Serena Strikes Back

Yeah, I stole that title from the WTA site, but it was my first reaction to the scoreboard when I saw the result earlier today, so I stuck with it.

Nice to see Serena Williams, even with her right leg heavily taped, exact revenge on Svetlana Kuznetsova with her straight-set semifinal victory at the Kremlin Cup earlier today.

She broke her quarterfinal jinx, having lost 5 in a row, against Nicole Vaidisova yesterday, and I was all too pleased. If her tournament results from 2007 go to form, i.e. win the title or lose in the quarterfinal, then she'll beat Elena Dementieva for the umpteenth time in the final tomorrow.

Ivan Ljubicic and James Blake are no longer undefeated in Vienna and Stockholm, respectively. Ljube Job lost in the quarterfinals to Andreas Seppi (what the fugh?) and James lost his second match in a row to Thomas Johannson in the semifinals.

Oh well.

Andy Roddick has withrdrawn from Madrid Masters citing a knee injury. Uh huh. Me thinks he's putting all his eggs in the Davis Cup basket. Can't say as I blame him, so long as he has some match play going into that final. But he's wise enough to realize it will be all about him in singles unless his buddy James can surprise.

And Venus Williams lost to Flavia Pennetta in the semifinals in Bangkok. Can't say I'm that surprised. This is Venus' third tournament in a row, and Fava Flavia is enjoying a late-season resurgence in a game that has always been able to cause problems for top players so long as she could keep her head. Seems she's keeping her head and Venus is keeping up her double faults.

Back to the conference. (Karen, I'll tell you more about it later. Thanks for asking.)