Earlier today in the Madrid Open semifinals, it was quite the beefy battle as two of the more...muscular...girls faced off against each other.
#2 world ranked Aryna Sabalenka (6.5/10) took on Greece's Maria Sakkari (4.5/10), and the bulky Belorussian won in straight sets. The match was over almost before it began, running an ironically svelte 1:25 on the heated clay in southern Madrid (though curiously enough, it was 3 degrees cooler in the middle of the Spanish desert today than it was here in Edmonton).
Sakkari is the latest player dispatched by Sabalenka in this tournament, of which I've only been able to watch a little due to the time difference. I didn't get to watch any of yesterday's match featuring Egypt's Mayar Sherif (4.5/10), nor against Jodie Lee Ann Sweetin, er, newcomer Mirra Andreeva (7/10).
I watched a bit over the weekend when she played Camila Serrano (6.5/10), but that was in between other matches I wanted to watch. She opened up Madrid with a Round 64 win against Sorana Cîrstea (8.5/10), the round in which so many hotter tennis players (as has been the recent trend) were eliminated. Sakkari herself defeated Dutch hottie Arantxa Rus (8/10) in that same round, though most of her opponents weren't worth keeping around with the exception of Paula Badosa (8/10, reduced from a previous score of 8.5).
Later in the day we got to watch a much more enjoyable match, featuring #1 ranked Iga Swiatek (7/10) defeat Veronika Kudermetova (9/10) after an embarrassing attempt at a drop shot blew up in the sexy Russian's face while already down 5 games to 1 in the second set. Swiatek also spent the tournament facing off against hotter opponents: Petra Martic (8.5/10) yesterday, Ekaterina Alexandrova (7/10) on Monday, Bernarda Pera (9/10) over the weekend, and Julia Grabher (8/10) in Round of 64.
As a result of today, #1 will play #2 (this doesn't actually happen all that often) tomorrow in the big match that will determine how the tennis world looks towards Roland Garros.
Oh, okay, fine...here's a picture of Eugenie Bouchard on the same street I think I took a picture at when I was in Madrid, who made waves this week by claiming doping and nobody would ever believe her unless they watched Sabalenka vs Sakkari which really validates a lot of her thesis doesn't it?
Editor's Note: You have to go to the second-last photo, Instagram inexplicably doesn't allow you to embed anything other than the entire photostream.
