Fans of Petra Kvitova need no longer worry about how far she'll go in the Australian Open. Luksika Kumkhum has kindly removed that anxiety for you. The 20-year-old from Thailand, who hits double-handed on both sides, defeated the 6th seed 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 in the first round. Kumkhum took over Kvitova's mastery of the crosscourt angle and flummoxed the Czech player repeatedly on both sides. Kvitova made 40 unforced errors.
Sam Stosur fans--your anxiety will continue a while. Stosur beat Klara Zakopalova, who had just beaten her last week in the Hobart semifinals.
Both Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci also went out in the opening round. Errani met up with Julia Goerges on one of those days when the forehand could do no wrong. Goerges' forehand can betray her, but when it's doing what it's supposed to do--watch out. The Frenchwoman hit 27 forehand winners and 12 backhand winners. As for Vinci, she lost to the speedy and often dangerous Zheng Jie.
The recently injured Elena Vesnina, not surprisingly, lost her match to Alison Riske. Sydney champion Tsvetana Pironkova advanced, as did top seed Serena Williams.
So the 6th, 7th and 12th seeds are already out, before the brutal weather even begins. Get ready.
8 comments:
And here it seemed like Petra was lucky because she was going to get to play her 1st Round before the heat got even worse.
At this point, though, I don't even blink an eye when she loses early. Unfortunately. :(
Me too. Maybe it's time to do an Evert strategy and leave for a while, get things straightened out? Things are not good.
Sad. I saw only the third set. Not once did Petra really go for it the way that she did in Sydney. At most, she hit at 3/4 pace. That's not her game. She was playing to keep the rallies going more than anything else. She needs a break from tennis, and to get away from someone who has been called the Black Widower of Tennis.
Kvitova said that her offseason focus was movement and improving her serve, two things that completely failed her.
The attributed everything to a big case of expectations that unnerved her.
She attributed... not The attributed
Sorry.. errant finger on the keyboard..
Well, there you are--the head, like I've said all along.
The head. A Czech failing. Korda. Lendl. Navratilova. Mandlikova. Novotna. Kvitova.
Every one of them with major head problems. Martina and Ivan overcame them well. The rest, on occasion.
Oh yes, Hana. I used to get really upset about that, but at least she won four majors (who knows how many she "should" have won?)
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