Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Now, for the "What do I know?" department

I was looking forward to a tasty third round match between Svetlana Kuznetsova and Aravane Rezai at the Australian Open, but Rezai won't be there. The 26th seed was upset in straight sets by Angelique Kerber in the second round today. I didn't get to see this match, and I was pretty surprised by the result. Rezai is one of the players I thought might even pull off a big upset.

I also thought that, given the court surface in Melbourne, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez would defeat Zheng Jie, but I was wrong about that, too. Zheng won 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, and the last game was a bit of a thriller itself. When Zheng served for the match at 5-3, Martinez Sanchez saved three consecutive match points. She then had a break point but could not convert it. Zheng then had a fourth match point, which Martinez Sanchez also saved. Martinez Sanchez got a second break point, but didn't convert that one, either. Finally, on her fifth match point, Zheng prevailed.

I was a bit surprised to see Elena Vesnina go out in the first round, but given her inconsistency lately, I suppose I shouldn't have been. The 28th seed lost to Tathiana Garbin, a player I enjoy watching. Melinda Czink lost in the first round, too, to Stephanie Voegele, in a very tight match--7-5, 6-7, 9-7.

Kaia Kanepi spent the last part of her second round second set looking at break points she couldn't convert. I lost count--there were around eight, then--on her first game point--Nadia Petrova won the set and the match.

Maria Kirilenko continued her winning ways, moving to the third round with a win over Yvonne Meusburger. In her first round match, Daniela Hantuchova went from 0-4 down in the third set and won against Victoriya Kutuzova. And Elena Baltacha upset 30th seed Kateryna Bondarenko in straight sets; Baltacha advances to the third round.

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