USOpen SF Preview

The countdown has started, it won't be long before the last slam of the year will close its gates, but that's the moment that every fan is waiting for, now it's the moment in which story will be written once again.
It's been a long and thrilling US Open so far, incredibly rich of quality and drama moments and now when it's all about the last four men and women, it's all about sizing the right chance to raise the trophy in the final.
One couldn't ask for a better semifinal line-up, in both draws there have been surprises and not all the favourites reached this far, but the ones who took their place not only deserved to get so far, but added great quality and a taste of fairytale to the story of this USOpen. Because if finding Serena Williams, Azarenka, Li Na (on the ladies' draw) and Djokovic and Nadal (in the men's) doesn't really surprise the fans, Flavia Pennetta, Stanislas Wawrinka and Richard Gasquet are all surprising names to be found at this stage.

(1) Serena Willliams vs (5) Li Na

World number one and defending champion, Serena Williams takes on Chinise world number 5 in probably the first real test of Serena's conditions here in New York. The two know each other very well having played 9 times already, with Serena losing one of those matches, yet Li Na is well known for her powerful game and if consistency seems to be her major problem, no-one wants to face her with the rounds passing as she seems always to find her best game with the days passing in a tournament.

It's honestly hard to predict an upset here, mostly because Li Na had to struggle a lot in the earlier rounds, including a very tense performance against Ekaterina Makarova in the quarter-final, while Serena left nothing to her opponent, Carla Suarez Navarro, who was simply annihilated but the power and the accuracy of the shots of Serena.
Surely Li Na is not the same kind of player, with no detraction to the amazing result and the qualities of the Spaniard, but the Chinese can deal a lot better with powerful shots and Serena surely knows that, as much as she knows the fighting attitude that characterizes her, so everything is set for a great quality match here. My prediction is Serena to win 7-5 6-3.

(2) Viktoria Azarenka vs Flavia Pennetta

When world number 2 and twice-in-a-row Australian Open champion takes upon world number 83, one hardly believe that this might be a competitive match, but Flavia Pennetta isn't a normal world 83, former top 10 -first Italian ever to achieve such a result- she's achieved wins over most of the greatest players of this era, leading the head to head with some of them. Her story here is probably the biggest fairytale of the past few years: two years ago, at her 3rd QF in this slam, she went so close to achieve her first ever slam SF against a still unknown Angelique Kerber, but the pressure of the moment made her crumble and lose from a break up in the third set. Because of a wrist injury and the surgery needed she skipped last year's US Open, but her comeback this year looked to be a prelude to her retirement, as much as she considered that before Wimbledon, where she played well a couple of matches and exploited the retirement of the highest seed of her section: Vika Azarenka.
It's like the plot of a very intriguing thriller, because the "free pass" of Wimbledon is now her opponent in a match that none would have bet on when the draw came out.
Yet Flavia made a great run to reach this maiden semifinal, she took down the 4th seed and last year's Semifinalist Sara Errani, former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova (overturning a 5-0 in the head-to-head), summer-sensation Simona Halep and finally her close friend and one-step-away-from-top-10 Roberta Vinci, all that without dropping a set, showing match after match her best tennis and probably even a little more.  "I'm proud of me now.  I'm 31, and physically I feel good finally.  I'm in the first semifinal in Grand Slam." she said, "I really don't feel this pressure.  In Italy we already have one champion on Grand Slam; Sara make one final, two semifinals. So I really don't feel this pressure right now."
This is probably the potentially highest quality semifinal, because Azarenka knows Flavia, the two matches they have played before have gone one to each of them and Viktoria hasn't play at her absolute best so far, being challenged by Cornet and Ivanovic en route, yet the Belorussian is probably the greatest fighter out there and when the game goes tough, so she does and in her quarter final levelled her game to the situation to take down Daniela Hantuchova in straight sets.
She knows though that if Flavia can stay calm and not feel the moment, she might need her best tennis to get through: "You know, Flavia is such an amazing, first of all, person. I think she's just a great person. To see her go through the injuries and coming up with, you know, best results she has right now, it's really amazing. She's very good player, all around player. She can do anything. She has a great touch; great variety; she can create power; create spin. I'm really looking forward to that match. It's a big challenge."
I still give Viktoria the edge, because of her bigger experience at this point of slams, but I expect it to be a close match: 7-5 3-6 6-2 for the Belorussian.

(1) Novak Djokovic vs (9) Stanislas Wawrinka

  Another fairytale taste is recognizable in this semifinal, where there won't the defending champion to challenge the world number one, nor the most famous and probably talented Swiss player. This time it's another one-handed Swiss to go out there for a place in the Semifinal: Stan Wawrinka. His run here is somehow unexpected and deserved at the same time, because after many years of a very good quality career, Wawrinka found a new confidence and a renewed forehand that simply
catapulted him on a level never seen from him before. His run to this semifinal has been impressive, because differently from what happened many times in his career, he could play great tennis with continuity, keeping a cool head even when the things were about to start slipping from his hands -like in his match against an inspired Baghdatis, when he needed 4 match points to close-.
His quarterfinal match simply gives him a prime quality business card to hand to Djokovic at the very beginning: routining in straight sets Andy Murray is a sign that he is by no casualty there and won't surrender easily.

Djokovic is playing really well anyway, despite a few black-outs cost him a few sets in the tournament, he never seemed on the verge to suffering an upset, yet the Serb will need to be incredibly solid from the baseline and allow no easy attacks, because this "new" Wawrinka is no storm to wait until it's done, he has to be defeated, because he seems unlikely to lose this match by his own mistakes, Djokovic and his team will surely know that and I expect him to go on court with a clear plan on how to win this match, but will Wawrinka allow him to translate this plan into real action? Hard to tell, not immediately at least, but I think that in the distance Djokovic will find a way to catch another final in New York:  4-6 6-3 7-6 6-3

(2) Rafael Nadal vs (8) Richard Gasquet

Not as surprising as the other two unexpected semifinalists of this US Open, but it's hard to believe anyone would have bet on French Richard Gasquet to reach his second ever slam semifinal this year on the hard courts of Flushing Meadows, yet he's won his ticket for this by edging the 4th seed, David Ferrer in a match that seemed to be a sure win after two sets of amazing quality from Gasquet and that suddenly took the shape of a disastrous turn-around, when Ferrer levelled the score to two sets all. Nevertheless, Gasquet could miraculously find the game that made him sail through the first two sets and close after many hours of tough battles for every point 6-3 in that 5th set.
On the other side of the net this time there will be another Spaniard waiting, Rafael Nadal. The world number 2, who came back from an injury that forced him to skip most of the last season and the beginning of this one, is still undefeated on Hard Court and he seems by no mean close to be, he's serving the best of his career and most of the time he doesn't even need to defend as good as in the past, because his offensive game seem hardly to flop. After schooling the "killer" of his rival Federer, Robredo, he looks eager to waste no time nor energy to reach the final, where whoever his rival will be, he is going to be the favourite for the title.
I don't see Gasquet challenging Nadal in this match, not even if Richard can come up with his best tennis, yet he has the great chance to go out with no pressure as probably no-one is putting any hope for his win and that might let him play even better than he did in his semi...all in all, a straight 3 sets win is the most likely result for Rafa some 7-6 6-2 6-3.

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

Serena wins 6th Miami title

Immediately after IW central court saw the last players walking off from the stadium, the lights turned on in the courts of Key Biscane, where another premier Mandatory took place in the two weeks that preceded Easter.
The tournament had no time to start that a sudden news already changed the equilibrium of the draw as seed number 2 and two times AO champion Vika Azarenka withdrew, making the bottom half of the draw looking far more open to surprises.

Surprises indeed happened already in the early rounds with quite a few lower seeds falling in their first matches in the second round and higher ones one step further as Indian Wells's finalist Caroline Wozniacki lost to Spanish youngster Garbine Muguruza, Angie Kerber defeated by Sorana Cirstea and Petra Kvitova out by the hand of Belgian Kristen Flipkens.
At her comeback after the walk over given in Dubai and the skipped even of Indian Wells, Serena Williams played Italian Flavia Pennetta. The former doubles' world n°1 and singles top tenner gave Serena a nice match to start with since the double 6-1 in favor of the American doesn't reflect the hardly fought match, with every game going to deuce.
Serena seemed to struggle a little more in the following days as no-one of her wins seemed to convince she was sure of a deep run, but despite the lapses and several awkward sets, the world number one and top seed kept winning matches reaching her QF against Li by finding a way out from a set and a break down to Cibulkova in R4.
In their QF clash it was Serena who could run away with a win in straight sets 6-3 7-6(5), a match

whose quality won't be remembered as the best those two could produce.
Quality wasn't the trademark of the defending champion neither, as Agnieska Radwanska played far from her standards in R4, before finding back some of her all-round solid game to outlast Sloane Stephens in three sets and then again in the QF to come back from a set down to Flipkens.
The Chinese reached that point without showing much of her best tennis neither, at her comeback after the Australian Open Li Na looked quite on shape, but still rusty in her game and not fully focused, as her win over Muguruza showed as she needed thousands chances before closing the first set which twice looked fully on her hands (5-2 up and service and later 6-2 up in the tie break).
Maria Sharapova on the other half of the draw seemed to be walking on silk as she showed no problems in winning all her early rounds without wasting much time on court losing only 12 games en-route to her quarterfinal, where she was set to face Italian Sara Errani for the second week in a row. In California the Italian put up a great fight in the first set, where she had set points, before

surrendering in the second set. Here in Miami things moved on quite differently, as Maria looked a lot more dominant in the first set, to eventually be broken when serving for the set and be forced to get a vital break at 5-all in order to be able to close the first 7-5 for her. In the second set, though, Sarita didn't give up and tried for new ways to break Masha's game and she found a few of them, which lead to 3 set points, all of them cleared by Maria's powerful hitting, the same which eventually will let her close the match in straights, 7-5 7-5.
In the last QF clash held in the night of Miami Italian Roberta Vinci and her old-styled game was facing the former world number 1 Jelena Jankovic from Serbia, who's game looked as good as rarely in the past years before this match. The two fought one of the most entertaining and instense, as well as high qualitative, matches of the tournament, a battle of around 3 hours after which the Serbian could get out of the stadium with a 6-4 6-7 6-3 win.

As much as the quarter finals were intensively fought, the semifinals went on fast and without many "coups de théâtr"as in two very fast sets Serena dispatched Aga Radwanska 6-0 6-3, whilst Sharapova let Jankovic win the same amount of games in their 6-2 6-1 match.
Leading towards the final the interest about the match was great nonetheless, as this match withing current world number 1 and 2 had a lot more to offer than the "simple" title: for Serena a win here, would have meant the 6th title, for Maria the 1st after four finals reached and lost in Key Biscane. Moreover the two were facing for the 14th time and Serena was leading the H2H for 11-2, where the latest win of the Russian is dated 2004 and in their last meetings nothing could suggest a chance for Maria to start winning again against Serena.
The form showed in the past weeks was a great burst of confidence for Masha though and it played an important role at the very beginning of the match, when the Russian immediately took the lead pushing hard on the throttle, hitting solid and powerful groundstrokes, which at first disoriented Serena, whose serve didn't live up her usual performances and so the return. Maria took the first set 6 games to 4, but the lead didn't seem to help building enough confidence to keep her aggressive play going.
On the other hand the younger Williams started the 2nd set looking far more focused and ready to battle past the heavy shots of the Russian. The fight lasted but a few games, very competitive ones, where both girls tackled for each point as if it was a match point. In the end it was Serena coming out with the brightest solutions and most extraordinary shots, which let her take the second set  and start the 3rd in full-confidence. On the other side of the net Sharapova looked suddenly lost and with no answers for this unexpected switch in the momentum of the match. Before she could even try to work a way out it was over, 6 games to 0 for Serena. Game, set and match Williams 4-6 6-3 6-0, 6th titles for her, 5th final loss in Miami for Maria and 11th consecutive loss against Serena.

Australian Open QF Preview

Azarenka vs Kuznetsova

World number one and defending champion Vika Azarenka reached the quarter-final without having faced much of a challenge so far, if we forget of her 3rd round match against Hampton, where she was forced to a 3rd set, where she didn't have much problems to face. Vika looked in great shape and surely determined on doing her best to defend her title here in Australian, her first and so far only Major. It has to be said though, that she hasn't faced a single seeded player so far as Urzula Radwanska was eliminated by Hampton in the first round and then in the 4th she dispatched Vesnina, who had won a very thrilling battle with Vinci just the round before.
Her next opponent is going to be unseeded once again, but the kind of non-seed one doesn't want to find on her own way: Svetlana Kuznetsova is a two-time Slam winner and former world number two coming back from a long break due to injury. Sveta had already made a great impact on the draw as she came through one of the highest quality match played so far to defeat former world number 1 Caroline Wozniacki 7-5 in the third set. On her way to this QF Sveta showed a new fighting spirit and a far more focused game, without the black-outs that made her free fall in the ranking just a couple of seasons ago: the impressive scores with which waled to the third round and then the mental edge displayed in both 3rd and 4th are the proof.
Nonetheless Azarenka surely will enter the court as the clear favourite and a win by the Russian would be a great surprise, though I expect Sveta to make it close and even have her chances, I believe Vika will win this in straight 7-5 6-4.

Williams vs Stephens

The all American QF has a lot of fascination in it, as the two girls are somewhat of the past vs the future match up that everyone hopes to happen, Serena, the greatest player of that era and Sloane, the hope for the future of the American tennis, the sign that Williams made a track to follow for other black American girls. But it's highly improbable that the young Stephens could give much troubles to the clear favourite Williams, not yet at least.
Their way to that result alone would be enough of a reason to think so as Serena lost 6 games in all her matches combined so far, whilst Sloane had to win a very tough 3 sets battle against the Serbian hope Jovanovski just in the round before. Moreover Sloane might feel a little all-content by having reached her first Slam QF, while for Serena anything but a win is for sure a disappointment at this rate. 6-2 6-3 is my prediction in favour of Serena.

Li Na vs Radwanska

World number 4 Agnieska Radwanska is surely one of the players you can always count on having a deep run in whatever tournament she enters, but after having reached the final in Wimbledon last year, she has then acquired the status of slam contender and the terrific form in which she has arrived here in Melbourne can't but confirm that. Aga has indeed yet to lose a match since the beginning of the season after the back to back titles in Auckland and Sydney. What's more, she still hasn't dropped a set in those Australian Open taming in two easy sets Ivanovic in the 4th round too.
Her opponent is a very much more challenging one, as Chinese Li Na has showed her love for the Slam Downunder many times in the past, having reached her first slam semifinal and final on those courts. The Chinese still reaches that match having lost their latest meeting just a couple of weeks ago and in her last match against Goerges in R4 needed some help from the German to get away from the match in straight sets as her consistency was far from impressive and if she wants to trouble the Pole she can't afford any drop in her game level and will need to be ready for long rallies, where she has to play aggressive yet producing few errors, if she wants to stand a chance.
If we had to go for an upset out of the all QFs, that's the match where the chances are higher, but I still don't see Radwanska losing this, though she might drop a set taking the match for 6-3 5-7 6-2

Makarova vs Sharapova

As like as we have the all American match-up, the bottom half offers an all Russian one, where as like as in the other, one of the most successful player of that era is being featured. Maria Sharapova has already won once here in the past and last year she was capable of reaching the final before being completely blown out of court by Azarenka in it. Knowing the fighting spirit of the Russian she is surely back here willing to take revenge for that and winning her second title on the Rod Laver Arena. Masha had the most impressive run so far, having dropped only 5 games, four of them against her biggest opponent up to now, Venus Williams in round 3. But not even Venus looked ever close to bother the incredible solidity of Sharapova, whose shots seems as strong as usual, but much more reliable than in the past year, so it won't be easy for anyone to make it close with her.

It's going to be very unlikely that her next opponent, Ekaterina Makarova, would. The young Russian, though she's just one year younger than Masha, is of a much lesser league than her more famous opponent and that match is pretty probable to follow last year's way as the two met exactly one year ago again in the QF and Masha won it for 6-2 6-3. Moreover she leads the head to head for 4-0. So unless a very unlikely and surprising drop of level of Maria, Ekaterina will have her best done by making it slightly competitive and winning more than 5 games.
Don't get those words wrong though, Makarova did a great job to get this far as she tamed very important names like Bartoli and Kerber, but her game seem just to be unsuitable to challenge Maria's.

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.