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by Alex Dimitrov Round of 16 matches began early Thursday morning at the Acura Classic. Fifth seeded Kim Clijsters opened up on Center Court against Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria at 10:00AM sharp. Clijsters was not playing her best tennis, nor did she need to as Maleeva was missing serves and overheads left and right. Clijsters, who has decided not to have surgery to correct a re-occurring shoulder injury, took the first set 6-3 despite inconsistent play. Her groundstrokes lacked depth and placement, not to mention the fact that her balls were quite loopy and had no sting on them. Maleeva, however, was playing even worse despite taking a 3-0 lead in the second set. Both seemed to be making lots of errors and not nearly enough first serves to accommodate their baseline game. Clijsters stepped up her level of play and quickly dug herself out of trouble by pulling ahead 4-3 in the second. Maleeva was simply not converting on her break point opportunities. Her play on the big points was very sloppy and she appeared to be in a foul, irritated mood. Kim prevailed 6-3, 6-3 in what had to be the most boring match of the day. Up next was Jennifer Capriati versus Meghann Shaughnessy in what promised to be a very hard hitting match. It was interesting to see if there would be any bad blood between the two due to the entire Fed Cup fiasco earlier in the year. Both seemed to be tense as the match began. Neither could find their rhythm on serve as they broke each other consecutively leveling things at 1-1. Finally Meghann held for 2-1, after which Capriati took a short bathroom break. Jennifer was very aggressive on her serve despite not really getting any good placement on it. Her forehand seemed to go off at times, yet she played the big points very well, as she has during the past two years. The match went on serve until Capriati finally broke to go up 4-3 and with that she held for 5-3. Meghann held comfortably and made Capriati serve out the set at 5-4. Jennifer seemed to get a bit nervous as she quickly went down 0-30 on her serve but won the next four consecutive points and with them the set at 6-4 thanks to a few untimely errors by Shaughnessy. As in the first set, both broke each other to start off the second but that was the only game Shaughnessy would see for the rest of the match. As Jennifer pointed out in her press conference, Shaughnessy's backhand was the shot really holding her back as she couldn't hurt Jennifer with it. It consistently landed loopy and mid-court, giving Capriati an easy target. Jennifer prevailed 6-4, 6-1 in what was another showcase of Shaughnessy's unfulfilled talent. During her press conference Jennifer talked about how much she loved playing in San Diego and how happy she was to be playing matches in a row. She hadn't played since Wimbledon and was excited preparing for the Open. Surprisingly, she made it through without once talking about the Williams sisters. Anna Kournikova was Conchita Martinez's next victim...or so it seemed after Martinez took the first set 6-1. Kournikova would later go on to say that she was still stiff in the first set referring to a stomach and thigh pull injury, which has affected her play all week. Kournikova said she was cautious at first, as she was scared of injuring herself any further. Anna did pick up her play, however, and with it came the crowd's support. Conchita Martinez (who is a San Diego resident) felt like the underdog as the crowd cheered and jeered in support of Anna, who took the second set 6-2 when she finally converted on her third set point. The third set was a display of Kournikova at her best. Drop shots, backhand slices, falling backwards backhand volleys, half-volley winners, top spin moon balls, crisp overheads, and wickedly placed serves gave Anna an early 4-1 edge in the third. At one point she had worked so hard to construct a point that she sat down in the linesperson's chair between points. Anna had clearly found her mojo and she used it on Conchita Martinez to take her out 1-6, 6-2, 6-1. Her matches were looking more like her practice sessions with new coach Harold Solomon -- fierce, yet patient and consistent. These days Anna was willing to work the points rather than worrying about how to get rid of the ball faster. There's definitely something about Anna, and it's not her sun block congested face. Venus Williams's press conference interview was much more entertaining than her Round of 16 match versus Anne Kremer. Williams quickly disposed of Kremer 6-3, 6-2 and came to speak to the press before even Kournikova had come in for her press conference. It was unusual to see Williams so happy and talkative. Rather than giving her usual one-sentence answers Venus talked about her addiction to Lifetime television and her eating habits. She confessed losing the remote control to her T.V. and therefore having to stick to one channel due to being too lazy to go up to the T.V. and manually flip through channels. That channel happened to be Lifetime, as she proudly recited their usual programming schedule and her obsession with watching. "My time has gone down the drain," she said as she talked about spending more time in front of the T.V. when she could be training or studying. She said she'd tried to read a book during Wimbledon but had gotten bored so she skipped the middle and went straight to the end. Another thing Venus shared with the press was her love for popcorn, which according to her was the reason she wanted to go to the zoo. Williams also reflected on classic matches in her career, citing the '97 US Open semifinal versus Irina Spirlea and the '00 US Open semifinal versus Hingis as two matches she considered timeless. When asked about her next opponent Kim Clijsters, Venus said she felt Kim had done everything she could have in the finals at Stanford so there really wasn't much else she could do against her this time around. The evening match featured Lindsay Davenport and Chanda Rubin. This time Davenport looked sharper than she had in her second round match. Her one-two punch combination (serve and forehand/backhand) was working brilliantly as she drilled Rubin 6-2 in the first set. However, Chanda managed to bounce back in the second by taking care of her service games and pouncing on Lindsay's second serves. Rubin took the second 6-2 and looked to take a 1-0 lead in the third having four game point chances on her serve. Davenport, however, broke Chanda on the very first break point opportunity she got and never looked back. Lindsay was confident enough to come into net, hit a few tough overheads, and still dictate from the baseline. All in all it was a good evening for Davenport, who is looking better and better with every match she plays. At the end of the day it was still Venus Williams standing out as the woman to beat. She is in fact the only player who seems to be able to have her cake and eat it too...or as she would prefer, have her popcorn and eat it too. |