I miss Thrill Ride. I really do. But a fan can get some of her heart-stopping behavior in Petra Kvitova, who frequently tends to do things the hard way. Today, Rogers Cup champion Kvitova was up against Mona Barthel, who only recently turned her poor season around. Barthel won the first set, Kvitova won the second, but was broken in the third. This story had a happy ending for the Czech star--she won the final set 7-5--but she took the long road to get there.
Peng Shuai, who took out Jelena Jankovic in the first round, advanced to the third round with a straight set win over Roberta Vinci. Both Carlsbad champiion Dominika Cibulkova and Yaroslava Shvedova retired, the one with a right elbow injury, and the other with heat illness. Tamira Paszek, Christina McHale and Nadia Petrova retired in their matches yesterday.
Also yesterday, Marion Bartoli's season continued in its downward direction when she lost in the second round to Johanna Larsson.
Sloane Stephens has reached the third round in both singles and doubles. Her doubles partner is Varvara Lepchenko.
Also reaching the third round is Venus Williams, who defeated both Maria Kirilenko and Chanelle Scheepers.
Petra, Petra, Petra. One actually could excuse her if she had lost today given she just won her first title of 2012 and did it in an emotional fashion. But she won, of course, after making it difficult on herself and her fans. She is reminding me of what Sharapova started going through on her comeback. Playing a lot of 3 setters and pulling them out. Sharapova has a phenomenal record on winning 3 setters since 2011 and will that be Kvitova or will she start staying the course. Well it certainly,"ain't over until it's over" with her.
ReplyDeleteI had been hoping that Sloane Stephens would have made a breakthrough during the weeks before these two big tournaments but hopefully she'll get to quarters.
As I commented to you another time-what's up with Bartoli?
I don't know what's going on with Marion. It concerns me. I imagine there's some emotional fall-out over the Olympics, but surely that isn't the only thing going on. Maybe she'll get it together soon; it's not too late.
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