OK so here is the first of my posts on the Mutua Madrid Open, which is a joint ATP/WTA event, which is a 1000 Masters title on the men's tour and a Premier Mandatory event on the ladies tour. So let's have a look at some of the matches so far on the men and women's side of the net.
To start off we had on the ladies starting with Serena Williams, who got off to a slow start in her first round match (surprising none of the top seeds appeared to have a bye into the 2nd round in Madrid!) but came through in 7-5, 6-1, and in her 2nd round match against Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain, she beat the Spaniad 6-2, 7-5. Victoria Azarenka had a tough time of it as she had to battle past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova after two tight tiebreak sets she came through in 7-6(8), 7-6(3) where she will face Ekaterina Makarova in the 2nd round. Sara Errani also had a tough time getting past Sorana Cirstea of Romania (lovely!) as she was taken the distance in a 3 set battle, winning 7-5, 2-6, 6-4. Petra Kvitova also fought hard to win against Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory. And Marion Bartoli made progress into the 3rd round after she beat Maria Teresa Torro Flor (now that's a name!) in 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
Also on the ladies front there was good news for British tennis, as Laura Robson after suffering six straight defeats in so many tournaments, bounced back brilliantly in Madrid, as she overcame a slow start in her first match against Magdelina Rybarikova, after losing the first set, she battled back in and went to win the match ease as broke the Slovak twice, and went to secure a much needed win in 6-7, 6-2, 6-2. And things got better from there as Laura went on to pull of arguably the biggest win of her career by defeating Agnieszka Radwanska, the world No.4 in straight sets with a stunning score of 6-3, 6-1. Laura has already proved to be something of a giant killer, as she has already taken the scalps of Kim Clijsters (having ended her career last year at the US Open) Li Na and Petra Kvitova, so this adds to her impressive record, and its great to see her return to form, as there is no doubt that with time Laura will get even better, and she's got it in her to beat the best.
So onto the men's starting off with Andy Murray who took on the tricky German player, Forian Mayer, who put on a dazzling display of great tennis and fired down 13 aces in the match, which made life difficult for Andy as he struggled to get a ready on the German's serve. However Andy himself served well, and pushed the match to a first set tiebreak, which was a real epic marathon as both players had set points, with Mayer having three, but Andy finally fashioned one and took the opening set. In the 2nd set, Andy dropped serve straight away and Mayer raced into a 4-1 lead, looking certain to level the match and push it to a decider. However Andy managed to break back and again things went by serve into a tiebreak, where Andy dominated the German and seal a tough victory in 7-6(11), 7-6(3).
This was a tough opening test for Andy, but he came through in fine style and used all his mental resolve to fight off Mayer's resistance. This also shows an encouraging start to his tournament in Madrid, and hopefully this time Andy can avoid an early exit, as his next opponent will be Gilles Simon, the Frenchman who has only beaten Andy once, and Andy has beaten him in both their previous clay court encounters. And hopefully Andy's clay court training looks to have paid off, and let's hope he can go deep into the tournament, or reach the quarter finals at least, although there he might face Tomas Berdych which could be a tough test for him, but we can deal with when and if we get there.
Next up we had the defending champion Roger Federer, who played against Radek Stepanek, and despite this being his first match in almost two months, Roger came out in fine style and defeated the Czeck player with great ease, with a 6-3, 6-3 win. Roger looks fit and fresh as no doubt he would be after taking such a long break, but whether or not that works against him in the later round we will just have to wait and see.
But now onto the match of the day which was between the world no.1, Novak Djokovic and the up and coming Grigor Dimitrov, the very talented player from Bulgaria, who promised to give Nole a stern test. And the Bulgarian did just that as he battled it out with Djokovic over 3 hours, and despite their last two meetings, where he failed to even win a set, Dimitrov this time had no such trouble, as he took the first set breaker. In the 2nd play went by serve again and Djokovic managed to win the set in the tiebreak. However in the 3rd set despite the fact that the odds looked to be stacked in Novak's favour, it was Dimitrov that made the key move and broke the Serb straight off and maintained that break. And at 5-3, Djokovic capitulated on serve and handed in that game Dimitrov the biggest win of his career, after a brutal 7-6, 6-7, 6-3 victory.
This was quite a performance from Grigor Dimitrov, who last year and this year has shown unbelievable promise, as he has slowly and surely posed a big threat to the top guys, as he has already given Andy Murray and Rafa tough tests this year. But in this match Dimitrov has started to make the transition and he has proven he is a real talent and one to watch as the year progresses, and its great to see a new name arrive on the scene, who has got it in them to cause upsets, as the Bulgarian did tonight. And with Nole out of the tournament, things just that bit more interesting...
Anyway that's it for now, more to follow as Rafa and Ferrer will be in action tomorrow, as well as Laura Robson who will take on Ana Ivanovic for a place in the quarter finals.
So until then bye the now.
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