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The two most successful players from the women’s side at the French Open, Sam Stosur and Francesca Schiavone, have bombed out of Wimbledon in their first round matches.
Despite seemingly transitioning well on to grass after a respectable showing at Eastbourne, Stosur was no match for her opponent losing 6-4, 6-4 to Estonian qualifier Kaia Kanepi. Stosur lost on day two of play. Stosur attributed the loss to both her opponents play, her own poor form and to the fact she was playing on her least favourite surface. “Maybe it was the grass, maybe it wasn’t but you can’t change the surface you are on at Wimbledon. I knew I was going out to play on that surface, it is not an excuse. You have got to prepare yourself to do it every day. I tried my best, I just didn’t win… Looking at the whole picture I have got to be very happy with what I have achieved over the last few weeks and I will go home pretty happy. I want to kick on from where I was before the last two weeks. I’m really looking forward to the US summer, I am on surfaces that I really like to play.”
Just a day earlier Schiavone also fell, albeit after more of a battle, against Vera Dushevina in a match that lasted almost 3 hours with a 6-7, 7-5, 6-1 scoreline. Vera commented after the match that Francesca is a different player on grass. “Francesca is champion at Roland Garros, but there’s a lot of difference between clay and grass. I was the junior champion of Wimbledon and I know how to play on the grass. It’s much harder to play her on clay than grass. Now I really want to win more matches here and stay for the second week.”
The faulty PA system on Schiavone’s court randomly released the scoreline of the Davydenko/Anderson match and after 10 minutes of interruptions, Schiavone refused to continue play until the issue was resolved.
Schiavone had also lost in the first round of Eastbourne.
Retired tennis player Elena Dementieva is a step closer to having the family she talked about when she retired. On July 16 Elena married hockey champion Maxim Afinogenov at the Ritz Carlton in Moscow.
