Serena too good for everyone, Istanbul is hers

When the semifinals line up has been decided, the top 4 players of the season were all there, but not all of them got there with ease.
Serena Williams was surely the favourite, having she beated world number 1 Azarenka in the round robin and having never dropped a set. Despite the loss, the Belarussian qualified too, but she needed a terrific effort of nerves to win over Chinese Li Na and didn't look as in for as a few weeks ago.
Maria Sharapova also came to the semifinal undefeated, but unlike Serena, she was on the edge of suffering a tough loss to Radwanska in the RR, even though she came up winning the match is a very long and great quality match.
The Polish had qualified too, but after the incredible marathon match lost to Masha, she had another tiring match to win in order to advance past the round robin: she had indeed to face Italian Sara Errani in the last match of the group, in what will eventually be the longest match ever in the history of the WTA Championships and the longest of the year.

In the first semifinal Serena Williams had a very easy job to win over a too tired Radwanska, who had only around 14 hours to rest, but the feeling one could get from this match was that, probably even a 100% ready Agnieska couldn't have done much more, as Serena looked extremly focused and determined, hitting the ball really well and missing barely nothing. 6-2 6-1 the final score.
In the other semifinal world number 1 Azarenka was taking on world number 2 Sharapova, in what has been the nth chapter of this year's most famous rivalry. Like in the previous rounds Vika looked rather below her usual level, probably very tired from the long season and probably a little accomplished by the news that, no matter the outcome of the semifinal, she would have finished the year as world number 1. On the other hand Masha looked very determined to take revange from the US Open semifinal and gave everything in order to overcome the Belarussian, who gave up fighting after losing the first set: 6-4 6-2.

As for every match this week, the Istanbul's arena was fully packed by tennis fans and the atmosphere was the one we wanted to see at WTA final Champs for years. Moreover, the two facing each other are the worldwide most famous tennis players up to now and everyone was expecting a great final. And so it was.
Maria started by hitting very hard and trying to move Serena as much as possible, trying to be very aggressive with the game-starters' shots - return of service and both 1st and 2nd service -.
On the other side of the net the American looked as good as few times in the past years, very solid on every shot, moving really impressively on court, almost never out of place and always up for the right choices.
The match seemed completely in Serena's hands, who broke early in the first set and had chances to get another, but first a silly error and then a great fighting from Sharapova prevented that from happening. But the Russian never looked like trubling Williams's serve and so the American could close the first set with that sole break 6-4.
In the second Masha tried to bash the ball harder, in order to draw Williams further from the baseline, but Serena didn't step back at all and kept hitting clean and moving Sharapova everytime she had the chance and the few times she might have had some sort of trouble on her serve, she had an ace ready for that.
Credits to Maria for hanging on there, but it was matter of time before Serena would rise the trophy and fast she did it, by closing the match on 6-4 6-3 on her side, with the terrific sum of 44 winners, ending probably the most amazing year of her carreer with Wimbledon, USO and YEC titles and 2 golden Medals at the Olympics, even if that didn't mean being the world number 1.

Ligety schools everyone in Soelden's snowstorm

American Ted Ligety was one of the -if not the one- most critic about the new rules on GS skis, as he said they wouldn't make any difference in the speed, but would actually increase the risk of injuries. One would then believe that this change might actually set him back on earth, whereas he's been the best interpreter of the discipline over the past few years. Well this one was surely surprised at the end of today's race, as not only he won, once again, but he completely destroyed the chances of everybody else, as the first mortal, Italian Manfred Moelgg, finished almost 3 seconds behind Teddy!
What makes it even more scary, is that the scenario after the first run was rather different.
The huge snowfall that kept blowing a lot of snow throughout the night gave a lot of troubles to the organizers, but after a great effort the race could start, but the whole course was slowed down by the fresh snow, mostly for the first racers and very soon a lot of bumps ruined the course.

Austrian Philipp Schoerghofer, unluckily for him, had the duty to open the race and couldn't even qualify for the second run as slow it was the last flat part of the slope.
Passage by passage the course got a little faster though, but of the top group only Ligety could score a time good enough to stay into the very top places after the first run. On the contrary French Thomas Fanara could take advantage of the little faster surface and by attacking the course from the very first gates with no fear for the bumps he could set the best time, by placing few hundreths ahead of the American.
Swedish Myrher and Austrian Baumed too, made solid runs and placed themself just behind Ligety and then with bib 21 Italian Moelgg showed a great attitude and even if he looked on the point of falling many times, he could stay up and score a terrific run, which placed him 3rd.
In the huge snowfall and the bad visibility a few guys from behind could find the right intuition to score a good run and so, quite many of them could qualify for the second run.
Cyprien Richard opened that second partial, but he wasn't really lucky and went out before time, then it was Roy's turn, and the Canadia made a really solid run even if at first it didn't look like one, as the very next racer, Slovakian newcomer Adam Zampa, destroyed his leadership with a terrific and brave run that would eventually give him a long-lasting leadership and a final placement into the top 10, 9th at his very first 2nd run in World Cup! Such a great achievement for the young guy from Vysoké Tatry, who had showed terrific improvements in the past few seasons, thanks to a very commendable hard work!

Zampa's run was so good that in the end his time was the 2nd best and could take him ahead of champions like Kostelic, Bauman and Mathis!
Only when the top tenners of the first run were to come down, the advantage over the Slovakian was big enough to let them overcome him at the finish line.
When it was last year's champion's turn, everyone expecred a great reaction from Hirscher, who didn't look very good in the first run and so it was. The Austrian seemed to shake out all the doubts and attacked like only he can do and leaded the race for a few intense moment.
The conditions of the weather were very tough and so the course, with all the bumps impossible to be seen in the snowstorm and so many runners fell or went out earlyon and after the exit of Simoncelli, Italian fans were holding their breaths while Manfred Moelgg was skiing down the hill.
Once again, like in the first run, the Italian looked always risking a little too much as if he was about to crash, but again he didn't and when he crossed the finish line he ended Hirscher's leadership.

His own was to last very few though, as Ted Ligety seemed not to be bothered by the fog or the snow and skied as if it was smooth and sunny, scoring a crazy good time, 2.75 seconds faster than the Italian and nothing could the first run's leader Fanara apart from trying to go beyond his limits. Too bad for the French it didn't work and he lost the podium too, finishing 4th.

aMAZEing Tina wins Soelden opening GS

A lot of interest was concerning this year's opening race of Soelden (Austria). As usual there was a lot of talk ongoing, mostly regarding who could confirm last year's form and who wouldn't, who could make it close to the bigger names and if there would be some newcomers.
Not only, two great questionmarks were finding place in all those rumors: the first one, pretty common here in Soelden, concerning the weather as the forcasts for the weekend were the ones of January, not of October and up to the glacier that could mean a lot of troubles; secondly, and probably the hottest topic of the year, dealing with the change of materials, with longer skis and their radius.

Surprisingly the first run was graced and all the girls (a part from the unlucky ones from 18 to 22)  could race under a covered sky, but no trubles given by snow or fog.
Bib number 1 was Austrian's evergreen Lizzy Goergl, that made quite a few mistakes in the early gates and seemed to never find a good way to deal with the long turns and maybe even with the new skis.
Two year's defending champion in GS Viktoria Rebensburg skied a very solid run, but differently from what happened in the past two season she didn't look unbeatable and soon we had a confirmation of that as after a pretty bad run of last year's winners here and overall champion Vonn, Tina Maze showed that with a bit more of corague and determination, those longer skis can still perform as well as the old ones.
Maze looked very impressive mostly on the steep gates of the middle part of the Rettenbach glacier ending the run with over a second of lead on Rebensburg and eventually only one skier could do any better of the German and it was Tessa Worley, who seemed to well adapt her tecnique to the new skis and finished the run "only" 0.76 seconds behind the Slovenian.
None ever again got any closer to the terrific time from Maze so that the last to qualify for the 2nd run was over 4 and half second trailing.

The second run had to be postponed several times because by the end of the first run a very heavy fog started go down the slope, but finally Frida Hansdotter from Sweden could make it begin with more than one hour of delay.
She could ski a very solid run, which eventually will give her a quite good uprise in the final ranking, but the girl that went down right after did something even greater. Susanne Weinbuchner, 21 year old German, didn't get any fear from that first experience in a world cup 2nd run, but on the contrary looked very enthusiastic and could take advantage of the low bib and made a terrific run, that hardly anyone going down right after her could challenge - only Nadia Fanchini, from Italy, seemed to be close on beating her time, but she eventually went out at the end of steep - and so she made a great improvement in her placement finishing the race with a raise of 17 places finishing 12th!
The weather looked like getting worse, so the girl started their run with little breaks one between the other and the rythm of that second run became even more fast and rich of emotions.
Lindell-Vikarby first and Curtoni Irene first could overtake the German in the leading, but then it was Vonn's turn and everyone was expecting her to make a great comeback in the second run; unfortunately in the early gates Lindsay crashed into a gate and was forced to retire looking highly on pain on her arm.

Then it was Koehle's turn and the Austrian made exactly what the public expected from Vonn: she started with fire in her eyes and took every risk she could painting incredible lines down the steep turns of the Rettenbach ending with the best partial time so far.
Gagnon and Gisin seemed to be unable to better Stefanie's run, but both could finish close enough to climb the ranking with her. Sadly for Italians fans Brignone couldn't really cope with the second run and went out, whilst Denise Karbon looked a little worse than in the 1st run finishing far from the podium.
An even greater disappoinment arrived to the German fanbase as Riesch skied in a very horrid fashion, never really doing anything down there and quite often going in over-rotation with the upper body and losing the outer ski.
When Zettel was about to start the fog and snowfall clearly seemed to be too heavy to let anyone making a better time than Koehle's, but so it wasn't. Kathrin risked everything and in the first gates she almost fell as much she was going down inwards to close the turns faster. She hit then an amazing time, better than the team mate and so it was all on the top 3's shoulders.
Rebensburg fell immediatly in the trapts of the upper part and after a couple of gates she was already out, same for Tessa Worley, who unluckily entered the gate with the inner ski and so had to stop.
Tina Maze was sure of a great advantage she secured after the first run, but clearly she knew that she couldn't deal on that only after the amazing run of Zettel.
So she started a little more coutious than in the first run, but still solid and aggressive enough to stop Zettel's attack to her leadership, with a magistral display of mental strenght she closed in the first position, finding a win again after more of a year.
Final result: Maze, Zettel, Koehle. For Stefanie it was the first podium in her carreer.

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.

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!

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.