Monterrey Round Up; Indian Wells Preview

Bartoli wins the third title of her career, beating Na Li in the Monterrey final.


Unsure of Bartoli's form leading into the event, it would have been tricky to pin-point her as the eventual winner; added to the fact that her recent record in WTA finals has been nothing short of dire, losing to the likes of Aleksandra Wozniak in Stanford last year for example. When Bartoli is playing well, she makes an extremely high percentage of flat, well-placed first serves. Against such an "all-or-nothing" returner such as Li, this proved quite a decisive factor in he final. Certainly in the final and semi-final against Li and Zheng respectively, they both found it tough to break Bartoli because she was giving away little chance for either of them to attack her second serves.


Bartoli's timing off the ground is nothing short of exceptional. Her semi-final against Jie Zheng featured some of the most laser-like groundstroke duels imaginable. Both refused to stand retreat behind the baseline in rallies, with neither wanted to give any ground away. The reflexes and overall hand-eye co-ordination needed to play at such a hectic pace from inside the baseline, are astonishing. Their semi-final was arguably the highest quality match of the week. Full of flairsome, explosive winners from the baseline. Overall, Bartoli just seemed in better form than Zheng, and her serve is what set her apart in the end.


The other semi-final, Na Li simply overpowered Iveta Benesova. Benesova plays a fairly low percentage game. She doesn't have an awesome amount of firepower from the baseline, and she doesn't have the defense required to be a successful counter-puncher. Therefore, she needs to take alot of risks in her shot making in order for her game to be effective against competent opposition such as Na Li. She needs to go much closer to the lines and more regularly over the higher part of the net much Li possesses much more raw firepower than Benesova, thus doesn't have to go as close to the lines in her shotmaking, nor over the high part of the net. Point in case, even Li hitting as hard as she could straight down the middle of the court was just too much for Benesova to handle.


The difference in the final against Bartoli for Li, was that Bartoli could soak up Li's pace much better from the baseline. Li doesn't possess the angles in her groundstrokes to take Bartoli out of her comfort zone, so Li's straight, hard drives straight down the court just gave Bartoli rhythm.

Benesova just couldn't handle Li's pace, nor could she exceed it. In contrast, Bartoli was able to live on the baseline with Li and use the pace she was getting, to out-manoeuvre Li.

Small (bad quality) video of Bartoli's final exploits:





This week: Indian Wells



Draw



(1)Safina - BYE

Pironkova def. Erakovic 6-4 6-1

Govortsova def Keothavong 2-6 6-3 6-1

(28)Peng - BYE


(24)A. Bondarenko - BYE

Vaidisova def (WC)Krajicek 6-3 6-4

Craybas def (WC)Dokic 6-4 6-2

(16)Medina Garrigues - BYE


(10)Bartoli - BYE

Peer def. K. Bondarenko 6-2 6-1

Makarova def Dechy 3-6 6-1 6-3

(19)Chakvetadze - BYE


(32)Cirstea - BYE

Vesnina def. Lisicki 7-6(4) 7-5

(Q)Shvedova def Kudryavtseva 6-4 6-2

(8)Azarenka - BYE


(4)Zvonareva - BYE

Chan def. (Q)Ruano Pascual 6-4 6-1

Kvitova def Parmentier 6-3 6-2

Benesova - BYE


(17)Mauresmo - BYE

Groenefeld def. Niculescu 6-3 6-0

Li def. Tanasugarn 6-4 6-4

(13)Schnyder - BYE


(9)Wozniacki - BYE

Bacsinszky def. Arvidssson 6-2 6-3

Razzano def. (Q)Rodina 6-3 6-4

(18)Kanepi - BYE


(29)Suarez Navarro - BYE

(WC)Glatch def (Q)Dubois 6-3 6-2

(WC)U. Radwanska def. (Q)Larcher de Brito 4-6 6-2 6-4

(6)Kuznetsova - BYE


(5)Ivanovic - BYE

(Q)Yakimova def. (Q)Lepchenko 6-4 6-1

Mattek-Sands def Garbin 6-4 6-4

(31)Dulko - BYE(20)


Sugiyama - BYE

(Q)Haynes def. (WC)Tomljanovic 7-5 6-2

(WC)Mirza def Koryttseva 2-6 6-3 6-2

Pennetta - BYE


(15)Zheng - BYE

Dushevina def. (Q)Martic 6-4 6-3

Vinci def. Morita 6-3 6-4

(23)Bammer - BYE


(30)Hantuchova - BYE

Wickmayer def Rybarikova 6-3 6-2

(Q)Cetkovska def. (Q)Foretz 6-2 7-5

(3)Dementieva - BYE


(7)A. Radwanska - BYE

Stosur def Schiavone 6-1 6-4

Safarova def (WC)Oudin 6-3 6-1

(25)Wozniak - BYE


(22)Szavay - BYE

Gallovits def Kirilenko 3-6 7-5 7-5

Zakopalova def. (Q)Barrois

(11)Cornet - BYE


(14)Cibulkova - BYE

Llagostera Vives def Zahlavova Strycova 7-6(5) 7-5(9)

Paszek def Santangelo 6-3 6-2

(21)Kleybanova - BYE


(27)Errani - BYE(WC)

Knapp def (WC)King 6-2 6-1

Pavlyuchenkova def. Domachowska 6-1 6-3

(2)Jankovic - BYE


First round matches have all been completed. Notable results so far:


Vaidisova def Krajicek 6-3 6-4 - One fallen teen supernova, against another fallen semi-teen supernova. Just weeks ago, Vaidisova looked as though she had basically thrown her career away after a dire and uninspiring straight-sets loss to journey woman Loit at the Paris Indoors. However, in the past month, Nicole has been reunited with her former coach and step-father Alex Kodat, and has seemingly regained her dwindling motivation for the sport.


Krajicek, who made the quarter-finals of Wimbledon back in 2007, has seen her form dissipate dramatically over the past two years almost, yet going into this match, her form was the better of the two, and it still appeared as though she cared about tennis.


This match undoubtedly featured some of the worst return of serving imaginable. Both possess passable to wretched defensive skills. Both have big serve, but for different reasons (Vaidisova's is supremely well placed and modertely paced; it is practically unreadable. Krajicek just has a big flat first) Nicole's quality of groundstroke is just much better than Krajicek's though and that was undoubtedly a huge key in this match. Either that or it was just a case of who was "least bad" at returning the others serve.


Going forward, Vaidisova actually has quite a good draw. A. Bondarenko has such a consistent game, yet posts such inconsistent results. Nicole leads their head-to-head 1-0 and they play later today. Others in that section include Medina Garrigues, and top seeded Dinara Safina who is currently coming off a second round loss in Dubai in her last event. It's not completely inconceivable that Nicole could have a decent run, but quite unlikely. Let's wait and see what her match against Bondarenko brings first.


U. Radwanska def Larcher de Brito 4-6 6-2 6-4 - The immensely hyped Larcher de Brito goes out to the younger, less experienced, less accomplished Radwanska sister in three-sets. Larcher de Brito, now 16, made waves in Miami last year when she beat Agnieszka Radwanska in Miami, yet her results so far in her career have continually fluctuated. How much longer until the weight of pressure from critics that she is unlikely to become the future elite player that everyone had rashly predicted a year or two ago gets to her?



Closing thoughts:


So who will win Indian Wells? Well, the safe bet would be put on the top two seeds in the third quarter, Dementieva and Ivanovic. Dementieva leads her head-to-head with Ivanovic 4-0, with matches on three different surfaces. Dementieva is the clear favourite for the tournament so? Perhaps, although her form so far this year has been solid, rather than spectacular. In none of the matches she has played this year did she play consistently stellar tennis. She has showed patches of great tennis, but the timing on her backhand in particular has been lacking and the continual problems of her playing tactically brain-dead in tight situations remains. Still you can't deny her record this year has been very good up until now. She has only lost to both Williams sisters and Mauresmo, and with two of them not in the draw, her chances of lifting the title seem realistic at least.


Ivanovic seemed in much better form in Dubai than she had been for nearly all of the second-half of '08. Big problem for her is Dementieva, who she could possibly meet in the fourth round and who is a terrible match-up for her. Ivanovic can't live in hectic paced baseline rallies with Dementieva; fails miserably whenever she tries infact. Dementieva has the excellent return-of-serve is soak up Ivanovic's pressure of a big first serve, has the defensive skills to turn defensive situations into offensive ones, and her forehand is big enough to hit through Ivanovic from behind the baseline. She's doesn't have the mid-court game to deal with Ivanovic's junkballing but that's another story. Alot of this match-up depends on how big Ivanovic serve and how well Dementieva is hitting from the baseline. It wouldn't surprise me if Ivanovic finally got her first win over her bête noire in Indian wells, going on to bluff her way to another big title, beating her "bitches" Jankovic and Kuznetsova in the semi-finals and the final respectively.


Safina isin't playing well right now. She hasn't played well this year so far to be honest. Her final runs in Sydney and at the Australian Open were due more to good, open draws rather than anything to do with great form. Her draw is great again at Indian Wells, despite a potentially tricky opening match against giant-killer Pironkova. She looks set to reach the top of the WTA rankings in the coming month, but will the pressure get to her? Her first match against Pironkova will tell alot. Pironkova with wins over Venus Williams and Ivanovic at big events won't choke if she gets into a winning position and relishes the big stage. If Safina is to lose early, this is where it will happen. If not, her draw is great and could make another final this year, by default even.


Other tournament hopefuls include: perennial bridesmaid Kuznetsova and former number one Jankovic who seems to be suffering from the backlash which she received when she reached the rankings summit without a slam to her name, and is now seemingly playing in auto-pilot, in limbo as to whether she cares about the outcome of her dreary matches or not.


A. Radwanska, Zvonareva and the newly rejuvenated Mauresmo fill the chasing pack.