Archive for: January 2010

Serena Williams of the USA holds her 2nd straight Australian Open championship trophy after defeating a determined Justine Henin of Belgium. In doing so, Williams, ranked No 1 in the world, also broke the even year curse at the Australian Open. She has not been able to advance past the Quarterfinals in even years while winning four straight in the odd years, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009.

This may just be my opinion, although I have seen others posting on various forums and articles who seem to agree with me. This tennis outfit, along with the nude colored underwear worn by Venus Williams is totally out of line. Not only is it in bad taste, it is totally gross and disgusting. You may click on the image to enlarge it if you need to see the disgust in greater detail.

It has come down to a battle between unseeded Justine Henin fresh out of retirement and playing in her first Grand Slam tournament since losing in the Quarterfinals of the Australian Open in 2008 and world No. 1, Serena Williams.

Henin hardly broke a sweat as she downed unseeded Jie Zheng of China in her Semifinal match. Henin was just too powerful from everywhere on the court, finishing off her opponent 6-1, 6-0.

The Semifinals for the 2010 Australian Open have been set, pitting No. 1 Serena Williams of the USA against No. 16 Na Li of China. Williams leads their head-to-head match-ups 3-1. This is William’s 4th appearance in the Semifinals of the Australian Open. Each time she made the Semifinals, she has gone on to win the championship. This will be Na Li’s first appearance in the Semifinals of any Grand Slam, and was only her 3rd appearance in a Quarterfinal.

No. 1 ranked Serena Williams had a huge scare from No. 7 Victoria Azarenka in the Quarterfinals of the Australian Open, but managed to pull out another amazing comeback to take the match 4-6, 7-6(7-4), 6-2.

Azarenka came out firing shots from everywhere on the court and Williams was completely on the defense, just blocking shots back, hitting many long or spraying them wide. Williams had not been broken on serve in her first four matches, 31 games. Then in the first two sets against Azarenka, she was broken 5 times. Williams looked completely disgusted the first set and a half, and the commentators described her as shell-shocked.

Na Li posted a huge upset by defeating Venus Williams in a thrilling 3-set Quarterfinal match at the Australian Open. Li, seeded 16, was able to hold serve one more time in the 3rd set than 6th seeded Williams to take the match 2-6, 7-6, 7-5.

It was not a day to be serving. Both players struggled with serve, especially in the 3rd set. There were 9 breaks in 12 games in the 3rd set, with Li holding twice and Williams only once.

History is in the making as unseeded, 35th ranked Jie Zheng has become the first Chinese woman to reach the Semifinals of the Australian Open. She won an impressive straight-sets victory over Russia’s 58th ranked giant-killer Maria Kirilenko in the Quarterfinals of the 2010 Australian Open, 6-1, 6-3.

The 26-year-old Zheng’s service returns were fierce in the first set, breaking Kirilenko in the 4th game and then closing out the set 6-1. In the second set, Zheng pulled out to a 2-0 lead, followed by a marathon sixth game where Zheng saved several break points in a strong challenge from Kirilenko, wrapping up the 2nd set 6-3 in a match time of 85 minutes.

Unseeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia advanced to the Quarterfinals of the 2010 Australian Open when compatriot, Dinara Safina suddenly retired with an injury during the 1st set of their 4th round match.

No. 2 Safina was facing set point, trailing 4-5 and serving at 30-40, when she limped to her changeover chair for a few moments, then walked up and shook Kirilenko’s hand.

Kirilenko ousted another Russian, Maria Sharapova in the first round, and it is the first time Kirilenko has reached the Quarterfinal of any Grand Slam.

Nadia Petrova is looking like the real deal after eliminating No. 3 seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in an all Russian match at the 2010 Australian Open. It took three sets, but Petrova got the job done, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

Petrova picked up where she left off in her last match when she blasted past Kim Clijsters. In this 4th round match, Petrova took the first set from Kuznetsova 6-3. Kuznetsova battled back winning the 2nd set 6-3 to level the match at one set all. Kuznetsova seemed to have the momentum. But Petrova picked up her game and Kuznetsova committed too many unforced errors and was broken three times in the final set. Petrova won that deciding set 6-1.

The much anticipated Quarterfinal between Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin will not be happening, thanks to the aggressive play of Nadia Petrova, and a rather poor performance on the part of Clijsters. Petrova, seeded No. 19 beat the No. 15 seeded Clijsters in straight sets, 6-0, 6-1 in their third round match.

Clijsters had 26 unforced errors compared to just 10 by Petrova in Clijsters’ worst Australian Open outing since her 2000 debut. Petrova had 15 winners compared to just 5 for Clijsters. The first set took only 18 minutes and Clijsters won only five points.