It might not have been pretty (well, the play) at the end, but it was entertaining, and generally high quality, and its the future of women’s tennis, so strap in mo’ fuckers!

Just a brilliantly fun match to watch really, the two of them crawling away in the third set, not being able to hold from 3-1 until Caro is serving at 4-5 (after breaking Vika to stay in it) hits an insane running passing shot… saves a match point… hits another crazy running winner off a Vika drop shot…. well, cue Vika breakdown (smash ball into crowd, smash racquet into court… and then again on the changeover…) and we have ourselves a Danish winner at 7-5 in the third. Not to mention the insane game at 2-2 in the second set that I believe was close to 20 minutes and must have gone to like 15 deuces (I saw it up to 11). And I’m just really glad Caro started bringing the heat after barely showing up in the first set (she won 13 points and won a big fat breadstick in 27 minutes). Since this is Caro’s first match, she’ll go to 1-0 and Vika now to 1-1.

Since crap is seriously getting in my way of seeing Doha (so far) I’ll keep today to one post.

Either a solid win for Vika… or a weak loss from JJ. The players seem to prefer the latter. “”I basically gave her everything. I beat myself.” “I’m glad she gave me the match and she was not in the mood. It worked out pretty well for me.” That last quote is so magical, because it could be Vika sarcastically ripping JJ for not giving her credit, or she could be being totally honest in like “she didn’t play that great, I won, moving on.” The first set wasn’t THAT competitive, JJ was making a lot of errors, was really distracted by people still finding their seats (all four of them) and Vika looked pretty solid, and it was all that was needed. Apparently the second was quite closer, but Vika held steady, winning 6-2, 6-3. Kinda nice to see Vika win, to be honest, really seems like its been a while since she made a serious impact on a big tournament.

And then this crazy shit happened. I only saw part of the first set, Venus was basically yanking Lena around the court by her hair, and Lena was not mightily impressed. But like we’ve seen happen, Venus apparently dropped the level of her game, Lena caught up, and won the next two sets and the match. Concentration issues? Fatigue? Just can’t keep the power up? Venus still has a fantastic game and can hit with the best of them, but let’s be honest, has had some serious lapses this year, and I really wonder when the rumours of retirement and such will get going. Anyway, huge win for Lena.

Mommy, I’m scared. Of course SOMEONE had to come along and ruin things. I pretty well cursed Kuz, as I started watching at the end of the game at 5-4 in the first set, she was actually doing a great job going stroke for stroke with Serena, to be honest, picking her spots wisely… but then was too Russian, blew 2 set points in the tiebreak… and yeah, it didn’t exactly end with another Russian over Williams victory. Here’s what is up tomorrow:

Around 5pm local time (10am Eastern/my time)

1. Caroline Wozniacki vs. Victoria Azarenka

2. Dinara Safina vs. Jelena Jankovic

3. Serena Williams vs. Venus Williams

I have class until 10:20, then a rehearsal at 11:30, so I’ll get to see a huge chunk of Caro’s match, and tons of Dina’s, which is wicked awesome. (And let’s be honest, I don’t much care about the last one).

Tournaments Won in 2009: Brisbane International (Brisbane), Regions Morgan Keegan Championships (Memphis), Sony Ericsson Open (Miami)
Ranking Points as of October 19: 4451

The Land of Oz and American Hard Stuff

Vika’s season got off to a fantastic start and she quickly established herself as a player to watch in 2009 and the coming years. She won her first tournament of the year, Brisbane, over Mono, and in the fourth round of the Australian took the first set off of eventual champ Serena until she unfortunately had to retire in the second set at 2-4. Not long after she won her second tournament of the year, beating top seed Caro in Memphis. Her real breakout was in Miami however, topping an injured Serena in the final.

Gettin’ Dirty

An overall solid clay season, she fell in the second round of Stuttgart to Dulkbag, but made the semis of Rome and the third round of Madrid, losing to the Kuzonator and Agi Szavay respectively. At the French she lost to Dinara in the quarters in three sets.

High On Grass

Her only grass tournament was Wimbley, where she knocked out Banana and Nads on her way to a loss in the quarters against champion Serena.

Hard For America

Unfortunately for Vika, she ran into some big names in early rounds in the American hard court season, losing to Masha in the second round of LA and then JJ in the third round of Cincy. In Toronto, she fell to Kim in three sets in the third round (a match I was at, sorry Vika fans, it was awesome). In the USO, she was overpowered by Franny in three sets in the third round (that was a pretty fun match, some big time hitting).

Asia and Beyond

The struggles (fatigue?) have continued for Vika, falling in the quarters of Tokyo against Nails, and the second round of Beijing to Masha. She has had a decent amount of rest heading into Doha however, we’ll see if she finish out the year with some heat and some big wins.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqIe7F8JVxg&hl=en&fs=1&]

Much has been said about this, and finally it has hit Youtube. Yesterday, Vika called a medical timeout, and Masha responded with “is her last name Jankovic?” Personally, I find it sort of hilarious. Maybe its cause Im not a huge fan of Vika or JJ, but its probably just because I love the drama, and well, its hilarious. And just think of what fun it will be the next time Masha and JJ go at it. Ah, the glory. Special thanks to thedoublebagel for finding this.

The bad news about this whole Asian tennis swing thing is that 1) I barely see any tennis, and 2) its hard for me to blog about it. The good news is 1) I’m getting real life things (like school work) done and 2) there seems to be plenty of other crap for me to talk about anyway.

Apparently I missed quite the Big Babe Shriekfest, with Masha defeating Vika 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 in 3 hours and 6 minutes. I’m actually thinking I might try and download it later and watch the last set or two. 8 DFs from Msha, but 13 aces and 71% on the first serve. Methinks her team will take it.

Brace yourself for the land of “we don’t care”, JJ lost to Peng, and for the men, Kubot beat Dick in two easy sets, and in Tokyo, Roger-Vasselin (who?) beat a freshly flossed, shaven and cut Elf 4 and 4. Huh. I thought you were good at dealing with slippery guys named Roger. HEYO.

Pretty well everyone else who was supposed to win did. Rafa over Baggy in 3, Blah, Gonzo, Sod, Fergasm and Ljubs. Even this goofball:

For the ladies, Mono over Kleybs, Bepa over Franny, and Flavs, Lena and the Iron Chef won too. Oh, and that Serena chick. Which makes her really good at tennis or something.

Masha over Kleybs, Mono over Pavs, Vika over Lucie, A-Rad over Petkovic, JJ over a retired Vez… wait… I thought this was Tokyo? You’re telling me the favourites won? I don’t understand.

One half of the draw is Pova/Bensova and A-Rad/Rybawhatever (who beat CanWoz *single tear*) matches, other is Vika/Nails and JJ/Mono ones. Which of course could end up being Pova/Rad, Vika/JJ semis. It occurred to me what a strange group of players that is for the semis, of all the ones you could pick. Then it also occurred to me how loud they all are, minus A-Rad. Vika/JJ semi? Possible Vika/Masha final? If there’s some sort of ear plug company in Japan, they should consider setting up a booth outside centre court right about now. Anyway, nice to see some seeds and big names actually one, it actually makes it a bit of an interesting finish. Also, A-Rad, for the love of Sven, please make your first semi of this year. Its getting kind of painful.

Mad props mst be awarded to the two Italians who, yesterday, went out and kicked some serious ass.

Vika/Franny was one of the highest quality women’s matches I’ve seen all tournament, for sure. Vika came out hitting with some serious authority, and Franny was having backhand troubles and just couldn’t figure out how to deal with Vika’s serve. At one point she tried a strong backhand return which went wide, and just a couple points later tried a backhand slice return, which fell short and was pounced upon by Vika for a big winner on her end. Franny yelled out and looked at her coach as if to say “no matter what I do, it doesn’t work”.

The second set was a completely different story. Franny seemed to come out with just that little 2% more, Vika started making more UEs because of it, getting frustrated, and Franny ran to a comfortable second set win. The third set was more of the same, and Franny was SERIOUSLY pumped up. One of the most exciting and important points was when Franny hit an insane drop shot that Vika got to. Franny then lobbed the ball perfectly over her head, and despite Vika getting there, it just turned into an overhead smash winner for the Italian. By the end of the match, Vika just looked flat, perhaps the season is wearing on her, and the extra spring to Franny’s experienced step made all the difference in the end. Overall a really fun and high quality match though.

In the meantime, Flavs demolished my poor Canadian CanWoz in about 7 seconds 61 61 and continues to prove herself as a serious contender. She’s lost a whopping 2 games in the last two matches. If you haven’t started paying attention to her yet, I would recommend doing so.

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.

Ever wondered what Vika does during a workout? Yeah me neither. But I found out, and since I’m an oppressive blogging tyrant, so are you. PS, the trainer dude’s name is Mark Wellington. How awesome is that?

To infinity, and beyond! … wait… WTF Wellington?!

Always important to have a strong mental game. Racket, to me!

Not the most typical way of praying to Sven, but hey, its on a tennis court, it’ll do.

Hulk ain’t got nothin’ on this crazy wench.