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Cincinnati Quarterfinals

By Peter Bodo

by Bobby Chintapalli

MASON, Ohio – Howdy, Folks... as a certain Mr. Bodo might put it. I have no long-form post on a WTA (shocker!) player today, but I hope to have something for you tomorrow on someone other than Jelena Jankovic. Even now, when I’ve said my bit on Jankovic, I can’t stop watching her, for the tennis and the drama. Maybe it’s nice to see a woman getting her mojo back? Maybe it gives the rest of us mojo-searchers hope that we too can one day be back in the Western & Southern Open quarterfinals? But on to the news of the day. The quarterfinals take place today, and here are bits and pieces of info on the action from the tournament email and also, for the women, from the WTA match notes. (Some of this content was taken directly from these sources.)

The Men

  • Seven of the top eight seeds reached the quarterfinals for the first time here since 1999. It’s also the first time this year that seven of the Top 10 are quarterfinalists at an event.

  • With yesterday’s win two-time finalist Novak Djokovic moves to a 55-1 record in 2011. (And yet he looked lethargic in post-match press yesterday, like he might fall asleep mid-sentence.)

  • Under the heading ‘Epic Battle’ the email has a few notes on Rafael Nadal’s 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 7-6(9) win over countryman Fernando Verdasco. It was one of eight matches in Cincinnati history to have been decided in three tiebreaks. (Nadal started his presser, which he did after doubles, with a smile and this line: “OK we gonna do a short one today?” But it wasn’t short. He was as philosophical and pleasant as I’ve seen him but, when asked a legitimate question about Djokovic, he was not keen on answering: “Yeah, probably today I’m a little bit too tired to talk about Novak. That’s the true. You can ask me every day. I am happy to answer every day before this, but I have to go to rest. It’s 7:30.” After a follow-up question and translation – it was the only question I believe he had translated yesterday – he did say some things. And he went on to answer three or four more questions too.)

  • This is the 10th time in the Open Era that at least three of the quarterfinalists were current and/or former No. 1s (Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer). (I had a chance to watch at least a few games from all three of them this week from the photo pit, which is courtside. It’s where the photographers sit, but other media folks are allowed to sit there if there’s space after the photographers find their places. In the past I’m told folks were allowed to walk across the court on changeovers, but no more – I believe they changed that two years ago. Watching from there is an experience and then some. You get a real and different sense of the match – in the player’s body language, the silent (and sometimes not so silent) communication with the camp, the breathing, the effort. You don’t see the points so much as you feel them.)

The Women

  • The quarterfinalists include eight players from the Top 30. For the sixth time here, this includes six seeds. (The other two players are Daniela Hantuchova and Nadia Petrova.) For the third straight year, this group includes no Americans.

  • All eight quarterfinalists have made at least one final this year; Sam Stosur, Jelena Jankovic and Peng Shuai are the three who haven’t won a title this year.

  • Vera Zvonareva, Andrea Petkovic and Peng Shuai are playing their 10th quarterfinal of the year, tying Marion Bartoli and Victoria Azarenka for the most in 2011.

  • Second seed Vera Zvonareva tied Linda Tuero for most Open Era matches won (13-5) and played (18) among the women. She won this title in 2006 and reached the final in 2004. (Zvonareva came to All Access Hour on Monday dressed in shorts and a tank top. She looked like she was on her way to the beach, but she doesn’t strike me as the type to head to the beach just as a tournament is starting. She’s intense, that one. Articulate too, and her words didn’t fail her on Monday; they rarely do. If you want a good answer, and a long one, you could do worse than ask her a question.)

  • Petrova is the oldest of the quarterfinalists; Petkovic is the youngest. (You’ve heard Petkovic is a character, and it’s true. You’re reminded of this everytime you see her in press, where yesterday she said the word a**. And she ended with these lines and laughter: “Of course there are always people who don’t like me. When you’re extreme, there are always going to be people that hate you more than love you. That’s okay for me, because I have a lot of love to give, even to those people.”)