Yep. Our remaining lasses will fight it out in an effort to become quarter-finalists. Here are our match previews (images courtesy of http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/):
Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain) v Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spain) 21
This has to be the first match since the Martinez-Vicario days that two Spaniards have fought each other so late on in a Grand Slam event. The first match on the Hisense Arena has promise, though both can play hot and cold tennis. For our pick we will go for Suarez Navarro because her game is something that Anabel may struggle with, and of course she didn't put out Venus for fun, you know.
Scoreline: 6-4, 6-4 to Suarez Navarro
Elena Dementieva (Russia) 4 v Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) 18
Following on Hisense is this match. By taking one glance at their games, you would predict that Dementieva, the more powerful of the two, would walk it, but we feel this match could go far. Dementieva has had two difficult matches so far, and we feel her patience might snap at Cibulkova, the baseline slugger. However, we very much doubt this outcome.
Scoreline: 7-5, 6-1 to Dementieva
Jie Zheng (China) 22 v Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) 8
The third match on the Hisense Arena. This match-up is so close. Zheng is seeded 22nd but is playing so much better than what her ranking suggests. Kuznetsova is the better player, and if she can make a majority of her shots in she will win, but that is a big ask when it comes to her. We are pretty sure it won't be like their first meeting in 2006, when Kuznetsova won 6-0, 6-1 in Doha.
Scoreline: 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 to Kuznetsova
Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) 13 v Serena Williams (USA) 2
The only women's match on the RLA today and it looks very, VERY promising. We can establish that Serena is not in her best shape right now as her matches so far have been shaky and her shambolic performance against Dementieva in Sydney raised questions about whether she can still fight for more than two sets. Azarenka wil be a step up from her previous opponents in the draw, and we think that unless Serena is in inspired form, it will be tough.
Scoreline: 4-6, 6-3, 8-6 - Williams
I wonder if our Murray discussion put him off......just joking, of course......:)
ReplyDeleteHahaha. Thanks for becoming our only commenting visitor so far, much appreciated. :) My predictions about the results were spot on, shame about the scorelines.
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