Thursday, May 21, 2009

Not Too Bad

Well, the comeback of Maria Sharapova had to end somewhere, and for her first time out, quarterfinals is not too bad. I'd still bet you anything that she's not going to be too thrilled to herself - she lost very tamely to Alona Bondarenko in Warsaw. This is something that you'd never, ever see with her pre-injury - but I don't think it's too much cause for concern. Coming off a nine-month layoff and making quarters is perfectly acceptable.
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Though, like I said, I bet she's not going to be too happy.
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There's been a major exodus of seeds in Kitzbuhel - sorry, I just made a bit of a jump-cut over to the men's tour there without too much explanation! Remember how I was going on about Mikhail Youzhny yesterday? Well, I reckon he might actually win the tournament. He's the highest -and only! - seed left. I'm not quite sure what went on there to leave the tournament with the #7 seed, two randoms and a lucky loser left standing, but I guess it's just another one of those overlooked tournaments, being right before the French...
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Meanwhile, over at the cute little exo that's running in Paris - the Guinot Mary Cohr Masters - both our big boys had some good wins. Rafa Nadal beat Arnaud Clement in cruise-tastic straight sets - would one expect anything less from the Rafinator? - and my man Rog avenged his loss to Stan Wawrinka by taking him out pretty easily in straights as well. This'll be good for both of them going into Roland Garros next week - good luck, boys! Andy Murray, on the other hand, will have to go in with a loss under his belt after going down to Paul-Henri Mathieu... but I don't know how much it'll worry him.
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Today's Results
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ARAG ATP World Team Championships (Dusseldorf)
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Robin Soderling def. Rainer Schuettler, 6-0 6-0
Sam Querrey def. Gilles Simon, 7-5 6-3
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Robby Ginepri, 3-6 6-2 6-4
Juan Martin del Potro def. Igor Andreev, 6-3 7-6 (7-3)
Andreas Seppi def. Viktor Troicki, 6-1 6-4
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Interwetten Austrian Open Kitzbuhel (Kitzbuhel)
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Mikhail Youzhny def. Jurgen Melzer, 6-4 6-4
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez def. Victor Hanescu, 6-2 6-2
Oscar Hernandez def. Juan Ignacio Chela, 6-4 6-4
Julien Benneteau def. Daniel Koellerer, 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 6-0
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Warsaw Open (Warsaw)
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Daniela Hantuchova def. Klara Zakopalova, 6-3 4-6 6-4
Alona Bondarenko def. Maria Sharapova, 6-2 6-2
Anne Keothavong def. Ioana Raluca Olaru, 6-0 6-1
Alexandra Dulgheru def. Galina Voskoboeva, 6-1 7-5
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Internationaux de Strasbourg (Strasbourg)
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Ayumi Morita def. Peng Shuai, 7-5 6-2
Aravane Rezai def. Monica Niculescu, -0 6-1 6-2
Lucie Hradecka def. Kristina Barrois, 6-3 7-6 (7-2)
Viktoriya Kutusova def. Stephanie Cohen-Aloro, 7-5 6-1

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