sartrista7
Jun 26th, 2003, 11:41 PM
I didn't see as many as I would've liked... missed Lina, Sveta and Lena, and I had to meet someone outside the grounds during Yevgeny's match. But given how many Russians there were, it would have been impossible to get through a whole day without seeing any of them :D
Safina v Molik - well, Dinara's amazing, but a headcase. I got there at the start of the second set; no idea what happened in the first, but Dinara really started to dominate at this point. She was winning points comfortably on serve and although she frittered away many chances on the Molik serve, she was always pushing her and the break was inevitable. Molik seemed to have a lot of trouble with the bounce, and kept sending her sliced backhands into the net, while Dinara was just pounding winners all over the place. The pattern continued in the third - I think until 4-4 Dinara only conceded one point on her serve. Then at 4-4 she fell apart :rolleyes: UEs all over the place and handed the match to Molik on a plate. Disappointing, but she'll learn from it. The Aussie fans were wankers. Very loud and uncouth.
Myskina v Nagyova - abysmal. I dragged my cousin to see this instead of Agassi on Centre Court, and I couldn't stop him whining. Nastya was hitting the ball at about half her normal pace, her second serve was even more miserable than usual and on two occasions she smashed Nagyova's pathetic lobs into the BACK WALL. She was at least able to keep the ball in court for extended periods of time, though, unlike Nagyova, and there was really no excuse for losing any of the four games she did lose in the first set. Near the end she did hit a rather marvellous drop shot, and Nagyova fell getting there, which is why she retired. It seems Nastya improved in R2, which is good... it was lucky I could watch Nalbandian v Voltchkov over the wall in court 2 at the same time.
Sharapova v Harkleroad - well, ever since I saw Masha thrash Avants in last year's juniors I've been raving about her to people, and she was about a hundred times better this year. For someone with so little inexperience and so much power, the tiny amount of UEs was extraordinary. She plays with an intensity which hardly anyone on tour can match. Ashley's defence was pretty good, but Masha hardly let herself get frustrated; it was just a complete thrashing. What's most impressive is that, even now, there's no obvious weakness. Masha doesn't just bash from the baseline; she constructs points and thinks through games really well too. Her second serve isn't as strong as it could be, and her experiments with volleying weren't too successful, but I'm almost certain that Sharapova is a future Wimbledon champion.
Sorry this is rather late... I've not been near a computer since Sunday :D
Safina v Molik - well, Dinara's amazing, but a headcase. I got there at the start of the second set; no idea what happened in the first, but Dinara really started to dominate at this point. She was winning points comfortably on serve and although she frittered away many chances on the Molik serve, she was always pushing her and the break was inevitable. Molik seemed to have a lot of trouble with the bounce, and kept sending her sliced backhands into the net, while Dinara was just pounding winners all over the place. The pattern continued in the third - I think until 4-4 Dinara only conceded one point on her serve. Then at 4-4 she fell apart :rolleyes: UEs all over the place and handed the match to Molik on a plate. Disappointing, but she'll learn from it. The Aussie fans were wankers. Very loud and uncouth.
Myskina v Nagyova - abysmal. I dragged my cousin to see this instead of Agassi on Centre Court, and I couldn't stop him whining. Nastya was hitting the ball at about half her normal pace, her second serve was even more miserable than usual and on two occasions she smashed Nagyova's pathetic lobs into the BACK WALL. She was at least able to keep the ball in court for extended periods of time, though, unlike Nagyova, and there was really no excuse for losing any of the four games she did lose in the first set. Near the end she did hit a rather marvellous drop shot, and Nagyova fell getting there, which is why she retired. It seems Nastya improved in R2, which is good... it was lucky I could watch Nalbandian v Voltchkov over the wall in court 2 at the same time.
Sharapova v Harkleroad - well, ever since I saw Masha thrash Avants in last year's juniors I've been raving about her to people, and she was about a hundred times better this year. For someone with so little inexperience and so much power, the tiny amount of UEs was extraordinary. She plays with an intensity which hardly anyone on tour can match. Ashley's defence was pretty good, but Masha hardly let herself get frustrated; it was just a complete thrashing. What's most impressive is that, even now, there's no obvious weakness. Masha doesn't just bash from the baseline; she constructs points and thinks through games really well too. Her second serve isn't as strong as it could be, and her experiments with volleying weren't too successful, but I'm almost certain that Sharapova is a future Wimbledon champion.
Sorry this is rather late... I've not been near a computer since Sunday :D