Final - Lisicki v Wozniacki - Last Game
Semi-Final - Wozniacki v Dementieva - Last Game
Third-Round - Lisicki v Venus Williams - Highlights
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Charleston Round Up
Sabine Lisicki wins her first WTA title, beating Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-4 in the Charleston final.
It was a dream week for the German youngster. She beat Venus Williams in the third round in straight-sets and followed it up with three other respectable wins in succession to take the title. Lisicki's game is something of a rarity these days for young European juniors. She's able to hit a consistently hard, deep and penetrating ball off both her forehand and her backhand, and can hit out-right winners from almost anywhere on the court off either wing.
The final itself was nothing short of a flashy, no-nonsense ballbasher coming out on-fire and completely obliterating a steady, hard working baseline grinder with no much in way of weapons. The match reminded me of La Borz' match against Dokic at the Australian Open this year. A ballbasher in Dokic, who can hit outright winners from the baseline off both sides with a big serve hammers a clueless Borz who has no choice but to moonball desperately in the hope that Dokic will suddenly start hitting a million unforced errors. It never happened, and what proceeded was a mammoth beat down. This final was similar, yet Lisicki came out gunning from the first point and didn't hand La Borz a cheap set.
Lisicki treated the junk and puff balls put up to her with severe disdain. The crushing forehand return of serve winners were breathtaking, as was her ability to hit such big winners from about a meter behind the baseline off either wing, especially off the forehand. What's refreshing about Lisicki compared to other extreme ballbashers over the years is the fact that she possesses excellent hands. She's able to hit some excellent short cross-court angled backhand's even under pressure, and her touch shots don't look ridiculously awkward. Her court sense is surprising for her game style. Her defense can be deceptively good too. Not in the Jankovic, or Radwanska sense but she's able to push the ball back from defensive positions quite deep in the court. A bit Safina like in that sense. It's probable though that her movement on fast surfaces lets her down.
She reminds me somewhat of Karolina Sprem circa '04, whom in the clay season of that year played some of the flashiest ballbashing tennis in living memory. In comparing the tow, one must say that Karolina's serve back then was better than Lisicki's. Karolina's 2nd serve was much more reliable and more consistently effective. Their first serve's was probably about equal.
What Sprem had over Lisicki in terms of slightly better defense(although again, Lisicki's defense isin't terrible on clay by any means), Lisicki makes up for in terms of tactical prowess. Her mid-court game is pretty average, but her court sense, dropshots and use of sharp cross-court backhand angles yesterday was astonishing for someone who plays such a flashy power game. Players usually have one or the other, not both.
The Venus vs Sprem match from Berlin '04 arguably involved some of the most outrageous shotmaking from anyone over the past few years. The big difference yesterday for Lisicki was Venus was quite in-and-out groundstroke-wise. A couple of random unforced errors here and there on the big points really did her in. Venus' movement looked a step slower than what it usually is on hardcourts and grass courts, although the Charleston surface does appear to be somewhat unstable. Venus will never get as many cheap point on her serve off clay as she would on even mid-paced hardcourts, so nothing new here. Lisicki served out of her mind in the second set tie-break in that third round - nothing could be done in the end.
Can Lisicki keep this form up for an extended period of time. Let's hope so. The game is in desperate need of players with games like Lisicki. So in conclusion, more game styles like Lisicki, less like La Borz. End of.
It was a dream week for the German youngster. She beat Venus Williams in the third round in straight-sets and followed it up with three other respectable wins in succession to take the title. Lisicki's game is something of a rarity these days for young European juniors. She's able to hit a consistently hard, deep and penetrating ball off both her forehand and her backhand, and can hit out-right winners from almost anywhere on the court off either wing.
The final itself was nothing short of a flashy, no-nonsense ballbasher coming out on-fire and completely obliterating a steady, hard working baseline grinder with no much in way of weapons. The match reminded me of La Borz' match against Dokic at the Australian Open this year. A ballbasher in Dokic, who can hit outright winners from the baseline off both sides with a big serve hammers a clueless Borz who has no choice but to moonball desperately in the hope that Dokic will suddenly start hitting a million unforced errors. It never happened, and what proceeded was a mammoth beat down. This final was similar, yet Lisicki came out gunning from the first point and didn't hand La Borz a cheap set.
Lisicki treated the junk and puff balls put up to her with severe disdain. The crushing forehand return of serve winners were breathtaking, as was her ability to hit such big winners from about a meter behind the baseline off either wing, especially off the forehand. What's refreshing about Lisicki compared to other extreme ballbashers over the years is the fact that she possesses excellent hands. She's able to hit some excellent short cross-court angled backhand's even under pressure, and her touch shots don't look ridiculously awkward. Her court sense is surprising for her game style. Her defense can be deceptively good too. Not in the Jankovic, or Radwanska sense but she's able to push the ball back from defensive positions quite deep in the court. A bit Safina like in that sense. It's probable though that her movement on fast surfaces lets her down.
She reminds me somewhat of Karolina Sprem circa '04, whom in the clay season of that year played some of the flashiest ballbashing tennis in living memory. In comparing the tow, one must say that Karolina's serve back then was better than Lisicki's. Karolina's 2nd serve was much more reliable and more consistently effective. Their first serve's was probably about equal.
What Sprem had over Lisicki in terms of slightly better defense(although again, Lisicki's defense isin't terrible on clay by any means), Lisicki makes up for in terms of tactical prowess. Her mid-court game is pretty average, but her court sense, dropshots and use of sharp cross-court backhand angles yesterday was astonishing for someone who plays such a flashy power game. Players usually have one or the other, not both.
The Venus vs Sprem match from Berlin '04 arguably involved some of the most outrageous shotmaking from anyone over the past few years. The big difference yesterday for Lisicki was Venus was quite in-and-out groundstroke-wise. A couple of random unforced errors here and there on the big points really did her in. Venus' movement looked a step slower than what it usually is on hardcourts and grass courts, although the Charleston surface does appear to be somewhat unstable. Venus will never get as many cheap point on her serve off clay as she would on even mid-paced hardcourts, so nothing new here. Lisicki served out of her mind in the second set tie-break in that third round - nothing could be done in the end.
Can Lisicki keep this form up for an extended period of time. Let's hope so. The game is in desperate need of players with games like Lisicki. So in conclusion, more game styles like Lisicki, less like La Borz. End of.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Dinara Safina Set for the Top Spot
After Serena Williams lost the Miami final, Safina was guaranteed to reach number one in the world on the 20th of April '09.
The general consensus is that this is a bad thing for the WTA. Well, Safina has certainly had some of the best results of anyone over the past 12 months on the tour, including a handful of Premier (TierI) tournament wins, and two slam finals. Slam wins are a prerequisite for the die-hards though. No slam wins for Safina mean she's instantly not worthy. The same was said about Jankovic when she reached the rankings summit without a slam to her name. Added to the lack of a slam, Safina's form this year has been average at best. After fluking her way to the Australian Open final thanks to a very open draw, she has lost to a red-hot Razzano in Dubai in two sets, and the hopeless Stosur in Miami, again in two sets.
Serena Willams on the her hand has two slam wins over the past year and another slam final. Her current form is much better than Safina's. Yet the main reason why tennis aficionados want Serena to keep her ranking is because she is considered a proven champion. Safina is considered more the opportunist who has taken advantage of the WTA's slump and an extremely hard worker over the past 12 months.
But would Safina reaching the top spot be all that bad for the WTA? Unlikely. The only people who will think it's a travesty are the die-hards. Casual fans probably won't notice, and even if they do they probably wouldn't care enough to question it. It's doubtful that Safina will be number one for all that long, especially considering her current form and the amount of points she's defending in the red clay court season.
Highlights of Safina's match against Sharapova in the fourth round of the Australian Open last year:
A "Star" is Born
Azarenka wins the biggest title of her career thus far, beating the defending champion and current number 1 Serena Williams in the Miami final, 6-3 6-1 last week.
Despite Serena being injured, the final wasn't a foregone conclusion from start to finish. In fact, had Serena landed a few more big shots in the first set, gotten a big more luck, she may have taken the first set and let Azarenka just self-destruct from there on in. However, the tour's unluckiest player finally gets lucky. And in this current hole at he top of the WTA, Azarenka is taking every chance she can get.
She's overachieving of course; she's a shotmaker, but not of the same calibre of other supernova's we've seen over the years.
Azarenka returns Serena's serve excellently. In the first set, Serena make the decision to go full out on serves and one of the things which took her by surprise was the consistency with which Azarenka was able to return her big flat ones, especially down the tee. I've already stated that while have some similar attributes as Vera Zvonareva, she doesn't quite have the same resourcefulness. However, I think in the first set she showed she is capable of returning big first serves by whatever means possible.
Serena throughout was heavily impaired by a knee injury, and needed to resort to her first strike or die tactics in order to wins points. Her defense couldn't be up to scratch so whenever she was forced onto the defense, the point was over save for a random unforced error from the opposition. Serena played lackluster tennis from her very first match of the tournament, yet it was still good enough to make the final on one leg. Not good signs for the WTA.
There are two ways to look at Serena playing the final. One is that she was extremely noble for doing so considering she was clearly far from 100%, and that it was fantastic that she could give the crowd something for their money. On the other hand, her motivations were likely not completely selfless. She was likely desperate to hold onto the number one spot and believed there was still a chance Azarenka would panic and self-destruct in the biggest match of her career thus far.
From the way this tournament panned out, we can deduce that the WTA just can't get a lucky break right now. even things that look like positives for the tour, such as Azarenka emerging as a future possible household name by beating this generations greatest player in a big final, come about in the lamest of fashions possible.
The tour gets another dud final, and another player wins something by default. Then again, the only way Vicky probably would have won yesterday was by something like this occurring so maybe it's not all that bad.
Azarenka's shotmaking is quite low percentage because she doesn't possess the same raw power as say a Wi
lliams sister or an Ivanovic. She needs to go much closer to the lines and hit over higher parts of the net much more often than those aforementioned. This means her game probably requires a whole lot of upkeep, and alot of focus. Her semi-final match against Kuznetsova had some breathtakingly intense baseline duels. While it wasn't the cleanest of matches, it was still dramatic and included some terrific shotmaking. It was further testament of how risky Azarenka needs to play it against the big guns. Even on mid-court put-away balls, she needs to paint sidelines in order to get the ball past Kuznetsova. One feels that her game is often played on a knifes edge; the smallest of changes could disrupt her rhythm and confidence and she'd start spraying errors.
Azarenka is very hard working, and is currently overachieving, as is La Borz, in this current lull at the top of the WTA. It's much better for the game for someone with a game like Vika's, than a game like La Borz, yeah? Either way Azarenka isin't going to be the star that the WTA are trying to advertise her as. Her unimaginative gamestyle, and along with the fact she's not the typical "it" girl means she's just not all that marketable.
Speaking of La Borz, the Danish ballbashing wannabe chalked up another big scalp in her career, beating Dementieva in the fourth round 7-5 6-4. Dementieva's joke of a mid-court game becomes very apparent in this match-up. She beats La Borz off the ground, easily, but she's absolutely clueless about how to finish off floaty junk. On how many occasions did she let defensive crap just float back to the baseline and just neutralise the point all over again? A ridiculous amount, that's for sure.
If anything, Dementieva's court sense has disimproved so far this year. So many times did she get drawn into lengthy backhand to backhand rallies when everyone knows La Borz can moonball, junkball or whatever deep 'til the end of time and a couple of hard, flat crosscourt forehands from Dementieva would have ended the point in 2, 3 maybe less shots. Dementieva should NEVER lose to La Borz, and that's the sad thing.
Sure a victory for La Borz, but I see no sign of her tennis improving. I just hope to God we avoid seeing her in the final against a Williams. The WTA is losing enough credit amongst its die-hards as it is.
Despite Serena being injured, the final wasn't a foregone conclusion from start to finish. In fact, had Serena landed a few more big shots in the first set, gotten a big more luck, she may have taken the first set and let Azarenka just self-destruct from there on in. However, the tour's unluckiest player finally gets lucky. And in this current hole at he top of the WTA, Azarenka is taking every chance she can get.
She's overachieving of course; she's a shotmaker, but not of the same calibre of other supernova's we've seen over the years.
Azarenka returns Serena's serve excellently. In the first set, Serena make the decision to go full out on serves and one of the things which took her by surprise was the consistency with which Azarenka was able to return her big flat ones, especially down the tee. I've already stated that while have some similar attributes as Vera Zvonareva, she doesn't quite have the same resourcefulness. However, I think in the first set she showed she is capable of returning big first serves by whatever means possible.
Serena throughout was heavily impaired by a knee injury, and needed to resort to her first strike or die tactics in order to wins points. Her defense couldn't be up to scratch so whenever she was forced onto the defense, the point was over save for a random unforced error from the opposition. Serena played lackluster tennis from her very first match of the tournament, yet it was still good enough to make the final on one leg. Not good signs for the WTA.
There are two ways to look at Serena playing the final. One is that she was extremely noble for doing so considering she was clearly far from 100%, and that it was fantastic that she could give the crowd something for their money. On the other hand, her motivations were likely not completely selfless. She was likely desperate to hold onto the number one spot and believed there was still a chance Azarenka would panic and self-destruct in the biggest match of her career thus far.From the way this tournament panned out, we can deduce that the WTA just can't get a lucky break right now. even things that look like positives for the tour, such as Azarenka emerging as a future possible household name by beating this generations greatest player in a big final, come about in the lamest of fashions possible.
The tour gets another dud final, and another player wins something by default. Then again, the only way Vicky probably would have won yesterday was by something like this occurring so maybe it's not all that bad.
Azarenka's shotmaking is quite low percentage because she doesn't possess the same raw power as say a Wi
lliams sister or an Ivanovic. She needs to go much closer to the lines and hit over higher parts of the net much more often than those aforementioned. This means her game probably requires a whole lot of upkeep, and alot of focus. Her semi-final match against Kuznetsova had some breathtakingly intense baseline duels. While it wasn't the cleanest of matches, it was still dramatic and included some terrific shotmaking. It was further testament of how risky Azarenka needs to play it against the big guns. Even on mid-court put-away balls, she needs to paint sidelines in order to get the ball past Kuznetsova. One feels that her game is often played on a knifes edge; the smallest of changes could disrupt her rhythm and confidence and she'd start spraying errors.Azarenka is very hard working, and is currently overachieving, as is La Borz, in this current lull at the top of the WTA. It's much better for the game for someone with a game like Vika's, than a game like La Borz, yeah? Either way Azarenka isin't going to be the star that the WTA are trying to advertise her as. Her unimaginative gamestyle, and along with the fact she's not the typical "it" girl means she's just not all that marketable.
Speaking of La Borz, the Danish ballbashing wannabe chalked up another big scalp in her career, beating Dementieva in the fourth round 7-5 6-4. Dementieva's joke of a mid-court game becomes very apparent in this match-up. She beats La Borz off the ground, easily, but she's absolutely clueless about how to finish off floaty junk. On how many occasions did she let defensive crap just float back to the baseline and just neutralise the point all over again? A ridiculous amount, that's for sure.
If anything, Dementieva's court sense has disimproved so far this year. So many times did she get drawn into lengthy backhand to backhand rallies when everyone knows La Borz can moonball, junkball or whatever deep 'til the end of time and a couple of hard, flat crosscourt forehands from Dementieva would have ended the point in 2, 3 maybe less shots. Dementieva should NEVER lose to La Borz, and that's the sad thing.
Sure a victory for La Borz, but I see no sign of her tennis improving. I just hope to God we avoid seeing her in the final against a Williams. The WTA is losing enough credit amongst its die-hards as it is.
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