Roland Garros
Singles – Fourth Round: (2) Maria Sharapova def. Klara Zakopalova 6-4 6-7(5-7) 6-2
Much harder than we would have expected — it took more than three hours — but Maria Sharapova keeps her hopes for #1 alive; more details in the Feature. Klara Zakopalova will be around #35.
Singles – Fourth Round: (4) Petra Kvitova def. Varvara Lepchenko 6-2 6-1
Petra Kvitova continues her Jekyll-and-Hyde act, with this clearly being a Jekyll day. She leaves Varvara Lepchenko just below the Top Fifty.
Singles – Fourth Round: (Q) Yaroslava Shvedova def. (7) Li Na 3-6 6-2 6-0
Most potential upsets have a stage, some time late in the match, where the lowly newcomer looks at the fact that she is about to score a really big win — and, suddenly, she isn’t about to score such a really big win any more. But, as a staffer pointed out, Yaroslava Shvedova has won doubles Slams. It seemed as if she didn’t have that nervous moment. She just kept on.
This is biggest singles result for her ever. She more than doubles her points. #142 coming in, she is now just below the Top Sixty.
Li Na was, of course, last year’s champion. She will be falling to #10 or #11. Considering what her second half of 2011 was like, it’s rather impressive that she will stay even that high.
Singles – Fourth Round: (23) Kaia Kanepi def. Arantxa Rus 6-1 4-6 6-0
Kaia Kanepi suddenly finds herself all the way up to #15 in safe points. Whether she will stay there depends on how Sara Errani does, but still, she should be at least #16.
Doubles – Quarterfinal: (12) Llagostera Vives/Martinez Sanchez def. (14) Gajdosova/Rodionova 6-2 6-3
Hard to believe these two potential Olympic teams were seeded so close together. It’s surprising how little good this does the Spaniards, though. Nuria Llagostera Vives is edging toward the Top Fifteen, but won’t make the Top Ten even with a title.
Doubles – Quarterfinal: (4) Errani/Vinci def. (6) Makarova/Vesnina 6-4 5-7 6-4
This is the third time in a month that these two teams have met in the late stages of a high-tier event, and Errani/Vinci have won all three. Ekaterina Makarova adds points but falls short of the Top Fifteen; Elena Vesnina, because she was defending finalist points, will fall to the bottom of the Top Ten; Errani/Vinci still have their chances to reach #3/#4. The Top Ten currently looks like this:
1..(1) HUBER …………. 9590
2..(1) RAYMOND ……….. 9590
3..(3) PESCHKE ……….. 7305*
4..(4) SREBOTNIK ……… 7305*
5..(8) ERRANI ………….6840*
6..(9) VINCI …………. 6840*
7..(5) SHVEDOVA ………..6155*
8..(6) KING ……………6115*
9..(7) VESNINA ……….. 5450
10.(12) KIRILENKO ……… 5290*
Mixed Doubles – Quarterfinal: (7) Mirza/Bhupathi def. (2) Peschke/M Bryan 6-2 6-3
This is one of those matches where we frankly thought Mixed rankings would fail. After all, Mirza/Bhupathi would have been promoted to #5 under Mixed rankings, and Peschke/Bryan demoted to unseeded. But we thought that was because Mike Bryan hasn’t played much Mixed lately. Maybe we need to take those numbers more seriously.
Mixed Doubles – Quarterfinal: Jans-Ignacik/S Gonzalez def. Grandin/Hanley 6-4 3-6 10-5 (Match TB)
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