Serena Williams Out of Australian Open; Nadal Still In
Two top-seeded tennis players gave convincing shows in the Australian Open quarterfinals to put themselves in a position for a shot at the championship.
No. 3 seed Jelena Jankovic dispatched No. 7 seed Serena Williams in straight sets (6-3, 6-4) to move on to the semi-finals. I watched this match on the tube and Williams shot herself in the foot, committing 36 errors to Jankovic’s 17 as well as winning only 25% of her second serves.
Serena was playing so strongly earlier on in the tournament but Jankovic has played her way into fine form. I like her style of play outside of two things: her weak serve and her continual lunging in the wrong direction when her opponent rockets a ball across court. Jankovic’s serve needs more pop - needs more…more - something anyway. And I think Jankovic doesn’t need to guess every time her opponent has a wide open court to shoot at. Jankovic is quick enough and has enough defensive skill to get some of those balls back if she wouldn’t panic. But - I desist. Jankovic has a nice game, but I don’t know that she can make it through Justine Henin (or Maria Sharapova should the unwanted happen…I apologize Sharapova-shiners, I just can’t make myself enjoy her person or game at all).
And how about Rafael Nadal? I haven’t watched him play in eons, and I guess I had forgotten how much I enjoyed his game. He’s so athletic and so nimble and quick on defense and so….sweaty.
But I’ll forgive him that last point…and his ritual habit of yanking his underwear out of his butt before every serve.
I haven’t sent love Rafa’s way for a long time, and today showed me the error of my ways. Nadal sent Jarkko Nieminen packing in straight sets, punctuated with jump overheads, fist pumps and the ever-present groaning. Or moaning - sometimes it sounds like lamaze breathing gone horribly wrong.
Nadal will face either Mikhail Youzhny or the only unseeded player left in the men’s draw, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Nadal has never made it past the quarters in a hard court Slam so he’s making personal history when he steps on to the b-lue courts in Melbourne. I also heard one of the Aussie Open’s announcers say, should Nadal find himself in the final against Roger, the Spaniard stood a decent chance.
Whether the answer to that is yay or nay, in the meantime, we can all tune in to Nadal’s semi match and learn just how not to lamaze it up.
Tags: Australian Open, Jelena Jankovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Serena-Williams, tennisRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Australian Open, Jelena Jankovic, Rafael Nadal, The Williams Sisters
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