[LarpBulaBus]

Melanie Oudin and I are frenemies. She's awesome, but she went too far today.

What did she do today?

[Gubocang]

What did she do today?

Beat Petrova.

Kirkus, let me introduce you to someone you've apparently never met- mmmm8.......

[gardenerextraordinaire]

Personally, nelslus gets the most joy out of watching matches where his favorite wins, and dry's and dolphin's favorite loses. AND when such matches are in person.....THEY'RE TRULY THE BESTEST EVER!!!!!!!

Go Dinara!!!

Bitch.

Thanks for that report on the juniors, dry!

You're welcome! I also forgot to mention Henri Laaksonen of Finland. I enjoyed watching him play. Unfortunately for him, he was playing Tomic.

Who also has it going on in the game department, but I've read too much about him (and his father) to call him any kind of potential future favorite.

[Automobill]

Flavia. I've always kind of liked her, but now more than before.

I'm still thinking about Melanie...

[LarpBulaBus]

Beat Petrova.

Kirkus, let me introduce you to someone you've apparently never met- mmmm8.......

LOL. That's so odd. I thought she beat Petrova yesterday (I've not been sleeping lately) and today she was off. So I'm thinking she made some nasty comment to the press or something.

:no_01:

[Ikhqgvas]

Melanie Oudin like everyone else. I think she's my new #2 fave for the WTA behind Venus.

Caroline Wozniacki: I liked her before but I'm glad to finally see her break through because I was starting to lose confidence. After Wednesday I might change my mind...

Possibly Devon Britton as well, but I need to see more of him.

[bobibnoxx]

We watched bits and pieces of some of the junior matches Sunday. I don't know if they'll materialize, but I'm going to start keeping an eye out for Stanislav Poplavskyy and Federico Gaio. The strange thing is that they really couldn't be more different. Poplavskyy has a big game off the ground. Poplavskyy is slight in build but has a big game off the ground... He was also very "off the rack" in the sense that it looked like he was more raw and not so "coifed" as what you see with some of the more highly touted juniors... But I liked what I saw A LOT... Gaio was the polar opposite... Very strong and stocky in his build... Kind of like an Agustin Calleri... But more developed in the sense that his game has a lot of variety. Solid off the ground but not afraid to jump on his chances to come to net.

I also watched a good bit of the Bhambri match. Couldn't get a good sense for him because Jordan Cox had something wrong with his right hand and was just plain awful. Bhambri will next play Ehrat... A very little guy who plays so far behind the baseline that he was avoiding the linespeople and ballkids... He does nothing but retrieve... And he was playing Brydolf, a fairly big hitter who tried every headgame in the juniors book... But Ehrat was totally unfazed. Ehrat has nothing but retrieving skill. But he's so slight and little and fast. Making him incredibly fun to watch.

Alexander Domijan is HUGE. He's gotta be 6'3" already. I see he won his match today, but I didn't get to see him because I was en route home... He could be a giant turtle. But standing beside him as he and his father were scouting Bhambri was a little intimidating.

What we saw of the juniors was so intriguing that dolphins and I are giving some thought to shifting our USO schedule next year to Saturday through Tuesday so we can see more of the kids.

And about Tamaryn Hendler... She's been discussed here before. I think she could be the real deal. But not sure yet.

I was going to go see two junior girls´ matches today, on the same court, but decided to go to Davydenko-Soderling first while the first of them was starting. By the time Davydenko and Soderling played 1.5 sets, both matches were over...

I started out with this Russian kid Mikhail Biryukov, who is supposedly the most promising junior in Russia. He played German Richard Becker. I only stayed for a set, which the Russian kid lost miserably. So I was underimpressed with everything but his attitude (he played better when frustrated). He did eventually win the match, so that´s something. He has a good forehand, but is quite short and has very little behind his serve. Maybe if he grows 3-4 inches. Patrick Mouratoglou was at his match, so maybe he's checking him out and might coach him.

Becker was at least 5'11, probably over 6 feet and has a pretty big game but not explosive enough to be really special...

Anyway... back to the topic at hand.

Hey! Kirk knows who Petrova is! Progress

[Gubocang]

AW, heck, since the topic of juniors was brought up in this thread.....

To be honest, most of the juniors matches I/we watched were mostly due to wandering around the grounds just to see what was going on or waiting for another match to finish. Didn't go out of my way to watch the juniors. Can't say that I saw anyone who just knocked it out of the park for me- albeit, to be fair, I didn't watch too much of any match involving the juniors. Happened to see the end of American Tennys Sandgren () beating 2nd seed and Roland Garros juniors champ Daniel Berta (as I was waiting to watch Bethanie and Petrova vs. Wacky Patty and Groenefeld- my last day at the Open was mostly dedicated to watch doubles/mixed matches, dontchaknow), and I watched the last few games of Asia Muhammad beating Frenchy (sorry 'bout that, Madame) Kristina "Really Not A Happy Camper When I'm Losing" Mladenovic- ALSO the reigning Roland Garros juniors champ. (Note: This was clearly not the tournament for reigning junior Roland Garros champs- as both of these players also apparently lost their first round of juniour doubles.) Got to see the last few points of Chase Buchanan taking out 11th seed Kevin Krawietz, and from a distance, while I was watching the Tennys () and doubles matches on Court 4, I was able to watch much of American Mitchell Frank blowing it against Italian Frederico Gaio. (Please also note that I ain't the best judge of juniors talent. Back years ago, I saw most of Roddick taking out Ginepri in a US Open finals- and I wasn't knocked out by Roddick at that time at all- or Poor Robby for that matter.)

BTW- John and I did catch the end of Asia losing her second round regular draw qualifying match. She really does make a striking impression- she looked stunning IMO especially in the juniors match. AND she's actually very quiet as she plays- which is all the more pleasant these days. 'Cause- get ready for many, MANY more grunting players coming from the juniors tour, folks.

[infelconi]

Pennetta has gone from no. 3 on my wta list (behind Wozniacki) to no. 2, but it wasn't something that happened just this week. She's been going up on my list ever since this past summer. I'm glad everyone else is starting to love her too, though

[payporanymn]

No, but I have several new enemies.

LOL! My kind of person

Pennetta was unbelievable vs. Zvonareva.
Pennetta and Oudin are my new favorites.

The points that Pennetta had to play to stave off all of the match points were incredible.

Yes, Pennetta made a fan of me that day.