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Sorana's sandbox tour on the clay - join for 2013!

14K views 255 replies 26 participants last post by  grs 
#1 · (Edited)
Marrakesh
Estoril
Madrid
Rome
French Open

Here is her chance to finally crack the Top 20.
 
#2 ·
Re: Sorana's sandbox tour on the clay - join for 2012!

GL Sori! :cheer:
I wish she was playing Fes instead of Stuttgart though :p
 
#3 ·
Re: Sorana's sandbox tour on the clay - join for 2012!

WTA Barcelona, Main Draw:

(1/wc)Francesca Schiavone (ITA) v Olga Govortsova (BLR)
Laura Pous-Tio (ESP) v Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (CZE)
Silvia Soler-Espinosa (ESP) v Lourdes Dominguez Lino (ESP)
Sorana Cirstea (ROU) v (8)Polona Hercog (SLO)

Polona is still stuck in Charleston, so this draw is maybe better than it looks on first sight. Sorana also leads the H2H, match was played on hard, though.
 
#7 ·
Re: Sorana's sandbox tour on the clay - join for 2012!

The only birthday of a tennis player I can remember is Nadal's because I'm sharing it with him, no, I'm not a fan :lol:

Hercog just got trashed badly, nothing Sorana must fear, but you never know with those 2.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Re: Sorana's sandbox tour on the clay - join for 2012!

Sorana def. Polona Hercog 6-4 Ret.

Awful quality match.

Polona as usual without a backhand, but even herforehand and serve completely fell apart today. Nothing was working, horrendous body language probably caused by her health issues. The very first service game of hers must be the worst I've ever seen from a Top 50 player with 2 DFs and 2 hilarious shanks.

Sorana as usual all or nothing, hammering without a brain. It took some time for her to get into the match, before that she didn't hit much balls into court either. Whenever she hit to Hercog's backhand which was like 3 times in the set, she got an easy point, but playing with brain has never been her strength. She played well after being down on her own serve at 4-4, though.

I don't know what was wrong with Polona, it didn't became clear by just watching the stream.
It really was like that and the fact that she had to save 2 BPs to beware Polo from serving for the match is worrysome. Next up is Dominguez-Lino and I'm really scared because if she plays as brainless as today, LiDL will easily lead her into self-destruction.
 
#11 ·
Re: Sorana's sandbox tour on the clay - join for 2012!

R2: Sorana def. Dominguez-Lino 1-6 6-3 6-1

Sorana really made progress and matured a lot compared to some years ago, it never became clearer to me than while watching this match.

The 1st set was 2010 Sorana not instantly hitting everything out, but completely losing plot when she had to go to the net. Too many unforced errors in general and no composure made LiDL look unplayable for her.

Then somewhere in the middle of the 3rd set it made click, I don't know what it was, but she started to use her brain and voilà, she only lost one more game for the rest of the match attacking Lino's serve from the beginning and placing most of those returns nicely close to the lines or her opponent's body. She also gained much more confidence on the net throughout that match only missing one more overhead in the 3rd, othe than that she hit them nicely and made the right decisions, even using some great drop shots to take Lourdes out of position. Another honourable mention to her fitness. She was able to chase down most of LiDL's drop shots and place the counter shots deep and long so that in the end the Spaniard's junk had more or less 0 effect.

QF against Govortsova who is definitely beatable on clay if Sorana isn't too tired.
 
#14 ·
Re: Sorana's sandbox tour on the clay - join for 2012!

Sorana has brain! She changed her game plan at 0-5 in first set and even if she lost that set and had problems on her service (especially because her fist service refused to enter - let's mention that Sorana figured that and softened it in the third set increasing the percentage) it was clear that Lourdes's resistance was futile ( :) ) and the match could have only one winner. Sorana play is so nice to watch when she doesn't hit every ball hard. She knows how to play tennis.
 
#21 ·
Re: Sorana's sandbox tour on the clay - join for 2012!

Defeated Govortsova 2-6 6-1 6-3

from GM:

I really don't understand Sorana's mindset here. After going down miserably yesterday against Lourdes in that first set with low percentage tennis, she's doing exactly the same crap again today. Yes, Olga is a different kind of player, but still there were only 5 rallies on Olga's serve in the opener that went over more than 3 shots. She won nearly all of them, but hammered a good dozen of returns mile into the out. With a performance like the one there, she would struggle against nearly any player out there. Ironically, she is swearing the whole time at herself for not going so much risk again on the next try, but the same story again and again and she keeps on swearing. :lol:

However, this time again, she somehow noticed that it can't go on like that, took some pace off her strokes and tried to rally with big success, hitting some clean winners on both sides as well as some good droppers and you don't believe it - Olga is also hitting unforced errrors if you let her.

Came back from 1-3 in the 3rd as well with that tactic, although Olga was godawful at the end, no 1st serves, no consistency on bh or fh, some really loose shots mixed with a deflated body language and poor shot selection.

Sorana really has to be awake from the start of her semifinal match tomorrow. There are players other than Lourdes and Olga that won't allow her such a comeback again.
 
#26 ·
Re: Sorana's sandbox tour on the clay - join for 2012!

from my favs only Sorana won at least... if the losing of the first set means winning the match than go on Sori :D good luck tomorrow against Dominika.... Sori is top 40... nice to see Sori going back where she belongs...
 
#30 ·
Re: Sorana's sandbox tour on the clay - join for 2012!

Lost 1-6 1-6

Well, Dominika is no jetlaged Polona, Lourdes or Olga and even she was average at best today...

Pathetic serving, pathetic returning. However, reaching the semifinal is already a result exceeding my expectations for this tournament in her regard, so she should forget about this one like she did with the Watson match and focus on Stuttgart Q.
 
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