Monday, May 25, 2009

I really like black and white photography, but this is ridiculous

There are already three black and white photos on my French Open favorites panel on the French Open website. Amelie Mauresmo, of course, went out in the first round yesterday, and today, Patty Schnyder and Flavia Pennetta were defeated.

Schnyder played another player I like, Kateryna Bondarenko. I enjoyed this match because of the shot-making, which was often superb. And while it seemed as though Schnyder was making more unforced errors than her opponent, she actually wasn't--she was just failing to hit enough winners. She also failed to be as aggressive as she needed to be. Bondarenko, for her part, was impressive from the baseline, demonstrating some very deft movement when she needed it.

For her part, Pennetta must have visited the same planet she inhabited when she played Venus Williams in the Acapulco final, because she just wasn't there. Her opponent, Alexa Glatch, wasted no time in exploiting Pennetta's error-prone play. I should add that Pennetta had her left thigh taped, and perhaps it was bothering her. One way or the other, Glatch played the way she did in her Fed Cup matches, and was completely dominating.

My disappointments didn't end there, though. Because of her recent health issues, I didn't expect Sabine Lisicki to be able to do much of anything at Roland Garros, but I was nevertheless sad to see her have as much trouble as she did when she lost today to Lucie Safarova. With little match play behind her, Lisicki had a lot of trouble with her serve, which is one of her strongest assests.

Of course, it could have just been Lisicki's evil twin I saw on the court: The commentator referred to her as "Liszinsky" the entire match.

1 comment:

Todd Spiker said...

Of course, it could have just been Lisicki's evil twin I saw on the court: The commentator referred to her as "Liszinsky" the entire match.Yeah, I noticed that, too. But, hey, at least they had live coverage on a national holiday... unlike some four-lettered network I know.