Family Circle Cup~~WTA~~Charleston, SC

[Love Game]

Family Circle Cup
Charleston, SC-USA

April 13-19, 2009
Premier
Prize Money: $1,000,000
Draw: 56M/32Q/16D
Surface: Green Clay/Outdoors

Singles: Main Draw
Doubles: Main Draw

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

 

[Love Game]

Results

Monday, April 13, 2009

Singles - First Round
(10) Peng Shuai (CHN) d. (WC) Anastasia Pivovarova (RUS) 60 62
(11) Alona Bondarenko (UKR) d. Anne Kremer (GER) 64 60
(13) Virginie Razzano (FRA) d. (WC) Mallory Cecil (USA) 61 62
Vania King (USA) d. (14) Olga Govortsova (BLR) 67(3) 76(5) 63
Tamira Paszek (AUT) d. Julia Schruff (GER) 75 62
Patricia Mayr (AUT) d. Yan Zi (CHN) 62 62
Melinda Czink (HUN) d. Jill Craybas (USA) 62 64
Rossana de los Ríos (PAR) d. Carly Gullickson (USA) 61 64
Varvara Lepchenko (USA) d. Galina Voskoboeva (KAZ) 61 63
Julie Ditty (USA) d. Ayumi Morita (JPN) 61 61
Anastasia Rodionova (RUS) d. (Q) Madison Brengle (USA) 62 76(4)
(Q) Lenka Wienerova (SVK) d. Alexa Glatch (USA) 64 75
(Q) Melanie Oudin (USA) d. Olga Savchuk (UKR) 64 60
(Q) Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) d. Marta Domachowska (POL) 61 16 64

 

[Love Game]

The top 12 players @ Charleston are:

http://www.familycirclecup.com/pages/articles/20090123164434.html

 

[imalil2gangsta4u]

venus showed earlier in the year that her game CAN be effective on clay, but who knows lol. wozniaki is also another person to look out for.

 

[Love Game]

venus showed earlier in the year that her game CAN be effective on clay, but who knows lol. wozniaki is also another person to look out for.

wozniacki just won on green clay in florida, so she's definitely primed. serena is the defending champ in charleston, but she's not defending her title due to an injury. venus did win on clay in acapulco, defeating penetta in straights rather easily.

i am hoping elena will come out of whatever funk she's been in recently. she's lost to serena on hard, mauresmo on hard, and wozniacki on hard. doesn't look as tho she's played on clay so far this year, but her singles record is 23-5 on hard, so i'd like to see her do well here.

 

[gj011]

venus showed earlier in the year that her game CAN be effective on clay, but who knows lol. wozniaki is also another person to look out for.

Wozniacki or Wozniak? Should be careful with names spelling in this case

I voted for Zvonareva, she seems to be in the best form ATM and was in the final here last year.

Also don't think Venus can do much on clay, green or red.

 

[Love Game]

Also don't think Venus can do much on clay, green or red.

well, she cant be too shabby, since she did win the title and $37,000 in acapulco

 

[gj011]

well, she cant be too shabby, since she did win the title and $37,000 in acapulco

OK she beat Pennetta and couple of lower ranked players there, but still I don't think she will win it here. Could be wrong of course.

 

[Love Game]

OK she beat Pennetta and couple of lower ranked players there, but still I don't think she will win it here. Could be wrong of course.

i think you might be right about your choice of vera, since the was the finalist who lost to serena in the final last year (i think), but what makes you choose her instead of caro wozniacki :?:

 

[Bud]

Sesil Karatantcheva

I'm hoping Sesil goes to at least the third round. She's 1-0 against both her 1st round (Sania Mirza) and 2nd round (Venus Williams) opponents and clay is by far her strongest surface (won RG juniors at 14 y.o. in 2004).

 

[MichaelNadal]

Im hoping Venus wins, Im thinking about going, I live there.

 

[Love Game]

Results

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Singles - Second Round
(2) Venus Williams (USA) d. Sania Mirza (IND) 61 36 62
Elena Vesnina (RUS) d. (8) Patty Schnyder (SUI) 62 67(5) 75
(Q) Melanie Oudin (USA) d. (9) Aleksandra Wozniak (CAN) 75 60
(10) Peng Shuai (CHN) d. Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB) 75 26 75
Viktoriya Kutuzova (UKR) d. (11) Alona Bondarenko (UKR) 64 75
Anastasia Rodionova (RUS) d. (12) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) 62 64
(13) Virginie Razzano (FRA) d. Stéphanie Dubois (CAN) 63 76(3)
(16) Sabine Lisicki (GER) d. (Q) Lenka Wienerova (SVK) 64 63
Melinda Czink (HUN) d. Vania King (USA) 64 62
Varvara Lepchenko (USA) d. (Q) Shenay Perry (USA) 62 63

Doubles - First Round
(WC) Glatch/Perry (USA/USA) d. A.Bondarenko/Rodionova (UKR/RUS) 26 64 107

 

[grafselesfan]

Im hoping Venus wins, Im thinking about going, I live there.

Venus is not a clay courter. Then again since Henin retired the womens clay court field sucks like never before so anything can happen I guess.

 

[Love Game]

Venus is not a clay courter. Then again since Henin retired the womens clay court field sucks like never before so anything can happen I guess.

i agree. she was raised on hard, but ...

... question: if "venus is not a clay courter," then what are the players she beat to take the title in acapulco? :???:

 

[Bud]

Match at 10:00 AM Pacific

Sabine Lisicki v. Venus Williams

 

[PED]

Venus looked pretty good yesterday but Mirza really stretched her when she flattened out her FH. If Mirza's serve had been more robust, she would have taken it. I think Mirza was about 2 for 10 when she went for her BH down the line.

Wozniacki really struggled last night in the first set. The first five games were all breaks between the two but once she called for her coach, she really turned it around and won easily. I'm going to go watch her at 1:30 on the side courts, should be nice: sunny and 65

 

[Love Game]

Venus looked pretty good yesterday but Mirza really stretched her when she flattened out her FH. If Mirza's serve had been more robust, she would have taken it. I think Mirza was about 2 for 10 when she went for her BH down the line.

Wozniacki really struggled last night in the first set. The first five games were all breaks between the two but once she called for her coach, she really turned it around and won easily. I'm going to go watch her at 1:30 on the side courts, should be nice: sunny and 65

tell ... tell ... were you there?

update for now ....................

 

[Love Game]

Match begins!

on serve 1 game all

==== nice and sunny in SC

 

[Love Game]

this one looks interesting ..........

vs

stream anyone???

 

[Love Game]

I like the green, and so does sabine!

 

[Love Game]

venus serving shrieks 4-3, 30 all

_________________

and the shrieks have it 5-3!

sabine serving to stay in the set.

 

[Love Game]

[sabine gets coaching from dad on changeover, breaks back]

 

[Love Game]

19 year-old sabine knocks out second seed venus

 

[Love Game]

Elena and Varvara warming up.

<are out out there, Fedace?>

 

[Love Game]

elena up a double break 4-1

 

[Love Game]

dementieva and wozniacki both cruising
(tho woz not quite so much )

 

[imalil2gangsta4u]

venus is losing her game and ability to close out sets and matches

 

[PED]

The Cibulkova match was good. I skipped the Venus match after watching her play yesterday. I don't care much to watch her on clay. Rodionova is a bit of a hot head and Cibulkova is excellent off the ground. She appears to be around 5ft6 max and she covers the court well and was hammering the ball off both wings.

The Wozniacki match was fun to watch as well. Her serve is a little weak but she's got nice touch and can really get to the ball. She got easily to around 4 drop shots.

It was also fun to watch Murphy Jensen warm up Nadia Petrova before her match. Murphy's got GAME. I was really surprised at how big he is and he's got that nice lefty fh going. He and Petrova were knocking it around pretty good. They vollied to see how many they could do without an erro and it was easily in the 50's...great touch.

 

[Love Game]

The Cibulkova match was good. ...
It was also fun to watch Murphy Jensen warm up Nadia Petrova before her match. ...

so are you watching on the tennis channel?
__________________

speaking of petrova ....

...

she's 4th seed and she's playing

... who's way down the list ... 22nd?

 

[PED]

I actually came down to the tourney for a few days. I left right before the Petrova match to rest and eat and am going back tonight to watch Zvonerava.

I watched Kutuzova take out Bonderenko yesterday, Kutuzova is really impressive to watch-quite intense. The angles these ladies are getting off of their bh side is insane.

 

[PED]

One more thing, in person,Petrova looks absolutely nothing like that "glamour shot" posted above

 

[Love Game]

I actually came down to the tourney for a few days. I left right before the Petrova match to rest and eat and am going back tonight to watch Zvonerava.

I watched Kutuzova take out Bonderenko yesterday, Kutuzova is really impressive to watch-quite intense. The angles these ladies are getting off of their bh side is insane.

oh lucky you ... i'm jealous ... i really like the look of that green clay. vera zvonareva's playing the frenchwoman razzano in a little under 2 hours ... should be a pretty good battle ... both are rather no-nonsense.

One more thing, in person,Petrova looks absolutely nothing like that "glamour shot" posted above

?better or worse? :razz: is there a glamor shot of razzano somewhere? :twisted: bad ... i'm very bad

 

[PED]

The clay is great shape, I've been playing close by in the early am before going to the tourney and the weather is not getting too hot during the day and it stays cool at night with plenty of moisture so the clay is not getting dried out and the traction is excellent.

I was surprised that they were able to do as much with Petrova as they did in that glamour shot. Razzano, well, I won't even go there

Looking forward to checking out Zvonerava in person. Alot of times, the camera really does "add weight". For instance, Bartoli looks larger on tv but in the flesh, she comes across as smaller.

 

[David_Is_Right]

Alot of times, the camera really does "add weight"

I think a fair part of this is that most people now have widescreen TVs, yet very little television is transmitted in 16:9 widescreen.

Therefore, you're invariably seeing the old, near-square 4:3 format stretched horizontally to fill the screen - not very flattering!

 

[Leublu tennis]

I would have voted for Kournikova as the best looking broad, but she was not listed. So I went with "other". Oh, this is not a beauty contest?

 

[Love Game]

I think a fair part of this is that most people now have widescreen TVs, yet very little television is transmitted in 16:9 widescreen.

Therefore, you're invariably seeing the old, near-square 4:3 format stretched horizontally to fill the screen - not very flattering!

good point ... might explain why sometimes delpo looks like a muscular he-man, but sometimes he looks like a tall, skinny kid!! :!:

 

[PED]

I think a fair part of this is that most people now have widescreen TVs, yet very little television is transmitted in 16:9 widescreen.

Therefore, you're invariably seeing the old, near-square 4:3 format stretched horizontally to fill the screen - not very flattering!

I agree, I try to watch most everything in hi def but I use stretch for instance on the tennis channel feed which is non hi def on cable. It's funny how the proportions change with just that little different. My wife always comments that Fed looks so much leaner when we're watching him in the slams on espnhd or cbshd.

One more aside, my wife's hairdressers did beauty and makeup for the Golden Globe Awards this year and they told her the one characteristic that really stood out for the stars was that they usually had an exeptionally large head in proportion to their body. I guess the camera eats that up


The match didn't go quite the way I planned it with Zvonereva going down with that nasty ankle injury only three games into the match. She was just beginning to set the tone as well. She's got great groundstrokes and really covers the court well. I hate it for her, she's was openly crying when they took her off in the golf cart.

 

[Love Game]

The match didn't go quite the way I planned it with Zvonereva going down with that nasty ankle injury only three games into the match. She was just beginning to set the tone as well. She's got great groundstrokes and really covers the court well. I hate it for her, she's was openly crying when they took her off in the golf cart.

Thanks for reporting this, as it's the first I've heard about it ... very sad for Vera ... what a disappointment ... maybe elena can pull it out--have you seen her play yet?

 

[Love Game]

RESULTS for Thursday

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Singles - Third Round
(1/WC) Elena Dementieva (RUS) d. Varvara Lepchenko (USA) 61 61
(16) Sabine Lisicki (GER) d. (2) Venus Williams (USA) 64 76(5)
(13) Virginie Razzano (FRA) d. (3) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) 11 ret. (right ankle injury)
Melinda Czink (HUN) d. (4) Nadia Petrova (RUS) 36 64 75
(5) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. (10) Peng Shuai (CHN) 63 64
(6) Marion Bartoli (FRA) d. (Q) Melanie Oudin (USA) 64 61
(7) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) d. Anastasia Rodionova (RUS) 67(6) 62 63
Elena Vesnina (RUS) d. Viktoriya Kutuzova (UKR) 76(4) 75

Doubles - Quarterfinals
(4) Mattek-Sands/Petrova (USA/RUS) d. Koryttseva/Voskoboeva (UKR/KAZ)
60 64
Dekmeijere/Schnyder (LAT/SUI) d. (2) Chuang/Vesnina (TPE/RUS) 61 ret. (Vesnina: left adductor strain)
​

 

[Bud]

19 year-old sabine knocks out second seed venus

Nice playing from Lisicki. I recall seeing her beat Davenport at the Fed Cup here in San Diego (La Jolla).

 

[Bud]

venus is losing her game and ability to close out sets and matches

She's approaching 30 years old... only a few good years left.

 

[PED]

Based on what I've seen, Elena should be able to take it. She's playing wonderfully at the moment and was serving quite well. She took out her opponent in short order yesterday.

 

[boredone3456]

venus is losing her game and ability to close out sets and matches

Venus has been losing the ability to do that at places not named Wimbledon for quite a while now, like that pathetic US Open Quarterfinal against Serena where Venus was clearly the better player on that day then either just gave it to Serena or imploded on herself. Since 2004 Venus has been getting more and more inconsistant everywhere but in London. I actually had a bet going with a friend of mine that Mirza would take her out here, which she almost did. Venus especially the last 2 years has had terrible trouble winning against low ranked top 100 players, I mean her clay court title this year was full of 3 set matches against players who I would not think should give her any trouble, and her loss to Navarro at the Australian sticks out to.

The draw at this tournament is all messed up anyway, Bartoli is now the highest seed in the bottom half of the draw and is the favorite there to make the final, anyone here think that would be the case?, certainly not me. Lisicki could make the semi-finals, and if she can't beat Vesnina(who yes has been having a good tournament), especially after knocking out Venus in straights then I will really be surprised. The Semi's should be decided pretty straitforwardly, well three of them, I would Hope Baroli can beat Czink and Lisicki can beat Vesnina, Wozniacki should beat Razzano, the only toss up is Dementieva vs Cibulkova, that one is the one to watch and its my opinion whomever wins that match will be the one to get to the final against whomever comes out of the bottom half.

 

[Topaz]

Any updates on Vera and her ankle?!?

 

[Bud]

Any updates on Vera and her ankle?!?

It's obliterated :shock:

 

[Bud]

Congrats to Sabine Lisicki for making the SF! The girl can strike a ball :shock:

 

[Topaz]

It's obliterated :shock:

Congrats to Sabine Lisicki for making the SF! The girl can strike a ball :shock:

The pictures looked terrible. How awful for her!!!

And, wow...when I saw Lisicki in Miami, she was pretty sucky. Glad to see her playing much better.

 

[Love Game]

[after winning 1st set, sabine looks within]

[after losing 1st set, elena looks without]

[sabine lisicki (ger) d. elena vesnina (rus) 64, 60

[sabine's proud papa/coach]

 

[Love Game]

RESULTS for Friday

Friday, April 17, 2009

Singles - Quarterfinals
(1/WC) Elena Dementieva (RUS) d. (7) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 64 10 ret. (left adductor strain)
(5) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. (13) Virginie Razzano (FRA) 62 60
(16) Sabine Lisicki (GER) d. Elena Vesnina (RUS) 64 60

Doubles - Quarterfinals
(1) Peschke/Raymond (CZE/USA) d. Chan/Govortsova (TPE/BLR) 64 63

 

[soyizgood]

Dementieva's backhand letting her down. Wozniacki up 4-2. Make that 5-2 as Wozniacki breaks.