Though it didn't create a media moment, there was a major upset in Miami yesterday: The team of Julia Goerges and Samantha Stosur defeated top seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond 6-1, 6-4 in the first round. Huber and Raymond have been on a major tear, winning 16 straight matches, and they had to lose some time, but they probably didn't expect to go out in the opening round of the Sony Ericsson Open.
The doubles draw, in fact, is already full of upsets. 4th seeds and 2011 French Open champions Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka went out in the first round, as did their countrywomen, Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova. 2nd seeds Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik were upset, too, but that upset was not altogether unexpected, since they had not played in a while.
But there's more: 3rd seeds Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina were also upset in the first round, by wild cards Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Lucie Safarova. The scoreline is worth mentioning, too: 1-6, 6-1, 11-9.
Defending champions Daniela Hantuchova and Agnieszka Radwanska will play Vera Dushevina and Shahar Peer in the second round, and Goerges and Stosur will play Anabel Medina Garrigues and Flavia Pennetta.
That was a stunner where Huber/Raymond lost! I don't think they saw that coming. I was happy to see that Sveta and Vera won. Vera has had all sorts of problems with her hip injury during the beginning of the year and then the IW virus on top of it.
ReplyDeletePoor Vera. She's coming back to Charleston this year, and I'm really looking forward to watching her play.
ReplyDeleteHas Huber/Raymond committed to Charleston?
ReplyDeleteOops, Lisa says she's coming (I must check twitter before asking questions :)
ReplyDeleteBoth of them are Charleston veterans and will probably really get the crowd going.
ReplyDelete