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…
I’ve ignored the ATP tournaments over the last couple of weeks and probably will do for some of 250 events as I just don’t have the time to cover them here on Moo’s Tennis Blog. This week’s ATP tournaments, both 500 events, have great draws with nine of the top ten in action. Rafael Nadal…
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…
Wuhan will see a repeat of the 2014 Wimbledon final as Petra Kvitova takes on Eugenie Bouchard in Saturday’s final, which will begin at 8am UK time. In that famous match, Kvitova produced one of the best performances of the entire season to completely overwhelm Bouchard, 6-3 6-0. It was a tough summer for Genie,…
I’m always on the look-out for interesting, well-written and varied content for Moo’s Tennis Blog. My preview of the Wuhan final will be published later today, but here is something a little bit different for you. Many thanks to Becca Honeybill from Soft Surfaces Ltd, who has written a piece about the advantage of implementing…
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…
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