===========
DFS CLASSIC (Edgbaston, Birmingham, England; grass; WTA Tier III)
=========== http://birmingham.lta.org.uk/
Contents
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1. My photos
2. First-round results
3. First round: Niculescu v Tanasugarn
4. Article

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1. My photos
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Permission to copy my Birmingham photos is granted provided that:
(a) no money is exchanged;
(b) they are labelled as "Copyright 2008 Andrew Broad".
Please let me know if you do use them on another website.

I have uploaded all my photos for Monday 9th June 2008, in one big
zip-file, to:
http://www.divshare.com/download/5131504-de1

Monday's players:

Ioana Raluca Olaru (28)
Alyona Bondarenko (18)
Kateryna Bondarenko (18)
Yaroslava Shvedova (14)
Nicole Vaidišová (13)
Séverine Brémond (13)
Virginia Ruano Pascual (13)
Aravane Rezaď (12)
Katie O'Brien (10)
Monica Niculescu (7)
Yanina Wickmayer (6)
Sunitha Rao (6)
Michaëlla Krajícek (4)
Tatiana Poutchek (3)
Amanda Elliott (3)
MC Vicki Stone (3)
Sabine Lisicki (2)
Alla Kudryavtseva (2)
Akgul Amanmuradova (2)
umpire Eva Asderaki (2)
Petra Kvitová (1)
Tamarine Tanasugarn (1)
Angelique Kerber? (1)

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2. First-round results (Monday 9th June)
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+ AIKO NAKAMURA [17,S] d. Tzipora Obziler, 7-5 6-3
- Ayumi Morita [S] lt. Sorana Cîrstea, 2-6 0-6
- Monica Niculescu [S] lt. Tamarine Tanasugarn, 3-6 4-6

Unfortunately I missed Aiko and Ayumi, as they were first up and I
arrived an hour and a half after the start of play.

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3. First round: Niculescu v Tanasugarn
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- Monica Niculescu [S] lt. Tamarine Tanasugarn, 3-6 4-6

It's always interesting to see what Niculescu will do on a tennis-
court, as she is the female Fabrice Santoro: two-handed both sides,
and plays a lot of sliced forehands. When she played Jelena Jankovic
at the French Open, she made a big impression with her dropshots.

This time, volleying was a big part of Niculescu's game-plan -
especially behind her first serve.

Niculescu didn't appear to enjoy this match at all: she looked like
she was chewing on wasps, and on one occasion she held her racket
above her head, seemed to think better of throwing it to the ground,
but then threw it anyway. On another occasion, she received a code-
violation for something I didn't see. At the end, her face was
screwed up as though she were eating a lemon, and when she sat down
after shaking hands, her face was red with apparent tears.

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4. Article
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Craybas, Amanmuradova lose at DFS Classic (AP)
>>>
This time, the 10th-ranked Marion Bartoli — last year's Wimbledon-
finalist — is the top seed ahead of Nicole Vaidišová of the Czech
Republic.

"It was hard for them [Jankovic and Safina] to come here after going
so far in the French Open. But I am top seed and I expect myself to
win the tournament," Bartoli said. "And to get my rhythm before
Wimbledon."

Bartoli opens on Wednesday against either Yuan,Meng - who is pushing
to become the fourth Chinese player in the top 100 - or Petra
Cetkovská of the Czech Republic.
<<<

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/seles/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/seles/selesians.html