RG R1: Klara Zakopalova def. Katerina Srebotnik 7-6 4-6 6-2

Keep on moving, Klara! :cheer:

Klara is a tricky opponent and a great counterpuncher. I'm not saying she'll beat Justine, but she won't be a pushover. She could possibly take Justine to 3 sets if Justine plays the way she did today?

Good win for Klara, her first slam win since she reached the 2nd round at the FO 2 years ago. :o

Decision time for Kata, this was the last tournament, where she could use her protected ranking I think, so now she has to choose whether to play the big tourneys and concentrate on doubles or focus on a return to let's say top 50 in singles.

Finally a MD win!

*Justine still will probably take out 2 of my favs ha!

Kata :sad: She had 4 SPs in first set but didn't take it. :(
Hopefully this isn't over of her singles carrer. :scared:

Well done Klara :yeah:

Kata :hug:

Yari :o :hug:

Klara :worship:

Klara winning a match in Grand Slam. :eek: It must not have happened for 2 years or something!

Always huge when Kookie wins a GS MD match. Good draw helped. Congrats! :yeah:

Klara winning a match in Grand Slam. :eek: It must not have happened for 2 years or something!

last GS win was razzano in RG '08 ;)

:cheer: so happy!

i wonder what's next for srebotnik ... :shrug:

i wonder what's next for srebotnik ... :shrug:

Katarina may have to go down the doubles route. She's ranked #280 in singles at the moment. Given how well she's doing in doubles and how often she makes it to the weekend stages, playing the qualifying for WTA events may be difficult and at this stage of her career, I can't see her wanting to drop back down to challengers on a regular basis.

Well done,Klara.

Wow :eek:
Nice comeback Klara :hearts:!

Nice fight Kookie :yeah:

Kata :hug: Better luck in doubles ;)

:( Kata... What about your comeback? :(

i wonder what's next for srebotnik ... :shrug:

I can tell you. Not the end of her singles career, in every interview in the last few months she said that she plans to go back to top 100, whether she has success in these WTA tournaments or not. She's still too optimistic to go down like that. Some loss against Zakopalova won't bring her down (Zakopalova is actually pretty good imo, just a headcase and maybe a little sloppy). I expect a couple of years more tennis for her, maybe a return to top 100, and good results in doubles. Maybe top 50 in singles and regain of some form. She's a natural imo, she just has to practice enough, and after 2 years of break this still isn't enough. She's not Justine Henin.

Some kinda Molik route maybe, maybe a bit better.

will srebotnik play ITF's? She has no other choice really :shrug: Portoroz is the only likely WTA event that will give her a MD WC....

Kata:sad:Her return didn't turn out as well as I expected it.

she should have won today :(
but Klara played good .

btw score is 76 46 61 ;)

she should have won today :(
but Klara played good .

btw score is 76 46 61 ;)
I waited for you. :D

well , Kata was down 3-0 as you probably saw and then it all started to get better . nice shots, nice rallies, a very levelled match , with Kata being slightly better overall . She had set points at 5-4* 0-40 and ... if I remember well she netted twice and Klara served a good serve to save her life (this point probably was the key point of the whole match ...)
Kata got a bit frustrated because as hard as she wa strying Klara wouldn't let her take the lead ...
same story in the second set but Kata did win it after wasting other set points at 5-3 and 5-4 .
and in the third ... Klara started strong and Kata got more and more frustrated , she was not as calm as usual you could see she really wanted to win and knew she was going to let this match slip away from her hands. SHe made more errors than Kookie but still I got the feeling she should have won today :awww:

Zakopalova did play well though , some very nice winners .

Problem of Kata today : she never ever did really benefit from Klara's weak second serves ...