By Steven Wine THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- On a sunny day in South Florida, the future of American women's tennis seldom looked so gloomy. The present's in good hands thanks to Serena and Venus Williams, but they were the lone remaining U.S. females at the Sony Ericsson Open with the second round not yet complete. Serena reached the third round by winning 6-2, 6-3 against 19-year-old Californian Alexa Glatch, who conceded her generation has yet to produce a player worthy of succeeding the Williams sisters. "There is a gap there right now," Glatch said. "You can't deny that. It's very tough out here." The showing at Key Biscayne by American women is hardly a surprise, because only four are ranked in the top 100, and the sisters are the lone U.S. players in the top 30. No American teenager is being heralded as a future Grand Slam champion, either, and former No. 1 Lindsay Davenport said the situation is worrisome. "We don't really have anyone right now," Davenport said. "If you look at the rankings, with only Venus at 28 and Serena at 27, it's not a good state." The state of Serena's game is just fine, however. She needed only one swing to reassert her superiority at the tournament where she's most dominant, pulling a return winner crosscourt on the first point to make a quick impression on Glatch. "She just nailed it," Glatch said. "I don't think I even saw it. I was like, 'OK, here we go."' An hour later, there Glatch went. For the top-ranked Williams, the victory was the first step in her bid for a record sixth Key Biscayne title. Seeded players had first-round byes. Three American men were eliminated -- Sam Querrey, John Isner and Bobby Reynolds. Querrey was beaten by No. 32-seeded Feliciano Lopez 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-2; Isner lost to No. 11 David Ferrer 6-3, 3-6, 6-2; and Reynolds was defeated by No. 18 Radek Stepanek 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-2. No. 14 David Nalbandian lost to Viktor Troicki 6-1, 6-3.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Glatch no match for Serena in Florida
By Steven Wine THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- On a sunny day in South Florida, the future of American women's tennis seldom looked so gloomy. The present's in good hands thanks to Serena and Venus Williams, but they were the lone remaining U.S. females at the Sony Ericsson Open with the second round not yet complete. Serena reached the third round by winning 6-2, 6-3 against 19-year-old Californian Alexa Glatch, who conceded her generation has yet to produce a player worthy of succeeding the Williams sisters. "There is a gap there right now," Glatch said. "You can't deny that. It's very tough out here." The showing at Key Biscayne by American women is hardly a surprise, because only four are ranked in the top 100, and the sisters are the lone U.S. players in the top 30. No American teenager is being heralded as a future Grand Slam champion, either, and former No. 1 Lindsay Davenport said the situation is worrisome. "We don't really have anyone right now," Davenport said. "If you look at the rankings, with only Venus at 28 and Serena at 27, it's not a good state." The state of Serena's game is just fine, however. She needed only one swing to reassert her superiority at the tournament where she's most dominant, pulling a return winner crosscourt on the first point to make a quick impression on Glatch. "She just nailed it," Glatch said. "I don't think I even saw it. I was like, 'OK, here we go."' An hour later, there Glatch went. For the top-ranked Williams, the victory was the first step in her bid for a record sixth Key Biscayne title. Seeded players had first-round byes. Three American men were eliminated -- Sam Querrey, John Isner and Bobby Reynolds. Querrey was beaten by No. 32-seeded Feliciano Lopez 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-2; Isner lost to No. 11 David Ferrer 6-3, 3-6, 6-2; and Reynolds was defeated by No. 18 Radek Stepanek 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-2. No. 14 David Nalbandian lost to Viktor Troicki 6-1, 6-3.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment