Mornin', everyone. The women's final is bearing down on us, so this will be brief, and mainly just a post to give you a place to call and discuss the women's final between Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka, which may achieve a unique distinction.
Unless we end up in one of those 15-all in the third-set tiebreaker situations, it might be louder on the court than around it for most of this match, even though there will be only two women on the court and close to 15,000 fans assembled around them. That's a tribute to the robust ululations with which these two young ladies like punctuate their strokes.
When a reporter asked Azarenka if it got her nose all out of joint yesterday that some fans had a little fun with her, imitating her war whoop, she turned coy, answering the question with a question: "Did I seem angry?"
She then explained that the comments she made in the public on-court interview were meant to be taken literally, not as not-so-thinly-veiled sarcasm. "I just said 'thank you' to them. It's fun. You know, it's like somebody's wearing Rafa's bandana or somebody's doing my noise. It's kind of cool."
Well, okay.
I've been poking around, trying to discover the source of this newfound happiness that Azarenka cited the other day. One theory is that Sam Sumyk, her new coach for just over a year now, has handled Azarenka with just the right combination of firmness and flexibility. She appears to be kind of player who needs to be on a pretty long leash, free to do whatever she feels to keep her mind fresh and her desire well-modulated through the long year.
Azarenka herself said yesterday that she took a "little break" after the Doha event to take stock of her situation. "I started to think a little bit of what I wanted to do with my life. Because it was a tough moment, you know, the beginning of the season. I realize that I really love the game and I have to change few things and just try a different way. It works out for me. I feel happy on the court. I feel really ready to battle any day."
Azarenka reached the quarterfinals (l. to Kim Clijsters) in her first event of the year, Sydney. But she didn't reach that stage again until after Doha (where she was beaten in the first round by Daniela Hantuchova), until the Indian Wells event. She made the quarters there, but pulled a leg muscle and had to quit just three games into her match with no. 1 Caroline Wozniacki.
Sharapova has struggled from beginning to end, but survived - a feat for which she's developing a ral talent. Azarenka has been on fire here in the later rounds. She went three sets in each of her first three matches, then hung straight-set losses on no. 2 seed Kim Cliijsters and no. 3 Vera Zvonareva in her last two matches. The sense here is that Azarenka has built up a lot of momentum, as she attempts to bag this title for the second time in three years. The women are 2-2 in previous meetings.
-- Pete