It certainly feels like a lifetime has passed since I wrote this.

It’s been a long couple of years for Sorana Cirstea. Things seemed very much on the up in 2009. She made the Roland Garros quarters and Los Angeles semis, as well as the third round in Wimbledon and the US Open. The transition from junior to serious pro seemed complete at the ripe age of 19.

Despite her positive outlook, it’s been a tough couple of years. Sorana has lost much of the “complete player” look she once had, and in a very similar fashion to Ivanovic, has looked more like a player with a big forehand and sporadic confidence.

Tennis is a funny sport though, and so often it’s in the head. At the end of the year last year, Sorana yanked out a $50k ITF title in France after saving a match point all the way in her first round. A solid showing in Auckland against Pennetta despite the first round loss, and then a quarterfinal loss in Hobart to Kerber after blowing two match points.

Expectations for Melbourne? Please. I’ll paraphrase, but at the beginning of her match versus Stosur, I texted my friend saying that I was about to watch Sorana be destroyed in front of a packed house.

Then things started happening. Impressive things. Powerful things. Dominating things. First, the footwork. It’s always been a bit clunky. Last year she made a push to become more fit, and looked almost unhealthily skinny. It was sad to see. However, there seems to be a good balance and it showed in her movement.

The forehand has always been big and been a strength. However, to my eye, much of the loopiness that made it wild was gone. This looked mainly in her wrist preparation which is much more consistent. However, the footwork allowed her to get to balls with plenty of time and make the entire motion consistently over the course of the match.

The serve was impressive as well. 65% is a very, very good sign for her. The fact that she was serving, on average, 10km/h faster than Stosur on first serves at 165km/h doesn’t hurt either.

Mostly importantly, however, was her ability to push Stosur around and take advantage of short balls early in points. Stosur traditionally struggles against some uber-flat hitters and that isn’t by accident. Sorana ate up Stosur’s slices which normally neutralize opponents. She was ready for them too, and wasn’t afraid to bend her knees and let it rip. The forehand down the line (including an amazing running passing shot late in the second set) was particularly impressive.

Lastly, the net. First off, I would like to note that many people noted Cirstea’s success at the net (14/16) and drew comparisons to Kirilenko’s net rushing versus Stosur in New York. This is both true and false. The true part is that both were very effective at the net, and playing the net was often a wise decision. The difference from the Kirilenko match, however, is that it was very much on the forefront of Kirilenko’s mind, particularly while serving. Many of Cirstea’s points at the net were a result of getting on top in baseline rallies and having the guts to finish them off. This largely comes about by the nature of Sam’s short slices, as well as a few Stosur drop shots. Just because a player has a decent amount of net approaches and is largely successful does not necessarily mean that they were net rushing, and in fact, can be quite the opposite.

Overall, you have to feel terrible for Stosur. Full credit needs to be given to Cirstea who may have played the match of her life last night and came in for a fight. But it is also fair to say that Stosur did not play her best tennis and really did not start to show shades of the US Open champion that she is until 1-1 in the second set. However, Stosur is a notoriously slow starter of the season and tends not to find a ton of success in Australia. This is far from a crushing blow to her confidence and potential success this season.

Next up for Sorana Banana is Urszula Radwanska and the chance to make a grand slam third round for the first time since 2009.

(Side note: for those curious of the Twitter hashtag I throw around in good fun, #SoranaCirsteaprayercircleofone. Clearly, I’m a fan of Sorana. I made a trip up to Montreal in 2010 to see the ladies play, and Sorana had made it to the final round of qualifying, up against fellow Romanian Monica Niculescu. Following nothing but the live scores with great intent. Clearly I was the only one caring let alone freaking out and tweeting about it, so I used the hashtag #soranacirsteaprayercircleofone, making a joke on the sometimes used #[player name here]prayercircle joke sometimes used for fans who have a player locked in a tight match. And so the hashtag lives. Oh, and she lost, by the way. Go figure.

It’s tough being a huge tennis fan, having massive interest in a tournament… and not being able to watch it. Luckily the coverage around the net for Stanford has been outstanding (massive understatement) but the one key part missing has been that the rest of us haven’t actually seen anything on the courts. And we won’t be able to until tomorrow. It’s kind of the reason this blog has been a little quiet over the past couple of days. So I thought I’d just sum up a whole bunch of random thoughts in a big post. Y’all know where the sweet coverage is this week.

• Fantastic win for Ana against the big hitting Kleybs. Ana has been a near guaranteed loss against big hitters of late (sorry girl, tis true) and to come through is pretty huge. Also hearing her acknowledge that she’s clearly had troubles in closing out matches late, and she’s working on it, is great. And of course her new fitness. Girl looks good physically, hope her game looks just as good. Don’t count her out against Mono tonight.
• Muzz is done with Miles. Apparently the two drifted so far apart it was a pretty easy decision. Rumours are flying that he’ll begin start working with Killer Cahill soon. In my honest opinion, and as a Muzz fan, that would be a pretty brilliant move. While Cahill worked with Agassi just like BG, Killer has a more calming, cerebral approach that I think would really work with Muzz’s personality. Personally, I’d love to see that happen.
• Lindsay Davenport and partner Liezel won their first dubs match together yesterday in Stanford over Believe Oudin and Krajicek. I had a dream two nights ago that Davenport won the French Open over Agi Radwanska, 6-0, 6-1, and I was really confused because I seemed to have remember one of the semifinals being Kim/Justine and I didn’t understand why one of them wasn’t in the final. I wish I was making this up.
• Great to see Baggy looking more fit as ever (again, it seems) and getting into the quarters in LA. On a side note, what is Muzz doing playing his opening match, as the top seed, on Thursday night? How does a tournament wait until Thursday to get their top seed in action? I know Sammy Q played yesterday, but yeesh.
• Gulbis and Tursunov are playing dubs in LA. And they won their first match. Just throwing it out there, ladies.
• Sorana Banana beat Akgul in her opening match in straights, and beat Portoroz finalist Larsson today 6-4, 6-4. Come back to me, girl. She served at 67% and won 63% of points off her first serve. Goooood.
• There still isn’t anything remotely exciting happening in Gstaad or Umag.

Now you know! Hoping to catch whatever matches TTV decides to play tomorrow from Stanford, and hopefully the rest of the tournament after, so should be lots of postage this weekend.

Thanks to Love All from your home of the best Stanford coverage in all the land, Forty Deuce, for the Dani pic.

Agreed Caro. I made that same face when I saw your outfit, too.

I sort of figured this would happen. Aravane is confident, and hits wickedly flat. 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 for Goldschlager. Caro doesn’t like having to dig down and get balls, even though she’s not bad at it. She needs the ball up so she can hammer it around and have her way with things. No can do. Boo face.

Remember when I sarcastically backhanded Sorana Banana yesterday? Well not only did she step up her game, she defeated French Open champion Franny in her first match back… and in straight sets. So… are you back now? Have you finally returned to the state of bright, sweet, not over powering banana instead of a gross, browning, too-much-potassium banana? I sure hope so.

Oh, and Canada’s last remaining light lost to some 18 year old British qualifier. Seriously girl, where your head at? Wait, she lost to this girl?

OK. I guess you can stick around then.

JJ dropped out in the opening round of Monterrey to some human being by the name of Anastasija Sevastova in 3 sets. Ana fans can at least be hopeful, with her new coach and all that, and even though she can’t toss a ball, I’m pretty sure she could beat the 72nd ranked player in the world (pretty sure.) These girls really need to figure out what the hell is going on. JJ is far from the automatic player she used to be.

And in other saddening news, Sorana Banana was dumped out by Errani 2 and 3 and has won one match on tour all year. Girl, it’s March. Sigh.

Well, well, well. Have a banana everyone.

Stupid ass Hanescu fell to Rusty Lawnmower, in what ended up being a rather epic match, that finished in a third set tiebreak. Rusty was looking… well, Rusty, but so was Hanescu. Which meant a lot of dumb errors, and a decent amount of solid rallies. And a whole lot of “come on!”s from Rusty, which was usually when I flipped to my stream. “Oh what the hell do you want Lleyton? Yeah that wasn’t THAT exciting.” Anyway, somehow, despite Australia having the best doubles player out of the four of them (Superhero) Team Romania came out 7-5, 6-1. Dunno, didn’t see it. But don’t mess with Banana, y’all. Kind of really hoping she can make a push for the top 20 this year, she’s got the game, easily.

In a sort of interesting match-up, Spain (T-Rob and MJMS) take on USA (Oudin and Tree). So pretty well, Spain just need to win one of their singles matches, and they’ve got it. Because Mel and Tree? Neither are that good, and chances are Queen Volleyer MJMS could beat the two of them with Bozo the Clown on her team. Whatevs, fucking tennis is back y’all, I’ll be watching (and MJMS’s throwback serve and volley can be fun to watch, and I’m curious to see how Mel is looking).

Hopman Cup got kicked off tonight (or this morning, since its actually the morning in Australia. Crazy backwards Australians) in what is the unofficial beginning of the season. Today is hometeam Australia vs. Romania.

Superhero came flying out of the blocks, not surprisingly, and Sorana Banana looked rusty. Damn rusty. She was having trouble hitting a first serve, generating serious power into the ball, and even just putting the damn thing in between the proper lines. Sam, on the other hand, was serving bombs out wide and dictating play. First set, easily, 6-3.

Then something strange happened. The first game of the next set took some 8 or 9 minutes. Sorana had a hell of a time holding serve, but she was starting to hit the ball, and after holding, she was jacked up, fist pumping, and hitting freely. And then she REALLY started hitting the ball, and hitting in the right spot. And damn son, when she unleashes that forehand, it’s a thing of beauty, and is going to cause anyone outside of the top 10 serious trouble. The hold serve until 4-5, Banana blows a set point, but gets a couple more, and gets handed the set as Sam gets nervous and Nando’s it away on a double fault.

And from there it was pretty well Banana’s match. She was broken early in the set, broke right back. Sam was making errors, sure, she wasn’t as solid as the first set, but Sorana was starting to push the ball around and dictate. She also hit a totally dirty spinning forehand return winner. At 4-all she broke and served it out rather calmly. And did she ever want it… yeah, for an opening Hopman Cup match, but there you go. Advantage, Romania.

Rusty Lawnmower (whose COME OOOON I just relived like three times in slo-mo) is taking on Hanescu right now.

For those who don’t know, its the Thanksgiving holiday in Canada today! So here’s some fun, sugary, happy holiday Monday stuff:

For the last remaining YEC spot:

Its pretty well all going to come down to Moscow, and how well Flavs and A-Rad can do in Linz. How fun would a final between the two of them be? Depending on how JJ and Bepa end up doing, pretty well everyone has a legit chance to steal that eighth and final spot. I’m actually kind of looking forward to the fight for it, the YEC is a huge opportunity to pad the ranking stats going into next year and earn a nice little pay cheque too. As for the overall rankings:

There you have it folks, Serena back on top. Another notable jump is Kuz, back into the top 5 at 4, which bumps Caro and Lena down a spot. Vika and JJ also switched spots, and of course, the Iron Chef lands herself at number 10, and Flavs unfortunately falls back out of the top 10 at 11. And how weird is it seeing Nads all the way at 17? Didn’t she start the year in the top 10? Lame.

Anyway, here’s more happy Monday presents, recent and ridiculous videos of dubs teams Darth Lesbians and Team Thiefer Of Celebrations:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axdhLBVlPA4&hl=en&fs=1&]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoPAKWGQkK8&hl=en&fs=1&]

Caro busted out the new Stella gear today, and my honest first reaction was “ew”, but its growing on me a bit. Waist above looks great, but the frills are a little much. Since she doesn’t have the super tiny figure of MaKiri, it kinda makes her hips look bigger than they are, and at times looked pretty ridiculous when she had a ball tucked away when serving. I’m also kind of used to the colour from the old yellow (think AO) or The Blueberry Danish days, which look great on her. Still more interesting than the nurse outfit though.

Anyway, she came out incredibly rusty, and was having a lot of trouble with the serve. Her opponent, Voskoboeva, does NOT hit particularily hard, and it really made me realize how much of a counterpuncher Caro is, cause her shots looked particularily weak and she wasn’t getting a whole ton of pace going on the ball. Overall she looked pretty defensive and a bit flat. She figured out her serve in the second set though, and it was a bagel blowout, which is nice to see.

Meanwhile, close by, both in location and in the draw, Banana took out the Japanese Morita 1 and 3. She looked damn good doin’ it too, the clothes, the serve, it was all cracking.

Licky fended off Rezai too, winning the first set in a tiebreak, losing the second one in the same fashion, and then making a statement and breadsticking the third. Pretty solid win coming off the injury, and Rezai has been playing well of late too, of course.

Also, U-Rad lost. Boo.

OH HELL YEAH

She started the match by being broken. She fought to get it back, and take the first set to a tiebreak, which she won. She started having foot problems in the second set, and was crying at the end of the set. Sven came on and calmed her down. She came back out, improved her movement, kept fighting, and got things to 4 all. She was then broken, the Iron Chef serving for the match. She looked like she was ready to give up, but once again, Sven came out and told her to keep putting pressure on A-Rad, especially paying attention to second serves. He ended it by saying “you’re gonna be a winner”. I’m pretty sure he meant in her career, not necessarily the match, but he was very likely right about both.

Girl came out and miraculously broke A-Rad’s serve, held, and after a couple of match points at 56, she fired a huge shot down the line to take the final set, and the match 76 16 75, in two and a half hours.

I like A-Rad, but I’m a fan of Banana, and an even bigger fan now. It was almost like watching a goofy sports movie, except this time you didn’t know the end. She looked ready to give up, hell, retire at the end of the second set. But the calm and knowledgeable coach/demigod calmed her down, convinced her to keep going. He did it again at 56 when all hope seemed lost. And then she somehow pulled the match out.

The girl has serious game. Huge forehand that she can really crack, especially on second serve returns, and a pretty consistent and reliable backhand. Blasphemy, possibly, but both her serve and forehand remind me of the Ana of old at times, just that she gets a little less power and is maybe a little less wild, because she isn’t as tall and lanky. She also seems to be the sort of middle ground between conservative counterpuncher Caro and flailing power-mad Licky. Disappointing result for the Iron Chef, however, who has lost 8/8 of all quarterfinals she’s reached this year. Freakin’ blows.

Banana will take on the winner of Superhero/JZ which is coming up in a few.

We hardly knew ye. What a travesty that there were no streams or coverage to of ANY LA action yesterday. Bitchfest 09 Throwdown happened between Vika/Masha and Sugar and …not spice, what’s another word for sugar?… went afterwards with Caro/Banana. And no one saw either of these epic matches, despite the probably 40 people in the stands. Yeah, ok.

Let’s just be honest for a minute. Both of these players are extremely competitive. They’re both extremely good. And they’re both pretty interested in throwing as much bitchiness and kitchen sink at you as is necessary. This is one of those matches that makes most people giddy, just for the possibilities of ridiculousness. And I think its one of the matches that, despite who wins, you kind of have to feel overall satisfied with at the end of the day.

I followed the first set on the scoreboard, and it opened with 4 breaks. The serving percentages and stats were pretty hilarious and ridiculous to start with, but both players started shaking off the rust and I’m sure started firing big time. Masha finished with 63% first serve and Vika with 73%, though they had a combined 19 double faults and only 5 aces. Vika edged out the first set in the tiebreak, but Masha managed to take the next two, 64 62. By the sounds of it, she was really fighting and just came out tougher on the mental side of things, which, lets be honest, isn’t very surprising. Masha is beyond resilient, and Vika has been known to lose her shit (and racquet) at points and it sounds like all three happened. Epic hilarity on the night comes from the beginning of the second set (I think that’s when it was, maybe during the tiebreak) when some baby started crying, and the mother had to rush it out of the stadium, and both players were super not impressed, particularly Vika (can’t blame them, mind you). Pretty hilarious, cause I had actually thought this up, a month or so ago, because I know how pissed people get at any type of musical performance, when there’s any kind of excess noise. Masha provides the quote of the night from her presser:

“Did I hear the baby?” she asked. “My mother in Russia heard the baby.”

Ah, welcome back indeed.

In the second night match, Banana edged out Caro in the third set tiebreak, 16 64 75(5), in the battle of the Adidas dubs BFFs. Pretty heart breaking loss for Caro, but a great win for Banana. Girl is finding some serious consistency, methinks, and its allowing her to play a bit of a power game and really contest some of the bigger name players (praise be to Sven, anyone?). She’s up to 28th in the world, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see her crack the top 20 post-USO. This negates the “I’m not uugh invisible” rematch, but does setup a showdown between two of my favourite youngins, Licky and Banana, who go today. And of course, in typical tragic fashion, no one will see it. I’m not even sure who I want to win in that one, they both rock.

In other results, CHAK WON AGAIN, beating Kleybs in three. (And by the way, I figured out pretty well all of my “nine favourites” (or so) are all in this tourney) U-Rad upset Domi, which is freaking awesome, also in three. Dina > Dani, Superhero, Flavs, Nads, Agi “Iron Chef” Radwanska, JZ, and A-Bond all won, and Nails beat CanWoz, which is actually not an upset rankings wise (sad face regardless).

Here is the OOP for today. Special note to Ana/Superhero, U-Rad/Nails, and Chak/Iron Chef. I quite literally like or love all the players on the left side of the draw. This entire tourney is so auto-win its hilarious.