Serena too good for everyone, Istanbul is hers

When the semifinals line up has been decided, the top 4 players of the season were all there, but not all of them got there with ease.
Serena Williams was surely the favourite, having she beated world number 1 Azarenka in the round robin and having never dropped a set. Despite the loss, the Belarussian qualified too, but she needed a terrific effort of nerves to win over Chinese Li Na and didn't look as in for as a few weeks ago.
Maria Sharapova also came to the semifinal undefeated, but unlike Serena, she was on the edge of suffering a tough loss to Radwanska in the RR, even though she came up winning the match is a very long and great quality match.
The Polish had qualified too, but after the incredible marathon match lost to Masha, she had another tiring match to win in order to advance past the round robin: she had indeed to face Italian Sara Errani in the last match of the group, in what will eventually be the longest match ever in the history of the WTA Championships and the longest of the year.

In the first semifinal Serena Williams had a very easy job to win over a too tired Radwanska, who had only around 14 hours to rest, but the feeling one could get from this match was that, probably even a 100% ready Agnieska couldn't have done much more, as Serena looked extremly focused and determined, hitting the ball really well and missing barely nothing. 6-2 6-1 the final score.
In the other semifinal world number 1 Azarenka was taking on world number 2 Sharapova, in what has been the nth chapter of this year's most famous rivalry. Like in the previous rounds Vika looked rather below her usual level, probably very tired from the long season and probably a little accomplished by the news that, no matter the outcome of the semifinal, she would have finished the year as world number 1. On the other hand Masha looked very determined to take revange from the US Open semifinal and gave everything in order to overcome the Belarussian, who gave up fighting after losing the first set: 6-4 6-2.

As for every match this week, the Istanbul's arena was fully packed by tennis fans and the atmosphere was the one we wanted to see at WTA final Champs for years. Moreover, the two facing each other are the worldwide most famous tennis players up to now and everyone was expecting a great final. And so it was.
Maria started by hitting very hard and trying to move Serena as much as possible, trying to be very aggressive with the game-starters' shots - return of service and both 1st and 2nd service -.
On the other side of the net the American looked as good as few times in the past years, very solid on every shot, moving really impressively on court, almost never out of place and always up for the right choices.
The match seemed completely in Serena's hands, who broke early in the first set and had chances to get another, but first a silly error and then a great fighting from Sharapova prevented that from happening. But the Russian never looked like trubling Williams's serve and so the American could close the first set with that sole break 6-4.
In the second Masha tried to bash the ball harder, in order to draw Williams further from the baseline, but Serena didn't step back at all and kept hitting clean and moving Sharapova everytime she had the chance and the few times she might have had some sort of trouble on her serve, she had an ace ready for that.
Credits to Maria for hanging on there, but it was matter of time before Serena would rise the trophy and fast she did it, by closing the match on 6-4 6-3 on her side, with the terrific sum of 44 winners, ending probably the most amazing year of her carreer with Wimbledon, USO and YEC titles and 2 golden Medals at the Olympics, even if that didn't mean being the world number 1.

Ligety schools everyone in Soelden's snowstorm

American Ted Ligety was one of the -if not the one- most critic about the new rules on GS skis, as he said they wouldn't make any difference in the speed, but would actually increase the risk of injuries. One would then believe that this change might actually set him back on earth, whereas he's been the best interpreter of the discipline over the past few years. Well this one was surely surprised at the end of today's race, as not only he won, once again, but he completely destroyed the chances of everybody else, as the first mortal, Italian Manfred Moelgg, finished almost 3 seconds behind Teddy!
What makes it even more scary, is that the scenario after the first run was rather different.
The huge snowfall that kept blowing a lot of snow throughout the night gave a lot of troubles to the organizers, but after a great effort the race could start, but the whole course was slowed down by the fresh snow, mostly for the first racers and very soon a lot of bumps ruined the course.

Austrian Philipp Schoerghofer, unluckily for him, had the duty to open the race and couldn't even qualify for the second run as slow it was the last flat part of the slope.
Passage by passage the course got a little faster though, but of the top group only Ligety could score a time good enough to stay into the very top places after the first run. On the contrary French Thomas Fanara could take advantage of the little faster surface and by attacking the course from the very first gates with no fear for the bumps he could set the best time, by placing few hundreths ahead of the American.
Swedish Myrher and Austrian Baumed too, made solid runs and placed themself just behind Ligety and then with bib 21 Italian Moelgg showed a great attitude and even if he looked on the point of falling many times, he could stay up and score a terrific run, which placed him 3rd.
In the huge snowfall and the bad visibility a few guys from behind could find the right intuition to score a good run and so, quite many of them could qualify for the second run.
Cyprien Richard opened that second partial, but he wasn't really lucky and went out before time, then it was Roy's turn, and the Canadia made a really solid run even if at first it didn't look like one, as the very next racer, Slovakian newcomer Adam Zampa, destroyed his leadership with a terrific and brave run that would eventually give him a long-lasting leadership and a final placement into the top 10, 9th at his very first 2nd run in World Cup! Such a great achievement for the young guy from Vysoké Tatry, who had showed terrific improvements in the past few seasons, thanks to a very commendable hard work!

Zampa's run was so good that in the end his time was the 2nd best and could take him ahead of champions like Kostelic, Bauman and Mathis!
Only when the top tenners of the first run were to come down, the advantage over the Slovakian was big enough to let them overcome him at the finish line.
When it was last year's champion's turn, everyone expecred a great reaction from Hirscher, who didn't look very good in the first run and so it was. The Austrian seemed to shake out all the doubts and attacked like only he can do and leaded the race for a few intense moment.
The conditions of the weather were very tough and so the course, with all the bumps impossible to be seen in the snowstorm and so many runners fell or went out earlyon and after the exit of Simoncelli, Italian fans were holding their breaths while Manfred Moelgg was skiing down the hill.
Once again, like in the first run, the Italian looked always risking a little too much as if he was about to crash, but again he didn't and when he crossed the finish line he ended Hirscher's leadership.

His own was to last very few though, as Ted Ligety seemed not to be bothered by the fog or the snow and skied as if it was smooth and sunny, scoring a crazy good time, 2.75 seconds faster than the Italian and nothing could the first run's leader Fanara apart from trying to go beyond his limits. Too bad for the French it didn't work and he lost the podium too, finishing 4th.

aMAZEing Tina wins Soelden opening GS

A lot of interest was concerning this year's opening race of Soelden (Austria). As usual there was a lot of talk ongoing, mostly regarding who could confirm last year's form and who wouldn't, who could make it close to the bigger names and if there would be some newcomers.
Not only, two great questionmarks were finding place in all those rumors: the first one, pretty common here in Soelden, concerning the weather as the forcasts for the weekend were the ones of January, not of October and up to the glacier that could mean a lot of troubles; secondly, and probably the hottest topic of the year, dealing with the change of materials, with longer skis and their radius.

Surprisingly the first run was graced and all the girls (a part from the unlucky ones from 18 to 22)  could race under a covered sky, but no trubles given by snow or fog.
Bib number 1 was Austrian's evergreen Lizzy Goergl, that made quite a few mistakes in the early gates and seemed to never find a good way to deal with the long turns and maybe even with the new skis.
Two year's defending champion in GS Viktoria Rebensburg skied a very solid run, but differently from what happened in the past two season she didn't look unbeatable and soon we had a confirmation of that as after a pretty bad run of last year's winners here and overall champion Vonn, Tina Maze showed that with a bit more of corague and determination, those longer skis can still perform as well as the old ones.
Maze looked very impressive mostly on the steep gates of the middle part of the Rettenbach glacier ending the run with over a second of lead on Rebensburg and eventually only one skier could do any better of the German and it was Tessa Worley, who seemed to well adapt her tecnique to the new skis and finished the run "only" 0.76 seconds behind the Slovenian.
None ever again got any closer to the terrific time from Maze so that the last to qualify for the 2nd run was over 4 and half second trailing.

The second run had to be postponed several times because by the end of the first run a very heavy fog started go down the slope, but finally Frida Hansdotter from Sweden could make it begin with more than one hour of delay.
She could ski a very solid run, which eventually will give her a quite good uprise in the final ranking, but the girl that went down right after did something even greater. Susanne Weinbuchner, 21 year old German, didn't get any fear from that first experience in a world cup 2nd run, but on the contrary looked very enthusiastic and could take advantage of the low bib and made a terrific run, that hardly anyone going down right after her could challenge - only Nadia Fanchini, from Italy, seemed to be close on beating her time, but she eventually went out at the end of steep - and so she made a great improvement in her placement finishing the race with a raise of 17 places finishing 12th!
The weather looked like getting worse, so the girl started their run with little breaks one between the other and the rythm of that second run became even more fast and rich of emotions.
Lindell-Vikarby first and Curtoni Irene first could overtake the German in the leading, but then it was Vonn's turn and everyone was expecting her to make a great comeback in the second run; unfortunately in the early gates Lindsay crashed into a gate and was forced to retire looking highly on pain on her arm.

Then it was Koehle's turn and the Austrian made exactly what the public expected from Vonn: she started with fire in her eyes and took every risk she could painting incredible lines down the steep turns of the Rettenbach ending with the best partial time so far.
Gagnon and Gisin seemed to be unable to better Stefanie's run, but both could finish close enough to climb the ranking with her. Sadly for Italians fans Brignone couldn't really cope with the second run and went out, whilst Denise Karbon looked a little worse than in the 1st run finishing far from the podium.
An even greater disappoinment arrived to the German fanbase as Riesch skied in a very horrid fashion, never really doing anything down there and quite often going in over-rotation with the upper body and losing the outer ski.
When Zettel was about to start the fog and snowfall clearly seemed to be too heavy to let anyone making a better time than Koehle's, but so it wasn't. Kathrin risked everything and in the first gates she almost fell as much she was going down inwards to close the turns faster. She hit then an amazing time, better than the team mate and so it was all on the top 3's shoulders.
Rebensburg fell immediatly in the trapts of the upper part and after a couple of gates she was already out, same for Tessa Worley, who unluckily entered the gate with the inner ski and so had to stop.
Tina Maze was sure of a great advantage she secured after the first run, but clearly she knew that she couldn't deal on that only after the amazing run of Zettel.
So she started a little more coutious than in the first run, but still solid and aggressive enough to stop Zettel's attack to her leadership, with a magistral display of mental strenght she closed in the first position, finding a win again after more of a year.
Final result: Maze, Zettel, Koehle. For Stefanie it was the first podium in her carreer.

WTA goes fast from worst to best in Istanbul

Serena survives a bad day

In such tight and high-level competitions like the Year Ending Championships, generally one isn't allowed to have any kind of bad day, not even black-outs during matches as the quality of the opponents and the format of the round robin, can kick you out shorter than it seems.
But this time, it wasn't like that, or better, in tennis it's impossible for both player to lose, so one between Serena Williams and Li Na had to. Honestly the display of tennis in this match was probably one of the poorest ever in the story of this competition, with both players playing very far, not just from their best, but from an acceptable level for a top 10 player.
A scary number of shots landed out of the courts as if hitting inside was too main stream and the two challenged each other over who could miss more or in a worse fashion. No surprises then if the score was tight, but in such a terrible day for both of them, Serena at least could find a lifeline on her serve and that was the sole reason why she eventually won it 7-6 6-3.

Azarenka edges past Kerber in the best match of the year

World number one had to start her campaign here in Istanbul having already the duty to show all her skills in order to pass through the outstanding game of Angelique Kerber. Azarenka got inside the match with the knowledge that she was just a win away from finishing the year as world number 1, but she didn't let this put a bigger pressure on her shoulder and soon realised she had to fast find a good feeling with the court as "Angie" wouldn't give her an easy way to that accomplishment.

Kerber showed indeed a very brave attitude and really put a great effort to make her game work, she started to run over every shot from Azarenka before turning the defence into offence whenever she had the chance, producing incredible winners out of both wings and every angles.
On the other side of the net though, Vika wasn't keen on giving up and kept hitting the ball clean and strong and the two battled over every point as if it was the last one of a final producing such an amazing tennis that couldn't but lead to a tie break. There Vika started with a terrific rush that made her flow on a 6-2 lead, but Kerber didn't let this scare her and pushed on the throttle and with a couple of outstanding shots could even the score and the two then fought up to 11-11 when Angelique took her chances and closed the set.
The second set kept going with the extremly high intensity of the first, both players showed all their skills and heart, with grunts and screams that would but underline all the effort they were bringing in and the packed stadium can't but cheer for both of them.
On 5-4 Vika suffered another acceleration by the German who went 15-40 up on the world number one's serve, but at this very moment Azarenka would answer with a terrific raise of her game, that made her save those two Match Points and push the second set to the tie break.
The moment seemed to have switched to the Belarussian's side after the match points she saved and fast she took a lead of 6 points to 1, Kerber could save one set point, but didn't menage to re-make the first set's comeback and was forced to give the tiebreak to the world number 1.
In the thrid things seemed to finally go smooth for Azarenka as she early broke Angelique's serve, but after a little it was clear that the German wouldn't ever give up without fighting and so she came back levelling the score once again.

On 4-3 though, Azarenka could push her game a little over once again and broke Kerber in a very thrilling game in which the German cancelled the first chances of break by Vika with some brilliant winners, but in the end it was the Belarussian taking the game and going to serve for the match.
Once again Kerber took all the pride and energies left in her body and with a terrific effort broke back before Azarenka had any chance to close. Sadly for her, that burst seemed to have dried her out as in the very next game, Vika went up 15-40 and unlike what happened to Angie in the second, she could secure herself the win for 6-7 (11) 7-6 (2) 6-4 in over 3 hours of some of the best tennis of the season, if not of the past few years.

The best 8 showing great tennis in early stages

Reigning Queen already on troubles

Last year's winner and the best player indoor of her generation for many experts, Petra Kvitova reached this year's edition of the Year Ending WTA Championships in a very different way compared to 2011, the Czech had for sure a more solid season, but always looked one step back from the very top players of this season, one of them being Radwanska indeed.
Agnieska had never won against Petra before, but she seemed to be more confident about her today's chances as because she's proved to have improved a lot from last year, as because she knew Petra wasn't the unplayable spreading-winners machine she was last year on that surface. And she was proved to be right, Petra fought hard, but she never looked to be able to win the match, even in the rare moments of even score. Aga was simply too solid, even with her serve, whilst Petra couldn't hit as she wanted to, with far too many free errors given away. 6-3 6-2 the final score in favor of the Polish player.

Serena too strong for Kerber

Serena Williams started her campaign in the 2012 Year Ending WTA Championships of Istanbul in a very convincing fashion going undefeated after her first match, without dropping a single set.
She played against German Angelique Kerber and had to face a very determined opponent before scoring her first win here in Turkey.
Williams started very solid, whilst Kerber looked as if she was feeling the pressure of being for the first time at the year ending Championship and in a eye blink she found herself trailing for 3 games to 0.
The German reacted though and with a burst of pride she tied up the score again even if Serena looked unplayable on serve. Serena didn't let this come back discorague her and kept playing her terrific game holding with ease, sending Kerber to serve to stay into the first set on 5 games to 4.
That 10th game was eventually crucial for the developement of the match as Kerber had a lot of chances to hold, but had to save many set points as well, until Serena took one and put an end to that first set.
Kerber fell under the pressure of a very motivated Serena, who seemed to really want to close the match fast, while on the other hand the German accused the missed chances to at least take the first set longer and so the second set lasted very much fewer than the first, with clearly no doubts about the outcome: Serena took it and the whole match 6-4 6-1.

Clay or Indoors? Masha does the same effect to Errani

The only previous meeting between Sharapova and Errani was at this year's Roland Garros final, when Maria won -completing her carreer Grand Slam- won in a very impressive way with a score of 6-3 6-2. Funny enough last night's score was exactly the same, even though the match followed another path.
Masha started the match playing an over-aggressive tactic, which produced a lot of winners, but also a little bit too many Unforced Errors, even though, for a nice part of them, credits should be given to Errani, who knew she had to run a lot in order to have a chance in this match and so she did. The first couple of games lasted over 40 minutes, but even if the score was tight, Maria never looked on any danger. And so it was, Masha raised her game, by deciding not to go for winners too early in the rally and it really paid off as she took the first set for 6 games to 3. The second set then was never close, Maria looked very confident and her shots never left her on her feet, but as usual Errani never gave up until the very end, honouring her presence here by proving why she's a top 8 player -no matter all the criticism she got for that- if a slam final, a semifinal and a quarterfinal shouldn't be enough for that!

Caroline wins her 20th singles title in Moscow

It was final's day in Moscow and crowd couldn't ask for a better final, two of the highest seeds were involved and their palmares is of a great quality too: Stosur, 1st seed here in Moscow, entered the torunament as world number 9, but no longer than one year ago she was capable of defeating Serena Williams in New York to win her first title of a Grand Slam. On the other side of the net, waiting to fight over every ball as usual, there was Caroline Wozniacki, former world number 1 and nowadays "only" 11th and willing to get back to the eden of tennis.

The two had played eachother a few times already with Stosur leading the series for 3 matches to 2. For that reason, but not only, she was heading into this final as the favourite. Sam won their only two matches on Hard and came into this final with a lot less time spent on court, while Caroline, despite giving great signs of developement in her game, struggled a lot closing her matches both in quarter- and semifinal.

Nevertheless, Wozniacki entered the match with a clear idea of how to play Stosur, while the Australian looked clearly surprised by the newest attitude Caroline showed early in the first set.

The Danish player indeed, after having been critizised for her too passive gameplan, has been working all season in order to be more aggressive, but -as her fall in the ranking suggests- she never found a good balance between her naturally defensive game and the new offensive one. But that was before heading to Moscow, here Wozniacki surprisingly showed a great consistency even off her "unlucky" Forehand side. Of course she is still rough and often withdrew to her old defensive self, but contrary to what happened throughout the season, when she tried to be aggressive, she wouldn't do it brainlessly and she finished every match with positive winners-unforced errors ratio. 

The first set kind of followed that path described above, with Caroline often moving Stosur around the court hitting powerful and accurate shots from both wings. On the side of the net the Australian kind of suffered the blow and couldn't harm the Danish with the backhand, but Wozniacki never let her run around the ball for her famouse inside-out forehands, so that the few times Sam tried that had to open too quickly and missed a lot of balls.

In a very convincing fashion the Dane took the first set for 6 games to 2.

But as it often happened during the week, she pretty much couldn't handle the return of flame that Stosur tried in the second set. The Australian looked way more sure of her shots and most of all of her serve, that was much of missing in the first set. Wozniacki tried her chances back and could break back to catch her opponent evening out again on 4-4. Caroline had no time to enjoy that comeback that soon faced more break points and this time Stosur could serve for the 2nd set.

Sam didn't let this chance slip away from her hands and with a sliced service-ace closed the set and re-opened the match.

At the beginning of the third set all the momentum was on Stosur's side and Caroline could feel it like a stab when she was broken to love on the opening game. Stosur tried to extend her lead, but on 2-0, Wozniacki pretty much shacked all her fears out and started to play again as if the match had just started, running on every ball and being aggressive everytime she had the chance to.

As like as it happened in the 2nd partial the two players were tie at 4-4 and yet again Caroline fast found herself facing two breakpoints that this time would send Stosur serving for the match. With two very brave services she saved them and went up 5-4. 

Stosur had no signs of will to give up and hold with ease to tie up again, but Wozniacki found a great service game this time and went up 6-5 demanding another show-off of corague from Stosur.

The Australian went up in the early fifteens, but then experienced a couple of terrific returns from Wozniacki, who, at the very first match point, could close the match on a wide forehand crosscourt from Stosur: 6-2 4-6 7-5 in a high quality and drama final to end the season of WTA tournaments.

For Wozniacki is the second title of the season after the one won few weeks ago in Seul, but most of all the first Premier success since New Haven 2011.

Last finalists of the season

Moscow's marathons to define the finalists

Today it was the semifinals’ day in the premier of Moscow and both of them showed a great entertainment for the Russian crowd with two very long and tough matches being featured and two former world number ones  battling for their place in the final.

In the first match Caroline Wozniacki, seeded 3^rd, was facing the weekly surprise and friend Sofia Arvidsson from Sweden. The two had played eight times each other, with the Dane leading the series for 6 wins and being defeated only once actually, since one of those two losses came when she was leading of a set, but was forced to the retirement.

Picture from it.eurosport.com

Caroline came into the match with a great confidence after the good performance against Cibulkova in the previous round, mostly in the final set, but on the other side of the net the Swedish player couldn’t arrive  with a better buoyancy after having defeated top 10 Marion Bartoli and local favourite top 20 Kirilenko.

Sofia knew that this time she had to be very consistent and play a very aggressive tennis in order to make a breach in the Danish wall, which seemed stronger than ever this week. On the other hand Caroline started very focused, believing in her shots and clearly set for an aggressive attitude each time she would have got the chance to be.

Sofia’s solid game seemed at first to be powerful enough to push Wozniacki out enough of the court before closing with her favorite shot, the forehand down the line. Arvidsson took then advantage of the first – and eventually sole – breakpoint she was given and took a lead of 3-1, before experiencing Caroline’s thunderous comeback.

Wozniacki started to go more for her shots and never stepped back during the defending transitions giving no chances to Arvidsson to close any point unless taking huge risks. That situation gave the public a great show with terrifically long and intense rally, with a few of them over 40 shots! But this was Caroline’s favorite scenario and so she took the first set for 6-3.

The second set seemed to go with the exactly same plot, but Sofia this time could rise her game in time and Caroline started to be a little too defensive on her crucial moments and also her serve dropped of intensity, so that despite serving for the match she couldn’t close and with the exactly same path of yesterday’s match she ended up losing the set over the tie break.

In the third set Caroline seemed to shake out all her doubts and fears and fast took advantage of a slightly more tired Arvidsson, who seemed less and less willing to keep rallying for so long and her risks to shorten the rallies ended up with more and more UEs. Up 3-1 and serve everything seemed easy for Wozniacki, but again her service left her on her feet and the two started a long series of breaks and re-breaks, until the very end, when the Danish could finally break Arvidsson on 5-4 and close the match after almost 2 and a half hours, to score the 3^rd final of the year, the first on a premier event.

Her opponent in tomorrow’s final will be Samantha Stosur, from Australia. World number 9 and 1^st seed here in Moscow, needed near 2 hours to make it through Ana Ivanovic, 4^th seed of the draw.

Ivanovic entered the match with a great belief in herself and her shots and by being solid with her Backhand and mostly by firing great Forehands, could score a great amount of points and with the help of a very solid serve she hardly gave chances of break to Stosur, who had far more difficulties on her service-games, being broken three times before losing the first partial for 6-2.

The second set showed a still very consistent Ivanovic, but Stosur this time raised her service level and with a renovate strength over the backhand, could save the only two break points she offered and, on the other hand, could take one of the two Ivanovic gave and so she could close it for 6 game to 3.

In the third Ivanovic suffered the mental repercussion of that tight loss and her game dropped suddenly leaving Stosur an easy way to the final: 2-6 6-3 6-2 the final score.

Luxembourg goes all unseeded

As Venus Williams defeated the last seed left in the quarter finals yesterday, there was no seed playing in today’s semifinals, but that didn’t prevent from a great quality and intense matches.

In the first semifinal Monica Niculescu continued her impressive run, showing how she has a great feeling with the courts of the smallest state of the Benelux, as she secured herself the second final in two years on those courts. Monica’s game, after such a difficult season, seemed to click again once she hit those courts, taking out big names during the week and didn’t make an exception to Daniela Hantuchova today. The Slovakian seemed to be very confused by all the variety of the Romanian player, but most of all she lacked of the footwork to deal with all the dirty balls coming from the tricky slices of Monica’s forehand.

After dropping the first set with only one game conquered, Daniela seemed to find the way of reading the crazy game of the Romanian and took a lead of 2-0, but it lasted few and Niculescu started to win points over points and after breaking back could push into the gear and close the match 6-1 6-3.

On the second semifinal it was hard to decide who to cheer for, as both of the players involved were coming from a nightmarish season, but Andrea Petkovic and Venus Williams didn’t feel any pity for their own opponent during the match and battled over every ball in order to have it done over the other.

Petkovic’s solidity and smart playing, together with some great defense seemed to be enough to trouble an uninspired Williams, who was committing way too many errors, mostly by the end of the set, lost for 7 to 5.

Picture from wta.com

In the second set the fight became even more intense, but this time Venus could count on a much more effective serve, dropping only one point on her 1^st serve and saving all the break points she was forced to face by Petkovic, who otherwise couldn’t save them all and the only one she had to drop cost her the set.

In the third a greater tension signed the develop of the match, with both players being very aggressive on the opponent’s serve and that was followed by a greater number of breaks in the early games, but on 4-4 Venus could find the right speedup and after breaking Andrea’s serve, she could close it and make it to a very important final for her chances of being seeded at next year’s Australian Open. 5-7 6-3 6-4.

Last week before WTA ending

Hot matches in cold Moscow

Firday means last working day for a lot of you, but for tennis fans it means Quarterfinals.
Ongoing this week it's the last Premier tournament of the year: Moscow's Kremlin Cup. A lot of action took place during the week with huge surprises as the first round losses of seed n°2 Marion Bartoli and home favourite Nadia Petrova (seeded 6th).

Arvidsson silents Russian fans

Swedish veteran Sofia Arvidsson is well known on the circuit for her great feeling with the indoor tournaments, but up to now she had always had her best results in the small tournament of Memphis (two titles there and one more final).
Coming from the quarterfinals in Linz she was surely looking for more here in Moscow and clearly showed to love the Russian atmosphere and court, since in her second round she defeated world top 10 and seed number 2 Marion Bartoli from France.

Today she was facing the last Russian hope for the home title, seed number 7 and two-year-ago runner up, Maria Kirilenko. Sofia, still busted from her great win against Bartoli, started very solid and took advantage of a not that great day from her opponent.
The Swedish broke early in the first set and capitalized that break flying on 5-3 up, when Kirilenko was called to serve to stay in the set, but failed by handing it with a horrible Double Fault.
In the second set, it looked as if the plot was set to be the same as in the first, but after breaking the Russian, Sofia let Kirilenko break back, giving some hope to the few people in the stands of the hall.
Arvidsson didn't get discouraged and kept playing her tennis and by giving pressure on Kirilenko's serve with a couple of great returns she broke again and went up 5-3, this time serving for the match.
Closing it wasn't an easy job, as Maria wouldn't let the Swedish simply go away with it, but despite a few chances to reopen the match, at the 4th Match Point Arvidsson could finally celebrate for her first semifinal here in Moscow. 6-3 6-3.

Wozniacki shakes but wins

2012 won't be remembered as a good year by Caroline and her fans, as less than 10 months ago she was world number 1 whist this week she's in Moscow way out of the top 10. The young Danish is a hard worker though and she didn't let all that take her down and as the great fighter she proved to be in the past years, she went here to Russia with the only aim of going the further possible in the draw.

Having dispatched in a very convincing fashion her friend Urzula Radwanska in the second round, she came into this quarterfinal as the real favourite against Slovakian world number 14 Dominika Cibulkova.
The first set seemed to reflect the forcasts: Wozniacki, who seems to love the slow surface of the Kremlin Cup, showed some of her best defensive skills and often could use Cibulkova's power to hit clean winners that from 2-2 let her win 4 games in a row to win the first set without even giving the Slovakian the chance to break her serve once.
But Dominika is a fighter too, so she started the second set with a renewed attitude and finally could break Wozniacki and take the lead, but the Danish would break back and after a solid hold and another break of Cibulkova's serve, she went on serving for the match.
The next 3 games none of the two could win more than a point on her own serve, with Wozniacki set to make no point out of it on the tie-break neither, losing it by 7 points to 1.
All the momentum was then in the Slovakian's side of the net, but coulnd't hold it for long, as the former world number 1 looked far more focused in the 3rd set and astonished her opponent by running on every ball and retriving them with depth and power even from the FH side.
Cibulkova slowly faded from the court and it was all on her Caroline's hands, which didn't tramble again and so she could secure herself a place in the semifinals by winning for 6-2 6-7 (1) 6-1. She will meet Arvidsson tomorrow in a very Scandinavian match.
The other Semifinal will be played by Seed number 1 Sam Stosur, who dismantled Zakopalova 6-1 6-3, and seed 4 Ivanovic, who won the Serbian derby against Dolonc 6-4 6-1.

Luxembourg, tournament of rebirths?

In the last International event of the WTA season there was only one seed left after the 2nd round and it was Italian Roberta Vinci, number 1 in the seeding, who had to face in the last match of the day Venus Williams.
But let's start from the beginning: the first semifinalist of the tournament came out of Hantuchova vs Dominguez Lino's match, with the slovakian having reason of the spanish in straight sets 7-5 6-0.

Niculescu's game puzzles and wins

In the second match, last year's Runner Up, Monica Niculescu from Romania was facing Czech Lucie Hradecka. Niculescu, coming from a nightmarish season of injuries and bad luck started the week with only 11 wins in the whole year, but after a tough match against Swiss Oprandi in the opening round, she had stunned the second seed Goerges and went into this match with a new confidence.
Hradecka, who shocked 7th seed Paszek in the first round, seemed completely wicked by the uncommon game of the Romanian and spread a huge ammount of Unforced Errors in the first set won by Monica for 6 games to 0.
In the second Lucie could find a hint to deal with the insidious slices of Niculescu, but in the end it was the Romanian to close the match 6-0 6-4.

Andrea and Venus on their way back

If last year's runner up had to face a bad 2012, even a worse luck was the one to hit last year's top 10 Andrea Petkovic. The German, as you may know, has been forced out of the courts for the first few months of the year because of a back injury and during her very comeback in Stuttgart she injured her ankle, ending up forced away from courts for a few more months. Her few matches she had played so far, since the Us Open, hasn't been really convincing, but so it wasn't here in Luxenbourg, where the German had to play a long and tough match to make it through the first round against the talented Spanish Muguruza before scoring a very important win against Jelena Jankovic in the 2nd round.

In the quarterfinal she was facing another unlucky player for the season, Ksenia Pervak, whose citizenship's switch to Kazahstan didn't make any good for her sinking ranking. The two players started very tensiously, Petkovic opened the match with 2 double faults, which led to a break, immediatly followed by a rebreak on Pervak's serve.
The two slowly wore off the rust and showed some amazing rallies as they played a very similar game, made of solid groundstrokes and incredible defences, but at first it looked like Ksenia's FH was more inspired than Andrea's and she went up 3-2 40-0 on her own serve. A little slip of focus and a great reaction from the German cost the Kazhastan the break of lead and eventually the set, as the irritation deriving from this miss made her lose the calm she had in building up the points in the first half of the set, which meant a lot more free errors.
On the other side of the net, Petkovic, who's very well known for her smort tennis, understood the situation and didn't really have to do much more than keep the ball in play for a couple of shots, before Pervak would hit a flashing winner or, way more often, a bad error.

After the first set's win for 6-3, Andrea looked in fair control of the match and so it was until the end, with Pervak more and more asking too much from her shots and missing a lot more than what was actually staying on court. 6-3 6-2 the final score for the German, who will now face Venus Williams for a spot in the final.
In the last match of the night session the American had a tough time beating the n°1 seed Roberta Vinci, in a very thrilling and high quality match. The two battled with great serves and only in the 8th game we had the first break points and Venus didn't fail to convert them, but with a burst of pride the Italian fought back and took the set to the tiebreak.
There Williams has been too good and by hitting a couple of impressive winners and a pintch of luck (a really lucky netcord on a keypoint) she secured the first set.
In the second both of them kept fighting hard on serve and on return, but this time the variety of game and the fantasy of Vinci had to bow down to the power of Venus, who took the match in straight sets: 7-6 6-4.

Djoko spoils the British Party; Azarenka makes it 6 in Linz

Picture from Ubitennis.com

It needed probably the most amazing Djokovic of the season to beat Andy Murray and so it was in Shanghai's final, probably the best final from this year's Master 1000.
The first set was played below the expectations with both players serving avaragely bad, but in the end it was Murray to find the right pace first and take the first set 7-5.
The second set started with a more common plot for male tennis, with both of them holding their serve with no problems until the 7th game, when Murray again could raise his game first and with a couple of outstanding shots broke the Serbian serve and went up fast 5-3 with a compfortable hold.
The wind seemed to be beneath the British's wings, while Djokovic looked rather annoyed by his own inability to substain the rally with Murray.
Called to serve to stay into the match Nole found new energies and his game seemed just to follow.
From that moment on every point was simply amazing, both players fought so hard and tried every weapon of theirs to outlast the rival.
Nole held and then it was all on Murray's shoulder, he would go up in the score and even had Match Points, but everytime the situation looked desperate, Nole had an amazing solution to it and after having a few Match Point saved, at the first chance he broke back.
All tie again.
The momentum seemed to slowly change in favor of the Serbian when he held in the following game to go 6-5 up, but Murray didn't let that happen and with a solid hold pushed the set to the tie-break.

dailymail.co.uk

If you missed it, make sure you can find a way to watch this tiebreak, as it was one of the most intense tennis moment of the whole season. Murray started slow and found himself trailing of a mini-break immidiatly, but before the courtchange it was all tie again. Djokovic seemed to be a little too worried of Andy's return and tried to ask more to his serve, but it ended up not as expected and Murray in a eye-blink was 6-4 up.
But with all his corague and talent Nole found again a way out of this and got back to track. Both didn't want to let the other winning and tried everything in their hands, but last it was Djokovic to take advantage of a slightly too passive Murray, closing the 2nd set tie for 13 to 11.
The third set was less close than the score suggests, as Murray looked very frustrated, while Nole knew he had just to go with the flow, if that can ever be said about such a high-quality match. The Serbian found back his serve and didn't give any chance to the Scottish break him, while he could take two breaks away from Andy to close the match 5-7 7-6(11) 6-3.

Azarenka too good for Goerges

As predicted the title of this year's WTA tournament in Linz has gone to Vika's palmares and in straight sets too, but what was surely unexpected was the way she had to go in order to hold the trophy.
Vika started very solid and in a very few moments found herself up of a break serving on 2-1 for her. Goerges tried to produce her game, by hitting hard and trying to move around Azarenka, but Victoria looked too solid from the baseline and wouldn't lose any step from the court, no matter how hard Julia was hitting.
Two breaks decided the first set giving it to the world number one for 6-3.
Azarenka then really pushed on the throttle and outhit the German number 2 giving her no way out until she got a 5-0 lead.
Goerges knew she had to do something more to avoid the bagel and down of a Match Point on her own serve could find the heart to go more for her shots and with a sudden and unexpected reaction shocked the world number one and step by step, winner by winner she made a thounderous comeback. She had to save 4 match points on her way back, but after twenty minutes of an unbelievable tennis Goerges was serving to stay in the match, this time with no breaks of advantage for the world number 1. Had she hold, they would have been tie again, but maybe the huge effort it took her to comeback, maybe a little insecurity in the wrong moment or more likely a new assoult of the world number 1, made her arm tremble and at the 5th Match Point Azarenka could secure her first title in Linz, the 6th of the season.
Now Vika will rest up a little after the amazing Fall she had, in order to consolidate her number one status in the Year End Championships of Istanbul.

 

Watson's first time ends British 24 years of no titles

Very few of us, tennis fans, remember Sara Gomer, but British fellows surely do, as in 1988 at Aptos she was the last Brit to raise a WTA trophy. From that moment on the land where tennis was born has been passing through a very dark moment for tennis, mostly in the women department.
A few weeks ago, another British player, Laura Robson caressed the dream of putting an end to that horrible drought, which surely had been going on for too long. Laura faced Su-Wei Hsieh from Taipei in Guangzhou, but sadly for her and the compatriots she had to face a really disappointing loss.
Another week, another story, but the fate wanted it to be another match between UK and Taipei, but this time the names were different: it was Heather Watson against Kai-Chen Chang.
The match has been very nervous, with both players looking for their first WTA title and that surely played a role in their minds. With no doubts something happened in Chang's mind, when in the first set, called to serve it out on 5-4 she wasted several set points and then let Heather coming back.
Watson didn't waste the chance and with a sudden sprint closed the first set 7-5.
On the wings of that comeback, the British youngster flew up to 5-3 in the second set, but Chang wouldn't leave the court without fighting, saved Match Points and grabbed the second set with the same score she had lost the first 7-5.
Everything seemed to suggest an easy run for the Taipei girl in the 3rd and it really went on this way until 5-3. Watson was called for a great display of heart and she could serve to stay in the match, giving Chang the unpleasant duty of serving for the match. Kai-Chen took the lead and had 4 Match Points, but Watson didn't lose the hope and saved them all before breaking back. Both girls hold and they took the match to a final tie-break where Watson would just play more solid and finally won the last point, closing the match 7-5 5-7 7-6 (4)
"I was already thinking about how I was going to cry in the locker room! But after I saved the first one, I just took it point by point. I'm really proud of myself for getting through that." Said Watson at the end of the match, with a huge smile on her face.
"Britain has been breaking quite a few records recently, so I'm happy I could break another one today. I'm proud to do this for my country." She went on.
"I was in the changing room afterwards, changing my clothes, and I thought to myself, 'Did I really win?' So it's just starting to settle in, I've worked so hard for this moment my whole career - that's why I practiced so hard, ran all those miles and lifted all those weights, for moments like this."
But not just the trophy and the big check she got from this win will make her happy, thanks to that win she will be cracking the top 50 in the WTA ranking next week and as many of you must have noticed, before the other British hope Robson could. May this inner and friendly rivalry make them two improve even more? Only time will tell.

WTA Linz: Semifinals' day

Julia Goerges def. Kristen Flipkens 1-6 6-2 6-3

German 5th seed here in Linz had a tough time reaching her first final in the Indoor Tournament of Linz and could make it only by raising her game when it was most needed.
The two players reached the semifinal in a really different fashion, as the Belgian had to get through the qualifications and stun the former world number 1 Ivanovic, while Goerges pretty much had no troubles so far, if you don't consider her opening round against Hantuchova - still closed in straights-.
Flipkens, who seems to be finally on her way back after the unlucky season of injuries, started well confusing Goerges by mixing up flat shots from her forehand and tricky backs out of Backhand. Goerges tried to outhit the Belgian by taking risks with her big forehand, but Flipkens would defend well and fast turn defence into offence.

Picture from wtatennis.com

The German got annoyed by the costant pressure of Flipkens and started to gift points by committing way too many Unforced errors and by letting her level of serve going down as much as only half of her first serve would get in (57%) and the Belgian seemed always ready to get the initiative and hit several winning returns of service mostly from the advantage side.
Everything looked so easy on the belgian side of the net, as Flipkens didn't face a single Break Point in the whole first set, taking it home with a convincing 6-1.
The court change between the first two sets seemed to have done miracles to Goerges, who looked more confident and finally started to figure out her opponent and immediatly took a break from Flipkens and hold in the very next game saving a crucial breakpoint. From that moment on the set was never on troubles for the German girl who won it for 6 games to 2.
The key of this turn-aroud was the new patience Julia showed suddenly and quite unexpectedly from the very first points of the second set: if she just bashed the balls to finish the rally fast in the first set, she showed a better security in her weapons and moved Kristen around the court before finishing with her famous huge shots.
The third set took the same path of the one before and even if the score looks slightly closer in terms of game it never was and Julia sailed to her second final of the year after the one lost in Dubai against Agnieska Radwanska.

Victoria Azarenka def. Irina-Camelia Begu 6-2 6-1

Another walk in the park, someone would say just basing his thoughts on the score and, well, he wouldn't be really far from reality, even though the first set was slightly closer then it seems.
Azarenka started very well on return by breaking the Romanian to love, still Irina seemed to be ready for that a by playing her solid game broke back. The costant of the match was given by an attacking Azarenka and a more attendist Begu, who waited for the right chances to be more aggressive and close the point after having moved Azarenka offcourt, mostly with her crosscourt backhand. Sadly for Begu and the show, Azarenka didn't let many of those chances happen and Irina had to run a lot to defend all the power hitting from the Belarussian.
On 1-1 Azarenka broke again with ease and then hold a crucial game, since it set definitely the distance between the two. Begu realised she couldn't just wait for a short ball from Azarenka as that almost never happened and tried to be more aggressive, but ended up overhitting most of the times as Azarenka's defence and movements are among the best on the tour at the moment and Begu hasn't the stability in her shots it takes to go for winners' attempts more than once each rally. The romanian's class let her win some really awesome points, but it wasn't enough against today's Azarenka, who took the first set 6-2.
The second set started with an even more powerful start from Azarenka, which completely let Begu down: after a couple of games in which the Romanian still tried to build her game, she kind of waved white flag and let Azarenka dictate every point until the very end of the match. 6-2 6-1.

Picture from wtatennis.com

A little preview for Tomorrow's final

It won't take a magician to understand that the world number 1 is the clear favourite in the final, which will take place tomorrow at 2pm CET. Everything seems to be on Azarenka's side, she's far ranked higher on the ranking, she comes from US Open final and Beijing's title, she hasn't dropped more than 4 games to her opponents so far and leads the Head to Head for 3-1 (the only defeat comes from a retirement when a set up!), but she surely would need to keep her focus up as she is likely to be first time this week challenged on that indoor surface and Goerges has proved to be very dangerous if you let her play her big forehand and, on this surfaces, he backhand looks less of a feebleness than it may be outdoors.

My WTA Linz review from day 4

Linz, October 11th 2012

Irina-Camelia Begu def Kiki Bertens 6-4 7-6 (7)

We arrived in the hall that the match had already started, but it was still all tight up. 3-2 for Begu with no breaks and for a couple of games more none of the two girls dropped the serve. The quality in all honesty wasn't the one you would expect, mostly the dutch lady didn't come up with my expectations, showing nothing special in her game.
Begu somehow broke and took the first set being slightly more consistent than her opponent, still playing very far from her best days.
The second set was quite a mess, Camelia broke early and seemed quite in control, while Bertens started to misshit a lot of easy balls. Still the romanian couldn't really take advantage of that being very negative on court, arguing with her coach and the umpire - who was one of the worst I've ever seen, she couldn't call the right score twice in a row-.
Bertens changed her game around half of the second set taking advantege of the really uninspired FH of Begu, the dutch would indeed use her slice more and added topspit to her CC forehand. On those short slices Irina always rushed to the net, but her FH wasn't deep and fast enough, so Bertens could easily pass her. That new strategy and famous Irina's mental strengh let Kiki come back when the romanina served for the match on 5-4, but couldn't keep up her moment being forced to the tie-break.
In one of the opening points of the tiebreak Bertens hit an ace, the umpire called the score, but then called a net touch and made replay the point. Kiki went mad and her on court talking grew as much as her game let her down.
On the other side of the net Begu showed all her fears for tiebreaks and wasted 3 MPs (one of them by not closing a very easy FH from middle court) and was forced to save a SP from the dutch, funny enough saved with a stunning FH down the line that painted the line, Bertens tried to argue, but it was clearly on the line, the next point was messy but somehow Begu made it, Bertens after several attempts contained smashed her racket and this mess was over.

PS: Begu's mum was probably the best fact of the match :sobbing: she would move left and right with her whole body during every shot in the tiebreak joining her hands as if praying on every ball hit by her daughter. When Begu saved the set point from with that FH DTL she stared at bertens and shaked her hand with a meaningful "NO-NO-No" that cracked me up :lol: a true boss

Victoria Azarenka def Simona Halep 6-1 6-1

what to say about that match? Nothing, but a training session for Azarenka. Halep plays exactly the same game as Victoria, maybe she moves better, but her ball is far too light for the world number one, who would just move the game around and close with winners. Halep looked a little too thin, to be honest, but being back on the topic, she really fought with all herself and made some great points by counterpunching, using Victoria's power to hit winners, even though she often made errors out of that. Point of the match: in the first games of the second set Azarenka hit a great FH cross court and rushed to the net, Simona very far from the court hit a terrific sliced CC with forehand passing the world n°1.

Petra Martic def. Patricia Mayr 6-2 3-6 6-0

easily the best quality match of the day, really funny to watch with great rallies and all the crowd being behind Patricia without ever being rude to Petra. Great for the sport, really.
But to be back on facts, Patricia looked very nervouse out there and didn't hit a single serve in on the advantage side during the practice. I wasn't really surprised that she got broken to love in the very first set and was fast down 30-0 in the second. Martic didn't do much until that moment, so she got quite surprised by the comeback of Patricia who broke back, but again failed to hold. This time Martic didn't let the austrian getting back and secured her break, Patricia started to figure out her opponent and to find a better depth with her Backhand - that is far from being a bad shot, she has a great confidence on it and hits with a terrific anticipation, that makes it very tricky even when it is not that fast.
Martic closed the set, but everything suggested that Mayr wouldn't give up and so it was. The second set was really amazing to watch, Mayr played a really smart tennis, being aggressive when needed and fast went 5-1, some tension and a few bad mistakes costed her the game, but could close the set on the second attempt to serve out.
Probably the effort to take the set and maybe her shape far from her best days took their toll and she looked very tired in the 3rd. Martic hold easily in the first game and Patricia started to give up her hopes when she served badly in her first service game of the 3rd. From that moment on Martic sailed to her win by 6-0.
Mayr has always been hardly criticized over this bord, but from what I saw on court, she's a very nice game and with a better phisical preparation she would be again a very solid top 100 player. As for Martic, I know that she's coming from an injury, but her BH is not a shot worth of her ranking and if she cannot fix it she won't go far as her slice isn't anything but avarage.