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

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.