Bad Gastein Day 2 review

Viktorija Golubic def. (5) Kiki Bertens 6-2 6-2

Heading towards this match, the latest results of the two couldn't be more different as Bertens was living a really difficult moment of her career, with only 2 wins in the past twoelve weeks, while Golubic was on a roll, her results improving week from week and after having failed to qualify for her first WTA main draw in Palermo, she could make it here in Bad Gastein by winning all her matches in the qualies.
Yet no-one would believe the young Swiss could dictate the game and control the match as much as she eventually did. Bertens soon lost confidence and her errors increased as much as Golubic shots became more accurate and deep. Viktorija's one handed backhand was the shot of the match, she could do everything with it from drop-shots to powerful winners and the Dutch had no answer to the variety and consistence of her opponent despite the enormous gap in the ranking (around 200 places between the two).
The match was over really fast and the Swiss never looked as if she could lose it or feel the pressure of the moment. There's a lot of quality in her game and mental attitude, so it won't be surprising if we get to hear more from her in the future.On the following link, you find the post-match interview i took with her.

(WC) Lisa-Maria Moser def (Q) Elena Bogdan 7-6 (6) 2-6 6-4

The Austrian Wild Card, ranked 770 in the world lived her fairytale day, by defeating Romanian qualifier Elena Bogdan in a close and long match, which featured a lot of emotions and quality too. It was clear right after a few games tat the Austrian's ranking wasn't telling much about the real value of her level of tennis, because Moser showed a great fighting spirit and solid shots as well as smart solutions and class. On the other side of the net, the Romanian had much more experience on bigger stages, even though for both of them it was the first appereance on a WTA main draw.
After a really tight first set where the local player had to save a set point in the tie-break, the Romanian took the lead in the second by forcing Moser to hit more and more shots before hitting a winner, or, often, an error. As she said in her post-match interview that you find here, Lisa-Maria lost a bit of focus after the huge effort to win the first set and her level dropped.

In the third set the Romanian took the lead once more, but the Austrian didn't want to let the match go without fighting, she found her first serve back and a few aces made it easier to hold, while elegant and effective drop shots started to expose the Romanian movements to the net and her position really far from the baseline. The momentum suddenly moved to the Austrian side and the crowd supported her way to the win appreciating her brave attitude and shots, which in the end paid off by making her advance to the second round.

(2) Annika Beck def Shahr Peer 7-5 6-3

After the intense and quality-worthy match of the local youngster, this match failed to cope with the expectations given by the names featured. The German young hope played a solid match, which didn't show much more than consistence though, while Peer looked like the shadow of the former self, who few years ago was one win away from the top 10.
The two played a very similar game, based on flat and medium speed shots in the attempt to win for a shorter ball to attack, which rarely happened because of the ability of both to susbtain such rhythm. Nonetheless Peer looked to be the one to try and go for winners the most, but her attempts often ended up in errors, expecially with the forehand, which on the other hand was the shot that gave more points to her opponent.
Both girls struggled to hold serve for the whole match, but the reason of that wasn't due to great returns of serve, but to the instability of their serves: Beck in the case often hit double-faults, whose second serve would barely stay within the base line.
The match wasn't indeed pretty at all, but in the end the German could stay calmer on the important points and let Peer feel the pressure of those, so that she often committed unforced errors in such moments and that in the end gave the edge to Beck to win the match.

Alexandra Cadantu def Maria-Joao Koehler 6-2 6-4

This match was a really interesting one, expecially because it showed a great development in the career of the Romanian, whose game impressed me as much as her great attitude on court. Cadantu is indeed the kind of player that made it to the top 100 by winning match on her consistence, expecially in the ITF circuit, but this year she started to give glimpses of a newer attitude and game in WTA matches too (she routined future Wimbledon Finalist Lisiscki on the indoor clay of Katowice for exemple).
Her shots became a lot heavier and expecially with her forehand she can produce great pace and dictate the rally until she has the chance to close with winners. Her dropshots can be really effective and she rarely abuses of them and her first serve has grown stronger and it's pretty hard to read. Of course she still has flaws in her game, but she looks to be a hard worker and her strenght lies in the winning mentality, which motivates her as much on court as off and this match gave another proof of that. In the second set she was sailing to a straight sets win, when Koehler, with a burst of pride, started to hit heavier shots, painting the lines

from both wings and making the score tight again. Many players at this point would have waited for the storm to pass and hope it would be over before the match is, but Alexandra, after a couple of games of dizziness, got herself back and instead of letting the Portugues assaulting her, she started to change the rhythm of her shots costantly by using back and top spin, so that she could get closer to the base line and finally go for winners. On 4-4 she broke and went on serving for the match closing with a blasting ace.



Petra Martic def (4) Andrea Petkovic 6-7 (5) 7-5 6-3

There is so much to tell about this match between German former top ten and champion here in Bad Gastein a few years ago and the young Croatian hope, because the two played each other twice before and Martic won both of the matches, by recovering from a one sided first set loss. What's more both girls are known for the bad luck they sadly witnessed in the past because of numerous and serious injuries. Nonetheless, the match, which could have easily been the final with another draw, was clearly the most interesting round one match-up.
What really made this match interesting, though, wasn't the quality, because both players played way below their standards and way too many errors were hit from both sides, but the tension and dramatic developing of the match kept the crowd well aware. Under this light, Petkovic surely stood out and not for good.
I want to make it clear immediately, that I am not a fan of hers, so maybe I am biased, but her behaviour was quite rude even from a neutral point of view. She later said to have been ill, but I don't think that's an excuse.
Starting from the first set she look tense and she channelled her rage towards a ball kid as she yelled "are you dumb?" because he had left her towel on Petkovic's bag during the court-change. Then she said other bad things to ball boys because they were slow in giving her balls for serves (which was actually true, but not a reason to insult them).
She then went mad at the umpire, Nouni, because he gave her two warnings for losing time, once on serve and once on return, she started to question every call and was moaning about every line hit by Martic, but on the other hand she was hitting as many or more and never apologized for bad-bounce winners. She did even scream a couple of loud come-on's on Martic errors and double faults.
What's more I think she expected the crowd to be fully behind her, because she's German, a former top player and champion here, but after she insulted the kid, the crowd went tepid and more and more people were cheering for Martic. She looked really bothered by that and more than once made

gestures and faces to mock the crowd.
As for the match, it was much of a rollercoaster and Martic had to blame herself for the first set loss as she wasn't able to serve it out in all two attempts she had. In the second set, she once more failed to convert her advantage and she got broken back and tied at 5 games each, but at this point she could hold her serve and finally break for the second set.
In the third Andrea was quite unfocused and her fights with kids, crowd and umpire took away energies from her running, which was the way through which she could prevent Martic accelerations from becoming winners. What's more her shots started to be shorter and less accurate and by the end Martic could take full control of the set and close it and the match, without too much troubles.

Bad Gastein R1 - Postmatch interview with Lisa-Maria Moser

Lisa-Maria Moser, 22 years old, she could play her first WTA main draw match thank to a WC, because her ranking of 725 clearly wouldn't have let her in. Yet, in a very nice fight she would overcome Romanian qualifier Elena Bogdan and achieve one of the greatest wins of her career on the home soil of Bad Gastein. It seems unlikely that her Cinderella-like story is going to go any further, as she is meeting Mona Barthel, almost 700 places ahead in the world ranking, but the Austrian girl showed a great fire in her attitude on court today and her game is really worth of a better ranking in the future:

Congrats for today, you played a really good match. How did it feel?

I felt, pretty nervous! I was pretty shaky when I got to the court, but it got better in the first set, then suddenly worse in the second, but I thought “ok, you’ve got the first set, so just calm down” and I lost a little bit of, you know, but then in the third set it was good again so…

Yeah, you played really good drop-shots in the third, did you plan them or was it an adjustment?

Well, I like to play them actually, but I kinda forgot. (laughs) I thought, just don’t make any mistake, just hit in. But I kinda got better in the third, so I just felt more comfortable and went for my dropshots.

They were really amazing.

Thank you.

You come from a pretty disappointing loss from last week in an ITF and then you come here and play a good match and win. How could you do it?

Well, last week I was still tired from the tournament before, because it was in Egypt and it was 42°C everyday and my movement wasn’t that good, because legs were still tired, you know, but it improved and today I felt better and this was one of the biggest points.

You play Mona Barthel next, any idea or thought?

Well I have no ideas, I mean, actually I am 700 and she is 31 in the world, so, actually, I am like, I am going there and will enjoy myself on court and…that’s it (smiles).

Still, it was inspiring to see you winning today, you were really happy and the crowd enjoyed it too, it felt great. (she blushes) But what are you next plans now?

Well next week there’s a 10k in Austria, near my home town, so I am playing this one and then one week practice and then, we will see, I still have to enter tournaments, I just have to see, but I think I will stick to smaller tournaments for now (laughs).

In any case, good luck for tomorrow, as for now.

Thank you.

Postmatch interview with Viktorija Golubic

(Q) Viktorija Golubic def (5) Kiki Bertens 6-2 6-2

Young, nice and with an powerful one handed backhand, surely the Swiss made a great impression on the second day of Bad Gastein's WTA international. Viktorija, at her first main draw appearance took down the 5th seed and world n°66 Kiki Bertens, by giving her no rhythm and producing great winners, making the almost 200 places in the ranking of difference look impossible and probably, in not much time, the gap won't be as big. Following the interview I recorded with her after the match:

Congrats on your win today, I think it was the biggest of your career so far. Since the ITF you’ve won in Brescia you’ve been doing really well, what happened?

It was actually, at the beginning of the year, when I started I was 700 in the world, but I started to play better and better and I won two 10k and 25k Brescia, starting from qualifies. You know, it’s just a process, it’s not like something of two weeks, but it’s been the work of 10 years and, yeah, it’s getting better.

Today you played a really solid match against Bertens, while she was evidently bothered by your game. I was really impressed by your backhand, it’s not common to see young women playing with one handed backhand. How come?

Well, I actually played both-handed forehand and backhand when I was small, but then I switched to one handed and well, it fits better my game, because, you know, many different things and I feel very free with it. I think the backhand now it’s a very good shot of mine.

Definitely, you can produce so much power and pace through it. At the moment what are you working on though?

I am working on…everything. Everything has to get better, it’s not like, you know, it’s like step by step and it doesn’t go quickly. You have to be patient and, you know I am still working on my game everyday on court.

Have you had the time to check the draw?

Yes, tomorrow I am playing Hlavackova. I don’t really know her well, I’ve seen her playing now and maybe on television once (laughs). Well, I don’t know now, but I’ll prepare the match and be ready for the next round.

Of course best of luck for tomorrow.

Thank you.

Anyways, what are your next goals?

Oh well…my next goal now is to qualify for Grand Slams, you know, to play Qualies on such big tournaments first and then of course top 200 and, you know…(smiles)

Before leaving you, just one more question, which surface do you prefer?

That’s actually a really interesting question, because, I think I love all of them…and this year I also played on grass, not a match, but a practice but I liked it too, I think it’s really good for my slice…I don’t mind, I like everything actually.

So maybe we’ll see again next year in Wimbledon?

Who knows? (laughs)

Thank you for your time and kindness and best of luck for tomorrow.

Thank you.

the hardworker who dared to dream big: Marion Bartoli wins Wimbledon

A dream that lasted two weeks was the one that just ended with the best possible finale for Marion Bartoli. The 28 year old French woman was playing her 47th Slam of the career and clearly wasn't among the faves when the tournament started despite having been on a Final on the most famous grass of the world once before, in 2007, when en route defeated Justin Henin before falling to the hands of Venus Williams.
Her run that year came as a surprise and despite having shown to be a top player through the years she never reached a slam final again before this week. Marion capitalized a draw that surprisingly fell apart because of upsets and injuries, with her half being deprived of Sharapova (l.t. Larcher de Brito in R2), Azarenka (injured, w/o to Pennetta in 2R), Wozniacki (injured, l.t. Cetkovska in R2) and finally Kvitova, the only Wimbledon champion left when the quarter finals were set, who lost to another dream-runner, Kirsten Flipkens from Belgium.
But if the ranking of the players she defeated en route to this title might make her run seem an easy

one, it was everything buy easy, because some of the players she had to take down are always dangerous on grass courts as it was the case with Italian Camila Giorgi, who recently had also defeated the French woman in Strasbourg. It was impressive, nonetheless, that Marion lost no sets on her way to the title, edging past some tough battles like the one against Sloane Stephens in the QF, when rain and public seemed to be against her as much as her opponent, but through her experience she could stay calm and take home what eventually happened to be the toughest of her battles in the late stages of this tournament, because in the Semifinals she looked like the only player on court. Flipkens was at her first Slam Semi and the big stage reached thanks to the huge upset over Kvitova seemed to block her rather than pump, so that in no time she was sent back to the shower by the powerful and accurate strokes of Marion which led to a 6-1 6-2 final score.
In the Saturday's final she was facing the girl that was then said to be the favourite for the title, German Sabine Lisicki, the first German to reach a slam final since Steffi Graff in 1999. "Bine" made a terrific run to reach the final by defeating last year winner and current world n°1 Serena Williams in the 4th run and last year's finalist Agnieszka Radwanska in a tight semifinal ended 9-7 in the third.
But if bookmakers were giving her the favourite, tennis fans knew that the biggest enemy for a German win was Sabine's own mentality: the German, despite the huge talent and perfect game on grass had never been that far of a slam and often has been proved to be mentally frail whenever it was about seizing a great chance. And the same happened yesterday.
Despite the early break that sent the German 1-0 up, she looked tense on court and immediately Bartoli started to play her aggressive and powerful game that completely crashed Lisicki, like a typhoon does to a raft. The more the match was going on, the most Bartoli looked confident and her shots heavier, while Sabine's serve started to go missing and every service game of hers was in jeopardy. In no time it was 6-1 for the French player.
A toilet break seemed to help the German to find little of her game back as she finally held for the first time in the match for a 1-0 lead in the second set and the very tense and long game that followed was crucial for the final result, because Sabine tried everything to break and re-open the match, but every time she had a chance for a break, Marion could raise her level and save, until after almost 10 minutes she hold and on the burst of confidence go fast up 5-1, while tears and sighs broke on Lisicki's face.
When everything seemed to be lost, 15-40 down on her serve, the German suddenly found the calm of the despair and saved 3 match points before holding and go back on track. Marion the felt little tight and the weight of the wasted chances took their toll in the following service game when with no chance to serve it out she got broken by the German, who kept her momentum going as she hold for 5-4.
Marion was then sent to try serving for the tournament again, but this time she didn't let the chance leak out of her hands and with a terrific ace -only the 2nd of her match- that lifted a small cloud of gypsum from the green grass of the centre court she finally could fall on her knees and let the joy for the first slam of her career flow. With this result Marion will be back in the top 10, as high as 7th, which is her best ranking...what's more, she is the first player with double-handed forehand and backhand to win Wimbledon.

Heading towards the QFs of the most random Wimbledon ever? (part 2 - women)

(24) S. Lisicki vs K. Kanepi
In the top quarter of the draw one already meets a totally unexpected clash because whenever Serena Williams loses it's a surprise, but whenever she does it with such an open draw it's ever more. Serena was indeed given as the sure winner after the fall of Sharapova and Azarenka in the second round and ever before that, considering her record on Grass and the great win in Paris, she was the one to defeat for the title. Her executioner was German Sabine Lisicki, whose form seems to hit every year around this time, since she reached the QF last year too by defeating RG's reigning champion Sharapova before falling by the hands of Kerber -who was taken out by her next opponent just few days ago. This year Lisicki took down again the RG champion, but she seems the favourite to win her clash with Estonian Kanepi, because the two play a very similar game, but probably Sabine has more experience on the surface and Kaia is not known for her brave heart when it comes to seizing chances. 

(4) A. Radwanska vs (6) Li Na

The only match one could espect when the draw came out, is the only one that seemed more unlikely for both players to reach that far, because the Polish came to Wimbledon without the same positive results of the last year and Li Na had quite a few tricky opponents on her way too. Last year's champion needed all her talent to edge past American big hitter Keys and then to come back from a set down against grass-specialist Pironkova, while Li Na needed a huge focus to defeat in three sets Romanian Halep, who came to the match with two tournaments won in a row and then she edged 8-6 in the 3rd set against Czech Zakopalova. Nonetheless, Li Na found her whole game and security to easily thunder past Italian Roberta Vinci and head to this match with the best hopes to finally go beyond the QF of Wimbledon, something she had never done before. My guess is that if Radwanska passes this test, she's going to win the whole thing, but Li Na won't surrender easily.


(17) S. Stephens vs (15) M. Bartoli

In the section of the draw where Maria Sharapova was given as the biggest fave to reach this far and Caroline Wozniacki as the second fave, no-one of the two could go further than the second round as the first was shocked by Portugues Larcher de Brito and the second defeated by Petra Cetkovska, but most of all by a nasty ankle injury happened in the very first games of this match. It wasn't much of a surprise the fell of the second highest seed of this section, as Sara Errani (5th seed) was routined by youngster Monica Puig, whose game and power were too much for the Italian clay-courter. In the end Stephens could take advantage of the lack of real contenders left and despite playing quite below her best level, she could go through quite a few potential good matches, mostly because of her mental strenght, opposed to the fear of winning that hit both Cetkovska and Puig, when they were called to close their matches.

On the other side of the net there's 2007 finalist Marion Bartoli, whose experience on the surface is surely big, but her form was given dire as she retired from Eastbourn last week and her results this year were quite below her talent. Yet, she's a great fighter and could get this far by defeating en route a few tricky grass specialists like Giorgi and McHale. If the French can play the whole match on a good level for her standards, she can be quite safe for a place in the semifinals, but the young American seems never to fear taking chances, so don't count her off.


(8) P. Kvitova vs (20) K. Flipkens

In the section towered by world number 2 and Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, it was Belgian late-comer Kirsten Flipkens to get the chance to reach her first slam Quarter Final of her career. Her story seems the one of a movie, as only last year around this time, she was playing ITFs because injuries and losses were keeping her away from the best 200 of the world. "Flipper" with her deadly slice and fighting attitude won her place in the QF by facing no seeds en route, thanks to the walkover of the world n°2 given to Italian Flavia Pennetta, who later defeated Alize Cornet to reach her 3rd Wimbledon 4th round. The Italian wasn't the favourite in her clash with Flipkens, mostly because they had faced in RG round 1, when the Italian was defeated after a very long battle. On grass things didn't change much, with the Italian being the best player on court until she served twice for the first set. From that moment on Pennetta looked tense and couldn't express her best game, while the Belgian started to believe in herself more and the match went all the way on her favor.

Her opponent will be the former champion Petra Kvitova, who seems to be far from the form that gave her the title few years ago, she struggled to win her first round against Vandeweghe and then she was saved by a rain break against Ekaterina Makarova. Yet, her game seemed to click against Suarez Navarro in the 4th round and she probably is the fave against Flipkens and even if case of an upset, it is more likely to be Petra's fault, as her game is always down to all or nothing.


Bold Prediction for the final:
Radwanska def. Bartoli 7-5 6-2

Heading towards the QFs of the most random WImbledon ever? (part 1 - men)

Wimbledon, or as they call them-selves "The Championships", the whitest, the most prestigious and the most traditional of the Slams, probably the most famouse. For sure this year, the strangest. When we are still a few rounds away from the finals it seems like the only expected things are surprises: in a strangely dry edition of the British slam, it passed no day without a huge upset happening in the both women and men draws. Let's just think that out of the top 8 seeds in the women's draw only 3 are left, with the higher being Agnieska Radwanska, world number 4 and yet to win her first slam, while the other two girls who survived their seeding are former RG's champion Li Na and former Wimbledon's champion Petra Kvitova.
On the men's draw things look a little less surprising in terms of numbers, with 5 top 8 in the quarters, but the lack of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal surely does surprise more than any other number, since the two combined one 8 out of the last nine editions of this slam.
But let's see what happened in each quarter of the draw:

(1) N. Djokovic vs (7) T. Berdyck

In this quarter everything went as expected, as Djokovic reached this far without dropping a set, despite having faces a bunch of grass-courter like Tommy Haas in the previous round. The Serb looks like the favourite for the title now, mostly because his form seems to be there and he is the only Wimbledon champion left in the draw. The Czech will surely be a nice test of his chances though, because Tomas knows how to play on those courts -he's been a finalist here few years ago- and he reached this point handling perfectly a few dangerous players like the South African Anderson and the young promise Tomic, who had took down to seeds en route: Quarrey and Gasquet.
My guess is Djokovic in four sets, with the first two sets running on the edge.

(4) D. Ferrer vs (8) J.M. Del Potro
Here's another quarter where seeding was respected, likely to be with a giggle from the organizers,

who were strongly criticized when they decided to give the Spaniard the 4th seed which Rafael Nadal should have been given according to the ranking. Apparently they were right after all, because David, despite struggling with a few opponents, he could make his way up to this far, whilst Nadal didn't. It would be quite a surprise though, if he would run away from this match with a win, because his Argentinian opponent has a game that suits the surface best and despite rumors had him out of his 4th round against Italian Andreas Seppi because of a knee injury, he is still in and hasn't dropped a set yet. Ferrer on the other hand never closed in straights and it looks unlikely that his griding would bother Juan Martin on the fast grass.

L. Kubot vs (24) J. Janowicz
The Polish quarter, the clash that writes a new page for the country, since it never happened that a Polish player hit the semifinals of the Championships and so, whoever goes through this match, the record will change. The clash of the underdogs was made possible by the unexpected defeats and retirements of all the seeds: for sure the most surprising one came when Sergej Stckhovskij in the

second round put an end of Federer's record of consecutive QF in slams, but it wasn't the only one, since earlier in the first round Rafael Nadal and Stanislas Wawrinka were stunned by Darcis and Hewitt. In the end it was Kubot to take advantage of the draw and the retirement of the "killer" of Nadal in the second round, so that he could capitalize his suitable game for grass by defeating lower names and after a huge effort reaching his first Slam Quarterfinal, by defeating Mannarino in 5 sets. Lucasz surely is the underdog in his clash with compatriot Janowicz, but Jerzy didn't have an easy way either, because yesterday it needed all his talent to win the 5th set against Austrian veteran Melzer and this marathon may take its toll tomorrow. My guess is still a win for Janowicz in three.

(2) A. Murray vs F. Verdasco
Half a surprise in this section of the draw, where as espected, world n°2 and Olympic gold medallist Andy Murray sailed in full control through all his opponents without dropping a set, though in all truth, he hasn't faced any particular treat a part from Youzhny in the 4th round, but the Russian fell apart after the 2nd set's tiebreak. On the other side of the net in this QF there will be the Spanish

veteran Fernando Verdasco, at his best result at Wimbledon. The Spaniard capitalized a draw the fell apart thanks to thewalkover of Marin Cilic (10th seed), and the retirement of French hope Tsonga during his 2nd round clash with Ernest Gulbis. Murray should face much problems in this Quarterfinal, nor in the Semis, sure the whole country is cheering for him to finally win the home slam.

Bold Prediction for the final:
Murray def. Djokovic 6-4 3-6 7-5 7-5