OK so here's my second part of the posts on the Asian swing on the WTA/ATP tour, as this week saw the conclusion of the China Open (both the men's and ladies), and the Rakuten Toyko Open championship. So let's have a closer look...
So ladies first, with the China Open, which is the last Premier mandatory event of the season (the equivalent of the men's ATP 1000 Masters series events) here is an update on some of the results. In the 3rd round taking off from last time, Caroline Wozniacki faced the current world no.6, Angelique Kerber, for a place in the quarter finals. However unfortunately for Caroline, she wasn't quite able to win the match, despite pushing the German to a decider, Caroline forced a return error just wide, which saw Kerber seal her quarter final place with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 victory. This was a bit of a disappointment for Caroline as for the most part, she played a pretty good match, with some more aggressive play, the Asian swing of the tour has seen her get back some form that took her to the No.1 spot, but in the end she came up a bit short. In other matches, Angelique Kerber went on to suffer a defeat at the hands of Maria Sharapova, who drubbed an injured Kerber, who was forced to retire with the Pova winning in 6-0, 3-0 ret. Li Ma made an impressive run of form in Beijing as she defeated the defending champion, Angieszka Radwanska in straight sets 6-4, 6-2, but she went on to lose to Maria Sharapova in 6-4, 6-0. Victoria Azarenka on the other hand managed to breeze her way past her opponents until she met Marion Bartoli in the semi finals, where the two of them had a high quality tussle, and despite the scoreline it was a pretty tough match for the Belarusian, who came through in 6-4, 6-2.
And this set up a final between Sharapova and Azarenkna, which I'm sure no doubt was a real shriek fest, as the opera singer and the screecher went at it to win the title. The match itself, while I didn't see it, turned out to be unfortunately just another straight forward victory for Vika, who blasted Maria off the court in straight sets winning the title in 6-3, 6-1. I can't really say I'm surprised by the result, although after their excellent US Open match, I was hoping this would have been a tighter match, but unfortunately it proved not to be the case. Regardless of that though, Vika deserves the title and she has proven again that she really is the world's best player, well next to Serena that is, but this also secures her place at the top of the rankings for a while yet. It also sees the completion of the line up for the WTA Championships in Istanbul with Li Na who was the last to qualify for the year end finale, which sees Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Agnieszka Radwanska, Petra Kvtiova, Angelique Kerber, Sara Errani and Li Na, all go head to head to play for the title. Its going to be quite a finale I'm sure!
In meantime however there are still a few WTA tournaments on the go, with two this week in Osaka and Linz, and the following will see the last Premier event of the year, in the Kremlin Cup, which is funnily enough in Moscow of all places! But this will see most of the other top seeds outwith the top 8 play, particularly Sam Stosur, Marion Bartoli and Caroline Wozniacki, all whom missed out on the WTA Championships. So that promises to be a good one as well.
OK now onto the men's from China aswell and Tokyo, starting with Novak Djokovic who had breezed his way to the final there, and he faced Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for the title. And after a tight first set, it was all Djokovic as Tsonga crumbled in the second, being broken twice as Nole raced to victory with a 7-6(4), 6-2 win. This sees Djokovic win his third title in Beijing, and the 4th of the year, which neatly brings up another 500 points on his ranking, which should help him a little further to getting back to the World No.1 spot. After this we go to Tokyo where Andy Murray was the defending champion at the Rakuten Tokyo Open championships. Unfortunately for Andy he was unable to defend his title there as he faced Milos Raonic, the big serving Canadian, who got revenge for his defeat at the US Open. The match however was far from easy as the two of them had a real battle, with Raonic taking the first set, but Andy levelled the match in the 2nd, taking the tiebreaker. In the 3rd however, despite being a break up, Andy squandered two match points and let Raonic back in again, taking the set to another tiebreak, where the Canadian took advantage and sealed the win in 6-3, 6-7, 7-6.
After the US Open, it would probably be a bit much to expect that Andy could go on a big winning streak, and once again he seemed to struggle with Raonic's serve, and in the best of 3 on the ATP tour, he is beatable. But despite that it was a pretty close match, and it could have gone either way, but in the end Raonic played better in the big points. Nevertheless, his loss in Tokyo, while disapponting, its not really much to worry about, as bigger tournaments lie ahead, with the Shanghai Masters coming up next week. And no doubt Andy will want to perform his best at the ATP World Tour Finals next month, and hopefully with the home crowd behind, he will do will there.
In the Tokyo final however for the first time in quite a while it saw none of the top 10 seeds there, and instead we saw the Japanese No.1, and world No.17, Kei Nishikori go at it against Milos Raonic, the world no.15. This was Raonic's 3rd ATP 500 final, but it was Nishikori who played the better tennis as he secured a 3 set victory against the Canadian, with a 7-6, 3-6, 6-0 scoreline, and it was Kei's 2nd career title, and the biggest of his career. It was also great to see Kei win on his own home soil and it must have been the first time in many a year that a Japanese player won this title, so well done to him.
Right well that's it for now, more tennis will follow soon, as there will be more from Asia as the Shanghai Masters starts this week, and Andy Murray is the defending champion, but can he hang on to it this time???? We'll have to wait and see.
So I will leave there the now.
No comments:
Post a Comment