Maria Sharapova An exciting week of tennis on both the ATP and WTA tours has concluded with Maria Sharapova defeating Li Na in the Stuttgart final and Rafael Nadal beating Nicolas Almagro in the Barcelona final. Sharapova was on fire today, raising her game by several levels compared to her performance against Angelique Kerber yesterday,…
The main focus for next week will be on the joint tournament in Oeiras, Portugal, which has been renamed from Estoril, but appears to be playing at the same venue… odd. Let’s take a look at both the WTA and ATP draws. WTA Oeiras Marion Bartoli and Dominika Cibulkova are the headline acts of one…
An all-Spaniard final graces Barcelona tomorrow as Rafael Nadal and Nicolas Almagro will do battle on the clay. Nadal was terrific today, winning a second set bagel against the serving juggernaut of Milos Raonic in a 6-4 6-0 win. He was standing so far behind the baseline to receive Raonic’s serves, but he had an…
Li Na The WTA Stuttgart final will feature the top two seeds, Maria Sharapova and Li Na, who will square off for the 14th time on the WTA tour. For the third time this week, Sharapova was forced into a deciding set having won the opening set of her match. Each match has been progressively…
1.Rafael Nadal v Milos Raonic Philipp Kohlschreiber The one thing I have managed to predict correctly this week was Milos Raonic repeating his 2012 semi-final run in Barcelona. Raonic had an excellent day as he took out the in-form Ernests Gulbis, saving a set point in the second set breaker to win, 6-2 7-6(6). He…
A rough week of predictions in Stuttgart for moi so far! Let’s see if I can improve for the semi-finals… 1.Maria Sharapova v Angelique Kerber Maria Sharapova For the second day in a row, Maria Sharapova was stretched to three sets as she fended off a late surge from Ana Ivanovic, who certainly had her…
1. Petra Kvitova v Li Na Li Na Last year, the quarter-finals of Stuttgart threw up one of the best days of womens tennis in 2012; this year could easily produce the same kind of magic with the headlining quarter-final of the day, a battle of Grand Slam winners between Petra Kvitova and Li Na. …
Rain decimated the Barcelona schedule so we have just one quarter-final match to preview for Friday. The remainder of the third round matches will kick off the schedule with the yet-to-be-decided quarter-finalists having to play two matches in one day. 1. Nicolas Almagro v Juan Monaco Juan Monaco Straight set wins for Nicolas Almagro and…
Tomorrow is truly a feast of excellent second round matches to look forward too in Stuttgart… 1. Jelena Jankovic v Sabine Lisicki Sabine Lisicki The highest seeded upset on day two saw the Jelena Jankovic from Miami and Charleston, turn up in Stuttgart too with a very solid 6-4 6-4 win over the number 6…
1. Milos Raonic v Ernests Gulbis Milos Raonic From the eight third round matches in Barcelona, I am most intrigued by the match-up between Ernests Gulbis and Milos Raonic, which has not even made the Pista Central schedule. Gulbis has continued his excellent form of late with two straight set wins over Radek Stepanek and…
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