Thursday, June 21, 2012

Passing shots

Victoria Azarenka has a new look.

The Wimbledon draw will be published tomorrow (both Kim Clijsters and five-time champion Venus Williams are unseeded).

 Both Pliskova sisters made it through the Wimbledon qualifying draw.

Nick Bollettieri is recovering nicely from double pneumonia. Apparently, Bollettieri had to be tricked into entering the hospital.

Here is an interview with Varvara Lepchenko.

Thank you, New York Times (via After Atalanta).

3 comments:

Sunny nine said...

Well, that Times article was great. I especially liked the paragraph towards the end "Unlike in doping cases, women with hyperandrogenism have not cheated. There is no reason to disqualify women whose bodies produce any of the complex ingredients that add up to athleticism, be they superb vision, big lungs, flexibility, long legs or testosterone."

There are so many things that go into making an athlete, why focus on one?

I found it interesting that Cibulkova's remark made it into the article. My question to tennis women is why don't women play more like the player Cibulkova was talking about. Women should find their own way to play but they shouldn't be above kick serves or inside-outside forehands that men use OR THAT OTHER WOMEN USE. Men shouldn't be above using some of the crafty all-court games that some of the women use such as some of the mainly clay-court women.

Well, the article says it all well so I will stop now.

Todd.Spiker said...

Hmm, I really wonder if Pironkova should have been bumped up (from #40) to maybe a #30-32 seed after back-to-back SF and QF runs at Wimbledon. Of course, she reached the semis in '10 while unseeded (she was #32 last year).

Those three -- Venus, KC and Pironkova -- are some pretty lethal floaters that could blow up the draw if they land in the right place.

Diane said...

Well said by you, too, Sunny.

Several people have wondered whether Pironkova's seeding should have been bumped up. The AEC talks about seeding flexibility, but that seems to hold true only with the men's side.

And here's hoping that all three of those floaters are healthy next week.