Stuttgart is one of my favourite stops on the WTA tour and the draw has not disappointed with some great match-ups from the get go. Note that the top four players have byes into round two. Let’s take a look at the draw… Angelique Kerber Maria Sharapova headlines Stuttgart where she won the first of…
Time is limited so I am going to get straight down to dissecting next week’s Barcelona draw. Note that the top 16 players all have byes into round two. David Ferrer David Ferrer returns to action having missed Monte-Carlo and along with Rafael Nadal, headlines Barcelona. Ferrer will open up against Dmitry Tursunov or Denis…
Novak Djokovic produced a masterful performance to topple Rafael Nadal, who had crafted together eight straight years of titles in Monte-Carlo. Djokovic was sensational for much of the first set with some bold, attacking play. Nadal was on the verge of being bagelled in that opening set, but he got a foothold in the match…
Apologies for the lateness of this preview, but it was a sunny day in the UK, which is an extremely rare occurrence these days so sometimes tennis gets pushed down the pecking order in my life. The semi-finals were as most people called (including me!) with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic progressing to the Monte-Carlo…
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 1. Rafael Nadal v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Jo-Wilfried Tsonga took advantage of Andy Murray‘s third round exit to progress to the semi-finals of the Monte-Carlo Masters. Tsonga defeated Murray’s conqueror, Stanislas Wawrinka, coming back from a set down to complete a 2-6 6-3 6-4 victory. He now faces the unenviable task of playing Rafael…
1. Rafael Nadal v Grigor Dimitrov Grigor Dimitrov It has been business as usual for Rafael Nadal in Monte-Carlo with two pretty routine wins over Marinko Matosevic and Philipp Kohlschreiber. Nadal beat Kohlschrieber, 6-2 6-4 in the third round, facing no break points on his serve. Nadal’s next opponent is the unseeded, Grigor Dimitrov, who…
1. Stanislas Wawrinka v Andy Murray Stanislas Wawrinka Andy Murray opened his clay court season with a comfortable 6-1 6-4 victory over Edouard Roger-Vasselin, beginning much quicker than some of his previous matches and facing no troubles in making the third round. Murray will now face a significantly steeper challenge against Stanislas Wawrinka. The Swiss…
1st round action in Monte-Carlo concluded with wins for Ernests Gulbis, Nicolas Almagro and Stanislas Wawrinka. In the second round matches that took place on Tuesday, Janko Tipsarevic went down to Grigor Dimitrov, 7-6(3) 6-1 having blown set points at 5-4 in the opening set. Juan Martin del Potro escaped the same fate as he…
Today’s action saw two seeds falls at the first hurdle; Gilles Simon rather surprisingly fell to to Roberto Bautista-Agut who continued his great year to date with a 6-3 7-6(6) upset win. Andreas Seppi also lost, to Fabio Fognini having won the opening set, 3-6 6-4 6-4. Marin Cilic and Milos Raonic were two seeds…
Roberta Vinci won the WTA Katowice title with another stunning performance in the final, defeating Petra Kvitova, 7-6(2) 6-1. The first set was high quality stuff for a surprisingly full crowd in Katowice, but it was Vinci who edged a very tight set, raising her level in the tiebreak. Kvitova went wandering mentally in the…
