Women Tennis Update – Dubai,Memphis, and Bogota Sunday, February 24, 2013

Written by: Staff on 23rd February 2013

Women Tennis Update - Dubai,Memphis, and Bogota Sunday, February 24, 2013

epa03597134 Sara Errani of Italy returns the ball to Czech Republic's Petra Kvitova during the final match of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 23 February 2013. EPA/ALI HAIDER |

Dubai

Singles – Final: (6) Petra Kvitova def. (5) Sara Errani 6-2 1-6 6-1

The first set was all about Petra Kvitova playing like we know she can. Second set, she made more errors, and Sara Errani came to the net more often, which seemed to destabilize Kvitova a bit. In the third set, Kvitova got used to it and dusted off her passing shots. At the end, Kvitova just overwhelmed Errani. The crucial game was probably Kvitova’s

first service game in the third set, where she was down 0-40 but came back to hold.

All in all, a pretty impressive week. She beat three seeds at an event that, after withdrawals, had only six seeded players. It’s her first title of the year. If can continue like this — which we know she can — it won’t be her last.

In a footnote for the record books, it’s career title #10 for Kvitova.

Rankings-wise, it doesn’t help. She remains #8. But she is a strong #8, right on #7 Errani’s tail; all she has to do is keep playing like this….

Doubles – Final: Mattek-Sands/Mirza def. (2) Petrova/Srebotnik 6-4 2-6 10-7

Maybe, instead of hiring coaches, WTA players should start going to kamikaze school.

That seems to be the story that has been emerging this week, as players keep saying they won by being aggressive. Mattek-Sands and Mirza said after this match that they were playing such tough opponents that their only choice was to focus on their own game and do what they could do as well as they could. It’s working — they win their second Premier event of the year, following Brisbane. We’ve now had six Premier events this year. Errani/Vinci won the two biggest, the Australian Open and Doha, plus Paris. But Mattek-Sands/Mirza are the only other team with two; Petrova/Srebotnik won Sydney. No one else won any at all. At this rate, Errani/Vinci may be the only one of last year’s top teams to remain on top this year.

Memphis

We will cover the Memphis finals tomorrow.

Bogota

Singles – Semifinal: (1) Jelena Jankovic def. Karin Knapp 3-6 6-1 7-6(7-2)

About two hours into this, Jelena Jankovic had the chance to serve this out at 5-4 in the third set. And blew it. She won, but it cost her another twenty minutes on the court — and she had the later semifinal. She picks up enough points that she will stay Top 25 — but these are the matches she was winning back in the days when she was winning tournaments….

Singles – Semifinal: Paula Ormaechea def. (Q) Teliana Pereira 7-6(7-5) 6-3

Officially this is at least a slight upset; Paula Ormaechea came in ranked #198, Teliana Pereira #156. But Ormaechea has, relatively speaking, a lot of experience. This was Pereira’s first WTA event; Ormaechea had six. And Ormaechea had previously made a WTA quarterfinal (here, last year), and also had a final at the Prague $50K Challenger in 2011. By Pereira’s standards, that’s a veteran. They’ll both be moving — Ormaechea to around #130, Pereira to probably a little above #120.

Doubles – Final: (2) Babos/Minella def. (1) Birnerova/Panova 6-4 6-3

Timea Babos’s singles career seems to have stalled (or worse), but she seems to be turning into a pretty good doubles player. This is only her second WTA doubles title (to go with a lot of Challengers), but the two titles are interesting: The other one was at Birmingham 2012, on grass. She and Hsieh Su-Wei beat Huber/Raymond in the final. Pretty impressive. And now she’s winning on clay. Admittedly the opposition wasn’t much, but it’s still a title. Which is more than Mandy Minella had. Until now.

©Daily tennis news wire

Topics: Bogota, Dubai, Memphis, Petra Kvitova, Sara Errani, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, women tennis update