Serena wins 6th Miami title

Immediately after IW central court saw the last players walking off from the stadium, the lights turned on in the courts of Key Biscane, where another premier Mandatory took place in the two weeks that preceded Easter.
The tournament had no time to start that a sudden news already changed the equilibrium of the draw as seed number 2 and two times AO champion Vika Azarenka withdrew, making the bottom half of the draw looking far more open to surprises.

Surprises indeed happened already in the early rounds with quite a few lower seeds falling in their first matches in the second round and higher ones one step further as Indian Wells's finalist Caroline Wozniacki lost to Spanish youngster Garbine Muguruza, Angie Kerber defeated by Sorana Cirstea and Petra Kvitova out by the hand of Belgian Kristen Flipkens.
At her comeback after the walk over given in Dubai and the skipped even of Indian Wells, Serena Williams played Italian Flavia Pennetta. The former doubles' world n°1 and singles top tenner gave Serena a nice match to start with since the double 6-1 in favor of the American doesn't reflect the hardly fought match, with every game going to deuce.
Serena seemed to struggle a little more in the following days as no-one of her wins seemed to convince she was sure of a deep run, but despite the lapses and several awkward sets, the world number one and top seed kept winning matches reaching her QF against Li by finding a way out from a set and a break down to Cibulkova in R4.
In their QF clash it was Serena who could run away with a win in straight sets 6-3 7-6(5), a match

whose quality won't be remembered as the best those two could produce.
Quality wasn't the trademark of the defending champion neither, as Agnieska Radwanska played far from her standards in R4, before finding back some of her all-round solid game to outlast Sloane Stephens in three sets and then again in the QF to come back from a set down to Flipkens.
The Chinese reached that point without showing much of her best tennis neither, at her comeback after the Australian Open Li Na looked quite on shape, but still rusty in her game and not fully focused, as her win over Muguruza showed as she needed thousands chances before closing the first set which twice looked fully on her hands (5-2 up and service and later 6-2 up in the tie break).
Maria Sharapova on the other half of the draw seemed to be walking on silk as she showed no problems in winning all her early rounds without wasting much time on court losing only 12 games en-route to her quarterfinal, where she was set to face Italian Sara Errani for the second week in a row. In California the Italian put up a great fight in the first set, where she had set points, before

surrendering in the second set. Here in Miami things moved on quite differently, as Maria looked a lot more dominant in the first set, to eventually be broken when serving for the set and be forced to get a vital break at 5-all in order to be able to close the first 7-5 for her. In the second set, though, Sarita didn't give up and tried for new ways to break Masha's game and she found a few of them, which lead to 3 set points, all of them cleared by Maria's powerful hitting, the same which eventually will let her close the match in straights, 7-5 7-5.
In the last QF clash held in the night of Miami Italian Roberta Vinci and her old-styled game was facing the former world number 1 Jelena Jankovic from Serbia, who's game looked as good as rarely in the past years before this match. The two fought one of the most entertaining and instense, as well as high qualitative, matches of the tournament, a battle of around 3 hours after which the Serbian could get out of the stadium with a 6-4 6-7 6-3 win.

As much as the quarter finals were intensively fought, the semifinals went on fast and without many "coups de théâtr"as in two very fast sets Serena dispatched Aga Radwanska 6-0 6-3, whilst Sharapova let Jankovic win the same amount of games in their 6-2 6-1 match.
Leading towards the final the interest about the match was great nonetheless, as this match withing current world number 1 and 2 had a lot more to offer than the "simple" title: for Serena a win here, would have meant the 6th title, for Maria the 1st after four finals reached and lost in Key Biscane. Moreover the two were facing for the 14th time and Serena was leading the H2H for 11-2, where the latest win of the Russian is dated 2004 and in their last meetings nothing could suggest a chance for Maria to start winning again against Serena.
The form showed in the past weeks was a great burst of confidence for Masha though and it played an important role at the very beginning of the match, when the Russian immediately took the lead pushing hard on the throttle, hitting solid and powerful groundstrokes, which at first disoriented Serena, whose serve didn't live up her usual performances and so the return. Maria took the first set 6 games to 4, but the lead didn't seem to help building enough confidence to keep her aggressive play going.
On the other hand the younger Williams started the 2nd set looking far more focused and ready to battle past the heavy shots of the Russian. The fight lasted but a few games, very competitive ones, where both girls tackled for each point as if it was a match point. In the end it was Serena coming out with the brightest solutions and most extraordinary shots, which let her take the second set  and start the 3rd in full-confidence. On the other side of the net Sharapova looked suddenly lost and with no answers for this unexpected switch in the momentum of the match. Before she could even try to work a way out it was over, 6 games to 0 for Serena. Game, set and match Williams 4-6 6-3 6-0, 6th titles for her, 5th final loss in Miami for Maria and 11th consecutive loss against Serena.

Maze breaks podium record, Shiffrin amazing first time!

Rebensburg ends Maze's winning streak

Slovenian Tina Maze, after another amazing win last weekend in Courchevel, was called for another record to break. Her start of this season made the Slovene to win more races in the same season and we are not even halfway! But most of all, she was able to win all the first four Giant Slaloms, equalizing Karbon's record of few seasons ago.
Had she made it to five, she would have done something extraordinary, but the quality of the field in the discipline is one of the highest this season and the rivals were angry for a victory: one out of them was the most motivated, Viktoria Rebensburg, the GS Cup winner of the last seasons had finished second behind Maze in Saint Moritz for a bunch of hundreds and after the debacle in the French race wanted to prove herself back.
In last night's race the German already did something uncommon for the season, because she was the first one to finish ahead of the Slovene after the first run, but most of all she had done that in style, by setting a great advantage over her. Right after Tina, placed herself Austrian Anna Fenninger; the two had a good advantage over all the others, so that it seemed unlike to have big surprises regarding the final podium and so it was indeed as those 3 placed themself on top at the end of the race too.
The rather easy hill of Aare and the even easier course set for the 2nd run didn't let much space open for making the difference and so not many come-backs took place.
When the top 10 was to run down, French specialist Tessa Worley surely wanted to forget her rather pale first run and attacked the course with a better attitude and menaged to be fluid in the gliding parts around the middle. Tessa hit what was and eventually would be the best time for the run and that was worth a great jump up from her 8th place, but it was enough to make it to the podium as she finished 4th.
Austrian Kathrin Zettel, for the first time in the season looked rather fatigued and menaged to stay in the top 10 just for a bunch of hundreds finishing 10th indeed.
Anemone Marmottan came to Aare with a poor row of falls in the latest races, but a great first run had placed her as high as 6th, but sadly her streak was to continue as she fell in the early gates of the second run.
Swedish slalom specialist Frida Hansdotter came to her home races strong of her best result ever in GS just scored in Courchevel and she wanted to improve it on home soil. 5th after the first run, the Swede -who was 5th in the French race- didn't menage to better Worley's time, but finishing right after her secured herself another 5th place, when immediatly later Maria Riesch failed to stay in front of Tessa and Frida too.
Anna Fenninger knew she had some margin over the French leader, but she didn't want just to finish her run still on the lead, she wanted to provide an assault to the first place and so she had to invent a great run, even better than her first one. Her run was very impressive indeed, but didn't better Worley's partial time, so despite her big lead over her by the finish it was hard to believe she could make up all the gap with Rebensburg.
But before that it was Tina Maze's turn, the queen of this year's GS, the Slovene looked a little tired though and seemed to have a not so great feeling with the Swedish snow, so despite a great show of technique and lines, she wasn't as fast as usual and in the end, she couldn't stay ahead of the Austrian breaking her hopes for keeping the winning streak alive even before the last skier had run down.

It was all on Viktoria's hands or better on her skis as she had a huge advantage to administrate, but she seemed not to be content with winning only, she wanted to give a sign that she is still the best one and so she attacked as if she had to make up a gap.
She looked unstoppable and even gained a bigger advantage after the first part, then suddenly a huge mistake slowed her down and her gap drastically reduced. Suddenly a safe victory seemed to be under question, even more when few gates from the end another big mistake happened to Rebensburg, but she reacted as the champion she is and despite it all she still finished with a big gap of 60 hundreds ahead of everybody else.

Shiffrin living a teenage dream

If the GS didn't give many emotions the slalom that followed the day after surely didn't lack of them. Even before its start a news shocked the whole world of skiing as Marlies Schild injured herself during a training in the morning and vague news give her out possibly for the whole season.
The race started with an unexpected fall from one of the favourites as Kathrin Zettel went out, then it was Maria Riesch's turn, but the German didn't shine in the Swedish night and in the end was just 7th at the end of the first run. Tina Maze then took the lead, with a very solid run and she kept for the whole time the first group was featured, but today it was the day of youngsters as many of them found their best results in the first run and eventually by the end.

First Mikaela Shiffrin started with a very aggressive attitude and by exploiting the lightheartedness of her 17 years, she skied as if it was effortless and in this way she could better Maze's time and jump on the leadership.
Her status didn't last much as hot-form Frida Hansdotter, after a terrific run, overtook the American in the leadership. Another Swede soon made her name big as Maria Pietilae-Holmner fought very hard and in the first intermediates stayed close to her team-mate, so much that she finished 3rd by the end of the run.
Another good news came, this time to the Canadian team, as last year's first time winner Erin Mielzynski, after many disappointing falls scored a very good run, placing herself on the 5th place, just behind Maze.
The great day of the Swedish team didn't end with the top names, and not even the fall of Wikstroem - who was on the way for a great time too- could make it go bad, as Nathalie Eklund was 9th.
In the second run Swiss Wendy Holdener scored the best run time, but it didn't give her much of a raise in the ranking since from 14th she finished 10th.
The young Swede Eklund didn't let the placement of the first run scare her and by showing another great display of technique she took the lead and climbed the ranking finishing as high as 6th, her best result so far in WC.

Erin Mielzynski had a lot of pressure on her shoulder because of the many falls, but this time she could stay strong and despite looking a little cautious at times she menaged to keep her position, 5th at the end and her second best result in world cup.
Tina Maze, only 4th in the first run knew she was just one podium away from the record of number of them before the new year, but most of all, she knew Maria Riesch had a pretty bad day and was almost sure to finish out of the top 10, so when she started she found back the fire she had in all the races she ruled so far and made a terrific display of her great weapons such as strneght and technic. An outstanding bottom part made her cross the finish line with a very big lead and in the mind of everyone the image of her first win in slalom for the year was already there.
If Maria Pietilae couldn't do much to stop the Slovene, Mikaela Shiffrin surely had something else on her mind, as when she started, she started to win. The American looked incredibly solid and despite the fighting attitude she barely ever fell backwards with a complete control of her skis. Before the last section she was very tight with Tina, who had the best bottom part up to that moment, but Mikaela topped that one too and finished with the best time in front of the world cup leader.
First run leader Frida Hansdotter then knew that if she wanted to achieve her first victory in world cup she had to outdo herself and she tried, she gave everything to stay in front of the young American, but a little too wary bottom part took that chance away, but as the big celebration while crossing the finish showed, she was very happy to be back on podium, even if again of the second place.

To double the joy of the moment, with this very first victory Mikaela jumps in front of Tina Maze in the slalom cup and snatched the leader bib from Maria Riesch.

Ligety and Vonn once again on another planet

Lake Louise's undisputable Queen

Third race and third success in row, this time in superg, which sets her winning streak on that slope one step forward, this was indeed Lindsey Vonn's 7th success in the last 7 races on the Canadian track. But if yesterday's result was nothing but pure and amazing talent, today she had been much wiser in her skiing, avoiding any big risk, mostly in the steep part, but that didn't change the eventual result as no girl could finish closer than half a second.
2nd in the end was Julia Mancuso, her team-mate and long time rival. Julia was on the lead until Lindsey finished her run and she probably caressed the idea of beating her on her beloved slope, conscious of having done a terrific flat final, the best one before Vonn's run. So when Lindsey looked rather prudent on the steep part and the partial time before the flat showed a very close gap between the two, none could expect Vonn to easily gain a greater advantage of Mancuso, but so she did and grabbed another victory.
Julia had to be very proud of her race though, because, despite the gap that separates her from Vonn, she was able to ski a very convincing run mostly, as it has been already pointed out, on the last part of the slope. She knew she had done something great the moment she could overtake Anna Fenninger on the temporary lead of the race: the Austrian had herself skied an extremely good run, built on some great gliding and line choices on the flat parts, but most of all on an outstanding interpretation of the big turns set on the middle steep.

4th and 5th finished respectively Tina Maze and Maria Riesch. The two of them had to content themself of staying at podium's feet, but still scoring good points for the overall ranking, in which the former is still leading, despite the not-too-positive weekend.
Maze's run was, anyway, a great step ahead of what she had shown in downhill, where she didn't find the right way to fully express her abilities. Today she skied much better, mostly on the steep, where her GS talents helped her to score on of the best partial timing, unless losing quite a lot by the end on the last few gates on the flat.

Ligety still too good, Hirscher and Simoncelli the best among humans

It's been more than a month since the last Giant Slalom men had raced at, but the winner is still the same: Ted Ligety, the American the passport says, but from outer space his time said today on Beaver Creek's snow.

Ted was the one to open the race in the first run and then to finish it since he was leading already after the first half and didn't fail to confirm his placement, actually he did even improve his lead over the second by finishing more than 1'7 seconds ahead of all the others. What struk the most of Ligety's runs is the apparent effortless way he faces even the most difficult passages and trapts set on the courses, despite the longer and less carved skis, where the others need to invent tricks or somehow use their whole power, he just flexes his Heads and makes the turn.
The first among the others on the finish line was Marcel Hirscher, 2nd after both the runs, the only one to be closer than one second to Ligety after the first run, but a couple of mistakes in the second partial couldn't but let this delay to grow bigger, at one point in the second run he looked on trouble defending his placement too, but in the end he could save it from the assault of Italian Davide Simoncelli.

Davide had a very good first run already as he finished it on the 3rd place, but could secure his comeback on the podium only through a solid second run, lightened by an outstanding bottom part, where he could inflame the local crowd with his amazing style. Davide looked on cloud nine when he jumped on the podium, since this summer he got injured and needed a very long and painful recovery and that podium looked like a great prize for his hard work.
Right away from the top 3 finished Manfred Moelgg, who gained one position at the expenses of French Pinturault, who still was able to finish 5th. The two had to be happy in any case, the former for setting another proof of his comeback to the top of both the technical races, the latter for the coinfidence he could draw from such a good result coming from the injury he suffered.
But if the best placements didn't see many changes in the 2nd run, what happened right behind them was strongly affected by three huge comebacks: Aksel Lund Svindal, to once again prove his love for the Birds of Prey rose from 17th to the eventual 6th; Max Blardone, after a huge mistake in the first run barely made it to the 2nd, but there he gave proof of his talent and finished 9th from 18th, whilst Austrian youngster Noesig did even better finishing 10th from the 28th place of the first half.

Vonn back to top in Lake Louise

A lot of talking has been going around the health conditions of Lindsey Vonn since the very misterious hospitalization she underwent a few weeks ago; she looked very tired in Aspen and everyone was wondering whether or not she would have done well in the speed events, mostly because she has always shown a great feeling with the Canadian slope.
All the doubts were cleared, or at least the questions about her chances here in Lake Louise. In less then 48 hours the American won both the downhills making it extremely clear, that on such slopes there's no chance she gets defeated by anyone - it's not a case that with those two wins she's on a 6 races winning streak here-.
In the first Downhill on Friday Stefanie Moser from Austria, with the low bib number of 2 led the race for quite a while thanks to a very impressive first part and an overall solid steep before scoring good sesctions in the final flat again.
The real surprise came few numbers on when American Stacey Cook surprised anyone by exploiting her gliding abilities in the upper and bottom parts, but most of all by hazarding a very brave line to begin the steep in the middle, which eventually paid well as she bettered Moser's time and one after the other saw a lot of big names finishing way behind her.
First to go down in the top group was Lindsey Vonn and she immediatly started to score the best timings in each session and her advantage over the team mate wouldn't but get bigger: one the steep she seemed not once troubled by the speed or the big turns set, like a missile she crossed the finish line with an actualy gap of almost two seconds on everybody else.
Nothing could Maria Riesch do, but see her sectors being one after the other sign the growing distance between her and the American, whilst Tina Weirather from Liechtenstein gave the illusion to be able to stay close to Vonn, before eventually lose distance on the last long flat section at the end. The two finished tie on third place, while Stacey Cook, with the 2nd place, scored her best result ever in World Cup.

The second day the conditions where tougher and the first 15 girls had much of an advantage as after the fog-break a big wind started to blow and none could do much against it, none but Vonn. But let's start from the beginning.
After a couple of rather colourless performances by the first numbers, Swiss Kaufmann-Abderhalden took the lead by using her gliding abilities to the very best of her chances and despite a pretty poor couple of turns in the steep, she could create an impressive speed on the flat session by the end that secured her the lead for many runs after.

Called to the remake of yesterday's unexpected result Stacey Cook didn't fail: she made again a terrific entry to the steep and could accumulate a terrific advantage over the Swiss, but the latter had an unbelievable flat section, so the gap in advantage of the American started to grow thinner and thinner, but by the end it was enough to take the lead.
As it has already been said above, after the longer break caused by the fog, a big wind started to blow on the upper part and almost none could deal with it and lots of them suffered major gaps from Cook already after less than 40 seconds of race.
That didn't happen to Italian Mereghetti, one of the best in the trainings but only 7th yesterday. Dada started with an avarage upper part, unless starting to recover by the middle, when suddenly she almost fell at the beginning of the steep. The huge mistake cost her quite a bunch of hundreds, but in the end she would still finish 5th.
Of course Lindsey Vonn had to leave her trademark on the race and after killing the race just one day back, she did something even great today, by first staying ahead of Cook in spite of the wind blowing, but then by almost stopping on the big turn before the steep because of a bad mistake. The American didn't let this bring her down and despite the error, she gained an unbelievable speed to launch the flat and there she simply blew everyone else's assault to her victory away, by finishing ahead of her team-mate of more than half a second.
In the wind none of the other expected prtagonists could do much but trying not to lose too much, but Lindsey not only made up for that, but with a mistake that would kill anyone's chances for a good placement, she won the race and with margin...just unbelievable!

Italians tame the Birds of Prey

Christof on the top of a very Norse podium.

The Birds of Prey is known as one of the most difficult slopes for speed races in the WC because of its unique mix of flat parts and the famous steep and its waves. Because of the lack of snow and therefore, the bigger jumps, the course setter decided to try and slow down the course.
Sadly, despite its success in making the jumps relatively easier, one guy still got injured: Tobias Stechert from Germany was one of the first runners on course and he was skiing a very convincing run until he finished long in one of the trasverses set on the steep and in the attempt of recovering from that mistake he got his knee's ligaments torn.

After the long break it needed to take the German safely away from the course, Austrian Georg Streitberger with bib number 6 and immediatly after Peter Fill scored two very solid runs and started to lead the race.
Italian Innerhofer, despite the low number, was reported to be on a very good condition and he didn't fail to prove the rumors right. He found a very good feeling with his skis in the gliding part on top and then painted amazing lines down the steep middle part of the Beaver Creek's course.
None seemed to be able to ski anywhere close to the Italian until Kjetil Jansrud with bib 14 showed a great feeling with the snow and the course and he was making up the gap he had from Christof and seemed set to better the Italian time, but a sudden and unexpected mistake on one of the last waves and that cost him the chance of taking the lead - he would finish 3rd eventually.
The big favourite for the race was surely Svindal, the Norse came here with the impressive wins in Lake Louise last weekend and he indeed started to ski a great run by exploiting his great power even on the more technical passages. He kept staying very close to Innerhofer throughtout the course, but by the end as like as his team-mate a mistake cost him the chance of winning the race, finishing incredibly close, but still 2nd.
The top 5 finishers were completed by Austrian surprise Florian Scheiber, that could finish 4th with a big as high as 42! 5th placement for another Italian, Dominik Paris.

Marsaglia makes a win out his first podium

Matteo Marsaglia had shown bright sparkles of talent in the past few years, but so far he had never menaged to score a run errorless or worth of his abilities. In a race that again was sadly signed by another crash and the injury of a racer in the early runs (Austrian hope Max Franz lost consciousness on the crash, but apparently he's already well), out of the first names, only Italian Werner Hell had done an errorless run -he would finish 5th-, as the tricks set by the course-setter were many and it was very hard to find the right lines and the right attitude towards such a difficult slope.
Then it was Austrian Reichelt's turn and he didn't let the thought of his friend's injury get into his mind and found the right motivation and corague to attack this slope, probably angry for a good result after the bad ones of the last speed races. Reichelt took the lead over the Italian and kept his place on top for a few more runners, as long as another Italian, Matteo Marsaglia, took the lead over him. Matteo was coming from a couple of very convincing results in GS and he showed his great form by looking effortlessly painting lines, rahter than skiing down an iced hill.
If being ahead of such an inspired Reichelt wasn't enough of a proof of the greatness of his run, one by one all the specialists of the discipline started to fall behind his back whenever they crossed the finishline.
Once again the Norwegian team mated looked ready to trouble the Italian leadership, but in some sort of re-happening of yesterday's plot both Jansrud and Svindal couldn't but make a mistake that would cost them too much for the win: Kjetil this time not even making it to the podium, only 6th, whilst Aksel-Lund didn't change his placement of the day before, ending up 2nd.
Italian Peter Fill wanted to leave his sign on the race too and made a promising start by scoring the best time in the upper part, but due to a bad line-choice he went out right away.
4th in the end was Ted Ligety, who seemed to have worked hard on the discipline, by proving his Lake Louise's great placement wasn't a fluke and this run can't but put him the heavy favourite target for tomorrow's GS.

Svindal goes back-to-back, Zettel stronger than ever

Svindal rules the superg too

That he was the favourite to win, it was rather clear to everybody, but it takes a champion to back-up the expectations of the eve; Aksel Lund Svindal has proven several times in his carreer to be an undoubtfully great champion, but the way he skied today added another proof to his status.

Starting with a low number Ted Ligety surprised the viewrs by skiing effortlessy not only in the very technical passages on the steep part of the slope, but also being better than usual in the very last long flat of the Lake Louise course. Still, he was the 2nd to race down the setting, so none really believed he had a chance for a great placement on the final ranking, but one by one a lot of specialists of the Superg started to finish behind the American "Giantist" and so his run started to look more and more convincing.
Italian Werner Heel, bib number 7, looked very close to oust the American from the temporary leadership as he finished the steep very close to him and started to recover distance by the middle of the final flat, but a little mistake cost him the couple of hundreds that set him right after him. The Italian had to be happy at the end of the race as he eventually finished 5th, his very best result in a long while - Ligety finished 4th!-.
It needed a truly inspired Joaquim Puchner, from Austria, to better the time from Ted and he really had to ski an incredible flat section in order to do so. Another Austrian, Max Franz few runs later had a solid run too, yesterday's 2nd finisher didn't ski as well as in downhill, but still made a very good display of calm after the amazing result from 24 hours earlier finishing 8th.

Right after the colourless run from Innerhofer, French skier Adrien Theaux skied an incredibly solid run throughout all the legs, making a terrific final intermediate to size the lead, just in time to check what Svindal would have done.
All the pressure was on his wide shoulder, but as a Champion he is, the Norge didn't let all this prevent him from skiing his own race: he started good and by exploiting his gliding attitude took a great advantage in the early section already. He then made a terrific line to enter the steep and despite looking rather mechanic on the making went through the big turns in the steep with such a big speed that couldn't but increase his advantage over and over until the very finish when he lost a few decimals because of a little flaw in the flat, but still almost a second faster than everybody else.

Top 4 slalomists from another planet

First run in Aspen, CO, was a little pale, some sort of lazy start for the actual party which took place a few hours after for the 2nd one. After the first half the top 5 skiers came all from the top 8 at start with Zettel leading, but all them were in the space of 80 hundreds. Right after that little group the gaps were fasting growing bigger as the bib's number rose -the only exception being Irene Curtoni, but she sadly fell before the finish-.
In the second run the plot shifted to a more interesting one: first it was Italian Manuela Moelgg trying to add some spices to the race as she scored a very interesting time and started to climb the ranking from the bottom (she eventually finished 18th from 27th). But then it was Zuzulova's turn to show how the 1st run had only been a mistake in the making and she was a much better skier than her first run's placement suggested: from 20th she rose as much as 11th, but her partial time was eventually the 3rd at the end.
When the top 10 were to get down, the local crowd went comlpetely crazy for the run of the local star Mikaela Shiffrin, as the young amarican stopped the Slovakian leadership and started to climb the ranking too as high as 7th by the end.

German Lena Duerr edged the lead, but she didn't last longer on the top of the ranking as her team mate Maria Riesch knew she had to ski a terrific run to make up the gap from the 1st run leader and most of all recover from the GS fail. Riesch started very agressive and immediatly scored a great intermediate, but nonetheless kept pushing hard on the throttle until the very end. It was hard to believe someone could better such a run and a proof to that seemed to be given by Pietilae-Holmner solid, but not good enough run.
Marlies Schild was of another idea though, fire was burning in her eyes as she had her amazing winning streak interrupted in Levi because of a fall and she's been just one win away from all time record of slalom victories in WC. She wanted to show she was still the best and the 3rd place of the first run was too little for her. She started like a fury and in a blink of an eye she was crashing Maria's hopes for the win.
Yesterday's winner and Levi 4th placed Tina Maze knew she could do less to bother such an inspired Schild, but she also knew that every point is precious for the overall cup, so she skied smartly and without mistakes she could secure herself another podium, by finishing between the Austrian and Maria Riesch.

The first run leader, Kathrin Zettel had a lot of pressure to deal with as she hadn't been winning in slalom for a very long time in World Cup and she surely knew it wouldn't need just a solid run to edge the team mate, she needed something exception and so she did: in the first half of the race she had a little mistake,nothing very serious, but it cost her almost all the advantage and on the intermediate she had nothing but few hundreds left. One could think it was over, but she didn't, she knew she could do it and by putting together a stellar final section she gained a gap big enough to stop Schild's assault and win her first race of the season.

Maze over the moon, Svindal faster than the rest

Svindal 4th time on top in Lake Louise

Aksel's great ability in gliding always made a great contender out of him for all the speed events in the very fast slope of Lake Louise, but up to yesterday he had never won a downhill there despite the 3 wins in SuperG.
The Norge had ruled the trainings though and clearly seemed intentioned to start well the season of the speed racers, but the field was very determinated to make the absence of the Suiss champions a non-factor - with Cuche retired and Feuz out for physical problems part of the media questioned the level of the field-.

Austrian Max Franz was one of them, having scored the best time in the first training and being one of the many hopes for the future of his team. And he didn't fail to prove his great abilities as with bib number 3 he crossed the finish line with a terrific time that none for long could better. The sole Fayed and Paris of the first 15 skiers on slope could do something close and that let them finish 7th and 8th respectively.
A great delusion once again came for Carla Janka, the former overall winner, who's still fighting with a severe back injury and seems to be unable to ski as he used to as he finished so much as 51st eventually.
Local star Erik Guay was the first to bother the time of the Austrian sensation, but by the end it wasn't enough as he finished just behind (6th at the end of the race). His 2nd place didn't last loger than a minute as right after him, Austrian Kroell showed all his sensibility to draw amazing trajectories and produce speed on the long last flat: but for a blink of an eye, or even less, 2 hundreds of seconds only, he couldn't better his team mate's time and so he finished right behind Fraz.
It was then Svindal's turn and it was just a ride to success as he did better than everybody else in all the sections of the slope but the very first leg. None seemed surprised then when he crossed the finish line with 60 hundreds of advantage to Franz who finished 2nd even by the end of the race. 3rd place for Kroell, who had to share the podium with a surprisingly relieved Marco Sullivan, who had a bib above 40!
Another surprise came for the 4th placed guy, as German Tobias Stechert went against the odds for his best placement ever in World Cup.

Another slope, the same outstanding Maze

Almost a month ago Tina Maze won the opening race of the season to size the first win in world cup after more than a year, but she didn't want to wait for so long again to grab another success and after a very positive slalom in Levi, she came to Aspen, here in the USA to consolidate her lead on the overall ranking, mostly in her beloved GS.
Differently from what happened in Soelden Tina Maze was still leading after the first run, but she had a very dangerous opponent really close to her as Austrian Fenninger was just 6 hundreds away from the lead. All the other girls, though, were pretty far from those two since Zettel, 3rd after the first leg, was over a second away.
Italian silver medallist in the latest ski World Championships, Federica Brignone, looked very in troubles as she was the only one of the top group not to make it to the second run, whilst Lindsey Vonn, despite her misterious illness, not only showed at the start, but could somehow stay close to top 10 after the first run.
Levi slalom's winner Maria Riesch, on the other hand, looked still far from the best days in that discipline and couldn't finish the run, giving the Slovene Maze a good shot to widen her lead on her.

The second run started with a poor run by Norwegian Hope Lotte Sejersted, but that was immediatly made up by a terrific run by French skier Taina Barioz who led the race for a very long time after as she finished as much as 7th at the end!

Another great recovery built on a solid second run has been made by the local rising star Mikaela Shiffrin, who scored her only 2nd top 30 finish in Giant Slalom, but could actually finish among the very best girls as she eventually finished 9th. The one who occupied the same placement after the first run, Lara Gut, was surely hungry for a come back to the places on top, where she belonged not many seasons ago. The Swiss showed as usual a great fighting spirit, but this time she hit a great run, very solid technically and almost errorless that gave her the lead when she finished it and most of all let her stay there for many more runs after as she finished 4th at the end.
Viktoria Rebensburg, last years' best Giant Slalom racer, wanted of course to recover from the 2nd run exit of Soelden and so she attacked the slope with no fear and it paid off as she could snatch the lead from Lara Gut and eventually made it again to the podium.
Sadly for the Italian Team, first run's surprise Irene Curtoni, 4th at the start, wasted a very convincing run with a huge mistake after the last intermediate when she was ahead of the German for more than half a second. Irene could still finish 5th, second best result in her carreer.
Austrian Kathrin Zettel broke Rebensurg hopes for a greater comeback, when she bettered her time at the finish line taking the lead and a secure place on the podium. All the pressure was then on the last two girls to come down Aspen's course and that seemed to take its toll on Anna Fenninger, whose race ended before-time, after very few gates because of a fall.
Tina Maze was then to start with over a second to administare during her second run and once again, like in Soelden, she did that very well, showing a great securety in her weapons and displaying her great techinque which let her gaining even more advantage in the first few legs and finishing with 90 hundreds over Zettel.

Ligety schools everyone in Soelden's snowstorm

American Ted Ligety was one of the -if not the one- most critic about the new rules on GS skis, as he said they wouldn't make any difference in the speed, but would actually increase the risk of injuries. One would then believe that this change might actually set him back on earth, whereas he's been the best interpreter of the discipline over the past few years. Well this one was surely surprised at the end of today's race, as not only he won, once again, but he completely destroyed the chances of everybody else, as the first mortal, Italian Manfred Moelgg, finished almost 3 seconds behind Teddy!
What makes it even more scary, is that the scenario after the first run was rather different.
The huge snowfall that kept blowing a lot of snow throughout the night gave a lot of troubles to the organizers, but after a great effort the race could start, but the whole course was slowed down by the fresh snow, mostly for the first racers and very soon a lot of bumps ruined the course.

Austrian Philipp Schoerghofer, unluckily for him, had the duty to open the race and couldn't even qualify for the second run as slow it was the last flat part of the slope.
Passage by passage the course got a little faster though, but of the top group only Ligety could score a time good enough to stay into the very top places after the first run. On the contrary French Thomas Fanara could take advantage of the little faster surface and by attacking the course from the very first gates with no fear for the bumps he could set the best time, by placing few hundreths ahead of the American.
Swedish Myrher and Austrian Baumed too, made solid runs and placed themself just behind Ligety and then with bib 21 Italian Moelgg showed a great attitude and even if he looked on the point of falling many times, he could stay up and score a terrific run, which placed him 3rd.
In the huge snowfall and the bad visibility a few guys from behind could find the right intuition to score a good run and so, quite many of them could qualify for the second run.
Cyprien Richard opened that second partial, but he wasn't really lucky and went out before time, then it was Roy's turn, and the Canadia made a really solid run even if at first it didn't look like one, as the very next racer, Slovakian newcomer Adam Zampa, destroyed his leadership with a terrific and brave run that would eventually give him a long-lasting leadership and a final placement into the top 10, 9th at his very first 2nd run in World Cup! Such a great achievement for the young guy from Vysoké Tatry, who had showed terrific improvements in the past few seasons, thanks to a very commendable hard work!

Zampa's run was so good that in the end his time was the 2nd best and could take him ahead of champions like Kostelic, Bauman and Mathis!
Only when the top tenners of the first run were to come down, the advantage over the Slovakian was big enough to let them overcome him at the finish line.
When it was last year's champion's turn, everyone expecred a great reaction from Hirscher, who didn't look very good in the first run and so it was. The Austrian seemed to shake out all the doubts and attacked like only he can do and leaded the race for a few intense moment.
The conditions of the weather were very tough and so the course, with all the bumps impossible to be seen in the snowstorm and so many runners fell or went out earlyon and after the exit of Simoncelli, Italian fans were holding their breaths while Manfred Moelgg was skiing down the hill.
Once again, like in the first run, the Italian looked always risking a little too much as if he was about to crash, but again he didn't and when he crossed the finish line he ended Hirscher's leadership.

His own was to last very few though, as Ted Ligety seemed not to be bothered by the fog or the snow and skied as if it was smooth and sunny, scoring a crazy good time, 2.75 seconds faster than the Italian and nothing could the first run's leader Fanara apart from trying to go beyond his limits. Too bad for the French it didn't work and he lost the podium too, finishing 4th.