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Tennis

New Beginnings..


New Year and new beginnings for me as a tennis watcher. 2023 ended with my favourite player Petra Kvitová, announcing her pregnancy on New Year’s Eve. While great news for Petra, at the age of 33 and her baby due in the summer. the chances are this might be it for her tennis career. At the moment I’m still in denial and hoping for a comeback.
Consequently, 2024 is a bit different for me in terms of watching tennis.

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Tennis

Chinese Takeaways

There was success in Asia for some of my favourite players. Best performance was probably by Katerina Siniakova who made back to back 250 finals, losing to Leylah Fernandez in Hong Kong but beating fellow Czech Marie Bouzkova in an epic 3hr+ final in Nanchang.
Siniakova is an exciting, aggressive player to watch when she is in form, and for these 2 weeks, she was playing high level, patient tennis. The match against Bouzkova was notable in the way she turned the match around after being a set and a break down. Siniakova changed her tactics, reigned in her big shots and outlasted Marie. She also avenged her loss to Fernandez, beating the Canadian in the semi-final.

With this, Katka is back into the top 50 and won two titles in a season for the first time since 2017. Her backhand is one of the best on the tour, she’s fast around the court and great at the net. I’d love to see her break the top 30 finally in 2024.

Barbora Krejcikova also had some good results, making the final of the 500 event in Zhengzhou but lost out in the final to a motivated Qinwen Zheng, an exciting young player who made the most of a supportive crowd and a slightly erratic Krejcikova.

In Zhuhai, Krejcikova was the top,seed in the Elite Trophy, but lost out in a tired round robin match to Daria Kasatkina. Qinwen rode the momentum but was beaten in the final by another of my low key favourite players, Beatriz Haddad Maia in a terrific final, with Bia also,winning the doubles.

With just the WTA finals and BJK Cup finals to go, the 2023 season is almost at an end.

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Tennis

Double delight in San Diego!

After a lean period for Barbora Krejcikova, this was a week to remember at the San Diego WTA500 event. She won the singles title, defeating Sofia Kenin in three sets, and then she and Katerina Siniakova teamed up to take the doubles title as well. The last time Krejcikova did this was, of course, the Roland Garros, 2021 singles and doubles double. 

These last months have been tough going for us Krejcikova fans. It all started so well when she won the title in Dubai back in February, however, there followed a string of unlucky draws where she was defeated by Aryna Sabalenka in Indian Wells, Miami and Stuttgart. Then a dismal clay-court season, saw Krejcikova very out of sorts and splitting with her longtime coach Ales. What was worrying was her demeanour on court. One match that springs to mind was the defeat to Ostapenko in Rome. Anyone can lose to Ostapenko but Krejcikova was a long way up and well on top in the first set, and then completely collapsed. Barely won a point after that alarming slump. 

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Tennis

Winning and Woes at Wimbledon

Wimbledon 2023 is at the quarter finals stage and sadly all my faves are out. Petra Kvitova had a good run to thr 4th round but was heavily beaten 6-0, 6-3 by last years finalist, Ons Jabeur. I missed the first set – probably for the best – and while Petra put up more of a fight, Ons had the answer to all Petra’s shots and Petra just could not get the ball away for winners. The huge shock in the stats was she only had 4, yes FOUR, winners in the whole match. Petra averages 20-30 usually and it was a further sign of the fact she wasn’t in this match. While Ons played really nicely with variety and power, it was a massively disappointing performance from Petra. However, looking in the bright side, she had her best run at Wimbledon since 2019 a d rises to number 8 in the rankings.

In better news, Katerina Siniakova had a great win at the WTA250 in Bad Homburg, Germany. She made the final here 2 years ago and played some terrific tennis, especially in a rain interrupted win over hard hitting Ludmilla Samsonova.

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Tennis

Grass, Glorious Grass!

After the disappointment of all of my favourite players flopping at Roland Garros, the grass season has been so much better!

Petra Kvitova is a title winner again! She took the WTA 500 tournament trophy in Berlin, beating Donna Vekic in the final in straight sets. Indeed, Petra did not drop a set all week. The tournament was hit with rain forcing Petra (and Donna) to play two matches on Saturday and then the final on Sunday, but in many ways it was her challenging round 1 match against fellow Czech, Karolina Pliskova that set the tone. Petra looked so much happier to be back on grass than the struggles of clay. Great wins over Garcia and Alexandrova and Vekic, all players who love grass too. Terrific ball striking – watch out for the winner on match point in the final!

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Tennis

Rolled Over at Roland Garros!

So Roland Garros 2023 has been a total disaster for my favourites! Petra Kvitova, Barbora Krejcikova, Katerina Siniaková and the doubles team of Krejcikova and Siniaková all lost in the first round! These losses were all not totally unexpected but still pretty disappointing.

Petra Kvitova hasn’t won a match since the Miracle in Miami ™. One loss to Jule Neimeir in Madrid and a leg injury has kept her off the court since. Petra is not a fan of the clay and the plucky Elizabeth Cocciaretto was a deserved winner over a rusty looking Petra. Fingers crossed the grass brings more success.

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Tennis

Magnificent Miami!


What a week in Miami, and what a week to be a Petra Kvitova fan! Yes, Petra did it. She won the WTA 1000 tournament in Miami, a 30th career title and the win puts her back into the WTA top 10. In the final on 1st April, Petra beat favourite Elena Rybakina, who was going for the Sunshine Double after taking the title in Indian Wells a few weeks back. Rybakina was the heavy favourite after having a great start to the 2023 season, but this was no April Fools Day trick, Petra Kvitova really won her 9th WTA1000 level title, the biggest win since the Madrid 1000 in 2018.

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Tennis

Raise your Glass for the Indian Wells Champions!

The WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells finished this weekend and I was delighted to celebrate title number 15 for Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova in the women’s doubles. Following on from winning the 2023 Australian Open title, this cemented them even more firmly as the undisputed number one team, and giving them an 11-0 record this year,

The women’s singles champion was Elena Rybakina who defeated Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets for her first WTA1000 level title.

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Tennis

Barbora Back in the Winner’s Circle!

Dubai champion 2023 – Barbora Krejcikova

Today was the final of the Dubai Duty Free classic WTA1000 in Dubai, the first 1000 level event of the year. It was won superbly, by Barbara Krejcikova who beat Iga Świątek, the world number one and hot favourite, in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 to give a Krejcikova the 6th singles title of her career and her first WTA1000 level title. Krejcikova also achieved something remarkable – beating the three top ranked players in one week – actually on successive days!

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Tennis

New Year, New Slam Champ!

Sabalenka- Australian Open champion 2023
Aryna Sabalenka – Champion in Melbourne


It’s the end of January 2023, and after one month of the new season plenty has happened.

The Australian Open 2023 was very entertaining and ended with a great win for Aryna Sabalenka. Sabalenka has been a top-10 player for five years but has always fallen short in Grand Slams. It took several years for her to make a second week, but she has made a few semifinals, but stumbled at that stage. Notably, the 2021 US Open where she allowed Layla Fernandez back into the match and even the 2022 US Open saw her lead Swiatek by a set but lose. However, she began the 2023 season really well. She took the title in Adelaide and went through to the Australian Open final without dropping a set. 

Her opponent in the final was the Wimbledon champion, Elena Rybakina, who has been a players I’ve admired for a while. Rybakina backed up her Wimbledon win very very well with a fantastic run to the final. A run that included a very convincing win over the world number one Iga Świątek.