Hats off to Kim Clijsters. She doesn't play for the most part of the last 8 months, drops to 133 in the rankings, then makes an amazing comeback by reaching the QF in Antwerp (losing to Venus), then wins back to back Tier I titles, beating five of the top 6 players along the way. #1 Davenport, #2 Mauresmo (who Kim beat 6-1, 6-0!), #3 Sharapova, #5 Elena Dementieva (twice) and #6 Anastasia Myskina all fell by the wayside, and it was only Lindsay Davenport who actually managed to take a set against the comebacking Belgian. Halos puro tambak pa ang wins niya. Even more impressive is that Kim is the first player since Steffi Graf to win both Indian Wells and Miami in the same year (Steffi did in in 94 and 96). She is now (only) #17 but I bet that none of the top players would want to see Kim early in their draw.
Venus also scores a very surprising win over her sister, Serena, the first time this has happened in the last 7 meetings between the two. The problem I have with Venus now is her absolute lack of class. She lost to a very sharp Sharapova in the semifinals, and rather than giving props to Maria (who hit 12 unforced errors in the entire match - for someone who plays hit-the-living-daylights-out-of-the-ball tennis, 12 UE is unbelievably low), Venus says she herself hit way too many errors and should remember not to do that next time. What a load of crap! What can't she just say "Maria was the better player today" or "Maria played very well today, I need to make sure I raise my game the next time I play her" she just practically disses Sharapova. I used to dislike Venus early in her career when she was arrogant as heck, then when she became #1 she became very polite and courteous. Then all of a sudden when she got injured and dropped in the rankings, she became terribly disrespectful of her opponents again. I don't want her to do well anymore. She and her sister.
One last thing - Federer has just now won 5 titles this year. That's eerie. He is indeed just playing head and shoulders above everyone else. A couple of years ago, you couldn't guess which male player would win a tournament but the female contenders you could count with half the fingers in your hand. Now, you know that if Federer is in the thick of things, he has the title under his belt. But the women? Hmm, let's see - Davenport, Sharapova, Clijsters, the Williams sisters, Mauresmo, and heck, even Henin-Hardenne, Myskina, Dementieva, Kuznetsova, Molik and Capriati. If they are all playing you still can't guess who will win.
No comments:
Post a Comment