US Open R3 - Anne Keothavong v Elena Dementieva

john · Top national player

US Open R3 - Anne Keothavong v Elena Dementieva

Drew · Aug 28, 2008

I have deleted my thread John...

My post...

Anne you deserve your own match thread...what a performance so far...can she cause an upset to the world no 6....can she catch the Russian cold ???

Elena made the final here 4 years ago....so she likes the place...she is only 40/11 WL for the year...so Anne has nothing to fear

john · Top national player

Sorry Drew, didn't see your thread or I wouldn't have made this one.

Drew · Aug 28, 2008

Ur thread was 1st !

Tutu · Club Coach

Can't wait!!!! I think she can do this!

I think JJ vs Zheng will be a great match too.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Tutu wrote:

Can't wait!!!! I think she can do this!

It would be a bigger shock than Julie Coin beating Ana Ivanovic. The gap in rankings might not be so great but unlike Ana, Lena can adjust her game somewhat and make it a war of attrition if necessary.

More than 6 games would be a good effort from Anne.

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

kundalini wrote:

Tutu wrote:

Can't wait!!!! I think she can do this!

It would be a bigger shock than Julie Coin beating Ana Ivanovic. The gap in rankings might not be so great but unlike Ana, Lena can adjust her game somewhat and make it a war of attrition if necessary.

More than 6 games would be a good effort from Anne.

Utter garbage. She may be in good form this year, but she's hardly the new Justine.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

I'd be surprised if Anne even got a set in this match, as Dementieva is simply just a better player than Anne.

If she is to win, then she has to red-line her game, serve as well as she's ever done, and hope that some of Dementieva's old wobbles come back to haunt her.

I'd love to see her win, but I don't see how she's going to be able to do, as I'm not sure she has to the game to hurt Dementieva.

I'd expect something like a 3 and 3 win for Dementieva, but would love to be proven wrong

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

jamatthews wrote:

kundalini wrote:

Tutu wrote:

Can't wait!!!! I think she can do this!

It would be a bigger shock than Julie Coin beating Ana Ivanovic. The gap in rankings might not be so great but unlike Ana, Lena can adjust her game somewhat and make it a war of attrition if necessary.

More than 6 games would be a good effort from Anne.

Utter garbage. She may be in good form this year, but she's hardly the new Justine.

Which bit is "utter garbage"? Having watched Ana win in the first round, or perhaps that should read Dushevina handing Ana a victory she barely deserved, her loss to Coin could hardly be described as coming out of nowhere.

Ivanovic's forehand was misfiring in her first match and it was even worse in her second. Dementieva is capable of easing off the pace and keeping the ball in play, so Anne would have to blast the ball past her for two sets to win, rather than just rely on errors.

Anne beating Lena would be a genuine surprise to most people who watch the matches, unlike Ivanovic's loss.

-- Edited by kundalini at 12:52, 2008-08-29

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

ForeverDelayed wrote:

I'd be surprised if Anne even got a set in this match, as Dementieva is simply just a better player than Anne.

If she is to win, then she has to red-line her game, serve as well as she's ever done, and hope that some of Dementieva's old wobbles come back to haunt her.

I'd love to see her win, but I don't see how she's going to be able to do, as I'm not sure she has to the game to hurt Dementieva.

I'd expect something like a 3 and 3 win for Dementieva, but would love to be proven wrong

Agree. Anne has to play right at the top of her level for two, probably three sets and even then it might not be enough. Looking at her serving stats this summer, there really isn't much evidence that Anne can serve well enough on a consistent basis to win this type of match. The Bartoli match featured serving with real penetration on first but just not enough of it, and when the opening was there she couldn't hold serve to close out the match against an opponent who had rediscovered their form late on.

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

The idea that Dementieva has any hint of tactical awareness. If she's whacking forehand errors she'll continue to do so all day long. If she's too passive she'll continue to be so all day long.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

jamatthews wrote:

The idea that Dementieva has any hint of tactical awareness. If she's whacking forehand errors she'll continue to do so all day long. If she's too passive she'll continue to be so all day long.

OK I'd almost agree with that. I didn't mean to imply that she'd suddenly start playing drop shots, serve + volleying or slicing and coming into the net, even if that was the winning formula for that match.

Lena does have a long history of winning matches deep in the third set after an ugly first set. I would say she does possess the ability to adjust between being aggressive and minimising the errors; not everyday but most times. If you were talking about last year then I would actually agree with you that she seemed brain dead on court (and heading out of the top 20).

-- Edited by kundalini at 13:15, 2008-08-29

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

She also has a tendency to lose plenty of matches very tamely. She probably has the tamest losses of all the top players.

DUSTY DICK · Club Coach

Can't see Anne winning this one in the end but hopefully she can play well like she did against Venus at Wimbledon and take away some positives.

wolf · Tennis legend

Anne can beat her. I've watched Dementieva on numerous occasions and never being overly impressed. Anne just needs to play her normal game, moving up the court putting pressure on her oppponents groundstrokes. And if Elena gets anywhere near the finish line you know she has the capacity to choke.