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…
The last 16 line-up for the women in Madrid looks pretty epic so I have covered all of them in a full SWEEP of a preview. It must have been tough for the schedulers although I think the matches on the Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario Court are much better than the Manolo Santana Court in my opinion. …
The full line-up for the AEGON International was released today with Agnieszka Radwanska, Petra Kvitova, Jelena Jankovic, Angelique Kerber, Sara Errani, Flavia Pennetta, Caroline Wozniacki and Sloane Stephens all committing to the event. I’ll be going for a couple of days this year and I am also planning to get tickets for the Rally4Bally exhibition…
It’s been touching to see so many tennis players, both past and present, pay their respect to Elena Baltacha. You can keep donating to Rally4Bally HERE. The money is being donated 50:50 to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and Elena’s tennis academy. I’m sure you will agree, both very worthy causes. The amount raised has…
I was really shocked and saddened to hear the news this morning that Elena Baltacha has passed away at the age of 30. I really admired Bally, both on and off the court. I loved her motivation, her determination and fight on court, and the passion she had for tennis. She faced so many obstacles,…
It’s time for the Madrid-Rome double, beginning with the Mutua Madrid Open. Madrid is ranked as the more lucrative of the two events, but personally, I have always favoured Rome. The main stadium in Madrid, La Caja Mágica, is pretty ghastly and being at altitude, the clay plays differently to Rome and Roland Garros, thus not being the most accurate…
The WTA’s new darling, Eugenie Bouchard is beginning to divide opinion amongst tennis fans. Since reaching the Australian Open semi-finals, the WTA have absolutely bombarded Genie in every available advertising stream. She’s been to Singapore to promote the YEC with Chris Evert and has barely been off the WTA website in the last few months. …
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