The desert of Indian Wells can be cruel to some and kind to others. So far it's been a virtual mecca for Dinara, who's scored back-to-back straight set wins over Parra Santonja and, rather impressively, Dani, 76 64. You know what's even weirder? With her next match against Sam (yes, MY SAM) scheduled for Monday's night session, that's 3 straight matches on Stadium Court, two of them at night.
Indian Wells knows what's up. Put the spotlight on the hamster.
Speaking of cute little animals, I feel like I've seen Sam play a whole bunch this week. Then I realized she's actually only played one singles match. I guess I get waaaaaaaay too excited for her doubles matches with Frank. She looked solid against Pous-Tio, but that wasn't a test in any way shape or form. Pous-Tio had no weapons with which to do damage and the one hour match was basically hitting practice for Sam.
Being the Negative Nelly that I am I will just say that the match really should have been 45 minutes. Sam let her off the hook way too many times. But I like her attempt to get to the net and serve and volley more, even if the results range between calamity and FUBAR.
She's played really well in doubles, though, which is kind of new. For all the talk of her being a former doubles star, which she totally is, she's kind of sucked at the net for the past year. Don't pretend you haven't noticed.
And so we'll have a night match on Stadium Court between two players who probably should have been Roland Garros champions but aren't and whose careers will likely be defined by those losses.
Was it something I said?
(Pics: Forty Deuce)
