Simona Halep was the first player to officially qualify for the semi-finals of the WTA Championships, whilst the fate of Ana Ivanovic and Serena Williams still hangs in the balance. In the final group game from the round robin stage, Ana Ivanovic needs to defeat Simona Halep in straight sets to advance to the semi-finals. Anything else will mean that Serena Williams will reach the semi-finals. Both Ivanovic and Halep won their second group match; Halep secured her best career win against Serena Williams, 6-0 6-2, meanwhile Ivanovic earnt her first win over Eugenie Bouchard, 6-1 6-3. Halep’s win over the world number one, Williams was certainly surprising, but more so, how straightforward it was. After falling asleep last night whilst watching the highlights, I have made it my mission to catch-up with that match tonight!!!!
Serena recovered to defeat Bouchard, 6-1 6-1 in Thursday’s final match of the day. This meant that Bouchard is the first player to be officially eliminated from the tournament. It’s been a rough tournament for Genie and i’ve seen some negative comments about her performances on Twitter. I feel people can be so reactive sometimes; this takes nothing away from what has been a fantastic year. She was the best performer at the Grand Slams this year and that is something you cannot fluke. Next year is going to be really, really tough for her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she did go backwards a few steps in the rankings, but I have no doubt she’ll be there or thereabouts in a couple of years. Injuries and fatigue have affected her in the last couple of months and it’s easy to forget that Bouchard is still a new face on the tour… She won the Wimbledon juniors title TWO YEARS AGO!
Back to Friday’s match… Ivanovic and Halep have played each other on the WTA tour on three previous occasions with Halep winning their last two matches; in Madrid, Halep eased past Ivanovic, 6-2 6-2. Ivanovic’s only completed win against Halep came in Fed Cup action on clay earlier this year. The pair were set to meet in the quarter-finals of Beijing before Halep pulled out of the tournament through injury. This is a tricky one to call. Halep’s victory over Serena will have give the Romanian a big boost in confidence. She looked to be struggling with belief since the summer, but her win over Serena should have rectified this big time. However the fact that Ivanovic is fighting for something could be the difference in this match. Simona has the capability to knock Serena out if she loses! It’s an interesting dynamic… i’m going for Ana to win in straight sets and therefore, qualify for the semi-finals.
Prediction: Ivanovic d. Halep in 2 tight sets
ATP Basel Quarter-Final Predictions
Rafael Nadal d. Borna Coric in 2 sets: For those who read my ATP preview, I hope you noticed I had Coric to the quarters 😀
David Goffin d. Milos Raonic in 2 sets
Ivo Karlovic d. Benjamin Becker in 3 sets
Roger Federer d. Grigor Dimitrov in 2 tight sets
ATP Valencia Quarter-Final Predictions
Andy Murray d. Kevin Anderson in 2 sets
David Ferrer d. Thomaz Bellucci in 2 sets
Jeremy Chardy d. Pablo Carreno Busta in 2 sets
Tommy Robredo d. Pablo Andujar in 3 sets
Moo's Tennis Blog 
You know I’m an Ana fan through and through…but her serving this week has been such a liability and you can’t have a weak serve against a player like Halep.
I think Halep in two OR Ivanovic in three (if her serve holds steady).
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I am a big fan of Sharapova Wozniacki and Ivanovic so my ideal day is they all win in straights tomorrow but I just don’t feel it. I think Sharapovas gone, Kvitova will beat Woz and Ana won’t win in straights. Maybe 3 but that won’t be enough.
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If Ana loses one of the first sets then I hope she stays positive, because she could still grab a heap more ranking points from beating Halep, and also stop Halep from achieving max ranking points on the leaderboard. If Ana wins today and Wozniacki and Radwanska DON’T then it’ll put Ivanovic back in the top five for the first time since 2008.
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Didn’t young beat raonic?
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Wouldn’t it be a smart move to lose to Ana? That was she knocks out Serena and improves her chances of winning the tourney.
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way*…I think she might be doing that right now, served for the match at 5-2 and got broken it’s now 5-4, another chance to close out the 1st set.
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And she gets broken again, now 5-5. She is definitely going to beat Radwanska and can surely take Wozniacki/Ivanovic in the final. Smart move girl.
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She loses the first set in a tie breaker and then wins the second effectively granting a second round ticket to Williams. Not so sure about that but then again she did beat Serena in straights she can always do it again. True mark of a champion.
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I reckon Nadal has lost more games this year than he has all his career. With this form he probably should withdraw from the year ending tournament as well.
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It was revealed in the last hour or two that Nadal is out of Paris and London and will have his appendix removed in early November.
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Shame! I wish him all the best. So Andy moves up into 7 and Daveed into 8. Their matchup today should be interesting. As the tourneys go by I see the chances of Milos and Grigor making it in get slimmer. Quite disappointing too, they have both had a solid year.
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