Saturday will deliver four equally enticing semi-finals from the Internazionali BNL D’Italia. There were some excellent quarter-finals on Friday with Novak Djokovic’s 7-5 4-6 6-3 victory over David Ferrer and Ana Ivanovic’s 6-4 3-6 6-4 win over Carla Suarez Navarro the pick of the bunch. As I write this, Nadal v Murray is still to…
Rome has continued the general trend of tennis in 2014 with shocks across the board in the both the WTA and ATP draws. Ana Ivanovic scored a magnificent straight sets win over Maria Sharapova, meanwhile Stanislas Wawrinka was bundled out in three sets by Tommy Haas. Tomas Berdych also lost and Rafael Nadal survived another…
The big shock on the ATP side was the early exit of Roger Federer from Rome. This all came after Federer won a 6-1 opening set. However, he would eventually succumb to a surprise defeat at the hands of Jeremy Chardy, 1-6 6-3 7-6(6). The Frenchman even saved a match point with a RIDICULOUS forehand,…
On the WTA side, my predictions have been reasonable this week. By all accounts, Serena Williams came out and performed well, beating Andrea Petkovic in straight sets, 6-2 6-2. Sloane Stephens was the only seed to fall, on Wednesday, losing to Varvara Lepchenko, 6-2 6-2. Remarkably, Lepchenko has lost just 5 games in 2 matches. …
The ATP results in Rome have been pretty baffling. Well, they have been for me as I sit pretty with 9 correct picks out of a total 24 for the first round. My recent form has made me consider retirement. The WTA draw has been marginally better although I missed out on a few surprises…
The WTA main draw kicked off in Rome today with a few surprising results. Top of the list was Francesca Schiavone, who delivered a dazzling performance to defeat Eugenie Bouchard, 6-4 6-2. The clay court season has been a little rough for Genie, but she is down to play Nurnberg next week so has a…
I love this stage of the tennis season because there is just so much going on. We are just two weeks away from the second Grand Slam of the year in Paris and Rome is now on our doorstep. Comparing Rome and Madrid, there is just no competition. Rome is a much better tournament and…
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…
In terms of joint events, Rome bucks the trend with the ATP main draw beginning before the WTA draw. On Sunday, there will be six ATP first round matches, which is why the preview is a little early. Personally, I like to post the preview before anything has happened. Novak Djokovic has arrived in Rome…
Some matches deserve a special post and MY GOD, THIS WAS ONE! Kei Nishikori needed ten match points to defeat David Ferrer in a magnificent semi-final in Madrid that was just five minutes shy of the three hour mark. It was the best match of the week by a country mile and one of the…
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