11/21/24
September 10, 2005
Clijsters wins U.S. Open for first Grand Slam: Belgian routs Pierce 6-3, 6-1 to capture U.S. Open. So where did the Russians go?
I'm but the messenger bill =)
posted by justgary at 11:37 PM on September 10, 2005
Yay her. She's been good enough for long enough that I hope this puts her over the "best-never" hump and she wins a few more.
posted by chicobangs at 04:54 AM on September 11, 2005
As to where the Russians went, Sharapova's still learning how to deal with her height, Dementieva needs a second serve, Myskina -- well, I have a soft spot for her, but realistically she's top-five good, not top-one, and Kuznetsova & Petrova are all around the goal of GS success, and they could easily figure it out any week in the next couple of years. Give it time. A few of them got a little lucky last year. Now they have to get good, as a group as well as individually. One of them, at least, will step up.
posted by chicobangs at 05:07 AM on September 11, 2005
Last year's women's Open was a sad disappointment; this year was pretty damn good. I really wanted Mary Pierce to get it, but it wasn't her night (didja see her take out Dementieva, though? That was lovely). And Clijsters has just gotten a lot better. I called her a bang-board but she's better than that; she took some risks and had the stuff to back it up. Good on her. Now for the men -- let's go Andre!!!!
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:30 AM on September 11, 2005
Hey, can someone who knows about tennis politics explain the Mary Pierce controversy to me? I was watching her match with Dementieva, and Mary Carillo was apoplectic about Pierce's gamesmanship and was grumbling about the women's game today and how Chris and Martina didn't play like this, etc. From what I can tell, Pierce took as many injury and bathroom timeouts as she could, and Carillo seemed to think that they were unnecessary.
posted by pooch at 10:16 AM on September 12, 2005
Dementieva said the same. And so did John McEnroe's little bro, Patrick. It was essentially, "It's legal, sure, but it was pretty slimy. The association needs to cut the timeout down to three minutes." Not having watched the match and not knowing how long it took, I'd have to say, hey, Dementieva is hot.
posted by worldcup2002 at 11:35 AM on September 12, 2005
Pierce took both injury time outs at the same time, which are 5 minutes each. This was combined with the switch of sides, which is alotted 2 minutes. Pierce took a total of 12 minutes. Ice her opponent. Within the rules. Shady as hell. Especially with her being evasive when questioned directly about her "injuries". Suffice it to say, Dementieva is hot. I don't really know about politics, I just caught the specifics.
posted by garfield at 02:45 PM on September 12, 2005
SI's Jon Wertheim mentioned that he'd like to see more players apply the "play at the server's pace" rule, meaning they can serve when they please, even if the other player is busy toweling off their face for 45 seconds between points. Sounds fine to me. That wouldn't solve the injury timeout gamesmanship tactic, though, which seems like the sort of thing a wily vet does to a Russian hottie.
posted by Uncle Toby at 08:30 PM on September 12, 2005
Um, first title at a Grand Slam event, not an actual Grand Slam as in all four majors in one year or facsimile thereof. To be legalistic-like.