Many thanks to Adam Wells (some of you may recognise Adam as createdsick in the comments section of Moo’s Tennis Blog) for writing this recap of the second round match that took place in Beijing today between Venus Williams and Caroline Garcia. My preview of Wednesday’s matches in Beijing will follow soon. Thanks again, Adam!…
Monday in Beijing saw two notable results: Serena Williams recovered from a 5-0 first set deficit and multiple set points to somehow overcome Silvia Soler-Espinosa in straight sets, 7-5 6-2. Alize Cornet also had another excellent win in this Asian Swing as she defeated Jelena Jankovic in three sets, 7-5 3-6 6-4 in two hours…
Beijing is well underway and first round action will conclude on Monday. In the pick of the matches so far on Sunday, Andrea Petkovic outlasted Monica Niculescu in a gripping contest, 2-6 7-6(8) 6-4 that lasted two hours and 47 minutes (although it felt more like ten hours). Petkovic saved three match points, two of…
Petra Kvitova defeated Eugenie Bouchard, 6-3 6-4 to win her third title of the 2014 season and the inaugurual tournament in Wuhan. Petra continued her excellent record in finals; her record is now 14-4. It is hard to knock Kvitova off her game once she has managed to find her rhythm and has some…
I always like to get my pre-tournament preview out before the main draw kicks off, but that has resulted in a rather slapdash effort as the main draw for Beijing kicks off on Saturday! I don’t understand why all these tournaments have to overlap and why they couldn’t have a couple of days off between…
Friday is semi-finals day in Wuhan for this Premier 5 event. I’d probably give Petra the edge with the four players remaining, but like Tokyo, it remains wide open at the business end. Qualifying for the fourth and final Premier Mandatory event in Beijing will also kick off on Friday. Draw previews for Beijing will…
Most of the results in Wuhan on Wednesday were predictable, but there was one that stood out like a sore thumb… Timea Bacsinszky d. Maria Sharapova, 7-6(3) 7-5. Bacsinszky has been in great form over the last couple of weeks, but I don’t think anyone expected this. A straight sets win over Sharapova is a…
Tuesday was a day of many minor surprises, which when all added up together resulted in decimation of the Wuhan draw. Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic both retired from their matches, but the most high profile loss was Simona Halep who went out to Garbine Muguruza in three sets. The biggest surprise for me was…
The first round in Wuhan wrapped up with Ana Ivanovic, Dominika Cibulkova, Lucie Safarova and Flavia Pennetta all going out. The Tokyo champion, Ivanovic retired at 5-7 5-6 down to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Safarova went out in three sets to Sabine Lisicki, meanwhile Pennetta was knocked out by the soaring, Jarmila Gajdosova. The biggest surprise of…
Main draw action kicked off in Wuhan on Sunday with a surprisingly solid crowd on hand for what was an eventful opening day on the Centre Court. In the first match of the day, the Chinese wildcard, Xu Shilin was forced to retire due to heat exhaustion at 0-5 down in the third set tiebreak…
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