The ladies draw has a clear dominant player: Maria Sharapova
SHARAPOVA – PENG 6-2 6-1
Ominous tennis by Maria. The world no.2 is playing one of the best tennis of her wonderful career. With Peng it was game over from the very begining with Maria blasting everything at the Chinese that was completely defensless.
“The last thing that’s on my mind when I’m going out on court is thinking about who paid for a ticket and how long they’re going to watch my match for,” said Sharapova “I mean, I’m not sure if that’s selfish or not, but my job is to go out on the court and to try to win. Whether it’s 6-0, 6-0, whether it’s a tough three-set match, you’re trying to do what you have to do.”
Maria lost 5 games in 3 matches (!!!) and she will play Zakopalova in the next round. Head to head: Sharapova leads 2-1. She lost the first match back in 2003!
LI – MCHALE 3-6 6-2 6-1
The American speaks Mandarin, but that didn’t help her to win the match! After a good start, McHale lost 2 easy sets due to a resurgent Li. “I definitely think she lifted her level of play as the match went on,” the American said. “I think I started maybe hitting the ball too much where she likes it, whereas in the first set I was mixing it up more.”
Li Na will play Shvedova in the next round. Head to head: 1-0 for Li Na (in 2007 on the grass in Birmingham… does it count?)
KVITOVA – BRATCHKOVA 6-2 4-6 1-6
This was a bit of a struggle for Petra against the world no.108. Petra is definately not keeping in up with the expectations the tenis community had on her in 2012 and this match was another little disappointment.
“I started well, had a set already, and then I was very aggressive and I knew what I had to do,” said Kvitova.”In the second set I was still like, okay, if I play like the first set, it will be fine. But it wasn’t. She played much better than the first set. She had a better serve, and it was tough to return.”
KANEPI – WOZNIACKI 6-1 6-7(3) 6-3
Caroline is not there anymore. Now ranked world no.9, she lost another match and she didn’t take it nicely. After the match, Caroline heavily complained by the fact that the Roland Garros is the only Slam not to adopt the line judging technology.
“When the ball is clearly out, I don’t think there should be anything to argue about. You know, if they cannot see, they should have other umpires on the lines or invent Hawk Eye on these courts,” she said.
“It’s a disgrace that mistakes like this are made. It wasn’t even like, you know, could have been in, could have been out. It was clearly out.”
She may be right in her argument. We understand her frustration, but she should also complain about her own tennis. Let’s hope for a nice comeback during the year.
OTHER RESULTS
Lepchenko – Schiavone 3-6 6-3 8-6
Zakopalova – Pavlyuchenkova 6-3 7-5
Shvedova – Navarro 6-4 7-5
Rus – Goerges 7-6 (5) 2-6 6-2
