Saturday, August 7, 2010

Wozniacki and Zakopalova to meet in Copenhagen final

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki defeated Anna Chakvetadze today in Copenhagen, in a semifinal match whose momentum turned several times. Wozniacki dominated the first set, Chakvetadze dominated the second, and the third--which featured three breaks of serve--was up for grabs. Grab it Wozniacki did, which gave her a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 victory. Chakvetadze, I should add, is in pretty good form again, and had an enthusiastic cheering section in the stands (which she probably appreciated every time "Let the Sunshine In" blared from the speakers).

In the other semifinal, 7th seed Klara Zakopalova defeated 2nd seed Li Na 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 in a match that featured at least one very questionable line call.

Wozniacki and Zakopalova have played each other only once before, and Wozniacki won in three sets.

4 comments:

Sunny nine said...

It seems like Li Na is always on the brink of winning a title. She makes it deep into a tournament but then loses. Not sure what happens but I would like to see her finish up with another title someday. This is the time for everyone to take advantage of leaving it all out there to win a title given the inconsistencies of the top players.
Diane, the article on Safina, that you provided a link to, was very interesting.

Diane said...

Li has done some choking in the past. The last times I saw her play, that didn't happen. I don't know what happened today.

That article is interesting. If there's anyone I wish well, it's Safina.

Overhead Spin said...

I watched the Li match from start to finish. She actually won that match. It is the third set. 4-4. Li has just broken to even up the score. It is 30-30. She hits a nice serve, good return, rally ensues and Li wins the point. She steps up to the line, another good serve, short rally which ended with a short cross court forehand shot which lands right on the line.

Players are walking back to their chairs when the linesman calls out. Umpire does not over-rule even though the mark where the ball hit was quite visible. Umpire says deuce. Li protests. Umpire does not back down.

Li loses concentration, loses next 2 points, Klara breaks and goes on to serve for the match which she does and takes it.

The umpiring at this tournament has been nothing short of disgraceful. Yesterday Julia Georges won that match as well as in the tie-break they called about 3 of her shots which had landed in as out, giving Wozniacki all of those points.

As far as I am concerned while the WTA is intent on pushing on court coaching down our throats, how about enforcing the illegal coaching from the stands rule and making it mandatory that Hawk eye challenges be mandatory if tournaments want to stage events.

Diane said...

I've heard all week that the line calling was terrible, and several people have said that both Julia and Na should have won their matches.