I was pondering earlier what a Jankovic highlights reel might consist of - presumably a string of her opponents most impressive errors? If anyone was inspired to play tennis by that match (which I doubt), it would've been because of Katie, not Jankovic - for me, players like her suck all the fun out of the game - and the fact that she's a miserable old cow who clearly thinks the world of herself doesn't help raise my opinion of her...
Bally has not only secured her ranking, effectively ensuring direct entry to both the French Open and Wimbledon, but has managed to complete a rare set of Bondarenkos (wins over sisters Valeria in Fed Cup and Alona at Wimbledon last year) - they must love her
Katie did better than I feared. JJ is a boring but effective defender, difficult to penetrate if don't have much of a serve, so I expected bakery products, like against Wozniacki.
Katie did enough in her match to keep all her confidence intact from the first round victory. I now give her a much greater chance of holding onto to her top 100 status than I did at the start of the year. As for Bally she really has to be aiming at a top 50 spot assuming no injuries.
I was worried it would be a heavier defeat for Katie, and it is encouraging to hear how she hit some blinding winners, and that it came down to her serve and JJ's yawntastic consistency (to be fair, I saw Jelena at Wimbledon back in 2005 in an epic match against Myskina and she was a far more exciting player then than she is now).
As for Bally, well I'm so happy for her. I hope she can really take the fight to Safina and who knows what could happen? Hopefully she can get some revenge for Anne...............
Real guttsy stuff from Bally - and so chuffed for her.
A similar gameplan of consistancy with a few big risky shots thrown in on important points will hopefully serve her well again. She's really got nothing to lose. ( )
I was at both Ballys and katies (well I watched the first set and a litttle of Katies) matches yesterday and was very impressed with Bally.
She had a bit of an issue at the start of the second set I think caused by a call she thought was bad at one end. She never seemed to trust that line judge for the rest of the match.
Great stuff. I was just behind her coach and it was great at the end when she came over to them.
As for Katie, it was just too many unforced errors and double faults. Don't know if she was nervous or not up for it or JJ that caused it but it was disappointing. I had to leave as I just couldn't watch it any more. very sad.
Completely irrelevant, but we have our first glimpse of Anne's return - she's down, along with Katie & Bally, in the MD at the Midland 100k on 8th Jan - no need to use the PR there. Mel is 1st alternate but probably wisely has Laguna Nigel 25k as her 1st priority. Of course, they may all choose to play Paris Premier indoors (or Pattaya 220k), but I think for Katie Midland would be a very wise choice - she has Sutton coming off (though most of that's covered by her Mayr win), and a semi here would be very handy as a cushion. I think for this year she should aim to win a 50k or 100k, and to intersperse these with 220s. Why try and make the jump all at once? So long as she doesn't step down to 25s, I don't think there's any reason she shouldn't split her time fairly evenly between WTA and ITF for this year.
Completely irrelevant, but we have our first glimpse of Anne's return - she's down, along with Katie & Bally, in the MD at the Midland 100k on 8th Jan - no need to use the PR there. [...]
I really hope Elena plays to the best of her ability tonight, i guess she'll be feeling pretty nervous right now. I just want her to hold her opening service game to feel more settled and not be chasing the scoreboard straightaway. I think we all know Safina's temperament is suspect but i don't know if this is true when playing players of Elena's ranking.
I'm starting to feel nervous too, god knows how Elena must feel. You are right in saying that Dinara has got a bit of an anger issue, we'll have to see how it plays out. If Elena can hold her nerve (and more importantly her serve) in the first set, we could have a real corker on our hands here.