JJ, where are you?

I was not able to watch the all match, but i am beginning to really ask myself where our good old JJ is? You know, the one that was winning because she was the most consistent of them all? We see glimpses here and there, and each time, we think : my, she is back!!! But no, it’s just to remind us that the great player is still inside here, but can only get out of hibernation for a short period of time before going back to sleep again. Please JJ, come back to us!!!

But she wasn’t the only one to lost in Dubai today.
Third Round action
Shahar Peer (ISR) d. (1) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 62 75
(Q) Regina Kulikova (RUS) d. (2) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) 57 76(2) 64
(3) Venus Williams (USA) d. Olga Govortsova (BLR) 75 60(4)
Victoria Azarenka d. (Q) Anna-Lena Groenefeld 61 46 63(12)
Vera Zvonareva (RUS) d. (6) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) 63 62(7)
Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) d. (10/WC) Flavia Pennetta (ITA) 63 60
(8) Li Na (CHN) d. (11) Marion Bartoli (FRA) 36 75 60
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) d. Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) 63 64

The Canadians at the Olympic

One thing I like to do each 4 year, is to watch the winter Olympic and this year, it is held in our Country! The Canadian athletes are put under a lot of pressure: the sentence of the last past 4 years was; the Canadians, to finish first on the medal run on our own soil. It has been 3 days now that the competition is started and we are standing fourth.

But it doesn’t really matter at this point. I just want to highlight some of the best performances done by our athletes, and i will not forget those that didn’t won a medal, but performed really well.

My favorite Olympian, Clara Hughes, managed to finish fifth on the 3,000m speed skating, when everybody thought she couldn’t do better than a 10 position. It’s not over yet, and it is quite possible that she will win medal #6 on the 5000m, which will be wonderful, since it is on my birthday. I don't care about the color, i just think it would be great!

On biathlon, Jean-Philippe Le Guellec finished #6! What a performance!!! He was able to compete with the best and did his best performance in career. On the men’s downhill, Erik Guay finished only .33 seconds behind the gold medalist, Didier Defago, which allowed him to finish #5.

Our first medal was won by Jennifer Heil, on freestyle skiing - moguls -, who was so close to be the first Canadian athlete to win a gold medal on her own soil, but she was passed by the last contestant, Hannah Kearney, who did better then she ever did before. A silver will do great next to her gold medal won 4 ago, congratulations!!!

We then won a bronze medal, on speed skating 3,000m. Kristina Groove managed finishing third and here’s another medal to her 2 silver medals from the last Olympic.
Canada, and Québec, went totally crazy 2 nights ago, when we finally won our first gold medal. Alexandre Bilodeau, made an incredible performance on freestule skiing - Moguls - to win: a victory dedicated to his brother! His life is going to be changed forever. And Quebec is really proud of him.

Yesterday, we added another silver medal when Mike Robertson was finally passed by long time rival, and defending champion, the American Seth Wescott. The least we can say, Snowboard Cross is very far from being a boring sport to watch. Even if you don’t like sport, this is something you got to watch at least once in your life.

Fed Cup Week-end

World Group, 2010 - 1st Round
Ukraine v Italy 1 - 4
Details Czech Republic v Germany 3 - 2
Serbia v Russia 2 - 3
France v USA 1 - 4

There were lot of drama this weekend surrounding the fed cup. On the World Group, the defending champions, the Italian team, was facing Ukraine and a bunch of great players. Alona Bondarenko did give the Italians a scare on the first match beating Francesca Schiavone, but it didn’t last long because Flavia Pennetta took charge of the 2 next matches and gave the lead 2-1 to Italia beating and Kateryna and Alone Bondarenko. They finally won 4-1.

There was also no drama for USA since the won 4-1 against France, Parmentier winning the only match for the French team that already didn’t have much importance.

It wasn’t the same for the 4 other teams completing the World Group I. The Czech Republic had to wait for the double match to finally know that they would be the team advancing to the next round. Groenefeld effort, from Germany, who won her 2 single matches, the second one forcing a tie, was in vain.

There were also a lot of Drama in Serbia where, the double also decided who was going to advance. On the first day, Ana Ivanovic couldn’t give the momentum to her team and Kuznetsova didn’t have a lot to do to win. On the second match, when everything looked like Russia was going to take a lead of 2-0, Jelena Jankovic, finally found her tennis when she was lead 4-6, 1-4, facing an opponent that she had never beaten before, Alisa Kleybanova, and won 8 strait games to level the chance.

And she didn’t stop there, she played like we haven’t seen her play in a long time and gave the lead to the Serbian team beating Kuznetsova in a high quality match the day after. However, it wasn’t enough: Ana lost to Kleybanova and all the big name had “rendez-vous” to decide of a winner. Russia won !

Serena Williams - Australian Queen

I don't like the woman, but she sure is a great champion, and an incredible fighter. She could have won this on a wheel chair, so much her will to win is strong. If the first week was easy for the American, the second one wasn't a walk in the park but Justine Henin, who had proven to be back, was not enough to stop her. The belgian got a little bit nervous and it wasn't a gift Serena wasn't going to refuse, or used.

Congratulations to both the Champion and the finalist. Justine is back, and this is going to be hot on the tour this year...

Dinara injured

Dinara Safina retired in fourth round afflicted by the same terrible pain on her back that forced her to retire at the WTA championship in Doha. Kirilenko profited of this walk over, but it left us all very concerned for the tall Russian.

The Australian Open III

Before to falling to Justine, Kleybanova and Wickmayer did take with them important parts of the draw: The Russian deprived Australia of their adopted Queen, Jelena Dokic, she was just too strong. As for Wickmayer, Flavia Pennetta gave it all, but her touch and strategy wasn’t enough to stop the powerful strokes of the “qualified player”. Yes, Justine should have been a seeded player, but Wickmayer shouldn’t have played at all.

The Australien Open - Part II

When the tournament started, we had no idea that 2 Chinese girls would make it to the last 4: congratulations to Na Li and Jie Zheng for their incredible run.

Li defeated players like Agnes Szavay, Daniela Hantuchova, Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams while Zheng disposed of Martinez Sanchez (the only player that inflicted a double baggles to her opponent this tournament), Bartoli and finally ended the dream tournament of Kirilenko.