Clay clay clay!

OK another post on that "sport" again here.  Don't worry the next one should be on Doctor Who as the new season starts tomorrow, yus!!!!

But for now, I've been watching the clay court season get further on its way as WTA Porsche Tennis Grand Prix from Stuttgart in Germany has been on this week, and has seen some more great tennis.  Being in Germany naturally there were a few home favourites playing, most notably was Andrea Petkovic (very nice!) who defeated World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki at the Sony Ericsson Open last month, as well as the returning from injury Sabine Lisicki who performed well.  From the start Petkovic (or Petko as her nickname is) had a tough first match against the Austrain player Tamira Paszek, even after the first set when she double faulted to give Paszek set point, Petkovic went over to her seat and started sobbing.  But she managed to turn it around and defeated the Austrain in 3 sets, after that match Petkovic faced Jelena Jankovic again, who got off to a confident start, but again Petko dug in deep and defeated Jelena in a 3 set match again.  When it came to the quarter finals, Andrea faced off Caroline Wozniacki  in a potentially thrilling showdown, and indeed Petkovic came out strong to lead 4-1 in the first set, but that's as far as she got as Caroline caught up on her and turned it around closing out the first set in 6-4, and demolishing her in the second with 6-1.  Well Caroline is the number 1, so she definitely proved it yesterday, in a way Caroline is similar to Nadal in her style of play, she's not as aggressive, but she definitely has the uncanny ability to break her opponent's serve like nothing else, and surely that will hold her in good stead for the upcoming slams.  It was shame that Petkovic didn't win as since it was her home soil it would have been nice to see her win and go through to take the tournament.

Yesterday also had another really good match between the Russian Vera Zvonareva and Aussie Sam Stosur, which seemed to start out as a walk in the park for Vera, as she comfortably broke Sam's serve in the first set and soon closed it out in 6-2.  However in the second set the momentum shifted and Vera's unforced errors started to rise and her serve crumbled which helped Stosur come back into the game and take the 2nd set in 6-3.  But in the 3rd and final set things got really interesting as neither player broke serve and they made it 6-6 all which went to a tiebreaker, in the tiebreak however Vera again quickly crumbled and Sam won it in 7-3.  I was quite pleased to see Sam win and she faces German player Julia Gorges tomorrow, I hope she wins and gets through to the final, however if she does there's a strong possibility that Caroline Wozniacki might defeat her (if she gets through as she plays Agnieszka Radwanska tomorrow).  I'm hoping Sam can win the title but again its hard to tell, but she has returned to form this week after a bad spell, so hopefully it will mark a great start to her clay season.

Unfortunately for Sam she got beat in the semi finals as she lost to the Julia Goerges, as they both put in an excellent performance in a tight 3 set match which ended in 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 for the German.  It was great to see Sam Stosur get back into her game though, as this week she has had 3 great matches, which hopefully will see her do better by the time she hits Roland Garros.  The other semi final match of the day saw Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska face off in another tight high quality match, where Caroline battled to win in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 against the Pole.  Radwanska put in a gutsy performance and played an excellent match against Caroline, who did what she usually does when under pressure, gets out the spade and digs herself out of the hole, and Radwanska managed to save seven match points before succumbing to the World No.1.  But Radwanska is another player I'm beginning to admire, as she has a very creative game and can play some very unpredictable shots (one of which had to be the shot of the tournament, which she won the point after an epic 37 shot rally followed by a massive round of applause!) and can anticipate where her opponents will play, again being an unorthodox player is always a big bonus in tennis and Radwanska is another top player who is well worth following.  She has also already beaten Francesca Schiavone twice both at Stuttgart and Miami and she definitely shows more promise to beat the top players.  Her on court demeanor is also welcome change from some of the divas, screamers you might get in the game, as Radwanska just keeps a cool level head, so much so she rarely smiles on court, but off court she can't stop beaming, as her Australian Open drive video showed how sweet and fun natured she is. 

So the final between Caroline and Julia Goerges is on tomorrow, it should be a good match, even though the odds are stacked in Caroline's favour, Goerges has already proved this week she has the ability to take on the top 10 players, can she beat Caz?  Well.... as it turned out she could, as the German beat the World No.1 in a real upset victory of straight sets 7-6(3) 6-3, Goerges outclassed Caroline as a player in the final and gave her a right royal seeing to (in a manner of speaking!).  Overall though it was a not too bad a final but a bit disappointing as well, and while I was pleased to see the young German win the title, Caroline didn't play like the World No.1 at all, more like the world no. 500.  It was like Caroline had a case of the Andy Murray's and couldn't get it together at all, perhaps though fatigue of having played so many matches had started to set in, particularly after her gruelling match against Agniezska Radwanska the other day.  But her performance fell way short of the mark of what we have come to expect from Caroline as a player, and while she is the world no.1, when she loses in Premier events such as this, it does leave a question mark over her head, can she actually win a grand slam if she plays like this?  It is of course impossible to win every tournament though, but Caroline does have the tennis, the ability, the mentality and stamina to win a slam, but it remains to be seen if she can.  We'll find out one way or another, but if she faces more on form opponents like Goerges at Roland Garros for example, it will look unlikely she will win one.  Just like Andy Murray so far, he has all the ability in the world as his brother Jamie so rightly said, but can they win in the majors??? I hope so.  But well done to Julia Goerges for winning, she played a great tournament and truly showed that she has the pork chops to take on the top players, and she did succeed where Andrea Petkovic couldn't so far. 
   
Anywayyyy enough o that.