Lauren Davis 1st Title

Lauren Davis captured her first WTA title in Auckland following her decisive victory over Croatian teenager Ana Konjuh in the final today.  The 23 year old American, previously ranked 61, but now guaranteed to leap back into the top fifty, claimed the scalps of no less than four seeded players on her path to glory.

Giving away a significant height advantage, Davis dominated Konjuh's second serve, winning 64% of points once it was in play, and she broke the Croatian serve five times.

For her efforts, Konjuh will rise to a career high 36.

Overnight, Australian time, Andy Murray booked a finals appointment with Novak Djokovic in Doha, but the methods of arriving there were rather different.  Before Murray dispensed with Tomas Berdych in straight sets, as is usual with Berdych in semi finals, Djokovic dropped the opening set against unseeded Fernando Verdasco 6-4.  He then had to save three break points at 4-4 in the second set.  In the ensuing tie break, he led 2-1, then lost five straight points to be staring four match points in the face.  

Remarkably he drew level at 6 points apiece and appeared to have snatched the momentum away from the Spaniard.  Verdasco intervened, taking the next point off the second seed and be serving with a fifth match point.

Novak saved this one, and with that Verdasco had wasted his last opportunity to cause a major upset.  Djokovic won 4-6 7-6 (7) 6-3.

In Brisbane today, Kei Nishikori proved too efficient for Stan Wawrinka once the Swiss number one lost the first set in a tie break, despite creating the only three break points of the set.

Set two saw Nishikori tear the Swiss serve to pieces, breaking it twice, and winning more than half the points on it.

In a similar scoreline, Grigor Dimitrov caused a boil over, bundling top seed and defending champ Milos Raonic out of the tournament 7-6 6-2.

The first set was resolved in a tie break, after no service breaks were obtained, not even a break point created.  The first serve percentages were both around 50%.

Set two saw the first serve percentages change dramatically - Dimitrov could almost not miss, hitting the mark 81% of the time, while Raonic dropped to 42%.

The Bulgarian feasted on the Canadian second serve, winning 10 of the 14 times that it was required.

Subsequently, the set was won easily, and the semi final 7-6 (7) 6-2 to Dimitrov, whose form suggests he could very well win the final against Nishikori.

Tonight the women battle for the Brisbane title, and while Aliza Cornet has had a good tournament, there can be no denying that favouritism belongs to the brilliant Karolina Pliskova, who dismantled Elina Svitolina in ominous fashion last night.

Her serve was effortlessly glorious, and the winners just flowed off both wings.  At this particular stage, Pliskova is delivering the best tennis on the WTA Tour, and Melbourne Park should be ready for something special from last year's US Open runner-up in a week or so.

Raonic firing in Brisbane

Unfortunately, Garbine Muguruza was forced out of the Brisbane International after trailing Alize Cornet 1-4 in the first set of the first semi final.  Hopefully the thigh injury does not affect the remainder of her Australian Summer, especially the Aus Open.  Meanwhile, Cornet awaits the winner of tonight's second semi between Karolina Pliskova and Elina Svitolina.

That match will follow the intriguing quarter final battle which Milos Raonic and Rafa Nadal have just served up.

Initially it was the Spaniard calling the shots, his crisp forcing ground shots and ability to return the big Canadian serve, enough to cause an early service break.  That was sufficient to claim the opening set, as the Nadal serve was solid, the single break point against it saved without trouble.

Set two saw the Raonic serve become more potent, but it's effect on the match diluted through a spate of poor volleying choices and technique.  However, despite some close calls, no breaks of serve eventuated for seven games.  In fact just two break points had been created, both on the Raonic delivery, and both saved.

The eighth game was the match changer - Raonic played some delightful shots, sending Nadal so wide on occasion that he ended up in some of Brisbane's outer suburbs.  The break came, and then a service hold to behold.

The match was tied at a set apiece.

The momentum now so much with Canada continued into the deciding set and Rafa lost his second serve in succession.  At 2-1 and 30-30, a superb attacking lob winner from Nadal gave him a break point and a chance to level, but Raonic had the immediate answer.

Serves were held and soon it was 4-3 with Raonic at the line again.  Four tracer bullets left Nadal powerless to contribute and the top seed was a game away from a semi final.  23 aces now for Milos.

Nadal held serve, but Raonic had no problem completing the win 4-6 6-3 6-4.

His semi final opponent will be Grigor Dimitrov, who survived a three setter himself against fourth seed Dominic Thiem.

The other semi final sees Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori cross swords.  They held too many weapons for their unseeded opponents, Kyle Edmund and Jordan Thompson, although Stan did drop the opening set tie break on the way to his victory.

In other tournamnents Lauren Davis and eighth seed Ana Konjuh will contest the Auckland final after semi final wins over Ostapenko and Goerges respectively.

The Shenzhen final will be fought out between Katerina Siniakova and eighth seed Alison Riske.  Siniakova upset the highest ranked player left in the draw, Johanna Konta, after losing the first set 1-6, and Riske eliminated Camila Giorgi in a standard two setter.

Top seed out in NZ, China, India, Aus

As we approach the serious end of the opening tournaments of 2017, there have been some surprise results which will only add intrigue to the upcoming Aus Open.

Auckland saw the exit of the top two seeds, both Williams sisters, after just two rounds.  Venus withdrew through injury but Serena lost to fellow American Madison Brengle.  Sadly for Madison the biggest win of her career could not translate into further tournament success and the semi final spot she'd hoped for was taken by Latvian seventh seed Jelena Ostapenko in two sets.

One American who will be in the semis in New Zealand is Lauren Davis.  After knocking out fifth seed Kiki Bertens in the opening round, unseeded Davis gave in form fourth seed Barbora Strycova her marching orders in an impressive quarter final victory.  It will be Ostapenko v Davis in one semi and eighth seed Ana Konjuh from Croatia against unseeded German Julia Goerges in the other.

Goerges fought back incredibly from a set and 0-3 down against third seed Caroline Wozniacki to take out the last quarter final 1-6 6-3 6-4. 

In Brisbane, 7 of the men's quarter finalists have been determined, with two unseeded players providing upsets - Australia received great joy when Jordan Thompson came from a set down to defeat 8th seed David Ferrer and England's Kyle Edmund was ahead by a set and leading in the second when 6th seed Lucas Pouille surrendered with an injury.

If Nadal wins tonight it sets up a mouth watering quarter final with top seed and defending champ Milos Raonic.

One women's semi final is set - fourth seed Garbine Muguruza will face unseeded Alize Cornet after wins over Sveta Kuznetsova and second seed Dominika Cibulkova respectively.  Both Cornet and Muguruza have played some high quality tennis throughout, and have fought hard from some difficult positions, especially Garbine, so expect a terrific match.  Garbine to win, just.

Third seed Karolina Pliskova will play Elena Svitolina in the other semi, thanks to Elena's wonderful victory over the world number one Angie Kerber in three absorbing sets.  However, even with that fine result, and despite Pliskova losing the first set of her quarter final to Roberta Vinci, I believe that Karolina has shown enough to be my pick for a final spot.  Her serve is huge, and improved pace around the court makes her increasingly dangerous for any opponent this year.

The top two seeds are gone from the Shenzhen draw, Simona Halep exiting first, and now Alison Riske blitzing Aga Radwanska 6-0 in the deciding third set of their quarter final.  The eighth seeded American won 24 of the 30 points played in the final set, after Radwanska had tied it up at a set all.

Third seed Johanna Konta meets Katerina Siniakova in the semi finals and Riske has to deal with Italian Camila Giorgi.

Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic remain on course to meet in the Doha final, as two more seeds - David Goffin and Philipp Kohlschreiber - have fallen en route to the quarter final stage.  Murray has unseeded Almagro and Djokovic has qualifier Stepanek to manage next.

Chennai lost its main drawcard top seed Marin Cilic in the second round - his first outing - following a shock defeat to Slovak qualifier Josef Kovalik, ranked 117.

Each player broke serve twice but Kovalik saved nine break points and this was pivotal.

Of the four quarter finalists decided to this point, only one is seeded - Albert Ramos-Vinolas (3).

Garbine value for money

Andy Murray, recently knighted for making truckloads of money and looking deliriously unhappy on court while doing so, opened up 2017 as expected by embarrassing Jeremy Chardy in the first set in Doha 6-0, surrendering a mere 7 points to France in the process. Easing up a little in the second, the scowling Scot completed the execution via a tie break, and thus the world number one had begun his quest for more glory for the loss of not too much perspiration.

The previous day, the number two seed Novak Djokovic (still the world's best in my opinion) was still in the locker room for the first six games, and despite Jan-Lenard Struff grabbing a 5-1 edge, Novak cruised past the German, whose heart broke.  Djokovic, ever the neat freak, picked up the broken pieces, brushed up his own game and cleaned up what was left on offer for a 7-6 6-3 win.

The support acts to Andy and Novak have begun in fairly good form, although Jo-Wilfried Tsonga took three sets to convince Andrey Kuznetsov to leave Qatar.

Ivo Karlovic couldn't break the Illya Marchenko serve but 13 aces from the Croatian was enough to ensure he would win the two tie breakers.

Goffin v Karlovic and Berdych v Tsonga are the pick of the probable quarter finals.

In Brisbane, the men's top players are performing to expectations, with Rafa Nadal, Lucas Pouille, Grigor Dimitrov and David Ferrer all through to the second round.

Pouille had the greatest difficulty, another Frenchman Gilles Simon taking him to two tie breaks, and in fact rueing lost opportunities - Pouille converted all of his four break points, while Simon converted four of twelve chances.

Also in Brisbane, Garbine Muguruza is in the quarter finals, although listening to the commentators you may think that the players she has beaten had actually won those matches.  After losing the first set to Muguruza, Samantha Stosur came back strongly to win the second in a tie break and lead 4-2 in the decider.

The Spanish world number seven refused to yield and eventually prevailed 7-5,  but for the home commentators it was all praise to Stosur and how she had performed - no mention of the winner and her effort to pull out the victory from a break down.

Similarly, the excellent second round match last night against young Russian Daria Kasatkina, decided in a gripping third set tie break, was all about the loser if you believed the commentators.  Again little mention of who won the encounter.

Third seed Karolina Pliskova is another quarter finalist, but has booked her spot with ease, dropping just nine games in her two matches.

Elena Svitolina and Aliza Cornet are also in the final eight, Svitolina scraping through after a fine three setter against a fighting Shelby Rogers, Cornet making far easier work of another American Christina McHale.

Rain has plagued Auckland, but both Williams sisters are in the second round, joined by Caro Wozniacki and Barbora Strycova, while American Lauren Davis upset fifth seed Kiki Bertens.

Venus defeated young New Zealander Jade Lewis, ranked 1099, and at 18 half her highly decorated opponents age.

Novak + others dusting off their racquets

While it officially began yesterday, with some matches in Brisbane and Shenzhen, today sees main draw action in earnest in all 6 tournaments - 3 ATP and 3 WTA.

In Doha, the top 2 players in the world are seeded to meet each other in the final for bragging rights even before the Aus Open, but first Novak Djokovic has an opening round match against 63rd ranked German Jan-Lennard Struff.

Potential semi final opponent for Djokovic is David Goffin, and the Belgian fourth seed has Robin Haase from The Netherlands to negotiate initially.

The top four seeds in Chennai have first round byes, including top seed and world number six Marin Cilic.  The only seeded player in first round play today is fellow Croatian Borna Coric who should have too many weapons for South Korean qualifier Hyeon Chung.  Both are only 20, but Coric has been ranked as high as 33 and has made two ATP finals, including Chennai last year.

First round winners in Shenzhen included seventh seed Romanian Monica Niculescu, although she needed to come from a set down against China's own Kai-Lin Zhang.  Eighth seeded American Alison Riske also found solid opposition from a Chinese wildcard, delivering victory via a pair of tie breaks.

Today top seed and world number three Aga Radwanska opens her campaign, yet another wild card from China, Ying-Ying Duan her first hurdle.  Little chance of this one going beyond two sets.

Far more problematic for second seed Simona Halep, whose first round task is to conquer former world number one Jelena Jankovic.  Despite the Serbian having fallen to 55, she still has the potential to match it with the top players, especially early in the season when everyone is short of match practice.

An interesting clash will feature the veteran Shuai Peng, who at 30 will have the experience and the crowd support when facing 20 year old promising Czech player Katerina Siniakova, who broke back into the top 100, then for the first time the top 50 in 2016.

Auckland has the Williams sisters this week, in addition to Caroline Wozniacki, and Serena is on court this evening, the top seed clashing with French player Pauline Parmentier, currently sitting at 71 in the world.

Earlier in the day, former Roland Garros finalist Lucie Safarova takes on fellow Czech player Denisa Allertova.  Lucie is 62 in the world but poses a danger far more potent than the ranking suggests.  Should she win, her second round opponent will likely be fourth seed and another Czech mate, Fed Cup star Barbora Strycova.

Brisbane results from yesterday included Shelby Rogers knocking out Eugenie Bouchard 6-1 in the third, Alize Cornet upsetting seventh seed Elena Vesnina in a third set tie break, after dropping the opening set, and Ekaterina Makarova joining her doubles partner on the scrap heap courtesy of Japanese player Misaki Doi in straight sets.

Russia had some reason to smile though with teenager Daria Kasatkina continuing her rise up the charts, defeating Begu in two convincing sets.  A challenging second round awaits - probably Garbine Muguruza.

Third seed Karolina Pliskova was in no mood to stick around, taking just over an hour to dismiss Putintseva for the loss of just four games.  Ominous form from the big serving Czech.

Today there are more women's matches and the men introduce themselves further. Last year's semi finalist Bernard Tomic has a tough ask with perennial nuisance David Ferrer (8th seed) his first match up.

7th seed Grigor Dimitrov has drawn accomplished American Steve Johnson and will need to be on his game to avoid leaving early.

More Aussies are scheduled today and surprise surprise they have centre court (Pat Rafter Arena) allocated for their first matches.

Ash Barty, continuing her comeback to serious tennis, is still only 20, but ranked 275 is relying on wild cards for tournaments like these.

Her first round encounter is against a qualifier, 149th ranked Serbian Aleksandra Krunic.  A chance for Barty to win and then be given a lesson by Kerber.

Samantha Stosur was treated more harshly by the draw, and would need several moons and stars to align, and her tennis game to improve markedly before realistically standing a chance of overcoming Garbine Muguruza.

Fifth seed Sveta Kuznetsova and sixth seed Elina Svitolina will play today, as will eighth seed Roberta Vinci.  Young American Louisa Chirico, Olympic Gold Medalist Monica Puig, and Ukranian Kateryna Bondarenko are the respective opponents who all should be collecting first round losers cheques in a number of hours.

The all French clash between Nicolas Mahut and Stephane Robert is planned for Court One, followed later by promising Brit Kyle Edmund against American qualifier Ernesto Escobedo.  The first named in each to win those.

Tomorrow we expect to see the big guns - Milos Raonic (reigning champ), Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori, Dominic Thiem and Rafa Nadal.

Top Players flock to Brisbane, Perth

New Years Day 2017 and the international tennis circus has hit the shores of Australia in a big way.  On the west coast, Perth is hosting the 29th edition of the Hopman Cup, the team event won last year (yes I can legitimately say that now) by Australia.

The home nation once again will be represented by world number 13 Nick Kyrgios and world number 25 Dasha Gavrilova.

Spain will be the first opponent for the defending champs, and that tie will be decided on the first night of 2017.  Feliciano Lopez and Lara Arruabarrena carry the Spanish hopes.

Before that, the day session and opening of the competition sees the strong USA team of Jack Sock and Coco Vandeweghe take on the Czech Republic combination Adam Pavlasek and Lucie Hradecka.

Some of the other prominent names who will strut their stuff over the course of the Hopman Cup this year include Roger Federer, Richard Gasquet, Alexander Zverev, Belinda Bencic and Kristina Mladenovic.

Meanwhile, on the east coast, the Brisbane International has a wealth of the top ten players from each of the WTA and ATP Tours on show.  The WTA Premier event will feature the 2 players who battled it out for the WTA Finals title in Singapore in November - world number one Angie Kerber and her vanquisher on that occasion Dominika Cibulkova, now ranked number 5.  They are the top two seeds for this event and both receive first round byes.  Seeds 3, 4 and 5 are the worlds 6, 7 and 9 - Karolina Pliskova (2016 US Open Runner-Up), Garbine Muguruza (2016 Roland Garros Champion) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (2 time GS title winner).

Last year, Vika Azarenka defeated Kerber in the Brisbane final, before Angie turned the tables on Vika in the Aus Open quarter final en route to the title.  However, Vika has just given birth to a baby boy, so is not a threat for the foreseeable future.  This year the top seed must start favourite.  

The first days action on centre court begins with former top ten star and 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard.  The Canadian, now ranked 46, faces Shelby Rogers in an all North American contest, the USA player at 59 in the world.  My selection is Bouchard to win in three sets, but nothing should surprise in early matches in early tournaments of a new season.

Except perhaps a loss for third seed Pliskova in her opening match against Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva, scheduled second in the main stadium.  That would indeed be a shock.

Putintseva made the quarter finals last year at Roland Garros, while Pliskova lost first round.

2016 after that saw just 10 wins from 24 appearances for Putintseva.

Pliskova on the other hand won Nottingham and Cincinnati, was a finalist at Eastbourne and Flushing Meadows, and managed 28 match wins from 39 starts.

Can't visualise anything but straight sets entry into Brisbane's second round for the Fed Cup winning team member.

The other seed on display on day one is number seven Elena Vesnina, whose court one opposition comes in the form of French woman Alize Cornet.

Last year Cornet made the second round before winning the Hobart title, while Vesnina lost to Azarenka in the first round.  In fact Vesnina also lost in qualifying for the Aus Open 2016 and found herself languishing ranked somewhere in the hundreds.

Her revival to end the year at 16 was one of the more impressive on court achievements for 2016.

The final women's and men's qualifying matches are also scheduled for New Years Day, but the sole main draw men's match will include an Australian - wild card Jordan Thompson.  The 79th ranked Aussie has managed to claim centre court as the venue to fight it out against fellow wild card Elias Ymer, who hails from Sweden.  

While Thompson is favoured to win that match, his tournament would likely end next round where he'd have to overcome the Tomic/Ferrer victor.

2017 Tennis Almost Here

2016 is about to end which means that the first tournaments on both the WTA and ATP tours for 2017 are only just over a week away.

A fortnight of practice for the first major - the Australian Open at Melbourne Park starting on 16 January - begins with titles up for grabs in Auckland, New Zealand and Shenzhen, China for the ladies, and Chennai, India and Doha, Qatar for the gentlemen.

Brisbane, Australia plays host for both tours.

Petra Kvitova will be missing for at least six months after injuries suffered in the senseless personal attack from an intruder in her home earlier this week.  She will be certainly missed, but hopefully be back on court later this year, recovered from her physical and emotional trauma.

2017 offers plenty, and certainty is not on the menu.  12 months ago, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams were the dominant forces atop the singles rankings, and whilst still the ones to beat in the minds of many, other players have lifted their standards of performance and consistency.

Angelique Kerber is the deserved number one female player having claimed two Grand Slam titles in 2016, and her obvious talent is matched with a fierce competitiveness and belief, an attitude that has been adopted by many of her peers.

Challengers to Angie, either for the top spot, or for major titles, should come from the tried and true - Serena for as long as she is willing, Simona Halep, Aga Radwanska, Garbine Muguruza (who with consistency could be anything), Karolina Pliskova, Dominika Cibulkova, and yes even Maria Sharapova once she returns from her suspension in April.

Then there are the potential world beaters Madison Keys and Johanna Konta.  

The depth in women's tennis makes for an exciting season ahead.

The Andy Murray / Novak Djokovic rivalry appears set to define the men's game, at least for the foreseeable future, despite a number of young guns attempting to close in on the duopoly.  

Murray should retain the top spot for some time, given all the points that Novak has to defend in the first half of 2017.

What of the others ?  Federer returns after a long injury layoff and we don't know exactly where he will feature - probably able to beat most but not the top few.  Nadal is now appearing to be at best a solid top five player if fit, and not a threat at majors other than Paris.

Wawrinka is the same as he has been for a few years - dangerous at Grand Slam level but highly unreliable elsewhere.

Milos Raonic is the real deal, again with the proviso that he maintains fitness.  Injury robbed him of a possible final at the 2016 Australian Open, he was runner-up at Wimbledon and clearly the third best performed at the year end event in London.

Of the new breed, Alexander Zverev and Nick Kyrgios have games that can worry the best, but they need to apply patience before potential ever turns into a threat to the top spots.

The predictability of men's tennis I believe will still exist in 2017, but to a much lesser extent.