[dsanders06]

Originally Posted by JoPova

Stats don't matter much.. Serena hit winners at the right time, while Maria made errors at the wrong times! that's how you win matches, by winning the important points!

Yes to the second part, no to the first part. Did Serena hit a single winner on one of her breakpoints in Maria's service games? I wasn't keeping track at the time, but as far as I can remember now, Maria hit an unforced error to concede everytime she was broken.

[yashwanth]

Originally Posted by Mexicola

How much do you want to bet one of Maria's post-match quotes will be, "I had my chances and I just didn't take them." It's almost as annoying as Serena's "I've got nothing to lose".

Maria just doesn't seem like a real student of the game to me. It doesn't look like she truly burns to get better. Otherwise, we wouldn't see her committing the same kinds of mistakes over and over in these big matches. There's really no excuse why a player of her caliber continues to lose in such lopsided fashion to Serena/Vika/Na/Kvitova in semifinals/finals. Yes, I realize she turned her rivalry with Petra around last year, but that Wimbledon final still bothers me.

She hasn't improved anything in last 9 years evenmore to her credit she declined a lot especially her footwork was awful. Ofcourse this is understandable as she is quite busy finding ways to promote her Sugarpova. How many times Serena served to Deuce court today even the ball boys can predict what would be the serena next serve would be but our girl cannot read her serve never. Only sharapova bar brain was present in the court when she plays Vika/Aga/ Serena. Awful really Awful.

[NashaMasha]

The whole match looks like Serena toying with Sharapova and she has Zero respect towards Sharapova thats obvious.

no, she has respect , she is always focused and desperately wants to win against Masha.... When Masha beats herself with doublefaults i see in Serena great relief... Aftert that Serena is playing relaxed , with no pressure and it's lethal for her opponent

[dsanders06]

Originally Posted by Tennisvampire

First time that I agree with your post 100% I don't buy that whole Marena love thing. If Maria ever beats her again, watch that "friendship" crumble like a tower made out of cards

Oh, that's for sure. They clearly still detest eachother. Them playing nicey-nice to eachother at public events means nothing--it's just a weird habit women have, I know two girls who always act like their best friends when together and then bitch incessantly about the other when they're not with them

If Maria ever does beat Serena again, I bet she unleashes 8 years worth of shade, just like she started laying into Azarenka in press conferences when she started beating her.

[Tennisvampire]

I just want Maria to enter their next match with a good attitude and not allow one good return or break of serve to alter that like she always does. That's the major mental problem against Serena I think. First sign of problems, and Crapova is getting on the court as fast as she can. She started well today, heck I'll say she was even better than Serena in those first 4 games, then first sign of problems, she makes UE at 30 all iirc, and double faults at bp. And it was downhill ever since

[yashwanth]

Originally Posted by NashaMasha

no, she has respect , she is always focused and desperately wants to win against Masha.... When Masha beats herself with doublefaults i see in Serena great relief... Aftert that Serena is playing relaxed , with no pressure and it's lethal for her opponent

I dont think she tried that desperately. The desperation was evident only in sharapova to win her own games.

[SilverSlam]

Originally Posted by Chrissie-fan

I've been busy feeling depressed, but now I'm trying to put my life back together and I'm slowly starting to climb back out of the hole that I'm in. That's what I hope anyway. I'm now trying to start doing the kind of things again that I enjoyed doing previously....watching some tennis, listen to some music, watching a movie occasionally....

....hanging out with you guys...

Well today and yesterday haven't been very good tennis wise for Caroline and Maria, but there's always another match, another tournament, so hopefully it doesnt ruin the fun of tennis. It's good to have you back

[yashwanth]

Originally Posted by Griffin.

Such a frustrating match. Serena has been on autopilot these last few matches with a few bursts of intensity here and there because she knows that Maria can't get out of her own way when she plays her. I really wanted a red clay match between the two this season but now I'm not so sure as Maria will likely fuck that up too.

Please god that wont be the French Open semi final.

[Tennisvampire]

Originally Posted by dsanders06

Oh, that's for sure. They clearly still detest eachother. Them playing nicey-nice to eachother at public events means nothing--it's just a weird habit women have, I know two girls who always act like their best friends when together and then bitch incessantly about the other when they're not with them

If Maria ever does beat Serena again, I bet she unleashes 8 years worth of shade, just like she started laying into Azarenka in press conferences when she started beating her.

Call me pathetic, but I live for that day

[Tennisvampire]

Originally Posted by yashwanth

Please god that wont be the French Open semi final.

Or God forbid final About the only thing Maria has left in comparison to Serena is better display at the FO lately, and we don't need that last pillar of Maria's game and legacy taken away by Serena. Although I gotta say I can't see her defending it, if she crumbles under pressure while playing Serena-ridden AO and Serena herself in Doha, think about what will a defending champion epithet do to her I used to wish them playing last year on clay, but this year I'm not so sure. I don't want the illusion of Maria beating her on red dirt being squashed

[Chrissie-fan]

It's the lopsided-ness of Maria's losses in these big matches that I find so strange. She usually absolutely destroys (almost) anyone outside of the top five but more often than not gets destroyed by a (almost) similar margin by her fellow greats. If it would be losing three setters or competitive two setters against them it wouldn't be such a problem because there are after all no draws in tennis and one could hope that next time it would be Maria's turn. But the margins by which she loses these matches are worrying and the're not logical. Considering how she handles everyone else on tour one would think that she would win about 50% of her matches against Vika and would at least be able to make it competitive against Serena.

[Marilyn Monheaux]

Anyone have an objective summery of the match? Didn't get to see it.

[swissmr]

Definitely think the problem was mental today, Serena definitely played a few GOAT points, but was pretty average overall. Maria had plenty of opportunities and blew almost all of them with dumb errors. Serena is in her head for sure

Biggest positive of the match were a couple of massive serves (194 kph!).

[Tennisvampire]

Originally Posted by Marilyn Monheaux

Anyone have an objective summery of the match? Didn't get to see it.

Serena playing averagely, Maria shitting her dress and flopping every decent chance she had.

[yashwanth]

Originally Posted by Tennisvampire

Or God forbid final About the only thing Maria has left in comparison to Serena is better display at the FO lately, and we don't need that last pillar of Maria's game and legacy taken away by Serena. Although I gotta say I can't see her defending it, if she crumbles under pressure while playing Serena-ridden AO and Serena herself in Doha, think about what will a defending champion epithet do to her I used to wish them playing last year on clay, but this year I'm not so sure. I don't want the illusion of Maria beating her on red dirt being squashed

Has anybody remembered what she said after her loss to Li Na about the missed opportunity of entering into a Serena Free final? True champions like to compete against Champions something like that.
This is it.