And Then There Were Two Elenas

Rowan here, after semifinals day at the ASB Classic. Aravane Rezai tried her darndest against Leni today but it wasn’t enough and got whomped in straight sets, 62 62. Leni has yet to drop a set this week, and she’s looked better and better with every round. The girl is on fire. She is hopeless at the race-a-little-kid-in-a-remote-controlled-car-race mini game they have her play after every win, brought to you by our sponsors at Kia Motors, but she is playing excellent tennis. Seriously, never let Leni drive.

After another quick Dementieva smackdown it was once again up to Elena Vesnina to provide the crowd with a real contest. She didn’t disappoint us, squeaking past British number one Anne Keothavong in a three hour 67(3) 61 75 thriller to make her first tour final. It was a great fight, a real brawl. Both ladies played very well at times, hitting incredible shots and fist pumping away. Both ladies also played lousy at times, choking away leads and cursing the heavens. In the end Vesnina won the match in style with an ace on match point. It was her fourth or fifth match point, but she got there.

So now we have Elena vs Elena in an all-Russian final tomorrow. The two Elenas played doubles together this week so they must know each other pretty well. They made the quarterfinals where they lost in one of those extreme eliminator super mega tiebreak 2000 things. That reminds me, doubles final tomorrow as well, Nathalie Dechy & Mara Santangelo vs Nuria Llagostera Vives & Arantxa Parra Santonja. The new doubles rules do make for exciting matches, but if they ever replace deuce with sudden death points in singles tennis I’ll shoot myself.

Guess what I saw today? Ernests Gulbis and Juan Carlos Ferrero, that’s what! The men are arriving.