Most of the results in Wuhan on Wednesday were predictable, but there was one that stood out like a sore thumb… Timea Bacsinszky d. Maria Sharapova, 7-6(3) 7-5. Bacsinszky has been in great form over the last couple of weeks, but I don’t think anyone expected this. A straight sets win over Sharapova is a…
Tuesday was a day of many minor surprises, which when all added up together resulted in decimation of the Wuhan draw. Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic both retired from their matches, but the most high profile loss was Simona Halep who went out to Garbine Muguruza in three sets. The biggest surprise for me was…
The first round in Wuhan wrapped up with Ana Ivanovic, Dominika Cibulkova, Lucie Safarova and Flavia Pennetta all going out. The Tokyo champion, Ivanovic retired at 5-7 5-6 down to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Safarova went out in three sets to Sabine Lisicki, meanwhile Pennetta was knocked out by the soaring, Jarmila Gajdosova. The biggest surprise of…
Main draw action kicked off in Wuhan on Sunday with a surprisingly solid crowd on hand for what was an eventful opening day on the Centre Court. In the first match of the day, the Chinese wildcard, Xu Shilin was forced to retire due to heat exhaustion at 0-5 down in the third set tiebreak…
The Wuhan draw is pretty great. Replacing Tokyo as a Premier 5 event, all the top players are here for this new event on the calendar. Some of the stadiums look pretty insane and it is always exciting when there’s a new event on tour, particularly one of this stature. The one big casualty is…
Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic will contest the final of the 2014 Toray Pan Pacific Open. It has been another great week in Tokyo and the draw has held up surprisingly well. Wozniacki was first into the final with a 6-4 2-6 6-2 victory over Garbine Muguruza. This was Caroline’s first win over Muguruza in…
Moo’s Tennis Blog is becoming somewhat of a tribute to Lucie Safarova of late! Many thanks to Kim (@kimdv11) on Twitter for alerting me to another great video of Lucie Safarova and Rob Steckley during a changeover. Regular readers will know i’m a huge fan of their partnership and I was bowled over by a…
First and foremost, today’s big news saw confirmation of the growing cloud of rumours as Li Na retired from tennis. I wasn’t a huge fan of Li’s game, but I really loved her personality and what she brought to the WTA. It’s such a shame that she won’t get to play in her home town,…
In the biggest upset so far in terms of seeding, Garbine Muguruza defeated Jelena Jankovic, 7-6(4) 6-4 in Tokyo on Thursday. Jankovic served for the first set twice and had a mini-break in the tiebreak, but Muguruza competed extremely well to bag the opening set. Jankovic became increasingly frustrated in the second set and after…
The big match of the day in Tokyo saw Ana Ivanovic score her first victory over Victoria Azarenka since 2010, coming through 6-3 6-4. Ivanovic went in as the favourite and continued to demonstrate her improvements this year by serving out the victory in one hour and 39 minutes. Azarenka is someway near her best,…
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