Maria and Serena
True, Masha and Serena still need to live to see them. Sharapova must first pass Williams older sister. Venus, who upset Maria at their last meeting at Wimbledon 2005, seems to be in good shape. The proof of this is her recent victory at the tournament in Memphis, where Venus defeated Shahar Piir in the final with an indecent score of 6: 1, 6: 1. Serena, if she does not show Australian tennis, complications are also possible. In the 3rd round, she will meet with the very Sibil Bammer, who already once this year drove Serena in Hobart. The second potential rival of Williams's younger sister is Lucy Safarova. Which is also not a gift, but on the contrary, the only tennis player to beat Justin Henin this season. But we still hope that the match will take place. After Australia, Serena was openly accused of using doping, and her suspicious absence from the tour after Australia due to the “cold” added fuel to the fire. So let Serena get at least to Masha, and there, we believe, will take place not just a match, but a rematch.
Maria and Svetlana
In the same half of the grid, we can witness the most interesting semifinal match between Sharapova and Kuznetsova. You don’t even know who to wish good luck. Sharapova must defend last year’s final, Kuznetsova’s last year’s title, and one of the Russians will definitely miss points. If you look at it from a rating point of view, then for Svetlana the semifinal is enough to maintain the third position in the rating: Amelie Moresmo recently suffered appendicitis, so she does not take part in the tournament. And Maria has a ghostly chance to return to first place in the ranking next week. The conditions are as follows: Sharapova needs to win the tournament, and Justin Henin - to get no further than the quarter-finals.
Maria and Justine
Unfortunately, Masha herself is deprived of the opportunity to resolve the issue of first place in person - a meeting with Justine is possible only in the final. However, others can play for Sharapova. Purely theoretically and very symbolically, Masha can be helped by Vera Zvonareva, who just took Sharapova off the throne last week. The second option is Daniela Hantuhova. After her victory in Indian Wells, Daniela said that the memories of her game in the victory for 2002 helped her to win. Maybe Daniela will remember at the same time how she beat Justin then? And in the quarter finals we will hope for Nadezhda Petrova. Moreover, last year's victory of Hope over Justine is still fresh in memory.
… other
Of course, it is impolite to pay so much attention to Maria Sharapova. But what can you do if she is the main "intriguer" here. The rest of the tennis players, of course, can and will certainly say a weighty word, but who is to blame that they stand aside from the main fight? Quite a black sheep at the tournament looks Kim Kleisters. Rather, not even Kim herself, but her projection. Kim herself is in full swing preparing for the wedding and for the last Wimbledon in her life. It is difficult to predict what to expect from the projection. If the creators put at least a pinch of the good old Kim into her, then neither the final nor the victory will be something unexpected for her.
Cañas case
In the male part of the tournament, all forecasts are made based on the fact that Federer lived, Federer is alive, Federer will live. This is the default setting. But any programs sometimes fail, as we saw last week. So why not dream up? Guillermo Cañas is again torn through qualifications, but he can’t get under the barrel to Federer. This place is occupied by Igor Andreev. Rather, we hope that it is to them. In order to continue Kanyas’s business, Andreev needs to beat Sam Querrey, who takes the 4th place in the round by the number of aces for the season, following the main “pitches” of the present by Lyubichich, Roddick and Karlovich. After passing the 4th “filed”, Andreev has a chance, if not to beat Federer, then at least win the set, as he did three years ago.
Just do it, Kolya
We will not consider the chances of Nikolai Davydenko in the alleged semifinal meeting with the same Federer, but Kolya is obliged to reach this semifinal. He promised to become the second in the champion race, but for now he takes only eleventh place. And in the main ranking, the struggle with Roddick and Gonzalez for the distribution of places inside the Top 5 is only heating up. Nikolay’s net is not bad: before the quarter-finals he has the most serious opponent Tomas Berdykh, the score of meetings with which in Davydenko’s favor is 5-0. But for reaching the semifinals will have to seriously compete, most likely with Lyubichich. The Croat, who won the last three matches against Davydenko, needs to save blood from his nose with at least some points received for last year’s final. In fact, Nicholas on the spring hard in America, the results are traditionally unimportant - a maximum of the 4th round. But someday you need to start, Kolya.
American Pie
In the other half of the men's net, I would like to live to see the Russian-American confrontation a la Davis Cup. Tursunov can try to defeat Roddick now on hard. Even with a score of 17:15. But, unfortunately, this is not the Davis Cup, and even if Tursunov wins, which is unlikely, Safin will still have to play with James Blake in full force. But to the Americans, again, it is necessary to survive. Take the same Safin. On the one hand, for him Nicholas Massu is not a god knows what a rival is. And on the other hand, who was Nicholas May, whom Safin lost last week? Tursunov’s situation is not much better, given the recent brush injury: first the unpredictable Montfils, then Ferrer is stubborn.
South and Nadal
The box office promises to break all the records for the box office “South - Nadal. Part 3 ". The draw regularly throws them to each other, apparently in order to please the advertisers to increase the ratings of broadcasts. If earlier they used to say “Nadal is again at the South”, now it can be said that Nadal is at the South. Nadal, the second racket of the world, is strictly forbidden to lose to anyone for the third time in a row. So they can also impeach. We look forward to this meeting. Let the fittest win, and we will know his name.
Ksenia VITRYAK