Hartt writes:
I had a great day at Rogers Cup yesterday. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm but not too hot. Although those metal seats in the main stadium still made you feel like you were in some sort of oven. The first match I saw was Bouchard v Vekic. I must be one of the few tennis fans on the planet who is basically neutral about Bouchard (neither a fan nor a detractor), so it was interesting to be among a huge crowd of Genie fans. It was a big crowd for a Tuesday afternoon, a real testament to her star power. And it also meant I had to pay twice as much for my ticket as I'd planned - all the cheap seats were sold out. I kind of felt sorry for Genie, the crowd was very demanding and although they gave big cheers for her good shots they let their disappointment be known as well. I began to understand the incredible pressure she is under when playing at home. (And the pressure is even worse when Rogers Cup is in her home town of Montreal.) The match itself was OK but not great. Both women struggled with their serves, with Bouchard having even more problems than Vekic - poor first serve %, too many double faults, and Donna feasted off Genie's 2nd serves. Bouchard seemed nervous at the beginning and was broken in her first service game, much to the crowd's dismay. It was mostly baseline rallies, with the occasional drop shot and some excellent DTL winners from both. Overall Vekic was the better player and it was clear early on that she likely would win the match. (As she did.) I thought Genie looked fit - she is a good weight and has noticeable muscles in her upper arms and shoulders. On the other hand, if Karolina Pliskova looked slender, Donna Vekic looked downright scrawny. Later on I saw part of the Aga v CoCo match and Aga in person is so tiny - not short but with a small frame and thin arms and legs. When she and CoCo stood next to each other, waiting to shake the ump's hand, CoCo looked like she would make 2 of Aga. As an Aga fan, I was thrilled when she creamed CoCo, making it look easy. Outside of a couple brave CoCo supporters, this was definitely an Aga crowd. The match I was especially looking forward to was Kasatkina v Svitolina, a battle between 2 young up-and coming WTA players. I am a big Dasha fan (she is on my treats list), and Svitolina is having a great season, now ranked No. 5. The match was at the Grandstand, where you are so close to the players you can see every change of expression as well as their shots. This was very helpful when watching Dasha - when she hits the ball she looks fierce, even angry. But, unfortunately, the match was something of a disappointment. It was a good example of what we complain about here, the lack of variety in women's matches. Both players hit powerful, deep, accurate shots, mostly down the middle. This creates long rallies that end when one of them makes an error. There was an occasional drop shot and the few times that Kasatkina had the opportunity, she hit a good volley or swing volley. But it was boring after a while, and I started to think more about the German beer I was planning on having to celebrate Sascha's Citi Open title than the tennis. I left during the 2nd set and learned later that Svitolina won in SS. I saw parts of a couple other matches. Makarova dispatched Peng easily in front of the couple dozen fans who weren't at the Bouchard match. During her on-court interview Kate had a nice smile and was very gracious. She seemed genuinely excited about the win. Following that match Pavlyuchenkova had no problem with Cornet, who had no answers to Pavs' powerful shots. Pavs leads their h2h 5-0 (now 6-0), and it was easy to see why. So I got to see a lot of tennis yesterday, and that has to be it for this year. The ticket prices are a real obstacle. But it was nice in the Bouchard match to see about 20 young kids sitting near me, who looked like they were from a community centre, enjoying the match. So someone has donated tickets, it's just too bad there is not more of that generosity (and a good way to fill some of those empty seats).
