For the third year in a row, the WTA event in Brisbane has been hit with injuries and withdrawals.  Three of the four second round matches scheduled for today did not finish.  However the tournament could finish with a bang as the top three seeds remain and the quarter-final line-up looks particularly enticing.

Firstly I’ll start with my highlights of yesterday.  I happened to watch Alexandr Dolgopolov‘s match with David Ferrer in Doha, which was brilliant! There were some cracking rallies including the video below by Tenis4u .  Dolgo has apparently started working with Fabrice Santoro, who was in his box.  I love his game, but he is so frigging inconsistent.

In a match that normally wouldn’t raise any eyebrows and for the most part did not, there was a tremendous rally in the second round match between Kirsten Flipkens and Karolina Pliskova.  There’s a whole match preview by ningbo tennistv below and if you skip to 0:43:45 you can watch it there.  It is definitely worth the effort to find it!

In yesterday’s polls, 76% of you correctly predicted Kerber would win over Pavlyuchenkova.  The Dimitrov-Cilic was much tighter and in the end, the majority sided with Dimitrov, who lost 7-5 7-5 to Cilic.  Here are my previews for Thursday with more matches that look tricky to call on paper.

1. Angelique Kerber v Jelena Jankovic (WTA Brisbane, QF)

Jelena Jankovic

The match of the day from the WTA will see the first all-top 10 clash of the year as Angelique Kerber takes on Jelena Jankovic.  This has the potential to be a real cracker as both players have started the season with real gusto.  Kerber has taken out Kristina Mladenovic and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets and rather surprisingly, has yet to be broken on serve.  Jankovic looks to be playing with real confidence and is finally believing in her shots again.  She eased past Elina Svitolina, 6-1 6-3, using her killer backhand down-the-line to good effect.

Kerber and Jankovic have met just once on tour and that came in 2012 during JJ’s slump and Kerber’s meteoric rise.  Kerber won that match in Copenhagen, 6-2 6-1 in 1 hour and 18 minutes.  Jankovic has rediscovered her game since that last match.  Personally, I enjoy watching both their games and this one is a really tricky one to call.  Three sets for sure and I am going with JJ.

Prediction: Jankovic to beat Kerber in 3 sets

2. Garbine Muguruza v Venus Williams (WTA Auckland, QF)

Auckland had the typical collapse of seeds you would expect to see in an International event on Monday and Tuesday, but they held firm on Wednesday with Ana Ivanovic, Kirsten Flipkens and Jamie Hampton progressing to the quarters.  The match I am focusing on will be the late night match between the unseeded pair of Venus Williams and Garbine Muguruza.  Venus struggled with a leg injury during her match with Yvonne Meusburger, but came through strongly in sets two and three to post a 4-6 6-3 6-2 victory.  This has been Muguruza’s first tournament since Wimbledon after undergoing ankle surgery and she has made an impressive comeback with victories over Christina McHale and Sharon Fichman.  I think that Muguruza has a great future ahead of her and has largely gone under the radar after disappearing through the second half of 2013.  This has the potential to be a very engaging match and I will be sticking by my predicted champion, Venus.

Prediction: Venus to beat Muguruza in 3 sets

WTA Brisbane Quarter-Final Predictions

Serena Williams to beat Dominika Cibulkova in 2 sets (1 tight, 1 easy)

Maria Sharapova to beat Kaia Kanepi in 3 sets

Victoria Azarenka to beat Stefanie Voegele in 2 sets

WTA Auckland Quarter-Final Predictions

Kirsten Flipkens to beat Sachie Ishizu in 2 sets

Ana Ivanovic to beat Kurumi Nara in 2 sets

Jamie Hampton to beat Lauren Davis in 3 sets

WTA Shenzhen Quarter-Final Predictions

Peng Shuai to beat Jana Cepelova in 2 sets

Li Na to beat Monica Niculescu in 2 sets

Vania King to beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in 3 sets

Annika Beck to beat Patricia Mayr-Achleitner in 2 sets