No final repeat this year! Vera Zvonareva reaches her second Grand Slam final in a row this year after beating the top seed Caroline Wozniacki 64 63. The Dane made too many unforced errors today while the Russian was way more consistent and smarter today. Sweet revenge for Zvonareva at the US Open, Wozniacki beat her in Montreal final two weeks ago. The conditions were way better on Friday, the wind still bothered players though. It didn’t really affect this match anyway and Zvonareva deserved to win this match. Her opponent will be Kim Clijsters, the defending champion, who beat last home hope 46 76(2) 64 in a huge battle. Williams was in a control until that tie-break in the second set which she played really badly and that affected the final set for sure. Clijsters was break up in the final set, but Williams managed to break back just to lose next two games and the match. Clijsters converted her first match point with a beautiful backhand down the line winner.
The final will be played as a night session match on Saturday, starting at 7:00 pm New York time. Will Zvonareva be more successful than at Wimbledon? Or will “Saint Kim” defend her title? I’m going with Clijsters in this one.
Meanwhile, the US Open is almost at its end! All four US Open 2010 semifinalists are known! I predicted three semifinalists correctly. First one is Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, the top seed. The Dane beat Slovak surprising quarterfinalist, Dominika Cibulkova, 62 75 in the night session quarterfinals match, in tough windy conditions, yesterday. Wozniacki played smarter than her inexperienced opponent. Cibulkova was hitting hard and was trying to hit a lot of winners but that’s simply impossible in such wind which bothered players all day yesterday. Wozniacki played way less aggressive than her opponent and hit winners only occassionaly when she had to, which was a right tactic from her. In the end, Cibulkova didn’t have much more winners anyway. The last year’s finalist, Wozniacki, will face Russian Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals. 
Zvonareva beat Estonian Kaia Kanepi, this year’s Wimbledon quarterfinalist, 63 75 in the day session match yesterday. Also Zvonareva and Kanepi had problems with the wind, Kanepi made total of 60 unforced errors which is really a lot for a straight sets match. Zvonareva simply made less unforced errors which resulted in her victory.
First on Arthur Ashe Stadium was #4 seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia who is currently struggling to get into a form she had when she was world number one. Her opponent was Romanian Simona Halep, a talented and upcoming youngster. The Serbian started very well with two early breaks and had no problems to win the first set 64, but her unforced errors counter was pretty high. The second set was dictated by Halep. Jankovic made even more unforced errors in the second set so the Romanian battled back to tie the set count to 1-1. The final set was very dramatic. Halep was the better player most of the set but failed to serve out the match at 5-4 in the final set. Jankovic showed her experience and turned around the score to 75 in her favour, so she advanced to the second round.
No doubts that the biggest upset of all first round matches is a loss of Na Li of China, seed number 8. The Chinese started very well, won the first set easily 62. But her inconsistency and great play by her opponent, Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine, resulted in a 62 46 26 loss in the first round. Both players are last year’s quarterfinalists. Younger of Bondarenkos sisters managed it better mentally. Another upset happenned later, also on Louis Armstrong Stadium, where German Andrea Petkovic beat Nadia Petrova 62 46 76(4) in a huge battle. It’s definitely not that big upset as the loss of Na Li, but still Petkovic wasn’t in any big form, while Petrova reached the final in New Haven last week. Another seed who failed was Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic who lost to a qualifier Tamira Paszek of Austria 26 75 62 after being break up in the second set.
Some seeds were in trouble anyway, but all are through on DAY 1. Kim Clijsters, the defending champion and #2 seed this year, played Greta Arn of Hungary. Clijsters had no troubles at the beginning and won the first set 60 in 18 minutes. But former world number one started making a lot of unforced errors in the second set. Arn was even up 4-0 but you mustn’t underestimate the Belgian because she can come back against almost anyone when she’s on. And this exactly happened yesterday. Even though Arn was up 4-0 and was serving for the second set at 5-4, Clijsters outplayed her opponent and finally took the match 60 75.
Home highest seeded and a big tennis name, seed #3 Venus Williams, managed her first round match against a tricky Italian Roberta Vinci. Williams won easily 64 61. Last year’s surprising semifinalist, home minion Melanie Oudin, showed a superb performance against Olga Savchuk, Ukraine qualifier. Oudin had to save several break points in the first set but since saving those two at 3-3, Oudin was on fire, hitting winners off both sides and Savchuk was absolutely outplayed and didn’t even win any more games. Oudin won 63 60 and this could be a good confidence booster for her and she could also feel less pressure after such a good match.
It was a high quality match, great final to watch, and after winning Montreal title on Monday, Wozniacki strikes again and makes it two titles in a row, no doubts she will be a hot favourite at the US Open which starts on Monday. Both girls were quite nervous at the beginning, first three games lasted around 20 minutes. but there was no break. Both players were really solid on serve in the first set and only one break decided a winner, Wozniacki took the first set 63. The Dane was break up early in the second set, Petrova was even forced to take a medical time-out at 0-2, as she felt a pain in her back and couldn’t even wait for a changeover. The Russian didn’t look injured though, so she was able to continue the match. Wozniacki’s serve wasn’t that effective anymore and there were couple of breaks after that medical time-out. Petrova managed to win the second set 63 and we went into a decider. Wozniacki was break up most of the time in the final set, but at 1-4, Petrova hit four aces in a row, which was a nice confidence booster for her and helped her to break her opponent in the next game. Unfortunately for neutral tennis fans, that was all what the Russian could do, Wozniacki broke Petrova again and served out the match without any problems. This is the third title in a row for Wozniacki in New Haven, she played there in 2008 for the first time and still remains unbeaten. As a top seed for the next tournament, the US Open, she will be a hot favourite for the title but she has a long way to go. If she wins the US Open, she will also become world number one.
The night session clash featured the top seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark and another Russian, Elena Dementieva. Dementieva started off very well, hitting the ball very hard off both sides. Wozniacki’s forehand was off most of the match. Especially, she couldn’t return many of Dementieva’s serves on forehand side. Dementieva took the first set easily 61. The second set was a breakfest. Six breaks overall, but the level of the match didn’t really drop. Wozniacki took the second set 63. The final set was a great tennis, the best in this match. Both girls were playing really well. Dementieva was break up until 54, when she was serving for the match. The Russian absolutely failed to close it out and gave a chance to Wozniacki to get back into the match. Wozniacki took it and had even 0-40 on Dementieva’s serve at 65 in the final set. But Dementieva showed her experience and saved all those match points with beautiful winners. The final set tie-break had to decide about the winner. Dementieva started off better, had a 3-0 lead, but the Dane came back and converted her fourth match point, first in the breaker, at 6-5. That means Wozniacki has been still unbeaten in New Haven since 2008, when she played there for the first time. We will see if she can win the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament for the third time in a row tomorrow.
In another match, Maria Kirilenko beat Dinara Safina 63 63 in a Russian encounter. Kirilenko was solid on her first serve and her return worked pretty well too, along statistics. Another Russian Nadia Petrova is through to the semifinals after destroying seed number two Samantha Stosur of Australia 62 61, and will face her compatriot Maria Kirilenko. Stosur won only 7 points on return in this match and didn’t even hit an ace, only 5 double faults. The match lasted only 53 minutes.
After winning Montreal last week, her first big title, top seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark faced lucky loser Dominika Cibulkova on Tuesday. The Danish was rusty at the beginning, trailing 2-4, but since that the top seed had no problems to outplay her Slovak opponent and win the match easily 64 61. Russian Dinara Safina is getting into some form, after good tournaments in Cincinnati and Montreal, Safina continues collecting good wins. Another one came on Tuesday, against Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia. The Russian former world number one won 76(4) 76(2). Seeded number fourth, another Russian Elena Dementieva, had a tough battle against younger of Bondarenko sisters, Kateryna. Dementieva escaped an upset after winning the match 76(4) 67(5) 64. Tuesday was overally a perfect day for seeded players as all of them advanced into next round.
