Monday 8 May 2017

Muguruza exits Madrid early

The second day of main draw action at the Madrid tournament has seen some significant results, especially given that Roland Garros is but a couple of weeks away.

Just to clear up a few loose ends.
Pablo Carreno Busta defeated Gilles Muller to take the Estoril title, his first crown for 2017, from his second final.
Sascha Zverev won the Munich crown in front of an adoring home nation crowd, overcoming Guido Pella, a second title for this year, and moving him back into the top twenty.
Marin Cilic was too strong for Milos Raonic in Istanbul, winning his first title for 2017 and 17th of his career.

In Madrid, Spain cried as defending French Open champ Garbine Muguruza was ousted in the first round by Timea Bacsinszky in just over an hour.  
Caroline Wozniacki won her clash with Monica Niculescu, but it took the 10th seed almost three and and a half hours to progress to the second round.

Maria Sharapova's comeback continues on track, as she defeated 17th seed Mirjana Lucic-Baroni after dropping the opening set.

Not so fortunate have been 11th seed and triple title winner in 2017 Elina Svitolina, Rabat finalists from last week, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Francesca Schiavone, and Prague runner-up also last week Kristyna Pliskova.

Form is indeed fleeting on the WTA tour.

Seeds to join Wozniacki in the second round include Kerber (1), Halep (3), Cibulkova (4), Sveta Kuznetsova (8), Kristina Mladenovic (14), Barbora Strycova (15) and Samantha Stosur (16).

Just two men's first round matches have been completed to this point and ninth seed David Goffin has safely negotiated his road through to round two.

Day three hots up with Tsonga, Kyrgios, Monfils, Berdych, Dimitrov, and Sock all due to play their first matches.  Monfils v Simon in an all French encounter looks the standout on paper.

Second round women's matches involve the top two seeds Angie Kerber and Karolina Pliskova amongst others, but the one match certain to attract most attention is the Maria Sharapova v Eugenie Bouchard battle.

Bouchard has made it abundantly clear that she would like Sharapova banned for life, not back after 15 months, so now she has the chance to beat the 5 time Grand Slam champion on the court.  If beaten, the Canadian should be a very interesting press conference participant.

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