Murray out of Indian Wells

Andy Murray had such a promising start to the season with a run to the finals in Dubai, after losing in an epic semi final match to the world number one Novak Djokovic, that it did not seem at all likely that Murray would stumble out of the draw in his first match at Indian Wells for a second year in a row. 

Murray looked to have overcome his demons after another heartbreaking loss at the first grand slam of the year when he beat Djokovic in Dubai.  But today he was upset by Spaniard Guilermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 6-2. 

The Spaniard is currently ranked 92^nd but managed to break the Scott twice in the second set to seal the match in one hour and 40 minutes.  Garcia-Lopez stuck the ball sweetly moving Murray around the court soaking up Murray’s errors on both wings.  He will now play Ryan Harrison in the next round.  Murray on the other hand will travel to Miami hoping to bring his game together for the next event.    

Djokovic eased through to the third round with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Andreev Golubev and will now play Kevin Anderson who has just won his second career title at Delray Beach.  Tomas Berdych also advanced but had it tougher, having to close the match in three sets against Sergiy Stakhovsky.  Rafael Nadal returns to the game after having a month out to play Leonardo Mayer.   

Indian Wells, California

 On the women’s side of the draw Caroline Wozniacki demolished Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-0 although still insisted on her father coming onto court after winning the first set.  She has done enough at this event to secure her top five ranking for another week.  Maria Sharapova made light work of Gisela Dulko with the same score line and will now take on Simona Halep.  The new world number one Victoria Azarenka had a tougher route through against promising player Mona Barthel winning 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-6(6).     

 

Federer and Azarenka stemrolled through tournament to seize titles

Roger Federer breezed past Juan Martin Del Potro to take the title in Rotterdam in straight sets 6-1, 6-4. 

Federer took his first title of this season in a straightforward encounter easing to a 5-0 lead in the first set.  Del Potro managed to hold one service game but in the end he succumbed to Federer’s master class as the Swiss man took the set in 34 minutes. 

Del Potro did have chances in the match but failed to take any of his seven break points.  Federer on the other hand did not let any of his chances go as he broke the Argentine in the fifth game of the second set and continued in formidable fashion to take the match at the third time of asking in one hour and 26 minutes.  Federer has now managed to win at least one ATP World Tour Title in a season 12 years in a row. 

In the Qatar Total Open Victoria Azarenka faced Sam Stosur for the sixth time in her career and for the sixth time in a row as she beat the Australian without losing a set.  

Azarenka looked invincible even with her ankle injury that she sustained in her semi final match.  The injury focused Azarenka’s mind as she only made eight unforced errors compared to Stosur’s 25.  Azarenka dominated with her forehand taking Stosur’s weapons away from her as she won the match 6-1, 6-2 and looking like a very worthy world number one. 

On court reports, retirements

After finding myself in a final of event without having to play a single match because only one other girl entered along with me, my opponent in the final did not turn up and was therefore disqualified.  I walked away with a trophy in my hand but still feeling slightly annoyed as I would have liked to have won the event properly by stepping onto court.  In the tournament that I was playing in, there was an excessive amount of withdrawals before the tournament begun and during the event a lot of players withdrew due to injury.  This happens at all levels as well as on the ATP and the WTA Tour. 

On the ATP Tour this week there are three tournaments taking place; Rotterdam, an ATP 500 event, San Jose and Sao Paulo, both ATP 250 events.  In Rotterdam, Roger Federer eased through to the quarter finals after receiving a walkover due to the retirement of Mikhail Youzhny as he had a foot injury.  Marcos Baghdatis left the event due to a left calf injury and Sergiy Stakhovsky retired because of a viral illness.  In San Jose the tournament lost its number one seed just before the event, Gael Monfils, due to a knee injury letting Blake Strode, a lucky loser take his place.  In Sao Paulo there have been no retirements.... so far. 



Youzhny retires from Rotterdam



Doha is celebrating its tenth year on the WTA tour calendar in style with 6 of the top 10 women entering the event.  However Carla Suarez Navarro retired in her match against Ana Ivanovic after losing the first set and down in the second with a right hip injury.  The number 6^th seed Vera Zvonareva also retired due to a left hip injury.      

Unfinished matches upset the fans who feel they have not had their money’s worth as they were desperate to see a man like Roger Federer work his magic.  It also upsets the tournament organisers when they lose their top seeds as they are the top attractions and so they will lose money.  But more than anything it can annoy the players who are hungry to step on court and win matches.  There will be some who are happy to pocket the extra money they receive after reaching another round but the real professionals will want to play matches in order to get into a rhythm and to please the fans.  It also begs the question, which is frequently discussed and debated, if the tour is too tough with a longer break needed between seasons.  Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic seem to think so as they will not be playing in February. 

WTA Stars line up in Paris and Pattaya City

The WTA Tour resumes after the Fed Cup with tournaments in two different but very beautiful cities of Paris in France and Pattaya in Thailand. 



Santuary of truth

In Paris there are three Top 10 players that grace the draw; World No.3 Maria Sharapova, World No.7 Marion Bartoli and World No.9 Li Na.  Jelena Jankovic is another seed with Lucie Safarova also in the draw with the latter reaching the final twice previously in 2007 and 2010 – she is the only women in this year’s draw who has reached the final.  Sabine Lisicki was also due to play but has had to pull out due to a viral illness. 

The city of Pattaya welcomes other top players including Vera Zvonareva, twice a champion and leading this year’s field.  Sorana Cristea has already played her first round match here dispatching her opponent, Erika Sema 6-2, 6-2 in 74 minutes.  Cibulkova has also played her first match but lost to Britain’s Anne Keothavong 4-6, 1-6.  Keothavong managed to adjust to the conditions better after having played in the Fed Cup in Israel last week which saw Great Britain win all their ties and will now go to the play offs for World Group II.  The news was not so good for Heather Watson who lost to Vania King 4-6, 2-6.   



British ITF Success

It’s not just the ATP and the WTA Tour tournaments that have been going on in the last few weeks.  The Brits, especially Anne Keothavong have been doing well in the last few weeks at some ITF events. 

Firstly in Barnstaple, Great Britain, Anne Keothavong won the $75,000 tournament in the singles and doubles.  Then she followed up her success again in a $50,000 event in Ismaning, Germany.  She beat Yvonne Meusburger in a tough 3 set match, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.  Keothavong then managed to spur herself on to win the doubles 6-3, 6-3. 

Czech Republic win the Fed Cup

The Fed Cup was won on the deciding match; with the experienced Czech doubles pairing never looking like they would squander the chance to take the title home with them.  Hradecka and Peschke took their team to victory with a 6-4, 6-2 win.  But it was Petra Kvitova who was the star player winning both matches using her confidence from winning the WTA Championships, to get through a tough win against Svetlana Kuznetsova after being  3-0 down in the final set, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. It was not a bad performance from Russia with all their players doing their best, but they were defeated by the better team. 

Also in the women’s game today, Ana Ivanovic celebrated her 24^th birthday with style after taking $600,000 with a win over Anabel Medina Garrigues to take the Commonwealth Bank of Champions title in Bali.

Kvitova gains WTA Championships and No. 2 Ranking

Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka have made it through to the final and deservedly so as they have played the best the whole week fighting for their matches and showing great strength of character after other players have struggled to close out their contests. 

Kvitova started out the better of the two, gliding into a 5-0 lead with high-quality serving and effortless winners whereas Azarenka didn’t seem to show up giving her service games away with an abundance of errors.  She started to attend towards the closing stages of the first set breaking Kvitova’s serve and bringing more substance to her own.  It was now Kvitova’s turn to be tentative as she lost the rhythm on her usually blistering forehand to allow Azarenka back into the match and so the Belarusian levelled to 5-5.   But Kvitova managed to stumble on some momentum to win a bizarre first set 7-5.  Although this came with difficulty as Kvitova was only able to take the set at the fifth time of asking due to Azarenka relieving the Czech of any pressure by letting out an unforced error.

The final continued its unpredictability with Azarenka gaining a break and then promptly losing it.  Kvitova carried on the theme making unbelievable shots and then breaking down mentally awarding silly errors to let Azarenka gain another break.  As the second set progressed Azarenka looked the calmer with Kvitova’s reactions becoming louder, sharper and more aggressive after she won each point.  But this did not deter the focused Azarenka as she levelled the match with a set of her own 6-4. 

After working herself up into a frenzy in the previous set Kvitova started the better of two going into a 3-0 lead displaying some of her best tennis.  With her back against the wall Azarenka started to battle back but this was stopped by Kvitova’s defiant yelps and she kept herself ahead in the important points to win the Championships in energetic style, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. 

This has been an amazing season for Kvitova starting at No. 34 and finishing at World No. 2, with wins at Wimbledon and now the end of year championships.  Both women will certainly be formidable opponents next year. 

Results on the ATP Tour:

Vienna

J Tsonga bt J Del Potro 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4

B Bryan/M Bryan bt M Mirnyi/D Nestor 7-6(10), 6-3

St. Petersburg

M Cilic bt J Tipsarevic 6-3, 3-6, 6-2

C Fleming/R Hutchins bt M Elgin A Kudryavtsev 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-8

WTA Championship Results –27th

Petra Kvitova bt Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-2

Victoria Azarenka bt Li Na 6-2, 6-2

Agnieszka Radwanska bt Vera Zvonareva 1-6, 6-2, 7-5

Azarenka & Kvitova are now into the final four.