No Brouhaha In Doha

What an anti-climactic day in Doha. I was all set for a massive Serena/Elena showdown, with the winner to get to the semis - and because Doha is, like, an important tournament and stuff, you'd think people'd be raring to get into the semis.

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But no. Serena is all like, 'oh, I'm injured,' so Dementieva got through to the semis just like that. JUST LIKE THAT. Grrrr. Of course, she still played a match, which she won - it was tight, but I bet Nadia Petrova was glad to get some court time after coming all that way to be an alternate. It just irritates me so much. This season-ending championship has not been the big event I was hoping for. There has been no brouhaha in Doha. It is not a scream, but a whimper - and that's really, really depressing. Here's hoping the men manage a bit more in Shanghai next week - though what's with the final only being three sets now? That is LAMETASTIC.

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The real story has been Vera Zvonareva. She totally looked like the weak link of the eight, but she's gone 3-0, beating Kuznetsova, Ivanovic and now Jankovic. (Speaking of Ivanovic, she is also in my bad books - retiring because of 'illness?' She looked fine when she was eating birthday cake the other day. Maybe she and Nando Verdasco are too busy for something as trivial as the year-ending championships. Grrr.) If Vera goes on to win the championship, I think that would be fabulous. Actually, I'm going for her now. She's the underdog, and as an Australian, I think I am programmed to go for them. It's practically part of our constitution.

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In fact, let's talk Australian tennis - specifically, Bernard Tomic and Brydan Klein. There's an article on the Tennis Australia website which says that they've both added the Mildura Grand Tennis International (a pro tour event) to their calendars, which is pretty cool for Mildura folks, I guess. What really caught me about the article is that they call Tomic the 'best sixteen-year old tennis player in the world.' And still people say that Australian tennis is looking bleak. Added to that, Brydan Klein won the junior Aussie Open in 2007, so he's not exactly a slouch either, and some of the Aussie junior girls won the 2007 World Junior Championships. So I don't get the no-hopers. Australian tennis is going to have a renaissance - just not this second.

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Today's Results

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Sony Ericsson Championships 2008 (Doha)

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White Group

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Vera Zvonareva def. Jelena Jankovic, 2-6 6-3 6-4

Agnieszka Radwanska def. Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-2 7-5

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Maroon Group

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Elena Dementieva def. Nadia Petrova, 6-4 4-6 6-4