-- You may not have noticed it in it's early stages, but Dinara didn't take too kindly to the doubt being cast on her standing at the top of the WTA food chain. And poor old Anne Keothavong was made to bear the full brunt of her wrath. 6-0, 6-0. I wouldn't be doing my duty as a UK Blogger if I didn't provide a little context. Last week at Warsaw Anne Keothavong was the first British woman in 21 years to reach the quarters of a clay court event. She was also the first British woman to crack the top 50 since 1993. As if that weren't enough, this week was the first time since 1992 that three British women made the main draw at RG. All of which makes the defeat as painful as ever. Probably best to not try and draw positives from this one.
Meanwhile as Dinara served up notice, her arch-accuser Serena was today embroiled in the first round from hell. She did what she always does and what we've come to expect of 'the real #1', coming through eventually in three arduous sets. Not liking the eight squandered match points though and still not expecting much of her on clay. And as far as Dinara's concerned, I'm not getting ahead of myself. Though I was glad with the #1-like way in which she's begun her campaign, and much as I would like to see her put a cap on a brilliant run of form by winning her first Slam here (she seems to be stifling some of that criticism), it is very Dinara like to carve a more perilous route to the final.
-- Murray's opening round match against Juan Ignacio Chela was strangely impressive. There was a very interesting piece by Jonathan Overend at the BBC this week on Murray's much maligned tendency to hang back and play defensively. I'm not fully convinced by the explanation, which essentially amounts to 'I play them as they come, stepping up the aggression as required, and what qualifies you to say anything about it anyway, given that I'm #3 in world, not you'. But it was at least consistent with the way he played his opening match. This most definitely was steppin-it-up Murray. Hoping to see more of him and a little less of that tortured, ineffective dude Juan Martin enjoyed getting the better of at Rome.
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