Doraemon
Feb 6th, 2004, 12:42 AM
Venus Williams vs. Chanda Rubin
Neither player was impressive in their respective 2nd round matches. Both were making tons of errors. Venus will step it up and play more freely as she must be more used to and comfortable with the atmosphere. Her serve was booming yesterday and if it continues to work that way, there will be little chances for Chanda to break her. While Venus will hold her service games easily, Chanda will have to fight hard in every single service game of her own. This surface gives a big advantage to a big server like Venus. If Venus adjusts her groundies and plays more consistently, Chanda will stand no chance and I believe that will be the case today. Chanda is capable of matching anyone when she's on but that Chanda shows up only once in two years just like Patty. Venus in two unless Chanda pulls a Raymond which I doubt she will.
Ai Sugiyama vs. Maggie Maleeva
This is the hardest one to predict. Ai was rather rusty in her first match. If Els hadn't played so sloppy or lazy, it would have been much closer cuz in the first few games of the 1st set, it was Els that was controlling most of the points. Ai really needs to step it up against Maggie, who is an accomplished indoor master. Plus, Maggie seems playing very well here so far. Her beating in-form Lisa in the first round (it was revenge for last year's loss) is a good indication that Maggie is in good shape. If Ai plays like she did yesterday, it will be no contest with Maggie winning in two, but I'm sure Ai will work on and adjust her game for today. She will get a lot of support from her home crowd. However, that could work either way. She has had broken down playing in front of home crowds on many occasions in the past. The pressure will be on her and it's up to her whether to be able to use it to her advantage or make it backfire against her. They met early last month on the Gold Coast where Ai won a tight three setter. This time, the surface is different, the one which Maggie flourishes most on. Maggie is a streaky player so the outcome of the match will depend more on her play than Ai's. As their past matches show, the longer it drags on, the better chance Ai will have of winning. Maggie needs to stay agressive throughout the match and better finish it in two. Maggie in two or Ai in three. Either way it will be a close match with both toughing it out till the end.
Lindsay Davenport vs. Daniela Hantuchova
Daniela played two good matches so far. Especially her win over Sharapova was quite impressive. She seems heading in the right direction now. The table seems to have been turned. Good on you, Dani. But today is not gonna be your day. You're up against the Queen of this surface, Davy. Whether Daniela is slumping or not, there're few players who can match Davy on this surface. Her flat strokes and serve work so well on this. For Dani to have the slightest chance of an upset here, she has to play her best tennis and still Davy has to be OFF. When the two both play well, it will be still a simple straight set victory for Linz. Daniela should not let Linz play her game. Dani hit a lot of great drop shots in her previous matches and why not using them against Davy? Davy is slow, very slow and no reason Dani shouldn't take advantage of it. Dani also needs to mix up her shots. She used slices shrewdly against Maria and that's exactly what she needs to do against Linz. The key is "don't let Davy dictate the match". Dani will be the crowd favorite (she's a cute blondy after all). Davy just destroyed Ai's hope of clinching the doubles title making the home crowd angry.. jus kidding. All that said, Dani is still not at the level of Lindsay. Therefore Lindsay will win in two.
Tatiana Panova vs. Jelena Dokic.
I really don't know how the two have been playing so far as their matches weren't shown on TV. Tatiana has just come back from a very difficult time and deserves her good run here and I really hope her to do well today. Obviously this is Jelena's first tournament of the season and from the scorelines of her first two matches, she's far from her best yet. But all that matters is winning and that's what she's managed to do so far. The more matches she gets under her belt, the better she plays for sure. There's no question that she will play a higher standard of tennis today. Tatiana had just a huge win over Dementieva but then she held a good record against her in the first place so it wasn't much of a surprise except that she was off the tour for so long and came back to notch a win like that. The surface here actually suits Jelena's flat strokes if she uses them correctly and wisely. She's still not totally used to the surface and still shaking off the rust from the off season. Tatiana is a fighter and plays every single point very hard that could frustrate Jelena to death.
well.. just because potentially Jelena is the better of the two, I go for Jelena in two.
Neither player was impressive in their respective 2nd round matches. Both were making tons of errors. Venus will step it up and play more freely as she must be more used to and comfortable with the atmosphere. Her serve was booming yesterday and if it continues to work that way, there will be little chances for Chanda to break her. While Venus will hold her service games easily, Chanda will have to fight hard in every single service game of her own. This surface gives a big advantage to a big server like Venus. If Venus adjusts her groundies and plays more consistently, Chanda will stand no chance and I believe that will be the case today. Chanda is capable of matching anyone when she's on but that Chanda shows up only once in two years just like Patty. Venus in two unless Chanda pulls a Raymond which I doubt she will.
Ai Sugiyama vs. Maggie Maleeva
This is the hardest one to predict. Ai was rather rusty in her first match. If Els hadn't played so sloppy or lazy, it would have been much closer cuz in the first few games of the 1st set, it was Els that was controlling most of the points. Ai really needs to step it up against Maggie, who is an accomplished indoor master. Plus, Maggie seems playing very well here so far. Her beating in-form Lisa in the first round (it was revenge for last year's loss) is a good indication that Maggie is in good shape. If Ai plays like she did yesterday, it will be no contest with Maggie winning in two, but I'm sure Ai will work on and adjust her game for today. She will get a lot of support from her home crowd. However, that could work either way. She has had broken down playing in front of home crowds on many occasions in the past. The pressure will be on her and it's up to her whether to be able to use it to her advantage or make it backfire against her. They met early last month on the Gold Coast where Ai won a tight three setter. This time, the surface is different, the one which Maggie flourishes most on. Maggie is a streaky player so the outcome of the match will depend more on her play than Ai's. As their past matches show, the longer it drags on, the better chance Ai will have of winning. Maggie needs to stay agressive throughout the match and better finish it in two. Maggie in two or Ai in three. Either way it will be a close match with both toughing it out till the end.
Lindsay Davenport vs. Daniela Hantuchova
Daniela played two good matches so far. Especially her win over Sharapova was quite impressive. She seems heading in the right direction now. The table seems to have been turned. Good on you, Dani. But today is not gonna be your day. You're up against the Queen of this surface, Davy. Whether Daniela is slumping or not, there're few players who can match Davy on this surface. Her flat strokes and serve work so well on this. For Dani to have the slightest chance of an upset here, she has to play her best tennis and still Davy has to be OFF. When the two both play well, it will be still a simple straight set victory for Linz. Daniela should not let Linz play her game. Dani hit a lot of great drop shots in her previous matches and why not using them against Davy? Davy is slow, very slow and no reason Dani shouldn't take advantage of it. Dani also needs to mix up her shots. She used slices shrewdly against Maria and that's exactly what she needs to do against Linz. The key is "don't let Davy dictate the match". Dani will be the crowd favorite (she's a cute blondy after all). Davy just destroyed Ai's hope of clinching the doubles title making the home crowd angry.. jus kidding. All that said, Dani is still not at the level of Lindsay. Therefore Lindsay will win in two.
Tatiana Panova vs. Jelena Dokic.
I really don't know how the two have been playing so far as their matches weren't shown on TV. Tatiana has just come back from a very difficult time and deserves her good run here and I really hope her to do well today. Obviously this is Jelena's first tournament of the season and from the scorelines of her first two matches, she's far from her best yet. But all that matters is winning and that's what she's managed to do so far. The more matches she gets under her belt, the better she plays for sure. There's no question that she will play a higher standard of tennis today. Tatiana had just a huge win over Dementieva but then she held a good record against her in the first place so it wasn't much of a surprise except that she was off the tour for so long and came back to notch a win like that. The surface here actually suits Jelena's flat strokes if she uses them correctly and wisely. She's still not totally used to the surface and still shaking off the rust from the off season. Tatiana is a fighter and plays every single point very hard that could frustrate Jelena to death.
well.. just because potentially Jelena is the better of the two, I go for Jelena in two.