This is the first occasion in quite sometime that I have been more intrigued by the men’s draw at a joint event. This clay court season has been wildly unpredictable for the men and I like it. Rafael Nadal has been struggling for form. Novak Djokovic has looked great, but has been troubled by a…
It’s time for the Madrid-Rome double, beginning with the Mutua Madrid Open. Madrid is ranked as the more lucrative of the two events, but personally, I have always favoured Rome. The main stadium in Madrid, La Caja Mágica, is pretty ghastly and being at altitude, the clay plays differently to Rome and Roland Garros, thus not being the most accurate…
The WTA’s new darling, Eugenie Bouchard is beginning to divide opinion amongst tennis fans. Since reaching the Australian Open semi-finals, the WTA have absolutely bombarded Genie in every available advertising stream. She’s been to Singapore to promote the YEC with Chris Evert and has barely been off the WTA website in the last few months. …
There are some excellent second round matches in Oeiras tomorrow on the ladies side. As is characteristic of this event in Portugal, most of them have been relegated to the outside courts for the men. Who actually wants to watch Albert Montanes v Marcel Granollers? I’ve seen a few snippets of the action this week,…
Facebook and Twitter have become integral to keeping up with tennis and I thought it would be nice to have one page with links to the accounts of all the players, starting with the WTA. This has probably been done somewhere else, but I couldn’t find anything so here goes. In my searches, there were a…
After two busy weeks, this one feels like a bit of a breather before Madrid and Rome back-to-back. There is a joint event in Oeiras, Portugal (formerly Estoril) which has attracted a strong WTA line-up and a bare looking ATP draw that has just about been saved with Tomas Berdych taking a late wildcard. There…
Maria Sharapova came from a set and a break down to defeat Ana Ivanovic and claim her third consecutive title in Stuttgart with a 3-6 6-4 6-1 victory. This was a huge, huge win for Maria who has been struggling to find her best form after a long lay-off at the back end of 2013…
Away from Stuttgart, there is plenty of tennis going on this week, which I just haven’t had time to keep up with. In Barcelona, Nicolas Almagro was unable to back up his quarter-final win over Rafael Nadal as he was beaten by Santiago Giraldo, who will play Kei Nishikori in the final. In Bucharest, Grigor…
The huge headline news on Friday came in Barcelona as Rafael Nadal was upset by Nicolas Almagro in the quarter-finals, losing 2-6 7-6(5) 6-4. A whole heap of credit must go to Almagro, who was actually able to close out the match! Almagro has endured some crushing blows in his career (2013 Australian Open QF…
Stuttgart continues to offer up some brilliant WTA matches. The first match on Thursday’s night schedule saw Carla Suarez Navarro produce her best win of 2014, defeating Angelique Kerber in straight sets. Competing in the Fed Cup in Australia last weekend has unsurprisingly, taken its toll on some of the home players this week. The…
Moo's Tennis Blog 