Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Henin, Chakvetadze and Ivanovic win in Madrid

In their tenth meeting, Justine Henin had a fairly easy time of it against Jelena Jankovic in today's Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Year-End Championships competition. Jankovic showed flashes of the brilliance that has made her number 3 in the world, but anyone who follows professional tennis knows that she is burned out, and badly in need of a better serve. Final score: Henin def. Jankovic, 6-2, 6-2.

Anna Chakvetadze looked good, but it didn't really matter. Her opponent, Serena Williams, retired with a knee injury after the first set, and has withdrawn from the tournament.

The match to watch was the one between Ana Ivanovic and Daniela Hantuchova. Hantuchova seemed lackluster in the first set, but picked up her level of play in the second to the degree that she was, on occasion, absolutely brilliant. She fought her way to a tiebreak, saved three match points, and then--just when it looked like there was going to be a third set--she remembered she was Daniela Hantuchova and choked away the last two points. In fairness, though, Hantuchova should have taken the set, but she was the victim of a bad line call at a crucial time. Even that could be written off to bad luck, only Hantuchova was the victim of bad line calls throughout the entire match. It would be nice if someone with relatively good vision would call the lines. Final score: Ivanovic def. Hantuchova, 6-2, 7-6 (9).

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