Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Williams has (yet another) foot scare on day 2 in Melbourne

Only Serena Williams can roll her ankle, go smack to the ground, experience pain, and then return to the court to win her match 6-0, 6-0. Her victory-while-injured defeat of Edina Gallovits-Hall reminded me of the time she had the use of only one leg and one hand, and she was still able to beat Daniela Hantuchova. Fortunately, Williams is a compulsive ankle-wrapper, so there's no doubt that her self-care prevented what could have been a much worse injury.

Naturally, there's some swelling, so tennis fans (and opponents) are still waiting for a medical update on Williams, but she sounded pretty upbeat in her press conference. The five-time Australian Open champion fell on her right ankle, the same one she injured in Brisbane last year.

But Williams' scare wasn't the only news on day 2 of the Australian Open.

Nadia Petrova, the 12th seed, won only two games against Kimiko Date-Krumm. Oh, Nadia. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who has looked so good this season (and whom I expected to do some damage in Melbourne) is gone. Russia's young star was defeated 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 by Lesia Tsurenko. And 7th seed Sara Errani was defeated by Carla Suarez Navarro.

Good news for Petra Kvitova--her scary "I'll go away for a while but come back just in time to win" strategy worked against Francesca Schiavone. No-so-good news for Kvitova--Laura Robson is her next opponent. The real Kvitova would relish a chance to put an upstart like Robson in her place, but whoever it is that the Czech star has turned into could be facing a brimming teapotful of upstartery.

Caroline Wozniacki and Sabine Lisicki met again, and, not surprisingly, the German went to pieces and made multiple errors while Wozniacki cleaned up in the third set.

Defending champion and top seed Victoria Azarenka got tangled in the web that is Monica Niculescu, but she untangled herself nicely to win in straight sets. Sloane Stephens ran over Simona Halep 6-1, 6-1, and  Annika Beck lived up to her reputation as an up-and-comer by taking out Yaroslava Shvedova.

Garbine Muguruza had to play for 3 1/2 hours before defeating Magdalena Rybarikova 4-6, 6-1, 14-12. And Kristina Mladenovic and Timea Babos played for nearly three hours. Mladenovic won, 6-3, 4-6, 11-9.

2 comments:

Todd.Spiker said...

"...a brimming teapotful of upstartery."

Love that! :)

Diane said...

Thanks!

Memo to Petra: Stay calm and carry on :)