[Mexicola]

Poor Agi involved in another marathon. Lost the first set 7-6 (8-6). Won the second set 7-5. Two and a half hours played.

[JoPova]

No matter who wins from the Agnieszka-Sara match, because they're all going to get bagelled by Serena!

[Asherahpova]

Vika will not be the favourite, provided she wins here, serving like she has been all tournament. Especially given how Maria has been serving. Sure the Bitch can flop her ROS like theres no tomorrow, but you just can't consistently double and throw in puff second serves the way Vika has been doing.

[ziros]

Vika is close to winning against Li,so that's the YE #1 wrapped up.

[Asherahpova]

With Serena waiting in the wins Maria's shot was slim anyway. I'll be happy if she ends the year on a Vika victory and semi-competitive match with Serena tbh.

[Abuttons]

It's Vika-Maria.

[TrollPova]

If Vika decides to play GOATly tomorrow after playing like shit the entire week I'll be miserable. I really hope Tommy came up with a strategy for Maria to beat her. I think Maria just loses patience too easily and frequently against Victoria. If she constructs points and doesn't just try finishing them after 2 shots I think she'll have a better shot. Mixing up placement and direction will also help; I wish she would hit behind Vika more, which would require more DTLines, which hasn't been a shot Maria employs as frequently as she used to. If anything, she needs to pressure Vika's service games more and not blow games where she gets to 0-30. She did like countless times in Beijing with brainless returns.

I won't be around this weekend to watch the Semis/Finals, which is probably for the best. Remaining hopeful as always, though

[Mr.Sharapova]

Ok so it's gonna be Vika-Maria tomorrow . Please Masha win somehow .

[Maria Croft]

I don't care if she gets slaughtered by Serena in the Finals, I want her to beat Azarenka.
Azarenka's not even playing that well, so I would just lose it if Maria were to roll over to her again for no good reason.

[Asherahpova]

If this girl DARES to refuse to hit her BH DTL tomorrow.

[Maria Croft]

OOP:

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Stadium (from 13.00hrs)
1. Huber/Raymond vs. Hlavackova/Hradecka
2. Serena Williams vs. Agnieszka Radwanska (NB 15.00hrs)
3. Maria Sharapova vs. Victoria Azarenka
4. Errani/Vinci vs. Kirilenko/Petrova

[JamieOwen3]

Maria's not going to end year #1 guys









Oh wait we have a reply from Maria

[dsanders06]

I'm feeling *fairly* good about tomorrow -- but I no longer trust my instincts in this match-up. Even though I didn't think she was guaranteed to win the Beijing match - I gave Maria the edge going into it, but certainly didn' think it was NID - but I really didn't expect her to get a thrashing atall, I really thought her days of playing utterly retardedly against Vika were over. So it's hard to say with certainty that she'll play well tomorrow. It basically just depends on Maria not shitting her pants / not having a brain freeze.

Usual tedious spiel I write about the Vika-Maria matches: Maria NEEDS to hit into the corners/down-the-lines, even if she only hits into them at 3/4-pace. As ever, her usual shtick against Vika of blasting straight into the centre of the court at FULL pace, is both more unreliable AND less effective, because she can't stem the errors when trying to blast at full pace, AND even when the shots go in, Vika has underratedly fantastic reaction times so can scoop up anything you hit right to her no matter how hard you hit it, so you have to exploit her mediocre raw footspeed and keep it in the corners away from her. Blablabla.

One thing to add though: I have a theory that the way Maria starts the match is like SUPER important, more important than other players. Just a theory, but it just seems to me in her matches against Vika this year (and against Serena, for that matter), if Maria immediately goes behind in a match, it feels to me like she starts panicking about getting an embarrassing beatdown, and that in itself becomes self-fulfilling because she can't relax Whereas the two matches she did well against Vika this year, Stuttgart and US Open, both matches she jumped into 3-0 leads immediately, and it just feels like if she gets some games on the board immediately, so she can put her mind at rest that it won't be the WORST case scenario of a total beatdown, then she relaxes thereafter and is able to just focus on her tennis rather than having the worry of a humiliating one-sided scoreline preying on her mind. So I want to see her going for full-blooded returns into the corners in Vika's very first service game tomorrow and trying to get off to a great start, then hopefully if she gets that great start her racquet can take care of the rest.


*I'll admit the AO final - where Maria broke first - goes against this, but the only reason Maria won the first couple of games in that match anyway was because Vika started off so nervously rather than Maria doing anything special to get the break.

[Asherahpova]

All of the above, and your 3/4 bit goes for Serena too. Vika won quite a few points doing that. She should get them both out wide and then hit a couple of bombs CC. Strangely though her FH has been her best shot this week, which is where Vika will hit to most often.

[Craig.]

Originally Posted by dsanders06

One thing to add though: I have a theory that the way Maria starts the match is like SUPER important, more important than other players. Just a theory, but it just seems to me in her matches against Vika this year (and against Serena, for that matter), if Maria immediately goes behind in a match, it feels to me like she starts panicking about getting an embarrassing beatdown, and that in itself becomes self-fulfilling because she can't relax Whereas the two matches she did well against Vika this year, Stuttgart and US Open, both matches she jumped into 3-0 leads immediately, and it just feels like if she gets some games on the board immediately, so she can put her mind at rest that it won't be the WORST case scenario of a total beatdown, then she relaxes thereafter and is able to just focus on her tennis rather than having the worry of a humiliating one-sided scoreline preying on her mind. So I want to see her going for full-blooded returns into the corners in Vika's very first service game tomorrow and trying to get off to a great start, then hopefully if she gets that great start her racquet can take care of the rest.

I totally agree with this. One thing I've noticed: Maria tends to serve first in her matches against Vika. If she loses her opening service game, she loses the match.