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THE CHAMPIONSHIPS (Wimbledon, England; grass; Major)
================= http://www.wimbledon.org/
Contents
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1. Third-round TV-report: Hantuchová v Sugiyama
2. Fourth-round draw
3. Fourth-round preview: Hantuchová v S.Williams
4. Andrew's wishes
5. Women's Doubles
6. Order of play for Monday

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1. Third-round TV-report: Hantuchová v Sugiyama
(Friday 26th June 2009)
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+ Daniela Hantuchová [EF] d. Ai Sugiyama, 6-4 6-3

I watched this match on BBC Red Button until 6-4 1-0*, when the show-courts got
underway and it was no longer available on Freeview.

It was the best performance I've seen from Daniela so far this Wimbledon. It's
so wonderful to watch Daniela hitting her groundstrokes with flairsome power,
and playing great spreading rallies.

Daniela recovered from another *0-2 start (just as she did against Zheng,Jie in
the previous round) - not so much a slow start by Daniela as an excellent one by
Sugiyama.

At *0-2, Daniela started to spread Sugiyama, opening up the court, forcing
floaters, and going to the net to hit volley-winners.
Even so, she had to save a break-point to avoid going 0-3* down, but it was an
excellent hold for 1-2* in the end.

The next four games went with serve, as Daniela's good form continued in her own
service-games, but with a bit of moisture on the grass, she couldn't put much
pressure on Sugiyama's.

One of Daniela's best points came at *1-3 (30/15), when she drew Sugiyama to the
net with a lob, and hit a perfect backhand lob-winner onto the baseline!

At 3-4*, Daniela finally broke back. She played a wonderful point at the net
with a forehand drop-volley winner, sandwiched between two Sugiyama errors to
give her 0/40. Sugiyama saved the first two with a forehand volley-winner and an
off-forehand winner just inside the sideline, but Daniela converted the third
break-point as her depth forced Sugiyama to net a forehand.

Daniela recovered from *4-4 (0/30) with a crosscourt forehand winner, and held
with a one-two punch: serve out wide + backhand winner down the line.

At 5-4*, Daniela broke to win the first set. A couple of hard, deep forehands
forced Sugiyama into errors, and an unforced error gave Daniela two set-points
at 15/40. Sugiyama saved it with a first serve out wide + off-forehand winner,
but Daniela converted the second when Sugiyama hit a backhand long.

Daniela held for 6-4 1-0* with the help of a backhand winner down the line and
an off-backhand winner. She broke for *2-0, but was broken back immediately,
despite saving two break-points.

Daniela squandered three break-points at 2-1* (40/0*) before Sugiyama held for
2-2. Daniela held to 15 and broke to love for *4-2, then almost blew a 40/0 lead
as she had to save a break-point in a game of four deuces before holding for
5-2*.

Sugiyama held to 15, but Daniela at *5-3 managed to serve out the match, needed
three nonconsecutive match-points. The BBC showed the last point: a deep first
serve down the middle induced Sugiyama to hit a forehand return just long.

I find it amusing that BBC presenter Sue Barker can't mention Daniela without
adding "who put out Laura Robson".

Daniela: "It's never a nice feeling having to play Sugi, because she's one of my
best friends. She's a great person, so winning or losing, I knew always it was
going to be a strange feeling for me.
So I just tried to take it as another match, and not to think that she was on
the other side."

Then came the sad news that Daniela was feeling unwell and had gone home. It was
later confirmed that she was suffering from 'flu (hopefully not of the
swine-variety) and had gone to see a doctor, but at least she has until Monday
to recover...

Daniela: "I've been fighting a 'flu for the last few days. Before was more, you
know, inside. Now it's coming out to the voice."

I'll post my full TV-report - with a blow-by-blow description of every point -
at a future date (ETA 4th October 2009).

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2. Fourth-round draw
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The players on the left are the ones I want to win.

* DINARA SAFINA [1] v AMÉLIE MAURESMO [17]
* Sabine Lisicki [DF] v CAROLINE WOZNIACKI [9] (my loyalty is to Sabine)
* ANA IVANOVIC [13,DF] v VENUS WILLIAMS [3] (ajde Ana!)
* AGNIESZKA RADWANSKA [11] v Melanie Oudin [Q]

* Francesca Schiavone v VIRGINIE RAZZANO [26]
* Elena Vesnina v ELENA DEMENTIEVA [4] (my loyalty is to Vesnina)
* VICTORIA AZARENKA [8,DF] v NADIA PETROVA [10] (davai Vika!)
* Daniela Hantuchová [EF] v SERENA WILLIAMS [2] (PODME DANIELA!!)

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3. Fourth-round preview: Hantuchová v S.Williams
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Whenever I think about Daniela playing Serena Williams, I immediately remember
their last meeting: that dramatic fourth-round match at Wimbledon 2007, when
Williams collapsed at 6-2 5-5* with a spasm-induced calf-strain, writhing and
screaming in agony.

It looked like Williams was about to retire, but amazingly, she eventually got
up and managed to force a tiebreak, despite hobbling between points!

Then Williams was saved by a two-hour rain-delay (with Daniela leading 4/2* in
the tiebreak), after which Williams's movement dramatically improved.

Daniela did manage to win the tiebreak, but she folded horribly in the third
set, as Williams indulged in some bizarre gamesmanship, including asking to go
to the toilet before each of Daniela's last two service-games (which she broke),
and refusing to go to the toilet before her own service-game in between.

I would like nothing more from this Wimbledon than for Daniela to avenge that
bullying display by Williams, and go on to win the title. Unfortunately that
doesn't seem very likely, as Williams leads their head to head 6:1:
- 2002 Wimbledon qf: Williams 6-3 6-2
- 2002 US Open qf: Williams 6-2 6-2
- 2005 Dubai qf: Williams 6-4 6-3
+ 2006 Australian Open 3r: Daniela 6-1 7-6 (7/5)
- 2006 Los Angeles 3r: Williams 1-6 6-3 6-3
- 2006 US Open 2r: Williams 7-5 6-3
- 2007 Wimbledon 4r: Williams 6-2 6-7 (2/7) 6-2

Williams isn't having a great year by her own standards as a ten-time Major
champion who currently holds the US and Australian Open titles, but still has an
impressive 28:7 win/loss record for 2009 so far (including her three wins here).

At Sydney, Williams saved four match-points in the first round before beating
world #46 Samantha Stosur 6-3 6-7 7-5, and saved another three match-points
before beating #12 Caroline Wozniacki 6-7 6-3 7-6 in the quarter-finals. She was
then thrashed 6-3 6-1 by #4 Elena Dementieva.

But Serena almost always rises to the occasion for Majors other than the French
Open, and she claimed her tenth Major at the Australian Open. In the fourth
round, she was being thrashed by #14 Victoria Azarenka before Vika sadly was
taken ill, and had to retire leading 6-3 *2-4. Williams also pulled off a great
escape against #8 Svetlana Kuznetsova, who led 7-5 5-3* before losing 7-5 5-7
1-6, then beat #4 Elena Dementieva 6-3 6-4 in the semi-finals, and thrashed #3
Dinara Safina 6-0 6-3 in the final.

However, Williams has struggled with a right-knee injury ever since winning the
Australian Open. She reached the semi-finals of WTA Paris, but gave Dementieva a
walkover.

She reached the semi-finals of Dubai by beating #8 Ana Ivanovic 6-4 6-4, but
lost 6-1 2-6 7-6 to #6 Venus Williams. She avenged that defeat by beating Venus
6-4 3-6 6-3 in the semi-finals of Miami, but was thrashed 6-3 6-1 by #10
Victoria Azarenka in the final (just as she would have been at the Australian
Open, had Vika not been ill).

Amazingly, that was the start of a four-match losing-streak for Williams, which
continued into the clay-court season at Marbella (6-4 3-6 6-1 to #95 Klára
Zakopalová), Rome (6-2 2-6 6-1 to #20 Patty Schnyder) and Madrid (4-6 retired
against #45 Francesca Schiavone).

The French Open 2009 was one Major where it was absolutely safe to write off
Williams's chances of winning the title, yet she almost beat the eventual
champion before bowing out in the quarter-finals. In the first round, she
avenged her loss to Zakopalová 6-3 6-7(5) 6-4, then thrashed #133 Virginia Ruano
Pascual 6-2 6-0. She beat #43 María José Martínez Sánchez 4-6 6-3 6-4 in the
third round, then thrashed #24 Aleksandra Wozniak 6-1 6-2 in the fourth round.
In the quarter-finals, she recovered from 6-7 *1-4 and 3-5* against #7 Svetlana
Kuznetsova, yet she was the one who got tight when leading *3-2 (40/0) in the
third; Kuznetsova won 7-6 5-7 7-5.

But while it was safe to write off Williams at the French Open, it certainly
isn't at Wimbledon! She won Wimbledon in 2002 and 2003, and was runner-up to
Maria Sharapova in 2004, and to Venus Williams in 2008. Grass is a much more
forgiving surface than clay, and of course Serena now has much more match-play
than she did going into the French Open.

Williams has reached the fourth round with the following results:
1r + Neuza Silva [Q], 6-1 7-5
2r + Jarmila Groth, 6-2 6-1
3r + Roberta Vinci, 6-3 6-4

Daniela's route to the fourth round:
1r + Laura Robson [WC], 3-6 6-4 6-2
2r + ZHENG,JIE [16], 6-3 7-5
3r + Ai Sugiyama, 6-4 6-3

All things considered, I believe Daniela can at least push Williams to two tight
sets; the problem is their respective mental strength when it does get tight.
Daniela's failings in this department are well documented, while Williams proved
as recently as the French Open that she is still an extremely tough competitor
under pressure.

One thing Daniela needs to avoid is going 0-2 down at the start, as she has done
in all three of her previous matches here. Williams is a big server and a
fearsome frontrunner, so it really needs to be at least 1-1 after the first two
games. Perhaps Daniela needs to do some more exercises before the match than she
would normally do, so that everything is flowing in the right direction from the
start.

Another factor is, of course, Daniela's 'flu, with which she went home early and
saw a doctor after winning her third-round match on Friday. She lost a
doubles-match 6-4 6-7 6-2 on Saturday, so I can only pray that it won't impair
her performance on Monday.

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4. Andrew's wishes
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Daniela Hantuchová [EF]:
4r + SERENA WILLIAMS [2]
qf + VICTORIA AZARENKA [8,DF]
sf + Elena Vesnina
_f + ANA IVANOVIC [13,DF]

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5. Women's Doubles
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5.1 First round (Tuesday 23rd June 2009)
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+ (DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [EF]/AI SUGIYAMA)[6]
d. Tamira Paszek/Olga Savchuk, 6-0 6-1


5.2 Second round (Saturday 27th June 2009)
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- (DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [EF]/AI SUGIYAMA)[6]
lt. Alisa Kleybanova/Ekaterina Makarova, 6-4 6-7 (5/7) 2-6

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6. Order of play for Monday
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Court 2 (start 12:00 BST = 11:00 GMT)
WS 4r: Elena Vesnina v ELENA DEMENTIEVA [4]
WS 4r: Daniela Hantuchová [EF] v SERENA WILLIAMS [2]
MS 4r: Lleyton Hewitt v RADEK ŠTEPÁNEK [23]

Full order of play:
http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/scores/schedule/

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://tinyurl.com/andrewbroad-hantu