The race is on and everyone with a chance to get into the year ending is out there to get there final boost only Ranked 5th Roddick is out of this however he qualified already so he is safe. But lets go back to the tournament. Yet again Federer is sky high at No.1 seed and will probably face Moya with Nalbandian losing in the first round but I have lost faith in trusting on any seeds except for the best so I won't name a possible winner there. Berdych and Ferrer are in the next eighth but Ancic is also in that sections so yet again no name will be named, the next eighth will be dominanted by Djokovic and Murray but Djokovic will be victorious there. Next will be Blake and Gasquets section but remember Gasquet lost to Tsonga recently so I think I can only be sure of Blake winning. Robredo leads the fifth eighth which he should win but I am not going to expect it, then we have Baghdatis and Davydenko (Not counting Ljubicic because I don't think he'll get far) Mikhail Youzhny is in Gonzalez and Haas draw which I expect Gonzalez to win in, then we have Nadal but Kiefer maybe a threat!
There are 3 spots left for the year ending but Ferrer is very likely to take one of those spots so only two remain but yet again Gonzalez also look like he'll be able to take the seventh spot so only 8th really remains. From this weeks tournaments we have only Murray, Youzhny, Baghdatis and Karlovic left still standing, the 6th to 8th are still the same If all the four still standing lose in the next round (impossible) then there would not be a significant change in that mostly the top three will have to do enough to get through but if Baghdatis wins his tournament he'll get 313 points which is only 16 points away from Haas so doing well in Paris will get him far, however a more likely options is that Murray and Youzhny have high chances in getting through. They will both face each other in the semis of St.Petersburg so at least one of them will be finalist, Youzhny will have to hope to win for him to have a chance where he'll get 324 points which is still not enough to get him through so he needs to beat the others in Paris to go through but if Murray beats Youzhny he has a minimum score of 328 which will be enough to get him just one point away from Haas which means a better showing than Haas in Paris will get him through but if he wins he'll get 343 points which should see him safely at eigtht spot and if the others don't do anything massive he should get through to the year ends. I'd expect Murray to get to third round whilst some of his opponents will get to the Quatres getting them 25 points which if Murray should win St. Petersburg he should be able to get to the Year Ends. And Whilst I'm at it in Basel Blake Lost! and now Baghdatis and Federer look to be the finalist hopes, Roddick and Gasquet also lost in Lyon! Now no seeds are left in the Semis. However in St. Peresburg it looks like either Murray or Youzhny will win and if that is true it's a good boost for their Race points!
Saturday 27 October 2007
Mutua Madrilena Masters (Madrid Masters)
This was such and amazing tournament that I have to comment on it before I storm off into the year ending talks about the mens tour but who would have expected David Nalbandian to pull off such a feat, beating the top three ranks in consecutive matches! Well we all expected Roger Federer to be in the finals here with Novak and Rafael to face in the other semis, Dmitry Tursunov was someone I hoped to do well but he lost in the first round, though it was close he still lost to a qualifier. Many seeds lost early here also e.g. Ljubicic (12), Ferrer (7), Youzhny (16), Haas (11) who were all in the first half and lost before the Quatres. But Kiefer was victorious along with Federer to reach the semis. I think however Federer had a game plan and that was to play easily just enough to get to the next round but when he met Canas he knew he had to play his best and thrash him for him to keep his dignity so he beat him 6-0,6-3 whilst all the other matches he won by only breaking one game or so. The second half looked very much a strong draw. Blake, Ancic, Gasquet and Djokovic were in the same Quatre to my dismay but Ancic did well to play Djokovic in the Quatres but Djokovic wasn't playing fantastically in this tournament. I'm annoyed however that Gasquet lost in the second round like so many others also Robredo and Berdych were also cured in the second round along with Chela however I am happy that Murrat fought a tough game against Nadal but was overhsadowed by Nalbandian who thrashed him 6-1,6-2. In the end Nalbandian was victorious and I remember when I saw this on BBCi I thought they had made a typing error! But Nadal must have been very tired after Murray and expected an easy match against Nalbandian whilst Djokovic wasn't playing his best anyway and Federer was blown off because he wasn't in the right mindset, that is what explains to me why Nalbandian won!
Generali Ladies Linz and beyond...
So the Semi-final line up has been made and we see Schnyder Vs Bartoli and Vaidisova Vs. Hantuchova. Personally I think Schnyder will meet Vaidisova in the final because Schnyder thrashed Anna Chakvetadze 6-0,6-1 and Vaidisova has just been in excellent form. However yet again I'm dissapointed that Maria Kirilenko lost again in the first round, but something to cheer me up is that Flavia Pennetta seems to be back from the bad times and I think next year she be a threat to some of the Tier II titles. Tatiana Golovin also retired which I can understand after playing Justine in two finals I would expect that but if she couldn't play to her best form then don't play and let someone else fill your spot! Congratulations however to Alona Bondarenko who is looking in good form! Well after the Generali Ladies Linz we go to the Bell Challenge and this year looks a breeze for Nicole. If only Nicole was doing this well throughout the year she may have been able to make it to the year ends like Ana and Jelena did. Anyway we would expect Nicole to breeze through and I think she'll see Julia Vakulenko in the semis but she should be fine there. The biggest threat in the draw is Lindsay Davenport, if she is still at her form where she beat Jelena Jankovic then we should see her in the final against Nicole but if she doesn't have that form Vera Zvonareva would be a tough challenge to go against! Well in the year ending we see a lineup of Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic,Serena Williams, Anna Chakvetadze and still to qualify but very likely to do so will be Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova but I think Sharapova will be a shadow of her past and if she cannot play to her best at least let someone else take over (which will probably be Daniela Hantuchova is she does so). I think we would be looking for Justine to win this but Jelena could be a threat if she is playing well because she has had some rest now. Svetlana will probably not do fantastically but she probably will get to the semis. I don't think Ivanovic will do to well nor Anna Chakvetadze. Serena and Venus are difficult options they both won Grand Slams this year but they are so unpredictable, if Serena is fit she'll do well in this field but if not we probably won't see her in the semis whilst Venus has been avoiding the higher tiers so whether she can cope with this tournament is a daze to me. But Sharapova is still there and if she competes I'll expect her to come about last in her group.
Zurich Open
My Internet was down last week so I couldn't post but I'll make up for that by talking about the Zurich Open now.
Well who would have thought that in the finals we would see Tatiana Golovin pitted again against Justine Henin, I think everybody knew the outcome. Justine has just been so strong this year and she is as much a dominance as Federer is to the men's tour. Whenever you see her in a draw you'd expect the winner to be her and she has done that a lot this year, winning two Grand Slams thrashing the opponent in the final and nine titles including Zurich. However Justine did have to fend off a strong opponent, Nicole Vaidisova nearly took Justine by storm in taking her to a 3-6,6-3,7-5 score line, Congratulations to Nicole and I hope she does just as well in her next tournament. But who would have known that she could beat Jelena Jankovic right after such a long time not playing. One of the things I wasn't happy about though was that Maria Kirilenko lost in the first round but I guess she lost to eventual finalist however I have to say except for Ana Ivanovic Tatiana didn't have too many very difficult opponents. I am amazed however that so many seeds left so early and that Bartoli and Kuznetsova borh retired! Amazed that Ana lost in the second round also. But what surprised me the most was Serena Williams retiring from her match because I really wanted her to get to the finals and she could have I think as well. But there were so many retirements in the second half of the draw that Francesca Schiavone only played against Patty Schnyder to get to the Quatres. Also one thing to commisarate about is Amelie Mauresmo who looks in awful form and she'll probably retire after next year, it's such a shame after she found her best form in 2006 and we all thought that she would last at least for another year or so. However Congratulations to Justine for winning her 11th title this year!
Well who would have thought that in the finals we would see Tatiana Golovin pitted again against Justine Henin, I think everybody knew the outcome. Justine has just been so strong this year and she is as much a dominance as Federer is to the men's tour. Whenever you see her in a draw you'd expect the winner to be her and she has done that a lot this year, winning two Grand Slams thrashing the opponent in the final and nine titles including Zurich. However Justine did have to fend off a strong opponent, Nicole Vaidisova nearly took Justine by storm in taking her to a 3-6,6-3,7-5 score line, Congratulations to Nicole and I hope she does just as well in her next tournament. But who would have known that she could beat Jelena Jankovic right after such a long time not playing. One of the things I wasn't happy about though was that Maria Kirilenko lost in the first round but I guess she lost to eventual finalist however I have to say except for Ana Ivanovic Tatiana didn't have too many very difficult opponents. I am amazed however that so many seeds left so early and that Bartoli and Kuznetsova borh retired! Amazed that Ana lost in the second round also. But what surprised me the most was Serena Williams retiring from her match because I really wanted her to get to the finals and she could have I think as well. But there were so many retirements in the second half of the draw that Francesca Schiavone only played against Patty Schnyder to get to the Quatres. Also one thing to commisarate about is Amelie Mauresmo who looks in awful form and she'll probably retire after next year, it's such a shame after she found her best form in 2006 and we all thought that she would last at least for another year or so. However Congratulations to Justine for winning her 11th title this year!
Sunday 14 October 2007
Back to Normal
Well in the Kremlin Cup Svetlana was beaten by Serena so Serena joins Elena Dementieva in the final. Gisela Dulko did wekk against Svetlana taking her into three sets. Marion Bartoli yet again lost in the early rounds against Dushevina who lost badly against Sevtlana. On the other side Serena fought a tough match against Nicole whilst Michaella lost early. In the second half Amelie Mauresmo lost in the first round with Maria Kirilenko leaving Dinara Safina and Anna Chakvetadze as the main players there. Dinara beat Anna and Vera to set up a Semi Final match against Elena however losing 6-0,6-1. Elena had also beaten Alicia Molik, Patty Schnyder and Victoria Azarenka to get there. Maria Sharapova lost to Victoria Azarenka. All this leaving Serena and Elena in a blockbuster final.
In Bangkok Jelena Jankovic retired early against Zi Yan to allow her through until the Quatres as Vania King after a tiring match against Dominika Cibulkova decided to withdraw. Virginie Razzano also couldn't make three week wins losing to Urzula Radwanska. The first half eventually pitted two asian players Zi Yan and Yung-Jan Cha against one another. On the other side Flavia Pennetta fought hard to defeat Shahar Peer whilst also defesting Venus Williams in the Semis. This gives Flavia a good chance to win the title against Yung-Jan Chan.
On the Men's side it has been less favourable to be. In the Kremlin cup Marat Safin, Andy Murray, Dmitry Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny all fell short of their expected finishes. Leaving Nikolay Davydenko not having to play a single seed until the finals. Because my only representative Mikhail lost early it meant that any one else was able to go through to the final and that is Paul-Henri Mathieu. Overall quite dissapointed in the many second round losses.
In Stockholm my favourites Blake, Haas lost in the semis and Mario Ancic lost in the Quatres so overall dissapointed aswell leaving Thomas Johansson against Ivo Karlovic (I'm Ok about these two players but I would have rather watched Blake against Haas).
However one player will always bring a smile to my face and that is Novak Djokovic. He is quickly climbing the heights of being my faourite player after Andy Roddick and Marat Safin. I'm happy that Baghdatis lost early though :-). Overall like the other tournaments many seeds lost early leaving Noak against Stanislas. However the doubles side has been good in quite a strong field I am happy that Safin and Tursunov got into the final,wish them luck against Cibulec and Zovko.
Normally I don't comment on the Doubles side but the singles haven't been drawn yet and the doubles field look quite strong. The Bryan brothers lead the field with a possible opponent of Pavel and Vizner. On the second quartet Hanley amd Ullyett will probably face Aspelin and Knowle but Erlich and Ram are also strong opponents, Damm and Paes will probs face Bjorkman and Mirnyi who are both strong. On the lost quarter Knowles will play with Murray whilst Nestor and Zimonjic are on the other side however look out for Blake and Butorac against Murray and Knowles which would be quite interesting considering Murray played with Butorac earlier in the year.
In the Zurich Open a strong stellar field has assembled.
Justine Henin should find the first rounds to be fine with the most difficult player as Daniela Hantuchova however Daniela has an early scare against Dinara Safina who got into the Semis of the Kremlin Cup. On the second quarter a strong field is drawn against one another. Jankovic will have an early fight against Nicole (boo hoo) whilst Marion will play Amelie in the first round leaving a possible Mauresmo vs Jankovic match. On the third quarter Ivanaovic will probably have Maria Sharapova to face unless she succumbs to inury again where Kirilenko or Golovin will fill her space. Serena will have Patty Schnyder as her first round match and Dementieva her finalist opponent in the Kremlin Cup as her second round opponent. then Svetlana may face her, poor Serena she will be knackered after this. I think that Justine will come out victorious like she always does in these situations and a possible finalist I think will be either Williams or Kuznetsova.
In Bangkok Jelena Jankovic retired early against Zi Yan to allow her through until the Quatres as Vania King after a tiring match against Dominika Cibulkova decided to withdraw. Virginie Razzano also couldn't make three week wins losing to Urzula Radwanska. The first half eventually pitted two asian players Zi Yan and Yung-Jan Cha against one another. On the other side Flavia Pennetta fought hard to defeat Shahar Peer whilst also defesting Venus Williams in the Semis. This gives Flavia a good chance to win the title against Yung-Jan Chan.
On the Men's side it has been less favourable to be. In the Kremlin cup Marat Safin, Andy Murray, Dmitry Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny all fell short of their expected finishes. Leaving Nikolay Davydenko not having to play a single seed until the finals. Because my only representative Mikhail lost early it meant that any one else was able to go through to the final and that is Paul-Henri Mathieu. Overall quite dissapointed in the many second round losses.
In Stockholm my favourites Blake, Haas lost in the semis and Mario Ancic lost in the Quatres so overall dissapointed aswell leaving Thomas Johansson against Ivo Karlovic (I'm Ok about these two players but I would have rather watched Blake against Haas).
However one player will always bring a smile to my face and that is Novak Djokovic. He is quickly climbing the heights of being my faourite player after Andy Roddick and Marat Safin. I'm happy that Baghdatis lost early though :-). Overall like the other tournaments many seeds lost early leaving Noak against Stanislas. However the doubles side has been good in quite a strong field I am happy that Safin and Tursunov got into the final,wish them luck against Cibulec and Zovko.
Normally I don't comment on the Doubles side but the singles haven't been drawn yet and the doubles field look quite strong. The Bryan brothers lead the field with a possible opponent of Pavel and Vizner. On the second quartet Hanley amd Ullyett will probably face Aspelin and Knowle but Erlich and Ram are also strong opponents, Damm and Paes will probs face Bjorkman and Mirnyi who are both strong. On the lost quarter Knowles will play with Murray whilst Nestor and Zimonjic are on the other side however look out for Blake and Butorac against Murray and Knowles which would be quite interesting considering Murray played with Butorac earlier in the year.
In the Zurich Open a strong stellar field has assembled.
Justine Henin should find the first rounds to be fine with the most difficult player as Daniela Hantuchova however Daniela has an early scare against Dinara Safina who got into the Semis of the Kremlin Cup. On the second quarter a strong field is drawn against one another. Jankovic will have an early fight against Nicole (boo hoo) whilst Marion will play Amelie in the first round leaving a possible Mauresmo vs Jankovic match. On the third quarter Ivanaovic will probably have Maria Sharapova to face unless she succumbs to inury again where Kirilenko or Golovin will fill her space. Serena will have Patty Schnyder as her first round match and Dementieva her finalist opponent in the Kremlin Cup as her second round opponent. then Svetlana may face her, poor Serena she will be knackered after this. I think that Justine will come out victorious like she always does in these situations and a possible finalist I think will be either Williams or Kuznetsova.
Saturday 6 October 2007
Month Long Post
I haven't posted in ages because I have been so BUSY! It's like I'm in a 100mph hurricane. Anyway I just had to blog after seeing the draws for both ATP and WTA anyway I'll also recap on the events after the US Open.
After the fantastic final between Federer and Djokovic in the US Open tennis still went on strong. In the Beijing hard court event we saw Davydenko hot from US Open SF, Fernando Gonzalez and Tommy Robredo fight it off. My personal favourite in this draw will be Jo-Wilfred Tsonga but anyway Fernando Gonazlez blew Tommy Robredo away in the final after a dissapointing second round defeat from Nikolay. On clay in Bucharest we saw some lesser demons. Gael Monfils being my personal favourite in this draw, however it was frenchmen Gilles Simon the 6th seed who eventually took the title away from wildcard Victor Hanescu.
In the heavily expected Bangkok hard courts we were waiting for the clash between many top seeds however in the end with major withdrawals like Andy Roddick the tournament was a shadow of it's previous draw. However without those majors dominant players we still had a list of good platers like 3rd seed (made top seed) Tomas Berdych and my favourite Tommy Haas and Dmitry Tursunov. In the end Tommy Haas fell short but Dmitry Tursunov backed him up with winning the title away from Benjamin Becker 6-2,6-1. The Mumbai hard courts weren't bad either with top players like Richard Gasquet and Lleyton Hewitt heading the group. In the end Richard Gasquet flew through to take the title losing only 20 games in 5 matches e.g. 6-2, 6-2 in each match.
In a decidedly low rank draw from the AIG Open led to a clash between David Ferrer and Richard Gasquet funnily enough getting the same game scores as each other. Some dissapointments came from Lleyton Hewitt though he did play a tough match as well as an early defeat from Dmitry Tursunov. The Open De Moselle has also sparked of a final between Tommy Robredo and Andy Murray; Hope Murray wins!
On the WTA side we saw the long awaited return of Lindsay Davenport there were also two very strong possible opponents for her to conquer if she was to take a title on her return these were Jelena Jankovic and Daniela Hantuchova. In the end she beat both to claim the crown and it was much deserved. In the China Open we saw an early withdrawal of Svetlana Kuznetsova but the draw was still fighting on for the title. Agnes Szavay the player who would expect to play Svetlana became the eventual winner. Amelie Mauresmo the third seed was beaten by Shuai Peng who also beat Martina Hingis. Whilst Lindsay Davenport yet again fought through many opponents but was beatn by Jelena Jankovic who she beat last time. Jankovic who was dissapointed last time by Lindsay thought everything was in control when she beat Lindsay but another unexpected player broke her and that was Agnes Szavay.
Marion Bartoli who I have always disliked(sorry to her fans, she justs plays really awkwardly and I don't like her attitude) anyway she was beatn in the first Round, Yeah! Anyway Maria Kirilenko won the title losing only 2 games in the final. Good performances came from Flavia Pennetta who has finally achieved what she can and Anne Keothavong who reached the Semi Finals. Whilst second seed Daniela Hantuchova was beaten by a long time favourite of mine Maria Kirilenko. On the IV tier event of this week Tatiana Golovin took the title with commendable efforts from Gisela Dulko.
In Luxembourg a stream of top players entered to take the title so many pros before them have. First seed Anna Chakvetadze was beaten by 5th Marion Bartoli who was then defeated by Daniela Hantuchova. Both Shahar Peer and Nadia Petrova lost early in the tournament leaving Vera Zvonareva to fill the gap against Ana Ivanovic wo eventually took the title. Whilst in Guangzhou Virginie Razzano won the title. Whilst in Korea an unexpectedly strong field gathered where eventually Venus William took the title. Flavai Pennetta yet again impressed in this tournament whilst Agnes Szavay had to retire from the tournament because of a left thigh injury. In the end Kirilenko yet again looked strong fighting Venus into a 3 set game.
The porshe Tennis grand prix sets up Justine Henin against last years finalist Tatiana Golovin. I thought also that Justine's draw was very difficult and looked like a Grand Slam event. Dinara Safina was her first opponent and then a selection of players between Mauresmo, Dementieva, Safarova and Hantuchova contested for a quatre final position which Elena eventually took. Jankovic lost to Justine in the semis after Nadia retired from the tournament. Ivanovic was defeated by Kateryna who was defeated by Tatiana who defeated Anna Chakvetadze the fourth seed. Tatiana Golovin also beat Svetlana the second seed who beat Serena Williams! Generally I thought this was an amazingly difficult draw with 8 of the top 10 in it and players like Amelie Mauresmo drawn with Dementieva, Lucie Safarova against Hantuchova, Ivanovic against Schnyder in the first round. Marion Bartoli lost in the first round yet again also. This is definitely an amazingly difficult tournament for a tier II. A Difficult AIG Open led to Venus and Virginie both last weeks winners against each other in the final which Virginie won. Flavia yet again played well defeating Sania and fighting strong against Virginie whilst Maria Kirilenko was defeated unexpectedly by Camille Pin. Whilst the Tashkent Open led to Katie O'Brien's succssful third round debut and seemingly Victoria Azarenka will be the winner here.
Next Week we see in the Kremlin Cup a very strong line-up. Nikolay Davydenko faces a tough opener against J Tsonga whilst in that quartet is also one my favourite players Marat Safin, hope he does well! On the second half Andy Murray is also pitted against Dmitry Tursunov with Janko Tipsaveric in between them. Whilst a severely lower class bottom half is seen with a commendable Mikhail Youzhny heading them. Anyway I hope Safin Vs. Youzhny because Safin hasn't been doing well lately, whilst Andy to play Safin because Andy needs to get back on top.
The Stockholm Open also contains James Blake as top seed and another favourite Tommy Haas as 4th seed. Mario Ancic is also in the Verdasco/Robredo quartet. Love to see Blake against Ancic so Mario can jump some ranks and Haas in the final!
Whilst in the BA-CA Tennis Trophy currently the strongest of my favourite players Novak Djokovic will play there. If he puts his all in this I am sure he could win this easily however he does have some opposition, a small hindrance maybe Marcos Baghdatis in the Semi (I'm guessing) whilst Moya, Gasquet, Canas and Gonzalez could be possible final opponents. I hope Gasquet does well as he has Nalbandian on the first round. Gasquet and Djokovic all the way!
The Kremlin Cup on the WTA side looks strong and some long awaited returns have turned up. Svetlana heads the seeds and has a difficult draw. Mirza is a possible first opponent whilst Bartoli could be her second opponent if she doesn't lose in the first round again. Williams has a difficult Krajicek to surpass and then Vaidisova (so annoyed they are drawn in the same quartet). Mauresmo will probably face Kirilenko whilsy Anna is close by. Patty Schnyder will probably meet Elena Dementieva and then Sharapova. Overall this is a strong draw though this is a tier I event.
Hope!
Alona Bondarenko Vs. Vaidisova (she has been out for so long)
Kirilenko Vs. Sharapova
I hope Michaella Krajicek does well aswell
However I think it will be
Svetlana Vs. Williams
(unknown, probably Chakvetadze) Vs. Sharapova (only because she doesn't seem to have a very very difficult draw).
Excited about this event!
Jankovic wierdly goes into the Tier III event with Venus Williams on the other side and a currently doing well Flavia Pennetta here aswell. Hope all goes well!
After the fantastic final between Federer and Djokovic in the US Open tennis still went on strong. In the Beijing hard court event we saw Davydenko hot from US Open SF, Fernando Gonzalez and Tommy Robredo fight it off. My personal favourite in this draw will be Jo-Wilfred Tsonga but anyway Fernando Gonazlez blew Tommy Robredo away in the final after a dissapointing second round defeat from Nikolay. On clay in Bucharest we saw some lesser demons. Gael Monfils being my personal favourite in this draw, however it was frenchmen Gilles Simon the 6th seed who eventually took the title away from wildcard Victor Hanescu.
In the heavily expected Bangkok hard courts we were waiting for the clash between many top seeds however in the end with major withdrawals like Andy Roddick the tournament was a shadow of it's previous draw. However without those majors dominant players we still had a list of good platers like 3rd seed (made top seed) Tomas Berdych and my favourite Tommy Haas and Dmitry Tursunov. In the end Tommy Haas fell short but Dmitry Tursunov backed him up with winning the title away from Benjamin Becker 6-2,6-1. The Mumbai hard courts weren't bad either with top players like Richard Gasquet and Lleyton Hewitt heading the group. In the end Richard Gasquet flew through to take the title losing only 20 games in 5 matches e.g. 6-2, 6-2 in each match.
In a decidedly low rank draw from the AIG Open led to a clash between David Ferrer and Richard Gasquet funnily enough getting the same game scores as each other. Some dissapointments came from Lleyton Hewitt though he did play a tough match as well as an early defeat from Dmitry Tursunov. The Open De Moselle has also sparked of a final between Tommy Robredo and Andy Murray; Hope Murray wins!
On the WTA side we saw the long awaited return of Lindsay Davenport there were also two very strong possible opponents for her to conquer if she was to take a title on her return these were Jelena Jankovic and Daniela Hantuchova. In the end she beat both to claim the crown and it was much deserved. In the China Open we saw an early withdrawal of Svetlana Kuznetsova but the draw was still fighting on for the title. Agnes Szavay the player who would expect to play Svetlana became the eventual winner. Amelie Mauresmo the third seed was beaten by Shuai Peng who also beat Martina Hingis. Whilst Lindsay Davenport yet again fought through many opponents but was beatn by Jelena Jankovic who she beat last time. Jankovic who was dissapointed last time by Lindsay thought everything was in control when she beat Lindsay but another unexpected player broke her and that was Agnes Szavay.
Marion Bartoli who I have always disliked(sorry to her fans, she justs plays really awkwardly and I don't like her attitude) anyway she was beatn in the first Round, Yeah! Anyway Maria Kirilenko won the title losing only 2 games in the final. Good performances came from Flavia Pennetta who has finally achieved what she can and Anne Keothavong who reached the Semi Finals. Whilst second seed Daniela Hantuchova was beaten by a long time favourite of mine Maria Kirilenko. On the IV tier event of this week Tatiana Golovin took the title with commendable efforts from Gisela Dulko.
In Luxembourg a stream of top players entered to take the title so many pros before them have. First seed Anna Chakvetadze was beaten by 5th Marion Bartoli who was then defeated by Daniela Hantuchova. Both Shahar Peer and Nadia Petrova lost early in the tournament leaving Vera Zvonareva to fill the gap against Ana Ivanovic wo eventually took the title. Whilst in Guangzhou Virginie Razzano won the title. Whilst in Korea an unexpectedly strong field gathered where eventually Venus William took the title. Flavai Pennetta yet again impressed in this tournament whilst Agnes Szavay had to retire from the tournament because of a left thigh injury. In the end Kirilenko yet again looked strong fighting Venus into a 3 set game.
The porshe Tennis grand prix sets up Justine Henin against last years finalist Tatiana Golovin. I thought also that Justine's draw was very difficult and looked like a Grand Slam event. Dinara Safina was her first opponent and then a selection of players between Mauresmo, Dementieva, Safarova and Hantuchova contested for a quatre final position which Elena eventually took. Jankovic lost to Justine in the semis after Nadia retired from the tournament. Ivanovic was defeated by Kateryna who was defeated by Tatiana who defeated Anna Chakvetadze the fourth seed. Tatiana Golovin also beat Svetlana the second seed who beat Serena Williams! Generally I thought this was an amazingly difficult draw with 8 of the top 10 in it and players like Amelie Mauresmo drawn with Dementieva, Lucie Safarova against Hantuchova, Ivanovic against Schnyder in the first round. Marion Bartoli lost in the first round yet again also. This is definitely an amazingly difficult tournament for a tier II. A Difficult AIG Open led to Venus and Virginie both last weeks winners against each other in the final which Virginie won. Flavia yet again played well defeating Sania and fighting strong against Virginie whilst Maria Kirilenko was defeated unexpectedly by Camille Pin. Whilst the Tashkent Open led to Katie O'Brien's succssful third round debut and seemingly Victoria Azarenka will be the winner here.
Next Week we see in the Kremlin Cup a very strong line-up. Nikolay Davydenko faces a tough opener against J Tsonga whilst in that quartet is also one my favourite players Marat Safin, hope he does well! On the second half Andy Murray is also pitted against Dmitry Tursunov with Janko Tipsaveric in between them. Whilst a severely lower class bottom half is seen with a commendable Mikhail Youzhny heading them. Anyway I hope Safin Vs. Youzhny because Safin hasn't been doing well lately, whilst Andy to play Safin because Andy needs to get back on top.
The Stockholm Open also contains James Blake as top seed and another favourite Tommy Haas as 4th seed. Mario Ancic is also in the Verdasco/Robredo quartet. Love to see Blake against Ancic so Mario can jump some ranks and Haas in the final!
Whilst in the BA-CA Tennis Trophy currently the strongest of my favourite players Novak Djokovic will play there. If he puts his all in this I am sure he could win this easily however he does have some opposition, a small hindrance maybe Marcos Baghdatis in the Semi (I'm guessing) whilst Moya, Gasquet, Canas and Gonzalez could be possible final opponents. I hope Gasquet does well as he has Nalbandian on the first round. Gasquet and Djokovic all the way!
The Kremlin Cup on the WTA side looks strong and some long awaited returns have turned up. Svetlana heads the seeds and has a difficult draw. Mirza is a possible first opponent whilst Bartoli could be her second opponent if she doesn't lose in the first round again. Williams has a difficult Krajicek to surpass and then Vaidisova (so annoyed they are drawn in the same quartet). Mauresmo will probably face Kirilenko whilsy Anna is close by. Patty Schnyder will probably meet Elena Dementieva and then Sharapova. Overall this is a strong draw though this is a tier I event.
Hope!
Alona Bondarenko Vs. Vaidisova (she has been out for so long)
Kirilenko Vs. Sharapova
I hope Michaella Krajicek does well aswell
However I think it will be
Svetlana Vs. Williams
(unknown, probably Chakvetadze) Vs. Sharapova (only because she doesn't seem to have a very very difficult draw).
Excited about this event!
Jankovic wierdly goes into the Tier III event with Venus Williams on the other side and a currently doing well Flavia Pennetta here aswell. Hope all goes well!
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