So another week of tennis in the calendar of the ATP/WTA season has come to an end as the China Open and Tokyo Open championships concluded with some fine matches all round.
Once again I'll start with the ladies final at the China Open in Beijing, which saw the very much in form Agnieszka Radwanska take on the German Andrea Petkovic (who has also been in pretty good form too!). When it comes to final you, the viewer at home watching it, and the crowd there hope for a good match, and today we weren't disappointed as the two ladies put on a terrific display of superb tennis, with some thrilling rallies and long deuce games. Petkovic started off the match quite nervously as she was broken by Radwanska early on, but as the match progressed she held nerve and fought out in a terrific first set, but unfortunately for her Radwanska broke to win in 7-5. The second set however saw Petko come back in fine form as Radwanska struggled to find her game at all, and Andrea steamrolled her way through to the decider, where it was even pegged again. But it was Radwanska who got the crucial break and served it out to win her first Premier Mandatory title, with the scoreline reading 7-5, 0-6, 6-4.
There's no doubt about it that Radwanska as a player has arrived this year, as that's 3 titles under her skirt now ;-) and 2 titles back to back, both of them biggies as well. It was a great match from both women, and I think Petkovic deserves special credit also for her tremendous battle, and also fighting through a leg injury at one point, where she had to have a medical timeout, but after her leg was taped, she carried on and put in a great performance. It was also fun to see Andrea and Radwanska engage in a little version of the Petko dance for the Chinese crowd. And if Andrea Petkovic has done one thing for ladies tennis this year and in general, it is that she has injected a sense of fun into the sport, which is something that is much needed, especially as the woman players tend to be very business like in their approach to matches.
So this also sees Radwanska remerge into the top 10 and also it will guarantee her a place in the WTA Championships at the end of the season in Istanbul, where she could well be a hot favourite to win there too. If she does then I think its safe to say it could signal a new contender for a grand slam next year, and Radwanska's name could well be etched on the Australian Open trophy. One thing I noticed that the woman have which is rather good for them is that their tour calendar comes to an end at the end of the month, after that, that's them for the year! I bet the men wish they had that calendar!
Speaking of which onto the men's final in China and Tokyo, which first of all in China saw the Czeck and 2010 Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych take on the Croat Marin Cilic in the final. Despite being a set down against Cilic, who put in a solid display of hitting, Berdych held his nerve to fight his way back into the match and closed it out winning in 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. This was quite an impressive display from Berdych who has struggled to win a title since 2009 in Munich, and it should possibly stand him in good stead for his chances to win a place in the ATP World Tour Finals at the end of the year. Onto the next final at Tokyo which was the far more anticipated of the two which saw Andy Murray go head to head with Rafa Nadal, as the Muzza looked to dethrone Rafa of his Tokyo title from last year as well as to end his losing streak of 5 matches in a row. And I'm happy to say Andy managed to do just that, as he put in a mighty performance against Rafa, after being a set down, Andy fought back in the 2nd set, breaking Rafa twice to win it, and in the 3rd set, Rafa barely got a lookin as he won only four points, which saw Andy crush Rafa and hand him a rare set bagel to finish the match and clinch the championship winning in 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.
To say Andy's run of form in the Asia leg of the tour season has been impressive is definitely something of an understatement, as that's two titles he's won back to back. Not only that, its given Andy another 500 points and it taken him a step closer to upping his ranking to No.3 in the world. Up next is Shanghai and if Andy can maintain his impressive form, then I can't see why he will not end up winning the title and if he does he will be the World No.3 for sure. Although I feel a bit sorry for Rafa losing out in yet another final, I was definitely more pleased for Andy whom snapped his losing streak to Rafa, so their head to head now sits at 5-13 in Andy's favour (i.e. 5 wins for him). And that's now 20 singles titles in the bag (must be a pretty big tennis bag!), 4 of which he won this year, which is pretty damn good work, especially as Rafa has only won 3, and Federer only 1.
So Shanghai is up next for the men's tour, and there will be more to follow on that, in the meantime a big congrats to Andy so I hope enjoys his win tonight, and to top it off he also won the doubles title with Jamie in Tokyo too. This is also a bit of a landmark as he is the only player in 2011 to win both a singles and doubles title in the same tournament, so eat that Djoko! ;-)
Anyway that's enough the now.
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