Right ok after a long absence of tennis tournaments, its a big welcome return to the world of the ATP and WTA tour as I start my first post on the BNP Paribas Open from Indian Wells, which is already well under way, as the world's top players gather together to fight for one of the men's and ladies biggest titles on the tour today.
So starting with the ladies matches as a quick catch up, for starters we had Victoria Azarenka, the defending champion, who in her first match faced Daniela Hantuchova, which at first was quite a stern test in the opening set, with Daniela taking a 4-1 lead. However after Vika broke back, she asserted herself into the match and then went on to win the first set, and broke Daniela twice in the 2nd to seal her first win and continue her unbeaten run in 2013, with a 6-4, 6-1 victory. This sees Vika still in red hot form, and with Serena not at this event (as she has boycotted Indian Wells for years as a result of an unfavourable audience back in 2001 who booed Venus off the court for withdrawing from her semi final match) its going to be hard to see anyone else stop her.
As for other matches, we had Maria Sharapova who also made a pretty convincing start as she dismissed former French Open champion, Francesca Schiavone with a ruthless 6-1, 6-1 win to secure her place in the 3rd round. Sam Stosur also made a good start at the event as she beat the American player, Madison Keyes in 6-3, 6-4, which no doubt would have come as a relief for her after the poor start that Sam has had in 2013 so far. Caroline Wozniacki on the other hand had to really grind out her match against the French player, Alize Cornet, who pushed the Danish No.1 the distance, but she eventually prevailed with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win after 2 and a half hours. Petra Kvitova also survived a real battle as she faced off Olga Govortsova in a 3 setter before emerging the winner with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory.
Agnieszka Radwanska however had little trouble in sealing her victory in the 2nd round by beating Martina Sanchez with a 6-1, 6-1 thrashing. Angelique Kerber also made it through to the 3rd round with great ease after beating Irina Camelia Begu in 6-3, 6-2. And finally Sara Errani toughed out a short but nonetheless testing encounter, which belied the scoreline, as she overcame a feisty Johanna Larsson in 6-3, 6-1.
As for the British ladies contingent, unfortunately there wasn't that much good news as Heather and Laura both took tumbles at the first hurdle. Starting with Laura, who made the better effort of the two, she got off to a good start in her match against the Swede player, Sofia Arvidsson, but the older more experience Arvidsson went on to win the 2nd set on a tiebreak, and in the 3rd she never looked back as she saw off Laura with a 2-6, 7-6, 6-1 win. Laura has had a bad run of luck so far this season, and this marks another tournament where she has sustained a first round loss, as she hasn't won a match since upsetting Petra Kvitova at the Australian Open. However Laura has said in the press she has been suffering from a chest infection over the past few months, which is starting to clear, and with that let's hope her tennis improves soon. Heather also had bad luck in her match as she went down to the aforementioned Irina Camelia Begu in 6-2, 6-4. So it was a disappointing event for the British lasses, but hopefully they will play better soon.
Now for the men's starting with Roger Federer who breezed his way to victory against Dennis Istomin to reach the 3rd round (as the top seeds get a bye into the 2nd round, or basically a freebie!) as he dismissed the fella in 6-2, 6-3. Rafa, who made his debut return to hard courts since returning to the tour after his 7 month absence, also made a strong start, as he took on the talented young American player, Ryan Harrison. Harrison put up some good resistance in the first set and pushed Rafa to a tiebreak, but the Spaniard went on to seal it with ease as well as the match in the 2nd set, breaking the young yank twice to claim his first victory on hard court since the quarter finals of Sony Ericsson Open last year, with a 7-6, 6-2 win.
This was a very encouraging start from Rafa and he looked to have made the transition to hard courts with fair ease, and he has said in the press that his knee is definitely getting better. However how far Rafa can get at Indian Wells still remains to be seen and he himself has said he has humble expectations of how far he will get, but so far he looks in good shape and its a fair that he can at least make it to the quarter finals, and if he should get there, where Roger Federer could be a quarter final opponent, which will be very interesting should that happen, but we will have to wait and see.
Also at Indian Wells, the tournament is well known for its upsets and there were one or two on the horizon here, with the biggest being David Ferrer, who took on an in form, Kevin Anderson, the 6ft 8 giant from South Africa. Ferrer won the first set but after that failed to deal with the big fella's serve as he lost the 2nd set, and in the 3rd his woe continued and Anderson pulled one of the biggest wins of his career by beating the little beast for the first time in 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Lleyton Hewitt, also showing good form so far in the event also made progress as he beat another giant, John Isner, after a 3 set battle, and losing the first set, Hewitt battled his way back in and went on to pull off a big win over a big guy in 6-7, 6-3, 6-4.
In other matches, Tomas Berdych had more luck against Micha Zverev of Russia, as he raced past the Russian player with a straight sets win of 6-2, 6-4. Richard Gasquet of France, also pulled off a good win as he beat the Aussie No.1, Beranrd Tomic in 7-6, 6-2 to reach the 3rd round. Juan Martin Del Potro, the former US Open champion, also made good progress against Nikolai Davydenko, as the big Argentine beat the diminutive Russian in 6-3, 6-4.
And now we get on to Andy Murray, the British No.1, who has not had much luck at Indian Wells in the last couple of years, as he has not only failed to win a match in the last two previous years, he has not even won a set in either of them! But Andy was determined to change all that as he took on his opponent, Evgeny Donskoy from Russia, who put in a plucky performance against him. Andy not surprisingly got off to a ropey start, as he had not played a competitive match in over a month and probably with the demons of his previous early exits still lurking, he went a double break down in the 1st set. However Andy soon gained his composure and fought back from 5-1 down to level 5-5, but was then broken again by the Russian who took the opening set. After this Andy managed to dig in and win his first set in seven at Indian Wells, in the 2nd set of the match, and in the 3rd he took full control as the Russian no longer had any answers, although Andy hardly had it trouble free in the final game as he had to come from 0-40 to eventually seal his first win at Indian Wells in 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.
This in itself must have been a real psychological victory for Andy Murray and with it he can surely put to rest the demons he might have faced at Indian Wells in the past, having finally won his first match there for three years, the curse of the desert has now been lifted at last. It wasn't the prettiest of wins but the main thing is that Andy got through it and he did well to regain his compsure in the 2nd set and battle his way back in to win, and the match itself had some excellent tennis in it, especially from the talented Russian, Donskoy, who should be one to watch. So from here hopefully Andy can settle down into a rythym and go a bit deeper this time, and there is the prospect of a showdown in the quarter finals with Del Potro, and more tantalisingly a semi final with Novak Djokovic. And if Andy reaches the final and Federer loses out before then, then he will be guaranteed to overtake Federer in the rankings, and become the world No.2, however that's a big ask with the still unbeaten Djokovic in 2013 standing in his way, among others. But in the meantime he will need to take it match by match, so we shall wait and see what happens....
And finally we get on to Novak Djokovic, the world no.1 who was up against the Italian player, Fabio Fognini, and naturally with Nole who has gone unbeaten so far in 2013, you would expect him to come out on top with ease. However Nole, like Andy, also had it quite tough as after making the perfect start and dishing out a bagel set to his helpless opponent, Fabio fought back after going a break down in the 2nd, he broke back and soon went on to win the 2nd set, after Novak played a poor service game. In the 3rd set however, Novak wrestled back control of the match as he broke his spirited opponent twice to close out a tricky first match in the desert with a 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 win.
This certainly wasn't quite the start you would expect from Nole, however he did what he had to do in order to get through, and we all know that he would end up wining in the end. So this now sees Nole with a perfect 14-0 record in 2013 so far, but how long can he continue with his winning streak???? Who knows?? To be honest while he is playing great tennis, I can't quite see Nole going on the same lengthy winning streak that he did in 2011, but I definitely do think he is the favourite to win this title regardless, as well as the title in the upcoming Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. So I'd imagine that Nole will be able to keep that streak going for now, and you never know just maybe he might keep it going all year! (now that's a scary thought!).
Right well that's it for now, more will doubtless follow on the first 1000 Masters series/Premier Mandatory event of the season on the ATP/WTA tour.
Till the next one, bye for now.
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