Dulko is probably only here thanks to the rain which halted the momentum of Sara Errani in their opening round encounter. The Argentine overcame a sluggish second set and beginning of the third to win a marathon 3 and a half hour match on an outside court. The Argentine made 70 unforced errors to accompany only 22 winners, but her relentless pressure on Errani's second ball (won 61%) as well as a bit more experience proved the slightest of differences in the end. Meanwhile, Alize Cornet was thrilling a big crowd who are expecting big things from this young French talent, overcoming big-hitting danger Julia Vakulenko 7-5 6-4. Cornet staved off 4 of the 5 bp's she faced, and won 69% behind the first delivery. Most impressive was her ability to cover the court so well and turn defense into a more attacking positon and she hits the ball very sweetly from both wings. She looms as a real dark horse in this tournament and a big player of the future, and should have too much in the tank for the moonballer Dulko.
Nasty match , Cornet won the first set 6-0 and had a 2-0 lead in the second set and broke down , glad they called the play off yesterday because of darkness at 3-3 in the third set otherwise Dulko probably would win this match .
Dementieva struggled in the first two rounds but overcame a 0-4 2 breaks down start against Dulko in the previous round to wrap this one up in straight sets with 73 % won points on his first serve which is pretty impressive compared to 57 % for Peer in her tough 3 setter against Dinara Safina who fought with an injury in the third set and wasn't able to serve in the last games .
Both met at the Austrlian Open this year where Dementieva totally destoryed Shahar in 6-2 6-0 win for the russian . All in all I think Dementieva is a bad match up for Peer because she wont be able to take this one staying at the back of the court against a great mover like Elena who also has more power and hits very accurate down the lines .
If Dementieva doesn't fall back to her old days where she had over 10 double faults in most matches she will advance to the next round , things look good as she only made 9 of them so far , 3 in every match .
Another case of a tired player meeting an opponent with a lot of power aka Peer vs Dementieva yesterday . Radwanska had a very tight affair with S.Kuznetsova yesterday and this just cant go well . Radwanska spent 124 minutes in her match with Svetlana while Serena only needed 69 minutes to beat Mattek in straight sets . They met this year already on clay and Serena won 6-3 , 6-1 . Radwanska's second serve is way too weak and Serena will take full advantage off it with tons of return winners .
If you are not a chicken and ready to lay the paper do it in this match . Pennetta is on another level here and will prevail , very likely in two sets but this is WTA so I stick with moneyline .
Mafia tournament my friend , Errani was made a winner before tournament even started . Hammering her today at - 135 in the finals . BIG mistake on my part thinking it would be a fair match in the semis .