Maria Sharapova The quarter-finals in Stuttgart promised a lot and completely lived up to their billing with a series of thrilling encounters. Victoria Azarenka held off a barrage of winners from Mona Barthel to record a 6-4 6-7 7-5 victory in 2 hours and 48 minutes. Barthel hit a staggering 64 winners but still ended…
Victoria Azarenka Victoria Azarenka and Mona Barthel will square off for the fourth time this year after both progressed to the Stuttgart quarter-finals. Azarenka advanced when Andrea Petkovic had to retire at 6-2 4-4 down after twisting her ankle. It was heartbreaking to see Petkovic pull out after returning from a back injury this week…
You can keep up to date with all my predictions so far this week by clicking on the links below: WTA Stuttgart – Correctly predicted 12 of 14 matches so far including Mona Barthel’s win over Ana Ivanovic. ATP Barcelona – Correctly predicted 14 out of 16 of the second round matches including three wins from…
Ana Ivanovic If you have been reading some of my blog entries, you will no doubt have read me harping on about Mona Barthel! After a few setbacks in recent weeks, she delivered one of her biggest wins to date with a 7-5 7-6 victory over Ana Ivanovic. I was unable to watch the match…
Angelique Kerber won her first ever main draw match in Stuttgart with a superb 6-2 6-3 victory over Roberta Vinci. It was a highly entertaining match and one of the best individual performances I have witnessed in 2012. Vinci ran out of ideas in the end as Kerber dealt beautifully with everything the Italian threw…
Rafael Nadal finally turned the tables on Novak Djokovic as he continued his marvellous winning streak in Monte-Carlo and inflicted a defeat on the Serb, his first since the 2010 World Tour Finals in London. Although it was a crucial win for Nadal, Djokovic was emotionally exhausted having suffered the loss of his grandfather earlier…
This week’s headline tournament on the WTA tour comes from Stuttgart and is set to be a cracker with all of the top 8 players taking part. This tournament was voted by the players as the best Premier event on tour last year so it comes as no surprise to see such an exciting line-up…
Gilles Simon Gilles Simon, who had lost his last four encounter to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, turned the table on his fellow compatriot with a solid 7-5 6-4 victory. Simon took advantage of some wayward hitting from Tsonga and the slow conditions to reach the semi-finals. I was impressed with Simon today who played a very good…
Rafael Nadal was in typically bruising form today as he sailed past Mikhail Kukushkin, 6-1 6-1 to advance to another Monte-Carlo quarter-final. Nadal was impressive, but not tested by the Kazakh player who did not have the patience to live with the Spaniard from the baseline. He will play Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarters, who…
It has been a disappointing week for me so far as you will see here from my Monte-Carlo predictions. Today’s surprise saw an inspired Thomasz Bellucci take out David Ferrer in straight sets, 6-3 6-2. I still have seven of the eight quarter-finalists left so things could look up if I can predict the latter…
