I looove this girl! She's amazing. She has an amazing touch, plays really long and strong balls, and defends incredibly. She has a really smart and complete game, which is not quite common nowadays. For some reason, she reminds me of my Vera. Definitely someone to watch. Backhand can largely be improved though.
She's currently playing 50K St. Gauden's semis against A. Rus. Davay Lera!
So Lera lost 7-5 7-5 to Rus in a very close match. She quite spoilt actually, especially in the 1st part of the match, making UE on her backhand. But she really fight like there's no tomorrow, saving 8 MP. Arantxa didn't really impress me actually, she was just pushing in the important moments while Lera was boldly fighting.
Seems pretty good for RG qualies...
I've got quite a few pictures of Val, taken at 4 tournaments. I post a couple of pics per tournament here, plus a link to a Photobucket album (slideshow).
We'll start with Tean International 2009, a 25k tournament in Alphen aan den Rijn (NL), the first time I saw her play. I immediately fell for her vigour, her fighting spirit.
But she lost today to Lucie Hradecka 7-6(3) 4-6 6-3. Not that bad, considering Hradecka is seed n°2 and is a really good form these days...
Keep it up Lera!
I saw her loss to Paszek , loss to Date-Krumm and Zhang in doubles last week and her win over Brown this week. She is really really nice in person as well. I started to become a fan when I saw her here last year, but I definitely like her more now.
Rix643, was it you who used to own a website on Val? I remember one poster having the link to one in their signature and I can't remember who it was.