WTA Tennis 2014

Ladies and gentlemen I am soo glad to say that tennis is back!

Already it has already been a great start to the year. In the WTA Brisbane International quarter finals Serena Williams beat Dominika Cibulkova in straights. 

Serena will now play Maria Sharapova and Maria beat Kaia Kanepi in three sets to make  it to the semi finals. 

It has been ten years since Maria beat Serena and for Maria it has been ten painful years. 

Maria has now started discussing Serena's private life in public so I am sure Maria must now be feeling very confident out beating Serena.

Elsewhere Auckland International Venus Williams beat Garbine Muguruza Blanco in a straight sets quarter finals win. 

This was another fantastic win for Venus who now plays a fellow American Jamie  Hampton for place in the final.

This should be a very good match which could either way but I am guessing that Venus will win in three tight sets 

WTA tennis review of 2013

So much happened in the tennis world in 2013, some good some not so good. 

The main highlight  for me was watching Serena Williams clinically win the French Open. 

One of the lows was the decline of Britain's Heather Watson who has gone from a pontential top twenty player to outside of the top one hundred. 

A player I think did very well in 2013 was Canada's Eugenie Bouchard. She had a strong end to 2013 and has lot potential to do well in 2014.

Predictions 2014 

I expect Serena to win at couple more grand slams and surpass both Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. 

I think this year the teengers are going to have a real influence on the grandslams. Therefore I am expecting Sloane Stephens, Eugenie Bouchard or Jamie Hampton to do well this year.

Wimbledon Day One

First day of Wimbledon was full of surprises both in the men and the ladies games.

Men

I am  disappointed that Rafal Nadal is out of Wimbledon and I think that his style of tennis will be missed in the next two weeks.

I am hoping that Rafal will get proper treatment for his knee and only return when he is 125% fit. There were also good routine wins for Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Jon Wilfred Tsonga.

Women

I am not surprised that Sara Errani lost today as she does not really have  a good record at Wimbledon. Maria Sharapova won in two sets however the first set was a real struggle for her and she seemed to be a little irritated today and I was surprised to see her arguing with the umpire. 

The all American first round tie between Jamie Hampton and Sloane Stephens was won by Sloane Stephens who played quite well and won the big points when it mattered.

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.

Eastbourne Semi-Finals

Today is semi-finals day and as regular readers of my blog would have noted. Earlier this week I wrote a post about the increasing strength and depth of USA's women team.

So I am not surprised that Jamie Hampton has made the semi-finals and we will find out how far her grass court game has developed when she takes on Caroline Wozniacki.

In the second semi-finals Yanina Wickmayer takes on Elena Vesnina. I watched Elena's previous game against Heather Watson and although she won I am not yet convinced that she can be a grand slam winner. 

However as world number 34 this could be a very good year for her. Where she could gain lots of points and finish the year in at least the top twenty.

So I believe that the final could be between Jamie Hampton and Elena Vesnina. I would say that for Wickmayer, Vesnina and Hampton whether they win or lose they will all do well with the ranking points they would have gained.

USA Tennis

As someone who has a deep appreciation of US style of tennis, it is nice see that US women’s tennis  is more than just Venus and Serena Williams. The emerging talents of Sloane Stephens, Jamie Hampton and Varvara Lepchenko amongst others mean that the US women could dominating even once Serena retires.

 However I would say that that these players are probably a good two to three years away from winning grand slams. However having watched one or two of these players they have definitely made feel very optimistic for the US’s women team.

The same cannot be said  about US men’s tennis which seems to be struggling a bit and now that Andy Roddick has retired.  The current crop of male players do not really strike me has grand slam winning potential but I could be wrong. However I am sure that the US team will probably find a male player to feel the void that Andy Roddick left sooner than I probably realise.