I'm here again to show Scorum a little bit of Girl Power, because that is something which is seriously lacking on this platform. I've posted one blog so far, about 10 days ago, and this will be my second one. I hope to become more active on here, as I really think the platform is great.
The idea of my blogs is that I highlight some happenings in women's sports. My first article was well received, and hopefully this will continue to be the case.
Today's main event for me was a tennis match of the WTA Tour at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in Dubai. Jelena Ostapenko, the former 5th ranked player in the world, and currently in 22nd place faced Jennifer Brady, who is currently the 117th ranked player in the world. Her highest ranking in her career is the 60th spot.
Ostapenko was the clear favorite going into the game today, and also won the only match they ever faced each other previously, in Stuttgart in April 2017. Brady is two years older, but certainly less experienced in comparison to Ostapenko.
Ostapenko's year so far hasn't been impressive, as she lost in the first round in Shenzhen, Sydney, as well as at the Australian Open. The last couple of weeks, she looked like she had been getting some of her form back, as she won matches in St. Petersburg, as well as in Doha. Still she was beaten in the round of 16 twice. She also won the only match she played for Latvia in the Fed Cup against Slovakia.
Jennifer Brady did not have the best start in 2019. She failed to qualify for the Brisbane Open and despite winning two matches in the qualification tournament for the Australian Open, she missed out on the first Grand Slam of the year as well. The turnaround point came in the tournament in Hua Hin, Thailand. She survived both qualifying rounds there and qualified for the main tournament, in which she faced 2nd seed Caroline Garcia.
Garcia, 19th in the world and on a similar ranking as Ostapenko today was beaten in two sets, 6-4 and 7-6 in a second-set tie-break. Brady lost in the following round against Tamara Zidansek, despite winning the second set with 6-0. Last week in Doha, Qatar, Brady didn't have to qualify anymore and was automatically added into the main draw. She easily won that first round against Anhelina Kalinina, to face another 2nd seed in the 2nd round. This time Alison Riske, was too strong for her.
Today's match started off with a 1-0 lead for Brady, and she managed to break Ostapenko's serve directly in her first service game to take a 2-0 lead. Another four breaks followed, two for each player, bringing the score in the set to 4-2 in Brady's favor. A sixth break in seven games brought Ostapenko back in the set, especially when she finally held her own service and got back to 4-4. That re-break of Ostapenko could be the sign of a comeback, but in reality it was the exact opposite. It was the sign for Brady to show her abilities, her Girl Power! She did not only win the next two games to win the set 6-4, she also won the six games after that to win the 2nd set to love. An amazing performance by Brady to outclass Ostapenko in such a way.
More tennis from Dubai...
The next opponent for Jennifer Brady will again be Caroline Garcia. She won easily in two sets from Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, only losing two games. It will be interesting to see if Jennifer Brady can win against Garcia for the 2nd time in just a couple of weeks, or that Garcia will be taking the win this time.
There was a tough battle for Elise Mertens, who eventually lost 7-5, 4-6, 5-7 against Lin Zhu from China. Another player from China Shuai Zhang won against Anett Kontaveit, and Ons Jabeur defeated Donna Vekic. There were two-sets wins for Alison Riske against Julia Görges, and for Katerina Siniaková against Petra Martic. Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino won the first set against Dominika Cibulkova, but still lost in the end as Cibulkova only lost three more games in the next fifteen that were played.
Elsewhere...
There's also a WTA tournament in Budapest this week. Pauline Parmentier came out as the winner in her match against Ana Konjuh. The same goes for Arantxa Rus against Fiona Ferro. Both Parmentier and Rus won their matches 7-5, 6-3.
It was a much easier match for Andrea Petkovic, who lost only one game against Ana Bogdan. Aleksandra Krunic won the first set 6-0, but her opponent Tamara Korpatsch showed much more resistance in the 2nd set, but still lost it 7-5. Heater Watson was defeated despite winning the second set, against Anastasia Potapova.
Nellie Pierre from Sweden won the FIS Ski Race at the slalom today in Arvidsjaur. The whole podium was Swedish, as the other athletes in the top three were Matilda Holmberg and Wilma Marklund.
Furthermore, there were three Women's Twenty20 cricket internationals today. Thailand won against China with a 6 wicket difference. The other wins were for Hong Kong and for Malaysia. Hong Kong won their match against the United Arab Emirates with a difference of 21 runs. Malaysia had 63 more runs than their opponents from Kuwait.
Please let me know if you enjoyed this bit of Girl Power.
More it coming at you!
Comments