Close, but no cigar.

In one of the best matches of the tournament, Maria and Serena probably should have ordered to double up on ball changes, as they both came out ripping the cover off the ball.

Masha is back. She was going to need to come out fearless. Check. She was going to have to work the big forehand. Check. She was going to have to stay away from key double faults. Not so check. Make no mistake, Serena played amazingly, but Masha essentially gave the match away at key points. A double fault at 9-all in the first set tiebreak gave Serena a set point, which she took with an ace. Maria also double faulted twice in a row on her serve in the second set at 15-all, gifting two break points. Champions don’t waste those oppurtunities. That was the match.

Not that Serena didn’t play well. She saved several set points in the first set tiebreak, was destroying second serves, and moving incredibly well. Even if those double faults didn’t happen, she still likely would have found a way to win. It’s just too bad it went down the way it did.

Serena gets Nails next round, who crushed A-Rad and has been quietly having a fantastic grass season. She beat Maria in the Birmingham final, so in theory she should give Serena a test. Expect a fight.

Q. In your own mind, was this the start of the defense of your title, the title you couldn’t defend last year?
RAFAEL NADAL: I don’t have to defend nothing, no one point. All the points are in positive for me in this tournament. I go day to day. For me was a very good victory today. Was difficult opponent, I think. And, sure, next round it will be very difficult against very dangerous serve like Robir Haase.
I don’t feel like a defense of the title. Roger has to defend that. I have the chance to defend 2008. I didn’t play for the knee. So that’s the sport. Right now I gonna try my best.

Q. Physically, how are you at this point?
JAMES BLAKE: The knee is not great. If it doesn’t get better soon, I’m not sure how much longer I want to play in pain.
I’m doing my best. We’re doing everything we can. It’s just getting pretty frustrating. We’re trying everything, so hopefully soon we’ll find the solution and make it so it’s better.

Q. Is that as good as you’ve felt since Melbourne?
ANDY MURRAY: I don’t know. I felt I was definitely in the right frame of mind for the match. You know, I felt when I went behind, I mean, it’s not the best start, but I felt calm, you know. Just, you know, found a way to get myself back into the match.
So I wouldn’t say it’s the best that I’ve felt since Melbourne, but it’s a good start.
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Weapons: Serve (when it’s on), heavy hitting everywhere, consistency building.
Weaknesses: Serve (When it’s off), double faults.

Slowly but surely the pieces are falling back into place for the Scream Queen, who has looked better than she has in a long time (and yes, I’m talking about her game). The aces are coming in, the double faults are falling, and the serve is looking way less awkward. The movement, the forehand… it’s all looking better. Regardless, her second serve was eaten alive by Nails in the Birmie final and her first serve percentage was much too low to stand a chance. Her entire tournament may rest on whether or not she can get more first serves in against the heavy hitters.

…When you’re tough as Nails! OH THE PUNS.

Impressive win from Nails today, as she hung in with Masha in the first set all to 5 all, broke to take it, and then ran away with the second to take the match in straight sets.

Masha has been able to hammer through opponents this week, but pace alone wouldn’t do it against Nails. She did a fantastic job of using the pace and turning it around to push balls deep. Some of which would bounce off the line and eventually drive Masha a bit nuts.

She also did a fantastic job of playing to Maria’s sub-par movement, using lots of cross court shots, again, with lots of pace. She also mixed up serve direction, and used the second serve effectively to win 9 of 11 points on it.

While Masha’s first serve is definitely back (and gigantic) the second serve let her down big time. Seven double faults (six in the first set) and she only won 29% of her second serve points… in both sets. Nails was pretty well laying into them, several of which were sent back for winners.

Nails is now off to Eastbourne, and Masha has the week off.

Maria Sharapova is back, and don’t have a damn doubt about it. She played basically two matches today (the first one started at 4-0) and lost a total of 7 games. Can’t comment on her play since there haven’t been streams, but watch out. Screw the whole Justine return, “I want to win Wimbledon” silliness? What about Maria? She had an insane RG, basically physically pommeled herself into the ground, and didn’t have enough in the tank for Wimbledon. The tank is full this time. Big media is going to pump you full with Justine/all Williams final crap… but what about the real return of Maria? You have been warned.

And major props go out to Laura Lump (Henman Hill… Murray Mound… Laura Lump? I mean, she’s tiny… no?…) who hung in tough against the real spoiled brat, Wicky, 7-5, 6-4. Despite the fact that I died my hair blonde, pretended to be her coach and ran down during a changeover to help her out, she just couldn’t pull out that second set. Still, 64% serving and winning 70% of first serves is something to be proud of against a big hitter. Especially when you’re 16. Hell, if she can win one match at Wimbledon, against anyone, it would be huge.

Masha and Justine finished up their silliness today with a pretty unsurprising result. Justine took it 6-3.

The most surprising thing was the start. It looked like a continuation of the second set with Maria blasting and playing a more straight forward power game. She was up 0-2, 0-40 with Justine serving, got another break point at Ad, but couldn’t convert. Justine would take the game, break, hold, and then break again and that was pretty well it.

Not much to say. Crap conditions, and even crappier play. Justine was getting balls deep and Masha seemed like she was over compensating a bit and the forehand got hella wild. Still, the play from the other side of the net wasn’t exactly overwhelmingly kickass, but she definitely flipped it up another knotch after the first couple of games. She’ll take on Superhero Sam in the fourth round, which should be a hell of a match.

Weird match. Very weird. Called after a set apiece, Justine and Masha will finish up business tomorrow.

It was a pretty interesting outcome considering the conditions. Justine got off to a quick start, used the angles, and controlled the first set all the way through.

The second set was a different story. Dark, cold and wet, Masha somehow managed to turn the match into her style of game. How, I haven’t a bloody clue. She started hammering the return, being patient with balls in the middle of the court, and basically waiting for Justine to make a move so it could create an opening for her forehand, which was soon dictating play.

The odd thing was the resistance from Justine; there wasn’t much. Instead of attempting to slice or mix it up, she was content with bashing the backhand, and often found herself the victim of dropshots. This led to her being broken and gave her few openings on the Masha serve.

So we’ll finish it off tomorrow. Predictions? Tough to know with the WTA right now, but I expect a brutal battle, especially if Masha can keep that forehand working and the double faults low.

This is epic awesome. I’m a little biased, since Troy is one of my fave football players… but the Masha thing totally makes it worth it. And P-Mac. Nike knows what’s up y’all. And by that, I mean: brilliant marketing job.

It was business as usual for the ladies yesterday… or perhaps business as unusual, as pretty well everyone who should have won yesterday did so. Caro, probably for the first time this year, looked like her old self, really hitting the ball, spreading Kiri out, and hitting some big serves (she went for an ace down the line on the ad court at one point and just missed wide, it was weird) and threw a bagel and 3 at Kiri. Ouch. Maybe now that Nails is out of her way, she’s believing. She’ll take on Nads next.

Birthday girl Aravane took out Franny, and Lena, A-Rad (bagel and ‘sticking Dulkbag), Mono and Molik all won.

Yesterday’s biggest “Performance Of The Day… Brought to you by Balls To The Wall©” is from the lil’ scrapper, JZ, who continues to prove that no opponent is too big (or too tall) for her this year. Taking out Masha in three (ridiculously long) sets, she sets up a fourth round meeting with Alicia Molik. So basically, she should be top 5 in the early WTA YEC race by the end of the tourney, if she isn’t already.

Sucks for Masha though, who apparently was feeling more right elbow pain, just as in USO, and she’s not exactly one to make excuses. It might explain her TEN THOUSAND (read 14) double faults, and just one ace. At one point, break point, she took extra long on a second serve, and proceeded to flop it into the net. Something was definitely up. I’d say the bottom half’s remaining 8 has shaped up quite nicely, overall.

Well, for Masha fans anyway.

MaKiri came out whacking balls like I’ve never seen before, giving Masha a run for her money in the grunt department, and generally just looking as angry as she is cute. Which was glory unto itself.

She served big, got some 70% in, and won most of the points off her first serve. She totally freaked when she served for the match, but then got mega-pissed again and broke at 4-5 in the third to take it.

While this is entirely Kiri’s win, I still don’t get Masha’s choice not to play a warm-up tournament, as she hasn’t played a legit match since October. Had Kiri not been on fire or so determined, or had she had an easier opponent, she likely could have worked her way into the draw and caught some steam. Not the case with such a seeding. She was NOT taking balls inside the baseline enough and was playing far too defensively, and made it easy for Kiri to ramp up her game. Plus her net game was all over the place, both in fundamentals and in choice.

As for the draw, Kiri could face Domi in the third round. This also opens things up for Dina big time, and now has a much more comfortable path to the quarterfinals.