The news of Venus Williams's dramatic defeat was greeted with gasps by the Centre Court crowd when it flashed up on the scoreboard but it was too late to spur Kim Clijsters to a recovery against Vera Zvonareva.
If anything, it only deepened her frustration. The Belgian eighth seed was by then 5-2 down in the third set after a bright opening had given way to a string of unforced errors and, minutes later, she was joining Williams through the exit door.
Appropriately, the match ended with yet another mistake by Clijsters as she netted a simple forehand to go down 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
"Disappointed," was how she described her feelings after missing out not just on her third semi-final appearance at Wimbledon but, with last year's runner-up out of the equation, her best chance of making it to the final.
"It's too bad I wasn't able to come up with my best at the important time in the match," said Clijsters. "She [Zvonareva] did. She was very consistent and didn't give me any easy mistakes. I gave her a few too many."
Zvonareva, the 21st seed, now advances to only the second Grand Slam semi-final of her career after making the last four at last year's Australian Open. She had never previously made it past the fourth round at Wimbledon.
The 25-year-old Russian's victory was a reward for her constant hard-hitting, making Clijsters work for her points throughout, though this was a match that was lost rather than won.
Clijsters looked in complete control in the opening set and even the tennis gods appeared to be on her side when two lucky net cords in the ninth game of the second set helped her cancel out Zvonareva's earlier break of serve.
But, serving to stay in the set, the nerves got the better of her as a missed forehand was compounded by two double-faults, allowing Zvonareva to square the match.
Thereafter, Clijsters was in mental meltdown, succumbing to mistake after mistake while her opponent stood firm. The statistics said it all – 14 unforced errors by Clijsters in the third set compared to her opponents' five.
It leaves Zvonareva just one match away from the final, though she will not be taking Tsvetana Pironkova lightly, having lost to her in Moscow last year.
"She's an all-over-the-court player," said the Russian. "It's hard to predict what she's doing."
Yet another disappointing performance. I think that's why I've always liked Martina Hingis better over the years she was always more consistent.
This match was definitely winable, but Clijsters suffered another one of her famous mental lapses, that coupled with plenty of unforced errors was a recipe for disaster.
It's too bad really with Venus out Kim had a real shot at the title.
Another opportunity lost. Another slam, another women's final I have no interest, or desire to watch.
Even if somehow one of the inexperienced young girls left gets lucky and actually beats Serena Williams I just don't care.
*Sigh*. I miss the days when women's finals were anticipated events (with plenty of exciting top ten players).
Oh, well. Once again on to the men I go.
No comments:
Post a Comment