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.

Fed Cup semis evenly poised

A disappointing under reporting of the Fed Cup semi finals has occurred this week, and a lot of the blame can be assigned to the media which is obsessed with Rafa Nadal's attempt to win his 10th Monte Carlo title.

However the lack of the teams top players to put their hands up and represent their countries at the business end of the Cup is most disappointing.

Especially so the defending champions the Czech Republic.  Nowhere to be seen are the world number three Karolina Pliskova or the nation's second ranked player Barbora Strycova.

Instead, the responsibility for leading the team into another final is resting partly on 17 year old Marketa Vondrousova, who while admittedly is in form, having won a title last week in Switzerland, should not be given such a load as this to bear.

Coco Vandeweghe had the experience and power to win the first match of the tie, against Vondrousova, and that put the pressure on Katerina Siniakova to level proceedings on Day One.

Ranked 38, Siniakova is the top ranked Czech player in the tie, but at only 21 it is a big tag to wear.  She lived up to the task, defeating Shelby Rogers in impressive fashion.

No Venus Williams or Madison Keys for the US team which also may have diminished interest for reporters.

The other semi final is contested between Belarus and Switzerland.  Normally Belarus would have the excellent services of Vika Azarenka, but of course she is busy with her new born as will be Serena Williams in the not too distant future.

So credit must go to the back up players who have not only placed Belarus in the final four but have given them a 1-1 start after Day One of their tie.

Aliaksandra Sasnovich, ranked 96 (the highest of the Belarus team here) began proceedings with a memorable win over Viktorija Golubic in the first rubber, a match lasting almost three hours.

Timea Bacsinszky struck back as expected, but didn't have things all her own way against 18 year old Aryna Sabalenka.  Sabalenka hit 21 clean winners to 8 but her poor first serve percentage and 50 unforced errors gave Bacsinszky sufficient room to gain the extra break in each set.

Novak gone - Rafa set for No 10

The Monte Carlo quarter finals delivered three expected results but another big upset.

Rafa Nadal did what was needed to remove unseeded Argentine Diego Schwartzman from the tournament, but Diego managed to break Nadal's serve four times for the match and tested the nine times winner of this event more than anyone had predicted.

The Andy Murray conqueror, Albert Ramos-Vinolas, knocked another Grand Slam title winner out of contention, this time Marin Cilic.  

A dominant first set, rooted in a consistent serve - 84% first delivery and no break points faced - saw Cilic having to do something in the second set to stay alive.

Cilic took the second set in a tie break, his overall serving stats much better than they had been.

Sadly for Croatia, that's where the comeback stopped.  Ramos-Vinolas continued his consistent approach and simply watched Cilic fall over at critical times.

6-2 6-7 6-2 and Albert has a semi final appointment with France's Lucas Pouille.  

Pouille was heading for defeat at the hands of Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas who led 0-6 6-3 5-4 and serving for the match.

Cuevas stumbled badly and games were 5-5.  Another chance was wasted with a break point in the next Pouille service game.  The eleven seed saved it and led 6-5.

Cuevas again failed at the line, presenting victory to Pouille.

Nadal was meant to play Novak Djokovic in his semi final.  Djokovic was pencilled in for an expected sixth win out of six clashes with David Goffin.

However the Belgian was at the top of his game, racing to a first set win 6-2.  His down the line shots for winners, on both sides, were exquisite and throwing Novak completely off balance, something unusual to see.

Down another break 1-2 in set two, a straight sets exit was staring the second seed in his face.  To his credit, Djokovic lifted his game and rattled off four successive games and won the set 6-3.

Riding the momentum, Novak clinched the early break in the decider, and at 4-2 had chances to achieve a double break.  

Instead Goffin contributed a special run of brilliance to hold serve and break for 4-4.

From that point it was catch up for Djokovic and he battled to hold serve, saving many break points.  At 5-6 he saved a bagful of match points, wasted game points, but finally relented to the Goffin pressure.

Goffin achieved possibly his finest victory 6-2 3-6 7-5 and now faces his biggest challenge - Nadal - with a realistic belief that he can win that as well.

Murray departs Monte Carlo

The third round at Monte Carlo delivered the first major upsets and they included world number one Andy Murray and third seed Stan Wawrinka.

Murray, ever the front runner, lost that tag in this match.  He wasted two prime positions, firstly a one set lead over 15th seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas, then a 4-0 advantage in the decider.

It was the first meeting between the two, and the Spaniard pushed Andy's year to date record to 13/4, not particularly pleasing for the Scot.

Ramos-Vinolas will play Marin Cilic in one of the quarter finals, after Cilic disposed of Tomas Berdych in straight sets.  Berdych took the Croatian to a second set tie break but failed to win a point once there.

The other surprise was the Wawrinka loss.  Maybe not too much of a shock considering he came to Monte Carlo with a 2017 record of 14 wins and 5 losses.  16th seeded Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas wasn't fazed by his challenge, and dismissed the Swiss in two sets.  Despite only posting 8 wins in 2017 prior to this tournament, amongst those victories Cuevas had captured the Brasil Open in March, defeating Murray's conqueror Ramos-Vinolas in the final.

Cuevas earned the right to play 11th seed Lucas Pouille in another of the quarter finals.  Pouille only needed three games before fellow French player Adrian Mannarino retired through injury.

Rafa Nadal was ruthless in thrashing Germany's Sasha Zverev at the cost of two games and unseeded Argentine Diego Schwartzman will be at the Spaniard's mercy in their quarter final.  Schwartzman easily accounted for another German, Jan-Lennard Struff.

The final quarter final is possibly the best on paper.  Novak Djokovic devised another escape to defeat Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta, down break points at 4-4 in a deciding third set, then emerging from the hole to win three of the last four games.

David Goffin repeated his Australian Open defeat of Dominic Thiem, but it required a three set thriller to do so.

The first set tie break was pivotal, and even though Thiem struck back to level at a set apiece, Goffin steadied with a classy third set display, strong on serve, and returning just about everything.

Djokovic has won both his matches without displaying much of his bag of tricks, and he will no doubt draw on more of his brilliance in order to match a confident Goffin.

Djokovic leads 5-0 head to head.

Djokovic survives - Tsonga out

Novak Djokovic's start to his Monte Carlo campaign was anything but auspicious, requiring three sets and a comeback from break down in the decider against Frenchman Gilles Simon in the second round.

The number two seed will have to lift his game in order to advance much further, remembering that he lost in the second round last year.

Next up will likely be Pablo Carreno Busta.

Other successful seeds through to the third round were David Goffin (10) and Pablo Cuevas (16).

Not so lucky was 7th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who fell to fellow Frenchman and qualifier Adrian Mannarino.

After taking the opening set in a tight tie break, Tsonga went missing in the second, his serve virtually impotent against a confident Mannarino.

61 % of points on Tsonga's first serve and half of the points on his second serve flowed the way of Mannarino and so did three service breaks.

6-2 and momentum to the underdog, 

The trend continued in set three as Tsonga had no answer, the match score in Mannarino's favour 6-7 6-2 6-3.

First round matches were completed and amongst them Borna Coric suffered a let down after winning his first ATP title last week, toppled by Jeremy Chardy, ten years his senior.

In another win for the veterans, Tommy Haas, aged 39 and ranked 655 in the world, playing just his sixth ATP match for the year, took Benoit Paire to the cleaners in straight sets 6-2 6-3.

Tomorrow features Murray, Wawrinka, Nadal, Cilic, Thiem, Berdych and Dimitrov in their first outings as the tournament starts to heat up.