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Post by janie on Aug 12, 2013 15:45:59 GMT -5
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Post by janie on Aug 15, 2013 11:26:02 GMT -5
Oops! You can scratch Bartoli out. Hantu has rec'd WCs for singles & dubs w/ you know who. RISING AMERICAN STAR SLOANE STEPHENS MOVES INTO NEW HAVEN OPEN MAIN DRAW; FELLOW AMERICAN BETHANIE MATTEK-SANDS GRANTED WILDCARD Americans Nicole Gibbs, Lauren Embree, Sachia Vickery and Lena Litvak Receive Qualifying Wildcards NEW HAVEN, Conn., August 15, 2012 – Rising American star Sloane Stephens has moved into the main draw after a withdrawal by another player due to injury, and fellow American Bethanie Mattek-Sands has been granted a wildcard into the main draw of the 2012 New Haven Open at Yale presented by First Niagara, a WTA event that is part of the Emirates Airline US Open Series to be held August 17-25, 2012 at the Connecticut Tennis Center, it was announced today by Tournament Director Anne Worcester. Due to the withdrawal of Kaia Kanepi (Achilles injury)  , Stephens moves into the New Haven Open main draw and will be the third-highest ranked American in the field. The 19-year-old from Florida has had a breakout year in 2012, reaching the fourth round of the French Open and the third round at Wimbledon. She currently sits at her career-high ranking of No. 49 in the world. This will be Stephens’ first appearance in the main draw of the New Haven Open. Mattek-Sands, the “Lady Gaga of Tennis,” is known for her audacious outfits and exciting tennis game. The American reached the 2010 New Haven Open round of 16 as a qualifier and achieved a career-high ranking of No. 30 in the world in July 2011. On the doubles court, she owns 10 career WTA titles as well as the 2012 Australian Open mixed doubles title with Horia Tecau. In addition, four other Americans were granted wildcards into the New Haven Open qualifying tournament, including reigning NCAA singles and doubles champion Nicole Gibbs; University of Florida standout Lauren Embree, who helped her school capture the NCAA team championship this year; 2011 Orange Bowl semifinalist and 17-year-old Sachia Vickery; and Lena Litvak, who received an automatic wildcard with her victory at the Yale Summer Championships. “Sloane has had an amazing year thus far and Bethanie is always a fan-favorite,” said Worcester. “We’re looking forward to having these two American stars compete in the main draw of the New Haven Open. Our four American Qualifying Wild Cards - Nicole, Lauren, Sachia and Lena - all have a great opportunity to continue in the legacy of qualifiers doing extremely well at the tournament. Any one of them could make a run to the finals, just as qualifiers such as Agnes Szavay and Petra Cetkovska did in 2007 and 2011, respectively.” |
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Post by Grarliner on Aug 15, 2013 16:49:26 GMT -5
The Lady Gaga of tennis?
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Post by janie on Aug 15, 2013 17:24:31 GMT -5
I guess that's New Haven's publicity folks working overtime.  |
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Post by janie on Aug 16, 2013 9:01:30 GMT -5
NH's large Q draw. (Pironkova's the 11th seed in Q?  ) (13)Soler-Espinosa v Begu Daniilidou v Riske Razzano v Puchkova Pereira v (9)Wickmayer (2)Niculescu v Duque-Marino Hlavackova v (wc)Hsu Medina Garrigues v Torro-Flor (wc)Cetkovska v (7)Morita (3)Svitolina v Arruabarrena Cepelova v (wc)Litvak Watson v Schmiedlova Zhang v (12)Larsson (4)Beck v Hradecka Pennetta v Dolonc Hercog v (wc)Mueller Rodionova v (10)Knapp (5)Voegele v (wc)Stewart ( <-- winner of USTA Nationals 16s) Ormaechea v Cadantu Govortsova v Duan Shvedova v (8)Dominguez Lino (6)Puig v (wc)Echevarria Alam Ka.Pliskova v Arvidsson Baltacha v Garcia Erakovic v (11)Pironkova |
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Post by lexpretend on Aug 16, 2013 10:19:27 GMT -5
NH is weak at the top but super-strong beneath that. When I look at the entry list and the Q draw, half of me thinks, wow, someone's gonna get inflated Premier points for winning this. And the other half of me thinks, wow, I would totally attend every day of qualies if I could and be spoilt for choice.
LOL @ Hantuchova getting WCs everyone because of Hingis. Hoping Tina dumps her ASAP.
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Post by janie on Aug 16, 2013 18:20:29 GMT -5
Draw(1)Errani v BYE Makarova v Wozniak  Halep v (wc)Hantuchova Suarez Navarro v (5)Vinci (4)Wozniacki v Peng Qualifier v Qualifier Jovanovski v (wc)Goerges Qualifier v (6/ wc)Stephens(7)Lisicki v Mladenovic Pavlyuchenkova v Cirstea Qualifier v Rybarikova U. Radwanska v (3)Kvitova (8)Cibulkova v Zakopalova Qualifier v Hsieh Vesnina v Qualifier (2)Kerber v BYE
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Post by lexpretend on Aug 17, 2013 1:20:34 GMT -5
Second quarter is horrific.
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Post by Old Hag on Aug 17, 2013 12:05:23 GMT -5
And the other half of me thinks, wow, I would totally attend every day of qualies if I could and be spoilt for choice. New Haven's always been like that. I wanted to go the early rounds of this forever, but the Open took precedence and I was broke. And now I have money and hate tennis. |
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Post by Pamela Shriver on Aug 17, 2013 15:48:47 GMT -5
And the other half of me thinks, wow, I would totally attend every day of qualies if I could and be spoilt for choice. New Haven's always been like that. I wanted to go the early rounds of this forever, but the Open took precedence and I was broke. And now I have money and hate tennis. Well, sort of. Back in the day New Haven was really, really strong at the top, too. I think one year they had seven of the top ten or something ridiculous for a Tier II like that. MD cutoff was like #28 one year, too. It's only in the last few years that it started to really sink with the top players. |
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Post by Grarliner on Aug 17, 2013 18:43:24 GMT -5
Not just that, but they used to attract the top of the top who people wanted to see. Lindsay, Venus, Jana ... pretty sure Monica played a few years.
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Post by Old Hag on Aug 17, 2013 21:51:18 GMT -5
Yeah, the top players used to play. But, it always had the huge qualy draws where everyone played.
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Post by janie on Aug 19, 2013 12:56:31 GMT -5
Halep the Care Bear of 2013 crushed WC Dani like a bug. Splat!
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Post by lexpretend on Aug 19, 2013 16:51:37 GMT -5
Good to see Hantuchova making such excellent use of her well-deserved WC!
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Post by R. Black on Aug 19, 2013 16:59:00 GMT -5
I'm sure there was some form of manipulation going on with the tournament director ("we'll be glad to accept that double WC if I can play single too", or something). It really doesn't make any sense to give her a WC.
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Post by Grarliner on Aug 19, 2013 23:50:50 GMT -5
Wozniacki's best win of the year tonight! 2-6 3-1 ret. over Peng!
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Post by janie on Aug 20, 2013 19:21:43 GMT -5
Don't look now but big draw Hingis & her Slovak satellite just got crushed 36 16 by Even-Older-than-Hingis Cara Black and V King. Hey, Martina, wake up! IT'S. NOT. WORKING.
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Post by Pamela Shriver on Aug 20, 2013 19:33:53 GMT -5
I mean, that's going to be a tough team to beat anyway, but rough score.
I haven't seen them play together during Hingis' comeback, so I don't really know what the problem is. I doubt Hingis' level has gotten THAT bad, though I've heard that the serve is pretty horrible. I hope she tries to give it a go with a different partner before she calls it quits again. The chemistry might just be off.
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Post by janie on Aug 20, 2013 19:58:50 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't want to see her give up quickly, either. But I think it's probably been kind of a shock to her to be faring so poorly week after week. Not her image of herself as The Queen at all. Why not hire someone to help her with her serve if it's such a liability?
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Post by Pamela Shriver on Aug 20, 2013 20:15:24 GMT -5
Why not hire someone to help her with her serve if it's such a liability? You could have asked that same question in 2001. |
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Post by janie on Aug 21, 2013 10:09:19 GMT -5
I don't know. I remember her somehow holding serve quite a lot despite that serve's appearance.
Anyway I don't think her comments after last night's match sound very promising for a lengthy 3rd SEWTA career:
" ... you have to be so hungry and really want it. Sometimes my life is right now my problem. When I have those matches when you get down and don’t play well, (I think) my life is so comfortable at home, you have the comfort zone, why would you want to suffer and put yourself in that pain?”
I just think she came back expecting it to be easy. If it's not going to be so easy, she'll be outtahere, maybe even after the USO.
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Post by Grarliner on Aug 21, 2013 22:14:18 GMT -5
I don't know. I remember her somehow holding serve quite a lot despite that serve's appearance. Anyway I don't think her comments after last night's match sound very promising for a lengthy 3rd SEWTA career: " ... you have to be so hungry and really want it. Sometimes my life is right now my problem. When I have those matches when you get down and don’t play well, (I think) my life is so comfortable at home, you have the comfort zone, why would you want to suffer and put yourself in that pain?”I just think she came back expecting it to be easy. If it's not going to be so easy, she'll be outtahere, maybe even after the USO. I believe you have read the situation right. Martina has always been like this. She expects to be the best, but I have always thought she expected to be there on talent. When the going gets tough, she quits, as she has twice already. |
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Post by Grarliner on Aug 21, 2013 22:15:38 GMT -5
Woz-Stephens in one of the QFs, about as close to Hurley and Lex's Armageddon match as can exist.
I like some of the other matches. Makarova v. Halep, Vesnina v. ... someone I can no longer recall, but I thought it was refreshing at the time!
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Post by Lady on Aug 22, 2013 1:31:21 GMT -5
Did Petra lose? I guess I need to check that.
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Post by lexpretend on Aug 22, 2013 3:40:25 GMT -5
Shitra has struggled through three-setters against Beck and Riske, and will now lose 1 and 1 to Chunkova. Someone at TF coined AID, Always In Doubt, to describe her matches these days.
Is Errani injured? I remember reading something to that effect from Cincy. Anyway, she lost to Makarova, top two seeds both lost their openers.
Yuck, Wozniacki could well win this. I wonder if the New Halep has improved enough to take her out...
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Post by lexpretend on Aug 22, 2013 4:21:07 GMT -5
That was Shitra's 29th three-setter of the year, btw.
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Post by Old Hag on Aug 22, 2013 10:59:37 GMT -5
Goerges is such a terrible player. She's more worthy of hate than Stosur.
I'm done watching tennis this week.
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Post by lexpretend on Aug 22, 2013 17:06:07 GMT -5
A wise decision. Pavlyuchenkova just lost to Shitra by serving her 10th DF of the match on MP. The second serve was closer to the baseline.
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Post by janie on Aug 22, 2013 17:34:24 GMT -5
Oh, Petra! Wearing herself out in no-account New Haven.
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Post by lexpretend on Aug 23, 2013 2:35:47 GMT -5
LOL, Sloane can't even beat Wozniacki  |
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, Stephens moves into the New Haven Open main draw and will be the third-highest ranked American in the field. The 19-year-old from Florida has had a breakout year in 2012, reaching the fourth round of the French Open and the third round at Wimbledon. She currently sits at her career-high ranking of No. 49 in the world. This will be Stephens’ first appearance in the main draw of the New Haven Open.
