venus), the women's side finally gets down to business on Day 10 as the winners of eight slam titles, the reigning title-holders from the other three slams and the SW19 champion one year removed will face off for a chance to play for the big plate... and talk to Sue Barker about it afterward.



...Venus' early demise has allowed Pierre to get the jump on me with our Wimbledon picks, but Justine can still help me out a great deal by winning tomorrow and taking the title on Saturday (just not as much as she would have had I taken her to win this thing from the beginning, as a I should have). Our original picks were Venus(gawhkkk!!)/JHH for me, and Sharapova/Hingis for the Tennisrulz head honcho.

**WIMBLEDON RESULTS/2006 STANDING**
4th Round: Pierre 8-6 (PC leads 39-35)
QF: Pierre 3-2 (Backspin leads 38-32)
SF: Backspin 2-1 (PC leads 27-23)
F: (tied 8-8)
W: (PC leads 2-0)

As for the semifinals...


MAURESMO vs. SHARAPOVA
...Mauresmo has been this far (and only this far, to this point) at SW19 her last four outings, while this is 2004 champ Sharapova's third straight SF-or-better result. The Supernova is 20-2 at Wimbledon (1-0 when she sees a naked guy in the backcourt), but Mauresmo has the game to beat her. She'll have to pressure the teenager to do it, and can thanks to her grass court-enhanced ability to rush the net and flash the game's best volleys. In fact, all things being equal, I'd pick her to reach her first Wimbledon final. But I can't, not after Mauresmo's mental wobble against Anastasia Myskina in the QF, and her general history of sucking in too much air at this time in a tournament. PICK: SHARAPOVA IN THREE, coming back from a set (and maybe a break) down to win

CLIJSTERS vs. HENIN-HARDENNE
...Le Petit Taureau is going for her third straight grand slam final since Clijsters won the U.S. Open last September. Clijsters should be right in the thick of this first Wimbledon match-up between the Waffles, but she should be in a lot of her matches with JHH and still ends up breaking down in the 3rd set of winnable matches. I'm looking for it to happen again here, largely because of Henin-Hardenne's recent stellar play and Clijsters' seeming lack of belief that she can top her fellow Belgian on a big stage. JHH leads this career series by just 11-10, but she's 4-2 against Clijsters in slams (and 2-0 overall this year, winning in Roland Garros and on the grass at Eastbourne just two weeks ago). Much like Mauresmo, Clijsters' one slam title has to be looked upon as an aberration at this point... until proven otherwise. PICK: HENIN-HARDENNE IN THREE SETS, with the 3rd going along the lines of 6-1 or 6-2

...hmmm, while a Melbourne rematch between Henin-Hardenne and Mauresmo would be quite tasty, maybe the most digestible Saturday meal would be Le Petit Taureau vs. the Supernova. I'm betting that's what we'll get, too. It should be fun.


SHARAPOVA vs MAURESMO: Hmmm... a while ago, I would probably have picked Amelie to win this, just because of her variety, and well the fact that she is probably an underdog in this match. But in reality, I think that even those will not be enough to face a very well rounded confident and motivated Maria Sharapova whose game is perfect for this surface, just too much power... Sharapova in 2

HENIN-HARDENNE vs CLIJSTERS: Hmm every time this battle arises it seems, I think Kim will pull the match through, and yet I've been wrong so many times... As much as I'm hoping Kim can win this, I'm going with Justine this time. She has looked amazing so far, is playing with all kinds of confidence... could be a great match... Justine in 3!



Love/Love... the doubles team of Mark Knowles & Daniel Nestor defeated Simon Aspelin & Todd Perry today in your regular ol' ordinary five-set doubles match, except that the two-day affair ended up 23-21 in the deciding set and lasted a "ya-gotta-minute, well how 'bout 369?" 6:09. It was the longest doubles match in Wimbledon history.
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15/Love... it seems that only an act of God can stop Roger Federer at this year's Wimbledon. Well, even that can only slow him down a little. Today, the rain didn't even do that as he came out rolling, much to Mario Ancic's chagrin, after every break in the action to keep his perfect slate of sets won intact for this tournament. Since 2004, he's now 208-8 against the rest of the ATP field, but just 1-6 against Rafael Nadal. The rain prevented Rafa from getting one step closer to the second titanic slam matchup between the two in barely a month.
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30/Love... of course, Marcos Baghdatis might end up ruining that potential Roger-Rafa match if Nadal faces and loses to him in a SF meeting, giving us a rematch of the AUSTRALIAN OPEN final rather than the one in Roland Garros. Baghdatis handled Lleyton Hewitt today, and is reminding everyone how much fun he was to watch in Melbourne. Hopefully, he'll get his due and get a couple night matches at the U.S. Open in a few months. He's earned them, and he wouldn't disappoint.
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40/Love... Martina Navratilova says this is her last Wimbledon, but she's still got a while to go before she says goodbye to competition (and, hopefully, hello again to TV commentating... which she was quite good at before her most recent comeback). She's still alive with Mark Knowles in the Mixed, and tomorrow she and Liezel Huber will play the 3rd set of their Doubles QF match with Zi Yan & Jie Zheng.
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Game, "NOPE, NO AMERICANS HERE, EITHER... BUT THERE IS A BRIT."

**JUNIOR QUARTERFINALS**
[Girls]
Naomi Cadavy(GBR) vs. Urszula Radwanska(POL)

#4 Caroline Wozniacki(DEN) vs. #7 Ayumi Morigami(JAP)
#6 Magdalena Rybarikova(SVK) vs. #3 Alisa Kleybanova(RUS)
#10 Tamira Paszek(AUT) vs. #16 Alexandra Dulgheru(ROM)
[Boys]
#1 Theimo de Bakker(NED) vs. #12 Artur Chernov(RUS)
#15 Robin Roshardt(SUI) vs. Michael Konecny(CZE)
#6 Luka Belic(CRO) vs. Pavel Chekhov(RUS)
Marcin Gawron(POL) vs. Nikola Mektic(CRO)

...once Donald Young lost to Robin Roshardt, it meant no Americans would reach the junior QF at Wimbledon, either.

Britain's Julia Bone didn't quite make it to the girls QF, but the locals can still root for Naomi Cadavy, who knocked out Kristina Kucova today (Kucova had upset #1 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a junior finalist in both Oz and Paris, in the 1st Round).

Besides Cadavy, iIt's quite the interesting Final Eight for the women. It includes, amongst others, Magdalena Rybarikova, who knocked off Lucie Safarova in Prague in May, as well as Urszula Radwanska... yes, she's main draw Round of 16er Agnieszka's sister.



All for Day 9. More tomorrow.