First round play continued today in Dubai, and there were some significant upsets. Tathiana Garbin defeated 9th seed Samantha Stosur 3-6, 6-2, 7-6, and Shahar Peer defeated 13th seed Yanina Wickmayer 3-6, 6-2, 7-5. This is the second week in a row that Wickmayer has gone out in the first round; last week, she lost to Petra Martic in the first round of the Open GDF SUEZ .
Also going out in the first round was 15th seed Nadia Petrova, who was defeated 7-6, 7-6 by Stephanie Voegele.
And of note: Andrea Petkovic defeated Alona Bondarenko 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
I feel bad about Wickmayer after getting off to a good start to the season but I was glad Peer won, given what happened at Dubai last year. I just want her to make a deep run because of the way she was treated by the Dubai goverment.
ReplyDeleteI noticed a fair amount of seeds go out. Although the score doesn't show it, I though Sevastova challenged Radwanska. I had never seen the Latvian before and was impressed. And yes, Petkovic continues her winning ways after a good run at Paris.
How did Sevastova act? The only times I saw her play, she was angry most of the time.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to finally see Stefanie Voegele getting a big win under her belt. To me she looks very promising. I think she can be in the top 50 or higher by the end of the year, she has plenty of talent.
ReplyDeleteBS, do you know if Melanie Molitor is still coaching Voegele?
ReplyDeleteIt was the first time I saw Sevastova play. She had controlled aggression. Played very well. Now that you have asked the question about how she acted, I have to say that she seemed to be keeping her temper in check. She had her coach come down on a number of occassions and he seemed to be a calming influence on her. ARad did her thing but she was smacking the racquet around a little bit as she was frustrated by the power and angles that Sevastova was producing. It was a pretty good match and the score really does not tell the true tale of just how hard fought it was.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to know that Sevastova is learning to control that aggression. I wish I could have seen the match.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Karen. The anger was under control. If anything Radwanska seemed to be letting things get to her. Sevastova got some good angles in there. I am glad they started the Dubai tournament early on TennisTv because I got to see some players that I normally don't see.
ReplyDeleteNo, unfortunately I don't know. Sorry! Had they been working together for long? Tell me Diane, do you remember Elena Bovina?
ReplyDeleteI think, BS, that Molitor had (or has) been working for a while with Voegele.
ReplyDeleteI always really enjoyed Bovina. I remember when she won Pilot Pen and it was hard for me to watch because I wanted Nathalie to win it, too. I'm sorry that Bovina has had such misfortune.
I have been following Bovina's progress since she has been on the comeback trail on the ITF circuit and even though she won an event only last week I don't think she will ever be back to where she was, which is a shame. She seemed to be very talented.
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