[SM]

Hi people.

I unexpectedly bumped in to leite dean (personal joke) at lidcombe train station en route to the tennis.

i ran out of credit so lucky dean was with me to sms ozfan the scores!!

anyway my observations on how the aussies went..

christina horiatopoulos - she made kirlenko work for it. there were no easy games for maria ...christina had a nice serve, nice volleys, nice slice and seems more consistent than she was last year. her ground strokes lack penetration and she needs more power from them so she can use net skills.

dubravka cupac - her groundies were very similar to cervanova . both hit the ball quite flat and hard, but the main factor was dubravka's speed, as she was forded to lunge for many balls and hit them off balance or slice them. she rushed too.

watson -i only saw first two sets. dean and myself were a bit surprised at how little stick is on cindys groundstrokes...angelica looked pissed and slammed her raquet even when angelica hit good shots. i think cindys lack of pace was frustrating her! (cant believe this angelica girl has done so well vs alyona)

ferguson - saw her training for a while and shes hitting well. she seems more powerful than last time i saw her at an open tournament that we both played in a year and half ago! she wouldve done reaosnbaly well in quallies but main draw will be tough!

i have to add that mashona washington was the most impressive player today! the first few games that dean and i saw we agreed she was playing top 20 or thereabouts nice powerful serves and groundies..

the razzaono vs chekvatadze match wasnt too high quality. both made basic mistakes and chekvatatze(sp? lol) could use more pace.

any qs on other matches just ask!

oh one more thing i might add...i saw sprem training and she was hitting groundstrokes very weel for those worried about her form

[Buitenzorg]

SM and Dean

[martinafan]

I agree with what steve has said!

Dubravka has a lot of power on her shots and played quite well when she was the aggressor, but her defense is crap - she really needs to dedicate herself to her fitness more - it would make a huge difference to her game.

Cindy was extremely consistent and just really annoyed angelika. As steve said angelika would hit a great winner after a long rally and still bounce her racket and yell at herself as if to say "why is it taking so long to win the point?". Cindy almost threw away the match in the third set. She was up 2-0, and 4-2 and served for it at 6-5, before finally winning in the tiebreak. Angelika just was not a happy camper at all.

Christina has improved a bit since I saw her last year, but like Cupac she could work on her fitness considerably. She did really well at the net when she got there, and her reactions and net skills were truly impressive. The problem was her groundstrokes didn't allow her to move in. They landed about the service line all the time (many of them actually INSIDE the service line), and they sat up nice and high for kirilenko to punish!

Washington was indeed very impressive for the first few games i saw. If she can maintain that play in all her matches then she should definitely be top25! However she threw in quite a few sloppy games in the match. But Nina showed quite a bit of talent and really made Mashona work hard for the win.

Irvin was really lucky to win the first set. Linetskaya was up sth like 6-3 in the 1st set TB, and on one of the points at 6-5 in the breaker Irvin's shot hit the net and just rolled over for a winner. I think that annoyed linetskaya who lost the next 2 points easily. I missed the 2nd set and the first half of the 3rd set. At the end of the third set noone could hold their serve as everyone was constantly being broken. Linetskaya did have MP's at 6-5 in the third set, but Irvin actually played quite aggressive and hit the ball best when she was down MP.

Overall, nothing too exciting today - but the most impressive player was Mashona Washington by far!

[croat123]

did u see mamic or talaja?

[sonfo]

Do you know anything about Conchita? Who is she playing doubles with or if she "somehow" is playing in the MD? Thanks in advance

[Experimentee]

Thanks for the reports. Did anyone see Shuai Peng? How is she playing?

[martinafan]

Originally Posted by Experimentee

Thanks for the reports. Did anyone see Shuai Peng? How is she playing?

I didn't see any of her match against Pin, but before the match she was hitting up with Karolina Sprem - an they were really slugging the ball back and forth to each other....but hardly spoke to each other at all!

And i didn't realise the Shuai was sooo small! She's quite short and stocky!

[martinafan]

Originally Posted by sonfo

Do you know anything about Conchita? Who is she playing doubles with or if she "somehow" is playing in the MD? Thanks in advance

Sorry - i didnt' get to see Conchita at all, and i don't know anything...wish i could be more help.

[martinafan]

Originally Posted by croat123

did u see mamic or talaja?

No sorry, didn't really watch either of their matches....was really hard to get around to all matches and watch a good amount!

[broncosven]

Concita's was hitting on court 2 when i saw her

Both Mamic and Talaja played well when i saw them . . especailly Silvia

[bis2806]

When i saw linestkaya playing at Stanford, she was looking very fierce.... great potential