Another week, another very late topic!

My work schedule has finally calmed down after the horrors of St Valentine's debacle, hurrah! So I may have a bit more time to do fun things like watch tennis and post bothersome spam on the net! Yay

Anyway... QF's were completed today in Antwerp:

Mauresmo trashed Safina 1 and 3, a nice win for Amelie, who has been patchy this year. She's two wins away from sealing that shiny diamond-encrusted racquet... will she manage to defend her first title this season after two failed attempts thus far?

Golovin took out Likhovtseva 7-6(3) 7-5 in what looked like a pretty competetive fixture... Golovin seemed on fire after destroying the very respectable Katarina Srebotnik for the loss of two games in her first match, so perhaps the result is an indication that Likhovtseva is recovering from her injury problems, and may not be quite ready to call her singles career to a halt.

Clijsters hammered Ivanovic 2 and 1, a result that could easily have been a double bagel had Ivanovic not found a bit of fight at 5-0 down in each set. I caught most of the match after work, and while Clijsters looked impressive, Ivanovic seemed to have completely forgotten how to hit through her forehand. Kim is definitely the sentimental favourite for the title.

Lastly, Chakvetadze improved to 4-0 over Petrova, winning 3 and 4. Anna C's game seems to really upset Petrova and exploits her relatively weak movement. If my calculations are right, after Ivanovic's loss and Chakvetadze's win, the Russian will make her top 10 debut when the rankings come out next week (since Jankovic isn't playing) - gratz to Anna C and her entertaining squeals.

SF's line up as follows:

Mauresmo v Chakvetadze - repeat of last week's QF in Paris... MoMo has to be heavy favourite again, but perhaps Anna will have gained some important insight into Amelie's game after playing her pretty close last time. I'll take Mauresmo to win after a competetive tussle.

Clijsters v Golovin - Tatiana suffers from a certain kind of mediocrity... don't get me wrong, she's a very good player, but I think she struggles to find a real weapon in her play... she's fairly fast, serves fairly well, hits fairly hard, but doesn't really have an obvious strength on paper with which to punish/frighten a player like Clijsters. Arguably, Golovin's biggest asset is her fighting spirit... but she's going to need it all against Kim, and I can't see it being enough. Tatiana's grit should ensure she doesn't get totally wrecked by Kim, but unless Miss Retirement plays a 60-unforced stinker, the home-girl is the heavy favourite.

B

I don't know how I feel about this tourney. I want Kim to win for sentimental reasons, like everyone else, but MoMo is my current fave and I would love for her to take home that special racquet. Ooooh, shiny!! I definitely want to see a Mauresmo-Clijsters final, though, since it's the most fan-friendly matchup and I think it would be a good Belgian farewell, win or lose, for Kimmie.

Well... Amelie fulfills her end of the seeding bargain, coming through in a rocky 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 struggle against Anna C.

It was a pretty strange match, as you might expect from two players who have lots of variety but sometimes struggle to string their play together into a winning gameplan. Neither girl played consistently well, but it was interesting to see that the winner of each of the first two sets was the one who was willing to step out of her default defensive/placement based style and be the aggressor. In the first set, it was Mauresmo who stepped it up, pushing aggressively towards the net and unnerving the young Russian... whille in the second set Anna started to hit much harder, dictating the pace from the back of the court and hitting some cleverly spun winners past MoMo.

The third set was pretty disappointing... Mauresmo played smart and kept her error margins very wide, hitting higher over the net, moonballing, and coming to net to again unnerve her younger opponent... but she didn't really strike the ball with much confidence despite the success of her plan. Chakvetadze for her part, fell to pieces somewhat in the third and wasn't able to deal with Amelie's percentage play. Not sure if she ran out of steam, or just got tight... but really the 6-2 set score was more to do with Anna's misfiring groundstrokes than particularly inspired play from Amelie.

Despite a patchy match, there are positives for both... Amelie has lost more tight matches than she has won lately, so it's bound to be good for her confidence to make the final despite not playing her best. Anna C may have come up short again in a competetive match vs a top 5 player, but her SF appearance takes her top 10 for the first time and provided she's able to see the positives, surely the fact she is able to give the top girls a match at this stage in her career can become a mental strength rather than a frailty.

B

Amelie beats Kimmie in straight sets to win the diamond racket!

Has anybody ever heard of this Yaroslava Shvedova who won Bangalore before?

helloo??

Amelie won a diamond encrusted racket, people! Where is all the ooh-ing and ahh-ing I have come to love from my Outsporters. OK, maybe that's mostly just from me.

ahem: 8.8 pounds of gold and 1,702 diamonds

I remember when it looked like Venus was surely going to win this thing and I thought for sure she'd turn it into a necklace. I never expected Amelie to win this event three times in 5 years, let alone three years in a row.

Congrats, Amelie!

I love that picture. The racquet is hot! I wanted to ooh and aah Curt, honestly, but I don't know a damn thing about Yaroslava Shvedova and I felt too ashamed to post after JC asked!

OOOH.

AAAH.

PRREEEETTTTYYY.

that's more like it, G4G!

i didn't know who Shvedova was until she knocked out Mirza. now she's another russian girl with a title.

but Mauresmo is holding something shiny. see how it sparkles? want to touch the precious. must have the precious.

Amelie would kicksies our assies if wes tried to takes the precious.

Looks like Kim's goodbye to Antwerp was an emotional affair. Even Mauresmo looks choked up. Here is an article on the goodbye along with a YouTube clip of it. Kim is one class act. Unfortunately, I don't think she has the hunger or drive this year to win any significant titles as she seems content to ride out her last year into the sunset, beating the players she is supposed to, but lacking the mental edge over the top players.