By Asif Islam
November 13 2004

“I can play attacking as well as defensive tennis with utmost ease”. These were the words of the no.11 seed Vera Zvonareva, as she took on Amelie Mauresmo of France in the first battle of the second night of the championships. Yesterday the Russian was totally outplayed and this time around was no different as Mauresmo went out on the court like a woman possessed and dominated the match right from the second game before which Vera had held her serve.

It was one-way traffic as game after game with powerful returns and big serves Mauresmo ran through the first set 6-1. The second set saw no change in fortunes for the Russian and when she trailed 3-0 with a break it seemed all loss. She meekly gave into the relentless pressure posed by the French-woman to lose the match. Mauresmo won 6-1,6-0 in just an hour of dominating tennis.

The crowd had little to cheer about in this encounter and was hoping that the next one featuring teen sensation Maria Sharapova and her fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova will bring some good battle to watch for. With speculations of Maria withdrawing from the event sighting injury, it was predicted that Kuznetsova would have an easy match.

But the experts were again proved wrong as sexy Sharapova was quick of the blocks breaking the fellow Russian serve thrice in the first set to take it 6-1. This mauling stirred up Svetlana who played so well yesterday and she showed real grit and resilience as both players held serve and the set looked destined for a tiebreak.

The spectators were egging Kuznetsova on so that they can have a three setter but Sharapova had other ideas as she broke her opponent serve in the vital tenth game of the set to win the match 6-1,6-4 with brilliant power packed tennis. With 23 winners including four aces Sharapova looks by far the best player on show in this event.

That cannot be said for the two ladies who took to the court in the third match of the night. Serena Williams carrying an arm injury took on Elena Dementieva who has a serve, which has a lot to be desired of. The injury of Williams had grave effects on her game as the Russian took a 3-1 lead straight away and in the sixth game of the set it looked like the American might pull off with that nagging injury, but Elena presented her with the break back by playing some erratic tennis and that seemed to give Williams a sort of confidence and now no longer she was feeling the pain.

The set went on with both players exchanging tough groundstrokes that lead to the first tiebreak of the match. Dementieva’s serve deserted her at the most crucial point and Williams backed by the home support won the set against the run of play in 48 minutes.

The second set gave us a spectacle, which was worthy of this event, as both players fought for each point. There were no corners asked for and none given as breaks and breaks back thrilled the crowd. The match went on serve but at 5-5 Dementieva served to take the tie closer to a second tiebreaker, like a true champion Serena latched on to some short serves from the Russian and broke decisively to eventually win the match 7-6,7-5.

This means that barring some great mishap Serena is almost sure to be in the semis and the way Sharapova is playing it looks like a good showdown later on in this event.