Tokyo has been pretty fun this year and the semi-final line-up does not disappoint with four players who have all struggled this year, but shone in Japan. 1. Venus Williams v Petra Kvitova Petra Kvitova The resurgence of Venus Williams continued today as she put away Eugenie Bouchard, 6-3 6-7(4) 6-3 in an entertaining contest…
Today saw quite an upset as a struggling, Victoria Azarenka was bundled out of the tournament by Venus Williams, who put in a measured performance to go to 3-0 in their head-to-head. I have only had a chance to watch the highlights and boy is it weird watching Azarenka not grunting. I remember she went…
1.Sabine Lisicki v Kaia Kanepi Sabine Lisicki Wow… I wrote in my preview yesterday that Sabine Lisicki was one of the few players who I felt had the belief to challenge Serena and boy did she show that today. Lisicki produced a sensational performance to come from a break down in the third set to…
1. Petra Kvitova v Ekaterina Makarova Petra Kvitova Black Wednesday, as it was so aptly coined, saw a wave of shocks and withdrawals, which has certainly weakened Friday’s schedule. The highlight in the womens draw features Petra Kvitova, who remains the one player who can save the integrity of the bottom half. She played flawless…
1. Jelena Jankovic v Li Na Jelena Jankovic Jelena Jankovic and Li Na both won their second round matches handily to set up a first match since 2009; so much has changed for both since then with JJ sliding down the rankings, meanwhile Li has claimed her first Grand Slam title. After an early exit…
Today was a real mixed bag of results; it was great to see Laura Robson defeat Venus Williams although the American is really struggling with a persistent back injury right now. The shock result of the day was Simona Halep thumping Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-1 6-1. I lost two womens quarter-finalists as Angelique Kerber also pulled…
1. Petra Kvitova v Li Na Li Na Last year, the quarter-finals of Stuttgart threw up one of the best days of womens tennis in 2012; this year could easily produce the same kind of magic with the headlining quarter-final of the day, a battle of Grand Slam winners between Petra Kvitova and Li Na. …
Roberta Vinci won the WTA Katowice title with another stunning performance in the final, defeating Petra Kvitova, 7-6(2) 6-1. The first set was high quality stuff for a surprisingly full crowd in Katowice, but it was Vinci who edged a very tight set, raising her level in the tiebreak. Kvitova went wandering mentally in the…
The inaugural Katowice final will see the top two seeds, Petra Kvitova and Roberta Vinci go head-to-head in what should be a very interesting final. Kvitova has looked solid all week although she did have to overcame a late wobble to defeat Alexandra Cadantu, 6-0 6-4 in today’s semi-finals. Kvitova looked on course for a…
1. Roberta Vinci v Annika Beck Roberta Vinci For the second time this week, Roberta Vinci made mincemeat of my predictions as she produced an excellent display to crush Karolina Pliskova in the quarter-finals, 6-1 6-0. Vinci faces another up-and-comer in the semi-finals, Annika Beck. Beck produced a very impressive fightback from 1-5 down in…
Moo's Tennis Blog 