Introducing: Brisbane International

Hi everyone,

It's not even 2013 yet and still the WTA is so awesome to start the season already with the tournament in Brisbane as part of the Australian Open Series!

 

 

The first tournament of the year is always important to check out if the player's training has payed off. Brisbane is immediately a true test, only Na Li and Radwanska chose to play other tournaments and are absent of the top ten. Last year Kanepi won the title, getting past Petkovic, Schiavone and Hantuchova in the process.

 

 

Let's check out the draw!

- Azarenka meets Lisicki in the second round, normally shouldn't be a problem but still interesting nonetheless!

- Hantuchova vs. Errani second round, the Slovakian is certainly motivated because she has a lot of points to defend ... and maybe because she went surfing with a celebrity surfer (and Australian hottie):

 

 

- Quarterfinal mash-ups: Azarenka vs. Wozniacki (dropping on the rankings means facing Azarenka a lot sooner, Wozniacki!), Serena vs. Stosur (still no luck in 2013 it seems, Sammy, Sammy, Sammy, ...), Kvitova against Kerber (lovely!), Sharapova vs. Errani.

 

Keep posted, exciting tennis and nice pics are coming your way, after all we're in Australia!

 

 

Fun on and off court 2012

Hi everyone,

After a summary of 2011 with all the players results on court, let's take a look back at all the funny moments!

 

Sharapova launched her Sugarpova brand of candy this year:

 

 

Haven't got a chance to taste it, but it seems delicious!

 

Wozniacki will be remembered as (failed) prankster of 2012 (practically Ashton Kutcher of prank'd!). She wanted to scare Sharapova when she was doing an interview and failed miserably but oh so funny! Recently she imitated Serena in an exhibition (and got a lot of comments about that):

 

 

 

All of the WTA players wanted to do something Federer-like, so they chose the classic 'hit-something-off-someone's-head'. Funniest were Serena and Sharapova (on Djokovic nonetheless!)

 

 

 

 

Azarenka was just dancing the entire year:

 

 

 

China causes always fun with when they nudge tennis players to try to speak some Mandarin. Gotta love Radwanska who says: Rabbit eats Peking duck!

 

 

And yes people, this is my most watched clip of this year on my blog (I'm not judging, I was desperately seeking for it too after I read about it)!

Keep posted, I have some fabulous (and funny!) tennis pics laying around for you!

Summary of 2012

Hi everyone,

We're getting nostalgic at the end of the year so let's check out what has happened in 2012!

January

It was all Azarenka at the beginning of the year. She won Sydney and Melbourne (Australian Open). The number one spot was hers: bow for Queen Victoria!

 

 

My favorite match in the Australian Open was the quarterfinal nailbiter Clijsters against Na Li. Kim came back after four match points down in the tiebreak to take the match: watch the hightlights (see that crowd explode for their Aussie Kim!). Absolutely nerve wrecking! 

 

 

February

 

Azarenka wins Qatar, Kerber takes Paris (Open GDF Suez), Radwanska owns Dubai!

 

March

 

Bartoli ends Azarenka's 26-streak of winning at Miami after the number one conquered Indian Wells first. In the end it's Radwanska who profits (after losing only against Azarenka the past three months!) by winning against Sharapova.

 

 

April

 

Serena takes the last American spring tournament in Charleston and then we advance to clay. Check out some of the new colors debuted (but hopefully we won't see again!):

 

 

Errani was the absolute relevation on clay! She took Barcelona (singles and doubles!) and Budapest. Sharapova won in Stuttgart and won a Porsche of course.

 

 

May

 

More clay in May! Serena devastates Azarenka in Madrid while Sharapova and Radwanska can both take a title before the French Open (Rome for the Russian, Brussels for the Pole). Azarenka falls short in Paris against a fabulous Cibulkova while Sharapova gets her Career Grand Slam by beating surprising finalist Errani! She takes the number one spot for a couple of weeks too.

 

 

 

 

Most remarkable match in Rolang Garros: Serena upset in the first round! Razzano needed eight match points to finally seal the deal!

 

 

June

 

Not really big shots between Roland Garros and Wimbledon with Paszek winning in Eastbourne (after Kerber had 5 matchpoints!) and Oudin taking Birmingham.

Regardless of the Suisse Federer, a total American win at Wimbledon. Serena in singles, Venus & Serena in doubles and Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond in mixed doubles. Radwanska pushes Serena to a three setter.

 

 

July

 

Serena and Errani both win one more tournament before the Olympics (Stanford and Palermo). Let's remember the wonderful moment where my prediction came true about the medals!

 

 

August

 

August is US Open Series month! Kvitova takes the Rogers Cup and New Haven (after years of non-success on American soil). Na Li captures the Cincinnati title. But it was the awesome Serena who destroyed everybody on her way to the US Open title. Azarenka may be number one but she couldn't halt Serena.

 

 

The US Open also ment Kim Clijsters' final tournament. After losing in the second round against Laura Robson in singles and being knocked out of the doubles with comrad Flipkens, her final match was in mixed doubles with Bob Bryan! (Fun guaranteed)

 

 

September

 

The ninth month in the year was quite calm with big tournaments in Seoul and Tokyo. Wozniacki captured her first title in South Korea while Petrova conquered Japan.

 

October

 

Azarenka won the China Open after beating Sharapova ... again. Wozniacki didn't have to wait long for another title, she took the Kremlin cup.

 

 

And then the end-year tournament in Istanbul, the non-official world championships, right? Sharapova may have gotten her revenge on Azarenka but Serena was unstoppable.

 

 

That was it folks, in a nutshell! I'm gonna do a post about the fun times of 2012 before looking on to 2013! Keep posted!

Update: WTA Rankings

Hi everyone,

I know I've been offline for a while, I'm sorry you guys, I've been swamped with school stuff!

The Kim's 'Thank You' Games (aka former Proximus Diamond Games) made me return to my passion for tennis and my blog for my 100th post!

I'm still gonna post a review of 2012 but let's watch at the WTA rankings of last year to compare with those of today to start off with.

 

Rankings of December 2011:

 

Rank	Prior		Nat	Points	# Tourn
1	(1)	WOZNIACKI, CAROLINE	DEN	7485	22
2	(2)	KVITOVA, PETRA	CZE	7370	19
3	(3)	AZARENKA, VICTORIA	BLR	6520	21
4	(4)	SHARAPOVA, MARIA	RUS	6510	15
5	(5)	LI, NA	CHN	5720	18
6	(6)	STOSUR, SAMANTHA	AUS	5585	21
7	(7)	ZVONAREVA, VERA	RUS	5435	22
8	(8)	RADWANSKA, AGNIESZKA	POL	5250	20
9	(9)	BARTOLI, MARION	FRA	4710	29
10	(10)	PETKOVIC, ANDREA	GER	4580	18

 

Rankings now: 

 

1	Azarenka, Victoria	10595
2	Sharapova, Maria	10045
3	Williams, Serena	9400
4	Radwanska, Agnieszka	7425
5	Kerber, Angelique	5550
6	Errani, Sara	5100
7	Li, Na	5095
8	Kvitova, Petra	5085
9	Stosur, Samantha	4135
10	Wozniacki, Caroline	3765

 

Where is Wozniacki? It's been a frequently asked question and luckily she's still in the top 10 otherwise she would have disappeared in my post too! Lesser results in the Grand Slams (first round out in US Open!) made her drop from the number one spot to ten.

 

Also Kvitova dropped six places. Everybody thought she would take that number one spot from Wozniacki after the Australian Open but she lost to Sharapova in the semi's. Her game improved during the US Open Series to secure that eight spot.

Sharapova lost to Azarenka in that Australian Open final who took that number one spot eventually. 2012 has been their year with a lot of (very loud!) thrilling finals! Will it be the same way in 2013 or will some third party surprise both of them?

 

Na Li had a medium season and dropped two spots, probably because she never got to a Grand Slam final like in 2011 and couldn't back up her Roland Garros win of last year by losing in the fourth round against Shvedova. Same story for Stosur who couldn't defend her title in the US Open (quarterfinal against Azarenka) and fell down the ranking to place 9.

 

Zvonareva disappeared completely because of injuries: spot 96 now! (I would get angry too Bepa, but just let the racket go!)

 

Radwanska was one of the top stories of this year and with some amazing results, she settled on the fourth spot at the end of 2012. She still misses some spike against Serena, Azarenka or Sharapova though but it didn't keep Poland from giving her to carry the flag at the Olympics:

 

Bartoli dropped out of the top ten and is now number 11. Petkovic didn't have luck this year with a back injury first and then hurting her foot, place 126! (that's just not a pretty picture for Petko!)

 

2012 was the year of Serena Williams, she got herself from spot 12 to 3 by winning 2 majors and two golden medals at the Olympics, here are all the Serena victory pictures:

Newcomers Kerber rose from 32 to 5 and Errani deservingly from 45 to 6! We're going to see more of them this year!

 

Can't wait for 2013, bring it on! Happy Holidays and keep posted!

WTA Championships - Semi's & Final

Hi everyone,

After the Round Robin matches, the semi's are decided between the number two's of each group against the numer one of the other.

 

Radwanska had to take on Serena Williams but was blown away from the court! The Pole looked exhausted from the previous matches, and she's not to blame. She had a solid win over Kvitova (the first time she ever did that!), a monstrous battle against Sharapova, losing by a thread and her fabulous win over Errani lasting 3h 29 (a masters record!). So it was no wonder she didn't find her normal fitness to battle back. And it was Serena, nobody has that fitness this year! Score: 6-2, 6-1.

I liked Radwanska saying : 'I tried my best' with a little smile after the match. Maybe not so exciting as the Wimbledon final, but it's not grass and Radwanska seemed glued on the court. She really deserves a good rest now!

 

 

The other semifinal was far more interesting with two nemesis against each other: Azarenka vs. Sharapova. The number one (who definitely holds on to her number one spot for this year) has a slight advantage (7-4) in their head-to-head. I must say Sharapova looked a lot sharper than Azarenka, winning her round robin matches with just one lost set. Azarenka almost had an upset against Kerber and lost unconvincingly to Serena.

And in the match it was clear from the start, it had all taken a toll on Azarenka. She wasn't showing her fitness and good basic strokes, even limping in the second set. Score: 6-4, 6-2. One down for Sharapova, one to go!

 

 

So a classic Serena - Sharapova final set-up! The last time the Russian could beat Williams, was in the final of the Masters in 2004. I would have liked it to be last year or something, that would have been a hell of a lot of mental pressure on Williams. Now Serena could play freely because in this year she just humiliated Sharapova in their head-to-heads.

Sharapova knew she had to hold her serve and did so in the beginning of each set (with a lot of grunting of course!). Serena just wasn't threatened on her own serve and both consolidated a break in the middle of the two sets: 6-4, 6-3.

 

 

So that was all folks, an entire tennis season is over again! But keep posted because my 100th post is coming up and I'm going to speak about a few topics (like a summary of 2012, a Kim Clijsters tribute, a lovelife overview, ...) before heading to the Australian Open Series!

WTA Championships - Round Robin matches

Hi everyone,

Time for THE event of the year: the WTA Championships in Istanbul!

This tournament is played a little bit different from others. You see, the eight players are first divided into two groups, the red and white one, and take on each other before battling it out old school with a semifinal and final. In that semifinal, the number two of the groups take on the winner of the other.

 

In the white group Sharapova, Radwanska, Kvitova and Errani are drawn and the red group consists of Azarenka, Williams, Kerber and Na Li.

Day 1:

First up was Radwanska vs. Kvitova. It was time to see how last year's champion was ready for the number four!

Kvitova started off with too many unforced errors and faced a 0-3 deficit. With her strong serve and forehand she knocked herself to level at 3-3. But Radwanska wasn't impressed and finished the first set: 6-3. The second set saw a lot of breaks back and forth until Kvitova got stuck at 2 games: 6-2 for Radwanska.

Next Kerber vs. Williams with a very similar result as the previous match. Serena rushed towards a 3-0 lead, only to find herself at 3-3 after some surprising faults. Kerber didn't take the opportunities that followed and whilst Serena was struggling with her serve, the win came quite easily: 6-4, 6-1.

Last match of the day was Sharapova vs. Errani. They both took the time to get into the match, playing just four games in half an hour, leveling at 2-2. But then Sharapova overclassed the Italian: 6-3, 6-2.

Day 2

The second day was amazing! Three very long and right-at-the-edge-of-your-seat play!

Serena took on Na Li first. The Chinese started very strong, leading 4-1 with Serena still not serving like usually. Williams battled back to 4-4 and served then twice for the set but couldn't finish it off. In the tiebreak 5 points in a row secured the 7-2 win for Serena. A quite emotional Williams upped her game and served out the match, this time succesfully, 6-3. No surprise, Serena is quite sure of reaching the semifinals already!

The Azarenka - Kerber match developped like a real thriller! That first set really deserved a tiebreak with both players making beautiful points. Azarenka looked to win that with a 6-2 lead but Kerber took it 13-11, the crowd went ballistic! The number one was immediately frustrated in the second set when facing a 0-2 deficit. A long game at 4-4 in the second set seemed to decide it all when Kerber won it and had 2 matchpoints at Azarenka's serve in the next game. I was totally in zombie mode watching my tv! The Belarussian battled back and this time didn't miss her 6-2 lead: 7-6(2). Azarenka then held a break to finish: 6-4.

The Turkish people weren't done watching with another tennis rollercoaster Radwanska vs. Sharapova. I actually didn't think Radwanska would dig as deep as she did. She took the first set: 7-5 and held the pressure on the Russian. Sharapova needed to break Radwanska twice to win the second set with the same score. And then a funny moment occured! At a very important game when Sharapova desperately tried to hold her serve, she screamed: 'RUN! RUN!' after smashing a ball down the line. Radwanska's dropshots definitely frustrated Sharapova! Another decisive break happened at 5-5 and the Russian won: 7-5. It was half past two before the die heart tennis fans could head home and the tennis players could crawl into bed.

 

- Click to watch -

 

Day 3

Kerber and Azarenka both lost their matches in day three, obviously from the effort of the day before. Serena proved herself too strong against Azarenka: 6-4, 6-4 and moreover stated she is the onofficial number one. Kerber couldn't hold off Na Li: 4-6, 3-6. Both matches were very similar, with Serena and Na Li always keeping a break up and their opponents running out of energy to battle back.

And seriously, she's 31 and she can do that! I'm twenty and I would end up in the hospital if I even tried that!

In the other group Errani was up against Stosur. In the first set the Aussie alternate made too many mistakes and handed it to Errani on a platter: 3-6. Stosur's game payed off in the second set with a 6-2 win. It all looked okay for Stosur but then suddenly the 6-0 score appeared on the board for Errani, Sammy just developped: bad, good, worse in sets...

Day 4

In the very last day of the Round Robin matches, still a lot of stuff had to be decided. In the red group, Azarenka still had to earn her semifinal spot against Na Li. The Chinese had all the intentions of going to the semifinal herself and find herself serving for the first set at 5-4 but Azarenka battled back to force a tiebreak and a: 7-6(4) win. Then she was launched and quickly played her way to a 5-1 lead. She needed some games to finish it off: 7-6(4), 6-3. 

In the white group Sharapova defeated Stosur quite easily: 6-0, 6-3. But Sharapova's spot in the semifinal was already evident so everybody was looking forward to the Radwanska - Errani set-up. The Pole always seemed a step behind in the first set and although she hit a lucky bastard shot on setpoint in the tiebreak, Errani took it: 7-6(6). The Italian looked strong and forced breaks on the Radwanska serve. But her opponent bended the score in her favor, from 0-2 to 3-2 and 4-5 to 7-5. In the third set Radwanska wasn't in so much trouble anymore and finished: 6-4 in three hour 29 minutes! The longest match on the Masters yet! We'll see how that translates in her semifinal.

Keep posted on the semifinals: Azarenka - Sharapova (classic show down of the last year!) and Radwanska - Serena (this year's replica of the Wimbledon final).