I Remember..

I can't help penning this down. Actually throughout the French Open the past fortnight.. whenever Justine Henin-Hardenne's matches were telecast on tv, I've on-and-off been asking myself.. "What is it I don't like about this woman?".. "Why isn't she on my list of favorites?".. "Since when did I decide I didn't really like her?". I haven't been able to quite justify my dislike for Justine.. except to say that it's a feeling, you know. And honestly, I've forgotten when this feeling came about.

But okie, I guess my penchant for favoring underdogs is perhaps one of the reasons why JHH isn't on my list.. for the simple fact that she's never been considered one in any match-ups, at least not as far as I can remember. Objectively speaking, that is good for JHH, 'cos it pretty much reflects just how strong her game is.

And as usual, the same questions popped up in my head in the Roland Garros finals between Kuzzie and JHH again.. and suddenly, when Kuzzie corrected a wrong call made by the line judge (or was it the umpire?) and conceded a point.. the memories started coming back.. and I finally remembered what it was about JHH that I didn't like. It was her lack of sportsmanship.
It first started in the 2003 French Open semi-finals against Serena Williams. JHH took the first set 6-2, but Serena fought back to square off at 6-4. In the final set, with Serena serving, Justine raised her hand to indicate she wasn't ready and Serena served into the net. As Justine wasn't ready, Serena should not have been faulted for this serve, and should have re-served her first serve. However, the umpire did not see JHH's gesture and when he asked her about it, JHH actually kept quiet.. leading to the umpire faulting Serena's serve and calling for a second serve. Serena was upset and rightfully so.. and unfortunately went on to lose the set and the match. I thought JHH was a big coward and liar.. and since then, I actually stopped watching JHH whenever they featured JHH's matches during Grand Slams.. I would switch channels. This memory must have faded with time in the last one year or so considering I had to dig and think so hard to figure out my dislike for JHH.

And of course, the much talked-about finals of the Australian Open between Amelie Mauresmo and JHH, where JHH threw in the towel and quit the match during the second set citing stomach pains as a reason. That was way ultimate.. Momo was playing really beautifully during the match and had captured the first set easily at 6-1. She was clearly on top of JHH and it seems like JHH didn't have any answers to Momo's superiority in that match.. and Momo was on her way to her first Grand Slam title at JHH's expense. So, down 0-2 in the second set, JHH called it quits. Following interviews would reveal JHH gave a load of pathetic excuses for her discontinuance, none of which were really significant nor justiable enough for her act. And that is another fine showing of JHH's sportsmanship.. or rather, lack of one. Actually, I wonder if all these incidents merely reflected her lack of sportsmanship.. I kinda feel that it actually brings her character into question. Sore loser, liar? Well, I don't know.. but it would pretty much seem like it, wouldn't it?

Fine player JHH is.. with a steel will of determination, possibly the best clay-courter on the women's circuit currently, one of the best on the women's circuit, pride of Belgium along with Kim Cljisters.. but sportmanship? character?.. you tell me. A google search on this would probably shed even more light on these incidents, and possibly a couple more incidents.. I don't know.. but try it if you're interested.. and let me know.

tags : tennis | Roland Garros | French Open | Serena Williams | Amelie Mauresmo | Svetlana Kuznetsova | Justine Henin-Hardenne | semi-final | sportsmanship | Australian Open |

Curtains Fall @ Roland Garros 2006

Justine Henin-Hardenne prevailed over Svetlana Kuznetsova yesterday in the women's finals to win her third French Open title. She won 6-4, 6-4 to go 11-1 against Kuzzie. In spite of the usual unforced errors, I thought Justine and Kuzzie played a pretty good match, especially Kuzzie who absolutely lifted her level of play in the second set.

Yesterday was the first time in a pretty long while that I was able to catch Kuzzie in a complete match. I missed much of her semi-final match against Vaidisova couple of days back, and the little I managed to catch was a conservative Kuzzie just trying to keep the ball in play and letting Vaidisova make the errors. But during the final yesterday, Kuzzie was impressive.. especially in the second set. She was pretty much dictating play.. sending Justine left and right with well-placed shots and was dominating the long rallies. It was a pleasure to see her play but also a shame to see her played well and yet still lost the match. Her fine play wasn't able to win her the match as Justine was able to run down many of the winning shots that Kuzzie fired and especially during the important crucial points. Mentally, Justine was just too tough and smart and simply made sure to come up with winners when they mattered. And that made the difference and won her the French Open trophy.
So this pretty much sums up French Open 2006 for me. Oh, and one last thing, Martina Navratilova was invited to present the trophies to the Justine and Kuzzie, and whoa.. she looked really good. Dressed semi-casually in a black short-sleeved top, light brown pants and with make-up, she wasn't stunningly beautiful, but just looked really smart and attractive in her own Martina way. That was another highlight of the match for me, heh.

Okie, my parting shot.. I personally have no preference as to who should win the men's singles title later at Roland Garros. I read that Federer seems to have found the key to breaking Nadal's game on clay.. I doubt it actually, but we'll see. And of course, may the best man win! :)

(Kuzzie and Justine's photo taken from Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images,
Martina's photo taken from AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

tags : tennis | Roland Garros 2006 | French Open | Justine Henin-Hardenne | Svetlana Kuznetsova | Martina Navratilova | finals | Grand Slam | attractive | trophy |

Hail, Svetlana Kuznetsova!

I wanted to pen this yesterday immediately after the match, but Blogger was down intermittently for more than a good half day.. and I didn't have time to do this until now. Anyway, though it's kinda 23 hours late, but still, better late than never I guess.. :)

The title of this posting was decided exactly when the scoreline of the match between Kuzzie and Vadisova was 4-0 in the third set. After the title flashed acrossed my mind for a moment, immediately, said to myself, "Hey, don't get ahead of myself, the match's not over yet.. Vaidisova might fight back." Well, I suppose Vadisova did attempt to, but dear Kuzzie kept her calm and displayed a neat, tight and consistent performance in the final set to eliminate Vadisova and advance to her second Grand Slam final in her career.

Okay, I guess if you've read this far, you would know this is a biaised article from me.. I'm definitely pro-Kuzzie all the way. I've always liked Kuzzie and I'm really happy she managed to do what Amelie and Venus, my two other favorite players failed to. As for Vaidisova, she definitely played well.. and perhaps some may well argue that she was the better player during the match.. but still, my heart's with Kuzzie and undoubtably, her moment will come in future. Afterall, she's only 17...

Actually I missed much of the first set, only saw the opening when Kuzzie was leading 2-0 (I think). I only rejoined the match in the second set and was dismayed to see Vaidisova leading at 7-5, 3-1. Moving on, I was pretty depressed to see Kuzzie playing so conservatively, hitting very safe shots and hardly threatening Vaidisova at all. Vaidisova, in contrast, was dictating play and was hitting furious and hard and going for the lines as usual. The words "lost cause" were dancing around in my head already and I was really beginning to dislike Vaidisova a great deal for defeating three of my favorite players consecutively. (Yes, I can be a sore loser, hahahah..)
Somehow, while all the nonsense was going on in my head, a miracle happened. Kuzzie somehow, despite playing it safe and was non-threatening, actually broke Vaidisova's serve. Vaidisova started missing the lines and was hitting shots wide. After sending a forehand into the net, she started muttering to herself. And amusingly, she continued to do so upon missing shots thereafter. Vaidisova's error count started climbing while Kuzzie's went the reverse. And before I knew it, suddenly, both players were locked in a tie-break in the second set, and to my delight, Kuzzie prevailed 7-6(5) and she never looked back.

It was all smooth-sailing for Kuzzie in the third set, breaking Vaidisova's serve pretty easily as Vadisova's lapse in concentration continued and she continued to mutter to herself. And so, slow and steady saves the day as Kuzzie committed only one unforced error in the final set and went on to win the match. Hurray!

The other semi-final match between Kim and Justine Henin-Hardenne went pretty much the way I expected. I would love for Kim to win, but I kinda predicted the unlikelihood of it. But I had hoped for the match to be a closer fight and not for JHH to have won so easily. Anyways...

As for the final, again I'm rooting for Kuzzie, but playing against Justine, she's definitely the underdog. Against Justine, she's definitely gotta play much better than she did against Vaidisova, 'cos Justine's definitely not gonna lose her concentration like Vaidisova did.. she's not likely to give Kuzzie this luxury. Kuzzie's gotta play her very very best to win 'cos when Kuzzie does that, honestly, I believe she can just about beat anybody!

(Photo taken from AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

tags : tennis | Roland Garros 2006 | French Open | Venus Williams | Amelie Mauresmo | Svetlana Kuznetsova | Nicole Vaidisova | semi-final | Grand Slam | final | Kim Clijsters | Justine Henin-Hardenne |

Svetlana Kuznetsova In Final Four!

After losing my current most favorite player Amelie Mauresmo in the Round of 16 at Roland Garros 2006, my next favorite player Venus Williams bowed out in almost similar fashion yesterday in the quarter-finals. Both were victims of the same player - Nicole Vaidisova, a young 17 year old from the Czech Republic. Needless to say, I don't quite like Nicole Vaidisova right now.. but I won't dwell too much on this.. though she definitely was the better player against both Momo and Venus. Sigh.

Svetlana Kuznetsova saved my day though. She and Kim Clijsters are the remaining two players on my favorites list who are still competing at the French Open. For Kim to be in the semis is hardly a surprise, I guess.. but honestly, for Kuzzie to have outlasted Momo and Venus is a great pleasant surprise for me.. and at this point in time, I must say I like it. Though Venus was taken out yesterday, Kuzzie more than made up for my disappointment by storming back into the match against Dinara Safina after being down 1-5 in the first set and winning the match in straight sets 7-6, 6-0.
I wasn't able to see Kuzzie's match as ESPN was showing Venus' match live, but I was following her scores live online and was dismayed to see her going down quickly against Safina during the first set. At 1-5, I was pretty much thinking to myself that Safina has got the first set in the bag already. And then surprise!, things turned around. Suddenly, 1-5 became 2-5, then 3-5, 4-5. Whoa, I was most astonished.. and at 5-5, it suddenly seemed like Kuzzie might well take the first set! And she did!

So now.. my hopes are pinned on Kuzzie to put away Vaidisova and do what Momo and Venus failed to do and reach her second Grand Slam final. And in the other semi-final, I'm rooting for Kim to defeat Justine Henin-Hardenne.. but while my heart is for Kim, my head tells me that JHH is more likely to triumph over Kim as the defending champion, plus JHH's really strong on clay.

Sigh, watching Grand Slam matches can be such an emotionally draining activity.

(Photo taken from AP Photo/Francois Mori)

tags : tennis | Roland Garros | French Open | Venus Williams | Amelie Mauresmo | Nicole Vaidisova | Kim Clijsters | Svetlana Kuznetsova | Justine Henin-Hardenne | Dinara Safina | semi-finals | quarter-finals | emotinally draining |

Amelie Ousted.. At Roland Garros..

Yesterday I was fuming mad.. now I'm feeling down. Amelie Mauresmo just lost her fourth round match against Nicole Vaidisova. It was awfully painful to watch.. the first hour Amelie was playing well and fighting competitively against Vaidisova in the first set, the next hour she was made short and quick work off by her opponent in the following two sets.. and whoosh.. just like that Momo exits from the French Open.

And now, as I'm typing away in front of my tv screen, my other favorite player Anastasia Myskina seems unable to find any answers against Justine Henin-Hardenne. Looks like I'm just not going to get any consolation here.. I'll just have to sleep my blues away tonight.

Vaidisova played well.. pretty well in fact. Her serve was strong and powerful.. and she was fast and very aggressive. Momo just wasn't playing her best game.. her returns were short and many of them ended up in the middle of the court, giving Vaidisova plenty of chances to dictate play.. and dictate Vaidisova certainly did. The scoreline for the second and third set was pathetically 6-1, 6-2. In fact, Momo might not even have gotten on the scoreboard in the second set had it not been for a rare error by Vaidisova. And sadly, that was how effective Vaidisova was at snuffing out Momo.

During the match, the match commentators were commenting and wondering out loud on why Momo was repeatedly serving and playing into Vaidisova's powerful forehand and not into her weaker backhand.. and how she was exposing more than two-thirds of the court for Vaidisova to attack by standing more than a foot away from the center of the court when she serves. Initially, I wasn't paying much attention to their commentaries, but as the match wore on.. and they just kept on repeating their suggestions to Momo, I realised they were right. Momo just wasn't playing a very smart game with this one. At one point, they were even commenting that Momo's coach should try all ways and means to reach out to Momo to get her to hit to Vaidisova's backhand instead. I remembered breaking into a little smile when I heard this.. I guess it kinda showed how much they wanted Momo back into the match. Not much of a consolation really, but still it was something.

At this point, I just have to update that Anastasia.. down 0-5 in the second set.. has just won the last 3 games and is now serving at 3-5. But Henin-Hardenne now has a double matchpoint at 40-15. I hope Anastasia holds her serve and forces Henin-Hardenne to serve for the match. Hang in there, AM!

The earlier part of the day was better. Dinara Safina caused a major upset when she fought back from 2-5 down in the third set and defeated Maria Sharapova 7-5, 2-6, 7-5! It was a sensational fightback, and Safina certainly deserved to win. Sharapova had her matchpoints but squandered her chances.. too bad. Sorry to say, but she's never been one of my favorite players, and frankly I was delighted with her loss. But my glee was somehow cut short and snuffed out by Momo's defeat. Somehow I can't help wondering if Momo lost because of my gloating over Sharapova's defeat. I know it's a stupid notion.. but still...

AM just suffered the same fate as Momo and Sharapova. She lost to Henin-Hardenne in straight sets 1-6, 4-6. But to continue from my earlier comment, AM did hold her serve and made HH serve out the match. Sigh, JHH was simply too good.

Though I was aware that Momo did lose to Vaidisova once in their previous encounters, but I really didn't think Vaidisova would have the chance to repeat her feat today. At least not with Momo on homeground, not with the whole French crowd in the stadium behind Momo. Well, I was certainly proven wrong. In fact, after Venus won her match against Patty Schnyder, I was in a dilemma as to who to support when Venus faces off against Momo in the quarter-finals and actually, I had pretty much decided to root for Momo. Unfortunately, my dilemma was unfounded as Momo is no longer in the running. On the bright side though, now I can go all out to cheer for Venus in the quarter-finals.. 'cos I want her to win.. plus, I want her to take out Vaidisova and avenge Momo's loss, hahahah.. ;p

My alarm bells went off when Venus lost the first set to Schnyder. But thank goodness, Venus rebounded back strongly to take the second set 6-3 and even out one set apiece. She went on to finish convincingly against Schnyder at 6-2 for the third set. Her unforced error counts were wonderfully kept to only 16 in the second and third sets. Very cool.

Svetlana Kuznetsova gave me a scare too when she lost the first set 1-6 against Francesca Schiavone. Fortunately, she made a turnaround and won the match 1-6, 6-4, 6-4. Phew!

Kim Clijsters was on cruise control against Daniela Hantuchova. She won 6-1, 6-4. Too strong.

I'm still very disappointed with Momo's defeat. Everything was coming together nciely for her this year and this year really seemed like the best chance for her to triumph at the Roland Garros, but again, she's fallen short. I wonder how she is feeling now. She must be feeling awful, terribly upset and disappointed, I guess. Sigh. If I can get so affected by her loss, I guess whatever she's feeling must be a dozen times multiplied at least. I sincerely hope she does better at Wimbledon and the US Open.

(Photo taken from AP Photo/Michel Euler)

tags : tennis | Roland Garros | French Open | Venus Williams | Amelie Mauresmo | Nicole Vaidisova | disppointed | French | support | Kim Clijsters | Daniel Hantuchova | Patty Schnyder | Francesca Schiavone | Svetlana Kuznetsova | Anastasia Myskina | Justine Henin-Hardenne | Maria Sharapova | Dinara Safina |

Fuming Mad

I am fuming mad right now. Absolutely boiling. A bitch sabotaged me at work and now I am left to salvage the pieces. Too upset to even write what happened and anyway, there's the issue of confidentiality. F**k. I feel like giving her two tight slaps. And no thanks to this interfering crazy ^%$&^*()*&^ bitch, I'll have to miss Kim's, Justine's and Anastasia's third-round matches later today. I am exploding. Ever felt so angry that you could cry? I feel like that right now. Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!

tags : fuming | bitch | mad | sabotage | work | confidentiality | angry | explode |

Amelie And Venus!

Amelie. Gosh, I certainly didn't expect her to give us such a roller-coaster performance yesterday. One set, she was a joy to watch.. the next.. I nearly had a heart attack. One good thing remained constant though.. the overwhelming support reverberating throughout the stadium for Momo never stopped throughout the whole of the game. The chants of "A-meleee, A-meleee, A-melee" by the French kids who turned up in troves to support their number one sports idol seemed like music to my ears. Hah, and that's only 'cos I too am rooting for Momo. But for Vera Dushevina and her supporters, I can well imagine how they must have detested it.

First set was simply smooth-sailing for Amelie, and I had a fun time enjoying the grace of Momo's strokes and finesse as she dominated the set. Dushevina never really settled down at all, and I thought the look on her face showed pretty much how disgusted she was with herself. I never saw it coming, but in the second set, Amelie pretty much came undone by herself. Momo kinda lost her concentration and suddenly her signature solid backhand and forehand strokes were flying wild and wide. Momo couldn't quite keep her serve and was always trailing a break down until she finally broke back and leveled at 5-5. The second set was painful to watch, and I had to work out a bit with my dumbbells while watching to calm myself down. Dushevina wasn't playing exceptional, rather it was Momo who was doing a kamikaze. She couldn't put away easy shots, failed to convert break points and squandered point after point. I almost couldn't stand watching the game. At 5-5, Amelie had to drop her serve and Dushevina once again had the upper hand at 6-5 and serving for the set. Fortunately, Momo broke back to level at 6-6 for a tie-breaker. During the tie-breaker with Momo leading 6-2 and on serve, I thought the game was all wrapped up finally, but no, she had to do the roller-coaster act once more.. and from 4 match points, Momo squandered 3 and gave Dushevina the chance to bring the scoreline to 6-5 before finally closing it out at 7-6(5). Close shave!

My anxiety didn't stop with Amelie. After Amelie's match, Venus rapidly dropped the first four games of the first set within 17 minutes of the match and committed about 12 errors.. and I was like.. oh no, she's totally off today.. she's going out again. And just as unexpectedly, the turnaround came. Mighty Venus woke up, fought back and won the next four games to level at 4-4. She then dropped her serve again for Emma Laine to go up 5-4, saved a set point before levelling at 5-5, and dropped her serve yet again and then broke back to level at 6-6. Venus went on to win the tie-breaker convincingly at 7-6(2), and also the second set and match at 6-2. It was a difficult day for me. As mentioned before, it's unbelievable how Venus kept dropping her serve and then winning points only on her opponent's serve. But still, her fightback from 4-0 down was very impressive and I really hope both Momo and her would do well to set up a showdown with each other in the quarters.

Another good piece of news.. Paola Suarez and Virginia Ruano Pascual are back in doubles. The pair, seeded 8th, won their opening match easily last night.. 6-2, 6-0. Paola, a former top-10 player, has been plagued by injuries in the past year and hasn't had good results in the singles coming back. It's nice to see the pair teaming up again.. and I hope they go all the way to defend their title! :)

(Amelie's photo taken from Getty Images,
Venus' photo taken from AP Photo/Michel Euler)

tags : tennis | Roland Garros | French Open | Venus Williams | Amelie Mauresmo | Vera Dushevina | French | kids | support | Paola Suarez | Virginia Ruano Pascual | doubles |

Upsets @ The Roland Garros!

Okie, I was wrong yesterday when I thought that Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt and Marat Safin should move through easily. I obviously was so blinded by the Greek-god-like looks of Safin that I didn't even realise he was playing the Chilean Fernando Gonzalez who is seeded No. 9. I had totally discounted the fact that Safin hasn't played for quite a while due to injury and that he could and should be rusty. And along that line, I cannot forgive myself for totally ignoring the presence of Fernando Gonzalez. I am ashamed.

As for Andy Roddick.. I was sorry he had to retire.. but on hindsight.. even if he wasn't carrying an injured ankle, he might not have made it.. (of course, he might also have).. 'cos his Spanish opponent Alberto Martin was pretty good yesterday that I had the feeling Andy might have been kinda outclassed. Oops.

Anyway, suffice it to say only Lleyton Hewitt lived up to his seeding.. ranking.. whatever you call it. And watching him play just kinda reminds me why I used to like him so much. Alright, I guess I still like him.. perhaps just not as much anymore. But what I like about him is that he's such a dynamic player on-court that it's pretty charismatic.. just like Rafael Nadal.. but Nadal is even more explosive. But I guess people will find Hewitt offensive comparatively since he doesn't seem very popular among the other players. Well, other than his on-court presence, I have to confess I have a thing for his legs.. his calves to be precise.. I find them very sexy, heheh. *blushes* I like that he wears long socks (well, longer than the other guys anyway) till his lower calves. Hewitt isn't superbly tall.. but that's what I like about him.. his height is just nice.. neither too tall nor short. Okie, I guess I like his build.. strong broad shoulders, great height, and sexy legs.. all these are enough to make up for his average looks. Gosh, I am so damned superficial! Alright, moving on...

Nadia Petrova - World No. 3, seeded 3, No. 1 Russian player. First major upset on the women's side. She was supposed to be one of the hot favorites coming into the French Open.. having only recently beaten Justine Henin-Hardenne and garnering three (or is it four?) titles already this year. Funny, but I never had her in mind as one of the title contenders.. it could be due to my ignorance about her play.. or I might have missed her out. Anyway, better luck next time Petrova. On second thoughts, actually I know why she wasn't in my consideration. Because in all the times I have watched her play.. as far as I can remember, she hasn't made an impression on me. She had always seemed uptight.. and I'm sorry to say this, but I don't quite like the look on her face when she plays.. she almost always looks sulky. Oops, my superficiality rearing its sneaky head again...

Venus is playing now. I'm gonna stop and come back later. Ciao.

(Photo taken from AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

tags : tennis | Roland Garros | French Open | Venus Williams | Andy Roddick | Marat Safin | Fernando Gonzalez | Russian | Nadia Petrova | Lleyton Hewitt | sexy | superficial | upsets |