Saturday, January 24, 2015

AUSTRALIAN OPEN DAY 6 REVIEW

by Karen 


Sergio Giorgi said that his daughter, Camila would win her match against Venus Williams because she is a much better player than Venus.  There is having confidence in your daughter, and reality.  After all, another father, Richard Williams did say that it is Venus' world and we are all but visitors to it.  That father had reason to speak authoritatively about his daughter as she had accomplished much by the time he made those statements.  Camila Giorgi on the other hand has made a name for herself for losing matches from winning positions.

For a set and a half yesterday, Giorgi had the better of Venus.  She was being aggressive, serving well and returning even better.  She had Venus on the back foot for the majority of the match. However, when time came for her to serve for the match at 5-4 she did what she has done for most of her young career. She blinked.  Venus, the veteran contributed to the blinking.  She started to play like the 46 time singles champion that she is.  The final score  was 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-1.  The tiebreak was of a very high quality and the third set was not as easy as the scoreline suggests.  There was one game that lasted almost 20 minutes with Giorgi struggling to hold.  Prior to the match, Camila Giorgi said she had no idea who Venus Williams was as she only watched Sampras and Agassi.  No matter.  I bet she knows who Venus is now.  

Next up for Venus is Aga Radwanska.  Venus has made the fourth round at a Major for the first time since Wimbledon 2011.  Congratulationns Ms. Williams. 


Madison Keys showed everyone last night what having cojones really is.  Keys took on the 2 time Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova in a late night match featuring big hitting and even bigger serving, at least from Keys.  I hate to give credit to coaches who have recently joined a player's coaching team, but there is no doubt that the confidence that Keys showed last night in closing out the first set against Kvitova and then closing out the match on serve, holding at love, can be due in part to her celebrity coach, Lindsay Davenport. 

Petra Kvitova has had a renewed sense of focus on her career by working on her fitness and her health.  It was disappointing to see her playing tennis that is best left to juniors.  She did not seem to have a clue as to how to counter what Keys was throwing at her. It remains to be seen how she recovers from here on out. Next up for Keys is fellow American Madison Brengle, who took out Coco Vandeweghe in straight sets. 



Serena Williams had a tough time against No. 26 seed Elina Svitolina.  The No. 1 struggled to hold serve in the first set and was broken on 3 occassions, one of which was at love.  However, she was able to start moving her feet, and as is the norm in these situations when Serena finds herself in trouble, she raises the level of her game.  This time was no different.  After dropping the first set 6-4, Serena would go on to lose 2 more games, with the final set ending in a love set.  Next up for the younger Williams is a rematch with Garbine Muguruza, her conqueror at the 2014 French Open.  That will no doubt be a cracker of a match. 

Finally, in case you missed it, Victoria Azarenka was fired up after making her way through the always dangerous Barbora Zahlolova Strycova to make the fourth round of the Australian Open.   Next up for Vika (not Vicky) is last year's finalist, Dominika Cibulkova


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