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!
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!
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!
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!
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!
