The final lead up tournaments to the Australian Open have been concluded and no joy for the Aussies in the Sydney finals.
First off, Ash Barty was the ninth victim in succession for the increasingly sharp Angie Kerber, who despite her being outside the seedings at. Melbourne Park remains one of the huge dangers in the draw.
The points that mattered in set one were won by the German - Barty could not convert any of her four break points, whereas Kerber won the key break out of just two chances.
Otherwise it was a tight set with both players serving quite well.
6-4 Kerber.
Set two saw Kerber attack the Barty second serve with success but Ash stuck close, only to be broken with the single conversion from two opportunities presented to Kerber.
Barty wasted both of her chances.
6-4 6-4 and Kerber sounded a firm warning to her rivals that she was in the form that could well be good enough to win a second Aus Open after her 2016 success.
Barty still could do damage in Melbourne as she played ok in the Sydney event.
Next it was a match between 21 year old Daniil Medvedev from Russia and 18 year old Aussie Alex de Minaur, both seeking a debut ATP title.
Not to be for de Minaur this time, but nothing can deny his wonderful summer so far.
Alex was unstoppable in set one, surrendering a single game on the back of converting three of six break points and not facing any on his own serve.
However, despite this pointing to a positive result for de Minaur, Medvedev fought hard as he had done so well in his semi against Fognini when all seemed lost.
Points won on the Russian first serve improved from 50% to 93% and on second serve from 30% to 70%.
It was Daniil who was impregnable, while Alex was broken twice and the match was levelled, the set taken to Russia 6-4.
The decider was not quite so dominated on serve by Medvedev but he still held sway in that area. de Minaur stuck tight in the rallies and saved important break points but couldn’t avoid just that one which gave the Russian qualifier the set 7-5 and his first ATP crown.
Medvedev moves 31 spots up in the rankings to 53, five below his career high.
de Minaur began the summer ranked 208 and his 40 spot jump from Sydney takes him to a career high of 127.
In Hobart Elise Mertens (2) completed her preparation for Melbourne by capturing the title in three sets over an impressive Mihaela Buzarnescu.
Following a smashing in the opening set, where Mihaela could only manage 18 points from the 48 contested in the 1-6 disaster, the Romanian hit back hard.
Winning 90% of points on her serve, Buzarnescu seized on one of the break points on show and levelled at 1-6 6-4.
However, Mertens steadied in the decider, and while using only one of ten available break points, the job was done for the Belgian 6-1 4-6 6-3.
Auckland was the site for another title for Robert Bautista Agut (5) - he won twice in 2017 and one of those was also in January.
This year he defeated number two seed Juan Martin del Potro in just over two hours 6-1 4-6 7-5, the same scoreline of the Hobart final.
Apart from the fast Spanish start there was little to choose between the two, and they both are ideally prepared for Melbourne where there is the possibility of a del Potro Federer quarter final battle, remembering the pair clashed in the 2017 US Open quarter final.
Delpo won that and obviously angered the Fed Express because Roger reversed things in both the Shanghai semis and the Basel final.
No comments:
Post a Comment