Hell yeah! I think it is. Playing the number one seed, Elena Dementieva this afternoon, Maria had an epic match. Rather bizarrely, the British weather was absolutely astounding, and both Glyn and i return from the days play burnt like the bitches that we are!!!! Although he suffered a little more than me, and his cheekbones finaly caused him some turmoil, as the photo i will post soon on the message board will confirm.

Anyway, to the important issue of Maria. Gone were the loud screams (for the most part) and Maria played out of her skin. On the practice courts, she looked great (in both tennis form and physical form). However, Dementieva did too, and it was the seed who came flying out of the blocks. She raced away in the first set, and to be brutally honest, i thought Marai was going to bottle her biggest match, losing the first set 2-6. Dementieva was playing some stunning shots, and was looking easily the better player. But Maria grit her teeth, and did the exact opposite in the second set. She went 5-2 up in the second set, but Dementieva broke back, and then broke again, and was serving for the match at 5-6. But Maria came back, broke her opponent and went on to take the tie break.

And so to the final set. Maria was playing some good tennis, but Dementieva still looked good, and could easily have taken the match too. The performance Maria pulled out though was top draw, and the victory was deserved. Taking the set 6-2 highlights the dominance that Maria had over her opponent as Dementieva's serve fell apart. Although the screams started to creep in, the tennis played by both players was great. My opinion on the recent disagreements over Maria's was documented yesterday, but she definately was not breaking any rules today and infact her opponent was louder in some occasions.

The day was great. I managed to blag a ball (!!!!), Glyn got burnt, we got to get a pic of Maria's ass at the end of the day when she was getting a massage.

Come back tomorrow for news on how she played in the semi, and if the new people logging onto thsi site want to know anything, feel free to e mail me at mattydonaldson@maria-sharapova.net