Right ok its been quite a while since I've last posted on my tennis blog, and this is in part due to the break of the men's atp tour for the big guns, but also in part because there have been quite a few dinky tournaments on the ladies tour, which I've not been too fussed about it. But its time to as the title of the post suggests, to catch up with what's been going in the world of tennis......
So starting with ladies first, as a quick update, there was some good news for British tennis as Laura Robson, made her first ever WTA singles final, in Guangzhou in China, and was the first British player to do since Jo Durie back in 1990! The match itself was a bit of an epic tussle between Laura and the Taiwanese player, Hsieh Su-Wei, who took the first set, and was also a break up in the 2nd before Laura broke back and soon went on to break Su-Wei's serve to take the match to a decider. In the last set there were more breaks, but it was ultimately the Taiwanese who came out on top with her experience eventually shining through, to win her 2nd WTA singles title with an exhaustive 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory. This was an excellent match from what I seen of it, and Laura's determination to fight back in the 2nd set was particularly impressive, but Su-Wei did play some terrific tennis to edge past Laura in the end. And I felt sorry for poor Laura at the end of the match when she sat down and sobbed into her towel as you can imagine how disappointed she was in her loss, and having a chance in making a bit of history, but I'm sure she will have plenty more chances in the future and will win many WTA titles.
So onto other ladies tournaments we had Caroline Wozniacki, who after a very disappointing season, has finally started to show signs of her form that took her to the top again, as after a string of losses and failing to win a title so far in 2012, she finally turned things around at the Korea open in Seoul. Caroline at this tournament made an impressive to the final where she drubbed Kaia Kanepi in straight sets with a 6-1, 6-0 victory. Caroline also went on to do quite well at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo as she reached the quarter finals there before losing to Agnieszka Radwanska with a 6-4, 6-3 scoreline, which was not bad considering the thrashings Aga handed out to other players enroute to her final, where she ultimately lost to Nadia Petrova. Caroline also at the Pan Pacific Open finally defeated a top 10 player for the first time this year(!), yup that's right, as she beat Li Na in 3 sets. This shows more encouraging signs that Caroline is starting to move in the right direction, and she said herself that she trained hard after her first round loss at the US Open. So let's hope this is the start of something good again for the Wozzer, but it won't be easy as I'm sure will have plenty of opposition ahead of her in future tournaments.
This week of course has also seen the last big Premier mandatory WTA event take place at the China open in Beijing, where all the top seeds are playing, with the exception of Serena Williams, who withdrew due to illness. But so far there has been some interesting results and already some of the top seeds have fallen by the wayside with Petra Kvitova going out in the 2nd round to the giant killer, Carla Suarez Navarro in a shock straight set 6-3, 6-2 loss. Sam Stosur also was beaten by Julia Goerges, also something of a giant killer, who edged the Aussie in a much tougher contest, with a 7-6, 4-6, 7-5 win. However some of the other top seeds have sailed through so far, particularly Victoria Azarenka, who dismissed Alice Cornet, conceding only one game, and beating Sabine Lisicki in 6-4, 6-2 to set up a 3rd round match with Elena Vesnina of Russia. Maria Sharapova also made a relatively easy path into the 3rd round after a tricky first round against the talented and dimunitive player, Simona Halep in 7-5, 7-5, and an easy 6-2, 6-2 against Sorana Cirstea. Caroline Wozniacki however has had to battle her way so far to make it to the 3rd round, where she will face Angelique Kerber, who has been one of her nemesises, and you would have to favour Kerber to win this one, but we shall see, upsets can happen. And finally Agnieszka Radwanska, the defending champion had to tough it out against Lourdes Dominguez Lino to set up her quarter final place with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 win. So more to follow on the ladies!
Right quickly onto the men, the ATP tour has been back in action the last couple of weeks, with smaller tournaments in Kuala Lumpar and Bangkok (where Andy Murray last year, but chose not to play this year). And now the big seeds are back again this week, with Djokovic at the China open in Beijing, and Andy Murray at the Rakuten Japan Open tennis championships in Tokyo. Both events are ATP 500 ones, so not all the top seeds are playing quite a few of them are still. Djokovic for starters however had a tough first match against the German player, Michael Berrer, who pushed Djoko to a 3rd set after winning the 2nd on a tiebreak (again Djokovic's weakness!). But Nole came through well in the last set, winning in a 6-1, 6-7, 6-2 victory, and went on to defeat Carlos Berloq with a much easier 6-1, 6-3 win, to set a 3rd round clash with Jurgen Melzer. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on the other hand had a tough test in his opener against Denis Istomin, the talented Uzbekistanian player, but the Frenchman finally came through with a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 win, and received a walkover after Nikolai Davydenko withdrew, and he awaits either Mikhail Youzhny or Kevin Anderson in his quarter final match. And other players still in action in Beijing also include Richard Gasquet, who is to play Zhang Ze of China, and the big US fella, Sam Querrey who will play Andreis Seppi in his 2nd round match, and Feliciano Lopez who plays Lu-Yen-Hsun in the 2nd round.
So onto Andy Murray, the US Open champion, who made his return to tennis this week in Tokyo, and he made a good start with a tricky victory over the Croat giant, Ivo Karlovich in 7-6(9), 6-4. Andy then went on to face the Slovak player, Lukas Lacko, who he dismissed easily in 6-1, 6-2, in just under an hour! This really sees Andy Murray in a very interesting place, after winning his first major, no doubt we were all curious to see what form his tennis might be in, and based on these results so far, it has been very impressive. However it gets tougher from here as Andy will next face Stan Wawrinka, and they have had their share of tough matches in the past, but Andy does lead their head to head 7-4, so that will go in his favour. Andy also admitted in the past, that on the ATP tour he hasn't always played his best, as he was more obssessed with winning a grand slam and that took priority over the tour events, which may also have been a factor in some of his performances in matches in previous years being not so good. But from hereoin for the rest of the year, Andy has a good chance to prove that he can play consistently well on the tour, and hopefully win a few more titles before the year ends, and maybe even put together a great winning streak like Nole did last year, although to be honest I don't quite see that happening, but you never know! Last year Andy did manage an impressive swing in Asia as he won 3 titles in Bangkok, Tokyo and Shanghai, and had a 17 match winning streak before it ended in Paris. So we shall see whit happens with Mr Murray!
Anyway of the other top seeds in Tokyo we also have Janko Tipsarevic make it through to the 2nd round, and Milos Raonic also has made into the 2nd round where he will play the Serb No.3, Viktor Troicki. The other top seeds also include Tomas Berdych who is to play Alejandro Falla of Colombia in his 2nd round match, and Juan Monaco, has set up a very intruiging match with the Cypriot and former Aussie open finalist, Marcos Baghdatis. And home favourite, Kei Nishikori will play Tommy Robredo of Spain in his 2nd round encounter.
And quickly as for Rafa, well unfortunately there is still no sign yet of his return to the courts, as he will most likely be out for the rest of the 2012 season, but he has said in the press that he hopes his knee will be fit and well for the 2013 Australian open. Rafa's knee injury has been something that has troubled him off and on throughout his career, and there is a the concern that if its bad enough, it could be career ending for him, but let's hope that's not the case, as he is one of the all time greats in the sport, and it needs him. Its great to still have the other top 3 guys (who are now the top 3 literally!) in action, but without Rafa something special feels missing from the tour, and it will be a great pity if he were to retire, but I'm sure that won't happen just yet. As for Roger Federer well he will make a return to the tour for the Shanghai Rolex Masters later in the month.
So that's it for now, more to follow soon, as that was just a quite catch up on events recently from the ATP/WTA tours.
Until next time, tarrrrrrraaaaaaaaa!
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