Right so now I'm onto my third part of the Sony Open tennis tournament covarge, which will cover the men's and ladies quarter and semi final matches, which will set up the finals for both. So let's have look at the matches.
Starting with Serena Williams who in her quarter final match was up against Angelique Kerber of Germany, in what promised to be an intruiging clash. Serena earlier in the week had to battle against her first two opponents, but by this time she had shaken off the cobwebs and played sharp tennis and proved too strong for Kerber as romped to a convincing 6-2, 6-2 victory. And next up was another showdown with Maria Sharapova, who has never won a match against Serena in their last umpteen meetings and Sharapova came through her match against Petra Kvitova in 7-5, 6-1. And unfortunately for Maria it was no different this time either as Serena beat the Russian/American comfortably to reach another final in Miami with a 6-4, 6-3. This sees Serena doing what she does better than anyone else and once again she took down the mighty Pova with ease and come Saturday (i.e. today) I would be very surprised if she didn't lift her 59th career title.
In the other quarter finals, Dominika Cibulkova, this year's Aussie open finalist, battled her was past Agnieszka Radwanska for a place in the semis, and it was a far cry from their Melbourne semi final as Aggie really stuck to the pint sized Slovak. But in the end it was Cibulkova that came through after a tough two and a half hour scrap with a 3-6, 7-6, 6-3 scoreline. Li Na also had a bit of a fight on her hands against Caroline Wozniacki as the Chinese player and World No.2, dispatched a plucky Caroline in straight sets 7-5, 7-5. Which left the remaining semi final between Li Na and Dominika Cibulkova, which was a tight encounter, but in the same result as the Australian open final, Li Na battled her way to victory as she reached the final in 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.
So this sets up what should be a pretty good final as Serena and Li Na have had their fair share of tough matches over the years and this one should hopefully prove to be no different. But you would be mad or both to not see Serena as the winner of this one given that she has, like pretty much every other player on the WTA tour, a winning head to head record over Li Na, which is quite emphatic 10-1. So for me it will be a tight match but I think Serena will take it in straight sets.
So now we go onto the men's quarter finals starting with the mouth watering clash between Andy Murray, the defending champion and Novak Djokovic. The match itself proved to be quite a tight high quality one and the first set saw very little to separate the two. That was until 5-6 on Andy's serve as he was serving to level the scores and take the set into a tiebreak, when Djokovic played a volley at the net and his racquet passed over the other side of the net. Andy then disputed the call with the umpire who insisted that the point belonged to Djokovic but Andy continued to argue with the umpire to no avail, which ultimately lead to him losing his serve and the first set. In the 2nd set Andy managed to refocus and he nabbed a break to move ahead, but he sqaundered it by putting in two double faults and let Novak back on even terms. And from here on, Andy struggled and capitulated on serve for Novak to go 5-3 up and he served it out with ease to reach the semi finals and end Andy's title defence with a 7-5, 6-3 result.
This was a good match with some excellent rallies and it also showed really encouraging signs for Andy, who in his previous match demolished Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets 6-4, 6-1, which shows his game is definitely getting back on track. However the controversial line call was the main point of the match and it was a bad call from the umpire who overruled Andy's dispute even though it was blatantly clear that Novak's racquet was way over the other side of the net and Djokovic was awarded the point regardless. It was also disappointing that even though Novak admitted his racquet was over the net that he didn't concede the point, and as a result Andy played a sloppy service game, which knocked him off his rythym. But perhaps in the end it didn't make a heap of difference as Andy once again proved his main problem was his second serve, which was way too slow and he also throw in a couple of costly double faults that cost him his break, which could have seen him level the match. So it was a disappointing end to an otherwise fine match, which will now see Andy's ranking drop to No.8 in the world, which is the lowest it has been for over five years.
However Andy will have a chance in the clay court season to make up his points, so I'm sure he will do his best to try and gain as many points as he can leading up to and during the French open, especially as he missed it last year. But he doesn't want to drop any further down the rankings if he can avoid it as that means he will meet the likes of Djokovic or Federer even earlier in the tournaments which is not good. But next up for Andy is the Davis cup tie with Italy, which is held in Naples and it will be on clay, so it will be good preparation for him for the European clay court season that lies ahead. And with Italy's top player, Fabio Fognini in some doubt over whether or not he will play due to a quadriceps injury, this could be an excellent chance for Andy and team GB to win the tie and reach the semis and let's hope they will. And I definitely think Andy's tennis as he said himself isn't far off the level he wants it to be, so hopefully come the clay court season when he plays next in Madrid he will be close to his best (as he opted not to play in Monte Carlo to take some rest, and it is the only non mandatory Masters title so he won't lose any points there).
So moving onto the other men's quarter finals, there was a big upset for Roger Federer as he took on the Japanese player, Kei Nishikori, and Kei really stunned Fed as he came from a set down to beat the Swiss maestro in three sets and reached his first semi in Miami with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 win. This was a great win for Nishikori who really is one of the most promising players on tour just now, although he has already been around for a few years anyway. And given Roger's recent form it was surprising to see him go out, but then Miami is a tournament where he struggled to do well at as he has never won it since 2006. Rafa Nadal also didn't have it all his way as he was forced to battle against the big serving Canadian, Milos Raonic whom he had to fight from a set down against to come back and win the match in 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. This again shows what a great champion Rafa is and he has the spirit and guts to come back from just about any situation. And the last quarter final match was between Tomas Berdych and the in form Alexandr Dolgopolov, who made his 2nd Masters quarter final in so many tournaments. However the Dog has never beaten Berdych and this match proved no different, and after Berdych took the first set, the Dog went a break up in the second but he couldn't hold onto it and he was defeated in the tiebreak, which saw Berdy win the match with a 6-4, 7-6 result.
And now we move onto the men's semi finals....... well in short there weren't any! This was a bit of a surprise as both Kei Nishikori and Tomas Berdych were forced to withdraw as Nishikori had a groin injury from the exertions of his previous matches and Berdych contracted stomach gastroenteritis (not sure if that's the right spelling!). So this gave a walkover for both Rafa and Nole to set up another big showdown between the two old rivals, who will contest their 40th match together, which is more than any other two players have faced each other in the open era! And while its a pity the Miami crowds will be denied their tennis today, it seems almost a bit peculiar that the both players got a walkover into the final and it seems almost a bit convenient as well! Whether or not there was any foul play there so we could safely get the final everyone wanted or not is highly debatable but let's face it, it would be the final we would get regardless of whether Berdych or Nishikori played or not.
So who will win the men's final???? Well I'm going with Djokovic simply because he has already won the title there three times before and he also has been playing better tennis this week and given that he has already won Indian Wells despite not playing his best in that final, he has the belief that he can come back from anything as well. However just like their previous epic Miami final in 2011, I think this will be a really close one as well, and I fully expect Rafa to come out all guns blazing as he has been looking razor sharp this week. But I still think the result will be the same as it was three years ago and we will see Djokovic lift a 4th Miami title come tomorrow, and it should be a great match and one to watch.
Right so that's it for now, more will follow as the results of the men's and ladies final are in.
Till then bye the now.
No comments:
Post a Comment