Caroline wins her 20th singles title in Moscow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last finalists of the season

Moscow's marathons to define the finalists

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

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

Picture from it.eurosport.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Luxembourg goes all unseeded

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

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

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

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

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

Picture from wta.com

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

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

Last week before WTA ending

Hot matches in cold Moscow

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

Arvidsson silents Russian fans

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

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

Wozniacki shakes but wins

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

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

Luxembourg, tournament of rebirths?

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

Niculescu's game puzzles and wins

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

Andrea and Venus on their way back

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

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

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