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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

I Think I've Seen You Somewhere


(clockwise from upper left: Kvitova, Pironkova, Svonareva)
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Petra Kvitova, Vera Svonareva and Tsvetana Pironkova. Ever heard of these women? Do their names ring a bell? Probably not, but you're looking at three of the four semi-finalists at Wimbledon 2010. On the women's side, it's one of those weird years in which all the top players, Venus Williams, Cljisters, Henin, Sharapova, Jankovic, were defeated, and three almost virtual unknowns made it to the end.
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The 25 year-old Russian, Svonareva, is the best known of the three, already having had some success in the women's game; she made it to the semi-finals of the Australian Open in 2009, and she's currently ranked 21st in the world. But the other two came out of nowhere. Bulgarian Pironkova, ranked 81st in the world, has never made it past the 2nd Round of a Grand Slam. She was given almost no chance against 5-time Wimbledon champ, Venus Williams, in their quarterfinal match today, but Pironkova played a brilliant tactical game. She gave the power hitter Williams absolutely no power, lobbing soft ground strokes at her the entire match, which unsettled the American, never letting her find her footing in the match. Kvitova, the 21 year-old Czech is ranked 62 in the world and has never before been past the 4th round of a Grand Slam.
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But guess who's waiting in the wings for these three lucky gals? World #1 and the player with the fastest serve in the women's game, Serena Williams. Why don't we just end the women's championship today and hand Serena her 14th Grand Slam title?

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