Welllllllll that's the end of another year for the Women's Tennis Association as the year end championships in Istanbul have to come to an end, and its been quite a year for woman's tennis, so here's a bit more about the final.
So the final was between Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka, and for the final match of the year, it promised to be a real belter, and thankfully it lived up to its billing, as the two players battled it out for the trophy. But it didn't seem that way to begin with as in the 1st set Azarenka stumbled badly as the beginning and 0-5 down before fighting her way back into the match to make it 5-5, but Kvitova soon broke in at 6-5, to serve it out. In the second set, Azarenka took an early break and despite a tough scrap she managed to close out the set 6-4, but in the third Kvitova secured an early break at 2-0, and before we knew it she reached Championship point after nearly 2 hours and 30 minutes, winning the title in 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
This was a terrific end to the year as the two players provided some top class tennis for the 12000 capacity crowd who were cheering throughout, and both players deserve a great deal of credit for producing such a good match. Petra Kvitova also has firmly announced her arrival this year, and even more so than Djokovic, we didn't see it coming. In fact when I started watching the WTA tour at the beginning of the year just after the Australian Open, I saw Petra defeat Kim Clijsters at the Suez Open in Paris, which I thought was impressive at the time, but I didn't think she would then continue to have the year she has had. I also thought Victoria Azarenka has come foward in leaps and bounds and really gave Petra a match, she also did a much better job at keeping her composure than Petra did, who kept squealing like a puppy dog at the end of nearly every point! So I also think we are looking at a new rivalry in women's tennis which should keep the crowds peeled, if you can look past the lenghty Azarenka grunt and the Kvitova puppy like squeals. ;-)
So big well done to Petra Kvitova as she really has come to the fore this year, and she will now move up to the World No.2 spot, just ahead of Maria Sharapova, in fact I think it will be just a matter of time before she is the new World No.1. And the scary thing for the other plays on the tour, is that this is just how Petra performs even with an inconsistent game, once she sharpens her game, and improves her fitness she will be even more formidable. So I think we really could be looking at a new dominant player in the women's game, but time will tell on that one.
Soooo that's the end of the WTA season, but the men's ATP tour has yet another month to go so there will plenty more to catch up on over the next month, and this week we have two ATP 500 events in Valencia, with David Ferrer top seed, and Basel with the current champ Federer, World Numero 1 Djokovic and the new World No.3 Andy Murray taking part. Not bad! In fact I bet the men wish they had the same tour calendar as the women, get an extra month off, coh typical! ;-)
Rrrrrrright so that's it for now, I'll do a wee top 10 matches of the year for the women's tour, just for my own edification later on, which will feature my favourite matches from each surface and from the year end championships.
So, tara the nooow.
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