In a terrific first round contest in Stuttgart, Maria Sharapova defeated Lucie Safarova, 7-6(5) 6-7(5) 7-6(2) in three hours and 23 minutes. The first two sets featured some tremendous tennis and although the third may not have been of such high quality, it was laden with drama. Sharapova led 5-1 in the third set, but…
On the mens side, there are two events this week in Barcelona (ATP 500) and Bucharest (ATP 250). The clay court event in Barcelona has drawn a reasonable line-up which as always, is spearheaded by Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer. The top 16 players have byes into the second round. Let’s take a (slightly different)…
Stanislas Wawrinka continued his remarkable year with a first Masters 1000 title in Monte-Carlo, coming from a set down to beat Roger Federer, 4-6 7-6(5) 6-2. This was a pretty significant win because Wawrinka had only beaten Federer once before in 14 previous clashes. Oddly, that also came in Monte-Carlo. I only saw the third…
Stuttgart is my favourite WTA event on the tour excluding my biased love for Eastbourne. The draw may be missing Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Li Na, but it remains absolutely stacked. You will be hard pushed to find a better line-up of first round matches in any WTA draw this year. Can you tell…
I’m excited. Sunday will see an all-Swiss final between Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka in the conclusion of the 2014 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. The winner of this sure-to-be absorbing finale will take the Swiss number one spot. The polls for the semi-final matches saw 65% correctly go for Wawrinka to beat Ferrer and a third…
Quarter-finals day in Monte-Carlo was a long one with Milos Raonic and Stanislas Wawrinka kicking off the first quarter-final at 10.30am local time and Novak Djokovic and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez finishing off Good Friday’s proceedings at gone 8pm. I can’t remember ever seeing a match in Monte-Carlo being played under the lights. Their schedule starts early,…
Stanislas Wawrinka produced another fine performance in Monte-Carlo as he defeated Milos Raonic, 7-6(5) 6-2 to move into the last four. There was nothing to call between the pair in the first set with no break point opportunities. Raonic led in the first set tiebreak, 3-0 and 5-3, but it was Wawrinka who managed to…
Seven of the top eight seeds have reached the quarter-finals in Monte-Carlo, which should finish with a flurry. It is safe to say that the last two days have failed to produce any gripping matches. The four day Easter weekend starts tomorrow and I am very much looking forward to watching some of the action…
A fantastic slate of third round matches in Monte-Carlo for Thursday requires the full SWEEP of matches in today’s preview. The action on Thursday features the world’s top six players with Nadal, Djokovic and Federer highlighting Court Central. In other news, BBC Sport continues to wind me up with their poor coverage of tennis. They…
I was really saddened to hear the news last month that Elena Baltacha was battling liver cancer. I always admired Bally as a tennis player for her terrific attitude and determination on court, and how much she achieved in her tennis career. It was confirmed today that there will be three mixed doubles matches during…
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