New Haven - Fine Tuning! - 網球

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26/08/2006:

On Friday Justine scored another win her in US OPEN warm-up tournament by
beating Russian rival Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3 6-3 in one hour and 21 minutes.
The early morning rain caused a delay in the day session, but Justine's night
match went on as schedule. The Belgian tennis icon played calm, yet her
signature high caliber tennis against the Russian. Justine will play returning
American veteran Lindsay Davenport in the finals on Saturday.

It was the 13th meeting between Justine and Svetlana, and yet again they
showcased the best of modern women's tennis with power, all court play, and
pure attacking tennis. The word conservative nor counter punching isn't part
of the vocabulary for these two US OPEN champions. Justine launched ahead at
3-1, and never gave an inch. Svetlana played her best games toward the latter
stages of the first set, but Justine always had one more superior shot. Name
a shot and it was on display Friday night at Yale, aces, soaring 1-handed
backhands, dropshots, lobs, and inside out forehands. It's enough to make a
person's head spin, and it was too much for a tired looking Kuznetsova. The
first set went to Justine 6-3 in 34 minutes.

After the intense first set Justine lost her opening serve as Svetlana regained
her composure. Just when it looked as if a very subtle shift of momentum
occurred the Belgian tennis icon broke the Russian's serve in the second game.
The quality of tennis was still very high, yet Svetlana clinged on for dear
life as Justine sped away to 4-1. There was another teasing little door
opening for Kuznetsova when JH-H's first serves started to dropped from the
seventh game, but Justine never let things stray far from her dominance.
It was 6-3 in 47 minutes to the swashbuckling Belgian.


Final Score 6-3 6-3 in 1h 21min



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