Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Draw opens in Dubai

Victoria Azarenka withdrew from the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships today, citing a bone bruise in her right foot. With Azarenka out, the landscape changes a bit. There won't be another Azarenka-Williams final, for one thing. Additionally, it gives Sara Errani, Angeique Kerber and (theoretically) Sam Stosur some breathing room in the top half of the draw.

Stosur beat Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets (6-3, 6-1) today, which surprised me.

Defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska is headed toward a face-off with Petra Kvitova (assuming Kvitova maintains her Doha form). And if she can get past Kvitova, she's ultimately headed toward a contest with Serena Williams. That's a lot of defending.

I obviously put a hoodoo on Sloane Stephens, Varvara Lepchenko and Laura Robson. Stephens really felt the effect of it, losing her first round match against Sorana Cirstea, despite serving twice for the match and holding four match points. Lepchenko lost in the first round to a tough opponent, Hsieh Su-Wei, and wild card Robson lost to wild card Yukia Putintseva.

In Memphis, Magdalena Rybarikova and Jamie Hampton have both advanced to the quarerfinals. Rybarikova won the tournament in 2011.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Petra is on her way back. She pummelled Aggie mercilessly. Radwanska mostly walked back and forth to ready herself for the next point after winner and impossible to return balls whizzed past her and at her.

Diane said...

Petra had a little hiccup, but she came back from it. Hard to watch two of my faves play each other, but very glad for Petra!