Rowan here, back from a sunny day two at the ASB Classic. Our favourite number one seed Elena Dementieva got off to a slooow start against Chan Yung-Jan today, going 1-5 down before waking up and winning the match 75 63. A little bit of hustle needed but she got through okay, and she had a smile on her face throughout which was nice to see. Leni even hit a few aces, I didn’t know she had it in her. Kiwi (Croatian-born Kiwi but who’s counting, she has that cute New Zealand accent) Marina Erakovic also won against Nuria Llagostera Vives in straight sets, setting up, you guessed it, Dementieva vs Erakovic tomorrow in the blockbuster match of the tournament so far. Keep in mind Marina beat the top seed at last year’s Classic, upsetting Vera Zvonareva in three sets in the quarterfinals. So she might have a repeat on her mind, Leni better be careful.
All eight seeds have won their first round matches, it’s great. There are quite a few players who look like they could win this whole thing. Caroline Wozniacki looked very good today, as did Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the seventeen year old Russian with the long name and longer earrings. She got her hair or something tangled up in one of them and had to ask a young male line judge to help her out. It was cute, the crowd cheered.
Eighth seed Carla Suarez Navarro impressed me in her match today too. I thought she might be in trouble as she’s a clay court girl at heart and had tricky Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy in the first round. But Carla played really well and won easily, even serving up Dechy a tasty bagel. I like watching the French players because I can dust off my rusty French and try to understand what they say when they cry out. “J’arrive pas!” Dechy screamed after a bad error. I am not arriving! Or I do not arrive, take your pick.
2 comments:
That's just like Leni... make it interesting. whoa now I am confused - is Wozniacki the Canadian girl, or the like Danish one? Both had good moments but the Danish one is the one I was talking about...
Sounds like a great event. I like Dechy and I'm sad she lost. She came this close to beating Ivanovic at Wimbledon last year, and I've seen her play some other great matches.
Yeah it is confusing. Aleksandra Wozniak is the Canadian one, she's about 30something in the world and the fourth seed in Auckland. But she lost today. Caroline Wozniacki is the Danish one, she's the real star. 12 in the world and the second seed here, and looking very good so far. People mix them up all the time, I read somewhere that once back in the junior days they even gave ranking points Wozniacki won to Wozniak by mistake. Bet they sorted that pretty quickly.
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