Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Another one bites the grass

Victoria Azarenka, rather fresh in her comeback from a long injury layoff, lost in the second round at Wimbledon today. And while, given another month or so to get her rhythm back, Azarenka would certainly have been more in tune on the grass, there's no taking away from the fact that her opponent played a really great match. Bojana Jananovski held her nerve--something she hasn't always done--and defeated Azarenka 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Azarenka, the 8th seed, wasn't alone. 12th seed Flavia Pennetta sputtered out, beaten 6-4, 7-6 by Lauren Davis.

Li Na, Venus Williams, Petra Kvitova, Agnieszka Radwanska, and Caroline Wozniacki all advanced. So did Michelle Larcher De Brito. And--seemingly out of nowhere--Tereza Smitkova of the Czech Republic has moved on to the third round. Smitkova beat Coco Vandeweghe today; in the first round, she beat Hsieh Su-Wei.

All four Czech players won today. In addition to Kvitova and Smitkova (who is ranked number 175 in the world), Lucie Safarova defeated Polona Hercog, and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova upset 32nd seed Elena Vesnina.

There was a major upset today in the first round of doubles. Andrea Petkovic and Magdalena Rybarikova defeated 3rd seeds Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik. 4th seeds Cara Black and Sania Mirza defeated Martina Hingis and Vera Zvonareva, and 6th seeds Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua defeated Genie Bouchard and Heather Watson.

Please note, the Radwanska Threat Level is again being posted. Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of Black Wednesday.

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