Wow- I'm blown away!!! I sat in the second row on the floor right on the baseline, and it was an incredible match!!!! Anna looked so good!! Very few unforced errors, one double fault, moving well, and serving well!!! Jen looked a little sloppy, and had tons of problems with her first serve. She looked like she gained a little weight actually!<br />Anna was very intense, and although Jen was serious too, Anna just seemed to want it more.<br />I spoke to Denise Capriati after the match and she was very nice! My boyfriend also talked to Stefano and he was also very friendly. And I got Anna's autograph after the match!!!! She looked very happy and the win seemed to mean a lot to her even though it was an exhibition match. My boyfriend also chatted briefly with Alla after the match, but she had little to say....<br />Anyways, it was a dream night and an amazing match!!! <br />Congrats to Anna!!!!<br />This is a good sign for 2002!!!!
Way to go Anna! Seee, she can come back! <img src="graemlins/bounce.gif" border="0" alt="[Bounce]" /> Watch out, for Anna! <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">
1) Congrats to Anna! I am SHOCKED! Come back strong and shut people like me up!
2) Jenn looked like she gained weight?!?! That is NOT a good sign. She looked pretty buff to me. A bit thicker in the middle, but if that's just a lot of ab work, all to the good.
Either Anna has recovered her form, or Jenn has hopelessly lost hers. AC-centuate the POS-itive. Anna Kournikova is at least back enough to upset a seed or two at OZ. Wish her OZ tuneups were more heavyweight. Exos and T5's. But if she took Jenn, even a Jenn at only 90%, than a good solid 'pre-season' win.
Hi Volcana- Although I am a Jen fan, I must tell you that Jen's tummy is not bigger as the result of extra ab work!<br />In an interview with the local paper, Jen said that she has been taking some time off, and just started practicing a few days ago. I think there's still plenty of time for her to get in peak form for OZ, but she looked out of sorts in this match. She also said in her interview that she was nervous to play in front of her "home crowd" in Tampa, and she looked nervous especially in the warm-up, missing overheads badly and whacking her serve all over the place. Her return in the match wasn't all that great either. Anna's return was quite good and her forehand was just as consistent as her backhand. I guess only time will tell......
WOW...I was just saying in another post that Miss capriati will regain #1 spot after Sydney because she has almost no points to defend there! I'm not sure anymore!!! If she loses to Kournikova who has 2 winnings in the last 6 months, I wonder if she will even make the 3rd round there!!! <img src="eek.gif" border="0">
I'm shocked!!!! If she doesn't put herself together quickly, she will be out of the top 10 after FO!!!!!
Well, that's too bad for Jen. But, Anna does seem to beat Jen a lot for some reason. Oh well. I am not too concerned. I'm not so sure about Jen gaining weight. She looked good in the pics I saw of her practicing. Well, we'll just see in Australia. That is when it will matter.
I just got back from the match as well. <br />~ Anna serve well, hmmmmm, if you call no double faults serving well then yes. But her first serve percentage was not that good, and her second serve was very bad.<br />~ The crowd was definitely for JENN right from the start. Anna came out first, she got cheers and cat calls... then Jenn came out... of course they announced "our very own, From Tampa" and she got a huge ROAR and a standing ovation! It was great.<br />~ I said the crowd was for Jenn but the line judges were for Anna. Some of the calls were soooo bad and ALL went in Anna's favor. <br />~ I sat in the lower bowl, kind of in the corner. <br />There was a group of drunks behind me that talked the entire match! They even screamed out on a really bad call, "OUT, OUT" so loud that Anna kind of hesitated.<br />~ Jenn was overhitting a lot.<br />~ I thought they both looked good, but xcrtbckhnd<br />you had way better seats then me! <br />-- Anna took the set from the beginning she was up 4-0 in the first.<br />---> afterwards, they signed three balls each and shot them in the stands. The person that caught them got to hit with them! I didn't catch one!
I just came in from the match as well. I have to agree, J.Cap looks a lot heavier now than she has on TV all year. The gut was really hanging out and she seemed very slow. A few times, I couldn't believe she was wearing a mid-drift bearing outfit, she was busting out all over the place. I like her and I don't want to offend her fans, but it was pretty shocking how too-small her outfit was. Anna is every bit at hot as she is on TV and then some, and she had some serious diamond earrings on, they looked about 2 carats each. I thought she did look very solid, I was surprised. The first set, Jen looked terrible, her serves were a nightmare and Anna was up 4-0 in no time. The second set was a little closer and more competitive with Jen getting a break, but Anna really held her own, I was really, really surprised. Frankly, I didn't think either player seemed to care much about the outcome.
Was it just me, or did Anna really want to get in and out of there? Every changeover, she'd go to the chair look at her watch, wipe her face, have a swig, wipe her face, have a swig and then look at her watch like she had a flight to catch or something! Then she'd get up and sort of look at Jen like, let's get going I want out of here! Some guy behind me yelled "Go to the gym" at Jen Cap at one point, I was really embarrassed, but I doubt she heard it (I hope she didn't). I was about 11 rows up on the side where they sat, mid-court. It was not like a professionally played competitive match, but Anna's serves looked good. Jen Cap didn't seem like she cared too much about the outcome, so I don't think her fans should panic, though she didn't look like she was in too good shape.
No, it's no joke! I drove almost 2hrs to see a match that lasted a little over an hour. <br />I will probably never spend that kind of money on an exhibition again. I'm now looking forward to going to the new one in Sarasota and the Amelia Island one! I guess I wasn't sure what to expect in an exhibition. I have never seen one on tv or went to one. Jenn just didn't seem into it at all.
I agree that the line calls were terrible, but it seemed both players got screwed by them, but I didn't keep track. The crowd was really pro-Jen (except for that guy behind me!). I should have hung around like you guys and tried to get an autograph! I saw Stefano before the match started, but I don't know what the other parents look like. He was sitting low until right before the match started, then he walked up like he was going into a skybox and I didn't see him again.
Celeste ~~~ your right on w/ Anna wanting to get in and out of there!! She didn't waste any time with changeovers! What is up with people yelling things!! It was horrible! I still think Jenn looked ok, I never liked her outfits and always thought she hanged out. But she didn't seem over weight to me.
Maybe it was one of those things where if she would only wear one or two more sizes up, she would have looked ok, but that tummy was really hanging out, worse than on TV. There was a lot of screaming! Anna got cat-called a lot there right at the beginning, I felt sorry for her...almost. You can't feel sorry for someone that gorgeous. I was hoping she wouldn't look that good in person, or I could degrade her looks like she looks cheap or something. No way, she is 100% classy hot! Don't worry, a "real" match is much better, don't let this deter you from going to a real tournament. I've seen straight set whitewashes in real tournaments, they are much, much better than this one.
Anna always plays well in Exo because there is no pressure on her. If you look at her exhibition results, you can obviously see she plays better in exhibition.
Maybe, but though she looked solid, if someone was playing to win against her tonight, she would have been killed if she hadn't raised her game a lot. That other poster is right, she didn't double fault much at all, but the serves weren't like incredible by any stretch of the imagination. You'd expect a good amount of aces on carpet, but I can only recall one, from Anna, right after she got a bad call and seemed mad.