Serena Williams struggled against qualifier Eugenie Bouchard today in the first set of her 2nd round Cinccinnati match, but she did advance to the next round. Yesterday, Maria Sharapova struggled against Sloane Stephens, and it was Stephens who advanced, 2-6, 7-6, 6-3. Mona "now you see her, now you don't" Barthel took out both Lucie Safarova and Maria Kirilenko.
Elena Vesnina has beaten both Kirsten Flipkens and Venus Williams in Cincinnati, and Stanford champion Dominika Cibulkova made a first round exit courtesy of qualifier Polona Hercog. The courts are playing pretty slow, giving clay court players a bit of comfort.
In doubles, the team of Daniela Hantuchova and Martina Hingis lost in the second round to top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci.
Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli lost her 2nd round match to Simona Halep, 2012 Cincinnati champion Li Na faces Lauren Davis tonight.
Marion literally just retired....
ReplyDeleteGive credit to Simona. It's a slow surface and she has terrific slow-court skills. Up front, I knew that she'd win.
ReplyDeleteIf and when her serve returns to the form that it had in 2009, she'll be trouble for everyone. Recall that she took a set from Serena last year at Wimbledon.
I heard about that, Daniel. Leave it to Marion to retire in such an odd, out-of-the-blue way. And after that great All Access interview.
ReplyDeleteI'm always waiting for Simona to become trouble for everyone. She has deadly potential.
The worst part about the Bartoli retirement is that there were hardly any tennis journos in the room when she made her announcement. Bobby Chin, who loves women's tennis, was I think the only person who requested an interview with Bartoli. Bobby said she waited for a long time to speak with Marion and then after a pretty long wait, an announcement was made by the WTA that perhaps everyone needed to turn up for Bartoli's interview. The majority of the tennis journos had already left so it was really breaking news in a big way when Bobby announced Bartoli's retirement via Twitter at about 11 p.m. EST.
ReplyDeleteWhile I am happy that Bartoli went out on her own terms, I have to say that having 6 journos in the room for an interview for the current Wimbledon champion says more about tennis journos than it says about Bartoli. That no one thought it relevant that the current Wimbledon champion had been struggling since her big win this summer and felt the need to try and find out whether she was injured or not.
Compare that to Sharapova's return to the Tour after not playing since her loss at Wimbledon and you see the difference in approach. Surely things must change in the way journalists cover the sport
Great comment Karen! There definitely needs to be some change in the way journalists cover women's sports in general and tennis specifically.
ReplyDeleteIt's so sad to see Marion go as she really brought something unique and special to the tour. I am thrilled she is able to do so having achieved her dream of winning Wimbledon.