Vera Zvonareva defeated Caroline Wozniacki, 6-2 4-6 6-3 on day 2 of the YEC in Istanbul. Zvonareva played a stunning first set, the best I had seen from her all year as she took the game to Wozniacki, stepped up the court and moved her opponent around using the court superbly. Her stats of 18…
Sam Stosur overturned a losing 9-0 head-to-head record to finally beat Maria Sharapova in an intense match, 6-1 7-5. The first set was closer than the scoreline suggested, but Stosur won the key points and played a solid set of tennis against a visibly rusty Sharapova. Sharapova raised her game in the second set, but…
Caroline Wozniacki beat her close friend Agnieszka Radwanska, 5-7 6-2 6-4 in a fascinating battle that lasted 2 hours and 39 minutes. Radwanska was by far the better player in the first set and seemed to have a clear game plan to attack the fragile Wozniacki forehand. She got the early break but lost it…
The season is drawing to a close and the draw is set for the penultimate tournament of the 2011 tennis season. In the red group, the world number one Caroline Wozniacki is joined by Petra Kvitova, Vera Zvonareva and Agnieszka Radwanska. I think this will be the more competitive of the two groups. I believe…
Agnieszka Radwanska claimed the final spot for the YEC, which begin next week in Istanbul. Radwanska lost in the second round to Lucie Safarova, but Marion Bartoli who had to win the tournament in Moscow to qualify pulled out of her quarter-final match with Elena Vesnina. Moscow and Luxembourg have been littered with surprises and…
Svetlana Kuznetsova progressed into the second round of the Kremlin Cup with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Alize Cornet. Kuznetsova was patchy, but showed sparks of some good form. It was a nice match-up for Kuznetsova against a passive and ineffective opponent – Cornet hit just 4 winners in the whole match and was playing…
Petra Kvitova claimed the Linz title yesterday with a dominant performance over Dominika Cibulkova winning 6-4 6-1. Everything seemed to come together perfectly for Kvitova this week as she made the perfect preparations for the year-ending-championships (YEC) in Istanbul next week. This week sees the final week of tournaments in Moscow and Luxembourg. Vera Zvonareva…
Petra Kvitova defeated Jelena Jankovic, 4-6 6-4 6-3 in a terrific semi-final in Linz. I thought this would be a comfortable victory for Kvitova much like her 6-2 6-2 quarter-final win over Daniela Hantuchova yesterday, but I underestimated how good Jankovic’s defence is and how she can make her opponent play one more ball. Jankovic…
Daniela Hantuchova staged a superb fightback from 7-5 3-0 down to beat Ksenia Pervak, 5-7 6-3 6-4. Pervak looked to be on the way to the biggest win of her career but she let slip her lead to allow the more experienced Hantuchova eventually prevail after she herself wasted several leads in a see-saw swinging…
Sabine Lisicki was knocked out of WTA Linz by Alberta Brianti in a 7-5 4-6 6-3 loss. Lisicki raced out into a 5-2 lead but struggled throughout the set with her serve and ball toss. This then seemed to affect the rest of her game as she could barely get a ball in court and…
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