The first match of the day in Stanford produced an upset as Zheng Saisai defeated the number seven seed, Alizé Cornet, 6-4 6-1. It looked set to be a long match after Zheng needed six deuces to get her first hold of serve. The opener was a gruelling affair and there were many long baseline rallies as you would expect. However, there were some really, really, really fun points with both players coming forward. The point linked below is an absolute stunner… you’ll be hard pushed to find a better point all year!
Cornet was up an early break in the first set but failed to consolidate with double faults creeping into her game. Zheng settled down and began to win through with her variety; it’s been wonderful to see how she has developed her game in the past few years. Zheng is always coming forward, slicing, and generally mixing it up. While it doesn’t always come off, I really admire the intent. I’m always impressed when I watch Zheng but am slightly puzzled by some of the losses in between when I haven’t been able to watch her matches!
After serving out the first set, Zheng grew in confidence as Cornet, looking hot and bothered in the sun, really fell away. In particular, Cornet’s serve collapsed in the second set. Cornet won just four points on her serve in the second set (0% second serve points won) and had a couple of calamitous serves as she looked up in annoyance at the sun. There seemed to be more going on than just the conditions though!
Zheng moves into the quarter-finals of the Bank of the West Classic where she will play Jo Konta on Friday.
I am relishing this idea of Bencic/Federer at the Hopman Cup, @james, kind of reminds me of when Mladenovic/Nestor came together and the influence it had on Mladenovic’s game. Could benefit Belinda greatly.
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Awesome news about Bencic-Fed for the Hopman Cup! I think the HC will suit BB perfectly and I think she’ll also come out of it with a lot of new fans! I just hope both are fully fit by then…
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Should be an excellent final. Venus is on form at the moment, and Jo played some great tennis yesterday to beat Domi in their semifinal match (in particular, she lost only two points on serve in the second set) and make her first ever WTA final.
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