Making Sense of Cincy

Well, here we are in Cincy. Incy wincy Cincy.

When I see we I obviously mean the men's tour - it is no secret that I find it more interesting than the ladies' tour right now - but let's talk Cincy last week, when the ladies played here. There were some totally interesting results that came out of that tournament that I forgot about in the haze of strawberry milkshakes and chocolate icecream.

Our winner was Kimmie, and it seems to me like she hasn't won anything for a while, so this is a good result for her, especially if she's looking to defend her title at the US Open - which I personally think would be awesome and, if she keeps playing like this, she has a great chance of doing. The final against Sharapova was definitely one of the better women's matches we've seen this year, and I would say that both ladies were in great shape heading towards New York...

...if Shaz hadn't gone and half-broken her foot.

Oh Maria. Will your injuries never cease?

Nonetheless, if the injury isn't too bad and if MaSha can recuperate in time, she has as good a chance as anyone to do well at the US Open, especially considering Serena might be entering on exactly zero matches (and may well still be wearing an orthopaedic boot.) And if Kimmie keeps her level up, I'm not going to gainsay her.

But the real mover and shaker for the ladies last week - in my opinion anyway - was Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. I wouldn't rate her as a shot at winning the Open or anything - I think Nastia has a way to go before she gets there - but she could definitely pull a Wickmayer and go very deep and pull some major upsets. She very nearly overcame MaSha and that is no mean feat. So yeah... keep an eye on that one!