Serena and Venus Williams lost at the French Open today. One of those losses was surprising but the other was pretty shocking.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\nSerena Williams<\/b> is the leading vote getter in our poll asking who will win the French Open this year. Curiously, Jelena Jankovic<\/b> is second and Ana Ivanovic<\/b> third. Didn\u2019t Ana get to the final last year? Weren\u2019t people watching? Now Serena is gone and so is her sister Venus<\/b>.<\/p>\nSerena lost to Katarina Srebotnik<\/b>. Srebotnik doesn\u2019t have much of a serve and she doesn\u2019t have enough power to play toe to toe with Serena, but she has an all court game and is also the number four ranked doubles player in the world. And she\u2019s a very smart cookie.<\/p>\nWhen Serena did make her way to the net, Srebotnik hit behind her or passed her. Srebotnik purposely hit drop shots to get Serena moving forward because she knew that Serena\u2019s footwork suffers on clay. After exchanging early breaks, Serena was serving at 3-3 when she sent Srebotnik scrambling with a huge forehand. Serena stumbled instead of sliding into Srebotnik\u2019s response and that gave Srebotnik enough time to run around her forehand and unload a winner.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s a good example of the importance of footwork on the slippery stuff. Serena should have won that point and she should have won the match but she kept slipping up, so to speak. Serena lost that game to go down a break and in the next game, she got caught moving too slowly back to the baseline. Meanwhile, Srebotnik pulled off a fantastic lunge volley on a dipping ball that was tailing away from her \u2013 did I say that she\u2019s the number four doubles player in the world? \u2013 and Serena got caught out of position on the baseline yet again to go down 3-5 in the set.<\/p>\nCan Serena win the French Open these days? When she won her French Open title in 2002, she played Mary Pierce<\/b> and Jennifer Capriati<\/b> in the quarterfinals and semifinals, and her sister Venus<\/b> in the final. That was three rounds of power tennis players she plowed through but now it\u2019s a different story. Since 2002, she\u2019s lost to Justine Henin<\/b> twice and last year, Henin knocked her out of the last three slams of the year. Henin is, uh, I mean, was, the quintessential all court player with just enough power to handle Serena.<\/p>\nBut Justine\u2019s not here anymore so who can compete with Serena, the only one left who\u2019s actually won this tournament? Serena is 1-0 over Ivanovic though they\u2019ve never played on clay and she\u2019s 3-3 with Jankovic and they\u2019ve never played on clay either. Serena is 5-2 over Maria Sharapova<\/b> and 4-1 over Svetlana Kuznetsova<\/b> with a win over both players in their only clay court match.<\/p>\nThe answer is that only Serena can beat herself and she did a pretty good job of it today. I\u2019m trying to figure out whether her footwork has worsened or whether she was just having a bad day. She\u2019s bigger than she used to be and that does make it harder to change directions on slippery surfaces. She hasn\u2019t gone past the quarterfinals here since 2003 and though she did win a clay court title in Charleston earlier this year, it was on that green stuff, not the red stuff, and it was her first clay title since her French Open title.<\/p>\nSo yeah, I\u2019m gonna say that Serena\u2019s movement is worse on clay than it used to be and that doesn\u2019t bode well for a title here.<\/p>\nSrebotnik was serving for the first set at 5-4 when, again, Serena had her on the run. Again she lost the point when she sent a crucial backhand volley long because she didn\u2019t get her feet set. Srebotnik meanwhile was coming up with more great shots. She went almost to her knees to dig out a Serena forehand, and I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve ever seen this before, she got off such a good shot from that position that she followed it to the net and finished the point off with a volley.<\/p>\nSerena\u2019s footwork threw everything else off. She hit two easy volleys into the net and then hit a drop shot on break point that put her down 4-5 in the second set. Srebotnik won the match 6-4, 6-4, and Serena looked a bit shocked at the postmatch media session. She looked down at her lap in between questions and her voice faltered.<\/p>\nI think Serena\u2019s got a pretty good shot at the hard court slam titles but time may be running out for the clay version.<\/p>\nI\u2019d actually forgotten that Venus was here. She\u2019s had health problems since last year – anemia is the closest explanation I\u2019ve heard, and I thought she\u2019d skipped Paris. She\u2019s averaging about one tournament per month this year, though she did play Rome as a runup to the French Open, so we can hardly expect much out of her with that playing schedule.<\/p>\nAnd she\u2019s only gone as far as the semifinals in one tournament, a Tier II event in Bangalore which was underpopulated because everyone else was taking a rest week before Indian Wells. Today, she went out to Flavia Pennetta<\/b>, a clay court specialist who\u2019s never been past the third round here and has never won a Tier I title. Third round is a bit early for Venus to go out but the only time she went past the quarterfinals was 2002 when she lost to her sister in the final.<\/p>\nThe loss wasn\u2019t surprising but Venus\u2019 passiveness was. The match went well past 9 pm and Bud Collins<\/b>, who was sitting courtside, said he was having trouble seeing. Venus had lost the first set 5-7 and was down a break in the second set but never said a word or shot a dirty look at the chair umpire. When both players returned to the court for Pennetta to serve at 4-3, the crowd cheered because they were surprised to find out that they\u2019d see more tennis.<\/p>\nNo word from Venus yet about her state of mind but she looked like she just wanted it all to be over.<\/p>\nImprobably enough, Robby Ginepri<\/b> is the only U.S. player left in the draw after taking out Igor Andreev<\/b>. Ginepri now shares a coach with Roger Federer<\/b> in Jose Higueras<\/b>. Federer can only hope that Higueras is as helpful to his clay court game as he has been to Ginepri\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Serena and Venus Williams lost at the French Open today. One of those losses was surprising but the other was pretty shocking. Serena Williams is the leading vote getter in our poll asking who will win the French Open this year. Curiously, Jelena Jankovic is second and Ana Ivanovic third. Didn\u2019t Ana get to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Serena Williams<\/b> is the leading vote getter in our poll asking who will win the French Open this year. Curiously, Jelena Jankovic<\/b> is second and Ana Ivanovic<\/b> third. Didn\u2019t Ana get to the final last year? Weren\u2019t people watching? Now Serena is gone and so is her sister Venus<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Serena lost to Katarina Srebotnik<\/b>. Srebotnik doesn\u2019t have much of a serve and she doesn\u2019t have enough power to play toe to toe with Serena, but she has an all court game and is also the number four ranked doubles player in the world. And she\u2019s a very smart cookie.<\/p>\n
When Serena did make her way to the net, Srebotnik hit behind her or passed her. Srebotnik purposely hit drop shots to get Serena moving forward because she knew that Serena\u2019s footwork suffers on clay. After exchanging early breaks, Serena was serving at 3-3 when she sent Srebotnik scrambling with a huge forehand. Serena stumbled instead of sliding into Srebotnik\u2019s response and that gave Srebotnik enough time to run around her forehand and unload a winner.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a good example of the importance of footwork on the slippery stuff. Serena should have won that point and she should have won the match but she kept slipping up, so to speak. Serena lost that game to go down a break and in the next game, she got caught moving too slowly back to the baseline. Meanwhile, Srebotnik pulled off a fantastic lunge volley on a dipping ball that was tailing away from her \u2013 did I say that she\u2019s the number four doubles player in the world? \u2013 and Serena got caught out of position on the baseline yet again to go down 3-5 in the set.<\/p>\n
Can Serena win the French Open these days? When she won her French Open title in 2002, she played Mary Pierce<\/b> and Jennifer Capriati<\/b> in the quarterfinals and semifinals, and her sister Venus<\/b> in the final. That was three rounds of power tennis players she plowed through but now it\u2019s a different story. Since 2002, she\u2019s lost to Justine Henin<\/b> twice and last year, Henin knocked her out of the last three slams of the year. Henin is, uh, I mean, was, the quintessential all court player with just enough power to handle Serena.<\/p>\n
But Justine\u2019s not here anymore so who can compete with Serena, the only one left who\u2019s actually won this tournament? Serena is 1-0 over Ivanovic though they\u2019ve never played on clay and she\u2019s 3-3 with Jankovic and they\u2019ve never played on clay either. Serena is 5-2 over Maria Sharapova<\/b> and 4-1 over Svetlana Kuznetsova<\/b> with a win over both players in their only clay court match.<\/p>\n
The answer is that only Serena can beat herself and she did a pretty good job of it today. I\u2019m trying to figure out whether her footwork has worsened or whether she was just having a bad day. She\u2019s bigger than she used to be and that does make it harder to change directions on slippery surfaces. She hasn\u2019t gone past the quarterfinals here since 2003 and though she did win a clay court title in Charleston earlier this year, it was on that green stuff, not the red stuff, and it was her first clay title since her French Open title.<\/p>\n
So yeah, I\u2019m gonna say that Serena\u2019s movement is worse on clay than it used to be and that doesn\u2019t bode well for a title here.<\/p>\n
Srebotnik was serving for the first set at 5-4 when, again, Serena had her on the run. Again she lost the point when she sent a crucial backhand volley long because she didn\u2019t get her feet set. Srebotnik meanwhile was coming up with more great shots. She went almost to her knees to dig out a Serena forehand, and I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve ever seen this before, she got off such a good shot from that position that she followed it to the net and finished the point off with a volley.<\/p>\n
Serena\u2019s footwork threw everything else off. She hit two easy volleys into the net and then hit a drop shot on break point that put her down 4-5 in the second set. Srebotnik won the match 6-4, 6-4, and Serena looked a bit shocked at the postmatch media session. She looked down at her lap in between questions and her voice faltered.<\/p>\n
I think Serena\u2019s got a pretty good shot at the hard court slam titles but time may be running out for the clay version.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d actually forgotten that Venus was here. She\u2019s had health problems since last year – anemia is the closest explanation I\u2019ve heard, and I thought she\u2019d skipped Paris. She\u2019s averaging about one tournament per month this year, though she did play Rome as a runup to the French Open, so we can hardly expect much out of her with that playing schedule.<\/p>\n
And she\u2019s only gone as far as the semifinals in one tournament, a Tier II event in Bangalore which was underpopulated because everyone else was taking a rest week before Indian Wells. Today, she went out to Flavia Pennetta<\/b>, a clay court specialist who\u2019s never been past the third round here and has never won a Tier I title. Third round is a bit early for Venus to go out but the only time she went past the quarterfinals was 2002 when she lost to her sister in the final.<\/p>\n
The loss wasn\u2019t surprising but Venus\u2019 passiveness was. The match went well past 9 pm and Bud Collins<\/b>, who was sitting courtside, said he was having trouble seeing. Venus had lost the first set 5-7 and was down a break in the second set but never said a word or shot a dirty look at the chair umpire. When both players returned to the court for Pennetta to serve at 4-3, the crowd cheered because they were surprised to find out that they\u2019d see more tennis.<\/p>\n
No word from Venus yet about her state of mind but she looked like she just wanted it all to be over.<\/p>\n
Improbably enough, Robby Ginepri<\/b> is the only U.S. player left in the draw after taking out Igor Andreev<\/b>. Ginepri now shares a coach with Roger Federer<\/b> in Jose Higueras<\/b>. Federer can only hope that Higueras is as helpful to his clay court game as he has been to Ginepri\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Serena and Venus Williams lost at the French Open today. One of those losses was surprising but the other was pretty shocking. Serena Williams is the leading vote getter in our poll asking who will win the French Open this year. Curiously, Jelena Jankovic is second and Ana Ivanovic third. Didn\u2019t Ana get to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}