Russian Hat-trick

Russia's domination in world tennis on the WTA was summed up today when all three singles medals at stake were won by Russian's, with Elena Dementieva taking Gold, Dinara Safina, the Silver and Vera Zvonereva, Bronze.

It all began when Zvonereva, a late replacement for the injured Maria Sharapova, won comfortably against China's Li Na, 6-0 7-5 to take Bronze.

This set the stage for a hard-fought final match between Dementieva (world #7) and Safina (world #6 and sister to Marat Safin). The first set was easily won by Safina 6-3, with Dementieva having a very nervy start.

In the 2nd set, Dementieva started to play more freely and subsequently went ahead 4-1. However, Safina's powerful groundstrokes and fantastic defensive play brought it back to 4-4. Unfortunately, Safina's mental fragility started showing itself when a series of uncharacteristic double-faults cost her the set, 7-5.

The 3rd set was pretty much the same but again, it was Safina's double-faults that let her down and with Dementieva tightening up her baseline play, she prevailed 6-3 to take Olympic Gold.

Olympic Gold was ever more sweet for Dementieva who, 8 years ago at Sydney, achieved Olympic Silver at the similar event.

It was a very emotional situation for the Russian ladies, especially when standing on the winners podium, listening to the Russian National Anthem playing and watching the 3 Russian flags being raise. A very rare and spectacular moment indeed - tennis or otherwise!

Congratulations to the 3 ladies and Russia as a whole! Will Russia repeat this once in a life time feat? Tune in to London in 2012 to find out!

Predictions - Dementieva vs. Safina

An interesting match-up for this afternoon's all-Russian encounter between Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina.

In in blue corner, we have Dementieva, world #7, who has one of the best backhands in the women's game and some fantastic groundstrokes. Unfortunately, she's also famous for her mental fragility, as well as her weak serve.

In the red corner, we have Safina, world #6 and winner of of a few big events coming into the Olympics. She's very much in-form at the moment and her deep, penetrating groundstrokes have brought her once again to a major final event. However, match jitters have also plagued her game, resulting in some double-faults during crucial points.

One may think that Safina's power-play will be too much for Dementieva to handle but then again, Dementieva did take out world #4 Serena Williams in the quarterfinals.

My prediction is for Safina to win, simply because she's the more in-form of the two players and much better prepared mentally.

Catch the match on Astro's CH818, which starts at around 2pm Malaysian time.

China Out, All Russian Women's Final

It will be an all-Russian women's final when Dinara Safina took out China's, Li Na, 7-6 7-5 and Elena Dementieva beat fellow Russian, Vera Zvonereva, 6-3 7-6 in the women's tennis semifinals.

The final match-up should be an interesting one given that Safina is one of the best power players on Tour at the moment and Dementieva has the best groundstrokes when in-form.

It all depends on whether Dementieva can calm her nerves and serve well; otherwise big returner, Safina, will be all over her.

Should Zvonereva win her 3rd-place play-off match against Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, it will mark a perfect hat-trick of Gold, Silver and Bronze in the Beijing 2008 Women's Tennis!

My prediction is for Safina to win because I just can't see Dementieva having the mental capacity to counter the power play and consistency of in-form Safina.

Jankovic Out, King Aces Djoker

It was a bad day at the office for Srbija (Serbia) as women's #1, Jelena Jankovic and men's world #3, Novak Djokovic lost to Russian Dinara Safina and Spanish Raphael Nadal in their respective semifinal matches.

Jankovic could not cope with the power play of Safina and wilted under pressure to succumb 2-6 7-5 3-6.

Elsewhere, Djokovic fought back from a nervy start to level the match 1-1 with some fantastic cross-court backhands but could not find an answer in the end for Nadal's consistency and incredible court-coverage.

Nadal won the match, 6-4 1-6 6-4.

Safina will now face Li Na and Nadal will face Gonzalez in their respective women's semifinal and men's final matches.

Predictions - Jankovic vs. Safina

Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina's quarterfinal match has been postpone to today (Friday) because it would be too much to ask them to play at 3am!

This should prove to be an interesting encounter between the new world #1, Jankovic and in-form Russian, Safina (sister of the great Marat Safin).

Jankovic is known to have match jitters and her serve is very suspect. She has something to prove though as she, unlike previous world #1 compatriot, Ana Ivanovic, has not won a Grand Slam event and she's hoping that Olympic Gold will more than make up for that.

Safina is no push-over though, having won some major events prior to Beijing 2008. She's got a fantastic return of serve and her punishing ground-strokes proved too much for China's Zheng Jie in the previous round.





My prediction is for Jankovic to win, simply because she has so much more to prove by winning Gold in Beijing - to cement her place as one of the tennis greats. I expect Safina to push her to 3 sets though.

A fantastic quarterfinal not to be missed!