Wimbledon 2006 Ladies' Singles Semi-Finals

Henin-Hardenne (3) vs Clijsters (2)

It's the all-Belgian show with the second-seed Clijsters vs. the third-seed Henin-Harden. For this, I'm rooting for Henin-Hardenne because I want to see a Mauresmo-Henin-Hardenne rematch, which was aborted during this year's Australian Open.

The girls are evenly-matched, although Justine looks a bit weak and short-of-breath. For some reason, she's not using her killer backhands that much. Instead, she opts to give them some slice, which tends to slow down the ball. In any case, the won the first set, and the second one went down to a tiebreaker. Nail-bitingly tense, if you ask me (and Justine's husband).

Justine won 6-4 7-6 (7-4).


Mauresmo (1) vs. Sharapova (4)

As I've mentioned, I'm favouring Mauresmo in this match because she and Justine have some unfinished business.

This is a very exciting match to watch because both girls have the muscle power to deliver some serious shots. Sharapova, however, has the added advantage of using her grunts and shrieks to unnerve her opponents and drive up her own confidence level. She started the game a bit shaky, which gave away the first set to Mauresmo. She got her back her groove in the second set, and made some spectacular shots. In a game with Sharapova, fear is your worst enemy. At the end of the second set, Mauresmo is running scared. Sharapova's serves were so powerful, Mauresmo is reduced to blocking them, instead of returning the service full-on. Sharapova fumbled a bit, but managed to nail set point #4.

Confidence is good, but too much of it is not. Sharapova got too aggressive and made too many unforced errors during the third set. All Mauresmo had to do is stay steady, and let Sharapova do all the work. Mauresmo won 6-3 3-6 6-2.