Women Tennis Update – Fed Cup, Sofia, Taipei Challenger

Written by: Staff on 4th November 2012

The 2012 WTA Qatar Airways tennis tournament of Champions

Women Tennis Update - Fed Cup, Sofia, Taipei Challenger

epa03456699 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark returns the ball to Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria during their semi final the 2012 WTA Qatar Airways tennis tournament of Champions in Sofia, Bulgaria on 03 November 2012. EPA/VASSIL DONEV |

Fed Cup

So much for fears about Petra Kvitova’s health. For that matter, so much for an exciting Fed Cup final.

Serbia’s big hope, in visiting Prague, was the first day, when Serbia’s #1 Ana Ivanovic took on the Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova and Jelena Jankovic faced Kvitova, who had had bronchitis last week.

Safarova didn’t look the least intimidated. She thrashed an error-prone Ivanovic 6-4 6-3. That brought out Kvitova — who had won her last ten straight Fed Cup matches but who had had bronchitis last week. She admitted later that she didn’t know what to expect. But she clearly didn’t need to worry. She beat Jankovic 6-4 6-1. Kvitova will have the chance to clinch in the first reverse singles, and even if she loses and Jankovic beats Safarova, the Czechs still have the better doubles team in Hlavackova/Hradecka. This looks close to over.

Sofia

Singles – Semifinal (1) Caroline Wozniacki def. (WC) Tsvetana Pironkova 6-4 6-1

Not exactly a big surprise, given that Caroline Wozniacki was 3-0 coming in and Tsvetana Pironkova 1-2. Still, Pironkova did her main job: She sold tickets for four matches. We show her still below the Top Forty, though. Caroline Wozniacki… appears to have earned the year-end #10 ranking.

Singles – Semifinal (2) Nadia Petrova def. (4) Roberta Vinci 6-7(6-8) 6-1 6-4

Caroline Wozniacki has to be liking the looks of this. First she had the early match, and then her potential final opponents spent more than two and a half hours out there! Nadia Petrova came very close to being broken as she served for the match. But Petrova, like Wozniacki, is so far undefeated, and this win takes her to #12 (which is as high as she can go). It appears Roberta Vinci will stay at #16; Dominika Cibulkova will have the last spot in the year-end Top Fifteen.

Taipei Challenger

It was a long but formally routine day in Taipei; both singles matches went three sets, but both were won by the higher seed. Taiwan’s own Chang Kai-Chen, the #5 seed, beat #7 Misaki Doi 6-7 6-3 6-1; #4 Kristina Mladenovic beat Kurumi Nara 6-3 3-6 7-5. It will be interesting to see how Chang handles the pressure in the final.

Both singles finalists also find themselves in the doubles final — which, incidentally, guarantees that Taiwan will have at least one champion here. Mladenovic and Chan Hao-Ching, the #1 seeds, will face Chang and Olga Govortsova, seeded #2. The full scores for Saturday are as follows:

Singles – Semifinal

(5) Chang Kai-Chen def. (7) Misaki Doi 6-7(3-7) 6-3 6-1

(4) Kristina Mladenovic def. Kurumi Nara 6-3 3-6 7-5

Doubles – Semifinal

(1) H Chan/Mladenovic def. Kao/Lee 6-1 7-5

(2) Chang/Govortsova def. (3) C Chan/Date-Krumm 6-4 6-3

Topics: Caroline Wozniacki, Fed Cup tennis news, Sofia tennis news, Sports, Taipei Challenger, Tennis News, Tsvetana Pironkova