(Rank/Seed)
11/7 Kvitova managed to win an unpredictable clash against (9/5) Kerber 62 06 63 to win her 2nd title of the year, an 11th of her career.
1st Set
Kvitova played incredibly well in the 1st set, hitting 17 winners to a mere 5 unforced errors. No one could've contended with her and Kerber managed only 3 winners as she failed to break serve.
2nd Set
Remarkably, Kvitova lost her way entirely in the second set as she lost game after game, hitting only 6 winners to 13 unforced errors. Though Kerber herself still only hit 4 winners, her willingness to make Kvitova hit the extra ball paid dividends.
3rd Set
As if she flicked a switch, Kvitova started to play as she did in the 1st set, dictating the play and racing to a 4-0 lead. Suddenly, there was another twist as Kvitova began to get nervous. She missed her first 2 match points on missed forehands at 5-2 and then had to battle through a tense service game in the 9th game. She missed a further match point before finally clinching the title after an epic 20 stroke rally, Kerber unable to control her final forehand. Kvitova finished with a 38:32 winner error ratio.
With the win, Kvitova levels her head to head with the German at 2-2 and will re-join the top 10 next week. It was also only the 2nd time this year that a non top 10 player had won a title this size, after Bartoli at Wimbledon of course. Kerber will have to wait for a title of this size.
Saturday, 28 September 2013
Friday, 27 September 2013
Kerber and Kvitova into all lefty clash
The semi finals were both intense battles between players who have experienced a marked resurgence of form this week in Tokyo.
(Rank/Seed)
9/5 Kerber battled past close friend (8/4) Wozniacki 64 76(5) to reach her 1st Tokyo final. In general, Kerber was the aggressor as she had been in the quarter finals but neither player thoroughly imposed themselves on the serve or return. Kerber saw a 5-1 first set lead become 5-4 and then came from 2-4 down in the second. Wozniacki saved 3 match points from 2-6 down in the tiebreak before succumbing to the German for a 4th time in 7 meetings. Kerber is in only her 2nd final of the year as she looks for a first Premier 5 title!
11/7 Kvitova worked for over 2 hours to edge a tenacious (63/-) Venus Williams 36 63 76(2) for a 2nd time in 3 meetings and reach a 1st Tokyo final. The match was intense and filled with phenomenal serving and fierce power. For the most part, Venus had the slightly better numbers, hitting 34 winners to just 27 unforced errors compared to Kvitova's 32:27 ratio, whilst both players were only broken twice. The third set saw both women fail to capitalise on break points as both players remained unbroken, but Kvitova hit a purple patch towards the end as she held her last two service games to love to stay in the match then raced to a 6-0 lead in the tiebreak. It's great to see Venus fit again though, backing up long matches well and serving like the good old days (she hit 9 aces during the match). Kvitova is in her 4th final of the year as she looks for her 2nd title of the year.
Kvitova has won 10 of her previous 14 finals, including several huge titles and has been serving incredibly all week. Kerber in contrast has won only 2 of 6 finals, but has had a breakthrough week with her first two top 10 wins of the year under her belt. Kerber edges the head to head 2-1, including their only hard court meeting (Cincinnati 2012) (wtatourcincinnati.blogspot.co.uk) but they've never met in a final. As Kvitova plays so well in finals, I feel she will win the title.
(Rank/Seed)
9/5 Kerber battled past close friend (8/4) Wozniacki 64 76(5) to reach her 1st Tokyo final. In general, Kerber was the aggressor as she had been in the quarter finals but neither player thoroughly imposed themselves on the serve or return. Kerber saw a 5-1 first set lead become 5-4 and then came from 2-4 down in the second. Wozniacki saved 3 match points from 2-6 down in the tiebreak before succumbing to the German for a 4th time in 7 meetings. Kerber is in only her 2nd final of the year as she looks for a first Premier 5 title!
11/7 Kvitova worked for over 2 hours to edge a tenacious (63/-) Venus Williams 36 63 76(2) for a 2nd time in 3 meetings and reach a 1st Tokyo final. The match was intense and filled with phenomenal serving and fierce power. For the most part, Venus had the slightly better numbers, hitting 34 winners to just 27 unforced errors compared to Kvitova's 32:27 ratio, whilst both players were only broken twice. The third set saw both women fail to capitalise on break points as both players remained unbroken, but Kvitova hit a purple patch towards the end as she held her last two service games to love to stay in the match then raced to a 6-0 lead in the tiebreak. It's great to see Venus fit again though, backing up long matches well and serving like the good old days (she hit 9 aces during the match). Kvitova is in her 4th final of the year as she looks for her 2nd title of the year.
Kvitova has won 10 of her previous 14 finals, including several huge titles and has been serving incredibly all week. Kerber in contrast has won only 2 of 6 finals, but has had a breakthrough week with her first two top 10 wins of the year under her belt. Kerber edges the head to head 2-1, including their only hard court meeting (Cincinnati 2012) (wtatourcincinnati.blogspot.co.uk) but they've never met in a final. As Kvitova plays so well in finals, I feel she will win the title.
Thursday, 26 September 2013
Kerber rocks Radwanska
The quarter finals were completed under a closed roof.
(Rank/Seed)
9/5 Kerber avenged losses at this event in 2011 and 2012 to (4/2) Radwanska with a 64 64 win. Kerber, who only garnered a couple of games in the semis last year played with a fearless abandon throughout the match, hitting 16 winners to Radwanska's 2 in the first set and only getting broken once throughout the match. Radwanska, the 2011 champion in contrast looked jaded and passive as her 7 match win streak came to an end.
8/4 Wozniacki overcame a tough start against (35/-) Safarova 26 63 62. At a set and 2-2, it didn't look good for the Dane who was bossed around the court by the powerful Czech. However, she broke serve for the first time in the sixth game and from there on in would dictate the play herself with increasing aggression, aided by Safarova's fading serve and unforced errors. Wozniacki, the 2010 champion is now through to her 2nd Tokyo semi.
Elsewhere, (11/7) Kvitova won two matches in one day to beat Keys 62 62 and then (27/-) Kuznetsova 64 61. In the latter, she didn't drop serve and moved through to her 2nd Tokyo semi final, only her 4th semi of 2013!
(63/-) Venus Williams continued to impress with a courageous 63 67(4) 63 win over 19 year old (46/-) Bouchard. The match took 3 hours 2 minutes to complete as both players threw everything on the court. Venus though was seemingly always in control, whether she was hitting winners or unforced errors, even hitting a 209kph serve! This is Venus's first career Tokyo semi final due to this being only her 3rd appearance at this event, as well as only her 3rd semi of the year!
(Rank/Seed)
9/5 Kerber avenged losses at this event in 2011 and 2012 to (4/2) Radwanska with a 64 64 win. Kerber, who only garnered a couple of games in the semis last year played with a fearless abandon throughout the match, hitting 16 winners to Radwanska's 2 in the first set and only getting broken once throughout the match. Radwanska, the 2011 champion in contrast looked jaded and passive as her 7 match win streak came to an end.
8/4 Wozniacki overcame a tough start against (35/-) Safarova 26 63 62. At a set and 2-2, it didn't look good for the Dane who was bossed around the court by the powerful Czech. However, she broke serve for the first time in the sixth game and from there on in would dictate the play herself with increasing aggression, aided by Safarova's fading serve and unforced errors. Wozniacki, the 2010 champion is now through to her 2nd Tokyo semi.
Elsewhere, (11/7) Kvitova won two matches in one day to beat Keys 62 62 and then (27/-) Kuznetsova 64 61. In the latter, she didn't drop serve and moved through to her 2nd Tokyo semi final, only her 4th semi of 2013!
(63/-) Venus Williams continued to impress with a courageous 63 67(4) 63 win over 19 year old (46/-) Bouchard. The match took 3 hours 2 minutes to complete as both players threw everything on the court. Venus though was seemingly always in control, whether she was hitting winners or unforced errors, even hitting a 209kph serve! This is Venus's first career Tokyo semi final due to this being only her 3rd appearance at this event, as well as only her 3rd semi of the year!
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
Radwanska scores 400
The third round was left partially completed today with two matches (Kuznetsova vs Cirstea and Kvitova vs Keys) postponed until tomorrow due to rain.
(Rank/Seed)
4/2 Radwanska won her 400th career match with a 63 64 over (23/16) Cibulkova, avenging a loss this summer in Stanford. Radwanska moved sharply and served well in contrast to the previous round, whilst Cibulkova won more points behind her second serve than her first! Radwanska has now made the quarters here every year since she first played in 2008.
8/4 Wozniacki was sublime against Rybarikova, mixing up her backhand especially well en route to a 61 61 win to reach her 3rd Tokyo quarter final.
9/5 Kerber continued her recent good form in beating (16/11) Ivanovic 64 62; her 1st win over the Serb in 4 career meetings. This is her 2nd straight quarter final here.
Rising 19 year old Canadian Bouchard upset 2009 finalist (10/6) Jankovic 75 62 for her 2nd top 10 win of the year, but her 1st that wasn't gifted due to retirement. Though she struggled for the 1st ten games, Bouchard eventually took her coach's (former number 3 Nathalie Tauziat) advice to play more aggressively and dominated from there on in. Jankovic looked disconsolate as her hopes of reaching the year end championships were jeopardised.
Elsewhere, recent Quebec City champion Safarova dropped serve only once to score a 7th win in 9 meetings against (17/12) Stosur 64 64. Venus Williams also continued impressively, edging red hot (18/13) Halep 46 75 63, despite trailing a break in both the second and third sets.
(Rank/Seed)
4/2 Radwanska won her 400th career match with a 63 64 over (23/16) Cibulkova, avenging a loss this summer in Stanford. Radwanska moved sharply and served well in contrast to the previous round, whilst Cibulkova won more points behind her second serve than her first! Radwanska has now made the quarters here every year since she first played in 2008.
8/4 Wozniacki was sublime against Rybarikova, mixing up her backhand especially well en route to a 61 61 win to reach her 3rd Tokyo quarter final.
9/5 Kerber continued her recent good form in beating (16/11) Ivanovic 64 62; her 1st win over the Serb in 4 career meetings. This is her 2nd straight quarter final here.
Rising 19 year old Canadian Bouchard upset 2009 finalist (10/6) Jankovic 75 62 for her 2nd top 10 win of the year, but her 1st that wasn't gifted due to retirement. Though she struggled for the 1st ten games, Bouchard eventually took her coach's (former number 3 Nathalie Tauziat) advice to play more aggressively and dominated from there on in. Jankovic looked disconsolate as her hopes of reaching the year end championships were jeopardised.
Elsewhere, recent Quebec City champion Safarova dropped serve only once to score a 7th win in 9 meetings against (17/12) Stosur 64 64. Venus Williams also continued impressively, edging red hot (18/13) Halep 46 75 63, despite trailing a break in both the second and third sets.
Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Venus silences ailing Azarenka, literally!
The event in Tokyo is celebrating its 30th anniversary and the good news that the event will continue in 2014 despite earlier news that the event was disappearing in favour of an event in Wuhan. Wuhan will happen as a Premier 5 event and Tokyo will be demoted to a Premier 700. The second round of the last Premier 5 event of the year wrapped up and there have already been some sizeable upsets. The top 8 seeds received first round byes.
(Rank/Seed)
63/- V. Williams turned back the years against (2/1) Azarenka, beating her for a 3rd time in as many meetings 62 64. Azarenka was visibly ill from the outset; she was silent (yes, you heard right) and continually flapping her top as if she was overheating. She requested a fan to cool herself down and at times appeared dizzy and sick as she shook her head, arms and legs and stretched her jaw. It was rather uncomfortable viewing and later Azarenka admitted she only continued because of the fans. Sadly, it wasn't the match we were all expecting but Venus stayed very focused throughout despite Azarenka's distracting unease, winning 75% of her 1st serve points and breaking Azarenka 5 times. Azarenka was still hitting winners when she didn't have to move, so Venus hit into the spaces to expose Azarenka's lethargic movement. This was Venus's first top 2 win since Wimbledon 2009!
4/2 Former champion Radwanska looked a little fatigued from her title run last week in Seoul as she laboured past Wozniak 76(5) 60. With heavy strapping on her ever troublesome shoulder, Radwanska recovered from a break down, saving 4 set points at 4-5 and then from 1-4 down in the tiebreak to eventually prevail.
27/- Kuznetsova beat struggling (6/3) Errani 64 64 for a 6th win in 7 meetings with the Italian. Errani recovered from 0-3 to 3-3 in both sets but couldn't deal with the continuous big hitting from the Russian, who pushed Errani all over the court.
8/4 Wozniacki, the 2010 champion, handled a tricky test against US Open semi finalist Pennetta 62 63.
9/5 Kerber looked the best she's done all year, thrashing Spanish qualifier Torro Flor 60 61!
10/6 Jankovic was sharp in her 1st match as a top 10 player since the French Open 2011, beating Japan's Morita 64 61, despite her opponent's occasional shots of brilliance.
(Rank/Seed)
63/- V. Williams turned back the years against (2/1) Azarenka, beating her for a 3rd time in as many meetings 62 64. Azarenka was visibly ill from the outset; she was silent (yes, you heard right) and continually flapping her top as if she was overheating. She requested a fan to cool herself down and at times appeared dizzy and sick as she shook her head, arms and legs and stretched her jaw. It was rather uncomfortable viewing and later Azarenka admitted she only continued because of the fans. Sadly, it wasn't the match we were all expecting but Venus stayed very focused throughout despite Azarenka's distracting unease, winning 75% of her 1st serve points and breaking Azarenka 5 times. Azarenka was still hitting winners when she didn't have to move, so Venus hit into the spaces to expose Azarenka's lethargic movement. This was Venus's first top 2 win since Wimbledon 2009!
4/2 Former champion Radwanska looked a little fatigued from her title run last week in Seoul as she laboured past Wozniak 76(5) 60. With heavy strapping on her ever troublesome shoulder, Radwanska recovered from a break down, saving 4 set points at 4-5 and then from 1-4 down in the tiebreak to eventually prevail.
27/- Kuznetsova beat struggling (6/3) Errani 64 64 for a 6th win in 7 meetings with the Italian. Errani recovered from 0-3 to 3-3 in both sets but couldn't deal with the continuous big hitting from the Russian, who pushed Errani all over the court.
8/4 Wozniacki, the 2010 champion, handled a tricky test against US Open semi finalist Pennetta 62 63.
9/5 Kerber looked the best she's done all year, thrashing Spanish qualifier Torro Flor 60 61!
10/6 Jankovic was sharp in her 1st match as a top 10 player since the French Open 2011, beating Japan's Morita 64 61, despite her opponent's occasional shots of brilliance.
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