Hi all,

As I am sure you are all aware by now, Justine went down to Sharapova on Tuesday night in the quarter finals, her first loss in over 30 matches. It was a very harsh draw for Justine because I think the pair of them are the best players in the world right now and to be in the same quarter made it tough. Maria played an outstanding match, I think it will take some doing to top that performance and it will be interesting to see how she backs up today against Jankovic. She is certainly favourite in my mind to take out the tournament, although I would like to see either Ivanovic or Hantuchova to take the title. At least one will be in the final!!!

Justine was disappointed to lose in the manner she did, and not to post a game on the scoreboard hurt her a little I think. She didn’t utilise her gameplan enough under the circumstances and I think could have broken up the rhythm of the match more by serve volleying more often or returning and coming in. Sharapova was way to strong off the ground for her and pushed her too far back for Justine to be able to get forward at all so the other avenues needed to be ventured down.

Who would have thought though that the academy’s Wesley Moodie, who lost in the qualifying of the singles here would survive longer than Justine!!! He and his partner Jeff Coetzee went down in straight sets to Llodra and Clement in the semi finals of the doubles on centre court this morning. They led a double break in the first set and had set points in the second so they could easily have come away the victors but all in all a great start to the year for them after making the finals of Doha prior to this.

Justine and Carlos have now headed back to Europe; they don’t hang around much after she loses. Pretty much next flight that departs they take. It is a slight fall at the first hurdle losing here because they had set their sights on the four majors and an Olympic gold so we will see how she responds in the coming tournaments to this loss. The other girls are coming thru and Sharapova is confident and serving bigger. I think Justine will need to improve her serve to maintain her dominance this year and also win that elusive Wimbledon title. She does however possess that extra dimension to her game which makes her so dangerous regardless of how she is serving and i wish her and Carlos the best for the rest of the year.

Thanks for reading my blogs, I hope they gave you all a little insight to the world no 1’s game and world and I hope to hear from you all soon.

Regards