French Open - day four

Day four of the French Open had some big surprises, in the women's draw Anna Schmiedlova beat Venus Williams in three sets. 

Venus did well in the first set but then went off the rails and the unforced errors increased and this got worse in the third set. 

Ana played a careful and patient game and and her confidence grew with each game and she started really going for her shots. 

It was sad to see Venus's game fall apart and it does make me wonder how long Venus can carry on playing knowing she doesn't really have the energy for three sets. 

To add to the drama Garbine Muguruza beat Serena Williams in straight sets. Garbine played well and did not really allow Serena to get into the match. 

Serena by her own standards had a poor match, her serve was off and she was barely moving her feet. She may have been carrying an injury that is only explanation for her shocking performance. 

Maria Sharapova beat Tsvetana Pironkova in straight sets and she played reasonably well after a poor start and had complete control of the second set and the match. 

Taylor Townsend beat Alize Cornet in three sets and Taylor was given a wild card to enter this tournament and has made incredible progress and it will be interesting to see how far she will go in this tournament. 

In the men's draw Novak Djokovic beat Jeremy Chardy in straight sets and Novak looked calm and confident and had complete control over the game and match. 

Roger Federer beat Diego Schwartzman in straight sets and Roger played well and did enough to win this match comfortable. 

Australian Open - Day Three

Day three at the Australian Open and Serena Williams beat Vesna Dolonc in straight sets. Serena played well and will now play Daniela Hantuchova in the next round. 

Jie Zheng beat the talented American Madison Keys in three sets. For Madison this will be a learning curve and as she was leading by four games to one the third set. 

These are kind of losses that Madison will learn from and will hopefully come back stronger. 

Sam Stosur hammered Tsvetana Pironkova in straight sets which included a six love second set. It was a suprise result considering that Tsvetana won the Sydney tournament over the weekend. 

Another surprise result was Monica Niculescu beating Sabine Liscki in three sets. I still feel that Sabine saves all her best tennis for Wimbledon and is not that motivated for the other slams. 

In the men's draw Novak Djokovic and David Ferrer both recorded straight sets wins to progress to the third round. 

AIPA International, Sydney - Final

The APIA International took place in Sydney and Tsvetana Pironkova beat Angelique Kerber. 

It was surprise result however when Tsvetana is playing well she is difficult to beat. This win sets up Tsvetana nicely for the Australian Open. 

For Angelique going into this match she was favourite and the higher ranked player. 

So even though I am sure she was disappointed, Angelique is probably now focusing on the Australian Open. 

APIA International, Sydney - Semi-Finals

The semi-final matches took place yesterday and in the first semi final Tsvetana Pironkova beat Petra Kivitova in straight sets. 

This was an unexpected result as Petra is  a grand slam winner Tsvetana is currently ranked outside of the top 100.

 So the points gained from beating Petra will really help Tsvetana ranking and also give her some much needed confidence. 

In the second semi-final Angelique Kerber beat Madison Keys in straight sets. To be honest the bigger surprise would have been Madison beating Angelique. 

Madison is still learning and she has gained from valuable ranking points for reaching this stage. 

Angelique is an experienced player and rarely loses to lower ranked players. So though it would been nice to see a Madison grab a set. I was not overly surprised by the result.

So the APIA International final will be between Tsvetana Pironkova and Angelique Kerber. 

I suspect it will be a three set match and I think Angelique will win it.