Dubai, Miami, now Rome. Simona Halep withdrew from the Italian Open today because of an abdominal injury. Her withdrawal gives Carla Suarez Navarro a walkover in the third round. The Romanian star defeated Madison Keys 5-7, 6-0, 6-1 in the second round. Halep's injuries are now spiraling into the "concern" zone.
Flavia Pennetta kept Italian hopes alive with a three-set win over Belinda Bencic in a very entertaining match. Francesca Schiavone beat Garbine Muguruza and Sara Errani beat Ekaterina Makarova. Camila Giorgi, however, was defeated by qualifier Christina McHale.
Svetlana Kuznetsova retired in the second set of her match against Jelena Jankovic, Varvara Lepchenko beat countrywoman Sloane Stephens, and top seed Serena Williams--whose participation was in question--defeated Andrea Petkovic 6-2, 6-2. Maria Sharapova had to work for it, but she defeated qualifier Monica Puig in straight sets.
Yes, noticed the Halep pattern also.
ReplyDeleteI noticed an interesting match tomorrow-Radwanska v Schiavone. If they are both on.....!
Yes! It's probably going to be on a bit too early for me to watch from the beginning, but I might catch the last half of it. Clay isn't that good a good surface for Radwanska. If Schiaovne serves well, she has a good shot.
ReplyDeleteDiane, what do you think of this piece by Bodo in Tennis.com.? http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2014/05/anti-star-rising/51435/#.U3UVKLkU-Hs
ReplyDeleteI read that. I think that, despite some real stretches to create "metaphors" (to be expected from this writer, who also can't bring himself to say "woman" as part of any word), the general idea is accurate and timely.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm a bit tired of hearing about "weapons" and such from writers and commentators. This school of thought would probably still point out that Henin and Mauresmo "had no weapons."
I think Halep's game is lethal, but her health, unfortunately, appears vulnerable.
"Modern" tennis is way less enjoyable, but is does cause injury! :D
I agree, in general it was a good article.
ReplyDeleteWhy cant great movement and court intelligence be weapons?
I also thought the article gets a bit creepy in it's descriptions of body types. I hope someday we will stop hearing about her reduction surgery as well.
I hope Halep's health holds up -she is a real asset to women's tennis.
Looking forward to the JJ vs Aga match!
I agree Sabey. The body type part of Bodo's article is something he has done before. He has to talk about her thighs etc. This is like another article where he talked about Kerber and Lisicki being from Polish peasant stock because of their strong thighs. What is the deal?
ReplyDeleteThe idea is that he works hard to disguise his sexist leanings with "fact" and "insight." It's a bit tricky because he really does know a great deal about women's tennis and he is a keen observer.
ReplyDeleteBut even tennis writers who are historically gender-sensitive reveal blind spots, as was recently the case when a very respected columnist referred to "hilarious" examples of sexism in some Internet comments. Yes, but--I can't imagine the same person referring to "hilarious" examples of racism.
Or the "gender-sensitive" writer who made a case for men's tennis being more popular and promoted more because "the market rules," without ever stopping to analyze the sexism and misogyny that drive the market.