Archive for: June 2009

Danish tennis cutie pie, Caroline Wozniacki, poses with her trophy after the championship match of the WTA Aegon International played in Eastbourne, England June 15-20.

This was the 2nd title for Wozniacki, who also won the WTA MPS Group Championships in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, USA back in April.

In route to the title, Wozniacki, who was the 6th seed, defeated No. 31 ranked Alisa Kleybanova of Russia, (6-3, 6-2), No. 19 ranked Samantha Stousur of Australia, (6-1, 5-7, 6-1), No. 46 ranked Ekaterina Makarova of Russia, (6-3, 6-2), No. 21 ranked Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada, (3-6, 6-4, 6-4), and No. 23 ranked Virginie Razzano of France, (7-6 [7-5], 7-5).

Just what is coming out of the mouth of Maria Sharapova when she is serving or hitting ground strokes? It’s not exactly a lion’s roar, but it is close. Sharapova’s volume level makes her the current winner in the shrieking category, at least at the human level, with about 101 dB in volume, almost equal to the volume of a lion’s roar, and well above the level regarded as potentially damaging to hearing.

According to TimesOnline, tennis officials are considering putting a stop to the loud grunts, groans, shrieks and moans by making “noise hindrance” part of the code of conduct. If that happens, persistent grunters would forfeit points first, then a whole game and ultimately perhaps a whole match.

Tennis cutie pie, Elena Dementieva of Russia is my prediction to win Wimbledon, 2009. Even though her Wimbledon win percentage is not that great (just 69%), she reached the Semifinals last year. I think this will be her breakthrough year at Wimbledon.

My Semifinal match prediction is: Elena Dementieva vs. Venus Williams, and Serena Williams, vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova, with Dementieva playing Kuznetsova in the Final, and Dementieva bringing home the big plate.

The seeds for the top 10 match the top 10 ranked women: (1) Safina, (2) S. Williams, (3) V. Williams, (4) Dementieva, (5) Kuznetsova, (6) Jankovic, (7) Zvonareva, (8) Azarenka, (9) Wozniacki, and (10) Petrova.

Russian cutie pie, Maria Sharapova, continues her post-injury comeback, reaching the quarterfinals of the 2009 French Open played May 24-June 7, 2009. She played four tough matches in the first four rounds, each going three sets, warding off many set and match points against her.

On her road to the quarterfinals, she defeated No. 82 ranked Anastasia Yakimova of Belarus (3-6, 6-1, 6-2), No. 10 ranked Nadia Petrova of Russia (6-2, 1-6, 8-6), No. 72 ranked Yaroslava Shvedova of Russia (1-6, 6-3, 6-4), and No. 19 ranked Na Li of China (6-4, 0-6, 6-4). She was finally defeated by No. 14 ranked Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 0-6, 2-6.