My two cents on the Ladies...

First Quarter
Looks clearly like a Serena v. Lindsay clash in the quarters, with Monica Seles as the most likely spoiler. Lindsay looked so good, even though she lost the Pacific Life title to Clijsters, that I'm not sure Monica can score the upset. Bovina and Tulyaganova could meet in the second round, with the winner getting Dementieva. None of them appear to have the tools to hurt Serena, though...

Second Quarter
Clijsters and Hantuchova are seeded to meet, but methinks Daniela might find herself in a struggle to get that far. Dokic and Kuznetsova are in D.H.'s part of the draw. I'm rooting for Kuznetsova to do well here, which means she'll need to get past Dokic in Rd. 2. Apart from an interesting date with up-and-coming youngster Jamea Jackson in the second rd., I see nothing to worry about in Kim's part of the draw.

Third Quarter
Mauresmo. Rubin. Daniilidou. Coetzer. Tanasugarnd. Zvonareva. Henin-Hardenne. Easily the suckiest, or best, depending on your perspective, part of the draw for geeked out tennis fans like us. Only two of these women can advance. I'd guess I'd like to see Mauresmo vs. Rubin and Coetzer vs. Henin-H for the quarters.

Last Quarter
It's set up to be Jenny vs. Venus. Laura Granville is in Jennifer's section, but we can't really expect her to challenge Capriati... An intriguing match-up between Safina and Kournikova in the first round. Anna K. is in Jenny's section, too, and she plays well vs. Jennifer...Outside Anna K., there is the threat of Myskina. Capriati would do well not to underestimate her. Venus doesn't have a clear path either: Maggie Maleeva is in Venus's part of the draw, and Maggie knows the Venus game. Could be interesting.

Great synopsis B Man. I'm sure that everyone on the board is sick of me mentioning Clijsters push for #2 and Davenport's push for #4, but this tournament is going to play a HUGE rule in either player's push towards those rankings.

Players with the most to lose this week:
Panova-134 to defend. Since she's Serena's potential 3rd round opponent, an early loss will take her out of the Top 30.
Irvin-111 to defend. She's been losing early and often in non-challenger events and if she loses early here, she'll be out of the Top 100 and risk getting direct entrance to any of the Slams.
Seles-245 to defend. Whether she does well here or not, she should stay at #12, but she played VERY well here last year with a win over Clijsters and losing a 3rd set tiebreak to Capriati and it would be nice to see her do well again. However, A potential 4th round match with Davenport looms. (Side Note: Did anyone else get misty eyed reading her interview in Tennis Magazine? Wonderful interview with the gracious Miss Seles.)

As for the ladies draw:

First quarter: Serena vs. Lindsay seems the likely match-up in the quarters, although Seles will have something to say about that. If the seeds hold, Bovina-Dementieva looks to be a great 3rd round match. Although I love Bovina, Elena has done well here in the past and should win again. In any event, Serena will have some work to do from the 3rd round on at this tournament.

Second quarter: Clijsters has a very easy quarter. I can't see anyone here giving her problems until the quarterfinals, at earliest. Cho could give her a match, but I'm not expecting it. Hantuchova has a really tough draw. Molik and Schett have tons of power, and anyone in the 4th round (Dechy, Kuznetsova or even Dokic) could give her a match. Fortunately, Daniella has nothing to defend her so any points she gains will help her ranking.

Third quarter: This is a very tough quarter to call. I'd like for Amelie to run the gauntlet, but she's been having some health problems lately. I wouldn't be surprised if Rubin took her out in the quarters. Henin has some solid opposition on her part of the draw (Tanasugarn, Danillidou, Zvonereva), but she should play her way into the tournament. I'm picking Henin to get through this quarter, although she will have earned her trip to the semifinals.

Fourth quarter: Toughest quarter of the tournament, bar none. While I didn't watch the entire Davenport-Capriati match, I was very impressed by Jennifer's defensive abilities and fitness during the match. Davenport was hitting the ball agressively and Jen tracked everything down. Fortunately, she doesn't have anyone with a ton of power until the quarterfinals. Venus has a pretty tough draw. If Mikaelian is healthy, she could give Venus some power to worry about. Then, Shaughnessy or Maleeva (both of whom have wins against Venus) could provide staunch opposition in the 4th round. While I'm sure I'll be bashed for this, but I really think that Jen could pull out a win over Venus if she plays at the same level she played against Davenport last week.

Nick

My thoughts on the draw:

Serena should have no trouble advancing to the QF. Dementieva would probably have the best shot against her, but I'm not sure she'll get past Pratt, let alone Bovina. Seles & Davenport have very easy draws until colliding with each other. Davenport should win, but I just don't think she plays good enough defense to have a prayer against Serena.

As observed above, Clijsters draw looks like cake, unless she's tired from her title run at Indian Wells. An in-form Dokic might be a challenge, but frankly I'd be surprised to see Dokic get past Kuznetsova right now. I don't see Hantuchova losing until the QF. Dechy is probably the biggest threat in her section. I think Clijsters can do everything Daniela can and is a more polished product at this point, though.

The third quarter is more interesting. Mauresmo-Rubin will be very interesting--if Amelie is fully healthy she should win this. In the lower half, Henin seems likely to sail through the first couple of rounds, but Daniilidou did beat her in their only previous meeting, and could cause problems. However, Daniilidou has to get by the red-hot Amanda Coetzer (whom I suspect Justine would much rather face). Henin has a 3-1 record against Rubin, but hasn't played Mauresmo since '99, so if it comes down to Henin-Mauresmo, it's hard to say what will happen, except that the match is sure to be entertaining. I'm inclined to pick Justine because she's been playing very well this year, but if Mauresmo is on, she's probably a better a hard-court player.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Sugiyama, who I think can handle either Anna K. or Safina. Sugiyama is 3-3 against Capriati, and 2-1 against Myskina. Watch out. Venus could have a difficult match against Shaughnessy or Maleeva, but I really don't see her losing before the final. Frankly, I think Kim C. is the only one in the draw who might stop another Sisters clash.

I know this is a random draw but Clijsters has the easiest draw of anyone. Is there a conspiracy to elevate Kim to the top? Just kidding but Kim should be counting her lucky stars - this is a cake walk to the semis. Which means look out - she could get upset before the quarters.

While you all know I'm the only Venus fan - I'm not that concerned about her. (By the way - have you seen the cover of Miami's Ocean Drive magazine - Venus looks fabulous!!!!!!!!!!!_
Capriati has yet to beat her

No time like the present to beat her-Jen has the hunger and Venus doesn't!

Besides, Jen was robbed in that 2001 final-that one ball on the baseline was in and she really won that title and beat Venus!

But, what's past is past-Jen will definitely beat Venus in time, and , now is as good a time as any!

Go Jen!

I am actually going down to this tourney next week. I sure do hope Monica can hold out to the quarters!

Interesting match-ups all around. Here's to hoping Kim can come out of this as the #2 player in the world!!

GO MONICA!!!

I'm going to pick Jennifer yet again, this time to take out Kim in the final. I'm banking on the Williams girlies being a little out of match condition mentally and out before then.

Go Jenny!

you guys stick with your capriati choices. she hasn't been in a final since the canadian open and i don't see her making this one either.

as for venus and her fitness. i'd say not playing a warm up and then making it to the Aussie final (without dropping a set) is pretty impressive.

I'm picking Venus to win this title this year. She's hungry and only has one title so far. Capriati won't make a serious challeng - hope Davenport does...

I was supposed to go down this year but cancelled at the last minute. Maybe next year..

Since it's a hot topic in the basketball threads, here are some potential early upsets I'd like to see at the Nasdaq-100:

-Suarez over Clijsters in round 3. (an unlikely, but interesting scenario)
-Kuznetsova ova' Dokic in round 2 wouldn't surprise anyone.
-Molik over Hantuchova in round 2 is a serious possibility. Substitute Schett for Molik if Barbara the giant killer shows up. I'd be surprised, no, impressed if Hantuchova even made it to the quarters here. Each round is a potential upset for her.
-I'd giggle if Coetzer was around long enough to take out Hennin-Hardenne in the fourth round.
-Granville or Bedanova could surprise Capriati in the third.
-Any win by Anna Kournikova will be an upset. Even future big girl Safina. Anna's got a decent draw if her head has joined her in Florida for this event.
-Sarah Taylor over Myskina. Sarah's due for a win over a top player and Myskina is ripe for an upset.

Matches I'm looking forward to:
-Seles vs. Davenport: My heart will pull for Monica but I'm giving the edge to Lindsey
-Rubin vs. Mauresmo: What an interesting match up. A healthy Mo' wins, but don't ever take Chanda for granted.
-Serena vs Davenport or Seles: please go to three sets.

So the early rounds could be interesting this time around. I have a hard time betting against the Sisters at this event, especially Serena, but I'd love to see Venus win. I'll settle for a good showing from Monica, for Mauresmo to get a few wins and not retire out of this event, for Anna K to win just at LEAST one set, and for a competitive final, whoever plays.

I think Suarez is the "hottest" woman in tennis! She is gorgeous! Forget Anna and Ashley Harkeroad! Suarez is BEAUTIFUL!!! Her chances of beating Kim however are slight!

Safina d. Kournikova, 6-1, 6-4. Is there anything to say. Nope.

Bedanova won, but Zvonareva lost to Chladkova. Good day for the Czechs, huh?

Most promising result: Carly Gullikson d. Joannette Kruger in 3. Go Carly!

The doubles draw is up and running. Now that Anna's out of singles (sigh) she can focus on her doubles. The big question: Who dumped who?? Anna and Chanda are not playing together here. I'm surprised by both their pickups, honestly, and it looks like Anna got the better end of the deal. Schett has her moments, and could be a decent partner for Chanda, but they are set to meet one of the hot teams on tour, Clijsters/Sugiyama in the second round. Meanwhile, Kournikova has picked fellow Russian mental case, Dementieva, and since they both have so many doubles points, they got a 6 seed. Two Russian girls who are much more comfortable on the doubles court. They won't have to face Ai & Kim until the third round, and that could be an interesting match.

The whole top half of this draw is unimaginably stacked. The winner of a probable second round match between Navratilova/Kuznetsova & Davenport/Raymond (oy!) will likely play the world number 1s in the third round. Then to make it to the final they'll have to beat whoever survives between the Clijsters/Sugiyama - Kournikova/Dementieva match. The winner of the doubles event should come from this half. I have a hunch it will be Davenport and Raymond.

The bottom half has some interesting match-ups, but I don't see any of them beating a team from the top half. Look for Shaugnessy to jinx Hantuchova again. I'll go out on a limb and say Dokic and Petrova will win this half over Stubbs and Bovina.

Unfortunately, Monica has pulled out of the tournament. Her left foot stress fracture isn't fully healed. Damn, she's losing more points and not getting any competitive matches in...I hope she's recovered soon.

She's the cover girl of Tennis magazine this month and the article/Q&A is just great.

It is a shame that Mon continues to struggle with her annual stress fracture situation. I know that we have discussed this many times, but her fitness level plays a role here. It is hard to stay healthy when you are not as fit as you could be. I hope she makes it back in time for the clay circuit -- that is where she is her most dangerous.

I still am perplexed at how low Lisa and Lindsay are ranked. They have played a number of events together and have really played well together. I have not taken the time to look them up, but Lisa was the top doubles player for much of last year. To be playing the top seeds in the round of 16 is ridiculous. (Sugiyama and Clijsters should be upset as they could be sent packing.)

The tournament is off to a nice and easy start. Next week should be more exciting.

Here's how unbalanced the two halves of the women's doubles draw are:

SIX of the top 8 doubles players in the world, vs. 1 for the bottom half (Stubbs, #5). Husarova is the only player in the top 10 not participating.

You've got the hottest doubles players this year in the top half:

Players in the top half have combined for 18 doubles tourneys this year vs. 8 for the bottom half; and have placed 21 players in the finals of Tier II tourneys & higher, vs. only 5 players in the finals of the good tourneys in the bottom half.

If the "Race to the Championships" ended today, the top half would have six of the teams - the bottom half would have only Black & Likhovsteva. The Williams sisters, at #3 in the race, are not teaming here (although I'm not quite sure why not). If they were here, I'm sure there's no question they'd have been placed in the top half of the draw.

And then you've got the fact that it's made up of historically better players:

FIVE players who have been #1 in the world in doubles vs. 1 for the bottom half (Stubbs again).

And then here's my favorite stat:

Total career doubles titles: Top half = 373 (47 grand slams). Bottom half = 110 (3 grand slams).
Of course, lots of that has to do with Martina, but even without her, you've still got 205 doubles titles with 16 grand slams for the top half.

Why does anyone need to know any of this?

On a Friday night no less????

But we love you for providing us with such detailed analysis. It is kind of fascinating. It makes you realize how random the random draw can really be.

Somebody I think is close to making a breakthrough (though I've never seen her play) is Tatiana Golovin. At Indian Wells, she made it through the first round before falling to Schiavone 6-4, 7-5. Here she lost to Srebotnik 6-4 in the third set. She just turned 15 in February, so I think the fact that she's playing that close to solid second-tier players is very encouraging.

Myskina is OUT! Ai is in trouble as well...

http://home17.inet.tele.dk/wta/sp/golo5341.htm - Golvin's results on tour (Including ITF events) To be ranked in the Top 400 with only 8 tour events is very impressive.

On the subject of players who are close to making breakthrough, I think that Flavia Pennetta and Marion Bartoli should be on the top of that list.

Pennetta has quietly made her way into the Top 70, gaining most of her points on the ITF circuit last year. What's impressive about her game is that she has made two Tier III quarterfinals on clay in the past month. While I don't think she'll oust Davenport on the hard courts this week, she has a 43-19 record on clay and she could be in the Top 50 by Roland Garros.

I think that Marion Bartoli is a player who will be in the Top 40 by the end of 2003. From what I remember about her, she has a powerful baseline game (with a two-handed forehand), decent serve (high percentage of first serves although rarely over 100 mph), and given the number of points she's earned thus far, she'll be in the Top 80 after this tournament. If she wins her 3rd round match against fellow qualifier Sanchez-Lorenzo, she'll face the winner of Pennetta-Davenport.

Most of the matches today should go according as planned. Granville-Capriati could be exciting, but Capriati earned a lot of respect in Indian Wells and I don't really think that Granville has the weapons to hurt JenCap. The Williams sisters should take out their 3rd round opponents (Gagliardi and Panova) easily unless they play an incredibly sloppy match. Clijsters shouldn't have any problems against Suarez, who looked solid against Black a few days ago. Pennetta-Davenport could be exciting, but I think that Lindsay will pull out this match. Dokic-Dechy is tough to call. Dechy has the perfect type of game to frustrate Dokic, and I think she'll out Jelena in a tight match. Henin will take out Tanasugarn, although it will be close. Raymond-Pistolesi could be tight, but Lisa will pull this one out. Sugiyama-Taylor should go to Ai, although Taylor picked up a big win over Myskina and could stretch this match out to 3 sets. Rubin will handle Srebotnik easily and Amelie will take out Fernandez (who really needs a solid clay court season if she expects to stay in the Top 40 after Roland Garros.) Tulyganova-Pratt will be close, although I'm favoring Pratty to pull out this match. Danillidou-Weingartner should go to Eleni, although Marlene has showed her knack for upsets at big events. Finally, Marion Bartoli will out Sanchez-Lorenzo easily. While today's matches will provide some excitement, the real fireworks will start in the 4th round in a few days.

Nick

I have been out of internet service for two weeks, and have missed all the tennis news and tennis gossip here at Outsports. I should have service at my new home soon, and so look forward to getting back on line, just checking in from an internet cafe today. Sorry to read about Monica, and as yet do not have my tennis magaine.

The nice thing about Clijsters becoming number two in the rankings, if she does so, is that it makes the possibility of the Williams meeting in the semis of the Grand Slams. I think this would be good for tennis. And I often think of Hingis remark of the difficulty of having to beat both sisters in order to win a title. good luck to Clijsters, but she has a way to go yet.

[ March 23, 2003, 12:39 PM: Message edited by: shore ]

On the subject of up and coming players, I was going to say something about Alicia Molik, but I decided not to because she has been around for awhile. She played very well in early 2003 until her injury in Melbourne and she looks to be back on track. Today, she picked up a huge win against Likhovsteva and with the win, she'll be back into the Top 80. Given Dokic's spotty play this year, she has a good chance to get into the quarterfinals here.

I've been thinking about the type of player who Granville resembles and after watching her strange forehand set-up, I immediately thought of Anke Huber. She played sharp against Capriati in the first set and her play off the ground was very solid. Solid backhand (much better than Shaughnessy - poster child for a player who has a large disparity in power between her forehand and backhand) and better than average forehand.

Speaking of Shaugnessy, she picked up a solid win against Maleeva in straight sets. I don't think that she'll take out Venus, but she should give Venus a good match.

Another young American, Sarah Taylor, picked up a big win over Sugiyama. She should be in the Top 70 after this tournament and since she has very few points to defend from last year, approx. 100 counting ITF events, she could be in the Top 50 by Roland Garros.

Davenport had a bit of a scare against Pennetta, but she managed to pull things out. She didn't serve incredibly well, 56%, and if she expects to take out Serena in the quarters, she'll need a better first serve percentage.

The biggest surprise today was Weingartner taking out Danillidou in straight sets. Eleni served 10 double faults in her straight set loss. I love her powerful groundies, but until she can improve her serve, she'll stay around #15 in the rankings.

Nick

Edited for grammar errors.

[ March 24, 2003, 03:13 PM: Message edited by: The_Hammerman ]

This morning, the most depressing fourth-round match imaginable: Chanda Rubin v. Amelie Mauresmo. Would love to be able to watch it live. I haven't seen Amelie this year; I have to assume she's maintaining her new attack mentality. Chanda knows how to close out points at the net, too, so it could prove to be wonderful all-court action.

Of course I'm rooting for the underdog American, but a win by the Sapphic Frenchwoman would be fine. Having to face Henin-Hardenne in the quarters is no great reward. If Rubin can somehow win both matches, I believe the SF finish would be good enough for #8 for her, which should last, barring injury, through the French, and mean she wouldn't have to face any Mauresmos until the quarters at Roland Garros.

Go Chanda!!!

I want to see Amelie do well here. Well, everywhere, but here because she needs an injury-free run and also the crowd has been so nasty to the French players. That's ridiculous. They booed Loit and made snarky comments during one of Escude's matches. I haven't heard anti-French remarks about Amelie yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if some came up during this morning's first match against Chanda.

Allez Amelie!!

On another note, yes, the Monica Seles artice in tennis magazine is very interesting. Monica opens up more than she has in past interviews. Plus, she mentions how wonderful Gaby is, so that's worth the price of the magazine alone

It was interesting how lightly Mon stepped around other players' reactions when she was stabbed. In particular, she avoided an opportunity to discuss Steffi's callousness over having a fan in her country stab her chief rival. At the time, there was some surprise in the tennis world that players (especially Graf) seemed to speak out of both sides of their mouths. "Poor Monica, this is a tragedy." Followed quickly by, "She won't be playing for a while, so she does not deserve any special rules or rankings."

Monica stayed above the fray in the article, but I think it would have been fair game for her to discuss.

Amelie is down 0-5 to Rubin in the first set. What the...? She was up 40-15 in her second service game and lost it. She had deuce on Chanda's last serve game and lost it. I'm only watching the live scoring, but I hope the crowd isn't booing her or anything. I hope that it's just Amelie's usual up-and-down headcasey self

Rubin is about to serve for the first set. This sucks.

Rubin wins the first set 6-0 in 21 minutes. Amelie made 16 unforced errors to Chanda's 2. frown

I don't understand! Amelie's down 0-6, 0-3. She's only won 14 points for the entire match so far. I can't stop watching the live scoreboard. It's like a train wreck....

Amelie has won (gasp!) two games in a row. It's only one break now, down 2-3 in the second. I'm just having a little conversation with myself here...it's kinda fun.

Allez Amelie!

Amelie had a break point to even it at three games all, but she didn't convert. She hasn't won a point since. You can see the mental collapse as it ticks away on the screen...Chanda will serve for the match at 6-0, 5-2. frown

Amelie had a 0-40 lead in the final game, but Chanda won five straight points to close it out 6-0, 6-2. I'm never watching tennis again.

Gaga

Is there a reason you were cheering so vociferously for Amelie?

I'm glad to see Chanda make it to the quarters. She deserves a big win and to stay consistently in the Top 1o. Lucky for Chanda, Clijsters is in the other half of the draw - she just can't rise to the occasion against Kim.

But I think she has a great shot to upset Justine.

Well, from my series of posts, one might assume that it's because I have no life. lol. But I was pulling for Amelie because she's my favorite player in the post-Sabatini era. I pull for her at every tournament she plays.

That said, I don't like Chanda at all. She reminds me of Patty Schnyder in that she's always lurking in the draw to upset your favorite player but rarely comes up with the goods for an entire tourney. Players like that are great at beating the head cases that I tend to support. I can't stand it!

Wow. I'm really surprised by that Rubin Mauresmo match. I like both players, and will cheer on Chanda, but what happened to Amelie?? Is she healthy? Is the French-bashing here in the states having a factor? Yikes. Chanda's a good player, but this should not have been so easy.

guys

lindsay just retired from the match after losing the first set 6-0 to marion bartoli. they just showed a quick shot of it on espn's coverage. (i'm watching at work). lindsay had her thigh taped and just double faulted on set point.

by contrast - jennifer is breezing through. 6-1, 2-0. sarah taylor just doesn't have any weapons today - i'm curious how she made it the round of 16 with such unremarkable play.

Go Venus!!! but Espn's gotta be crazy to think I'm staying up until 2am to watch it

Sad to hear about Lindsay's muscle strain. I thought she was poised to really challenge for this title. However, as always, she made a solid decision and removed herself from further aggravating the injury.

Most of the women's matches today are lacking in competitiveness. Lots of steamrolls. Lets hope the quarters are a bit more interesting.

Of note -- Jelena Dokic seems to have shown up this tournament. She is through to the quarters. However, her matchup with Clijsters (Kim has lost 2 games and is just a few points from wrapping up), will prove a bit tougher than what she has experienced so far.

The matchups for the quarters are awfully tough. Serena benefits from Lindsay's injury. That would have been an interesting matchup. If Venus gets by Shauhgnessy, then she has JenCap. If Jen shows up confident and ready to play, that will be a great matchup.

Chanda and Justine should be very interesting as well. Two all-courters with some weapons and thoughtful play. Justine may be the favorite, but Chanda may get a big win in that one.

Most of yesterday's third round matches were blowouts and today's matches have surprisingly followed suit. Nine of the 13 sets of tennis played today have went either 6-0 or 6-1. With all of the talk about the improved depth of women's tennis today's matches have been disappointing. (However, due to the upsets in the tournament, most of the matches were rather uneven to begin with.)

Unfortunately, Lindsay was forced to pull out of her match against Bartoli due to injury, which practically ruins her chances of catching Henin before the French Open and Wimbledon.

Dokic seems to be back in form, although one has to wonder how sharp she would be playing if she would have played in Australia.

The quarterfinal matches will hopefully provide more excitement than the fourth round matches have thus far.

Serena-Bartoli should go soundly to Serena. Bartoli has a nice game, but Serena is too powerful and consistant to struggle against Marion. 2 and 1 to Serena.

Clijsters-Dokic is tougher to call. Clijsters leads their series 4-1, although they are tied 1 a piece on hard courts. Dokic has played solid tennis this week, although Clijsters has played solid tennis for all of 2003 when not playing a Williams sister. Clijsters should win in straight sets.

Rubin-Henin is going to be a great match to watch. Rubin destroyed Mauresmo 0 and 2 and she has to be confident after that match. Justine has played well this week, although she has served below 60% in her last two matches. I think that Justine's serve is going to be the key to this match. If Justine serves well, she'll be the player who dictates play, but if she's forced to hit a lot of second serves, Chanda can dominate points with her forehand and keep Justine in a defensive position. I'm picking Justine to win the match, probably in straight sets, because she has more weapons to play with than Chanda.

Capriati-Venus/Shaughnessy will be a nice match regardless of the opponent. While JenCap has had her way with Meghann in the past, Meghann has improved her forehand and serve since her slump last year. Meghan's backhand is going to be the key to the match. She has to play agressively off of that side, keep the ball deep and try to work the points around to her forehand side. She can't just loop the balls back and expect Jen not to take a hard whack at the ball.

If Jen plays Venus, it is going to be a great match. I know that there are a few Venus fans on the board, but unlike Serena who has really cleaned up her game over the past year, Venus can still be sloppy on the court. More often than naught, she hits more errors than winners in her matches (she was -9 against Asagoe and even against Gagliardi and in Melbourne she was in the red in 4 of her 7 matches) although with her serve, she'll get quite a few free points ... I won't talk about the double faults. The reason why I'm saying all of this is because Capriati has looked sharp since her debacle Down Under and I think that she'll have a good chance to get her first win against Venus. I don't know if it will happen, but I won't be surprised if it does. (BTW, I'm sure that I'll hear some remark about how Venus has the mental edge over Capriati, but there is a first time for everything.)

Nick

OMG! Shaughnessy is up 7-6, 5-0 against Venus. I knew that Meghann would give her a close match, but I never would have expected this. The tell tale stat of the match is that Venus has won only 18% of her second serve points this match, which is all the more significant because she's barely serving over 50% for the match.

Edited to say that Shaughnessy took out Venus 7-6 (7-2), 6-1 to earn a matchup against JenCap in the quarterfinals. With the loss, Clijsters will be approx. 300 points behind Venus if she doesn't win her quarterfinal match. Like it or not, Clijsters has a great shot at earning the #2 ranking by the French Open this year.

Nick

[ March 24, 2003, 07:13 PM: Message edited by: The_Hammerman ]

What an outstanding win for Meghann. She has one other big win over Venus, but that was about three years ago. Also on a hardcourt though. Meghann has been flirting with a big result this season, and it looks like she took it to the senior sister.

This would seem to open things up for Jen a little. She has to get past Meghann to get to Justine or Chanda. However, it will be tough for Meghann to come off a huge win like this and take on an in-form Capriati.

Might we have another Serena/Jen battle in the final?

Venus is going to take it on the chin in the points category. With Kim playing well and advancing, things are going to get tight very quickly. Plus, Venus has a tournament title in Amelia Island to defend and another final to hold onto points.

Kim beat Venus in that final, so she has some points to defend after Miami as well. There could be a dogfight for the 2 seed at Roland Garros.

Don't pencil Jen into the final just yet. While she should be favored over Shaughnessy, if Henin can get past Chanda, she usually plays very well against Capriati. I agree with Hammerman that Justine's serve is critical, but 55% really isn't bad for her. Statistically, it looks like she's been in fierce form thus far: More aces than double faults in two of three matches, more winners than errors in all of them, winning most of the points at the net and winning most of the points with her opponent at the net. Of course, her opposition has been pretty weak, but she has won her last three matches against Chanda, so I think she should be favored here. Since Justine flamed out in the first round here last year (in a hideous match in which she made over 100 unforced errors), she stands to gain big points and a strong showing here would probably allow her to retain the #4 ranking to Wimbledon.

Dokic is apparently back on her game, but I still think Clijsters will prevail. Henin/Rubin should be the most interesting QF match-up.

Are Venus' knees acting up? Shaughnessy hit an awful lot of winners against her, which I find hard to imagine if she's moving normally.

Capriati is 2-3 vs. Henin, and Justine won their last match, a hard fought semi @ Dubai.

JennyC is also 5-4 vs. Rubin, with Jennifer winning the last time they played in Miami (2000) but Chanda winning thier last two matches, including the Quebec City final.

Writing to echo JC's comments: Don't put JenCap into the final just yet!

Guess I'm looking for a finalist who can really CHALLENGE Serena in the championship match. Not saying that Jenny can't, but she's had her chances recently and come up short. Here's to hoping Kim gets past Jelena and takes Serena out in the semi's.

Kim C. vs. Jenny would be a nice final. Or, Kim vs. Justine. I'd love Chanda to win the whole thing over Kim, actually, but her results vs. Clijsters haven't been good. No time like the present, though, right?!

Venus's first serve was the problem and Meghann just played a great match! She served very well and ran everything down. Meghann hit forehand winners down the line off Venus' second serve over and over again. Meghann basically outplayed Venus yesterday. What a big win!

Kim and Serena should be the final but I think Justine will get past both JenCap and Chanda...but lose in the final to either Kim or Serena.

Meghann was really killing the ball against Venus. How many people crack winners off Venus' serve? Pretty amazing. Jennifer has definitely been sharing her steroids with Meghann. She has put on at least 20 pounds. On her it looks fantastic since she was so painfully thin. She was playing as well as really most of the top girls, I just don't think she can do it again at that level. And I sure hope not. If she beat my Jenn I'll kill her. Go Jenny!

In her interview, Shaughnessy said that she has in fact gained 15 pounds--15 pounds of muscle on someone as thin as Shaughnessy was makes a huge difference. Apparently, she's been working out at Athletic Performance for a little over two years. It sounds like a pretty rigorous training regime. Daniela should copy. By the way, is Justine boycotting the media or something? They have yet to post a single interview with her.

In her interview Daniella said that she is on a rigorous workout program that has actually caused her to LOSE weight. I say fire that trainer before it's too late.

Well, the Clijsters/Dokic matchup went according to season form. Kim yielded only two games in sending Jelena packing.

Also, an easy win for Serena to setup a very nice semi with Clijsters. They have produced some good tennis against each other the last few outings.

Jennifer and Meghann play the afternoon match tomorrow. Probably to be on live television. Chanda and Justine take it to each other in a nice evening matchup.

Big big win by Navratilova/Kooz over the #1 Doubles Team In The World, Suarez/Ruano Pascual. They're now in the semis - their best result in a big event to date. Clijsters & Soog still have to go through Dechy/Loit and Maleeva/Huber just to reach the semis. Marty & Svetty have a while to relax, and should be considered co-favorites to win this tournament. Their ranking will shoot up significantly, and they will finally be able to avoid the Biggies at the French Open.

It's so awesome to see someone considerably older than me team up with someone so much younger. And rare - in any sport. If somehow they can win Wimbledon or the US Open, I would LOVE to see Martina on the cover of Sports Illustrated. She'd deserve it.

great match between jencap and meghann
tied at 1 set a piece 6-4, 6-7(5). with jencap winning the tie breaker. both were tense during the tie break and both missed easy overhand smashes at crucial points.

it looks pretty even to me - it's anyone's match

A side of Jenny C. I would have never imagined:
Capriati has `Bombs Over Baghdad' played
http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/news?slug=ap-c...ov=ap&type=lgns

Other than the tiebreak, both players played very solid tennis with Capriati pulling it out 6-4 in the third. I have seen so many matches where a slight letdown to start the 3rd set (Meghann was broken in the first game) costs a player the match.

The tiebreak did see some conservative tennis, and a big miss from each player. However, Meghann's big overhead miss came after she hit a ball down the line that looked clearly out, but was not called. A couple of shots later, she made the miss count. Capriati's miss came up 6-3 in the breaker, so it was not so critical.

Jennifer played some very thoughtful tennis and mixed it up well. The commentators pointed out that her service is clicking better and she had a solid percentage of first serves. One of Jen's problems in the past 12 months.

Chanda/Justine kick off tonight. That could be an intriguing matchup, or we could see Chanda escorted off the court and out of the draw. In theory, this should be a good matchup for Chanda. Unfortunately, she has not broken through against JHH.

Great win for Nav/Kuz. Other than Clijsters/Sugiyama, there are no seeded players left in the draw in the doubles. What an opportunity.