Tennis News

After a less than stellar start to her 2015 season, Sara Errani took part in a strong week on the red clay in Rio to defeat Anna Schmiedlova and lift the Rio Open title.

While the Italian’s win is a notable victory and edges her closer to an eventual return to the Top 10 in the WTA rankings, the biggest story this week was rising star Anna Schmiedlova, who had never reached the quarter-final stage of a WTA event prior to this week in Rio.

The youngster even put up a fight in the final, where she pushed Errani to a tiebreak in the opening set before being overwhelmed by the Italian in the second set to lose 7-6(2), 6-1.

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“She was moving really well and she’s a really great player,” Schmiedlova said. “I played some very good tennis in the first set – the second set was worse, but I’m so happy I was in the final. This week gave me a lot of confidence. I hope it helps me in my next tournaments.”

With the victory on Sunday, Errani won her eighth title on the WTA tour.

“The first set was tough. We played more than an hour,” Errani said. “We were both fighting hard in that set – she was playing very well and not giving me anything, really. It was also the first time I played her so I needed some time to find my tactics. I was happy I managed to win that set, and in the second set things started going much more my way. I think I was just physically stronger in the end.

“Winning a title is always special. This tournament was great and I leave with only good memories.”

As someone who was a former No. 5 ranked player, Errani will rise from No.16 to No.12 on this week’s WTA Rankings.

“I’m aware that I’m close to getting back to the Top 10, but right now my goal is to keep trying to play my best and keep trying to improve,” Errani said. “If that happens I think the ranking will come.”

Following several weeks off the tour, Roger Federer will return to professional competition when he takes part in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Monday afternoon. The Swiss No. 1 is scheduled to meet Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny, whom he holds a remarkable 15-0 head to head record against.

Watch the match live here: Federer v Youzhny Live Stream

World No. 2 Roger Federer has been away from the tour since his premature exit from the Australian Open in January. After starting off the year with an impressive showing in Brisbane, where he won the title following wins over Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic, Federer was unable to maintain that momentum, and suffered a surprise loss to Andreas Seppi in the Aussie Open third round. It was his first career loss to the Italian, and put a damper on Federer’s strong start to the season.

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After a couple of weeks of rest, Federer is prepared to return to Dubai and rebound from his rough fortnight in Melbourne.

“I feel good, I know well this the area, I know what to expect. I have had two weeks off, after the Australian Open, so, I feel myself fresh and ready to play. I really like the court, here I have played well, over the years. The tournament has a great atmosphere.”

After starting his year with back-to-back first round losses in Doha and the Aussie Open, Youzhny earned a pair of wins in Zagreb (Blaz Kavcic and Sergiy Stakhovsky) before losing to Marcos Baghdatis in the quarter-final.

This marks the 17th time that these two competitors meet on the professional tour, and the first time since the Halle final in 2013. Considering that was Federer’s worst season in a decade, and that Youzhny was still unable to dent the armour, the Russian will certainly be hard pressed to defeat a motivated Federer.

Prediction: Roger Federer in Straight Sets

After two very different paths in 2015, Victoria Azarenka and Angelique Kerber will meet in the opening round of the Qatar Total Open. It will serve as their fourth career meeting, with two-time former Grand Slam champion Azarenka leading head to head the series with an unblemished 3-0 record. This will also be their first career meeting since the WTA Championships in 2012.

Watch the match live here: Azarenka v Kerber Live Stream

Azarenka overcame a tough and turbulent 2014 season plagued with injuries and is well on her way to regaining her old form, particularly under the new tutelage of Wim Fissette. After losing to rising star Karolina Pliskova in her first match of the season in Brisbane, Azarenka managed to work her way through a tough Aussie Open draw to reach the fourth round of the Major that she had previously won on two occasions. Following wins over Sloane Stephens, Carolina Wozniacki and Barbara Zahlavova Strycova, the former champ lost to last year’s runner up Dominika Cibulkova, and were denied the quarter-final berth.

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Now, Azarenka is back in Doha, where she is on a 10-match winning streak following back-to-back title wins in 2012-13. She missed last year’s tournament due to her foot injury, but appears to be ready to continue her run in the Qatari capital.

Her opponent, Angelique Kerber has had a tempestuous season on the tour so far, as she lost in the quarter-final round in Sydney to Karolina Pliskova, suffered opening round losses at the Aussie Open and Antwerp, and later managed to reach the second round in Dubai before losing to Flavia Pennetta.

This marks the fourth time that these two competitors will cross paths on the professional tour, and the first time since the 2012 WTA Championship. While Azarenka is unseeded at this event, she should be treated as a top competitor, and will likely find a way to edge her German adversary on Monday.

Prediction: Victoria Azarenka in Three Sets

The top two players in the world take to the court for their first matches since the Australian Open in the upcoming Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Following on from the Women’s event last week that Simona Halep won, the Men’s event will welcome four of the top 10 while all seeds are in the top 20. The event has been dominated by Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic – since 2002 there has been just two other winners.

Check out the Full Draw: ATP Dubai 2015 Draw

Watch the matches live here: ATP Dubai Live Stream

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Djokovic has won 4 of the last 6, including three in a row in the 2009-2011 stretch. He will be the favourite to win his fifth and extend his winning streak to 12 matches. He is 2-0 against his opening opponent Vasek Pospisil, most recently defeating the Canadian in straight sets on his way to the title in Beijing last year. Big serving Frenchman Fabrice Martin sprung a shock in qualifying by defeating Borna Coric in a third set tie break to make the main draw. He faces Andrey Golubev for the chance to likely test himself against the World No.1.

Another two qualifiers make up the top quarter of the draw with Marsel Ilhan playing Alexander Zverev, the highly rated young German who is the recipient of another wildcard. James Ward will likely move into the top 100 if he can win his opening round match but the draw wasn’t too kind to him, pairing him with 6th seed Feliciano Lopez. They have met before on a hard court, the Spaniard winning in three sets at Indian Wells last year.

A losing finalist two years running, Tomas Berdych will hope to go one better but will probably have to beat both men who picked up victories over him in the 2013 and 2014 finals respectively. Losing to Federer last year and Djokovic in 2013, the Czech has generally performed well here. Given his draw, another semi final looks on the cards. He begins against Jeremy Chardy, an opponent he has beaten on both occasions they have played including at this event in 2011. With Berdych possibly awaiting in round two, Simone Bolelli will need to be at his best if he wants to pick up a second top 10 win in 2 weeks. The Italian, who defeated Milos Raonic in Marseille, faces qualifier Lucas Pouille first up.

With an 0-4 record in 2015, Ernests Gulbis is there for the taking for Denis Istomin in his round one clash. Gulbis is still ranked 13 in the world but may see his ranking suffer if he fails to reverse this troubling slide in the recent weeks. Istomin’s form however is similarly poor, only winning a match in Montpellier this year. Sergiy Stakhovsky will hope to push on from his impressive run in Marseille, where he was just a set from making the final after already surprising Stan Wawrinka in the quarter finals.

David Goffin is listed as 8th seed and set to play wildcard Marcos Baghdatis in his opener assuming he has recovered from the back issues that saw his retirement in the first set of his match with Dominic Thiem in Marseille. A quarter finalist last year, Malek Jaziri will begin against the opponent that knocked him out at that stage. Philipp Kohlschreiber‘s third win in three outings against Jaziri earned him a place in the semi finals.

James McGee is the final wildcard choice and one that seems strange on the face of it. The 27 year old is ranked outside the top 200 and his only experience of a main draw is the 2014 US Open which he entered as a qualifier. The Irishman has yet to win a Challenger but has won a number of Futures events. It should be a good experience but Joao Sousa should be too strong for him. Andy Murray is the third seed here and will hope to go one better than his outing in 2012 where he was a losing finalist to Roger Federer. After a disappointing 2014 by his standards, he showed a lot to indicate that he was back to his best in Melbourne and will be disappointed at the way the back end of the match went. Murray begins against Gilles Muller, who pulled off two big wins in his last event in Rotterdam. Murray will hope not to go the way of Dimitrov and Goffin and instead make it 2-0 against the Luxembourg player in ATP play.

The final quarter sees a rematch of the 2007 final with six times champion Roger Federer playing two times losing finalist Mikhail Youzhny. The Russian was seeded at the event last year but struggled badly at times last year and now finds himself outside the top 50. With an 0-15 record against Federer, it seems things won’t get any better for him this week. A Spanish lefty could be waiting in the second round but it is one that Federer has a slightly better record against. Federer is 5-0 against Fernando Verdasco, who faces Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in round one.

Roberto Bautista-Agut rounds off the seeds in the draw at 7 and will play Dominic Thiem first up. They have met once this year with the Spaniard winning in four sets at the Australian Open. The Spaniard is 6-5 on the year and most recently lost the semi final of Marseille to Gael Monfils. Richard Gasquet will come into this tournament full of confidence after taking the Montpellier title last time out, even if the final was cut short by retirement. The Frenchman is 4-1 against Andreas Seppi and 2-0 on hard but they have not played since 2012.

Prediction
SF: Novak Djokovic def. Tomas Berdych
SF: Andy Murray def. Roger Federer
F: Novak Djokovic def. Andy Murray

Simona Halep completed a turbulent week on the tour in style, as she defeated surging adversary Karolina Pliskova to lift her first Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title – the biggest of her professional career to date.

Early on, the match appeared as though it would be a straightforward encounter, as Halep opened up the match, found her break and stole the opening set in just over 40 minutes. However, she found herself 0-2 down in the second set, and had to fight back in a grueling second frame to close out the match 6-4, 7-6(4) in 1 hour and 47 minutes.

“I’m very happy right now. I cannot explain in words how I feel,” Halep said. “It’s an amazing title for me. It’s very important for my career. I’m really happy and just want to enjoy this moment.

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“At the beginning of the tournament some people asked me if I felt pressure because I was the No.1 seed. I said no, because I wasn’t thinking about it, and I just wanted to go on court and play match by match, because everyone would play really well here. And I played with big players like Makarova, Pliskova, Wozniacki – she was No.1 two years. So it’s honestly just an amazing victory for me.”

Pliskova, who had never been to the quarter-final stage of a Premier level event such as this one, let alone the final, was far from disappointed with her week in Dubai.

“I was trying to turn it around, but even if I won the second set, I don’t know if I would have won the whole match,” she said. “It would still have been hard because she doesn’t give up on any point. She runs really, really well, and it’s hard to kill the ball against her. She really gets everything back.

“I lost, so I’m not really happy right now, but obviously I’m happy for the week and for the last two or three weeks I had. I had so many matches here and beat great players – I’m not disappointed.”

While Rafael Nadal continuously informed fans and media that he is yet to regain his top form following a plague of injuries last season, the truth behind his words dimmed away as he continued to perform at the 2015 Rio Open.

Nadal earned several straight set wins, and rallied back from his most recent victory over Pablo Cuevas to reach the semi-final stage of the tournament. However, that was not enough to stop the stunning result that would take place on Saturday evening in the Brazilian city, as Italian No. 1 Fabio Fognini overturned a 0-4 losing record to Nadal in the head-to-head series to defeat the world No. 3 in three sets.

Fognini rallied back from a set down to defeat the Spaniard 1-6, 6-2, 7-5, thus putting an end to Nadal’s remarkable 52-match win streak in ATP World Tour level semi-finals on clay.

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According to the ATP World Tour, it was Nadal’s 25th loss on the red surface.

“I’m really happy about this match,” said Fognini. “I beat the best player on this surface.

“Rafa is always difficult. From the second set I played really well, and I tried to change a little bit to be more positive on court.”

Fognini is now through to his ninth ATP final after picking up his first ever Top 5 win. He is set to face Ferrer in the final.

“Right now I’m thinking in the now; that I’ve beaten Rafa,” said Fognini. “I’m super happy, and obviously tomorrow I will have to battle David, who has always beaten me… I will obviously be happy if I win. If I lose, I will also leave with the good memories from this week in Rio.”