[garwe]

Originally Posted by oh yeah i guess

He was sitting left of the player's box.

Ok thanks. Good.

[VIKA-GOAT]

Boo i watched the match and I didn't like what I saw. But ok a win is a win. Please play better in the next rounds

[JadeFox]

Originally Posted by VIKA-GOAT

Boo i watched the martxch and I didn't like what I saw. But ok a win is a win. Please play better in the next rounds

Yeah let this be her one off match please. Step it up for the next one Vika!

[Jane Lane]

Originally Posted by oh yeah i guess

He was sitting left of the player's box.

Don't blame Sam for sitting as far away from the Rainbow Peasant as possible.

[Vikapower]

Originally Posted by LUVMIRZA

seems like she'll never defend a title in her career

Come on, I know you can have better faith than that --

I was praying for Vesnina to win and thank God she did so -- the draw needs to gain in quality and Victoria needs to be pushed again to raise that level of play. Time to stop the scrub-surfing...

Vesnina should play well and attacking tennis so hopefully Victoria will be considerably faster at everything she does on-court or at least sharpens what needs to be from practice.

Kuznetsova has been playing pretty well from what I've read around and can bring game so hopefully she wins too by her side -- these are the types opponents Victoria NEEDS to face before that SF.

It's fun to play opponents who just slice and dice and can't attack for a dime but that doesn't bring nothing at the end of the day when you're playing considerably better striking players like Hampton and Victoria was totally unprepared.

[hurricanejeanne]

Originally Posted by Jane Lane

Don't blame Sam for sitting as far away from the Rainbow Peasant as possible.

Sam better put his foot down with this shit. Team Vika does not approve of the Rainbow Peasant.

[SilverSlam]

I tried to wake up for her match but fell asleep Seems like a good thing. I could watch the replay but after seeing that she didnt play so well I dont think I want too

[oh yeah i guess]

Vika has played Vesnina recently, who was also playing well then, so I doubt she'll get caught out by her as she seemed to with Hampton. After all, there is something pretty damn dangerous about a player the size of Hampton who is fast around the court and can whack the ball hard.

[Spiritof42]

Vika has been so unimpressive this week, it's not even funny... some of the worst hard court tennis she's played over the last year (her forehand ). Fortunately for her, she was facing weak opposition in the first two rounds, and a more dangerous but physically impaired player today.

This match should serve as a wake-up call, because right now she's not looking like a serious contender at all.

Even if her level doesn't improve she should still be able to find a way past Vesnina (who, despite finally winning a title and playing some decent tennis lately, still seems very fragile mentally and prone to choking if her match against Vinci is anything to go by), but after that...

[Break My Rapture]

Originally Posted by Natural Joe

oh, and I hope that her comment after the match ("I'm going to practice more" or something like that) didn't mean that she didn't prepare properly for whatever reason...

I was hoping Vika would have improved her serve again over the off-season but that's not the case at all. Actually I don't see anything that's really been improved right now. What a difference from last year. I still hope this match got Vika grooved after all the junkballing by Niculescu and Daniilidou, because we desperately need to have the Wozniacki match in the quarters and even more desperately, Vika needs to bring it then and there.

[Nina.]

The Rainbow Peasant
Anyway...only saw the last couple of games but she really needs to get her shit together when she wants to defend her title here. On the other hand, she has no business losing to Vesnina

[Igor_Biscan]

Vika's assessment of the match was accurate as usual.

Though she said Sam had scouted out Hampton and told her she hadn't played like this in previous matches. He must have been on his second bottle of red when he was watching them cause she'd played exactly like that against U Radwanska, and completely outplayed her sister in auckland before choking 6-7 6-7. It's solid top twenty level and Vika was wrong to think she would necessarily cool off.

Jamie's level was similar to the third round last year when Barthel played well, but Vika kept her foot down and won a high quality match 6-2 6-4. This time Vika slacked off and let her opponent back in.

Some of you guys are being way too harsh on Vika though and a bit dismissive of the quality of her opponent. As I see it Vika has two main problems: physical and emotional. Technically she's ok, when she's not under pressure she's hitting the ball quite well, as against Eleni. And her serve is probably better than the second half of last year.


Physically, she's a step slower around the court and is less precise with her footwork which is feeding into poor shot preparation. So she isn't getting into position so quickly which is seeing her get pushed behind the baseline and forced onto the defensive even by moderately powerful shots. She doesn't work as a defensive player.

I don't know if this is from the toe injury, from too many snickers or just because she's still leggy from preseason fitness work.

Emotionally she seems like she is going through one of her phases where she's not enjoying playing tennis so much and is more thinking about getting the result. So she's more tense at the important moments rather thanjust playing each point as it comes. Maybe she will enjoy more playing against higher profile opponents.

[Nina.]

Originally Posted by Igor_Biscan

Emotionally she seems like she is going through one of her phases where she's not enjoying playing tennis so much and is more thinking about getting the result. So she's more tense at the important moments rather thanjust playing each point as it comes. Maybe she will enjoy more playing against higher profile opponents.

Agree. Maybe it's the pressure of being no.1 and defending champion. It might be even more important to her to do well here and especially not "some" player - which I completely don't mean in a disrespectful way towards Hampton, just like in a non top ranked player.

[hurricanejeanne]

Jamie's a tremendous talent. I told a good friend of mine who's well versed in this sport that Jamie's game, especially if she's on, is going to give Vika fits. I was correct. Jamie not only took chances Vika presented but also made her own chances. If she hadn't gotten hurt, she would have produced the upset of the tournament.

Vika's footwork is what was killing her last night. Against a player that not only hits the ball hard and well but also can add spins and angles, she needs tip top footwork to get in position. But she wasn't getting in position and taking control of the rallies she could have. Whether this is related to her toe infection or not, she got tight out there and the fact that she started becoming Temperenka says a lot.

She's never defended a title before and having the pressure of attempting that while being number one when your two primary rivals are eating quality opponents alive just adds even more pressure.

I hope she went out and practiced her ass off after this wake up call. She needs to take a deep breath and calm down and fall into her natural rhythm of play. She should beat Vesnina. The quarterfinal between her and either Sveta or Caro could be a huge boost to her confidence or a death nail.

On a side note, the Tennis Channel commentators said that Vika's begun working with Rafa's publicist to create a more fan friendly image of herself. We know Vika is awesome, but she needs to show the world that awesome. Hopefully that side of things improves so that people who are indifferent can warm to her and some of the haters can eat shit.

[garwe]

I don't thinkt the match was that bad. Perhaps we can hope it is similar to the Barthel match from Indian Wells last year. She had one even three setter when the opponent played good and Vika a bit below her standard. And then she played great in the rest of the matches.