Agnes shocks Venus, makes fouth round in Paris

Agnes Szavay caused the first big upset on the ladies' side in Paris today knocking out third seed Venus Williams 6-0, 6-4 in the tourney's third round. In a match littered with unforced errors, the Hungarian was the steadier of the two hitting 3 more winners (13-10) and 5 fewer errors (18-23) in the match.


A day after saving a match point, V was unable to find the game that got her past Lucie Safarova in a match spanning two days. It was the second consecutive year V has gone down in the Roland Garros third round having lost to Flavia Pennetta in last year's tourney.

I guess playing 3 days in a row (plus doubles) was a tough task for V but it seems she never even came close to finding her best form while in Paris. Kudos to Agnes for taking advantage of the opportunity, grabbing the big win, and ruining my bracket.

She'll face diminutive Slovak Dominika Cibulkova for a spot in the quarterfinals.

(images: getty)

THE LOW DOWN: A tale of two blonde ballers and one Fila outfit

Blonde, pony-tailed lady ballers Jelena Dokic + Agnes Szavay maybe have been working the same Fila style in Melbourne today but don't be fooled: these two are treading very different paths.

JD's trials + tribulations have been well-documented so there's no need to rehash them here. But what we should discuss is her inspiring 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 win over the tough Austrian Tamira Paszek. The former top tenner discussed the win, the difficult years, and her emotional state of mind during her post-match presser:

Tennis is not the most important thing in the world, but it’s something that I love. I was very disappointed when I couldn’t play well.

It was a tough time in my life. I had a lot to go through, a lot of family issues.

It’s really a miracle for me [to be back playing and winning]. It’s really emotional to win today. What I had to go through, it’s really great to have this win. I don’t think a lot of people know what this means to me.

JD will face another Fila filly, Anna Chakvetadze, in the second round.

Meanwhile, Agnes Szavay's early promise is fading as quickly as it came. The Hungarian and 23rd seed continued her miserable form of late falling 3-6, 6-3, 4-6 to unheralded Galina Voskoboeva, her fifth consecutive first round loss dating back to Stuttgart in October. Her last, best result was a quarterfinal showing in New Haven, losing to Amelie Mauresmo.

One glaring stat from her match: she hit 10 doubles in the match and only managed a 49% on first serve deliveries. U-gly. Get thee to a serving specialist, stat.

Agnes is still very young but she'll need to get a handle on her game or risk spiraling into tennis oblivion.

And you don't want to go there. Just ask JD.

(images via Getty)

PHOTO OP: Agnes + Dominika are cute but Caroline is a real drag

Here's a promotional image for a new series of Bluetooth watches launched this week by Sony Ericsson and starring Agnes Szavay, Dominika Cibulkova, and Caroline Wozniacki.

The watches can control a cellular phone and "with a glance at your watch you can see who is calling, what the time is and with a push of a button you can change your music or use it as a music remote control when your phone is on the other side of the room– all in one stylish device.”

How convenient indeed. But what happened to Caroline in the promo? Agnes and Dominika look fine and all but the 18-year old Dane looks like a 40-year old West Village drag queen. Someone get Wozy to a piano bar stat.

C'mon people - can't we just let kids by kids? Geesh.

(via Women's Tennis Blog, image via Sony Ericsson)

TENNIS 2007 AWARDS: The Shank Award

So we've arrived at our second TENNIS 2007 Award. Last week, we awarded Serena Williams the first award for Best Dramatic Performance which took place during her 4th round Wimbledon show. The second award is for the biggest choke in a match this year - we're calling it The Shank Award. This most deserving player gave us a few matches to choose from this year but this match beats out the rest.

The Shank Award - Jelena Jankovic

Jelena Jankovic met rising 18-year old star Agnes Szavay for the first time in the final of the China Open and was expected to pull out an easy win over her more inexperienced opponent. The first set was very tight affair, ending with the Serb overcoming a 0-5 deficit in the tie-breaker and winning 7-6. She carried the momentum into the second set, racing to a indomitable 5-1 lead, or so she thought. The Hungarian, who began the year ranked 207th, launched an impressive comeback breaking back the World No. 3, winning the second set 7-5, and dominating the third 6-2 for her second, and biggest, title of her fledgling career.

After the match, Jelena acknowledged her opponent's talent saying,

"She's a youngster and she's got huge potential and for sure we'll see a lot more of her."

Tennis insiders said the same thing about you, Jelena, when you were but a youngling on the tennis tour. Now it's time to put or, well, you know the rest. In any case, congrats Jelena on your TENNIS 2007 Shank Award!

P.S. Didn't catch the match? Click here to view the 2007 China Open final.

PREVIEW: US Open Women's Semifinal Showdowns

The final four ladies at the US Open have been decided and are set for the Women's Semifinal Showdowns. Here's a preview:

Justine Henin vs. Venus Williams

Head-to-head: Williams 7, Henin 1
Last meeting: Australian Open '03 (hard), Williams 6-3, 6-3

World No. 1 Justine continued her Grand Slam dominance over 2-time US Open champion Serena "ReRe" Williams, beating her in a third straight Slam quarterfinal 7-6 (3), 6-1 and feeding ReRe sour grapes afterwards. No. 12 seed Venus battled Serb Jelena Jankovic (in the best women's match so far) for over 2 hours, overcoming a first set lost and a break in the second before prevailing 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4). Justine and Venus haven't played in over 4 years, so their head-to-head is deceiving. Justine is a much approved player and knows how to play, and win, the big matches now.

Here's what Justine said about playing Venus:

"[...] I didn't watch Venus that much in the last few months, so it will be another good test for me for sure. And I will have to, you know, just be myself, play my tennis, play my game. So, yeah, I didn't play Venus for a long time so that will be interesting."

Here's Venus on playing Justine:

"I think it will be a very similar match [to Jankovic.] I'm playing a player, Justine, a player very similar to Jelena. A little more power. A little more power off the serve, which quite honestly I think I like it when the serve comes with some pace. It's nice. So I think it will be pretty similar. I guess I'll be ready for it."

Outlook: Venus has the strength to overpower Justine, but Justine has the speed and variety to disrupt her rhythm and get Venus to make errors. Tracy Austin for MSNBC.com gives a very slight edge to Justine in this semifinal and, after her win over Serena, so do we.

Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Anna Chakvetadze

Head-to-head: Sveta, 2-0
Last meeting: Warsaw '06 (clay), Sveta 6-1, 6-1

A former champion at the US Open, World No. 4 Sveta knows how to win in New York. She completely outclassed rising Hungarian star Agnes Szavay in the quarterfinals 6-1, 6-4. Her opponent in the semis, fellow Russian and No. 6 seed Anna Chakvetadze, dominated Israeli Shahar Peer, the No. 18 seed, by a similar scoreline, 6-4, 6-1.

Here's what Sveta said about her semifinal against Anna:

"I play Anna now and I am very happy there is definitely going to be one Russian in the final."

Anna had this to say about playing Sveta:

"She's a favourite in this match, so I have nothing to lose and no pressure, [...]For me it's much easier to play with no pressure, so I will try to do my best."

Outlook: This one is a real toss- up, with the knowledge that the winner from the Williams/Henin semifinal is mostly likely our '07 champ. But we'll go with "Chaky" just for the fun of calling her "Chaky"...oh, and her smooth groundstroking.

Tell me who your picks are for tomorrow's Women's Semifinal Showdowns!

(images courtesy of AP Photos)

INSTANT REPLAY: a look back at this week's top tennis plays

COURTSIDE

The continuing saga of Serena
A mother and child
If you had $1.4 million bucks you would buy _________.
Sneaker fever
An insider's look at Rafa's US Open threads
Maria's no dead frog
Boris the exhibitionist
Nole's got balls

The Global Domination Tour builds momentum
A-Rod arrives in style
Red at night, sailors delight
She wears white in the day
Maria is inspired by the Big Apple
EleVen is the magic number
The sexy Spanish
Get cookin' with your favorite tennis player
Venus has a Late Night with David Letterman
Who's hotter: Rafa or the Djoker?
Fed eats, gets honored
A tennis ingenue hits her stride

+ NETCORDS

TUESDAY: Nicole, Patrick, Roger vs. Nadal...Wilson goes green, TENNIS magazine gets caught and more
THURSDAY: Venus & Serena, US Open seed report, Andy's troubles...Tim says farewell, being a ballboy (or girl) and more

New girl in town: Tennis ingenue Agnes Szavay makes run to Pilot Pen final

We've been admiring a new girl in town - 18-year old Agnes Szavay. We love her game - solid serve, hard groundies, variety, excellent movement - and, of course, her flirty skirt moment. The former junior French Open champ has been making serious noise at this week's US Open warm-up, the Pilot Pen, by reaching the final as a qualifier and taking down World No. 10 Daniela Hantuchova earlier in the week.


And it seems we're not the only one's taking notice: SI's Jon Wertheim has picked the Hungarian to reach no less than the SEMIFINALS at the Open, with a potential matchup against fashion-loving Russian Maria "Shriek"apova.