The US Open draw is out!

Hello, hello! Are you ready to see in who's part of the draw will be Davydenko? What are Sveta's chances to be in the final? The US Open draw is out, tennis lovers!

Women's singles

Jarmila Groth (AUS) v. Maria Sharapova (RUS) [14]
Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) [11] v. Kimiko Date Krumm (JPN)
Regina Kulikova (RUS) v. Anastasija Sevastova (LAT)
Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (CZE) v. Maria Kirilenko (RUS) [23]
Anna Chakvetadze (RUS) v. Urszula Radwanska (POL)
Jelena Jankovic (SRB) v. Simona Halep (ROU)
Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS) v. Yanina Wickmayer (BEL)
Andrea Petkovic (GER) v. Nadia Petrova (RUS) [17]
Alexandra Dulgheru (ROU) [25] v. Julie Coin (FRA)
Sofia Arvidsson (SWE) v. Sorana Cirstea (ROU)
Qualifier v. Vera Zvonareva (RUS) [7]
Vera Dushevina (RUS) v. Alona Bondarenko (UKR) [29]
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) [20] v. Kristina Barrois (GER)
Qualifier v. Ksenia Pervak (RUS)
Samantha Stosur (AUS) [5] v. Elena Vesnina (RUS)
Johanna Larsson (SWE) v. Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) [28]
Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) [24] v. Dinara Safina (RUS)
Olga Govortsova (BLR) v. Elena Dementieva (RUS) [12]
Marion Bartoli (FRA) [13] v. Edina Gallovits (ROU)
Ana Ivanovic (SRB) v. Ekaterina Makarova (RUS)

Men's singles

Rafael Nadal (ESP) [1] v. Teimuraz Gabashvili (RUS)
Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) [12] v. Andrey Golubev (KAZ)
Victor Hanescu (ROU) v. Carlos Berlocq (ARG)
Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) [6] v. Michael Russel (USA)
Igor Andreev (RUS) v. Horacio Zeballos (ARG)
Jurgen Melzer (AUT) [13] v. Dmitry Tursunov (RUS)

Women's doubles

Kristen Flipkens (BEL)/Jasmin Woehr (GER) v. Sorana Cirstea (ROU)/Lucie Safarova (CZE)
Michaella Krajicek (NED)/Marie-Eve Pelletier (CAN) v. Monica Niculescu (ROU) [13]/Shahar Peer (ISR) [13]
Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP) [3]/Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (ESP) [3] v. Alexandra Dulgheru (ROU)/Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK)
Edina Gallovits (ROU)/Klaudia Jans (POL) v. Natalie Grandin (RSA)/Abigail Spears (USA)
Sofia Arvidsson (SWE)/Johanna Larsson (SWE) v. Anna Chakvetadze (RUS)/Aleksandra Wozniak (CAN)
Hilary Barte (USA)/Lindsay Burdette (USA) v. Elena Vesnina (RUS) [14]/Vera Zvonareva (RUS) [14]
Cara Black (ZIM) [9]/Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) [9] v. Viktoria Azarenka (BLR)/Dinara Safina (RUS)
Arina Rodionova (RUS)/Olga Savchuk (UKR) v. Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS)/Darya Kustova (BLR)
Lauren Herring (USA)/Grace Min (USA) v. Dominika Cibulkova (SVK)/Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)
Vera Dushevina (RUS)/Sania Mirza (IND) v. Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) [11]/Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) [11]
Lisa Raymond (USA) [5]/Rennae Stubbs (AUS) [5] v. Maria Kondratieva (RUS)/Vladimira Uhlirova (CZE)
Kai-Chen Chang (TPE)/Raquel Kops-Jones (USA) v. Maria Kirilenko (RUS) [10]/Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) [10]
Julie Coin (FRA)/Alize Cornet (FRA) v. Liezel Huber (USA) [2]/Nadia Petrova (RUS) [2]

Men's doubles

Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)/Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) v. Sergyi Stakhovski (UKR)/Mikhail Youzhny (RUS)
Michael Russel (USA)/Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) v. Simon Aspelin (SWE) [14]/Paul Hanley (AUS) [14]
Kevin Anderson (RSA)/Victor Hanescu (ROU) v. Jurgen Melzer (AUT) [7]/Philipp Petzschner (GER) [7]
Robert Lindstedt (SWE) [13]/Horia Tecau (ROU) [13] v. Robby Ginepri (USA)/Ryan Sweeting (USA)
Juan Ignacio Chela (ARG)/Pablo Cuevas (URU) v. Teimuraz Gabashvili (RUS)/Feliciano Lopez (ESP)

Dinara Safina : Heart of a warrior

Even with an US Open doubles title and a French Open singles final, Dinara Safina started 2009 still as "Marat's little sister". With a burning desire of beeing known as "Dinara, the tennis player", she started to play another tennis, a champion's tennis. She had a strong start of the year, reaching the Australian Open final. Then she continued the good winnings, reaching the French Open final and the Wimbledon semifinals. The best results came on clay. Dinara won the title of two Premier tournaments, at Madrid and Rome. And all the work was crowned by achieving the 1st ranking, dethroning the current 'Queen of Tennis', Serena Williams. This way, she began to be known for her game too, not only for her last name. But a mix of injuries and inconsistent matches made her fall back to the 2nd position. At the US Open she dragged to the 3rd round, where she lost to an unknown Czech young girl, Petra Kvitova.

This year's start was not very bad for Dinara. She reached the 4th round at Australian Open, but she had to retire against Maria Kirilenko, due an old back injury. This was the beginning of a meltdown. After loosing in a few tournaments in the 1st or the 2nd round and being thrown on the 70th position, the saving competition appeared. At Rogers Cup she reached the 3rd round, winning two important matches, against Andrea Petkovic and the fellow Russian Nadia Petrova. In the 3rd round she faced the French Open champion, Francesca Schiavone. Just four days after this loss, Dinara got a chance for revenge against Francesca, in the first round at New Haven. She converted it. Her next opponent will be Daniela Hantuchova.

After a long hard year, Dinara Safina doesn't give up, fights like a warrior and scores victory over a 2010 Grand Slam champion. Her fans, including me, are waiting to see their favourite's next move, hoping she will follow the steps of her brother and mentor, Marat Safin.

Davai, Dinara!

US Open announces the 2010 seeds

In the gentlemen's competition, the top seed will be world's no.1, Rafael Nadal. In the ladies' competition, Caroline Wozniacki is the top seed in singles, in Serena's absence, while the en-titre champion Kim Clijsters will be the 2nd on the favourites list.

Returning to Romania and Russia, in the ladies' singles tournament, the best seeded is the Wimbledon finalist, Vera Zvonareva (7), followed by Svetlana Kuznetsova (11), Elena Dementieva (12), Maria Sharapova (14), Nadia Petrova (17), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (20), Maria Kirilenko (23), Alexandra Dulgheru (25) and Alisa Kleybanova (28).

In the men's singles competition, only Russia has players between the favourites: Nikolay Davydenko (6) and Mikhail Youzhny (12).

The Wimbledon draw will be out on August 26th.

Rain and stronger Kim beat Sharapova in Cincinnati

A year ago, Kim Clijsters made an electric return to professional tennis in Cincinnati, winning three matches before losing in the quarterfinals, against Dinara Safina. This week she returned to the $2,000,000 tournament and went all the way to the title, beating fellow former No.1 Maria Sharapova in a nail-biting final, saving three match points to claim the trophy, 2-6 7-6 6-2.


In the first half of the match, we had a clear image: Maria controlling the game, hitting winners from every part of the court and a confused Kim, hitting a lot of unforced errors and double faults. But a rain delay may have halted Sharapova's winning momentum, as Clijsters was right back in the match upon resumption, battling back to push the set to a tie-break then battling back from 0-3 there, taking the match to a third set and cruising to victory.

Clijsters became the first player to win three titles this year, already winning Brisbane and Miami. She improved to 4-0 in finals since coming back last summer, taking the US Open last year. She is now 38-17 in career finals.

Sharapova was in her Tour-leading fifth final of the year and is now 2-3 in those, winning Memphis and Strasbourg but a runner-up in Birmingham (to Na Li), Stanford (to Vika Azarenka) and now here. She is now 22-11 in career finals.

"I had a wonderful week. It was my first week here and I had a wonderful welcome from all the fans and tournament," Sharapova said at the trophy ceremony. "Congratulations to Kim on a great match and great tournament, I look forward to playing her again soon. I'll definitely be back next year."

Russian Roulette in the Cincinnati SF!

Maria Sharapova continued her good game as she defeated Marion Bartoli from France 6-1 6-4. In a few matches, the only important things from Sharapova were her scream and her dress. But now she's 'back in business'. After reaching the Stanford final, now she is ready to play in the semifinals of another big tournament : Cincinnati. Her opponent : young Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. At the age of 19, Pavlyuchenkova plays a great tennis, being able to beat Shahar Peer, Yanina Wickmayer, Elena Dementieva or even Venus Williams. Could this be the beginning of a big career? Is she ready to face such an aggressive player like Sharapova? My answers are 'Yes' and 'Yes'. I mean, why not? At this age, the limit is the sky! :)

So... Are you ready for the Russian Roulette?