By: Matt DeCorso

Hey! It's quarterfinals time in Warsaw and our girl Venus is slated to meet Maggie Maleeva! Sadly, Domachowska fell yesterday and so did Douchevina but Williams and Mauresmo are itching to play each other in the final again! Enjoy.

Magdalena Maleeva versus Venus Williams

After defeating a fierce dirt baller in Fabiola Zuluaga, Venus is up against just a fierce tennis player period! Venus struggled a little in her first round match against the Colombian but as she has done the past few weeks, rebounded to only lose 2 games the rest of the match. A 4-6 6-2 6-0 isn't bad for your first match win in a tournament but she will definitley have to improve in order to beat or upset Maleeva. An interesting stat is, when she got her first serve IN she won 69% of the points. That's a pretty lethal stat and she is hoping to apply it against her Bulgarian opponent. In this match look for Venus to again get off to a bumpy start but then jack up the power and start coming to net etc. Her serve will be the factor in this match. If the stat I just mentioned holds true, she should win.

Weakness: Maleeva is a tough competitor and Venus' past meetings with her might be on her mind.

Maggie Maleeva is the best fighter out there in my opinion. The first time I saw her play Venus was in 2001 at an event in Paris. She was the underdog versus Venus and dealt the American one of her few upset losses that year. From then on, I knew she'd be a definite bother to the Top 10. She herself was in the Top 10 in the early to mid '90's but fell out and is now hovering around 16. After starting off her campaign in Poland with a 6-3 6-1 rout of Elena Likhovtseva, yesterday she gritted out a 5-7 6-2 6-3 win over Patty Schnyder. In this match against Venus, look for Maggie to use her drop shots and lobs to effect. The wonderful thing about Maleeva is, she can use craft and power very smartly. She can lull you into a slice rally cross court and then drill a backhand up the line.

Weakness: She won't get overpowered by Venus but Venus' dominating serve may be a problem.

Who has The Edge?

Serve- Venus
Groundies- Venus
Movement- Maggie
Intangibles- Maggie has no pressure
Volley- Venus narrowly

Well sit tight folks because we may have thriller on our hands. The key word is MAY. Maggie Malereva has been like Serena to Venus. A dominating start to their head to head and then Serena started beating Venus. Maleeva has won three of their 5 meetings and they weren't easy. When Venus beats Maleeva it's always been straight sets. When Maggie beats Venus it's usually a three setter. For Venus, don't let Maggie get you down just play your game and hit less errors. For Maggie, try and use all the angles of the court to throw off Venus.

Matt's Pick: Venus will win their first meeting on clay 3-6 6-1 6-3.

Thanks