Women's Round of 16 Analysis

God bless Tennis Channel – if it weren’t for them, tennis fans like me would be lost. So far, I’ve been able to see bits and pieces of all four women’s Round of 16 matches, and it paints a fascinating idea of who’s looking good to do what.
The match I saw the least of was Maria Kirilenko vs. Fracesca Schiavone. Schiavone had a favorable record – head-to-head and in Grand Slams – coming in, but this really looked like a missed opportunity for Kirilenko. From the few games I saw, she spent 90 percent of the time in a winning position but too many times, she couldn’t put away the last shot. Then, at 4-5 in both sets, Schiavone was just a little better. And now, she’s in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the third time in her career.
Now Schiavone gets to play Caroline Wozniacki for a shot at her first Grand Slam semifinal. The third seed knocked off Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-2 in the longest women’s match of the day.
I watched Wozniacki for the first time during the U.S. Open last year, a little bit in the semis, but mostly in the finals. Watching her today, I admit to being very disappointed. I thought I remembered Wozniacki being more offensive than this. It’s not just that she plays so much defense; it’s that she so rarely even tried to get on offense, to say nothing of going for winners. That might have worked against Pennetta, but it will be interesting to see what she does against Schiavone and possibly in the semis. It’s hard to imagine Wozniacki lifting a trophy on the final weekend if she’s going to continue playing this way. Eventually, she’ll have to play a little offense.
If Pennetta had gone for a little more early on against Wozniacki – she served for the first set – we would be talking about an all-Italian quarterfinal. No doubt about it, fortune favors the brave, and Pennetta wasn’t brave enough to advance.
In the bottom quarter, Elena Dementieva will be playing Nadia Petrova. Dementieva’s come through a pretty soft draw, but at this point, I can’t honestly say I’m blown away by her play. She had a close match against Alexandra Wozniak and hardly looked brilliant against qualifier Chanelle Scheepers. I had her penciled into the finals before the tournament, but she’s going to have to step up if she wants to duplicate her 2004 result.
Petrova on the other had, was coming off a barn-burner against Aravane Rezai, and it would have been easy for her to have a letdown against Venus Williams. Instead, she continued to roll, taking the match 6-4, 6-3. Now, Petrova has a few factors acting in her favor here – she has a nice head of steam behind her, she’s attacking well and she’s reached the semifinals here twice before. It’s not at all impossible to imagine her in the finals right now. Might she be ready to take that next step?

Fearless prediction from today’s play: Roger Federer will qualify for his ninth straight Grand Slam final.
Fearful prediction: The winner of Dementieva/Petrova reaches the women’s final – both have the offense to get through. Not only that, but both have the talent to win the title.