WTA YECs - Day 3
Last night decided the semifinalists, but tonight's matches are not completely meaningless. For the two winners in each group -- Davenport and Sharapova, Pierce and Mauresmo -- it determines their position in the final group standings and therefore determines who plays whom in the semis. (#1 from each group plays #2 from the other group).
I got three of the four semifinalists wrong. In retrospect, Sharapova was obvious (I went for Petrova), and Pierce should have been predictable also because she's done consistently so well since May (two GS finals, two tournament wins). Mauresmo was less easy to predict, but she had made up for her two early-round indoor losses by winning Philadelphia, and was primed and ready. Whereas, Dementieva was exhausted from the effort of qualifying for LA, and Petrova is not as consistent as the four who will go through (plus looked ill during the early part of last night's match). The real surprise was Clijsters, who won this event in 2002 and 2003 (DNP in 2004), and who seemed to carry all before her whenever she played this year. Clijsters has complained of being tired from jet lag, which I find baffling in such an experienced traveler. But it's another reason why LA is a bad choice of venue for the YECs -- the fall indoors circuit is all in Europe.
For the players who won't make the semis, the matches still matter in terms of ranking points (and money, if that matters now).
I'd expect things to wind up thusly tonight:
- Sharapova to defeat Petrova and wind up #1 in her group
- Clijsters to defeat Dementieva
- Pierce- /Mauresmo, any damn thing could happen. Pierce is playing the best tennis of her life, has her sights set on becoming #1, and historically has the better career. Pierce in three, despite Mauresmo's greater variety.
One of the interesting things about this round robin format, though, is that the final could see a replay of Davenport vs. Sharapova, which so far has been the best match of the tournament. (It pains me to say, since both are baseline bashers.)
.wg