sk tennis

Today I continue with my report and pictures from Saturday in Stuttgart. Beside the pics from the semifinals in singles I’ve also uploaded some pics of the doubles semifinals.

When I entered the Porsche Arena first I followed a training session of Victoria Azarenka. At the so called Lifestyle Village the Operating Tournament Director and former German top player Anke Huber played tennis with some kids. Then I watched Jelena Jankovic on Court 1 at her practice. When I returned to Center Court doubles partners Anna-Lena Groenefeld & Patty Schnyder were warming up for their semifinal in the evening. At the last session before singles semifinals began another doubles pair did their practice: Czech partners Andrea Hlavackova & Lucie Hradecka. All pics of these training sessions will be uploaded tomorrow!

Then the first singles semifinal began: Victoria Azarenka vs. Nadia Petrova. It was a good match but Azarenka seemed to be very tired after her long quarterfinal the day before. So Petrova, who won at Stuttgart in 2006, became the first finalist after winning 6-4 6-4.

The second singles semifinal was the highlight of the day! The new world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic and Wimbledon champion Venus Williams played a great match over three sets in nearly three hours. The first two sets were very tied. But in the third Venus Williams made many errors so Jelena Jankovic joined Petrova in the final with a 6-7(8) 7-5 6-2 win.

After a short break the first semifinal in doubles between Anna-Lena Groenefeld & Patty Schynder and Victoria Azarenka & Agnieszka Radwanska began. The German/Swiss pair lost the first set because Groenefeld made too many volley errors at the net. But she and Schnyder turned the paper so the match tiebreak has to bring the decision. At the end Groenefeld & Schnyder won 2-6 6-4 11-9.

After a long day again I only followed the first seven games of the doubles match between Kveta Peschke / Rennae Stubbs and Andrea Hlavackova / Lucie Hradecka.

All pictures of the semifinals and other pics from Stuttgart.

If you want to go directly to your favourite player go through the player list.

Tomorrow I’ll upload the pics of the singles final between Jankovic and Petrova. There also will be nearly 250 photos of the practice sessions of the whole weekend