Monday, June 21, 2010

French Open champion out in 1st round of Wimbledon

Last year, Francesca Schiavone suprised everyone by reaching the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. This year, she suprised a lot of people by winning the French Open. But her 2010 Wimbledon run did not even go for one match, though it did go for 2 hours and 54 minutes. Schiavone and former junior Wimbledon champion Vera Dushevina played a hard-fought match that ended with a 6-7 (all 7 points to Schiavone), 7-5, 6-1 victory for Dushevina.

4th seed Jelena Jankovic had to deal with the big-serving Laura Robson and a crowd of Robson supporters. Robson hit 13 aces, but could not overcome the deft movement of Jankovic (who, by the way hit ten forehand down-the-line winners). Eastbourne champion Ekaterina Makarova was down 2-5 in her second set against Agnes Szavay, but won the match 6-4, 7-6. And Alison Riske--though she played quite well--was not able to defeat Yanina Wickmayer twice in a row. Wickmayer, the 15th seed, won their match 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, but one could not help but be impressed with both the game and the poise of Riske.

It took her four match points but 13th seed Shahar Peer defeated Ana Ivanovic 6-3, 6-4. 2nd seed Venus Williams, 8th seed Kim Clijsters, and 17th seed Justine Henin all won in straight sets, as did Melanie Oudin. Alona Bondarenko served for the match in the second set, and was broken; opponent Katie O'Brien then won that set in a 12-10 tiebreak. When Bondarenko served for the match a second time, she won (6-3, 6-7, 6-4) on her fourth match point, after facing a break point.

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