Nella:

Oohhh, poor Elena !!  Paul, why is Elena not selected for the Fed Cup in April  ??

Yeah, I watched the match. Eurosport will replay at 10:00 GMT. 5:00 am here, but I'll get up and watch it again, as FSN's lengthy commercial stuff cut out a lotta around-the-court action, like the physio treatments, etc. I hate this, not only because she is hurt but also the way it's used to feed false perception.

Consider: Unijured, she is generally good now for finals or semifinals but she's often been a quarterfinal level player. We've got this screwed media system that endeavors to show nothing before the quarters. Thus, most TV viewers only see her when she loses. So then, the commentators can sit there and talk trash without being questioned. It's worse for those who don't make quarters yet. Developing players you and I have known of for two or three years just don't exist. When they do get in front of camers, lying commentators claim they've never heard of them.

Oh well, she'd hoped for more but 125 points ain't bad (all gravy--none defended from last year). I hope she's feeling better for Charleston. Now, The Amelia Island site has her listed as an entrant but I think that's in error. Bausch & Lomb has never appeared on the calendar on her site.

Fed Cup: She might still be called. Like Maria, she is at Tarpischev's disposal. Both have kept their calendars open enough, just in case. (The Williamses are perfectly capable of lying about their participation until the last legal moment.) But you have to realize: Shamil has more volunteers to play Moscow than he can use--top players and recent team members are mostly Muscovites. Elena wants to be chosen for Olympics one more time but, for that, she needs higher ranking, not more Fed Cup credits. (She's already got more than anyone else available--plus Olympic Silver. ) Shamil said several months ago that he respected her need to focus on tournaments.

i was sorry to see Elena had to retire cos of her back problems.  oh well, ther will be other opportunitys and i hope she will get over this fast and get well soon.

congrats to JJ for geting to the semis and for playng well -w8, why m i congratulating her? i hate her

  -joking OFC

Kat, thanx for the great commercial shots of Elena. This is so like her, I imagine she really does use the products.

"Oriflame Cosmetics is a Swedish cosmetics company selling direct. This means that products are sold by independent sales people, away from retail chains."

http://www.oriflame.com/en/home_34.html

Elena's first opponent at Charleston will be American veteran Jill Craybas. The only time she's met Craybas before was here at Charleston way back in 2002, when Elena had to retire. I imagine the Elegant One is looking to settle this rematch and I don't think she'll have a problem.

In round one, Craybas defeated qualifier Varvara Lepchenko of Allentown PA, an ethnic Russian born in Tashkent who, before now, played under the Uzbek flag. I'd rather Elena had gotten to confront the "defector"  but it is what it is.

great win Elena......well done.....Good Luck for the next round

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YOU ARE THE PERSON WHO BRINGS REASONS TO MY DAY....AND THE PERSON WHO BRINGS MAGIC TO MY NIGHTS.....YOU ARE BEST FRIEND AND PARTNER IN ALL THAT I DO.....MY SOULMATE.....

WISHING YOU HAPPINESS......

C'mon Maria,you're the best in my eyes

"Be optimistic,don't afrumpy,when the road gets bumpy just SMILE and be HAPPY"

Ditto as per Azarenka. Now, Schnyder's clinical dispatch of Radwanska suggests Patty may be playing way better than at Dubai. Head to head is 8-7 for Dementieva. Still, Elena has beaten Patty on the last two meetings. I'm hopeful that she may reach the semis and accumulate yet more points.

C'mon Elena D!

Elena D 64 64 in 1:22. Moves on to the semifinals. Vera Zvonareva took the first set from JJ 62! NOW, Vera Zvonareva beats Jankovic 62 36 62 in 1:40 ALL RUSSIAN SEMIFINAL TOMORROW!!! Elena D vs Vera Z

I hope it will be Elegant Elena vs the not-so-elegant Serena in the finals!

And of course, I'm hoping to see Elena kick some serious ass on the finals, again!

I'm thinking too far ahead, she still has to settle things with Vera.
 

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Fantasy Tennis Game - SuperTennis Everyone is invited to join! The more the merrier! Here's the code to our league 504775.

either elena or cornet im happy as long it's not serena who wins the Familycup

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http://1012decibels.ning.com/

Well, pooh. Elena lost. I could tell from watching the scores it was one of those dragged-out Russian head-games. Again she pockets a decent return (195 points + $51K). See, this is bull. Media claims to televise "a tournament" but you hardly see anybody who isn't playing against Sasquatch.

Congrats to Vera Zvonareva, who is running pretty hot. Hope she's hot enough to give Serena fits tomorrow.

Before Berlin, Elena will play the Suzuki Warsaw Masters. April 30 to May 4. What is this? An exo? Seems that Davenport will be there as well. Interesting, three days after she "can't" play Fed Cup... Will be televised by Polsat Sport -- have to see if there are streams...

http://www.suzukiwarsawmasters.pl/eng/index.php

aw..again one of the girls im rooting for to win today lost.. oh well..at least she pushed vera to a third set..hope vera wins against serena

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http://1012decibels.ning.com/

Okay, shrapi or anyone in Europe or elsewhere: I can tell from the green Eurosport overlays on the WTA site's semifinal highlights that somebody got to see Elena & Vera's match on TV.  But the replay spot on Eurosport RO showed only Serena and Cornet. Neither did the British Eurosport schedule show any other options. Where and when was Elena's semifinal shown? Eurosport.fr? Eurosport.ru Eurosport Asia Pacific?

Anyone who saw Elena play, please tell. I need to find a reliable access to whatever subset of Eurosport most often shows the players I want to see.

Hi, Paul !

Do you check out www.bet365.com and/or any of the other online gambling sites ?  I'm not sure what they were showing in the way of women's tennis today, but I've used them in the past (and again today to watch the guys in Valencia). ... The Davydenko-Federer match was my first choice, but I couldn't find that anywhere ... except on Portugese (online) TV, which I couldn't access from here in Germany.

I don't think I've ever known Eurosport to show Live tennis if it's happening at the weekend. They prefer to feed it to us in dribs and drabs throughout the week ... and then deprive us of the weekend Finals, in any way they see fit ! ...

On another note, I did watch the Sharapova-Williams match, using TVAnts, and had the (unforgettable) experience of listening to those ESPN commentators you like so much (!) .... The concept of VENOM being an 'audible' substance hadn't occurred to me before listening to their match commentary !

 

Well, I appear to have 'mis-spoken' ! ... Eurosport did, indeed, show the Final of the Family Circle Cup. I can only assume that that it got too dark to show any more Live cycling .. but was too early to be showing Live Snooker ! ... They did manage to squeeze in a nice chunk of motor sports at a particulary crucial point in the third set, so there was, clearly, at least a half-hearted effort made to upset the tennis viewers.

The men's Final at Estoril will be shown at 11pm here  ... Now that's more in keeping with the Eurosport tradition : If we have to show it at all, let's show it late, when half the folk already know the result ... and the other half are asleep !

Hey, Roxie. Yeah, you see how they are now, hunh? Whoa-boy, have I got some serious commentary on the commentators from today's Charleston final, but I won't do it on this thread.

Well, then, maybe Elena-Vera will be replayed during the week -- because those highlights on the S-E WTA site have the green Eurosport score boxes overlaid on them. It's definitely Eurosport material.

Right, Federer-Davydenko is playing on Eurosport France now, after Charleston-- good stream through TvAnts presently.

Y'know, I'm beginning to realize that the USA is actually the most-blocked nation re these streams.  I haven't been able to get anything through Bet365 since we found them back last fall. Watched a couple of matches then but lately, zip. I seriously want to find somebody in the third world who knows how and is willing to let me use their computer as a proxy server to get around these blocks.