Genie finds form to oust Maria

2017 has been successful for Genie Bouchard in terms of swimsuits and Sports Illustrated but on the tennis court it has been essentially rubbish.

Before the Madrid Open, the former Wimbledon finalist had managed just seven wins from sixteen matches, and had no form to suggest anything would change here.

Forthright comments from Bouchard suggesting Maria Sharapova should never be allowed to grace a competitive tennis court ever again due to her drugs in sport offence, gained more headlines than any tennis exploits from the Canadian in recent times.

So it was uncanny how the two were drawn to meet in the second round in Madrid.  It took quite a bit of hard work for the match to occur, Sharapova having to come from a set behind to defeat Lucic-Baroni, and Bouchard surviving a two hour three setter against Alize Cornet.

Despite an atrocious first serve percentage, Bouchard used a reliable second delivery to good effect in an impressive opening set against Sharapova, and attacked the Russian, gaining 10 break opportunities.

Converting three was sufficient to win the set 7-5 and send a message to Maria.

In typical fashion Sharapova answered the message at 2-2 in set two, careering away to take the rest of the games in style and level the match 5-7 6-2.

The deciding set was intriguing to say the least.  Each player did their best to drop serve but showed immense technique and courage to save on each occasion.

Sharapova saved eight break points and Bouchard six.

Bouchard dug just a little deeper and achieved the first break in game seven, but Sharapova broke back straight away and had game points for a 5-4 lead.

Here she had an inexplicable concentration lapse, but credit to Bouchard for pressing, and the game turned to Canada and a third successive break.

Serving for the match, Genie Bouchard faced more break points but again fought through these to take the set and match 7-5 2-6 6-4 in just under three hours.

For players ranked 60 (Bouchard) and 258 (Sharapova) this was a top class tennis match, and surely both will be at least top twenty again before too long.

This one match overshadowed the exits of second seed Karolina Pliskova, her Czech compatriot Barbora Strycova (15) and Caroline Wozniacki (10).

Anastasija Sevastova, Lara Arruabarrena and Carla Suarez Navarro,  respectively, did the damage.

Mens seeds to leave the singles action were Jack Sock (14) in three sets to Nicolas Mahut, and Gael Monfils (15) to Gilles Simon in a crazy scoreline 0-6 6-0 7-6 (0)

Tsonga, Berdych, Dimitrov and Kyrgios all advanced to round two.

Kerber, Kuznetsova and Mladenovic are safely in round three.

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.

All roads to Madrid

As the first of the two major tournaments leading into Roland Garros has just commenced in Madrid, five other tournaments have either concluded or are about to.

Estoril saw all top four seeds make the quarter finals but second seed Richard Gasquet fell to unseeded Kevin Anderson at this stage.

The final will feature top seed Pablo Carreno Busta and third seed Gilles Muller.

Munich, in contrast, lost a number of its top fancies along the way, including number one seed Gael Monfils in his first match.  The title will be decided between third seed Alexander Zverev and qualifier Guido Pella.

Istanbul has gone pretty much to script and the top two ranked players Milos Raonic and Marin Cilic will do battle in the final.

In Prague, the Czech presence was strong, with Karolina Pliskova top seed, Barbora Strycova (3), Lucie Safarova (5) and Katerina Siniakova (8).

However Karolina left in round one, Lucie in round two, leaving it to Karolina's twin sister Kristyna and Barbora to hold the nation's hopes in respective semi finals.

Kristyna won her semi final but Barbora lost hers to qualifier Mona Barthel, who proceeded to win the title.

In Rabat, top seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova survived a number of upsets to advance to the semi finals joining unseeded Italians Sara Errani and Francesca Schiavone and American Varvara Lepchenko.

Schiavone continued her recent run of form by reaching the final, but despite a competitive showing, could not quite match it with Pavlyuchenkova who clinched her tenth career title.

So far in Madrid, with all the world's top players back in action, things are a little different. 

Sara Errani, semi finalist in Rabat, has lost in first round of qualifying, an example of how the level has increased.

Major upsets have occurred already in women's first round matches - 9th seed Madison Keys and 12th seed Elena Vesnina have been eliminated by Misaki Doi and Irina-Camelia Begu respectively.

10 for Nadal in Barcelona

Rafa Nadal had no problems winning his 10th Barcelona title, leaking a mere 5 games to Dominic Thiem in the final.

However, the first set was competitive throughout, with no break of serve for the first nine games.  Nadal had to save a break point in the opening game, but would face no more for the match.

The tenth game was pivotal, as Thiem committed three unforced errors, allowing Nadal to clinch the service break and take the first set 6-4.

Set two saw the Spaniard pour more pressure on the Austrian and the break came in the fourth game.  After that, it was plain sailing for Nadal, who claimed the crown 6-4 6-1, with 14 winners.

Winning 10 times at the same ATP tournament is a record and Nadal has now done it twice, here in Barcelona, and the week before in Monte Carlo. 

He has scarily won nine French Opens and must be hot favourite to make it an even 10 in a few weeks.

Laura Siegemund thrilled her German fans by going one better this year and winning the Stuttgart title.  It was a terrific final, and Kristina Mladenovic pushed Siegemund to the absolute limit, a third set tie break required to decide the victor.

The first set was one way traffic with Siegemund winning twice as many points and hitting eight winners to take it 6-1 in under half an hour.

Mladenovic struck back, converting the only break points of set two and levelling the match at 1-6 6-2.

The decider was a roller coaster where Siegemund eventually had the chance to serve for the match at 5-4.  Mladenovic survived and led 4-1 in the tie breaker before Siegemund rattled off six of the next seven points to win the title.

In other tournaments, Lucas Pouille won in Budapest, defeating Aljaz Bedene in the final, while Elina Svitolina won her third title for the year, overcoming Elise Mertens in Istanbul.

It is a busy time this week with ATP tournaments in Estoril, Munich and Istanbul, and WTA events in Prague and Rabat.

Already there has been a huge upset in Prague with the top seed Karolina Pliskova dumped from her home tournament in the first round in straight sets by Italian Camila Giorgi.

Unseeded Stuttgart final

Andy Murray has failed in his second successive clay court tournament to reach the final.

In Barcelona the world number one sought and gained revenge on Albert Ramos-Vinolas for his Monte Carlo misstep, with a three set quarter final victory, but couldn't find a way past Dominic Thiem in a semi final which featured high class tennis from both players.

Murray is in the habit of losing opening sets at the moment, and that should be of concern, because while he is able to manage the disadvantage against most players, he becomes vulnerable against the best.

Fortunately at Roland Garros it is best of five sets.

Rafa Nadal has had a rather easier time in Barcelona, not having to play a seeded player in any match on his travel through to yet another final.  He hasn't dropped a set and after racking up 10 Monte Carlo titles, he is hot favourite to make it 10 of these too.

Thiem will certainly make him earn it, but Nadal rejoices in the clay and history seems to be wanting this.

Stuttgart will see an unseeded final, but it won't be a disappointment for fans.  The two combatants have played brilliantly throughout, proving over and over their competence on clay and how dangerous they can be come Roland Garros in 3 weeks.

French number 19 Kristina Mladenovic has already enjoyed a great 2017, winning her first career title in St Petersburg and achieving a career high ranking of 18 last month. That will change to 17 even if she loses the final here.

Mladenovic defeated Aus Open semi finalist Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the first round, top seed Angie Kerber in the second round, then Carla Suarez Navarro in a quarter final, all in straight sets.

Then in one of the matches of the tournament, Mladenovic battled for more than two and half hours with Maria Sharapova, coming from a set and a break down to win a thrilling semi final  3-6 7-5 6-4.  

The Germans were sad for Kerber's early departure but have been over the moon with Laura Siegemund and her performances in Stuttgart this year.  

Runner up here last year, the former world number 27 has struggled in 2017 and was granted a wild card to enter the Stuttgart main draw this time, ranked 49.

However, once on clay Siegemund is a changed player and her results reflect that.

After dismissing eighth seed Sveta Kuznetsova in the second round, Laura went the distance for over three hours with second seed Karolina Pliskova in the match of the tournament, finally pulling out one of her best ever wins.

With hardly a minute to draw breath the next task was a semi final against Simona Halep, the fourth seed in a streak of hot form.

In a match where serve was broken 14 times in 22 games, Siegemund stopped Halep in straight sets to progress to her second successive Stuttgart final.

Siegemund will have a boost to her ranking irrespective of the result, and is now a real possibility of gaining a seeding for Roland Garros.

Sharapova back and winning

Important tournaments this week in the lead up to Roland Garros are in progress in Barcelona and Budapest for the men and Stuttgart and Istanbul for the women.

Most attention has been focused on Stuttgart, and the return to competitive tennis of Maria Sharapova.

Maria has served a lengthy sentence for a drug offence, and deserves to be back playing; I am disgusted by those in the media, and certain players, who would rather that she not be granted the Stuttgart wildcard and who continue to treat her with a permanent black mark, never to be afforded another chance.

Remarkable how they don't do that with the men who have come back from drug suspensions.

We need quality players, and Sharapova, despite her incessant screaming, is one of the very best of her era.  With two Roland Garros titles already to her name, it would be an amazing accomplishment to make this year's draw and cause some damage along the way.

Sharapova has in Stuttgart begun her comeback with a bang, eliminating Roberta Vinci and Ekaterina Makarova, both in straight sets, to reach the quarter finals.  The draw has opened up for her, with qualifier Anett Kontaveit from Estonia knocking  out fifth seed Garbine Muguruza in the second round and becoming Sharapova's quarter final opposition.

It hasn't been a great tournament for the seeds.  Third seed Dominika Cibulkova withdrew before the event began and we've seen the departure of Aga Radwanska (7) in the first round (courtesy of Makarova), and Sveta Kuznetsova (8), Johanna Konta (6), and top seed Angie Kerber in second round matches.

The quarter final match ups are:

Kristina Mladenovic v Carla Suarez Navarro (Mladenovic defeated Kerber )

Maria Sharapova v Anett Kontaveit 

Anastasija Sevastova v Simona Halep (4) (Sevastova defeated Konta)

Laura Siegemund v Karolina Pliskova (2) (Siegemund defeated Kuznetsova)

Barcelona has seen its fair share of upsets, but Andy Murray has not appeared amongst the casualties.  A first round bye and a walkover from Bernard Tomic put him safely in the third round without lifting a finger.

When finally asked to raise a racquet the world number one was capable of dismissing Feliciano Lopez comfortably in two sets to reach the quarter finals.

He was joined there by Monte Carlo finalists Rafa Nadal and Albert Ramos-Vinolas, and Dominic Thiem, the only seeds left in the tournament.  Murray will face Ramos-Vinolas for the second tournament in succession, having lost to him in Monte Carlo.

The other quarter finals are:

Dominic Thiem (4) v Yuichi Sugita 

Sugita before this tournament had only played Challenger tour events in 2017 and indeed was a lucky loser out of qualifying just to make the Barcelona draw.  He proceeded to eliminate former world top five Tommy Robredo in the opening round, ninth seed Richard Gasquet in the second round and seventh seed Pablo Carreno Busta in the third.  Quite a step up.

Hyeon Chung v Rafa Nadal (3)

Qualifier Chung from South Korea knocked out 12th seed Kohlschreiber in the first round and 8th seed Sasha Zverev in an amazing 6-1 6-4 third round thrashing.

Karen Khackanov v Horacio Zeballos 

Khackanov had huge wins over Pablo Cuevas (11) and David Goffin (5) in the second and third rounds respectively.

Zeballos said goodbye to seeds Joao Sousa and Benoit Paire en route to this quarter final.

Belarus makes 1st Fed Cup final

The Fed Cup finalists have been determined and Rafa Nadal has won 10 Monte Carlo titles.

First the Fed Cup semis.

As it stood after Day One, the Czech Republic and the USA were tied at 1-1.  After the next two singles rubbers, it was 2-2.  Coco Vandeweghe won her second match, this time thrashing Katerina Siniakova 6-4 6-0, while 17 year old Marketa Vondrousova forced the tie into the fifth match by beating Lauren Davis in straight sets.

However, the world's top ranked doubles player, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, combined with Vandeweghe to defeat Kristyna Pliskova and Siniakova in the deciding doubles match and put the USA into the final for the first time since 2010. 

Their opponents will be Belarus who surprised everyone with its win over Switzerland in the semi final.  Also tied at 1-1 after Day One, Belarus won both singles matches the next day to put the tie out of reach of the visitors.

The big scalp was Timea Bacsinszky, easily the highest ranked singles player in the tie.  Aliaksandra Sasnovich ignored rankings and stunned Bacsinszky with a 6-2 opening set.  The second set went to a tie break but again Sasnovich had the answers and took the match in two sets.

Aryna Sabalenka clinched the semi final after a two hour three set battle with Viktorija Golubic and Belrus had qualified for its first ever Fed Cup final, fighting this entire campaign without the services of its champion Vika Azarenka.

There are reports that Vika may be a possibility of playing in the final, now that some time has passed since giving birth.  The attitude of the team, though, is that it has achieved with the available resources and it has confidence in them to continue doing the job.

Rafa Nadal carved his way through the Monte Carlo draw and made the final.  No great surprise there except his semi final opponent, which was expected to be Novak Djokovic, but became David Goffin.

To everyone's shock though, his last hurdle to capturing a 10th title here was not Murray or Wawrinka or indeed any top ten player.  It was fellow Spaniard and 15th seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who had made his first Masters 1000 final, along the way eliminating Murray, Cilic and Pouille, all ranked ahead of him.

Nadal was a bridge too far.  6-1 6-3 and the fourth seed created more history on the red clay, sounding a rather large warning to the ATP Tour.  A tenth Roland Garros title is looming.