As expected, Li was way too consistent for Mirjana, as she would've been for most players present on the Tour. She is a complete player with many strenghts and when she plays well very few girls can harm her. With regular opposition in the form of the Williams sisters and Sharapova (to name a few) she is more than used to big hitting on a high level, so Mirjana's power wasn't much of a problem for her. She can play high level rallies virtually whenever necessary, come to the net and attack very quickly, which is pretty much enough to eliminate most of her opponents.
So all in all, Miki had a task that was very tough to handle, and as much as she fought (am proud of her for that), she could barely keep up with the Chinese. Li was virtually flawless at the start of the match so the 1st set result is not much of a surprise, but when she started playing more like the rest of mere mortals Miki could actually win something. No one can really take anything from Mirjana this time, she played well and fought hard, she is probably a little tired by now as well, while Li had only her first match today.
Still at least one more match to play this year in Stuttgart, but whatever happens next this was already a hugely successful week for Miki. Looking forward to tomorrow to see if she can keep it up for a little while longer.
Lucic-Baroni is on the qualifying list for the tournament in Portugal which begins Sat. I have a feeling she will pull out since she is still in doubles in Germany and doesn't have points to defend next week, I think.
Sabine won, fireing 11 aces. Not great news for doubles but at least Mirjana and Jankovic will have more time to get ready.
It will be very hard, all germans are playing crazy good in doubles in Stuttgart.
Well, at least we know Mirjana has been playing pretty much "crazy good" this week as well The match is scheduled for 21:30 CET and I'm really looking forward. Miki has changed quite a lot in her game and it's really pleasant game to watch now. Against Li she was again mixing things up nicely, and won quite a few points with terrific drop shots. Speaking of winning points, yes, Mirjana made a good number of UE's as well, but those came simply due to lower consistency level in rallies compared to Li, they were not really just wild shots coming as a result of impatience or something. Also, I've never seen how many points has each of them won. Considering this 15 game match lasted about 75 minutes it wouldn't surprise me if they were much closer than the result suggests.
Thanks for that SERVivor, goes to show how well she played. With, unfortunately, having won just 20% of games, she won almost 40% of points that were played. That's pretty great against top 5 opposition.
Uhh, Lisicki and Barthel easily into final.. I really hoped JJ and MLB would win because that way both would get ranking up and wouldn't need WC to enter upcoming tournaments in Madrid and Rome. This way I'm not sure they can even get a WC.. Mirjana is GS champion, does that mean she can get unlimited number of WC's for doubles?
No, she doesn't get it because of it but maybe she can get unlimited number of WC's.
Because in singles player can get 3 MD WC and 3 QWC in a year, except GS champions-they can get unlimited number.
Anyway, Barthel/Lisiki won in final 64 75.. Such a shame for Mirjana and JJ
It did not happen often during her career that Mirjana was ranked higher in doubles than in singles - not bad to see her well inside top 100 on both lists!
She's 80th in the race, which is quite good considering she hasn't won a match at the Australian Open(where most girls got a lot of points).
I feel like what she needs is a winnable R1 in Roland Garros. Quite crucial for this year.
It's good she started on European clay early this season. She really needs to accumulate a significant number of points now to offset what she could theoretically lose at Wimbledon. Stuttgart was a great start. Winning at least a few matches at Madrid would be another positive step as I don't think she has any pts. to defend next week. Then she has quite a few points to defend at the Italian Open and Strasbourg. Winning at least one French Open match would help too. But I think we all know grass is her best surface and she can be counted on to defend most if not all of her 2012 grass pts. either at Wimbledon or in the Wimbledon warm ups or both. Even if she doesn't win another match between now and the end of Wimbledon, she would drop no further than roughly 135 so I think she can stay in the top 100 but hopefully move up a little between now and the end of Wimbledon.
I just noticed she is not ranked high enough to be in Madrid qualies as of yet. She will need some withdrawls, i.e. some higher ranked players opting to play ITFs rather than Madrid qualifying. Hopefully, she'll get in as she can do some damage there.
Yes, she quite far from qualies. But maybe someone will make QF in Estoril and some girls will surely decide to play Tranava and Cagnes Sur Mer. I believe she'll get in.
It would eb sad if she would again have to miss few weeks because she is one or two out just like after Wimbledon last year.
I expect a lot. When I see how easily Mirjana def. Oprandi in Charleston and how good results Oprandi has had on clay since, and what she has done in Stuttgart, also that she was in doubles with Jankovic and that they were only team in hole tournament that played even match with champions ...
Those are some fast courts in Madrid, could suit her(even better if it was blue clay like last year because agressive players were dominant on it-Nadal lost to Verdasco, Djokovic to Tipsarevic and Berdych in final..) but still it should be good.
Also I like that she'll play Brussels this year and not Strasbourg. A Premier event and a lot of points could be won.
That's a rotten draw ! Probably the hardest of the 16 possible opponents she could have got but if she plays like she did against Vesnina then she has a chance.
Hopefully Prpic has a plan for her against Keyes. She's playing better than when Keyes beat her late last year, but Keyes is also ranked higher than she was then. The fact its on red clay should help Mirjana a bit. Should be a good hitting contest. Mattek Sands maybe due a letdown after last week. Petrovic not what she was a couple of years ago but still dangerous.