Australian Open Final Rounds

Toronto_Mike

Toronto_Mike

Scent of a Woman
Last round was terrible!
Time to go big or go home

Maria Sharapova vs Anna Chakvetadze
Anna Chakvetadze +4.5 $500 to win $400
Riding Anna on her win streak which is currently at 19. An all Russian affair. We got the glamour girl Maria and the second fiddle in Anna. Anna destroyed lefty Schnyder in the last round while Maria had to gut it out vs Zvonareva. Chakvetadze is a very efficient server very rarely double faulting. She is a Fabrice Santoro like character, making smart decisions rather than over powering the opposition. She is giving up 5 inches to Maria. The key here is understanding Maria's serve. That has been Maria's bread and butter so far this tournament. I am very suprised how her 1st service % is consistantly high. I really like matches where we got one player based on power and one based on finese, makes things interesting rather than hearing squeels of power all the time. Anna knows she needs to be patient and play the angles. Making Maria run around is key as her legs aren't meant for speed. In the end, i believe Sharapova will win based on experience. But the odds on her are a joke considering she hasn't proven being a #1.
 
Round 1: 4-9-1 -$753
Round 2: 5-2-0 +$485.80
Round 3: 8-2-0 +$477
Round 4: 3-4-0 -$212
Overall: 22-17-1 -$2.2

Sharapova def Chakvetadze 7-6 7-5
Chakvetadze +4.5 wins!
Chakvetadze to win 1st set loss
 
Serena Williams vs Nicole Vaidisova
Serena Williams ML @ 1.85 $200 to win $170
I might even increase the stakes on this. Williams won her last match due to her experience. She's been in this position before too many times. Vaidisova has had only one grand slam where she went beyond the 4th Round and that was the French Open in 2006. This should be an interesting encounter as both women use a lot of power and are excellent base line players. I am impressed at how Serena has played this tourney, thought she would lose to Peer but proved me wrong, thought she'd lost to Jankovic but proved me wrong. By playing Jankovic, Serena gets a taste of how Vaidisova plays. Young, energetic, tall and lanky but still a junior. Vaidisova is still 17 folks! She has what it takes to be a top women's tennis player. She took the smart route by playing the lower tier tournaments and winning them. She knows how to win. The further Serena goes, the more steam she seems to be building. Confidence is there. Both players can serve so the advantage will be to the player who can actually defend well. I'll give that advantage to Williams. She can play on the net farely well. She can close down angles at a faster rate than Vaidisova. Nicole has beaten some strong opposition but a lot of those opposition had her by the throat and they did not close the deal when they had break point opportunities. I think that is where the difference is. Williams shoudl be able to capitalize the break point opportunities better than the others.
 
espn sucks.. why am i watchin it if i know who won!! Oh yea its sharapova..
 
well the only consolation i get is that fist pumping bastard Nadal is out.

anyways biggest bet of the tournament

Maria Sharapova vs Kim Clijsters
Kim Clijsters ML $1000 to win $830
Clijsters is a far more worthy #1 player than Sharapova. Maria is too one dimensional, all she does is hit with power and grunts. Clijsters mobility is her edge in this game. Sharapova's power can only do so much against someone as quick as Kim. Also be known that Kim probably has the best shot at winning all 4 Grand Slams this year. This is her final season before she retires. So she's giving it her all. Her main weakness is that 2nd serve. If she is able to main a high 1st serve percentage she should easily take this one. Sharapova has not shown any characteristics of being a champion. She has had many close calls and even against Chakvetadze she could of lost. Clijsters will be able to return Maria's serve more efficiently. Don't know why SHarapova is even ranked #1, if JHH was in this tourney, Sharapova could easily have been out by now. Clijsters takes this one and she will go on to take the Open, she's just playing much more complete tennis and her fitness level is at a peak far superior to that of Sharapova.
 
BetCrimes1984 said:
Kims struggle with Hingis (which the swiss bitch basically blew) doesnt concern you?
Click to expand...

Sharapova struggles against wittier players. Look at the players Sharapova has faced, none are big servers, they are more mobile competitors. Also Hingis is a far more defensive player and usually counts on the opposition to make more unforced errors. Against Na Li, Hingis made the wrong assesment on Li thinking she could not blow her two handed back hand deep.
Sharapova is just all power. Her foot work is extremely sloppy and well Kim can do the spilts and still come up rallying.
Like i said i'm more concerned about Kim's service game. Still the worse part of her game. She just makes it up with her athletism. Not the biggest forehand or backhand, but she just doesn't go away. Sharapova will look for one big winner and if she doesn't get it, she is clueless. Kim is a better bet to take the break points that Anna and Vera missed out on.
 
phew, lucked out on that one.

Serena Williams def. Nicole Vaidisova 7-6 6-4
Over 22.5 Wins
Serena ML Wins

Lets go Kimmy!
 
Retburj said:
thoughts on Chick final?

i think Serena has a real shot here
Click to expand...

I"m on her as well. Sharapova does not deserve to be this heavy of a favorite. She's played like shit the whole tourney and has had to escape too often. Will write my previews tomorrow.
 
Final
Maria Sharapova vs Serena Williams
Serena Williams ML @ 2.80 $400 to win $720
Serena Williams +3.5 $250 to win $212.50
Sharapova at these odds for a final against Serena Williams? Too much. She hasn't shown that she really deserves this championship. All she has shown is that her service game is terrible. I've stressed in other threads how she has yet to face an opponent this tournament, that posses a lot of power. Serena is not like the other opponents that she has played, she is far more aggressive and much more seasoned. Yes Sharapova has beaten Serena in a GS Final but where was that? It was in Wimbledon, Grass Court, Maria's favorite surface. Australia is different, it is very difficult to complete the Australian and US Open double she has the opportunity, will she do it? I doubt it. She needs to really pay attention with her service today because in the past rounds, her service game was awful and nearly cost her the matches. However, her mental game and strength moved her on. Serena has been playing with pure adrenaline, how long will it last? Hopefully for one more game. She has been bothered by blisters and is fighting off a cold but it didn't seem that way when she played against Vaidisova. She is a very smart player in the way she approaches the first few games. Notice how she rarely grunts in those first few games because she is taking note what her opposition is trying to do. Vaidisova came out aggressive and actually got lucky twice on the net drops. Williams simply shruged it off, and when Vaidisova was down, instead of brushing the frustration aside, she kept it in and thus her mental focus was lost. Power vs Power ultimately leads to a very tight battle and really the 2 key points are, who is able to hold their serve and who is able to minimize the amount of unforced errors. We should see some very aggressive play and great rallies between the two. I am going with Serena to win this thinking her underdog status has helped her a lot. She has quite a huge fan base in Australia and i dare say even more than Sharapova. Her serve has been what has kept her this far and hopefully she can keep it up. All of Serena's off season conditioning and training comes down to this, can she pull it off?
 
Serena destroyed Sharapova that stupid twat. That's it for the Aussie Open.

Round 1: 4-9-1 -$753
Round 2: 5-2-0 +$485.80
Round 3: 8-2-0 +$477
Round 4: 3-4-0 -$212
Final Rounds: 4-2-0 +$252.50
Total: 24-19-1 +$250.30
 
good call mike on the final rd :cheers:

I think i said in rd 3 look out for serena :wacka wacka:

Fed in 3 sets as well.. 'an_horse'
 
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