TENNIS NEWS FROM GLOBAL CHICK WHO WAS BUSY CHECKING OUT THE SAN ANDREAS FAULT & LOCAL DATE TREES

Written by: Global Chick on 18th March 2015

TENNIS NEWS FROM GLOBAL CHICK WHO WAS BUSY CHECKING OUT THE SAN ANDREAS FAULT & LOCAL DATE TREES

epa04668789 Serena Williams of the US in action during her quarter-final match against Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, USA, 18 March 2015. EPA/DANIEL MURPHY |

Global Chick – Back in Action

When in Rome, eat Pizza, and when in California, this global chick learned that a Californian Burger has avocado and Swiss cheese. Useful stuff!

Meanwhile – she goes away for a few days and big names fall hither and thither! It was farewell to Maria Sharapova and Eugenie Bouchard, but here’s who we’re looking forward to seeing – Jelena Jankovic, one of the most endearingly crazy, funny gals on the tour.

From charming the good folks of Wimbledon on her way to a mixed doubles title (and when you saw back in the day how allergic she was to the net) to cracking all of us up in press trying to imitate a Californian accent, above all else it is great to see her back and playing some good tennis.

She is a classic counterpuncher and at her best crafts great tennis. At her worst though, she entertains us with dark Baltic oaths and most times manages to laugh at herself in press, but with this her best run since last year in Cincinnati, we get the feeling the disappointment if she doesn’t nail qualifier Lesia Tsurenko will be deep. Although to be fair, Tsurenko has enjoyed a fantastic run and both would be worthy winners.

Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland in action during her quarter-final match against Serena Williams of the US at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, USA, 18 March 2015. EPA/PAUL BUCK

Serena Williams continued her passage through the draw, finally bringing Timea Bacsinszky’s winning streak to an end but she was pushed hard by the Swiss in the first set. Let’s face it, it is normally Serena who carries forward impressive winning streaks and was at 14 coming into the match, but the Swiss Miss was at 15, picking up back to back titles in Acapulco and Monterrey. She has been under the watchful eye of a certain Mr. Federer who of course has been maybe a bit closer to her career, actually calling her come-back from three horrendous years of injury as ‘unbelievable.’

He said: “I never thought she was going to get this high, but she has great potential, and I’m so happy for her now.

“She gets the reward of playing Serena here on center court, which I’m sure she’s going to take it all in, because that’s the kind of girl she is. She likes these occasions. I wish her well for the season now, because I think she finished the season outside of top 200 last year maybe or in ’13, and now she’s in the top 30, top 20 almost. It’s unbelievable story actually.”

However, not all was fluffy and indeed resurgent in the world of tennis today – the news that Wayne Odesnik has announced his retirement from the sport as he gets handed a ban for a second doping infraction leaves a nasty taste.

Not surprisingly, nobody feels any kind of sympathy for him, with Andy Murray tweeting “good riddance,” and backing that up with the fact that he was actually tested positive from two different samples, which makes it three infractions. To paraphrase from the Importance of Being Earnest: To be suspended once may be regarded as (deserved) misfortune; to be suspended for 15 years… looks like just desserts to pretty much everyone!

Andy Murray of Great Britain reacts after winning match point during his fourth round match against Adrian Mannarino of France at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, USA, 18 March 2015. EPA/PAUL BUCK

Murray said: “If you were to cheat once, I don’t know why on earth you would do it again. You know, I think the thing that’s also disappointing is you hear, like, Oh, I have learned from my mistake, blah, blah, blah, blah.

“But, you know, he’s been linked to a number of people that have been involved in doping presently and in the past and surrounded himself with those people, so I can’t say I’m surprised. To have three separate issues is ridiculous. It’s good that he’s off the tour now.”

Nadal was somewhat surprised to be asked about this after his win over Gilles Simon but agreed, saying: “Obviously when that happens twice, you don’t deserve to be on the tour.”

Rafael Nadal of Spain in action during his fourth round match against Gilles Simon of France at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, USA, 18 March 2015. EPA/DANIEL MURPHY

Federer echoed this when asked, saying: “Players and athletes should know if they cheat, they get caught, I guess. That’s the moral of the story here. I didn’t know him at all, personally, to be quite honest. But I’m all for a clean sport, and that’s why you’ve got to catch those guys who don’t do the things they are supposed to be doing.”

Roger Federer of Switzerland in action during his fourth round match against Jack Sock of the US at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, USA, 18 March 2015. EPA/PAUL BUCK

But we have really given him way more paragraphs than he deserves, as we get into quick turnaround now for our ball-clubbing stars. We’re all about the quarter-finals on Thursday, and with Bernard Tomic also making a pretty remarkable come-back, we’re going to pop out into Stadium land and watch home hope John Isner against World No. 1, defending champion and all round good daddy egg Novak Djokovic battle for pride of place in Thursday’s night schedule.

Topics: Andy Murray, BNP Paribas Open, global chick, Indian Wells, Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Tennis, Timea Bacsinszky

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10sBalls_com says:

March 18, 2015 at 10:45 pm

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