Future Tennis Stars

Earlier tonight, Jelena Jankovic beat Serena Williams, the defending champion, in straight sets 6-3, 6-4. On paper you would think this was a stunning result but if you saw any of the match you would know that Serena was incredibly flat and served poorly. Not to take anything away from Jelena’s win, she certainly did everything she needed to keep Serena from getting into the match, breaking her almost at will including the final game to take the match.

Jelena has now reached her third Slam semifinal where she will face either Justine Henin or Maria Sharapova. You just know that Jelena would rather face Maria. Against Sharapova Jankovic is 1-3 with her only win coming on grass last year at Birmingham. Against Henin though, she is 0-9 and all four meetings in 2007 were straight set wins for Henin.

With Nikolay Davydenko wrapping up his match on Vodafone Arena, Serena Williams is about to meet up with Victoria Azarenka. Now upsetting Serena is a daunting task for any player not named Justine Henin, it’s not impossible and here is what Azarenka will have to do to pull it off.

1. She needs a high percentage of first serves in and to win a high percentage of second serve points.
2. Paint the corners. She will need to go deep in the court with her shots to get Serena pushed back and to hit the ball up.
3. Keep the points short. Azarenka can’t let Serena get into a rhythm and pound the ball away.
4. Hit the ball back to Serena then go for the winner deep in the corner.
5. Mix it up. Throw in slices and spins with the hard shots. Push Serena back, then throw in a drop shot.
6. Take care of her serve and move in when returning Serena’s serve especially on the second serve. Really move in, remember what Radwanska did against Sharapova at the US Open? Try that. If it doesn’t work, at least you took the chance, but if it does work, you’ll get in her head and make her over think her serve.
7. Push her to play her best earlier than she wants. Let’s face it, it’s the first week and it’s a third round match. Serena won’t play as hard as she would if it were a final against Ivanovic. If Azarenka can catch her off guard early in the match (not easy since Azarenka is seeded and has a lot of hype) Victoria could get a lead that she will have to work hard to maintain.

Good luck Victoria, we’re all pulling for you!

Serena Williams just couldn’t overcome a knee injury and pulled out of the season ending WTA Championships.

Williams dropped the first set against Anna Chakvetadze 6-4 and said afterward her knee was sore to begin with and got worse as the match went on. This result puts Bartoli in a hole now down 0-1 for round robin play and even though they played one set, she is down 0-2 for the events so far. Bartoli will play tomorrow against Justine Henin and even though she beat Henin at Wimbledon, don’t count on a repeat performance.

Once again, Justine Henin beat Jelena Jankovic and this time, it wasn’t close. Henin beat Jankovic 6-2, 6-2 and it puts Henin up 2-0 in round robin play and puts Jankovic in a hole 0-1. Jankovic should cheer up though as she will have to play Williams and Chakvetadze (who are playing now and Chakvetadze took the first set 6-4) and Jankovic is capable of beating both which is exactly what she will need to do. Another loss and Jankovic could be out.