Right so here's my latest post on the mens and ladies ATP/WTA tours respectively, as I follow more action from the events from the women in Stuttgart at the Porsche Grand Prix Tennis, and the Barcelona Open from the men.
Starting with the men, so I will get them out of the way, I'll start with Andy Murray's match against the big serving Canadian, Milos Raonic, who we expected to be a stern test for the Muzza. And right enough it proved to be just that, as the 6ft 5" Canadian (same height as Berdych funnily enough, what is it with these big guys????!) made life hell for Andy as he rained down serves well over 140mph, making it tough for Andy to return. So to recap the match, in the 1st set there was one break of serve as Andy dropped serve at at 3-3, and Raonic took the advantage and ran away with the first set. In the second set Andy again went a break down at a crucial time at 4-4, handing what looked like the final break needed, but Raonic thankfully got tight on his serve allowing Andy back in the door to make it 5-5 all. But fate twisted the knife in again as the two men went into the tiebreak, which saw Andy hopelessly outgunned by the big Canadian, losing his second clay court event quarter final, this time in 4-6, 6(3)-7.
I have to say when I read results of Andy's matches like this, I can't help but feel frustrated for him and at him, as I just keep thinking he shouldn't be losing to lower ranked players, especially as he is the world no.4. However as I've said in the past, its impossible even for the top 10 players to play consistently well in every single tournament on every surface throughout the year, so sooner or later they will get beat, just as Ferrer did last week by Thomaz Bellucci in Monte Carlo. But today for Andy, being a first meeting with Raonic, you get that the Canadian would know a whole lot more about Andy's game than Andy knows about his, and the first time you play a player can be the worst (well I don't know I'm just guessing since I don't play myself!). It was the same for Federer when he first played Raonic, as he too struggled against the big Canadian's serve, but unlike Andy, he came through the match. However Milos Raonic clearly has been and continues to be a very promising and talented player, and with a serve that big, its a nightmare for anyone to get past him (except maybe John Isner), so well done to him for his impressive effort. And I do have to say beating Andy Murray in the best of 3 is one thing, but beating him in a grand slam is quite another, and I would like to think that if it were a grand slam that next time he will get revenge, but that's for another time.
But that's the second time in so many weeks that he's lost to another big hitter, so I don't know if Andy has been reverting back to type, playing more defensive, if so, he needs to step it up more again, and become more aggressive. I sometimes think after his loss to Federer in Dubai, that his very aggressive game plan which he executed so well there and in Melbourne, kind of went down the pan, and reverted back to being a counterpuncher, but it won't guarantee him winning in the slams if he does that, so he will need to get that gameplan back in order to take it to the top 3 guys and all the other big hitters on tour. In the meantime all the best to Andy and here's hoping he can do better in Madrid and Rome before Roland Garros comes along next month, and you have to remember that clay isn't his best surface so I guess he will suffer a few more defeats on it than on hard court.
Anyway so quickly in other mens matches, Rafa won very comfortably against Janko Tipsarevic in 6-2, 6-2, and he has already showed his mastery on the clay so far this year in Monte Carlo and looks to continue to do so, as he has yet to even drop a set on the red stuff. David Ferrer however came through a much tougher test against his fellow Spaniard, Feliciano Lopez, as it took Ferrer nearly three hours to dispatch Lopez, finally winning in 6-,7 7-6, 6-3. Meanwhile Fernando Verdasco had no such trouble getting past Kei Nishikori because the Japanese player was forced to retire. So that sets up two semis between Rafa and Verdasco, and Ferrer and Raonic, both which should be good, particularly the Ferrer/Raonic match. But I am gutted that it isn't Andy Murray playing instead.
Sooooo onto the ladies tour, which saw the Stuttgart WTA quarter finals matches get underway, and there was some terrific stuff on display today from the top seeds. The first match was between the World No.4 Radwanska and No.8, Li Na, and Li started out the stronger of the two, taking the first set, but after going down a break in the 2nd set, you could see Aga fight her way back in, and from then on you knew she would close it out to seal her place in the semis, winning 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Radwanska so far in 2012 has proved to be pretty much the 2nd best player in the world, despite her No.4 ranking, she even managed to beat Sharapova in the finals in Miami to lift her biggest title to date. So next up she will face her nemesis Vika whom I have written more about her extraordinary match in the next paragraph, and Azarenka remains the only player to have beaten Aga (Agnieszka's nickname) so I'd imagine the outcome is no different, but we will see.
Now onto the aforementioned second match of the day, which was one of the best matches of the year so far, between the World No.1 Victoria Azarenka, and the unbelievably promising Mona Barthel, currently ranked at 35 in the world. For nearly three hours, the young German player took the best player in the world right to the wire, as the two of them shared breaks, and in the 2nd set, despite being a break down on two occassions, Barthel broke back, and ultimately pushed the set to a tiebreaker, which she won. In the 3rd it was breaks aplenty again, however at 6-5, with Barthel serving to make another breaker, she sadly brought a thrilling match to an anti-climax with a double fault, to secure Vika's place in the semis, after a gruelling epic 6-4, 6-7, 7-5 battle. Its amazing to think that with so many players ranked below Azarenka, particularly during her winning streak, that she was able to crush them, but with Barthel, ranked No.35 in the world, she was taken the distance and given a real battle in the process. And it was incredible just how many winners Barthel managed to hit throughout the match, as she blasted 62 winners, which was enough to put even Sharapova to shame. It was a shame though that Mona ended the match on a double fault, but she gave her all in that match, and it was a superb effort, and I'm sure the future will be very bright for her in the next while or so.
The next match up saw two veterans of the ladies game, Maria Sharapova and Sam Stosur hammer it out on the clay, as they certainly did. In the past Sharapova had a convincing 9-1 win loss record in her favour, and most of those matches were easily won, but this one was far from easy, as the two ladies had to battle it out, and put on a high quality contest for the German crowd. The match itself only had 3 breaks of serve in it, and after a set a piece, in the 3rd it was Sharapova that took the crucial break to finally win after an exhausting 3 hour match in 6-7, 7-6, 7-5. In this match Stosur at certain points looked actually like the likely winner, but once again its testament to Sharapova's incredible determination and competitiveness that she was able to come through after such a battle. And the level of tennis once again from both women was terrific with some superb shot making from the pair of them, and again it shows just how impressive the level of the sport is becoming, in fact at times I think even the ladies tennis tennis puts the mens to shame! ;-)
And in the final match we saw the last German standing, Angelique Kerber take on the World No.3 Petra Kvitova. However this proved to be far from the long drawn epic matches that went before, as Petra had little trouble in getting past Kerber, and despite a few breaks, Petra blasted past Kerber in just over an hour, hitting many winners on the way, and showing just why she is in the top 4, winning in 6-4, 6-4. Its amazing the difference between Petra and Caroline Wozniacki in this match, as it really does show, the game boils down to the big hitters once again coming through to win the matches. And Caroline clearly isn't a big hitter, and as such struggles (as did Andy today) against players like Kerber, but Petra made easy work of the German today, and that's what it takes, it also helps when you are a grand slam champion as well of course! ;-)
Anyway so here is a rare one, and a very welcome one at that, for the first time in a while on WTA tour event, we have the top 4 players in the world, in the semi finals, which I think is great for the sport, and it would be great if they can do that more often. In the last couple of slams on the men's tour, it was the same, as all four guys got to the semis and I think it would be great if in future slams for both men and the ladies that we get the same. Its just a shame in a way that the top players dont play in these events altogther at the same time more than they use to, but that's just how it goes.
Anyway as I'm writing this my fingers are starting to seize up so I will leave it there and no doubt add more sometime soon. More will follow on the outcome of the WTA Stuttgart semis and the ATP Barcelona open semis.
Till then that's it.
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