Why “pushers” are good for WTA?

How many times have we heard tennis experts complaining about overly defensive players getting to the top of the world rankings?


Solidity takes you to the top, but will not make you win slams. Or so they say.

But is this really a bad thing for women’s tennis?

Jelena Jankovic and Caroline Wozniacki have been world number ones for 85 weeks combined, Agnieska Radwanska has reached a slam final and peaked at world number two, Sara Errani has been a solid top 10 player with a slam final in Paris.

Nonetheless, thevmedia seems to crucify them and describe them as being one of the worst plagues in the history of tennis, but they are very wrong, and this is why:


Let us take the Pole as an example.

The older of the Radwanska sisters constantly receives a great amount of criticism by the press and yet she has won the Fans' Favourite award held by the WTA for three consecutive seasons.

The 2012 Wimbledon finalist does not have the power to out-hit her physically stronger opponents, but her smart reading of the game and the variety of shots in her game-plan, often set her in a position of advantage against the one-dimensional ball strikers.


Probably the hottest potato is Caroline Wozniacki though.

© Hillarie

The Dane has reigned on the top of the rankings for 67 weeks, finishing the season as world number one for two consecutive years. Amazing stats, but she has never won a slam title.

The beautiful blonde player from Odense has probably attracted the most criticism a world number one has ever faced.

Curiously, whenever she steps on court, the crowd, more often than not, sides with her, even now that she has fallen from grace and struggles to remain in the top 10.

© Matanya

Wozniacki has got career wins against all the players currently in the top 10, but for most of the experts there is little merit in those wins, which were “handed to her by the errors of her opponents.”

What often goes under the radar is the fact that the amazing defensive skills of the likes of Wozniacki force their opponents to always hit one or more additional balls.

This consistency and athleticism exposes the weaknesses of most of the hard hitters and makes the matches more mentally demanding.

One could say that they make their opponents play badly, which is not far from the truth. Their defensive game is the key to forcing opponents’ errors and at the end of the day, is that not just as much of a weapon as a massive forehand or deadly slice?

Another argument in support of the “pushers” is given by their long-term consistency. Their rankings are based on numerous solid results and a level of play that may not peak as high as many other players on tour, but rarely sinks as low.

Last, but not least, they provide a spectacle.
It may seem a paradox just after my point on their ability to make others play badly, but when watching their matches, the intensity of their rallies and the variety of solutions to turn defence into attack is what keeps the crowd on the edge of their seats.

A flashing return winner may result in loud applause, but a long and intense rally, ending with a winner on the run, makes the public jump and scream.



Originally posted on Sports Gazette

Hot & cold in the warm summer season so far

The US Open Series is like every summer unfolding and when only two weeks are left before the big finish line in New York, some hints about players' form have already been given and the first speculations about what's to happen at the USOpen can be done.
Especially in the men series most of the big names showed up only this week in Montreal, in order to enjoy a few weeks off after Wimbledon to rest and train. That  gave the chance to other names to take advantage to the otherwise "packed" draws and take a good margin on the series' ranking. That was the case with John Isner, who sailed through the mediocre draw of Atlanta's 250 by winning it and then reached the final in Washington's 500, defeated by Del Potro in the final.
A similar situation happened in the women tournaments with world number 1 Serena Williams taking part to the race only this week in Toronto and Maria Sharapova yet to compete.

Hawaiian-like hot form

Rafael Nadal. The Spanish champion, winner of the series a few years ago, after the injury that forced himself out for most of the past season is witnessing one of the best years and after the huge disappointment of the first round loss in Wimbledon, he started his summer campaign with a terrific run in Montreal's Master 1000. En route he had to face very little resistance in most rounds, but could raise his game to edge past Djokovic in the semifinal, decided in a massive tie-break in the third set. Rafael is still undefeated on hard courts this year! Up to now he is 2nd in the series.

Serena Williams. The world number one and French Open champion came to Canada after a winning "holiday" in Bastad, where she decided to end her most successful clay season ever, in order to forget the unexpected loss of Wimbledon. To the ones who might have thought that coming back on clay just before the Hard Court season was a bad choice, she replied with a terrific run in Montreal's Premier 5. On her way to the title she dropped no set and never look on the verge of losing any, not even with Radwanska in the semis, when the Pole played a superb match and forced the American to play her best to win every point. Similarly to Nadal's case, she stands 2nd in the series.

Hot like Florida with chances of storms

John Isner. We've already mentioned his summer season so far. With his big serve and a game suitable to the American courts, John leads the Series thanks to the title in Atlanta, won in a tight service-battle of three tie-breaks with Kevin Anderson and then to the final reached in Washington. After those displays of consistency he was upsetted by local WC Pospisil in the first round of Montreal.

Juan Martin Del Potro. After the injury occurred in Wimbledon it looks like he's back on his feet and ready to compete for the only slam he has previously won: the USO. On his way to the title in Washington he was the first seed, but had to battle with other good names like Anderson, Haas and finally Isner. Maybe little fatigue prevented him from another good run in Montreal, where he was upsetted by eventual finalist Milos Raonic in the 3rd round.

Aga Radwanska. Probably the most solid girl on tour, Aga started his campaign for the USO with a good show of consistency, but she looked not as good as she used to. Despite leading the series, she had to face a couple of bad losses, especially for the implications of those losses. After having reached the final in Stanford, she was defeated by Dominika Cibulkova, in a match that seemed to be in full control of the Pole.
The week after it was Sam Stosur's turn to take her down, this time in a 3rd round. In Toronto Aga sailed through the early rounds and then put up a great fight against Serena in the SF. It's hard to see her winning the Open in this form, but she's a lock for a QF or further.

From Hot to Hailing, it's like the east-coast

Milos Raonic. The young Canadian hope reached the final on the home soil before surrendering to Nadal. On his way to the final defeated good names, but a part from Del Potro hardly any of them falls in the contenders for the title in New York and it's hard to see Milos being ready to challenge any of the big 4 at the moment.

Sam Stosur. The former USO Champion is having not her best season and after finishing out of the top 10 is surely looking for a way back to the top. Her summer started bad though, with a bad loss to Govortsova in the first round of Stanford. She could regroup and unexpectedly go on to win her first title of the year in Carlsbad upsetting Radwanska and even more surprisingly by giving no hope to World n°2 Vika Azarenka in the final. Once in Toronto the form slowly fainted and she couldn't get past Kvitova in the 3rd round.

Dominika Cibulkova. Title in Stanford, R1 in Carlsbad, QF in Toronto. Lika rollercoaster the short Slovakian player as usual shows to be one of the most unpredictable players of the tour as much able to beat anyone on a given day as to self-implode on the bad ones. Her seeding will be low in New York, but for sure she's not well liked on any contender's way.

Sorana Cirstea. Like Cibulkova, consistency has always been a problem for her, but semi finals in Stanford, QF in Washington and final in Montreal secured her a spot close to the top 20 and a career
best ranking, but most of all, her wins against Kvitova, Wozniacki and Li showed how much of a dark horse she may be in New York.

Magdalena Rybarikova. Winning titles is never easy when you are not a top name, winning the same title back to back is something huge at any level and Magda did that in Washington, by defeating players supposedly much better than her according to the ranking. The Slovakian won a tight match against best German Kerber and then destroyed Russian Ekaterina Makarova, before taking over Andrea Petkovic in the final. The following week she was also able reached the QF in Toronto where only a massive Serena Williams could stop her winning streak. That said only two weeks ago she was routined by Keys in Stanford, so it's hard to believe she'll be a safe bet for a deep run in New York.

One more reason why hurricanes have female names.

Olga Puchkova. The Russian player in Washington gave a great show of her hot-temper as after the first round win over local Star Stephens argued via Twitter to a journalist, who tried to justify Sloane's loss by saying she was rusty - "Rusty my &@@" was her reply-. But she could outdo that by getting disqualified the following round because in a moment of rage she hit a ball towards the back fence, but hit a line-man instead.

Is it even summer there?

Andy Murray. Coming from the massive win in London, he decided to have a break, but his first matches on hard courts have been a disaster, a tight win against Granollers and a one sided loss to Gulbis clearly are not the best way to start a run whose aim is to defend last year's USO title.

Janko Tipsarevic. First round in Wimbledon, flying to Bogota on Hard Courts to lose his second round match against Falla, flying back to Europe to lose first round on the Swiss clay of Gstaad and then back to Canadian's hard courts and yet another loss. Hard to believe Janko will be a contender in New York.

Gilles Simon. A losing streak of three matches is never a sign of good form, when the last two of them come on the surface of the next Slam and in both you never seem able to hurt your opponents things can't but look even worse.

Caroline Wozniacki. The two years in a row year-ending world number one has fallen in a negative spiral from the beginning of 2012 and it seems that she's unable to ever climb back close to where she's been for so long. Barely hanging in the top 10 she started her favourite part of the season with a tough loss to Sorana Cirstea in Montreal, when she blew 2 consecutive MPs in the second set. Most of her game looked there and the injured ankle seemed fine, but her mental game seems long gone.

Svetlana Kuznetsova. The former US Open champion hasn't been much of a contending for slams in the past years, but after the good display in Australia her season simply failed to deliver. A couple of injuries forced her out for a while, but in two tournaments played this summer she collected 3 losses -for once being a Lucky Loser wasn't as lucky-.

Jelena Jankovic. For the former number one being 3-2 after two weeks of the American summer season can't but be a disappointment, especially if she's won only against players ranked much lower than her and only after tough battles, while the two losses came to players closer to her ranking, but yet still below her

Angelique Kerber. The German number one is not going through an easy season, her body is always facing injuries and her game suffers a lot for that, but she has a lot to defend now and she seems just not ready for that and her top 10 status is in jeopardy. Like Caroline her losses came after tight matches, but she used to win those mental battles.

.

There are still two events left to find or lose form though and then the air of slams can change a lot in the motivation and fears of players, so we are still far from being able to make any accurate prediction, which as usual will be proven wrong anyway.

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

A few comments from Rome early days (day 2)

Tuesday May 14th

B Jovanovski (SRB) b. [10] C Wozniacki (DEN) 26 64 76(5)

Thee very first match of the day was played in perfect conditions, sun was shining bright in Rome, temperature was warm, but yet not so hot and differently from the day before, wind wasn't much of a deal and immediately the stands were packed with fans cheering for the former world number 1.
Contrary to the latest matches, Caroline started pretty convincingly, hitting deep and being solid from baseline, taking advantage of the short balls coming from Jovanovski every time she was forced to run after Caroline's powerful accelerations with the backhand.
Moreover Bojana couldn't really find any depth with serve, nor taking advantage of the few mistakes of Caroline, so that in a very short lapse of time the Dane was 3-0 up with only one point lost and with no more difficulties went on winning the first set.
I was really impressed by Caroline's game in the first set to be honest, yet I could tell that there was something wrong with her, since she didn't look confident, nor willing to finish the job fast. In the second set she started bad and immediately found herself trailing in the score. She received a treatment to her ankle, but it seemed that the problems were others: she suddenly felt tight and her shots lost power and depth, even her running seemed less impressive and more balls started to get past her. On the other side of the net a lot of credits are due to Jovanovski, who suddenly started to believe in her chances and her errors diminished.

My impressions on Caroline will be better explained in another post, but the third set is the clear picture of what is going on with her: she started with a new burst of confidence and on the other side of the net Jovanovski injured her calf and started to move less and less. In a moment it was 4-1 for the Dane, who had chances to go 5-1 up, but a short miss with a Backhand down the line let Jovanovski back in the match, as much as in a few minutes it was all tied up 4 each. Caroline broke Jovanovski, but served in a pathetic fashion and got broken. Jovanovski held easily thanks to massive errors from the Dane, who then could hold for the tiebreak. There it was all on Caroline's racket again, since she was 5-1 up, but then the light switched off again and the misshit forehand that sent the ball on the stands clearly sums up the match that the shadow of the world number 1 had just lost.

 G Simon (FRA) b. [WC] F Volandri (ITA) 63 26 64

Because of Caroline's match I could watch only the last set of this match, which was really entertaining and characterized by an uncertain outcome.
The Italian, whose fame is mostly related to his dream run here in Rome a few springs ago, seemed to have found the game of those days back and with his class and unpredictable solutions was dictating points against the very solid French player, who on the other side of the net was trying to defend everything, waiting until he could step in with his favourite shot: the backhand down the line.
Volandri had several chances in every service game of Simon to break, the biggest one in the 6th game, when with two amazing drop shots he could gain 3 consecutive break points. The French player played smart then and let Volandri make bad decisions after super intensive rallies. Simon could hold and had chances to break in the next game, but Volandri  hold and yet again in the following service game went close to breaking Simon's serve, but once again the server could run away with an important hold.
This time the Italian couldn't serve as well as before and Simon could run away with the break and soon close a very high quality match. Despite the disappointment the crowd showed great sportsmanship by applauding very loudly the winner and the loser at the end of the match.




J Benneteau (FRA) b. [12] N Almagro (ESP) 76(2) 64

 I couldn't really watch much of this match, but the whole match can be summed up with Benneteau being solid and taking advantage of every chance given, while Almagro was dictating most of the rallies, but missing too many shots and often being ineffective while defending.

U Radwanska (POL) b. [15] A Ivanovic (SRB) 63 26 62

 I watched only a few games of this match from the stands of the Super Tennis arena during the break between the matches there, but I was impressed by Radwanska's game: Ivanovic didn't play bad at all in the match, but she couldn't really find a way out of her opponent's knot of flat, topspin and sliced balls. Urszula indeed never gave Ivanovic two balls alike in a row and the Serb couldn't find the right timing to be offensive for many shots in a row. The Polish on the other had was very solid with her defence, whose depth often was catching the Serb on the wrong foot and so turning the point around on her favor.
When in the second set the level of the younger Radwanska dropped you could see Ivanovic suddenly playing better, but it didn't last long, since in the third it was all on Urszula's racket and the score reflected it.

 [16] S Stephens (USA) b. [WC] F Pennetta (ITA) 63 63

Rematch of last year's second round it looked like a trick of the destiny, since the two players for different reasons are not the same: Stephens came to Rome with a brutal losing streak and overall a poor form that seemed to haunt her after the amazing run in Australia, when she reached her first slam semifinal, defeating Serena en route. Pennetta reached the Main Draw only thanks to a wild card, because in the past 8 months she had played only a could of tournaments, since an injury and the recovery from the surgery forced her out of the tour for long.
The Italian hadn't looked the same player since her comeback, but a few hints in Miami, Madrid and Marrakesh seemed to be enough to confident to see her playing well at home, against a player she had never lost to and that last year was severely schooled on those courts.
It wasn't so and the score looks much closer than the match actually was: Stephens's shots were accurate and quite powerful from the Forehand side, whilst her backhand was more solid than usual

and the loopy trajectories created with it often forced Flavia to step back and lose control of the rally.
In all honesty Stephens's game didn't impress me as much as Flavia's non-game did. The Italian, known for her ability to re-use opponents' power to create winners, looked spent and slow, her groundstrokes shaky and never accurate, so that she never really bothered Stephens. The only burst of pride came when the match was close to be over, when she let her racket go full speed and rage hit the shots, she saved several Match points 5-1 down, one of them with an incredible lob on the run, almost hit behind her back out of a powerful smash from the American. Despite it all, the Italian couldn't keep the momentum going and in bad service game she was broken and the match went deservedly to the American youngster.

 [Q] S Halep (ROU) b. [4] A Radwanska (POL) 67(2) 61 62


By far the best match I watched in my two days in Rome. The two played some amazing quality tennis, playing fire with fire both of them played the same tactic made of tricky slices and sudden

accelerations, well hidden drop shots and spectacular volleys.
I reached the super tennis arena just in time for the first set tie-break and there the merits of Aga Radwanska were the ones of looking like an unbreakable wall, Simona tried her best to hit through her, but ended up overhitting a couple of shots and the set ended quickly in favor of the Polish.
Contrary to my expectations Halep came back on court for the second set even more motivated and didn't let the wasted chance bring her down. She started well, serving solid first serves and returning deep or using sharp angles: soon Radwanska looked caught in her own trap, since Halep

was playing the same tennis of hers, just better. Aga suddenly couldn't close points on her down-the-line shots because Halep was always there to hit the ball back and often with power and accuracy, the Polish drop shots had the same fate, since not a single one hit the Romanian side twice before Halep was there and her solutions from there were high class too since once she was passing Radwanska with a sliced FH down the line, once with a sharp counter-drop or forced her to uncomfortable volleys.
Agnieska lost the plot and Simona could sense it. Her hesultation after the first set was full of charged emotion and not even the toilet break Radwanska took could break the momentum: Aga tried all her best to keep close in the score, but after a couple of games it was clear that Halep was simply too good for her. Nonetheless the world number 4 kept fighting until the very last point, which kept the tension and the quality of the set on an amazing level of intensity broken only by the last winner which gave the victory to Simona Halep, the biggest of her career.

  

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.

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!