Playing in Cincinnati for the first time in her career, Maria Sharapova defeated San Diego champion Svetlana Kuznetsova today. Sharapova double-faulted eleven times, and both players had to deal with the effects of the heat. But the 10th seed had a 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 win in a match that lasted two hours and twelve minutes.
The heat was too much for 15th seed Nadia Petrova, who retired when her opponent, wild card Christina McHale, was up 7-6, 5-3. Considering how extremely hot (and often humid) this summer has been, we might see other players retire from heat illness this August.
Top seed Jelena Jankovic won her first round match against qualifier Vera Dushevina, defeating her 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. Note: Jankovic hit eleven aces.
Other winners today included 11th seed Flavia Pennetta (def. Zheng Jie), Gisela Dulko (def. Lucie Safarova), Andrea Petkovic (def. wild card Coco Vandeweghe), and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (def. Daniela Hantuchova).
Notable doubles team who lost in the first round were Chuang Chia-Jung and Olga Govortstova, Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci and the Bondarenko sisters.
2 comments:
Morning Diane. I saw that stat of JJ's when I woke up this morning and I said to myself. Either JJ was serving incredibly well, or VeraD was not returning well.
Cincy is a very fast court so it does help the serve fly through the court. Coupled with the fact that it is very hot in Cincy, even at night, helps the ball speed through the court.
Funny how there was no commentary of the Sveta match on RadioTennis last night. I did ask Ken whether he would be there and he reluctantly answered and said no. I have a theory about that ...
Vera is generally a good returner. JJ's been serving 7 or 8 aces a match, so this seemed like a natural progression, given the court conditions.
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