This week, the Qatar Telecom German Open will be held in Berlin, Germany. The Qatar Telecom German Open is a $1,340,000 Tier I Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tournament. The Singles winner will receive $196,900 in prize money and 300 points in the world rankings. The top 8 seeds will receive a bye in the first round. The top 2 seeds are Amelie Mauresmo and Nadia Petrova respectively. Justine Henin-Hardenne and Patty Schnyder are seeded 3rd and 4th while Elena Dementieva is seeded 5th.
Draws were released today and it showed a very lopsided top-half of the draw. The top half is crowded by Dementieva, Henin-Hardenne, Mauresmo, Kuznetsova and Hingis, who are all in contention for that slot in the Finals. While the bottom-half could only boast of Patty Schnyder and Nadia Petrova. How much more lopsided can it be? Elena Dementieva received a bye in the first round and she will face either Marta Domachowska or Julia Valkulenko on the 2nd round. The 3rd round will surely be tough as she will most likely play against her idol Martina Hingis or her doubles partner Flavia Pennetta. That first round match of Pennetta and Hingis is surely one to watch as Hingis will be looking to avenge her SF defeat to Pennetta in Gold Coast. Whoever wins that match has a 90% chance of winning the 2nd round and might face Dementieva in the 3rd. Either way, the third round will be tough as it will involve lots of craft and emotions. Possible QF opponent for Dementieva is Amelie Mauresmo who started the year on fire but had a disappointing FedCup tie last month. Anna Chakvetadze, who reached the semis in Warsaw last week, has an outside chance of getting into the QFs. If Dementieva triumphs in the QFs, Justine Henin-Hardenne or Svetlana Kuznetsova might be waiting for her in the Semis. Overall, Elena has a very tough draw but this will be good chance for her to beat some top players and prepare more for Roland Garros. Davai Elena! Focus and do your best! Dementieva/Pennetta: Back in Doubles The doubles team of Elena Dementieva and Flavia Pennetta are back in business this week at the Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin, Germany. Their team is seeded fifth and they will face the team of Katerina Bondarenko and Hana Sromova in the first round. If they pull through the first rounds of the draw, they might face the second-seeded team of Daniela Hantuchova and Ai Sugiyama in the QFs and then fourth-seeded Nadia Petrova/Anna Lena Groenefeld on the Semis. The top half of the draw features top seeds Liezel Huber/Elena Likhovtseva, 3rd seeds and Australian Open doubles champion Zheng Jie/Yan Zi, and 2004 Olympics Doubles Gold Medalists Li Ting/Sun Tiantian. Dementieva and Pennetta has not played together since the Australian Open (if my memory serves me right) because of their conflicting schedule. Its really nice to see them play together again after a long time. They've won a doubles title and reached the Finals of the US Open last year. Let's hope that they do well in this tournament. Go Elena and Flavia! P.S.
Kudos to Yonex for Elena's new top. Simple clothes really suit Elena more and this new top looks greate on her. I hope we don't see that top that Yonex made her wear during the start of this season. |
