Sorana Cirstea, known as a giant-killer, won her Stanford quarterfinal match today by defeating 3rd seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-7, 6-2, 6-0. 2nd seed Marion Bartoli was upset, too--by Yanina Wickmayer, who beat her 6-3, 6-2. Also, lucky loser Coco Vandeweghe defeated Urszula Radwanska 6-3, 6-4.
In Palermo, Laura Robson continued her clay court winning ways by defeating 5th seed Carla Suarez Navarro. 8th seed Barbora Zahlavova Strycova upset 3rd seed Julia Goerges 7-6, 6-7, 6-1. Also advancing were top seed Sara Errani and Irina-Camelia Begu.
Robson will be a contender. The effortless ease of her powerful strokes is reminiscent of that quality in Petra Kvitova. It is the rarest of tennis gifts. Her forehand is technically even cleaner because she closes stance whenever she can. She needs experience and psychological maturity. She's adapting well to her recent growth spurt to six feet. She will have to work on getting off the mark quicker to her forehand side, and to cut the corners off on wide angled balls rather than waiting for them behind the baseline.
ReplyDeleteThings really do seem to be falling into place for Robson. That is indeed a nice-looking forehand, struck well. Nice to see her do so well on different surface--usually a sign of good things to come.
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