Here's the women's draw. Venus landed at the bottom of Mauresmo's quarter of the draw and so did 14th seed Dinara Safina. Other trouble spots: a newly brunette Tatiana Golovin and Ana Ivanovic who's already beaten Amelie this year. Michaela Krajicek, who's still having a great week in Nottingham, is a potential 2nd round match up for Mauresmo.
Sharapova's section looks pretty straightforward until Dementieva in the quarters, though Schiavone, Sania Mirza, and Danilidou, who made the semis at the Ordina Open, could add some spice.
Hingis, Hantuchova, Jamea Jackson and Patty Schnyder are in Justine Henin-Hardenne's section of the draw. Will be interesting to see if Hingis can reach the massive roadblock that is Justine.
At the bottom of the draw, there are a few threats between #5 seed Kuznetsova and #2 seed Kim Clijsters: Vaidisova, Na Li and Kirilenko.
News: Petrova's pulled out with her lingering groin injury from the French.
What a horrible draw for Amelie, starting from the second round itself! Luckily for Amelie though, she can face only either Dinara or Ana in the 4th round, not both. But still --Venus in the quarters? If both Amelie and Venus are on form, that could be THE match of the tournie, since they haven't ever played on grass before. *Sigh* I guess this is her reward for being the #1 seed: Venus in the quarters.
Posted by: momofan | June 23, 2006 at 08:59 AM
Amelie and Venus have never met on grass??!?!!??! WOW. Here's to hoping they both make it.
Posted by: federated | June 23, 2006 at 09:06 AM
i definitely want to see that match. i hope mauresmo wins it but i bet it'll be spectacular either way.
Posted by: ancicfan | June 23, 2006 at 10:38 AM
This draw is oddly similar to the RG draw a few weeks ago.
They really stuck it to the #1 seeds this year in terms of nasty draws. I would love to see Mauresmo get through her section but she's got more roadblocks in her way then Maria and Venus do in theirs.
Unless Maria suffers another shock upset, I see a repeat of last year's semi between Maria and Venus. With her draw, if Maria loses before the quarters she really needs to sit down and re-evaluate her game.
Once again, just like in Paris, Henin-Hardenne, Hingis, and Clijsters are all on the other side. I expect one of those three to be in the finals.
Posted by: Ally | June 23, 2006 at 10:47 AM
Yeah, Venus and Mauresmo always manage to have really spectacular (non-GS) matches, which usually go the distance. As much as I want Momo to win, though, she really has a tough draw. I mean, she has got to get her bu** into shape from Round 2 itself if she wants to be "match-tough" enough to play Venus well. Here's to hoping that playing doubles with Sveta at Eastbourne this week helped her sort out any of the "kinks" in her game...
Posted by: momofan | June 23, 2006 at 10:53 AM