All sessions--day and night--were rained out today at the U.S. Open today. That means that players got some rest, but they also got more time to think about things. If the weather cooperates, tomorrow's quarterfinal schedule will be really crowded, with Wednesday's feature match going to Serena Williams and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Also lined up for tomorrow: Sam Stusur vs. Vera Zvonareva, Caroline Wozniacki vs. Andrea Petkovic, and Angelique Kerber vs. Flavia Pennetta.Petkovic and Pennetta should definitely benefit from getting some extra rest, since one has a (waning) injury, and the other had to fight illness in her last match.
In doubles quarterfinals, the defending champions--Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova--will face French Open champions Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka. They are the 3rd and 8th seeds, respectively. 9th seeds Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, who upset 2nd seeds Dulko and Pennetta, will play 4th seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond.
Daniela Hantuchova and Agnieszka Radwanska will play 15th seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, and top seeds Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik will compete against 5th seeds Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova.
5 comments:
Well it is Sept 7, and it is still raining. They sent out the men who needed to still play the 4th rd while it was misting and while the balls were getting wet from the net and court slippery. Nadal just walked off after a few games. Three of the men who were on the premises that day, Nadal, Roddick and Murray went to the tournament director's office to complain and discuss the situation. When interviewed afterwards Nadal said it was all about the money and not about the player's health. And by the way money from CBS is why they have the back to back semi and final (unlike the other majors) and also why they DON'T get the first 3 rds done for everyone in the first week and have the 4th rd for everyone on the Sunday and Monday of the second week (Wimbledon does them all on Monday because of no play on middle Sunday). It does affect the men more because they play 3 of 5 sets.
What I am about to say may not be popular on this blog, but are there women leaders who would get together like Nadal and company, and complain to the USTA as a united front? I guess I don't know any. Sometimes I just feel that they do what they are told by the WTA et al. Haven't women progressed any over time except for equal pay at the majors, where they don't do equal work? I hope someone tells me there are women who stand up. I know that Sharapova stood up to the WTA when asked to do a long photo shoot (the last WTA campaign) the day before a match or preparation for a match, but I don't recall anyone else caring about their preparation.
You'll get no argument here. If women were standing up as they should, there would be plenty of issues for them to talk about, and not just those involving scheduling at majors.
I also think women should play the best of five--or men should play the best of three.
I agree with the "plenty of issues" statement and the number of matches at a major.
Sunny, Venus is the only woman on the WTA Tour who makes her voice heard both in press as well as behind the scenes. The travesty that was visited upon the Stosur/Kirilenko match would never have happened to someone like Venus. Recall sometime ago down in Australia where she was asked to move her match elsewhere because they wanted to put on a men's match. She refused to move. I recall that she was villified by the media for this.
In addition a few years ago (2009) she defended women's tennis and Dinara Safina from comments that members of the media were making and she has taken a strong stance in certain issues, not just equal pay.
As I told a friend of mine recently, when the women of the Tour stand up for themselves then I will feel sympathy but until then they get what they deserve at times.
Thanks so much for your post, pretty useful information.
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