Dubai Open - day five

Day five of the Dubai Open and Alize Cornet beat Serena Williams in straight sets. 

 

Alize played well and came up with shots that Serena could not get. However Serena still does not look fully fit but all credit for Alize for get this amazing win. 

Venus Williams beat Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets. This was a surprise scoreline as I had expected Caroline to take this match to a third set. 

But Venus played like a champion and kept her unforced errors down to win the match and a place in the final. 

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. 

Champions League review

In Tuesday's Champions League games Barcelona beat ten man, Man City by two goals to nil. 

This was a bad result for Man City and if they have any hope of going through they need to be able to beat Barcelona at the Nou Camp and this is something few teams have been able to do. 

In yesterday's champions leagues games Bayern Munich beat ten men, Arsenal by two goals to nil. 

It was a rough night for Arsenal who missed penalty, then Kieran Gibbs got injured and that was shortly followed by the dismissal of the goalkeeper. 

Arsenal tried to hold on but it was no use and Bayern Munich played like the home team. 

If Arsenal are to go through they need to win by two clear goals in Germany and it does sound impossible but anything can happen in football. 

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. 

 

Dubai Open - Day two

Day two of the Dubai Open and Serena Williams beat Ekaterina Makarova straight sets. 

Serena looked a little weary in the first set and but by the second set she was able to build a commanding lead and won the set and the match. 

 

Ekaterina played very well and Serena had to play well to beat her. Serena speed round court the was probably the key difference between them . 

Elsewhere Caroline Wozniacki beat Sabine Liscki in three sets. This was a very competitive match and I thought Sabine was going to win bit Caroline just seem to have a little more in the tank. 

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. 

Midland, USA - Final review

For those of you who regularly follow my blog you will know that Britain's Heather Watson is one my favourite players. 

Last year was a very tough year for Heather and she went from being top fifty to being top one hundred and fifty. This was primarily due to the bout of glandular fever she suffered early 2013. 

This affected her confidence and she  kept getting knocked out in the first round of tournaments. This carried on for most of 2013. 

However in the Australian Open Heather  got knocked out in the first round but only after winning three tough qualifying matches. 

Heather did well in her Fed Cup matches and won all her singles matches. So her confidence was slowly coming back. 

Once Heather entered this  ITF Midland  tournament although I was rooting for her. I was waiting for her to at least reach the semi finals before I blogged.

But fortunately Heather did even better than I expected she reached the final and  beat Ksenia Pervak in straight sets.

Then about an hour later she played doubles with Anna Tatishvili and managed to win in three sets beating Maria Sanchez, Sharon Fichman. 

Both wins have improved Heather's singles and doubles ranking and the confidence and her fitness levels have returned which is great for Heather and for UK tennis.