OK here's a mixed post of tennis for a change with updates from the WTA Porsche Grand Prix tennis event from Stuttgart a Premier event level, and the Barcelone open on the ATP tour, an ATP 500 level event (basically they are both about the same in terms of points, WTA is 470).
Starting with the ATP tour, there were some of the seeds in the Barcelona open that withdrew, one of which was Tomas Berdych who had sustained a shoulder injury, as well as Radek Stepanek with a stomach virus and Juan Ignacio Chela, the Argentine, with an achilles tendon injury. However there was plenty of action yesterday and the No.2 seed and World No.4, starting with Andy Murray who was in action and he took on the talented Ukraine player Sergiy Stakhovsky, but he easily dimissed him in straight sets, putting on a masterful display, winning in 6-3, 6-2.
This sounds like a similar display that Andy put on at the start of Monte Carlo, although his serve was inevitably only about 50%, but the rest of his game was great, and sounds like the best to start his campaign in Barcelona. Its also great that he was able to play in Barcelona this year, as last year he had to withdraw before the event with an elbow injury. And the more matches Andy can get on clay the better, as he said himself its his least best surface and it takes him time to adapt to it. But its a very impressive start all the same and here's hoping he can improve on his mixed performance from last week in Monte Carlo. Although next up he could face Robin Haase from the Netherlands, who is a dangerous player and gave Andy quite a scare in their last meeting at the US Open, where Andy came back from two sets to love down, but in the best of 3 on the tour, he won't have that luxury, so he will need to turn it around quicker if he is to lose the opening set, but that's yet to come.
Onto other men's matches, some of the other top seeds made it through, Fernando Verdasco, the former 2010 champion eased through against Steven Darcie from Belgium (who played in the Davis cup at Braehead arena earlier this month) in 6-3, 6-1. And Nicholas Almagro also made it through although he had a tougher encounter against the Frenchman Eduardo Roger-Vasselin, but he eventually won in 7-5, 7-6(3). And upcoming upstart (sorry!) Bernard Tomic from Aussie, made it through with fair ease against the Latvian player, Ernests Gulbis in 6-3, 6-4. Being a home event for the Spaniards, you can expect them to do very well here and I'm sure they will be really tough to get past here. Today however we see two of the top three seeds out today, with Rafa taking on fellow Spaniard, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (who took out Andy Murray earlier this year in Indian Wells), but I'm sure he will have no troubles against him. And David Ferrer I'm sure with have a potential doddle of match against the young wildcard Serbian player, Filip Krajinovic, who is ranked 789 in the world! But these lower ranked players, even as low as the top 800 can surprise you, but I'm positive Ferrer will come through.
As for Novak Djokovic here is a brief update as he has confirmed that he won't be playing in the Serbia Open next week, as he has said he wishes to take some time out, following the news of his grandfather's death. And its hard to argue with his decision as last week Novak was clearly struggling in his matches after hearing the news, but he still fought gutsily to the final in Monte Carlo, even though he lost. So its understandable that we won't see Novak for a while on the tour, and I hope he comes back soon.
Soooo onto the ladies, which so far has proved to be a very good tournament, and there is a real mouth watering setup at this event as all of the top 8 seeds will be in action at this event, or should I say the top 8 players in the world. Starting with Sam Stosur, the World No.5, and reigning US Open champion, who took on the Chinese No.2, Peng Shuai, and Stosur had quite an easy match as she dispatched Peng in 6-2, 6-2. Marion Bartoli the French No.1, similarly had an easy match, taking out the wildcard Iveta Benesova in 6-3, 6-2 and Li Na toughed it out against the Czeck, Lucie Safarova winning in 7-6, 6-4.
Which brings me onto the German home favourites, starting with Angelique Kerber, who is now currently the German No.2 ranked player at No.14 (Petkovic is the No.1 German at World No.12), who really has come into her own in the last year or so, and already has won 2 WTA titles this year. Kerber took on the Italian player Roberta Vinci anc convincingly dispatched her in straight sets in 6-2, 6-3 (a popular scoreline! or 3 and 2!) . Meanwhile the defending champion Julia Goerges had to tough out a very difficult opening match against the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (now there's a name!). Going into the tournament as the defending champion clearly showed that Julia had a touch of nerves and she dropped the opening set, and made a rash of unforced errors, clearly putting the ball long or wide on many ocassions. However she regrouped and in the 2nd she got a key break to take the set, and in the 3rd once again she made the vital break, and closed out the match in 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. And finally Andrea Petkovic, who has been out of the game for a few months with a lower back injury made a winning return against her fellow German player, Kristina Barrois in 6-1, 6-4. However Petko's next opponent will prove to be the toughest as she is up against the world no.1, Victoria Azarenka, who has only been beaten once this year, so has a 26-1 record in 2012 so far. But Petkovic is no shrinking violet and is a powerful and aggressive baseline player, so I'm sure it promises to be quite a good match, although Azarenka could scoosh it, but I hope not.
Later today there will be more great tennis, as more of the top seeds will play each other, with Ana Ivanovic playing a potential very tough German opponent, the up and coming Mona Barthel (the lassie with very bad acne). Agnieszka Radwanska in her first match, will take on Greta Arn and Maria Sharapova will play her debut match against Alize Cornet. However the day will end with a mouth watering set up between the former World no.1's, Caroline Wozniacki and Jelena Jankovic. This promises to be a really good one, but I would favour Caroline to win it, as she has won their last few meetings. However Jankovic has played a key part in securing Serbia's first final in the Fed Cup, which they made there at the weekend, so she might be feeling more inspired, so we shall see, but it promises to a very good one.
So a quick though on who is going to win the title in Stuttgart???? (because the winner of the Barcelona Open on the men's is a no-brainer!). To be honest my favourite is Angelique Kerber, as she really is making a name for herself, and she is fast rising, and she also has home advantage, and no doubt she will soon become a top 10 player. And despite the fact there are many players ranked higher than her, and you could say Radwanska and Azarenka are firm favourites (especially as Radwanska has only been defeated by Azarenka this year), I think Kerber will have the most inspiration being on home soil, but we will find out soon enough.
OK so that's it for now, more to follow on the mens and ladies later.
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