A Little Night of Tennis - Wimbledon Day 7

Maria Sharapova vs. Flavia Pennetta

It's all a mental game. When it boils down to the deuces, do you have the will power and the mental attitude to close it? When you're down 3-5, with your opponent serving for the match, do you have it in you to go on and break her? Pennetta definitely has the skill and the will to win, and the crowd loves her for it, cheering her all the way. She chases down all the balls, and generally makes Sharapova works hard for the points. Good control of the ball. You can see (and hear) Sharapova having a hard time dealing with the tenacious Pennetta. Down to the last point, it's still a deuce, which Sharapova eventually won 7-6 3-6 6-3.


Li Na vs. Nicole Vaidisova

China's no. 1 vs. Czech's no. 1. Not really exciting to watch. It's all about the service. Either you can return it or not. No long rallies in this match.

Li Na is supposedly good, but from the 3rd set on, you can see she's really struggling. And the background noises are just crazy: the car alarms, the beepers, planes taking off or landing, the cheering from other courts, the police sirens, etc. The girls have 9 aces each; 27 unforced errors for Li Na and 29 for Vaidisova.

The 27th-seed Li Na manage to win over 10th-seed Vaidisova (who looks very similar to Sharapova from afar) 4-6 6-1 6-3. In an earlier match, Li Na also won over 5th-seed Kuznetsova. That girl's on a roll.


Daniela Hantuchova vs. Justine Henin-Hardenne

It's too bad what's happening to Hantuchova. She has the potential to be great, but she keeps missing her opportunities. Even before Sharapova, I've already heard of Hantuchova. Definitely one of the good reasons to watch women's tennis.

Matched against Hardenne, you'd think her height advantage would help her, but it didn't. Hardene's just too powerful for the graceful Slovak. You can be as graceful and cute as you can be, but those things don't count on the court. Hardene won the match 6-3 6-1 in just 65 minutes.