Clijsters & Sharapova in AO Semifinals; ESPN Loses Tennis Fans’ Support
Posted by Aaress Lawless on Jan 23, 2007 | Print
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Top seed Maria Sharapova is through to the semifinals of the 2007 Australian Open, along with fourth seed Kim Clijsters.
Sharapova needed just two sets to get past her countrywoman Anna Chakvetadze 7-6 (5), 7-5.
Twelfth seed Anna Chakvetadze has a solid game, and kept the pressure on Sharapova, but was not able to win the big points. She gave Maria Sharapova her biggest scare since her first round against Camille Pin, but in the end, Chakvetadze’s hopes of reaching her first Grand Slam semifinals were dashed.
She managed to force Sharapova into a tie-break for the first set, but toward the end of the second, Maria stepped up her performance and was able to finish out the match for a spot in her third straight Australian Open semifinal.
In the second quarterfinal of the day, Kim Clijsters grabbed the early break against sixth seed Martina Hingis, but Martina quickly stormed back to take a 4-2 lead.
Kim Clijsters hits with a lot of power on her ground-strokes, but she struggled in Wednesday’s match with her accuracy. By the time she finally held her serve again at 3-4, she had already racked up seventeen unforced errors. Martina easily held in the next service game, before Kim was broken at love for the first set.
Hingis continued to put the pressure on Kim in the start of the second set, but Clijsters finally managed to break serve at 2-all. She blew her first chance to level the match at 5-2, but came back to serve it out 6-4.
Once Martina let Kim get back in the match, her chances of reaching the semifinal went downhill quickly.
Clijsters was able to put pressure on Hingis’ serve in the final set and grab a big break at 3-3, before a double-fault by Martina at 5-4 set up Clijsters’ first match point. One was all Kim needed, and after just over two hours of play and sixty-two unforced errors, Kim Clijsters captured a berth in the semifinals 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
All four players remaining in the draw - Kim Clijsters, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, and Nicole Vaidisova - will be back on court tomorrow for the semifinals which are scheduled to be aired live on ESPN.
Speaking of ESPN, they have alienated a lot of tennis fans over the past ten days, but tonight’s coverage was the worst of the tournament so far. The quarterfinal match-up between Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis was one of the most anticipated matches of the fortnight, and ESPN left tennis fans out in the cold.
Instead of opting to show both matches live or at least the second semifinal before the tape delayed coverage of Sharapova vs. Chakvetadze, they decided to show both matches delayed.
Granted, they already have deals with the NCAA to show basketball coverage, but why not bump the live tennis coverage to another one of their channels, like ESPN Classic? Surely not too many people would mind the fact that a 1983 boxing match between Alexis Arguello and Aaron Pryor was aired a little later in the day!
NBC has made a fortune doing just this type of juggling during the Olympics, and ESPN would do well to learn from one of their top competitors.
Or at least stop advertising that they are airing live tennis.
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Vic | Jan 24, 2007 | Reply
About the ESPN coverage, TERRIBLE! Sick of the same old announcers blabbing away about nothing. They should have paid Brad a Million to come back to the booth. PLEASE someone else pick up tennis!