Rogers Cup - Montreal - day four

Day four at the Rogers Cup and Venus Williams beat Angelique Kerber in three sets. It was pulsating match that could have gone either. 

Venus gave her everything in the match and it was just a few points that won her this match and put beyond doubt that Venus is back. 

Victoria Azarenka beat Heather Watson in straight sets and Heather was distinctly flat and looked completely overwhelmed by the occasion. 

Victoria is just returning from injury and it would have been good time for Heather to beat her. 

But Heather did not take her chance and proceeded to lose the match in straight sets. To be fair Heather did well to reach the third round and is still on a steep learning curve.

Serena Williams beat Lucie Safarova in straight sets and to be honest never looked like she was in danger of losing this match and stays on course for retaining her title. 

The shock result of the day was Carla Suarez Narravo beating Maria Sharapova in three sets. 

I did not see this result coming and I thought Maria would make it to at least the final so it was surprise result just go show that these days anything can happen in women's tennis. 

Agnieszka Radwanska beat Sabine Lisicki in three sets and this was a good for Agnieszka who has had quite a poor year winning no titles. 

Beating an in-form player like Sabine should give her much needed confidence  to progress in this tournament.  

Rogers Cup - Montreal - Day three

Day three of the Rogers Cup and Heather Watson beat Dominika Cibulkova in three sets. It was another up and down match for Heather she could have closed it out in two sets but threw away a three game advantage and had to win in a third set tie break.

I am hoping this is down to Heather's inexperience of tier one tennis and she will learn how to close out matches in straight sets. 

Venus Williams beat Yulia Putintseva in straight sets and it took a little while for Venus to handle Yulia "moon balls" but once Venus found her rhythm she was smacking the moons balls away and getting winners. 

Jelena Jankovic beat Sloane Stephens in three sets and Sloane had been playing reasonably well. But I think she lacks those killer instincts to win a tier one title.

Serena Williams beat Samantha Stosur in straight sets and it was a real demolition job by Serena who took apart Sam's game whilst in second gear. 

It was a little embarrasing to watching considering Sam only beat Serena in the US Open final three years ago. 

Angelique Kerber beat Caroline Garcia in straight sets and Anglique has been in some fine form and plays Venus Williams next. 

Rogers Cup - Montreal - Day two

Day two of the Rogers Cup and Venus Williams beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in three sets. To be honest it was a match that could have gone either way and in the end Venus was able to break at the right time to win the set and the match. 

However Venus looked very tired so I am not sure how much she has got left in the tank to realistically even make the semi-finals but I am hoping that she will surprise me. 

Casey Dellacqua beat Kirsten Flipkens in three sets and this was a surprise result as Kirsten has been playing well so surprised to see her lose so early. 

But the big shock of the day was Shelby Rogers beat Eugenie Bouchard in three sets and that included two bagels.

This would have been extremely embarrassing for Eugenie as this is her home tournament so fans where expecting her to do well. 

To be fair she has not played match since Wimbledon so was probably a little rusty still no excuse for getting bageld twice in front of her home crowd. 

Rogers Cup - Montreal - Day one

Day one of the Rogers Cup and Sloane Stephens beat Aleksandra Wozniak in straight sets. 

This was a much needed win for Sloane who has not by own standards not had a good year and has been falling down the rankings. 

So hopefully this win will give her some much needed confidence and get her back up the rankings. 

Heather Watson beat Tereza Smitkova in three sets and this was one of the poorest matches I have seen Heather play but most importantly she won the match and some valuable ranking points. 

Sabine Lisicki beat Sara Errani in straight sets and this was a tough first round match for Sabine but came out of in flying colours. 

Citi Open - Washington - final

Day seven of the Citi Open and Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Kurumi Nara in three sets and it was an enthralling final which saw Svetlana win her first WTA tour title in four years! 

For Kurumi getting to the final was some achievement in itself and it was always going to be a big ask to beat someone like Svetlana but she did well and most importantly bagged some valuable ranking points. 

For Svetlana this win might give her the confidence to believe she can win the US Open title. 

She will be a contender for the title but I suspect once she is playing at a Grand Slam she challenge is great and I am not sure is she still has the fitness to win seven rounds. 

But she has done well to win this title I for one would not have imagined before this tournament that she would have been the winner. 

So Svetlana wins the Citi Open title and valuable ranking points. 

The Bank of West Classic - Day seven

Day seven of The Bank of West Classic and in the final Serena Williams beat Angelique Kerber in the straight sets. 

Shocking part of this win was that a Serena was five games to one in the first set down but still managed to win this set by seven games to five. 

To be fair Serena probably played the whole match in third gear and still managed to win with ease. 

Whilst Angelique played out of her skin to hang with Serena and didn't even manage to take set. 

However Angelique is having a good year and can take pride in the fact that she is the first German to reach the final in over twenty years. 

For Serena she has retained her title and hopefully it be a good start to a successful hard court season. 

The Bank of West Classic - Day six

Day six at The Bank of West Classic and it is semi-finals day and Serena Williams best Andrea Petkovic in straight sets.

The first set was reasonably competitive but the second set was all Serena and she completely bossed the game. 

Serena put on a real display and this should hopefully have silenced her critics for at least another day. 

The second semi-final Angelique Kerber Varvara Lepchenko in three sets. I was expecting Angelique to have a rather more routine win. 

It shows Vavara has really developed her game because this time last year she was getting knocked out in round one. 

Angelique has had a good year too has made it to finals of key tournaments and has now established herself as top ten player.