After beating Laura Robson 6-1, 6-2 in the second round of the Southern California Open, Petra Kvitova said that she had been practicing her serve a lot since Wimbledon. It showed. Her service stats were excellent, and included 11 aces. Robson, for her part, was probably tired; she didn't have that much time to recover between her three-set first-round match and the match against (the real) Kvitova.
Victoria Azarenka celebrated her birthday yesterday, and won her second round match against Francesca Schiavone. Stanford champion Dominika Cibulkova went out to Ana Ivanovic in the opening round.
Martina Hingis, making her return to doubles, had a victory with partner Daniela Hantuchova in their opening round. Hantuchova and Hingis beat Julia Goerges and Darija Jurak 6-1, 6-1. The post-match comments are worth reading.
Goerges and Jurak were the runners-up in Stanford. Next up for Hantuchova and Hingis are Stanford champions Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.
In Washington, DC, 2nd seed Sloane Stephens went out in the first round. Top seed Angelique Kerber is blogging from the tournament.
9 comments:
"It took Daniela a lot of courage and inspiration to kind of dig me out of the grave."
Hmmm, does this mean that Martina is a "zombie queen," or that Hantuchova is a "grave robber?" :D
I kind of like both images :)
I'm so glad to see them playing together. Hantuchova/Hingis--it even sounds good.
To those who crave refreshment, here's the real Petra Kvitova, in 2011. Never have I seen anyone, Agassi, Fed and Sampras included, who could dish out this sort of ball-striking excellence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBzL76cnzuk
Enjoy!
Addendum: follow all four parts of the video. It's mind-boggling.
Kvitova lost today, but did not go away. It was a tough match. Her stats were better than Razzano's, except for 2nd serve. Not going away at any time is an improvement.
I wasn't able to watch the match, but I saw the stats. Razzano must have played out of her mind.
In the first game of the Kvitova/Razzano match, Kvitova served three aces... and lost the game.
Petra held two match points, Razzano five. A marathon.
Wow. Wish I could have seen it.
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