Tuesday, May 13, 2014

cibulkova falls in Rome, is she run out of magic.

World number 10 Dominika Cibulkova lost to Camilla Giorgi of Italy in first round of the premier 5 event.

Cibulkova also lost early in Madrid, she usually has strong clay court campaign. Then, should we ask, is she lost the magic that bring her into top ten and final of Oz open. She drop 0-2 on clay this season.

Earlier this year some observer said that her surge merely becasuse of changing in racquet, her new racquet seem to. Give her advantage, but it not proved.

Nevertheless her clay slump might be because of fatigue she already play too many match this year. Losing to stosur still acceptable, but to lose to Giorgi is something unacceptable given her credibility. Anyway, there still Roland Garros laying ahead she can proved that I'm wrong in eclvaluating her performance on clay..

good bye madrid hello rome

Madrid open already wrapped up with Nadal and Sharapova crowned as king and Queen of Madrid combine events. Yet another huge clay combines events get underway. But it is inappropriate not to congratulate both ATP and WTA rising star, despite ended in second place but looking at their run in Madrid it is predictable that they would be household name in near future.

With both Sharapova and Williams it hard to pick another player that could challenge these ladies, especially it is clay, although Sharapova in on losing streak against Williams but like Sharapova always say every match is a new match everything start from the scratch is still possible for her to beat Serena, they could meet at semis

In men draw clay king Nadal should be the fav. But with Djokovic back in action he could poised serious tjret to Nadal. Oh Federer also back in action to. As Toni Nadal lamented after his nephew won Madrid Nadal still in search of his best form. This should be an open interesting scenario any clay specialist should grab thos oportunity. QUESTTION mark on Nishikori is he still make a trip to Foro Italico aftering retiring against nadal to hand the Madrid champion crown the aaniard.

In doubles action Errani/vinci takes the favorites spot, although they're only sedeed sevond behind co No 1 SHieh and peng. However dont cpunt out the third seed yet, defending RG queens Vrsnina/Malaroca always ready to steal the lime lights.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Sharapova dominate Radwanska in Madrid sf

Maria Sharapova dominate her opponent to move into Madrid final for second year. Radwanska seem clueless in dealing with Sharapova serve and games. Sharapova steal the first set 61, in 30 minutes. It look like to be a straight forward victory for the Russian as she racing for 30 lead in the second set.

However, the gritty Polish don't give in yet, with Sharapova games crumble she take full advantage of it, eventually leading 43. Everybody aware that both players are rival on and off court, radwanska vocally criticize sharapova for grunting, but saying it is acceptable for Azarenka to do the same(simply because they're friend).But Sharapova not ready to let Radwanska bring the match to the decider. Saving her best  for the last, reeling three straight games to seal the match 61,64 in 68 minutes to book a date with Simona Halep. Sharapova lead Halep  2-0 , she also looking to win her second title this season and extent her winning streak to 11 match.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

sharapova into quaters in Madrid

Maria Sharapova notch a victory over Sam stosur, to make into last 8 for third year in a row. Both player show strong service games play. No break point opportunity until tenth games, Sharapova won the only break point to seal the first set 64. Second set also repeat the same script at the beginning, but Sharapova push hard to brake stosur serve, but a games later she broke back to even the games. Shapova won another break point to lead 43, stosur failed to brwleak back as her Russian opponent display stronger service games, winning 71% point on first serve(Sharapova had 80% first serve in). Although stosur firing 82 percent of first serve she had poor percentage in winning points, she unable to keep up with Sharapova,broken again in the ninth game to surrender the set 63 and the match. Stosur lost to Sharapova for the 13th times in 15 meeting. Li Na awaits in the next round.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

MADRID OPEN : DAY SESSION REVIEW: WEDNESDAY

In the women draw top seed Serena ease past shuai 62,63. Simona halep continue good run by beating Lara aruabarrena. Caroline wozniacki bounced out by Roberta Vinci 63,63, while Caroline Garcia advance when Maria Kirilenko retired at 00. Suarez Navarro also advance in expensed of Alison Risked.

in men event Nasal continue clay recovery with easy win over Juan Monaco, 62,60, lucky loser Kubot beat Simon to adcance . also advancing Gulbis,Berdych and isner.

in doubles event peng shuai shook off single loss to advance to qf with partner Hsieh Su Wei, also advancing Nlack /Mirza and Kop Jones/Spears.

Federer withdraw but Simon still losing.

Roger Federer withdraw from Madrid to celebrate his second set of twin. His scheduled opponent Giles Simon was happy with the Swiss decision, he even expressed his confidences to advance to the next round in a tweet.

however he's not writing his own fate, facing lucky loser Lukas Kubot he surrendered the match in 3 sets. The Polish who lost in the qualies took full advantage of the opportunity. France's Simon win the pair first meeting in 2012, although firing 12 aces to 6 from Kubot

Simon is a strong critic to equal prize money, in fact he still maintain a sour relationship with some top female players

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

MADRID MASTERS: Gulbis advance,Fognini falls.

13th seed Fabio Fognini falls at first hurdles in the Masters event. Falling in 3 set to Alexander Dolgopolov. The loss ruined the italian hope to dig further in the ranking during clay swing.

meanwhile Latvian Ernest Gulbis defeat Pole jerzy Janowic to advance, the match also go to 3 set distance.

martina hingis fall in madrid

8 times doubles grandslam champion Martina Hingis loss in the second round in madrid , she and her partner Sabine lisicki who win in Miami fall to defending champion Puvlyuchenkova/Safarova in straight set.
< br />Ironically last year Hingis coached Pavlyuchenkova to victory in here. Russian Czech duo win 62 63.
These two teams never met before, however Hingis should be able to capitalize her knowledge about Pavlyuchenkova games but she fail to do so.

maria sharapova fights back to win in madrid second round

Christina McHale finally won a set from Sharapova. Earlier the match could be done in straight set for world no 9 as she racing to close first set with 61 on the scoreboard. However the American found her way to steal second set 64, six games later she found herself on verge to score first win over the Russian as she broke to lead 42.

but Sharapova who won in Stuttgart few week ago just dont want to let the match go. She dug herself out from the hole, winning four straight games to prevail in 2 hour 18 minutes, 61,46,64, to keep a perfect record over McHale. Next up for Sharapova is the winner between Garbine Muguruza and Sam Stosur.

MUTUA MADRID OPEN ORDER OF PLAY TUESDAY

MANOLO SANTANA start 11:00 am WTA – J Zheng (CHN) vs [2] N Li (CHN) WTA – [8] M Sharapova (RUS) vs C Mchale (USA) Not Before 3:15 pm ATP – [5] D Ferrer (ESP) vs [WC] A Ramos (ESP) ATP – F Verdasco (ESP) vs R Bautista Agut (ESP) Not Before 8:00 pm ATP – [Q] D Thiem (AUT) vs [3] S Wawrinka (SUI) Not Before 9:30 pm WTA – [11] A Ivanovic (SRB) vs B Jovanovski (SRB)

ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO start 11:00 am ATP – [Q] I Sijsling (NED) vs [14] T Haas (GER) ATP – [Q] A Golubev (KAZ) vs N Almagro (ESP) Not Before 3:00 pm WTA – G Muguruza (ESP) vs S Stosur (AUS) WTA – F Schiavone (ITA) vs [10] S Errani (ITA) ATP – [WC] G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) vs [10] K Nishikori (JPN)

Women single second round get underway, with Sharapova up against McHale. Another interesting match is Chinese star duel Li vs Zheng. In men single nishikori look to pursue a place in top ten, he up against Garcia Lopez. Noteworthy double matches include no 3 seed Vesnina/Makarova open their campaign on clay this season against Medina fatigues/Shvedova, meanwhile defending champion Puvlyuchenkova/Safarova get recent Miami champion Hingis/Lisicki.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Mutua Madrid open (2nd day)

Men single 1st round J. Nieminen d R Haase 63 62 M copil d M Granollers 63 64 10 k NIshikori d I Dodig 64 64 Women single 1st round I Begun d S Zhang 64 74 A Pavlyuchenkova d M Teresa torro-flor 64 46 61 S Stosur d D Cibulkova 64;60

Maria Kirilenko won first match of the year

Kirilenko of Russia win first match of the year. She make a comeback at Charleston but lost to teenager Bencic. She recovered from injury that force her to withdraw from TOC at Sofia late last year.
In her second match this season she scored a straight set win over French qualifier Kristina Mladenovic in first round of Mutua Madrid open. She won 64,75. Well done maria. Hopefully she will continue to surge in the ranking. Last year she broke into top ten briefly, now she rank 35 in the world.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Sharapova makes winning start at madrid

Maria Sharapova continues her superb form on clay, she brushed aside Czech Klara Koukalova 61,62. She hoping to continue her good run here. Koukalova however manage to break Sharapova serve twice in the second set, but she unable to stop her opponent to win for the sixth time in their seven meeting. Next up for Sharapova is Christina McHale, whom she beat in straight set in all their three meetings.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Russian Vesnina and Kuznetsova into quaters in Oeiras

elena vesnina keep a perfect record against Serbian bojana javonovski. the clock show that the match end after 3 hour 1 minute of play. Vesnina won 75,75,76(7), after failed to convert previous three match points.earlier in the match vesnina had chance to prevail in straights she, but but she blew the chance away.
Bojanovski who failed to win a set from vesnina in thier previous 2 meeting look to turn the table. but vesnina not reasy to let the match slip away. thanks to her double mastery she able to use that skill in single match. Vesnina booked her second quaterfinal of the season. awaiting there her double rival roberta vinci. Vesnina lead vinci 4-3 in the series, but vinci won thier last 2 meeting, however its noteworthy to address thaat thier last 3 meeting go to third set.
Former French Open champion svetlana Kusnetsova also precail in marathon match(1 hour 56 minutes). Against first timer WTA titlist Maria Teresa Torro-Flor, Sveta look shaky in the beginning. them lead second set 50 love before letting the Spaniard to chase, but she prevail 64. In the third set experience really matter when sveta thumping tita torro 61.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Tennis: Quick start for elena vesnina in oeiras

No 8 seed Elena Vesnina open her campaign at this international stop in convincing way. Thumping French qualifier 6-4,6-1 in just little over an hour. Vesnina single performance is less impressive compared to last season compiling 7-7 win loss record so far. However she look very comfortable playing on clay, looking to turn her season around. But both players have stronger season in doubles this year go toe to toe in the first set, however vesnina got the edge and seal first set 64 . then she going straight away to wrap the match with easier scoreline, 61, though mladenovic serve high percentage of first serve but it failed to hurt vesnina, her second serve even worse, she failed to win any point with that serve. However she manage to to win a game on vesnina serve to avoid the bagel . next up for vesnina is another youngsters Monica Puig of Puerto Rico who prevail earlier in the day.

Monday, April 28, 2014

it's clay season!!!

Hello everybody. Its been a while since i published the last post in this blog. But then i decided to write again. Maybe this is the right time to start over because it is time for the clay. So let's play. Entering clay season, of course focus must be drawn into nadal shaky start. Defence of RG crowns' in doubt with couple of losses at Monte Carlo and Barcelona, but it still to early to crown new king. Nadal will find a way out. Things will get interesting if we added few contender to RG crown, I suppose Djokovic should top the list, but assessing from Monte Carlo outcome its hard to put Stan behind the Serb. Stan definitely have the game on clay, quarterfinal run last year back up my pick. Other front runner should be Federer and Ferrer. Among young gun, nishikori should lead the way. Winning second title of the season in Barcelona tip the Japanese for his best season yet. Judging from his title run in smaller event in Bucharest dimitrov should been consider ready to challenge. However, the event lack of star player making it harder to measure his real potential. Milos raonic still did not show any big result on clay, just don't count out the Canadian yet as he claiming back a spot inside top ten.
Other player that deserve attention include, Almagro, Dolgopolov, Giraldo and Fognini. On the women side, Serena still can be consider favorite, however, for me it hard to imagine she will hoisting the trophy for the third time. I might be wrong, because she always find her ways, and her powerful games still can dominate on clay. Another strong favorite definitely non other than Sharapova, perfect run in stuggart cemented her name as one of leading figure on clay amongst active player however she still need to overcome her mental block to beat Serena. Another former champion on French soil is Li Na, the veteran should join the favorite list. A part from the three name its hard to name other player to emerge as winner. Azarenka still I'll, radwanska still uncomfortable on the dirt.
Given that RG champion are are always differ in recent history, it probably Become anyone games, be it new comet like Halep, who on rapid rise or the veteran like penetta I intentionally omitted Bouchard and Stephen because their games still cannot do much damage on clay. It still a long way before French open started . so much things could happen in the next few weeks, let see the plot in the next big combine event in Madrid and Rome. *this article written based on NY own opinion and observation. It just my personal point of view.