The tennis action keeps on coming with all third round matches in Doha and remaining second round matches from Rotterdam to be completed on Thursday. Doha saw some richly entertaining matches on Wednesday as Petra Kvitova beat Venus Williams and Simona Halep beat Kaia Kanepi in third set tiebreaks. The end of the Venus v…
First it’s time for a rant… the US Open have decided for the past couple of years to split the mens first round over 3 days, which personally I think is ludicrous! I had a similar issue with the French Open starting their tournament on a Sunday, but this year was the first time that…
There were quite a few upsets in the mens draw last night as Nicolas Almagro (l. to Dimitrov), Jerzy Janowicz (l. to Blake) and Fabio Fognini (l. to Stepanek) all went out in the first round. Of course the big news and the most uplifting story of the day was Alisa Kleybanova claiming her first…
Nastia Pavlyuchenkova Underperformers in 2012 – With the promising talent emerging in 2012, there have been several disappointments as well. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who I tipped for the top 10 at the start of the year has really stalled and become a wasted talent. I really wish that she would get a permanent coach and rigid…
Alisa Kleybanova No win this year has made me more happy than Alisa Kleybanova’s 2-6 6-3 6-2 victory over Johanna Larsson in the first round of the Sony Ericsson Open. Kleybanova, who has fought of Hodgkins Lymphoma disease, won her first match since the Premier event in Madrid last May. Kleybanova demonstrated her fighting spirit in…
Where do I start? This week’s draw is the most exciting women’s draw for quite some time and I will try to summarise it without rambling 😉 QUARTER 1 – Victoria Azarenka (1) v Marion Bartoli (7) Alisa Kleybanova Victoria Azarenka continued her fairytale start to 2012 with another dominating victory over Maria Sharapova in…
I was delighted to wake up to the news that Alisa Kleybanova will return to the WTA tour next month in Miami where she has been awarded a wildcard. Kleybanova, who was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma last year and has been out since May, announced via a message on the WTA website that recent tests…
This is always my least favourite part of the tennis season after the excitement of Wimbledon as many of the top players take a well earnt rest from competing. This week, a new WTA tournament is being staged in Baku, Azerbaijan. There have been a few new tournaments added to the circuit this year, notably…
Jelena Jankovic was defeated in her 2nd round match with Alisa Kleybanova last night after holding a 4-0 lead in the 1st set and having 3 set points. This was not a surprising loss for JJ (pictured right) who has struggled against Kleybanova in previous matches and as she spoke in her post-match interview, is…
The first round saw some interesting results most noticeably with Ana Ivanovic pulling off a comfortable victory over nemesis Alisa Kleybanova. Ivanovic has struggled for form over the past 18 months but a good victory here has set her up a 2R clash with Marion Bartoli, which looks to be a winnable match on paper…
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