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Tournament Preview
Birmingham Preview Part II
Here we
go then. A rain delay and a match
with American Christina Wheeler
later, and Maria enters the main
draw for Birmingham. As i explained
last time, there isnt really a great
deal to run on this week, but we do
now have the draw, although there
are still a number of gaps still
evident. None that concern Maria
though so let us proceed.
In the first
round, Maria faces another Russian
in the form of Evgenia
Koulikovskaya. We are far past the
stage in the season when poor form
can be blamed on rustiness, and
whether or not the results Maria's
opponent has had this year are poor
is hard to say. At 24, she is
reaching her peak as a tennis
player, but the results she has had,
and the results from last year seem
to suggest that she has not quite
had the ability to mount a genuine
challenge to the top 50. She reached
round 2 in Roland Garros, defeating
a qualifier before losing to Maleeva
in straight sets.
Such an
opponent offers a good chance for
Maria. Her confidence will be high
having qualified for Roland Garros,
especially following her amazing
comeback in the final round of
qualifying. Coming up against
an opponent such as Koulikovskaya
could offer Maria an opportunity to
get to the second round.
So that being the
case, im gonna stick my head out as
usual, and say that she is going to
win. If that is the case, then she
will play the number 5 seed Natalie
Dechy. The Frenchwoman has had a
relatively successful past few
weeks. She has gone out in the third
round for the last four tournaments,
but having lost in the first round
this week last year, she will be
geared up for picking up a load of
points, so coming up against a
qualifier in the second round would
be a welcome surprise.
Unfortunately, i dont think that
Maria has enough to come through. I
think the qualifying, combined with
a tough tie in the first round will
take a lot out of her, and so she
will not be on top of her game. So
its a second round defeat im afraid,
although its enough points to
consolidate in the top 120.
1st Round: Maria
def Koulikovskaya in three
2nd Round: Dechy
def Maria in straights
3rd Round: Dechy
def Mikaelian in straights
Quarters: Dechy
def Dementieva in three
Semis: Bovina def
Dechy in three
Final: Bovina def
Daniilidou in three
Visit the Maria Sharapova page here
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