Archives for March 2012

Queens of the desert

Ivanovic (right), with Sorana Cirstea, is healthy, but needs to add more muscle.

FROM THE BNP PARIBAS OPEN AT INDIAN WELLS -Ana Ivanovic loves the desert, as does Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki. They have all won BNP Paribas Open titles, feel comfortable in the environs and also threw sand in the faces of pummeled foes on Saturday.

Let’s begin with Ivanovic, who avenged her Roland Garros defeat to Johanna Larsson 6-1 6-2. She looked well in control of the match, played aggressive when she had to, moved swiftly to the ball, served consistently and dictated with her forehand.

But Ivanovic appears to have a bit of a fitness issue, which does not mean that she is hurt, as she’s been working diligently on her recovery skills. She is also as fast as she

Returning to form

if Isner plays like he did against Federer, he could make a top 10 run.

By Matt Cronin

FROM THE BNP PARIBAS OPEN AT INDIAN WELLS – Up until the mid part of last year, when one injury after another took Andy Roddick out of serious contention, he was still nine years into the run as a standout player, and was THE MAN in US tennis. But then in 2011 Mardy Fish surpassed him in the rankings and in quality of play. Just last month, John Isner un-hunched his shoulders and stunned Roger Federer in Davis Cup.

Isner is now ranked No. 11, well ahead of Roddick

Survival of the Vika

With the win, Vika didnt have to beat herself up

Victoria Azarenka survived Mona Barthels 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 in her opening match in a performance that was significantly below the form, she has shown in most of her 18-match winning streak. Her serve was way off, her backhand was spotty, her defense was so-so and even when the talented yet inexperienced German wanted to seem to hand her the match, she sputtered.

For the first time this season, Azarenka was really there for taking and if she had been playing against a top 10 player or a savvy veteran, she likely would have went down, but she gutted it out and showed once again how much she has matured.

Young US women continue surge

King (above), McHale and Hampton were impressive

By Matt Cronin

FROM THE BNP PARIBAS OPEN AT INDIAN WELLS – The beat has quickened for young US women and week-by-week they continue to show that as a group, they are not just a flash in the pan. Of course, some are progressing at a faster rate than others and most of them have gone though ups and down, but on the first Friday at Indian Wells, there were looking pretty impressive. Jaime Hampton scored her first two straight WTA main draws wins ever, besting Polona Hercog and then pounding former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 6-3 in the second round.

The 22-year-old is not the tallest player on tour and maybe not the strongest. but she has a solid build, is pretty fast and mixes up her attack adeptly. She isn

It’s crunch time for Caro

 

Caro has to take some losses in trying to improve.

By Matt Cronin

INDIAN WELLS – Defending champion Caroline Wozniacki enters the BNP Paribas Open with 1000 points to defend and few folks believing that she can pull herself up by her ponytail and win the tournament.

Last year, when she came to the California desert, she was in much better mental shape, having won Dubai, even though she had gagged her Aussie Open semi to Li Na.

But this time around, she is playing third fiddle, behind higher-ranked Slam champs Victoria Azarenka and Petra Kvitova, and even possibly behind Aga Radwanska, who sits at No. 5 behind her no. 4, but whom has had a much better stretch than she has since last August, winning four Premier outdoor hard courts tournaments.

The Dane is determined, which is one of her best qualities, but she also has to be realistic about her chances of meeting her goals, which is to win the next three majors and the Olympics, or just one of those four titles.

The fact is that her game is still undeveloped and she is not cracking her forehand enough on important points, not delivering enough hard and varied serves, and not pushing herself inside the court against opponents who are capable of hitting through her. There are not many of those, but there certainly are more than there were last year, as witnessed by her loss to Julia Gorges in Dubai.

So now, her task to is open herself up to the possibility of change, try some new things in practice and take those elements on court in matches and risk suffering losses.

Because as it stands today, if she doesn

Friends or foes?

Lesson with Lendl

Lendl made the author smile, and tried out his funky grip.

 

By Dan Weil

Special to Tennisreporters.net

Through the wonders of tennis journalism I was able to participate in a clinic run by Ivan Lendl last month at the ATP tournament in Delray Beach, FL, where Lendl played in the senior event.

The biggest risk for me was probably at the beginning of the clinic. In the first one of these that I did, Jim Courier gave an easy feed to my forehand, and my arm was so tight that the ball barely made it to the net

BNP Paribas Open-Indian Wells WTA Draw Breakdown

Kvitova has rarely played well on U.S. soil.

Who can stop No. 1 Victoria Azarenka

Federer simply fabulous on fast courts

Federer has been on fire on slick surfaces.

 

By Matt Cronin

If all the world’s tournaments were played on fast surfaces, just imagine how many overall titles Roger Federer would have – likely a good deal more than the 72 he has now after winning his fifth title in Dubai with an eye-raising 7-5, 6-4 win over Andy Murray.

The victory was vintage Federer – full of change of paces, sleight of hands, brutish serves, heavy forehands and a high variety of one-handed backhands. He charged the net, leapt for overheads, threw in drop shot return of serves and moved like the tempest in a teapot Federer of old. Murray by no means played his best and was unusually erratic off his favored backhand wing, but the victory for the 16-time Grand Slam champion was no fluke – the 30-year-old has now won five of his past seven tournaments since reaching the semis of the 2011 U.S. Open and all those victories have come on quick courts. But four of those crowns were indoors (Basel, the Paris Masters, the ATP Finals and 2012 Rotterdam) and this one was outdoors, his first title on outdoor cement since 2010 Doha – some 14 months ago.

“Against Andy I knew I had to stay aggressive but not overly – you don’t want to overhit,” Federer said. “I think I found the right balance out there tonight. There is no substitute to confidence. I’m defending much better than I was in the middle of last year where I felt like I couldn’t come out of tough defensive positions anymore. I was able to turn it around. Now, I just have to keep it up.”

Murray, 24, did stun No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semis, so overall it was a good week, but it would have been much more impressive had he been able to take down the great Swiss for the ninth time in 15 matches, but he was out-thought and out-played. Score one victory for coach Paul Annacone over coach Ivan Lendl, and those were hard to come by when Annacone was trying to chip and charge against the baseline master Lendl during the 1980s. Lendl was 6-0 against the dyed in the wool net rusher Annacone, but Annacone played him tough, taking Lendl to five sets in Miami in the first round in 1987 and in their last match at Queens on grass in 1989, extending the Czech native to 7-5 in the third.

Federer will never be a dogged net charger, but he does volley better than any member of the Big 4.

The breakdown: Federer vs. Murray, Dubai Final

Federer holds the edge in finals.

 

HEAD TO HEAD: 8-6 for Murray. Somewhat incredibly, the two have not played since the 2010 ATP finals, when Federer destroyed a tired Murray in the round robin. Prior to that in 2010, Murray had taken out Federer in back to back finals to win the Masters titles at Canada and Shanghai.

The primary reasons why they have not played in 15 months is because once Novak Djokovic took over as No. 1 last year, they were consistently on opposite sides of the draw and neither of them had much success against the Serbian or Rafael Nadal. Murray lost to Nadal in three Grand Slam semifinals in 2011.

Murray has never beaten Federer at a major, but his coming out party as big time player was a round of 32 shocker over Federer at 2006 Cincy. He also scored significant wins over the Swiss in the 2008 ATP Finals in the round robin, and at 2009 Indian Wells in the semis. All 14 of their matches have been on hard courts, but three were indoors, at Madrid 2008 (when it was still played in October and Murray came through) and in 2009 and 2010 in London for the ATP finals, both wins for the Swiss. Federer is 3-2 over Murray in finals, including wins at the their first meeting at Bangkok in 2005, and in the 2008 US Open and 2010 Australian finals.

2012 FORM: Both have played well, but both suffered emotionally draining Australian Open defeats: Murray in a classic five setter to Djokovic, the best he has ever played in a loss at a major, and Federer to his nemesis, Nadal. Federer stalled at Davis Cup in his singles loss to John Isner and in his doubles defeat with Stan Wawrinka to Isner and Mardy Fish. but quickly picked up the pace again by smoking Juan Martin Del Potro to win Rotterdam. In the Dubai semis, he looked quick and confident on the big points in stopping DelPo again, this time in two tiebreakers. He