Not as many surprises in the third round as the massive seeded players outage of the second round! Only one victim Pennetta was defeated by wildcard Muguruza Blanco, a Spanish player who is having the tournament of her life! Score was 2-6, 6-1, (6)6-7.
Another fabulous wildcard battle between Venus Williams and Wozniak! Score was: 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5). It didn't look good for Venus, who had to battle back from a set, a break and a matchpoint down. Eventually she could finish it in a deciding third set tiebreaker, but oh man that was certainly a close one!
Unfortunately, but not entirely unexpected, Kim Clijsters lost to fellow comrade Wickmayer 4-6, (5)6-7. I was really hoping she would go far in this tournament, but it's clear she's still not 100% due to her ankle injury. Very much making clear, she's not quitting!
The fourth round gave us absolutely amazing matches!
First up was a struggling Azarenka on the brink of defeat against Cibulkova. It's not the top ten who gets her sweating, but so far Barthel (ranked 36) and Cibulkova (ranked 16). She was 1-6, 1-4 down before she battled her way back into the match. The second set came to a tiebreak, reaching a thrilling 9-7 score! And even in the third set, Cibulkova made it tough for the number one, closely losing with 7-5.
But that wasn't all! The number two, Sharapova, didn't have it easy either. Makarova pushed her to a tiebreak in the second set after losing the firstset, just 4-6. From that point on, Sharapova dominated, closing out the tiebreak 7-6(3).
A similar scenario in the match between Wozniacki and Wickmayer. The first set went to a nail-biting tiebreaker with Wozniacki coming out victorious 7-6(6). I was hoping for some more exciting tennis but Wickmayer couldn't follow Wozniacki's strong game and lost the second set 6-0.
Radwanska had it relatively easy against Spanish wondergirl Muguruza Blanco, winning 6-3, 6-2. Bartoli dismissed Kirilenko in two sets: 6-1, 6-2. Na Li defeated Lisicki 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. I must say, I watched this game and absolutely loved Lisicki's coach! He's almost as happy as Lisicki herself (how is it even possible)! He came on after the first set (which Lisicki won) and told her to have more fun in the following sets. She eventually didn't win due to a lot of unforced errors, but it's an excellent message towards all tennis players (pro or not!).
Last, but not least, are the Williams' sisters! They're both having a monster comeback and it showed in round four. Serena Williams took revenge on Stosur with 7-5, 6-3. It's quite strange because Stosur was constantly leading with a break and Serena was producing a lot of unforced errors. In the first set, it were the many aces (20 overall) that kept Serena going while Stosur gave away the break at 4-3 due to double faults. The second set featured a lot of breaks and rebreaks and the amazing game at 2-2. But after Stosur lost the three following games, Serena raced to a 6-3 win.
Venus battled past Ivanovic: (4)6-7, 6-2, 6-2.
Yes, we're back in the era where everybody has to fear the Williams' sisters. This could get very interesting, keep posted!
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