How the Match Was Won– Live! Maria Sharapova vs. Venus Williams, Australian Open Round Three
And so, we’re finally here: the Sharapova-Venus match that everybody circled as a potential blockbuster third round match is finally upon us. I’m a little drained by the Janowicz-Almagro Liveblog, but I wasn’t going to let this match go by without a liveblog. Impossible is nothing! Here is the Head to Head between Venus and […]
Stats: Dishing Out Bagels at Slams
There has been a lot of talk recently about those nice baked goods we love to eat, and tennis players love to dish out (and avoid receiving): bagels. That got me thinking … how do the Big Four of the ATP compare against each other in terms of dishing out 6-0 sets to the opposition, specifically, how do they compare at Grand Slam events? And what do we see when we look at the WTA? My wife and I did some scavenging around on the ATP and WTA sites (the same task took us about four times longer on the WTA site, but that’s a rant for another day) and we found some interesting things. Let’s start!
Draw Back: Revisiting the Women’s 2008 Australian Open
Lindsay, Amy, and Juan José have a back and forth about Maria Sharapova’s dominating run down under at the 2008 Australian Open.
GIFs: 2012 Grand Slam And Olympics Celebrations
Relive every 2012 Grand Slam and Olympics Gold singles celebration moment in GIF form.
Breaking Down Azarenka, Sharapova, and Williams’ WTA Rankings by Surface
We know certain things about the WTA top three in 2012 — Victoria Azarenka was virtually unstoppable on hard courts, Maria Sharapova was unusually great on clay, and Serena Williams was undefeated on grass.
But we can take that one step further by examining the composition of their rankings. What percentage of their total ranking points was accumulated on each surface?
How the Match Was Won: Serena Williams def. Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-3
The Russian followed up her impressive performance against her frequent tormentor Victoria Azarenka on Saturday by playing at a very high level today. She served well, played some incredible defense at times, and even dared to send more than a few return winners past Serena. The eventual champion even applauded one of them at 30-0, 4-3 in the second set. The forehand down-the-line missile was that good.
Sharapova never looked defeated, and always gave it everything she had. She fought like a madwoman. Yet all she had to show for her troubles was seven games. She didn’t create a single break point on Serena’s serve, and only got to deuce once.
How the Match Was Won: Maria Sharapova def. Victoria Azarenka, 6-4, 6-2.
Maria Sharapova had not beaten Victoria Azarenka in over three years when the two have played on hardcourts. Here, see for yourself. Sharapova knew she had to come up with something special today, and she sure did.
We know that there isn’t much subtlety to Sharapova’s game. Today was no different: she focused on doing everything she always does (attack, attack and attack some more), and every weapon in her arsenal looked good in doing so. She served well, she hit her FH well (particularly inside-out), but most striking of all was her movement. Particularly her movement towards the net.
