Saturday and the finals were due to be played at Eastbourne, but because rain insisted on consistently persisting on Friday, the semis still needed to be fought. So the collective wisdom of the officials deemed an early start to be appropriate. Accordingly at 11.15am, 45 minutes after the scheduled early commencement (due to overnight and morning rain of course) Marion Bartoli and Samantha Stosur were the first players to venture onto Centre Court to see what entertainment they could provide.
Plenty from the French girl, and some of it relating to her tennis. Once upon a time her unusual in between point routines were just that, sometimes even comical. Now she is annoying, and it appears as if it is gamesmanship being taken too far. In my opinion what she does shows no respect for her opponent, but you will need to take a look for yourself to judge. I may be being harsh.
Harsh is unequivocal however when it comes to what she was with her cross court shots, and Sam Stosur was ill equipped to handle them from the start. Winners that were flowing from the Australian's racquet at the end of the quarter final against Zvonareva were errors today, missing wide regularly with her backhand and committing fundamental volleying mistakes that she would not have made as a school girl.
Bartoli played, and was allowed to remain in her comfort zone, and Stosur did not attack the net as she had previously done in the tournament. If she did it was as a last resort and not part of a planned manouvre.
The single break of serve in the first Stosur service game was all that was required to differentiate the two girls on the scoreboard in the first set and it went to Bartoli 6-3.
Stosur opened the second set by holding her serve, and the hope was held that a better performance could be obtained from this stanza of the match. No such luck - it became exponentially worse, and nothing positive can be said about the remainder of the match for Sam, and the scoreboard agreed, adding no more games to her tally. For Bartoli, straight into the final later in the day, in what sadly (for fans, not Marion) was a mere warm up for her. If Stosur had been saving some form for Wimbledon, she sure did not spend any of it today at Eastbourne.
Meanwhile on another court, the other women's semi had gone the way of Petra Kvitova, defeating Daniela Hantuchova 7-6 4-2 before Daniela retired. Precautionary for Wimbledon we hope.
The men's semi final on Centre Court was also pretty much one way traffic with the number 3 seed Janko Tipsarevic defeating Kei Nishikori in straight sets. The Serb had too many guns from both sides, and a serve working more consistently and prevented what would have been an upset from occurring. After all at a ranking of 30 in the world Janko was easily the highest ranked player left in the men's draw.
When the women returned Marion introduced us to another hitting partner after Samantha Stosur had left unhappy following their last session. It was Petra Kvitova, and the number 5 seed from the Czech Republic began the Women's final precisely the way Stosur had finished the Semi. With Bartoli handling the controls and dictating the flow of each point, Kvitova showed no imagination or flair in attempting to break up the French girl's game.
6-1 the first set, and we thought the guys will be back soon. First game of set 2 continued the ride to disaster and Bartoli led with a break. Serves were held (indeed Bartoli had held serve about 15 times throughout her 2 matches without being broken yet) until Bartoli went to the line at 4-2.
Here the match changed, both tactically and as a spectacle. Kvitova hit some splendid returns but followed them up with surprises for Bartoli - not mere shots up the middle of the court that Marion had been dealing with at will, but piercing forehands down the the line, deft shots just passing over the net leaving Bartoli on the back of her heels, and other shots making the previously immovable object actually have to think where to move on this tennis court.
Petra broke, and she broke the set apart, taking it 6-4, forcing pundits to reassess the outcome of the match.
The final set brought the 5th and 6th seeds into a rigorous contest, where eventually at 4-4 it was Kvitova who played the bad game on serve, leaving Bartoli to serve for the title. There remained one final twist, though, with the as yet not knocked out Czech girl bouncing back immediately with some terrific tennis to level at 5-5.
Looking like we may be heading for a tie breaker to decide the winner, Bartoli did her best to take that probability away by once again denying Kvitova on serve. Just when she needed it, at the end it failed her twice.
Marion Bartoli served the match out to win 2011 Eastbourne 6-1 4-6 7-5.
For the record, the Men's final did finish before darkness and rain could stop it, and Italian Andreas Seppi defeated Janko Tipsarevic 7-6 3-6 5-3 (retired).
Unfortunately, as Seppi was leading 4-3 in the decider, and had won the opening point on Janko's serve, the Serb fell awkwardly and although he came back after some treatment, it was clear he had restricted movement so he played the percentages, and retired hoping to address the injury in time for Wimbledon.
Seppi had played the better tennis, and was a deserving winner, this being his debut win on the ATP World Tour.
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