By: Matt DeCorso

Hey everyone! Venus has really established herself as probably one of the three best clay court players of the year. Emilie Loit and Iveta Benesova are also in that mix. Jelena Jankovic also became a first time winner on the weekend by dismissing none other than Benesova. On a side note, the 15 year old Szavay lost the doubles final in Budapest to Mandula and Schett. You'll get 'em next time Agnes! There are no Germans left in the Berlin Open as Barna and Schruff lost easily to Petrova and Capriati respectively in the second round. Sharapova and Dulko are also gettin' some props as they won their matches yesterday as well. Enjoy the preview!

Venus Williams versus Eleni Daniilidou

Just the name Venus is resounding all over Europe with a whisper of dominance and supremacy. After struggling through a couple matches, she triumphed over Martinez to capture the Charleston crown. Just 6 days after that she travelled to Slovenia for Fed Cup. Again, her dominance was evident as she defeated Srebotnik and Pisnik with ease. Then, just three days after THAT, Venus made her way to Warsaw to defend her finalist spot. She extinguished all of her opponents with relative ease to capture the Warsaw title. Now, three days after she won Warsaw she's in Berlin to compete for the championship. Venus and Eleni have never met before but I'm sure she's seen the muscular Greek around the Tour. In this match look for Venus to really move Daniilidou around as she doesn't move as well as other players.

Weakness: Playing 4 straight weeks may have fatigued Venus.

Eleni Daniilidou has definitley had a stellar season...most of the time. She started the year off with a win over Harkleroad to defend her Auckland title. Then she was disappointed in Melbourne by unheralded Santangelo in the 3rd round. After a couple of bad losses to lower ranked players, she rebounded to reach the Dubai quarters which included a win over Capriati. At Indian Wells she was outplayed in the first round by Barbora Strycova. Few people expected Eleni to do well in Miami but she absolutely excelled by reaching the semis, beating Morigami, Capriati (again), Golovin, and Sprem before losing handily to Serena Williams. In Charleston she was beaten by qualifier Catalina Castano. After that discouraging loss she flew to Warsaw and enjoyed a win over Dulko before a late second set comeback was fizzled by Mauresmo. She also participated in Fed Cup and went 2-1 with victories over Staniciute and Sakowicz but lost to smart mouthed adolescent, Karatancheva. Now she's in Berlin and beat one of my favourite girls...Tatiana Golovin. 7-5 3-6 6-3 is not an easy match. This makes me feel that Eleni will be extremely tired in addition to her sometimes sluggish footwork. In this match she's going to use her fantastic slice to annoy Venus and definitley come to net.

Weakness: Eleni has a huge game with a big serve and explosive groundtsrokes. The clay seems to significantly blunt her strokes so she may have some problems with just slicing against Venus.

Who has the Edge?

Serve- Venus

Groundies- Venus

Movement- Venus

Intangibles- Daniilidou

Volley- Daniilidou

Eleni has the potential to challenge Venus but I don't think she will. For Venus, make sure you hit a good % of first serves and keep the errors down. For Eleni, don't try and outhit Venus because you won't win, as Svetlana Kuznetsova realized in the Warsaw final.

Matt's Pick: This match may be a preview for Athens Olympics and in that case, the States claims the gold as Venus beats Daniilidou 6-3 6-3.

Thanks