Stosur Celebrates Her Top 10 Status (AP)
Organizers of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells must be breathing a little easier after seeing the women’s semifinal lineup today considering all of the early round losses from some of the big names on the WTA tour.
Each of the four players left know they have a golden opportunity not only to have a breakthrough title win, but perhaps a chance to get added to the list of stars who can go by one name only. Read More…
The women’s draw of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells has again been littered with early round exits of top stars and somewhat unknowns having breakthough events (Maria Martinez Sanchez for one). But the quality of play has been uneven and continues the growing concern that the WTA tour matches, on the whole, are not that exciting without a big name matchup i.e. Serena Williams, Justine Henin, etc.
That wasn’t the case when No. 2 seed Caroline Wozniacki took on the always feisty Zheng Jie in the quarterfinals yesterday. Surprisingly, Wozniacki had never defeated Zheng in two tries and for awhile it looked like the Chinese player, who took out Maria Sharapova earlier in the event, would find a way back into the match after she lost the first set and claimed the second. Read More…
In response to ongoing criticism from his comments made during the “Hit For Haiti” charity event at the BNP Paribas Open, Andre Agassi issued a video apology along with commenting yet again that he has reached out to Pete Sampras to set things straight. What appears to be lost in all the back and forth analysis of what was said by both players is the fact that the event was set up for controversy before it even started. Read More…
In the biggest win of his career, the charismatic and popular Marcos Baghdatis finally defeated after seven tries World No. 1 Roger Federer in a tight match in the third round of the BNP Paribas Tennis Championships at Indian Wells 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (4). Seemingly out of the match while facing two match points on his serve in the second set, Baghdatis stayed close with Federer to finally win his first ever match against a No. 1 player.
Although Baghdatis remained even with Federer during the match, it looked like the world No. 1 would take it after finding himself with two match points on the Cypriot’s serve. But a slew of unforced errors allowed Baghdatis to hang on and win the second set. In the third set, things stayed tight until Federer broke to go up 3-1, but on the next game, Baghdatis smoked a forehand down the line to get a break point while Federer dumped a volley into the net to get things back to 3-2. Read More…