Montreal 2010: Sunshine Shines

In Montreal, Sunshine broke through today to win her third tourney victory of the year.

Sveta, her semifinal opponent, could neither break Caro's serve nor keep enough balls in court to prevent herself from donating the match to her.

Bepa was ... Bepa.

Cincinnati 2010: Federer Defends His Title

Federer showed real fight today to beat a slimmer and faster Fish (67[5] 76[1] 64), yelling "C'mon" at key points in the match. He now ties Agassi with 17 Master's Series titles, putting them at second behind Rafa. He is now fifth in total titles won in a career being one behind Sampras.

From the form he showed this week, he is looking to come forward more by chipping and charging on his return games. He is trying to open up the court more with a backhand down the line along with his favored inside-out (or in) forehand. It seems to me he has worked harder on hitting his shots on the run as can be seen from the first point in this highlight.



All of this can only bode well for their chances in New York for the US Open. Federer will be looking to win his 17th major when he had the championship on his racquet last year (and with all due respect to Del Potro who deserved to win for hanging in there). Fish has had a very good summer hard court season, but it remains to be seen whether he has the mental toughness to go deeper in a major than a quarterfinal.

Sadly there is no news to report from the WTA in Montreal, as the semis haven't even been played yet, due to rain.

That said, on Saturday (which was also rained out), we got to see what good friends Sveta and Caro are as they showed off their skills:

Cincy and Montreal 2010

The ladies and the men swap locations. The men are in the sauna that's called Cincinnati, and the ladies go north of the border to Montreal.

Cincinnati

Up north in Canada, all of the top 4 made it to the semifinals. Last year the same suspects made it to the semis in humid Cincy instead of Montreal. So look for someone beside the top 4 to upset of them. Rafa is looking to fine tune his form on hard court to complete his coveted career slam. From his match against Muzz, Rafa needs to serve better and cut down on his backhand errors. This year he's been doing an outstanding job of hitting the flatter windshield wiper forehand to supplement his better known reverse forehand. With Rafa's determination, he can never be counted out. Fed's coaching experiment with Annacone is off to a great start as he beat Berdych the type of player who has given him trouble this past year (big tall ballbasher) and the Djoker to reascend to #2. Annacone looks like he is making Federer drive more returns, and risk using his topspin backhand to open up the court (sharp CC or down the line). If Fed can do that consistently, watch out for the return of Darth Federer! Muzz is going without a fulltime coach, and relying upon the advice of his hitting partner (Danny Valerdu) and his mum. It looks like Muzz has figured out what it means for him to be more aggressive: hit a spin forehand to angle his opponents off the court early in the point. Then use his speed & movement off either wing to hit another shot on the rise to put his opponents in an even worse position to set up a flat forehand into the open court. Out of the top 4 guys, the Djoker looks the most vulnerable to an upset, as his opponents know that if you force him to stay out there long enough, his fitness problems will tip him toward mental collapse.


Tourney Site: here

Draw: here

Seeds: Rafa, Djoker, Fed, Muzz, Sod, Playstation, Big Berd, Nando

Montreal

Lady JaJa is officially the #1 seed, but for any WTA pro not surnamed Williams, that's no sure thing. The buzz is around Shrieka and Mum Train who met in the finals in Cincy. One reason for the hard court prowess is that they can hit through the court, preventing counterpunchers like Lady JaJa, Caro, Aggie and Franny from extending points past their shot tolerance. While Bepa does play a counterpuncher's style, her results at Wimbledon show that she can murder the ball when she wants. Nails always tries to murder the ball but can't find the court (a bit too often).

Tourney Site: here

Draw: here

Seeds: Lady JaJa, Caro, Lena D, Mum Train, Franny, Aggie, Bepa, Nails