Monday 4 June 2012

Day 9: Defending champion ousted

Shocker of the day, Li gets kicked out of the tournament by lowly ranked Yaroslava Shvedova!

4th round:
(2) Maria Sharapova def. Klara Zakopalova 6-4 6-7(5) 6-2
(4) Petra Kvitova def. Varvara Lepchenko 6-2 6-1
(Q) Yaroslava Shvedova def. (7) Li Na 3-6 6-2 6-0
(23) Kaia Kanepi def. Arantxa Rus 6-1 4-6 6-0

Shockers:

(Q) Yaroslava Shvedova def. (7) Li Na 3-6 6-2 6-0


Yikes! What a collapse by the defending champion. Leading a set and 2 all, she proceeded to lose the next 10 games. Even more surprising is that in almost all the 10 games she had chances to win them but squandered them all away. I know Li plays a high risk game but should she change something when the shots are not going in? Is there no plan B? I'm sure the vicious Chinese media will slaughter her for her spectacular fall here. Maybe it's better to not be weighed down by the expectations of billions of people. Yaroslava is obviously ecstatic with this result and it means she'll gain a lot main draw entry instead of going through the lower tier qualifying rounds.

(2) Maria Sharapova def. Klara Zakopalova 6-4 6-7(5) 6-2


I was wrong. Klara Zakopalova is such an unpredictable player. She's normally sulking and hitting the balls without any thought. Well, she was kind of normal yesterday. Just that her balls were going in, and at ferocious speeds. Maria took a fall on the damp conditions yesterday and seemed to have injured her right wrist. Thankfully, she was able to close out the match. Let's see how this will affect her in her next match against another big-hitter, Kaia Kanepi.

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