What should have been some ongoing stories at the 2012 Olymic Games ended early today in the first round, with the exit of Sam Stosur (twice), Li Na and--a bit less dramatically--Tamira Paszek, Dominika Cibulkova and Christina McHale.
Stosur, seeded 5th at the games, was defeated 3-6, 7-5, 10-8 by Carla Suarez Navarro. Then, Stosur and partner Casey Dellacqua were defeated 6-1, 6-1 in doubles competition by Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.
Li lost to Daniela Hantuchova, who beat her 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. Paszek, known for her excellent grass court play, was taken down 7-6, 6-4 by Alize Cornet. Cibulkova lost to grass court specialist (and all-around interesting WTA phenomenon) Tsvetana Pironkova, and McHale lost to Ana Ivanovic.
Serena Williams, looking old-school elegant in red, white and blue, easily took care of Jelena Jankovic in straight sets. 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova not-so-easily took care of Kateryna Bondarenko, and gave spectators the now-expected second-set collapse. Oh, Petra.
2nd seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci won, as did the German team of Angelique Kerber and Sabine Lisicki, though Brits Laura Robson and Heather Watson took a set off of them.
Elena Baltacha announced that she needs surgery on both ankles, and may retire from professional tennis. Baltacha has had more misfortune than almost any player I can think of, yet she has hung in all these years, despite serious illness and injury. She did win her first round today.
Diane,
ReplyDeleteI was surfing youtube the other day and saw Dulko playing in this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krvBbuLSBQY
I was like...I haven't seen that before...is it a dress? is it sports attire? I really felt like she could have been out and about...
The match is really good too. Very dramatic. I hadn't seen it before. I was particularly amazed by Kirilenko's net skills. Her play had never caught my attention before this clip...I think because she's not able to show all her skills in singles, which is the only place I had seen her play. Her baseline game doesn't set her apart from the crowd as much...but I'm definitely paying attention now.
I've seen that Dulko outfit before; it's very nice, I think.
ReplyDeleteI've been a Kirilenko fan for a long time. She's a great doubles player, but I really like her singles game because of the variety, the volleying, and the elegance of some of the shot-making.