Dubai Open - Day One

Day one of the Dubai Open and Lucie Safarova beat Sloane Stephens in straight sets.

 Sloane is just coming back from injury but at the same time she is not  playing the kind of tennis that got her to the top fifteen.

I am also not sure how motivated Sloane is for these smaller tournaments or to even win a Grand Slam. Only time will tell if she is good enough to crack the top ten and win Grand Slams.

Venus Williams beat Elena Vesnina in straight sets and it was really a good win for Venus against a player she has never beaten. 

For me that it was the best I have seen Venus play in about three years. She was putting winners away and looked energetic. 

But I was surprised by Elena's performance as she looked like she was low in confidence and never really looked like she was going to beat Venus. 

WTA China Open, Beijing - day one

Round one of China Open started yesterday and Serena Williams beat Elena Vesnina in straight sets. 

It was a pretty tough first round for Serena and the first set was very competitive.

 But after winning the first set Serena was able to take control of the second set and win the second and the match.

Heather Watson lost to Vavara Lepenchko in three sets. Heather won the first set very comfortably then seemed to lose confidence and the match in the second and third set. 

This was a bad loss for Heather and her world ranking will now drop to ninety. Next week she has to defend her Osaka title and if she is unsuccessful then she will drop out of the top 100. 

Laura Robson beat Klara Zakopalova in three sets. It was a real battle in the first and second set but she won the third set comfortably and she now faces Angelique Kerber in the second round.

Western & Southern Open Cincinnati- 2nd round

The second round matches of Western & Southern Open are taking place today and so far Serena Williams beat Eugenie Bouchard in three sets. Eugenie played quite well and I now understand why tennis world talks about her as a future number one.

Although Serena's serve kept letting her down and some of her shot selection were woeful. Serena managed to grind out the result without really having to go into top gear but I remain worried about her serve and if she is to retain her US Open title her serve needs to be firing on all cylinders.

Venus Williams lost in three sets to Elena Vesnina and to be fair it is a mild improvement for Venus as she had won her previous first round match and she managed to take Elena to three sets. I really do not understand why Venus will not retire she has nothing to prove anybody and medically it will very difficult for to win a grand slam. I really hope Venus can prove me wrong and win a another grand slam but at the moment it would be difficult for her to win 7 consecutive matches.

Sloane Stephens also beat Maria Sharapova in three sets and this result was a real surprise as Sloane has  not being playing well so I thought it was going to be a routine win for Maria. What Sloane now needs is a little consistency in her game and hopefully she will win her next match.

I was surprised that Jelena Jankovic beat Sabine Lisicki in the first round and I guess Sabine also needs to find some consistency as right now it seems to me that she saves all her best tennis for Wimbledon and this is why she is ranked 18.

In the third round Serena plays Mona Barthel and she will need to up her game to beat Mona and Marion Bartoli plays Simona Halep. I think if Serena ups her game she should win in straight sets and I also think Marion will have a possible straight sets victory over Simona.

Eastbourne Final

Ok today is finals day at Eastbourne and as I predicted in my previous post.  it will be played  between Jamie Hampton and Elena Vesnina. 

Vesnina had a more comfortable victory therefore maybe the fresher of the two. This is probably Jamie Hampton's first major final so nerves might play a part. 

However that does not mean I think Vesnina guaranteed a win just that as she has more match experience than Hampton it makes it little more likely.