Tennis Prose




Apr/16

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Azarenka Zaps Kuznetsova to win Miami Open

sonyericsonVictoria Azarenka continued to show her red hot dominant form as she was too much for Svetlana Kuznetsova today with a decisive 63 63 in 77 minutes to win the Miami Open despite extreme heat conditions. It is Azarenka’s second title in Key Biscayne and the first WTA Indian Wells/Key Biscayne double win since Kim Clijsters eleven years ago. ‘She’s at the height of her game” said Kuznetsova after of Azarenka who did not lose a set all tournament. The brutal heat and the positioning of the sun caused serving troubles for both players. The ninth confrontation of these two former grand slam champions was another hard fought (ahem) highly vocal baseline duel but Azarenka earned early breaks in each set and despite some Kuznetsova resistance charged to her fourth straight win over the Russian though the last time these two played was three years ago. Azarenka now leads the head to head 5-4 overall now. WTA no 5 Azarenka has solidified her position as the leading threat to dethrone world no 1 Serena Williams perhaps this summer.

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19 comments

  • Andrew Miller · April 2, 2016 at 10:28 pm

    Thanks for writing on Azarenka! Great story and great to see her come back from oblivion.

    That Tignor article on Azarenka on tennis.com was great also and I appreciate Azarenka’s responding to Brad Gilbert regarding clay that if it wasn’t her favorite surface, she’d make it her favorite surface.

    That’s the kind of talk we’re missing from the tour. It’s been a lot of shrugging and so little of Azarenka’s refreshing attitude of “you think I’m bad on clay? I’ll show you!”. I think we have that in Kyrgios, like when his mom thought he wouldn’t beat Nadal.

    I’m convinced this matters. It matters when a journalist calls someone like Fish a journeyman and that it fuels Fish’s ambition, work ethic. It really does prove that a lot of players are coasting on their talent.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 2, 2016 at 10:53 pm

    Tennis proves a lot of people and a lot of players don’t always knows their limits – we just never really know —

  • Michael · April 3, 2016 at 2:18 am

    “It is Azarenka’s second title in Key Biscayne”

    I concede she’s an extremely unlikeable player but that doesn’t warrant stripping her of titles. Which did you remove: when she crushed Serena to win in 2009 or when she crushed Pova to win in 2011 ?

  • Dan Markowitz · April 3, 2016 at 6:55 am

    Please, yawn me to tears. Azarenka v Kuznetsova, who I thought was retired like five years. This is the state of the women’s game, an obnoxious albeit excellent ball striker, because really who can like Azarenka, I mean I like who she is off the court, on the court she tries to bully everyone, against the Kuz, I’m sorry, I just can’t wrap my head around this match. Where’s Ray Moore when you need him?

  • catherine bell · April 3, 2016 at 7:11 am

    Don’t want to agree with Dan but I have to insofar as we aren’t seeing much of a new generation being particularly inspiring – not compared to men’s game. No real marquee names.

    Seems something a bit wrong but I’ve no idea what it is.

    Serena’s going end of this year I would think. Big gap there on present form.

  • catherine bell · April 3, 2016 at 7:40 am

    PS to above – the women’s game to be crowd pulling for people who aren’t diehard fans has always needed one dominant player everyone wants to see. Not just the skill but the aura.

    My crystal ball can’t pick anyone.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 3, 2016 at 10:26 am

    Whoops forgot that one Harold –

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 3, 2016 at 10:30 am

    The top of the WTA food chain is definitely missing some pizzazz at the moment – I find the lesser players like Giorgi Diyas Su We Hsieh Hingza Vandeweghe Sloane Bouchard Keys Kasatkina to be more intriguing characters –

  • Harold · April 3, 2016 at 11:06 am

    Author comment by Scoop Malinowski · April 3, 2016 at 10:26 am

    Whoops forgot that one Harold –

    ?

  • Andrew Miller · April 3, 2016 at 2:36 pm

    Grunting legacy of Seles lives on in Vika etc. Dislike it, but nothing bad to say about Kuznetsovas ball striking ability. When she is on she is one of the best ball strikers in the game, the femme version of Baghdatis.

    Sadly the grunting is not my favorite. I like Vika for her toughness and Roddick like attitude of boldly saying she wants back in on the top of the game, something a lot of top ATP players say privately but rarely say publicly. There was something admirable about Roddicks quest and how he went into every slam with the intent to win it, unless it was the French Open. Same thing for Raonic.

    I don’t love how Raonic plays or that he is robotic in how he talks about tennis with commentators. But I appreciate he says he is in this to win slams. He puts out notice to the field of competitors. Sure the losses sting that much more. Bit there’s no ambiguity and he takes on the whole of the challenge.

  • Andrew Miller · April 3, 2016 at 5:29 pm

    DJOKOVIC WINS MIAMI. Overheard: “Other players set their sights on 2019”.

  • Bryan · April 3, 2016 at 6:17 pm

    It’s been great seeing Vika healthy and able to play her best. Serve still needs work but her BH and return of serve are on point. Also note she’s mixing up the power game with finesse. Her drop shots at key spots are helping keep opponents off balance.

    Clay season is up next. We’ll see how she moves during slide season.

  • Bryan · April 3, 2016 at 6:19 pm

    “I find the lesser players like Giorgi Diyas Su We Hsieh Hingza Vandeweghe Sloane Bouchard Keys Kasatkina to be more intriguing characters.”

    I really like watching Giorgi, Diyas and Kasatkina in particular. Plenty of good up and comers. My girl Elina is rising fast and Gibbs is regularly in the main draws now.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 3, 2016 at 7:55 pm

    Svitolina and Gibbsy are also interesting to see – Svitolina is a super fighter – Gibbsy was a sinking ship but she refused to give up and his a rising force –

  • Andrew Miller · April 3, 2016 at 9:50 pm

    Like the Pliskovas. If one of them doesn’t slam I’m convinced they will slam a doubles.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 4, 2016 at 8:35 am

    Regarding the Pliskovas – I was told the one sister (higher ranking) is fed up with the other twin (lower ranking) for basically underachieving –

  • Andrew Miller · April 4, 2016 at 11:35 am

    I like Pliskova the underachiever! Her game is a little less brute force than her sister the overachiever. They just belt the ball.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 4, 2016 at 1:33 pm

    Twins in tennis is always interesting how one could be clearly ahead of the other – fascinating story why one is better – were the Sanchez brothers twins also? Gullicksons were twins and pretty sure they were quite equal regarding results – Bryans Bros are pretty equal also –

  • Dan Markowitz · April 4, 2016 at 4:33 pm

    Sanchez bros were not twins, Emilio the oldest, was a better player than his younger bro. Bob Bryan was much better singles player than Mike.

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