Maria Sharapova continued her unbeaten run on the clay in 2014 with a three set victory over Simona Halep in the final. This was Sharapova’s first ever title in Madrid and her 11th straight win having also won in Stuttgart two weeks ago. Things didn’t start so smoothly for Maria as she was dished out…
Madrid’s womens final is set to be a cracker as the world number 5, Simona Halep will go head-to-head with the world number 9, Maria Sharapova. Halep has taken advantage of a Serena-less top half to reach her first Premier Mandatory final. Halep’s best win of the week came over Ana Ivanovic in the quarter-finals,…
Four top ten players remain in Madrid after a so-so line-up of quarter-finals. It was disappointing to see Serena Williams pull out of her quarter-final although I was pleased to see Kvitova move into the last four. Originally, it seemed that Serena had pulled out of Rome too, but those reports appeared to be false.…
I cannot remember a better line-up of WTA quarter-finals for a big event in quite some time. For me, it’s disappointing that all four of them are up first and second on the schedule. Of course, I am focusing on this from a selfish point of view that I won’t be able to watch any…
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…
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…
I’ve been thinking about those brilliant matches from Tuesday night all day long. I probably sound like a broken record, but they were so good! I was so gripped by both, each match deserved a special post. The one for Sharapova v Safarova can be found HERE and Jankovic v Barthel is HERE. Thursday will…
In a terrific first round contest in Stuttgart, Maria Sharapova defeated Lucie Safarova, 7-6(5) 6-7(5) 7-6(2) in three hours and 23 minutes. The first two sets featured some tremendous tennis and although the third may not have been of such high quality, it was laden with drama. Sharapova led 5-1 in the third set, but…
Dominika Cibulkova defeated Agnieszka Radwanska in a brilliant quarter-final to open up Wednesday’s singles proceedings. Cibulkova saved three match points and fought for two hours and 39 minutes to get past Radwanska, 3-6 7-6(3) 6-3. As I wrote in yesterday’s preview, I still haven’t come to terms with Domi being a relevant threat, but it’s…
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