Angelique Kerber won her first ever main draw match in Stuttgart with a superb 6-2 6-3 victory over Roberta Vinci. It was a highly entertaining match and one of the best individual performances I have witnessed in 2012. Vinci ran out of ideas in the end as Kerber dealt beautifully with everything the Italian threw…
Rafael Nadal finally turned the tables on Novak Djokovic as he continued his marvellous winning streak in Monte-Carlo and inflicted a defeat on the Serb, his first since the 2010 World Tour Finals in London. Although it was a crucial win for Nadal, Djokovic was emotionally exhausted having suffered the loss of his grandfather earlier…
This week’s headline tournament on the WTA tour comes from Stuttgart and is set to be a cracker with all of the top 8 players taking part. This tournament was voted by the players as the best Premier event on tour last year so it comes as no surprise to see such an exciting line-up…
Gilles Simon Gilles Simon, who had lost his last four encounter to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, turned the table on his fellow compatriot with a solid 7-5 6-4 victory. Simon took advantage of some wayward hitting from Tsonga and the slow conditions to reach the semi-finals. I was impressed with Simon today who played a very good…
Rafael Nadal was in typically bruising form today as he sailed past Mikhail Kukushkin, 6-1 6-1 to advance to another Monte-Carlo quarter-final. Nadal was impressive, but not tested by the Kazakh player who did not have the patience to live with the Spaniard from the baseline. He will play Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarters, who…
It has been a disappointing week for me so far as you will see here from my Monte-Carlo predictions. Today’s surprise saw an inspired Thomasz Bellucci take out David Ferrer in straight sets, 6-3 6-2. I still have seven of the eight quarter-finalists left so things could look up if I can predict the latter…
Nastia Pavlyuchenkova Underperformers in 2012 – With the promising talent emerging in 2012, there have been several disappointments as well. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who I tipped for the top 10 at the start of the year has really stalled and become a wasted talent. I really wish that she would get a permanent coach and rigid…
Andy Murray made a fine start to his clay court season with a 6-0 6-3 thumping of Viktor Troicki. Murray recorded his fifth straight victory over Troicki, who has had an uninspiring year so far. Murray will play the winner of Julien Benneteau and Jurgen Melzer in the third round. Juan Monaco, who was coming…
It now seems a good time with no WTA tournaments next week to take stock and review the progress of how the women are faring in 2012 so far. We are now into the clay court season with all systems go for the second Grand Slam at Roland Garros at the end of the May. …
You can now view my full predictions for this week’s tournament in Monte-Carlo here. I have gone for the top eight seeds to all reach the quarter-finals, but fancy Tipsarevic to spring a surprise by reaching the semi-finals.
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