Anna Chakvetadze lost in the semifinals to fellow countryman Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 1-6, 1-6. I’m so bummed. The semifinal match marked Anna’s highest place in a Grand Slam tournament.
I’m so bummed.
[IMAGES REMOVED]
I also watched teh Roger Federer/Andy Roddick match, and boy were the first two sets really competitive. Federer made a couple of unbelievable (maybe lucky) shots — one being a backhand return off a 140 MPH serve, which appears headed into the net, grazes the top of the net and bounces in. To my surprise and to Roddick’s credit, he didn’t let shots like those affect him, allowing him to reach tiebreakers in the first two sets.
The funny thing is there aren’t many players who can beat Andy when he plays that well. Maybe next year.
____
With Curtis Granderson’s 20th home run against the Seattle Mariners, he is only one stolen base from a very rare stat line: 20 triples, 20 home runs, 20 stolen bases. Players with power and speed are rare or come in bunches and not with this kind of consistency. If you include his 36 doubles, you can easily see why he leads the major leagues in extra base hits. If he can cut down the strike-outs, he’ll be even more deadly.
Oh, and he also finally hit into his first double play a few nights ago. And it was a surprisingly weird one, at that.
UPDATE: Edited.