Leni Turns It Up

Rowan here, after day 3 at the ASB Classic.

Leni brought her A game today and shut Marina Erakovic down without much trouble, 62 63. Pity Marina couldn’t put up more of a fight but she had some good moments. It was a fun match, the crowd was into it. Leni has Shahar Peer tomorrow which should be good. Peer has looked strong this week so far. Actually it’s been reported in the news that there’s some sort of anti-Israel protest planned to take place at the tennis tomorrow. Some activists want a boycott against Israel, and there’s no boycott like a sports boycott, so they asked Peer to withdraw from the Classic. She ignored the request, saying politics have nothing to do with her, she’s just here to play tennis. So there’s gonna be a protest. Sounds a little scary, I wonder what will happen. Poor Shahar Peer, it’s not her fault.

Aah, too heavy for me, back to tennis blogging. Nicole Vaidisova crashed out to Elena Vesnina today which was a bit of a bummer. Nikki V just looks like she’s lacking some confidence, which is a shame as she really is quite good at playing tennis. I hope she gets back to her winning ways soon. At least she’s still young.

The coolest thing on centre court today was Japanese qualifier Ayumi Morita. She’s eighteen, looks about twelve, and plays with two hands on both sides, like Marion Bartoli. I’ve always thought the double-handed forehand looks really uncoordinated and hard to do, and whenever somebody hits one I cringe and expect the ball to land in the front row. But Morita’s double-handed forehand was really good, it went exactly where she wanted it to go. She was running all over the court and hitting every ball back, and she didn’t just lollipop them back, she fired them back like a bazooka. Fourth seed Aleksandra Wozniak just couldn’t keep up with her. Morita will have Anne Keothavong from Great Britain in the quarterfinals tomorrow, I’ve hyped her up now so she better win that one or I’ll be embarrassed.