1. Angelique Kerber v Ana Ivanovic Ana Ivanovic The first two third round womens matches both went right to the wire on Wednesday, but it was Angelique Kerber and Ana Ivanovic who emerged victorious and will meet in the Madrid quarters. Ivanovic defeated Laura Robson, 5-7 6-2 7-6(5), which was certainly a match you could…
Maria Sharapova An exciting week of tennis on both the ATP and WTA tours has concluded with Maria Sharapova defeating Li Na in the Stuttgart final and Rafael Nadal beating Nicolas Almagro in the Barcelona final. Sharapova was on fire today, raising her game by several levels compared to her performance against Angelique Kerber yesterday,…
An all-Spaniard final graces Barcelona tomorrow as Rafael Nadal and Nicolas Almagro will do battle on the clay. Nadal was terrific today, winning a second set bagel against the serving juggernaut of Milos Raonic in a 6-4 6-0 win. He was standing so far behind the baseline to receive Raonic’s serves, but he had an…
1.Rafael Nadal v Milos Raonic Philipp Kohlschreiber The one thing I have managed to predict correctly this week was Milos Raonic repeating his 2012 semi-final run in Barcelona. Raonic had an excellent day as he took out the in-form Ernests Gulbis, saving a set point in the second set breaker to win, 6-2 7-6(6). He…
Apologies for the lateness of this preview, but it was a sunny day in the UK, which is an extremely rare occurrence these days so sometimes tennis gets pushed down the pecking order in my life. The semi-finals were as most people called (including me!) with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic progressing to the Monte-Carlo…
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 1. Rafael Nadal v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Jo-Wilfried Tsonga took advantage of Andy Murray‘s third round exit to progress to the semi-finals of the Monte-Carlo Masters. Tsonga defeated Murray’s conqueror, Stanislas Wawrinka, coming back from a set down to complete a 2-6 6-3 6-4 victory. He now faces the unenviable task of playing Rafael…
1. Rafael Nadal v Grigor Dimitrov Grigor Dimitrov It has been business as usual for Rafael Nadal in Monte-Carlo with two pretty routine wins over Marinko Matosevic and Philipp Kohlschreiber. Nadal beat Kohlschrieber, 6-2 6-4 in the third round, facing no break points on his serve. Nadal’s next opponent is the unseeded, Grigor Dimitrov, who…
1st round action in Monte-Carlo concluded with wins for Ernests Gulbis, Nicolas Almagro and Stanislas Wawrinka. In the second round matches that took place on Tuesday, Janko Tipsarevic went down to Grigor Dimitrov, 7-6(3) 6-1 having blown set points at 5-4 in the opening set. Juan Martin del Potro escaped the same fate as he…
Juan Martin del Potro Not many could have predicted that the mens final for Indian Wells would be contested between Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro in Sunday’s final showcase in the desert. Rafael Nadal backed up excellent wins over Ernest Gulbis and Roger Federer with a 6-4 7-5 victory over Tomas Berdych. The…
Rafael Nadal v Tomas Berdych Tomas Berdych The quarter-final showdown between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer turned out to be a bit of a damp squib as a seriously struggling Federer succumbed to an impressive Nadal, 6-4 6-2. It was clear that Federer was hampered by a back complaint, but Nadal is playing much better…
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