Saturday, September 1, 2007

Phenoms gone wild

Though everyone is talking about Agnieszka Radwanska's defeat of defending champion Maria Sharapova, it should also be mentioned that three other hot young players, Tamira Paszek, Victoria Azarenka, and Agnes Szavay, also moved to the round of 16 today by defeating Patty Schnyder, Martina Hingis, and Nadia Petrova, respectively. Petrova experienced a hip strain during her match, which, of course, didn't help. Hingis won only one set, and Schnyder was in a closely contested three-setter in which she got run over in the third set tiebreak.

Ukrainian player Julia Vakulenko moves on, with a defeat of Maria Kirilenko. Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues, and Anna Chakvetadze took out one of the season's hottest players, Sania Mirza. The night match was a messy thriller between Nicole Vaidisova, who has been out since Wimbledon with a viral illness, and Shahar Peer. Peer has developed a more aggressive game, which she needed, but her serve let down over and over; it will have to improve for her to go much farther. She won the match, however, on her fourth match point. Final score: Peer def. Vaidisova, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6

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