Serena surpassed by superb Stosur
What would a final involving one of the Williams sisters be without a bit of controversy? Well, well done Serena; your petulant display of bad sportsmanship has all but stolen the headlines from Stosur, who earned every moment of her victory and deserves to have a little more recognition for her amazing performance. It was only in 2009 that Serena threw her toys out of the pram last time, which pretty much landed her with the same result that she sees now. Anyway, it hardly seems fair to give her the attention.
Instead, let’s talk about the way in which Sam Stosur broke down the hot favourite to take her first Grand Slam victory. The Australian seemed enormously calm considering that she had a mountain ahead of he to climb. There have been a few pretenders to the Williams’ sisters thrown at the US Open, and some have succeeded. However, it only took Stosur 1 hour and 13 minutes to receive the trophy at Flushing Meadows, and considering she had only been in one grand slam final before this is an achievement in anyone’s book.
If anything, it is her mental strength that needs praising. Over recent years, a few lower ranked and unknown players with enormous talent have climbed to the final, only to be blasted aside in a rather quiet affair in the last match of the tournament. Stosur seemed to sideline the enormous odds, the press touting of Williams as the favourite, Williams’ own record at Flushing Meadows, the enormity of the game, and on top of all of that manage to kee more »
Written by:Day 9 dawns – and then retreats
Day 9 has gone out with a damp fizzle, after heavy rain blighted Flushing Meadows and meant that a whole day’s schedule was washed away. The heavy rain has been predicted, but the organisers saw not a single rain break in the weather reports they were given, and so decided to remove the day’s schedule completely.
For anyone who has followed the US Open recently, this really isn’t a surprise. It means, for the third year in a row, that the final will be on Monday. Surprise, surprise, there have been the usual calls for the American tournament to invest in a roof. These will only increase as the delays start to back up.
Seeing as I have been seriously absent of late – which I can only grovel for forgiveness for – this round up may take a while, but here are some of the major things that have been going on since the start of the US Open. In fact, so many, that I am going to crack out the bullet points… more »
Written by:Petra Kvitova: a name to remember
Petra Kvitova is our other new and exciting champion of 2011. Again, she was arguably the underdog. After all, Sharapova had been in the same situation seven years ago. She has done this before. It should be like coming home. But no matter how comfortable she might of felt, it was obviously not enough.
Sharapova’s errors were rash and wild. Her shot-making was all over the place, and she found it nearly impossible to find the lines and angles she needed to beat a player who was on top form. But it wasn’t just Sharapova’s mistakes that brought the match to a finish in such a short amount of time. Despite playing a defending champion, it didn’t seem to get into Kvitova’s head. When Kvitova went up 5-3 in the first, it was already starting to become clear that she was on to a winning way. Double faults and more mistakes from Sharapova pushed the score line up in Kvitova’s favour.
In the second set there was a minor dip in form, but Kvitova got her confidence back to break again. Sharapova was clinging on for dear life, trying to grabble her way back and then ahead. But with her shots falling just short almost every time, a sense of inevitability was starting to settle. The Centre Court crowd became a little restless, pulling out their cameras so that they were ready for the presentation trophy. At times like this you always hope that the underdog fights back. But Kvitova had her strangehold on this game. She finished, delighted, after 85 minutes.
With Martina Navratilo more »
Written by:We have a new champion
The men’s finals of Wimbledon 2011 is widely being touted as having ushered in a new era of tennis. The Roger/Rafa dominance has been broken. Now, a new wave is coming through, the ones that have been hanging onto their shirt tails for past several years. It started, I would argue, with del Potro winning the US Open back in 2009. And now, Novak Djokovic has pushed himself to that same level, and one better. He has won two grand slams this year, and lost only 1 match: now that record is almost as impressive as Roger and Rafa’s various achievements over the years.
Novak Djokovic’s dream time at the top would have been cemented even if he had lost in the finals. He was destined to become number one in the world after beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semi finals. Beating Rafael Nadal was the icing on the cake that Djokovic had been dreaming about ever since he started playing tennis.
Djokovic dominated, much to everyone’s surprise, from the very beginning. His serve was on target, his backhands were blistering, and he targeted the lines with an accuracy down to the nearest millimetre. One of Djokovic’s most impressive elements to his game was his ability to keep Nadal at arm’s bay. The second stroke of brilliance was his ability to take whatever Nadal threw at him, and spin it back with an added extra flourish. Novak also succeeded in not letting Nadal’s history at Wimbledon get into his head. In fact, mentally, it was Djokovic that came to the match in the best frame of m more »
Written by:Men’s semi finals
The two men’s semi finals matches caught the world’s attention, as the four men faced up to muscle their way into Wimbledon’s finals. The first to be successful was Novak Djokovic, who was beaming from ear to ear in post match interviews, citing this tournament as his dream to win. He has only lost one of the last 50 matches he has played, and so it was little surprise that once he got into his
rhythm, Tsonga was merely a bump in the road. Still, a tricky bump that certainly put Nole through his paces. Despite some moments of purely brilliant, athletic and downright circus-acrobatic tennis, Tsonga made some howlers and awful unforced errors that completely undid his good work. He was playing in the last four for the first time, and with Djokovic able to smell a position as number one in the world, he just wasn’t going to let go of his dream.
The next pairing up brought slightly more attention, particularly over here in Britain. Fans of ‘Muzza’ packed out Henman hill and the stadium, although of course Nadal’s loyal supporters were there too. The ever watchful Uncle Tony was as stoic as ever, until the match got under way and then that passion that Nadal shares came to the fore. It was a spirited first set, the advantages jumping from one player to another. Britain squealed as Murray took the first set, and pundits blew forth with pride that their predictions had been so spot on. And then the second set came, and Murray could only wave over his shoulder at his good game pl more »
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