WTA YECs - Day 4
Only two of last night's matches were competitive -- and while it's understandable that Sharapova might want to save her energy for tonight's semifinal (and possibly tomorrow night's final), it's an insult to the paying fans and a violation of the tour rules to give less than your best effort. We'll never know for sure, of course, if she tanked or if she was just off and Petrova was playing well, but a lot of people who saw the match think she tanked, and I certainly thought she would have preferred to win it but didn't really care all that much. She's 18. That's pretty young to be jaded enough to be that calculating.
Pierce, on the other hand, fought her way back from a set down against Mauresmo, and Clijsters, having lost her first two matches, seemed to feel it was worth the effort stomping on Dementieva not to lose all three.
For tonight:
Mauresmo over Sharapova (why: well, Mauresmo has the kind of varied game and low slices that trouble Sharapova, and she doesn't seem to get as nerve-wracked at the YECs as at the Grand Slams. But mostly it's wishful: I'm tired of Sharapova's antics, and I'm therefore making an irrational prediction.)
I was going to pick Davenport for the final, and then discovered that I had the semis backwards, and Eurosport joined the match for the second set tiebreak, which is poor service after a week of all-night live coverage. Pierce is just having a wonderful run.
The appalling YEC Web site (don't go there unless you love Flash) deserves special censure for making it impossible for anyone to understand the closing stages of the round robin. Many of the TV commentators and fans were confused by what the players had to do to win their groups, and this was entirely because the information about how the standings are calculated and when and whether the sets (or the head-to-heads) count is simply not there. Who ever heard of a major competition where the basic information about SCORING was unavailable? This is ridiculous. It's a *terrible* way to market the sport, utterly alienates fans, and displays contempt for all involved. The clear implication is that the event's promoters think nothing matters except who's playing. Get rid of these idiots and let them put on exhibitions instead of ruining fan interest in what ought to be one of the five biggest events of the tennis year on the women's side.
Shame ratings of the day:
Sharapova: 1
WTA Tour, for the YEC Web site: 4 (well, it *is* only a Web site)
Eurosport, for skipping almost all of the first semi: 3.
wg