Heh, love this pic. It sums up the match perfectly.

It wasn’t pretty, no. And sure, there were tons of errors. But there some pretty epic winners too, and some seriously big hitting. Justine, at times, can be too much of a ball basher, and Kim, at times, can be too much of a headcase. Naturally, the match ended the same way the Brisbane final did, with a 7-6(8) scoreline for Kim in the third. (The first two sets were 6-3, 6-7).

This match really could have gone either way. Kim failed to serve it out at 5-4, and from there, it was pretty apparent that a tiebreak was going down. Not to mention she was down 0-2 to start and came back to win the next 3 games to go up a break. It was typical WTA, it was typical drama, but hey, it was a lot of fun. The only reason Kim won was a total fluke stretch volley by Kim to get a mini-break, and then she served it out from there.

Enjoy the madness:

Kim/Venus is going to be one hell of a final, and it’s reall what this tournament deserves, in my opinion, as they’ve been the two best players this week.

If there’s any similarity to be drawn between the men’s Miami and the women’s Miami, it would be Rafa and Kim. For realsies. Kim beat Sam today in straights, 6-3 7-5, with Sam being the first opponent to lose a set that wasn’t a bagel or a breadstick. And Sam has had a solid few weeks. In other words, Kim is on a roll.

She’ll face the other Waffle, who beat Caro. Caro really mentally and visibly faded in the third set (after taking the first) and could barely take a point off Justine’s serve. Have to wonder if that sickness that she was feeling before came back. The real interesting thing is that she even took a set off Justine; a player who should have the perfect game to take Caro at fast. Hmm. Justine/Kim is not before 9pm local tomorrow night, and should be one hell of a ride. The winner gets Mono or Venus.

Props to Serena, who wrapped another Australian Open title over Justine in three long, tough sets, and defended her title for the first time ever.

To be honest, not being a huge fan of either of these players, I was really hoping for an entertaining match, or something outrageous to happen. It wasn’t a “classic”, but it was high quality tennis and a pretty solid match overall. However, Justine’s serve was just not getting in enough and still needs some serious work on accuracy. And even after the second set win, to me, Serena still felt entirely in control. She didn’t have much trouble finishing it off.

Overall I think it’s kind of great for women’s tennis, regardless of your thoughts on these players. Serena really cut the antics down, she was often seen visibly calming herself on court, and really wanted this thing. Justine was incredibly humble afterwards, admitting an emotional couple of weeks, and how much it meant to her to be able to climb back to the top and contest for titles. The two even had a nice moment at the net.

It’s a bit of an anti-climactic end to a generally non-eventful slam as far as the women are concerned. No hometown underdog upsets, no line judge tirades, no comeback champion (almost). No Serena saving match points, no excessive grunting. And no Russians. The Australian Open last year featured 3/4 Russian quarterfinalists. The past two slams have had 3 Belgians, two Chinese, and zero Russians. Odd. But that’s ok, it’s early in the season. After Indian Wells and Miami, I’m sure they’ll all have the crazy juices going just in time for the clay season.

Let’s be honest for a minute here. A lot of us KNEW this could happen, most of us didn’t think it would. Even more of us didn’t want it to, likely (if you’re some sort of regular reader of this blog.) Maybe if you wanted a shit show. But now it’s only a day away, so better start getting used to it.

The weirdest thing is that Justine, the one who hasn’t played professional tennis in a million years, might just be the favourite. Serena needed two tiebreaks against a tough Nails, but realistically Serena was making some lazy shots and just kind of doing enough to get by. Not until the very end did she show that whacktastic competitive spirit, maybe because she knew she had to stop screwing around.

On the other hand, Justine lost a game to JZ and is sort of tearing up the court right now. Serena’s movement isn’t terrible, but it’s not at it’s greatest… though I’d be curious to see how much of a deal it would be in a final. Regardless, you know these two have been eying each other across the draw as day after day it’s come down from 16, to 8… and now there’s only two. This should be one hell of a match, and at the very least, great for women’s tennis. Bring it.

Justine in the semis? OK. But JZ? I hope whoever guessed that one pre-tournament put some serious money down on it.

Justine squeaked past an error prone Nads once again, 7-6, 7-5, and JZ more or less dismantled Kiri, who I’m guessing is probably exhausted by now since she had to play two doubles matches yesterday… and you know, isn’t used to even playing this many singles matches.

This is one excellent match-up, as both players are rather small and compact. JZ doesn’t have the power that Justine has, but she can drive players absolutely bonkers by getting balls deep, and her speedy recovery after shots. Watching her give Serena problems last year in Miami was some sort of wonderful.

If you’re curious, they’ve met once before, back in 2005 in Toronto. Justine won 2 and 4.

But it was all going so well? What is this, the US Open?

No Justine/Kim, not even Justine/Kuz. Instead we have Nads, who has been playing incredibly solid tennis all week. I’m a little bit sad that Kuz lost… but at the same time, if you saw the first round of Brisbane, Nads and Justine were absolutely ripping the cover off the ball. Nads will be looking for revenge, and let’s be honest, probably has the upper hand. She’s been pretty consistent all tournament, and Justine, if anything, may start running out of gas sooner than later. If it’s anything like Brisbane, a match you do NOT want to miss.

And then there’s the other quarter, which was a mindfuck to start out with. Questions around Dina… Mono and JJ? Didn’t happen. So sad to see Dina go down. She apparently was in so much pain she could barely move, and it was exactly what happened in Doha. The really unfortunate part is that she’s been playing quite well, and getting progressively better. Not to mention if she were to have won, JZ is an easily beatable opponent.

And how about JZ? She’s a pesky one all right. She took out A-Bond, which is really not that huge of an upset, and will take on MaKiri next round. The two of them have been pretty solid all tournament, especially Kiri, who is out to prove something (which she did, making her first ever slam quarterfinal. Props.) I actually think that may be a really fantastic match, despite detractors likely looking to go blabbing about two unseeded players in a quarterfinal. So JZ or Kiri and Justine or Nads will be in the semis. And one of them will be in the final. I’ll let you take a moment to wrap your head around that.

No upsets for these ladies, as they breezed through their opening round and kaboom, Lena/Justine in the SECOND round, which in the good ole days would easily be a quarterfinal match at the least.

I’m still not sure how I feel about no Justine seeding. Despite Captain Gilbert’s BRILLIANT idea to seed Kim second and Justine third, it would have made sense to give Justine 32nd seed, at least to keep something this insane from happening. Regardless, I’m guessing this will be a night match on Wednesday, meaning I am going to be getting next to no sleep Tuesday night and then somehow scraping through a day of 9 hours of class the next day. Ah, the season is officially here.

Oh, it was a showdown alright.

OK, so I set my alarm for 4am after all. Unfortunately I pretty well passed out right afte it went off and woke me up, so I missed it. But it sounded epic. And once it gets uploaded to t3nnis.tv, I’m gonna grab it. Another solid and impressive win for Kim, heading into Melbourne, obviously, and you really have to like her chances. Got get ‘em Mom.

Justine apparently effed up her leg worse than she thought, and EVEN THOUGH she’s supposed to play Serena in the second round, assuming she wins her first round match, she’s pulled out of Sydney, so she can rest up for Melbourne. Please, Sven, put her in at least Serena’s quarter. We need us a bitchfest. Amen.

The seemingly inevitable Belgian Brisbane Showdown kept rolling, but not with some serious bumps along the road. No more domination, no more one sided matches. Justine dropped the second set and just squeaked out in a third set tiebreak against Czink, and Kim somehow ate a bagel in the second set to Lucie, but won in three, with an almost identical score to what happened against Venus at the USO, 61 06 64. If there’s one weakness in Kim’s game, it’s her need to have a rhythm and play like she’s got an appointment to be at in an hour. Great when you’re winning, and swinging freely, it keeps her from headcasing, like, ever. Not so good when the other player has upped their game and you’re not taking the time to slow things down. Regardless, just like Venus, she pulled it out, so who am I to talk?

Justine will take on Aner Bananer at 11am local, the first match, then the Big Berd match, and then Kim/Petkovic (who beat Dani in the quarters.)

Kim threw down, and Justine decided to call. It wasn’t really a re-raise, a convincing win but not a slaughter, but its a quarterfinal berth none the less. These two seem well on their way for a collision in the final, which should be rather delicious.

And speaking of top players, Fed kept on rolling, and Rafa looks as determined in a long time (beating Potato Starchild 2 and 2) as both are into the quarters in Doha. The dude was actually snarling. And of course tracking everything down and hitting insane shots. And this is only a second round match in a 250 event. And yes. Unless Fuzzy McBaldsky has anything to say about it, these two will likely collide in the final, in what is a generally pretty weak Doha field.