Mad Sam smiled. She had done well on Pops' boat. Swift her dagger had cut the throat of the sailor while the good old C4 had done the job. Sam was confident for the fight with the Green Blobwitch. Little did Sam know Pops' had filled her with the Evil Green and once again the Dark Side was activated. Another finger to cut or would Sam be destroyed by the Green Blob?....

WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD

Elena's injury becoming critical at this point is tragic. [:'(]

Listen carefully to the yankee sh!t-talkers now & they'll show you exactly what they are. They're desperately regrouping & trying to make nice because of the email at what they've already blurted out. [:@] But they can't help themselves.

In fact, they're mad as hell that the Russian did not take her injury on to the finals so that--while they're not totally keen on Sam (Brad Gilbert sees her victory over Serena as "luck")--they could represent it as a victory over the East. [:P]

Geez, what if Nella is right & Francesca wins the RG? LOL! Y'know, Schiavone has moved back home from London, so they can't even claim it's "really" a Brit thing... 

The best news of today is that Stosur WON !  [Y]

Sorry Paul, I go for a final between Stosur and Schiavone with a win for Schiavone.

At the end of her career, a Grand Slam title will be the cream on the cake [^]

[/quote] Wow, did I predict this well ??  I do know a bit about tennis [;)]

Good luck to the both of them !  Well deserved  [

The best news of today is that Stosur WON !  [Y]

Sorry Paul, I go for a final between Stosur and Schiavone with a win for Schiavone.

At the end of her career, a Grand Slam title will be the cream on the cake [^]

[/quote] Wow, did I predict this well ??  I do know a bit about tennis [;)]

Good luck to the both of them !  Well deserved  [

[/quote]

I assume you did note my acknowledgement at that time:

[quote user="paul_pipkin"] Elena is playing against injuries & Schiavone is moving very well. That can make the difference especially on clay so you might be right. Still, the record says it can go either way. [/quote]

That was 22 hours ago. Which begs the question why the commentariat found the retirement "shocking"--suggesting she was obliged to call a WTA trainer (like THOSE are real authority [:P]) to satisfy the talking heads she was really injured! Minutes later, Patrick McEnroe got lightheaded and nauseous--no doubt at the volume of "eat sh!t & die" emails and had to take a break.

Yeah, got a little hot in the ESPN commentary booth, it did. So they backed off that crap real quick and ran a ten-minute, pre-canned Carillo piece on injuries--couldn't let Mary comment directly. (They had already had to pull Cold-War Carillo off commentary during the Dementieva-Petrova match when her vitriol overflowed.)

No clue with whom Mad Sam likes to go "On the Beach". [;)] Perhaps we'll hear from the venerable and loose-lipped "Lady Margaret of Court" on the subject?

According to Drew Lilley, Francesca said after the semifinal: “I know her (Elena), so I respect her. If she decides to finish (quit), she has for sure some good reason. But anyway, (the match) was (full of) long rallies, and I don't know how she could play the first set.” [:^)]

We know Schiavone doesn't bother herself with the perfection of English. And she is indeed known for a loose grasp of what goes on around her. HOWEVER: If that equivocal last line were taken to suggest commentarial slander of Elena, I would come off my indifference to this final & cheer for Sam. [:|]

[quote user="CROUCHING TIGER"] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tguZGd41fLA [/quote]

Lol! [H] 'Course, I was thinking more like http://www.youtube.com/w...2eqNbF3w&feature=related 

[quote user="CROUCHING TIGER"]Crossed my mind when i saw the title of the S. Kramer-anticipation. A classic that one!![Y]
[/quote]

[H] See PM.

Well deserved for Francesca,  she is the type of player who needs to fight and hustle in other to win and today she did it well.Well deserved!!

Her volleys were great.. a 29 years old nice speech...very happy for her and all Italian friends...!! :)

This is something that I think Maria should add to her to do list: serve and volley, volley more and more. It'd be more easy winning points for Maria as a strong hitter.

Congrats to Schiavo. She made it. I was wrong [:(]. I bet on Sam. I lost my money. Damn you, Sammy.

It's touching to see Francesca's happiness. She almost kissed everybody, including the red dirt [:^)]. Her joy was great. She deserves this victory. I know some of my Italian friends won't sleep tonight. Now they're waiting for Italy to win the Soccer World Cup!

What made the difference in this final? The Aussie power was completely destroyed by the Italian intelligence. If Sam wants to win a GS, she needs to work her backhand! BTW Shiavo's one-handed backhand is not that bad!

Congrats to Schiavo. She made it. I was wrong [:(]. I bet on Sam. I lost my money. Damn you, Sammy.

It's touching to see Francesca's happiness. She almost kissed everybody, including the red dirt [:^)]. Her joy was great. She deserves this victory. I know some of my Italian friends won't sleep tonight. Now they're waiting for Italy to win the Soccer World Cup!

What made the difference in this final? The Aussie power was completely destroyed by the Italian intelligence. If Sam wants to win a GS, she needs to work her backhand! BTW Shiavo's one-handed backhand is not that bad!

[/quote]

What kills Sam was the pressure that she didn't know how to handle it.

[/quote]

There's something to the pressure, I imagine. Sam has come a long way fast. Before the lymes disease, she was "just" a doubles champion. [;)] Well, she's a major contender now.

Still, this is mainly about Francesca. Yeah, sometimes, she can employ that backhand with almost Federer style. Where I've seen her most often melt down is at the net--net the ball when she's right on top of it--or get the ball over & fall into the net herself. Fortunately, she didn't go haywire today. I'm skeptical of "last chance" pronouncements. But I do think she was gonna believe that. With victory at a major, I wouldn't be surprised to see her do a lot more this year. [:)]