Southern & Western Open - Cincinnati -Day three

Day three at the Southern & Western Open and Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Eugenie Bouchard in three sets.

 This was a good win for Svetlana whilst Eugenie is now realising that she has to live up to the hype that has formed around her and it will not be easy. 

Flavia Penetta beat Taylor Townsend in straight sets and this would have been a disappointing loss for Taylor. But at the same time she is young and building some valuable on-court experience. 

Serena Williams beat Samantha Stosur in straight sets but these sets were very close and Serena had to play very well to win both tie breaks to win. 

This was the first real test that Serena has had to face in this tournament and she came out of it with flying colours. 

Indian Wells - WTA Final

The final at Indian Wells and Flavia Pennetta beat Agnieszka Radwanska in straight sets. 

Aga appeared to have both a knee and ankle injury but that should not take anything away from Flavia's win. 

Flavia is one of a growing number of players over the age of thirty that have been winning titles. 

Admittedly this was one title that once Aga reached the final and injury free she probably would have won it so Flavia's win came as a surprise to me. 

Although Aga was injured I still think she will struggle to win tier ones and Grand Slam titles. 

She does not have the power of a Serena, Maria or Victoria and prefers to go for placement instead of winners. 

It was a great win for Flavia and I am sure she is hoping this win will give her confidence to improve her win tally in future tier one's and Grand Slams tournaments. 

Indian Wells - Day eight and nine

Day eight at Indian Wells and Agnieszka Radwanska beat Jelena Jankovic in three  sets. 

Aga's game seems to be really coming together and now she has made it to the semi finals she has every chance of winning it. 

Day nine and Ni La beat Dominika Cibulkova in three sets and Dominika played well but in the third set Ni La was able to win the big points and the game. 

Flavia Pennetta beat Sloane Stephens in three sets. Sloane did not look 100% fit and was making some really basic errors. 

Flavia was very consistent and could have won the match in two sets but I guess her persistence and patience paid off in the end. 

Dubai Open - day four

Day four of the Dubai Open and Serena Williams beat Jelena Jankovic in straight sets.

 It was a pretty straight forward match for Serena but for Jelena it really hurt to be comprehensively beaten. 

 

So towards the end of the match Jelena and Serena exchanged a few words.

 It was probably more to do with the frustration Jelena felt than Serena keeping her waiting. 

Elsewhere Venus Williams continued her remarkable comeback and beat Flavia Pennetta in straight sets. 

Alize Cornet beat Carla Suarez Navarro in  straight sets to make it to the semi finals where she will play Serena Williams. 

Dubai Open - Day three

Day three at the Dubai Open and Venus Williams beat Ana Ivanovic in straight sets. Venus really rolled back the years and played very well. 

So well that when she got her serve in she was very dominant. It was a surprise result because I thought that Ana would have at least taken it to three sets. 

 But Ana did not even get a real break point chance.

Elsewhere Flavia Penetta beat Agnieszka Radwanska in straight sets. That was definitely the surprise result of the day. 

But at the same time I think that Agnisezka is really going to struggle this year as she does not have the weapons to put players away and she is now being found out. 

I think it will be hard for Agnieszka  to stay in the top five if she doesn't win a grand slam this year. 

 

Australian Open - Day Nine

Day nine at the Australian Open and Ni La beat Flavia Pennetta in straight sets. This result was not a surprise as Ni La has been playing very well and did not really give Flavia the opportunity to really get into the match. 

Eugenie Bouchard beat Ana Ivanovic in three sets. Bearing in mind that Ana beat Serena Williams in the previous round. I would have thought Ana would have beat Eugenie. 

However Eugenie battled through to victory after losing the first set and she will now play Li Na for a place in the final. 

In the men's draw Tomas Berdych beat the number three seed David Ferrer in four sets. This was a surprise result for me as David has been playing well so I thought he was going to win the match. 

The shock result of the day was Stanislas Wawrinka beating Novak Djokovic in five sets.It was a pulsating match that had twists and turns.

 Stanislas just seem to play the bigger points better and had the marginal advantage of serving first in the fifth set. Novak made to very costly errors which cost him the game and the match. 

US Open - day twelve

Day twelve at the US Open was the women's semi - finals day.

In the first semi - final Victoria Azarenka beat Flavia Pennetta in straight sets. This result was not unexpected and Victoria was able to win and set up a final match against Serena Williams.

In the second semi - final Serena beat Na Li in straight sets and I was little surprised with the ease in which Serena won this match.  

In the first set Na Li did not win a game and the second set only really became, competitive at the end by this time it was a little too late for Na Li.

The final between Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka will take place about 9.30pm UK time. 

Shortly after winning her singles semi-finals match, Serena then played doubles with her sister Venus. They lost in straight sets to Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.

Serena appeared to be a little tired from her earlier singles match, however Lucie and Andrea played well to win this match.

US Open- Women's semi-finals preview

The women's semi-finals is due to take place tomorrow.

Serena Williams will take on Na Li and they have played each other nine times and Serena is currently leading eight to one.

 This does not mean that Serena will win as Na Li has been playing some really good tennis. If Serena serves well then she will probably make it to the final. 

However if Na Li is able to consistently return Serena's serve then that will also increase her chances of winning.

In the second semi-final Victoria Azarenka takes on the unseeded Flavia Pennetta. On paper it would look like a clear win for Victoria.

 However Flavia has had a great tournament so the momentum she currently has could help her to win the game.

I think the women's final will be between Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka but would not be surprised if either Na Li or Flavia Pennetta caused an upset.

US Open - day ten

Day ten at the US Open and the men's draw still has it's top three seeds and the women's draw still has it's top two seeds.

Rafael Nadal beat Tommy Robredo in straight sets. This was a clinical match from Rafael who did not allow Tommy to get into the match at all. Rafa will now face Richard Gasquet in the semi-finals.

Richard Gasquet beat the fourth seed David Ferrer in five sets. Richard won the first two sets then had to come back to win in the fifth set for his place in the semi finals.

In the women's draw the unseeded Flavia Pennetta  beat the tenth seed and her compatriot Roberta Vinci in straight sets. To reach the semi-finals where she will face Victoria Azarenka. 

Victoria Azarenka beat Daniela Hantuchova in straight sets to make it to the semi-finals against the unseeded Flavia Pennetta.

Meanwhile in the women's doubles Venus and Serena Williams beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Lucie Safarova in straight sets to reach the doubles quarter finals.

 However in the second set Venus Williams ran out of energy and both Venus and Serena did well to close it out in straight sets. As I suspect that if the match had gone to a third set it would have been a real challenge for Venus to finish. 

They now face the number one seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci this match is going to be a real challenge for Venus especially and hopefully they will win it and make it to the semi-finals.

US Open - day eight

Day eight at the US open was very much affected by rain.

Tommy Rebredo beat Roger Federer in straight sets. This was a surprising result and for Roger to lose so early in a slam is unusual.

However at 32 years old it will not get any easier for Roger. Roger is going to have to adapt his game and become super motivated to another grand slam.

Rafael Nadal beat Philip Kohlschreiber in four sets and It is the first time. That he has been really tested at the tournament and so it was good that he was able to come through it.

Daniela Hantuchova beat the American wildcard Alison Riske in three sets and it is the first time in about ten years that Daniela has made it to the quarter finals. 

Flavia Pennetta beat Simona Halep in three sets. This was a very good win for Flavia against the in-form Simona who has already won four titles in this year. 

Swedish Open -Final

So I got half of my predictions right:) as the final was between Serena Williams and the surprise package of Johanna Larsson and that is where the surprises end. It was a comfortable straight sets win for Serena which as I alluded to in a previous post is what she probably needs at the moment following her surprise early exit from Wimbledon.

As Serena is not defending her Stanford title and she is not scheduled to play again until mid August which would be shortly before she starts her defence of  the US open title. I'm hoping she will be little more focused than she was at Wimbledon, where I personally believe that those outside non-tennis related distractions cost her the defence of her title.

For Johanna Larsson it has been a win/win situation most of us had probably not heard of her and few would have expected her to beat Serena. I think the match of her life was probably beating Flavia Pannetta. She did well against Serena and was by no means embarrassed so it has been a tennis learning curve for in terms of where her game is and what she needs to do become a good top 10 player.

 

Swedish Open Semi-Finals

The first semi finals of the Swedish Open will take place between Serena Williams and Klara Zakopalova. So far Serena has had a relatively straightforward passage to the semi finals. 

After the disappointment of losing to Sabine Lisicki in the fourth round at Wimbledon. Serena has got back to her winning ways. Although this tournament is a tier two I guess you could say that a win is a win. 

Klara is a better player than Serena's previous opponents. However I expect Serena to win but in two tighter straight sets.

The second semi-final is between Flavia Pennetta and Johanna Larsson. I would expect that Flavia being the more experienced and the higher ranked player to win comfortably. 

Therefore the final would be between Serena Williams and Flavia Pennetta.