Right so I thought it was high time I did a post on the first joint ATP/WTA big event of the year outside the grand slams, which is the BNP Paribas Open from the desert at Indian Wells in Califorinia, where its baking hot and the sun probably shines all the time (or about as much as it rains here!). So let's have a look at the action so far...
Right starting with the ladies we've had one or two upsets, starting with Victoria Azarenka, the former 2012 champion, who got off to the worst possible start as she suffered a shock loss to the American, Lauren Davis. Vika started off horribly in the first set as she suffered a bagel set, however she fought back in the 2nd and pushed play to a tiebreak, but she soon came undone as she struggled with a foot injury and it was the young American who won the match in 6-0, 7-6. Angelique Kerber was another big casualty in the desert as she lost out to a Spanish qualifier, Maria Teresa Torror Flor in a tight three set battle, as the Spaniard won 2-6, 7-6, 6-4. Sabine Lisicki, last year's Wimbledon finalist also suffered an early defeat Alexandra Wozniak of Canada, who won in 7-5, 1-6, 7-6.
Other seeded players however faired better such as the defending champion Maria Sharapova, who defeated Julia Goerges of Germany with ease in 6-1, 6-4. The newly crowned Australian open champ, Li Na also won her match against her compatriot Zheng Jie, as she had to come from a break down in the 2nd set to win her match in 6-1, 7-5. Sam Stosur also defeated former French Open champion, Francesca Schiavone easily with a straight set 6-2, 6-3 victory. Caroline Wozniacki who was also a former champion and last year's finalist also kept her strong record going in the desert as she trounced Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia in 6-1, 6-3. Sara Errani also raced her way into the 3rd round as she hammered Sharon Fichman of Canadia dropping only two games to her win in 6-1, 6-1. Jelena Jankovic also a former Indians Wells champ won her first match against Yvonne Meusburger in 6-3, 6-1 to continue her good form. Petra Kvitova who has been very much up and down in her form lately, managed to come through her match impressively as she dismissed the American Coco Vandeweghe with a 6-1, 6-3 scoreline. And lastly Agnieszka Radwanska got off to a good start after she scored a comfortable win against Heather Watson in 6-4, 6-3.
As for the Williams sisters well they continue their boycott of the event at Indian Wells after a controversy with an audience they had back in 2001 where the crowd booed Venus who withdrew minutes before her scheduled semi final with her sister Serena. After this Serena was booed throughout the final that year against Kim Clijsters and since then the Williams sisters have never played there again. The Williams sisters also claimed the crowd were being blatantly racist to them as well at the time, so it remains to be seen if they will ever return to the desert but it seems unlikely they ever will. The WTA have also made a special concession for the sisters on this tournament given that all the Premier Mandatory titles are indeed mandatory, this is the one they are exempt from and they won't lose any ranking points for not playing.
Now the for the men's starting with Andy Murray who took on Rafa's conqueror two years ago at Wimbledon, Lukas Rosol. Rosol got off to a stronger start as he broke Andy twice to move ahead and take the first set, despite Andy breaking back. In the 2nd set however Andy fought back from going an immediate break down at the start and went on to break Rosol himself and he soon levelled the match at a set all. And in the 3rd set, Andy took a swift lead as Rosol's all or nothing game chalked too many unforced errors and in the end Andy served it out to reach the 3rd round after a trikcy 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win. While it wasn't the best start, Andy did well in pulling it back from Rosol, who simply made too many mistakes to keep up with Andy as he clocked 51 unforced errors in total. Andy however has a real tough draw ahead of him as he could face Milos Raonic in the fourth round, Rafa in the quarters and either Roger or Stan Wawrinka in the semis. So he has alot of work ahead of him before he can come even anywhere near the final and personally I think it will be doubtful he can win the title, but just wait and see.
Next up Rafa who is the defending champion had a real stern test in his first match against Radek Stepanek. Rafa appeared to be at times a bit uncomfortable on serve as he served eight double faults in the match and he lost the first set going down a double break. In the 2nd set however he fought back and broke Stepy and levelled the match at a set all. And in the 3rd set Rafa faced a real scare as he had to save three break points on his own serve at 2-3, which he did to level 3-3. And at 5-5, Rafa made the vital break to move ahead of Stepanek and serve it out, which he did to reach the 3rd round with a tough 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 win. Well first match scrapes don't come closer than this one and Rafa really had to dig deep in the 3rd set to rescue his own serve, but he did what he always does and fight like a great champ. And from here in the season Rafa has alot of points to defend from last year and the luxury of the points he accumulated from last year is over so there is more hard work ahead for him.
Next up we had the Swiss fellas, with Roger Federer who made a confident start against the Frenchman, Paul Henri Mathieu and despite going being broken back in the 2nd set, he sealed the tiebreaker to win the match in 6-2, 7-6. It has to be said that Roger is starting to look pretty good again this year and it looks like his appointment of Stefan Edberg is paying off, especially after his victory last week in Dubai. And for me he remains one of the favourites to win the title here again in Indian Wells. And then there was Stan Wawrinka, the Swiss No.1, and reigning Australian open champion, who also made a strong start as he dismissed the giant Croatian, Ivo Karlovic in just over an hour with a convincing 6-3, 7-5 win. On the basis of this performance it looks like Stan is set to do some serious damage this year and he is looking pretty confident and he also remains a firm favourite to win the title here at Indian Wells.
And as for the last of the "big four" Novak Djokovic was up against Victor Hanescu in a rather flat match which did see Nole struggle a little with his serve as he had to save several break points in the first set. However Nole went on to confidently close out the first set in the tibreaker 7-1 and he went to secure a double break to win the 2nd set and match 7-6, 6-2. This was perhaps a slightly edgy start for Nole but it sees him in good form and he should go deep into the tournament, although I'm still not entirely convinced that he will win it but we shall see.
In other matches we had Tommy Haas who beat Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy in straight sets to reach the 3rd round in 6-3, 6-4. Milos Raonic was made to work ahead to battle his way past another Frenchman, Eduardo Roger-Vasselin in 7-6, 4-6, 7-6. Gael Monfils on the other hand breezed his way into the 3rd round as he swept aside Sergei Stakhovsky in 6-2, 6-4. Jerzy Janowicz, the big bean Pole on the other hand lost out to Alejandro Falla of Colombia after a tough three set match as the Colombian previaled in 6-3, 2-6, 7-6. And lastly Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine has set up another clash with Rafa as he beat the American player, Tim Smyzeck in 7-6, 6-4.
So that's it for now more will follow with the results of the 3rd round and maybe 4th round matches for the men's and ladies.
So until the next one bye for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment