Lucky loser Chanda Rubin, in her first tournament of the year, beat Magui Serna in three sets. Down 0-4 in the third, Rubin won the final six games of the match to win 6-4. Spectacular reintroduction to the tour. Next on Rubin's menu is 11th seed Daniela Hantuchova, who took three sets to beat Paula Suarez. The winner of THAT match plays the winner of Dokic/Mary Pierce! What an amazing section of the draw at the German Open!
Other interesting second round matches: Schett v. Serena, Clijsters v. Smashnova, Myskina v. Testud, and Sanchez Vicario v. Conchita Martinez/Daniilidou winner (match suspended at 6-5 in the first).
With Venus & Hingis gone, this seems like yet another wide-open tournament. Could we have our sixth different winner in six Tier I/Grand Slam events (Capriati, Hingis, Hantuchova, Serena, and Majoli have won the first five)? Can Capriati make the finals & regain her #1 spot? Will Mauresmo be able to repeat, or will she drop out of the Top 10?
My tentative predictions: Capriati will make it to the semis. She'll face Henin. Henin will upset Cappy.
Bottom half (much MUCH more interesting), Serena will beat Schett, Maleeva, and Amelie Mauresmo to make the semis. Mary Pierce will upset Dokic and Hantuchova, but then run into the KimTrain. Clijsters will face Serena for a spot in the finals.
As much as I'd like to see an all-Belgian final (neither has won a Tier I yet), I think Kim will run out of steam against Serena. Serena, however, will follow her sister's misfortune by losing to the surprise Belgian winner, Justine Henin! Wait a second, didn't I pick Henin to win last week? Oh well!
Anyway, go Chanda!!!