TennisToday

Serena Williams Thru to Semifinals at the French Open

French Open - Women's Quarterfinal

1 Serena Williams d Svetlana Kuznetsova - 61 36 63

Look at that - Serena wobbled in the middle of that match.

Coming into this match she only dropped 9 games.

But she was facing the '09 champion.

Odd but true: this Serena's 1st trip to the Sf's at RG since 2003.

She may be the '02 champ but this is by far her worst Slam.

She's won at least 4 titles at each of the others and only 1 here.

Post match: I was so determined to get through that match, and

I really, really, really wanted it more than anyone, I think.

I was really just fighting, giving it everything I had out there.

Victoria Azarenka into Semifinals at Australian Open

Australian Open - Women's Quarterfinal

1 Victoria Azarenka d Svetlana Kuznetsova - 75 61

Honey, why are you continnuing to unleash Redfoo on us?

It reminds me of the 80's with Cyndi Lauper's Rock n Wrestling.

Which was also a big ol' ugh.

I'm sure he's nice and all... But a clown in your box?

Oh yea, back to tennis.

Vika has a surprise waiting for her in the Sf's: not Serena!

It would be silly to say I'm not excited, I'm not nervous.

I think the person who is never nervous is a really scary person.

I mean, that person is a robot, really.

Huh?

The 2012 Australian Open Champions

Men's Champion - Novak Djokovic

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Women's Champion - Victoria Azarenka

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Men's Doubles - Radek Stepanek & Leander Paes

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Women's Doubles - Svetlana Kuznetsova & Vera Zvonareva

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Mixed Doubles - Bethanie Mattek-Sands & Horia Tecau

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Photos: Getty Images

Marion Bartoli Reaches Semifinals at Roland Garros

Roland Garros - Women's Quarterfinal

11 Marion Bartoli d 13 Svetlana Kuznetsova - 63 76(3)

Until this year Marion had a W/L record at RG of a whopping 8-10.

This is her second Sf run at a Slam: 1-0.

Remember she beat Henin at Wimbledon in '07 to reach the final.

007: Fran better hope that James Bond doesn't show up. Certain doom.

Oh and - when is the last time a French player played a Qf on Lenglen?

Someone is holding a grudge in Paris.

Photo: Reuters

Svetlana Kuznetsova into 4th Round at Roland Garros

Roland Garros - Women's Third Round

13 Svetlana Kuznetsova d Rebecca Marino - 60 64

This is Sveta's 7th ride to the 4th round at RG: 2-4.

Remember she is the 2009 champion - beating Dinara 'Chicken' Safina.

A couple more match wins and she should return to the top 10.

She will next face a tough one against Daniela Hantuchova - H2H: 7-4/SK.

If they both show up in form this could be a helluva match.

Photo: Sindy Thomas

Svetlana Kuznetsova Breadsticks at Roland Garros

Roland Garros - Women's Second Round

13 Svetlana Kuznetsova d Irina-Carmelia Bequ - 61 61

Can't remember the last time Sveta won a match losing only 2 games?

I looked it up - it was in the 2nd R here at RG in '09 during her title run.

Where has that stuff been Sveta?

Photos: Getty Images

Svetlana Kuznetsova Can Handle a Big Piece of Meat

Andalucia Tennis tweeted this photo earlier today.

Ha: I always suspected the Queen of Moscow could cut a bitch.

Sveta is in Andalucia for the first time. I sure hope she does well.

She is coming off a piss-poor Indian Wells/Miami swing: 1-2.

Sveta is heading into the clay season where she was dismal in '10: 2-5.

Possible upside: She is currently ranked #14 and with some decent results...

Well, you get the picture.

Caroline Wozniacki Wins WTA Title in Dubai

Dubai WTA - Final

1 Caroline Wozniacki d 16 Svetlana Kuznetsova - 61 63

That was a 75 minute thumper. And boring as all get-out.

Caro's win this week moves her back to #1 for at least a few more weeks.

This is her 1st title of the season and her 13th career WTA trophy.

Caro has now won the last 3 Premier 5 titles: Montreal, Tokyo & Dubai.

She will play as the #1 seed in Doha next week with a 1st round bye.

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Sveta is now 13-19 in WTA finals - her last title being San Diego in Aug '10.

Right direction tho: Sveta's showing will move her up to about #13 from #23.

She too heads to Doha and will play the #8 seed Shahar Peer - H2H: 4-3/SK.

Photo: Reuters

So Kuznetsova & Schiavone had a rematch today...

Dubai WTA - 3rd Round

16 Svetlana Kuznetsova d 3 Francesca Schiavone - 16 60 75

And of course it was a thriller... well, the 3rd set anyhow.

Remember they played that crazy 16-14 3rd set at Aussie Open.

Fran won that one, so I suppose it was Sveta's turn.

Wouldn't it be great it these ladies like 10 more times this year?

Hey, looks like they are both heading to Doha...

Fingers crossed.

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Photo: Getty Images

Francesca Schiavone Defeats Svetlana Kuznetsova in an Epic Thriiler at Australian Open

Austrailian Open - Women's Fourth Round

6 Francesca Schiavone d 23 Svetlana Kuznetsova - 64 16 16-14

Longest match in women's Slam history - 4 hours and 44 minutes.

I know we're only in Jan. but this could turn out to be the match of the year.

And I went to bed when they were locked at 7-7. Couldn't keep my eyes open.

Sveta had 6 match points... Franny served for it 3 times & was broken.

And as the match got deeper into the 3rd - the level of play went UP!

This win will lift Fran into the top 5. It's impossible to not cheer for Fran.

Fran: This is one of the most emotional moments of my life.

To me, this was personally really fantastic.

I hope one day to show this DVD to my son.

I told Svetlana she did a really good job and she's great, fantastic.

She said the same. We respect each other a lot.

Fran advances to her 6th Slam Qf: 1-4. Her 1st was at RG back in '01.

Her only Qf win, of course, last year at RG - she went on to win the title.

Best of luck: An exhausted Fran will next face Caroline Wozniacki. Um...

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I sure hope Sveta isn't gutted by this loss for tooooooo long.

Sveta: At some stage I was like, 'What's the score? Who's serving?

What's going on here anyway?' I had no clue sometimes.

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I's gonna speak for fans everywhere: Thanks for a great match ladies.

XOXO

Photos: Getty Images

Svetlana Kuznetsova is in Auckland Rockin a New Do

Sveta tweeted this pic from Auckland where she is playing for the 1st time.

She is coming off a miserable 2010 which saw her ranking freefall to #27.

Hard to tell what to expect from her in the coming months...

But I'd expect that ranking to bump up to top 16 before Roland Garros.

Honestly - she doesn't have a boatload of points to defend before then.

Besides, her new Bieber hairdo may signal a new attitude!

Injured Svetlana Kuznetsova Calls it a (Difficult) Year

And another WTA player is out. After suffering a 1st round loss in Beijing (to Robert Vinci - 63 26 63) Svetlana has packed her bags and will sit the rest of the year out to rehab her injury. Today she tweeted:

1. Guys, my health issues won't aloud me to play in my home country tournament in Moscow! I have to end this difficult season now and recover.

2. Thank you very much for your support, I appreciate it a lot!

Difficult is putting it mildly. In 17 tournaments played this year she is 26-17. She lost in the 1st round of 5 tournaments and she failed to make the Qf's in 14 of these events. In fact, this is the first year since 2002 she didn't advance to at least one Slam quarterfinal.

She began the year ranked #3 and very quickly she began to fizzle - by July she was #21. It was at her lowest point that she summoned the past and won the title in San Diego which moved her back up to #14.

She is currently ranked #12 but as she came into Beijing as the defending champion he will lose the bulk of those 1000 points. Look for her to drop down into the 20's. The last time she finished a year outside the top 20 was in 2003.

See you in Australia - revamped and ready to go.

Photo: Getty Images

Jelena Jankovic & Svetlana Kuznetsova both need 3 sets to advance at the US Open

US Open Women's First Round

4 Jelena Jankovic d Simona Halep - 64 46 75

Hey JJ - you're fans are not into this kind of thing for the 1st round.

You had my friend Gymmy (your biggest fan) shitting bricks.

The '08 finalist, JJ has now equalled her showing from last year.

Winning the title will move her to #1 - but after today's match...

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11 Svetlana Kuznetsova d Kimiko Date Krumm - 62 46 61

Major props to Kimiko. At 39 and still playing awesome tennis.

Un-retired: The last time Kimiko played the Open - 1996!

Sveta is the '04 champion and reached the 4th round last year.

She's not had a good year but then she switched coaches...

And boom, she's playing much better - winning San Diego 2 weeks ago.

Photo: Reuters

Semifinals All Set for WTA Event in Montreal

Montreal WTA - Semifinal Preview

8 Vera Zvonareva vs 10 Victoria Azarenka - H2H: 4-2

Vera had a terrific come from behind win over Kim Clijsters yesterday.

Victoria has won the last two matches - both in 2010.

She has also enjoyed a nice N. American Summer - winning in Stanford.

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2 Caroline Wozniacki vs 11 Svetlana Kuznetsova (above) - H2H: 2-2

They have flip-flopped matches - Caro won the last one. Sveta's turn?

Sveta has had a dismal year - she is beginning to turn things around.

It began with winning San Diego then *boom* she's in the Montreal Sf's.

She's enjoying her 2nd Sf in 3 weeks & in all of 2010.

This Caro's 5th Sf of the season: 3-1.

Feels weird: Caroline will be the top seed at the US Open. Um...

Photo: Reuters

Svetlana Kuznetsova went to the Mall in Cincinnati Yall

I'm sure this helped with the sting of the Sharapova loss.

What a crack up! I wanna go shopping with her!

Photos from Sveta's Twitter

Maria Sharapova Wins Battle of Russians in Cincinnati

Cincinnati WTA - 1st Round

10 Maria Sharapova d Svetlana Kuznetsova - 64 16 62

You know what I always say... Play the weekend & lose early the next week.

I don't think this loss is going to sting too much - she just won San Diego.

Maria will next play (a new fave) Andrea Petkovic - H2H: 0-0.

Photo: Reuters

Men's ATP & Women's WTA Title Count for 2010

The Men

FIVE titles: Rafael Nadal

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FOUR titles: Sam Querrey

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THREE titles: Juan Carlos Ferrero

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TWO titles: Nicolas Almagro (above), Marin Cilic, Mardy Fish,

Michael Llodra, Albert Montanes, Andy Roddick, Fernando Verdasco

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ONE title: Marcos Baghdatis, Thomaz Bellucci,

Juan Ignacio Chela, Nikolay Davydenko, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer,

David Ferrer, Richard Gasquet, Andrey Golubev, Ernests Gulbis,

Lleyton Hewitt, John Isner, Ivan Ljubicic, Feliciano Lopez, David Nalbandian,

Robin Soderling, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Stanislas Wawrinka, Mikhail Youzhny

The Women

TWO titles: Kim Clijsters, Elena Dementieva, Justine Henin,

Anastasia Palyuchenkova (above), Aravane Rezai, Maria Sharapova,

Francesca Schiavone, Agnes Szavay, Serena Williams, Venus Williams,

Caroline Wozniacki

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ONE title: Victoria Azarenka, Iveta Benesova, Alona Bondarenko,

Anna Chakvetadze, Alexandra Dulgheru, Julia Goerges, Jelena Jankovic,

Kaia Kanepi, Alisa Kleybanova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Kateryna Makarova,

Mariana Duque Marina, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, Li Na, Flavia Pennetta,

Anastajia Sevastova, Sam Stosur, Yanina Wickmayer, Vera Zvonareva

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So strange that we are this far into the year with no woman at 3 titles yet.

Svetlana Kuznetsova Wins WTA Title in San Diego

San Diego WTA Winner

Svetlana Kuznetsova d 4 Agnieszka Radwanska - 64 67(7) 63

Sveta Sveta Sveta... that should have been straight sets.

She served for it at 5-4 in the 2nd & had 3 match points in the breaker.

That meltdown was really hard to watch. It would have been a crazy loss.

With the win she earns her 14th title & 1st of the year.

And she will move back into the top 20 once again...

Sveta finished '09 at #3 - this has been the only bright spot in her year.

Short celebration: Sveta plays Sharapova in the 1st round Tuesday in Cincy.

Photo: Reuters

Radwanska & Kuznetsova to Play for WTA San Diego Title

San Diego WTA Final

4 Agnieszka Radwanska vs Svetlana Kuznetsova - H2H: 3-6

Sveta won the last 2 which were both played in '09.

Sveta hasn't come close to a sniff at a title since she won Beijing in Oct '09.

In fact, yesterday was her first semifinal of the 2010 season.

Agnieszka is also looking for her 1st title this year - to add to her other 4.

Bottom line is: Nice to see tennis back in San Diego.

Photo: AP

Flavia Pennetta Leads Semifinalists at WTA San Diego

Flavia put the beat down on #2 seed Samantha Stosur yesterday.

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San Diego WTA Semifinals

4 Agnieszka Radwanska va Daniela Hantuchova - H2H: 3-2

Drought: Agie hasn't won a tournament since Eastbourne in '08.

This is her 4th Sf of '10: 0-3, including last week in Stanford.

Drought: Daniela has not won a title since Linz in '07.

This is her 3rd Sf of '10: 1-1. She was the runner-up in Monterrey.

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5 Flavia Pennetta (above) vs Svetlana Kuznetsova - H2H: 0-3

Flavia has 9 WTA titles - when did that happen?

I mean, maybe we should be calling her the Queen of the Tier IV's!

Sveta only has 13 titles - but in much higher profile events - like 2 Slams.

Sveta shocker: this is her FIRST (yes, first) Sf of the 2010 season.

Photo: Reuters