Well its time for my first post on the Sony Open tennis tournament from Miami, which is the second 1000 Masters series ATP title on the men's tour and the second Premier Mandatory title on the ladies WTA tour (also worth a 1000 ranking points). Andy Murray and Serena Williams are both the defending champions in Miami so let's have a look at the latest results of the matches on both sides of the net (the sexes net that is and no that's not being dirty!).
Right so starting the ladies the defending champion Serena Williams had a tough opener against Yaroslava Shvedova as the World No.1 was forced to battle hard to win the first set which went to a tiebreak, which Serena finally won 9-7. In the 2nd set Serena had it more her way despite one or two tough moments of resistance from Shvedova, but in the end Serena showed her grit and won the match in 7-6, 6-2 to reach the 3rd round. And in the 3rd round Serena had an even tougher test ahead of her as she battled her way past the French player, Caroline Garcia 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. This shows that Serena is somewhat below par in her form so far this year, which is a bit on an alarm for her, but she did what she had to do in the end to win and it sees her in the 4th round.
Next up we had Maria Sharapova who after a straight forward win oveer Kurumi Nara of Japan in 6-3, 6-4, went on to have a real battle on her hands as she played Lucie Safarova of the Czeck Republic. Safarova put Sharapova through her paces in their 3rd round match as she the Czeck player kept blasting powerful winners back at Sharapova and they soon levelled at a set all. And in the final set Sharapova went a double break up to serve it out, Safarova still wasn't done as she kept bringing up winner after winner, and after 9 match points, Safarova finally lost as Sharapova battled to victory after nearly three hours in 6-4, 6-7, 6-2. This was quite an incredible battle from Sharapova and she once again showed what a real warrior she is on the court as she just kept taking what Safarova kept throwing at her. So it was tough test for both of the two big names in the tournament so far.
In other matches Agnieszka Radwanska who was runner up in Indian Wells last week has enjoyed a more straight forward progress so far in Miami as she defeated Romina Oprandi in 6-0, 6-4, although she had a bit tougher test against Elena Vesnina in 7-5, 6-3. Caroline Wozniacki survived her first match as she fought past Monica Puig to win 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. Angelique Kerber also survived a real scare against Peng Shuai of China, as after a set all, Keber went a break down and she battled back from 4-1 down to level the scores and push the match to a tiebreak and win the match in 6-3, 1-6, 7-6. Keber however had it much easier against her next opponent which was Tsetvana Pironokova in 6-0, 6-2 as she reached the 4th round. Petra Kvitova also made it into the fourth as she beat both of her opponents surprisingly with both the same scoreline of 6-3, 6-4 (don't see that often!). Ana Ivanovic also has shown good form so far in this tournament as she thumped Lauren Davis in 6-1, 6-1 and also the newly crowned champion from Indian Wells, Flavia Pennetta in 6-4, 6-3. And Li Na benefited from a walkover Alisa Kleybanova to reach the 3rd round where she beat Madison Keys in 7-6, 6-3.
And there were also a few upsets as well, such as Sara Errani who went down to the Russian player, Ekaterina Makarova in three sets as the Russian won in 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. Sam Stosur also lost out to the American player, Coco Vandeweghe who beat the Aussie and former US Open champion in 5-7, 7-5, 7-5. And Jelena Jankovic also was beaten by Vervara Lepchenko in another tight battle in 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 which shows there have been quite alot of battles in Florida going on this week!
Right so now onto the men's starting Andy Murray the defending champion who announced his split with Ivan Lendl just last week, which shocked everybody and it left him with a bigger question mark over his form and will he recover well enough to do better in Miami??? Well so far he has done so as despite a slow start in his first match against Matthew Ebden, where he dropped the opening set, he then went on to speed to victory as he dished out a bagel set to Ebden in the 2nd and dropped only one game in the 3rd as he won the match in 3-6, 6-0, 6-1. It was a tricky opener for Andy as Ebden played well in the first set, but it appeared to be just a rusty start as he really cranked up the gears as he moved on in the match and despite one break in the 3rd set in the opening game, Andy never looked back.
Which brings me onto Andy's 3rd round match where he played Feliciano Lopez, whom he has never lost to and has an excellent record in his match results as he has only dropped two sets against him in total. And this match proved to be no different as after a fairly tight first set and despite Andy dropping serve once, he took the set with a break and in the 2nd set, Lopez started to struggle with the heat and his movement, due to the extensive taping on his back, he capitulated on serve twice as Andy secured a much needed straight set win to advance to the 4th round in 6-4, 6-1. This was an excellent result for Andy and after having to dig out so many matches on the tour over three sets, it was good to see he was able to get a straight set victory here.
Next up for Andy however will be Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who survived a tough battle against Marcos Baghdatis as he came from a set and a double break down to win the match in 4-6, 7-6, 7-5, and that will be no easy task. However Andy does have an excellent record over Tsonga as he has only lost once to him but Tsonga poses a much bigger threat all the same due to his big serve and powerful forehand, so Andy will need to be on top of his game if he is to beat him. But if Andy does beat Tsonga then that is a big step forward for him this year as Tsonga being ranked No.11 in the world, he will be the highest ranked player that Andy will have beaten so far this year. So let's hope Andy wins and if he does we could be set for a quarter final clash with Novak Djokovic, which would promise to be a real cracker, but we can deal with that if and when it happens.
So now onto the other matches, starting with Novak Djokovic who took on the Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy, in an entertaining match, which saw the Frenchman compete well but ultimately Nole was more than enough for Chardy to deal with, as the Serb won in 6-4, 6-3. The most notable thing about this match however was Novak had an outburst with the umpire who gave him a warning for taking too long between serves, and he yelled "You do not understand the game!" to the umpire, but despite that Nole shrugged it off and went on to win. Nole has so far benefited from a relatively easy draw and he has received a walkover into the 4th round as Florian Mayer withdrew with a groin injury and he will next face Tommy Robredo whom he has never lost to, although from the quarter final onwards, it doesn't get any easier for him as Andy could await and Roger in the semis.
Which brings me onto Roger Federer who so far has been looking sharp this year and in Miami he if anything is looking even sharper, as he effectively dealt with the giant serving Ivo Karlovic, whom he dispatched in 6-4, 7-6. And Rog then went on to dismiss the Thiemo De Bakker in just 6-3, 6-3 to reach the 4th round in just over an hour and six minutes, where he will next face Richard Gasquet. Gasquet could be a tougher proposition but given the way Rog is playing I don't really see him troubling the Swiss Maestro much. And Rafa so far has made a strong start in Miami as well as he ruthlessly dispatched Lleyton Hewitt, just dropping four games on the way to victory as he won in 6-1, 6-3. Rafa has never won in Miami but on this form he could very well do this year if he continues like he did against Hewitt and the Spaniard definitely means business.
In other men's matches, David Ferrer made a good comeback from injury as he defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia in 6-4, 6-0 and he will next take on Andreas Seppi for a place in the last 16. Grigor Dimitrov also won his match against Albert Montanes of Spain as he battled to win in 6-1, 6-7, 6-3 to face Kei Nishikori of Japan. Tomas Berdych also got revenge over Stephane Robert who upset Berdych a few years ago at the French open in the first round in a five set epic, but this match was way short as the big Czeck dismissed him in straight sets 7-5, 6-1. Stan Wawrinka, the Australian open champion, had a tougher test on his hands as he faced another Spaniard, Daniel Gimeno-Tarver who he beat in 6-0, 3-6, 6-3. Milos Raonic also made it past the American player, Jack Sock whom he beat in 6-4, 7-6. And lastly big John Isner fought his way to victory against the young African American, Donald Young, as he recovered from losing the first set to win 6-7, 6-3, 6-4.
Right so that's it for now and I will be back with more results later on once the 4th round match results are in.
So until the next un bye for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment