Thursday, June 08, 2006

Henin-Hardenne and Kuznetsova to meet in French Open final

2004 U.S. Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova signs autographs in Charleston

Justine Henin-Hardenne has already won the French Open twice

Those of us who thought Svetlana Kuznetsova had too many clay court skills to let upstart Nicole Vaidisova push her around were right. Vaidisova prevailed in the first set, when Kuznetsova could not get her serve in, and she prevailed in the second set, too, until she tried to serve for it at 5-3. Failing to serve for the match, Vaidisova fell to pieces and never put herself back together, although late in the third set, it looked like she might. But by that time, Kuznetsova had found her serve, had slowed down the pace considerably, and was hitting low balls and delivering enough topsin to keep Vaidisova at bay.

Vaidisova is a good player who only recently has found her way to the big time. Her father/coach says it happened when she played Martina Hingis in Rome. She lost to Hingis, but it was in that match, he said, that his daughter learned to slow herself down. She forgot that in the third set today, and rushed through point after point. Credit to just-turned-17-year-old Vaidisova: She took out both top seed Amelie Mauresmo and Venus Williams and played with a champion's confidence. But her first Grand Slam semifinal gave her a bad case of nerves--lucky for Kuznetsova.

The other semifinal was the bore I expected it to be: Watching Justine Henin-Hardenne play Kim Clijsters is about as bad as watching the Williams sisters play each other. Today was a new low, however. Clijsters is not moving that well since her ankle injury (I think it is fear more than disability), and she also had one of her not infrequent meltdowns. On top of that, Henin-Hardenne played flawlessly, and dispatched Clijsters in straight sets.

I expect Henin-Hardenne to defeat Kuznetsova, also, only it won't be as easy as it was today. Kuznetsova is a really good clay court player, but she is given to bouts of nerves, and with Henin-Hardenne, she can't afford to fool around the way she did with Vaidisova.

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