Dubai, Memphis and Bogota

A lot action in tennis last week with 3 tournaments going on: one Premier event and 2 International tournaments.

Dubai is one big Premier event and was reuniting a bunch of great players and it was a really tough draw for some girls. Wozniacki might have lost in the first round when she had a very fierce Chakvetadze in front of her, until the poor girl fainted on court: what a scare she all gave us! She had to retire and Wozniacki event thought concerned for her friend was probably relief.

BUT, she made it all the way to the final and won the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships defeating easily Kuznetsova who made a way too much unforced errors. However, the Russian did have a good tournament. We had a glimpse of the true Champion at times, but she always has problem to close her match: it took her 7 match point against Schiavone in a rematch of this famous Australian Open fourth round battle.

Let’s mention the semi finalists: Jelena Jankovic won 3 matches in a row, something that didn’t happen for a long time, defeating, and I was very surprised, Kaia Kanepi and Samanta Stosur. Kanepi is a great victory, she earned it, but Sam served for 50% so Jankovic is not crazy, she took advantage of it. Even if you are Samantha Stosur, you can’t win a match serving at 50%, especially if it’s your weapon of choice.

Pennetta, oh, she played with my nerves: in a third round match, she let go of a 5-1 lead in the second set to eventually lost it (after winning the first) 7-5. It even seemed like she was going to loss, but she refocused and finally managed to win. The result against Kleybanova also impressed me as she made it looks so easy, especially that the Russian had sent to the locker room fellow Russian Zvonerava in an earlier round.

Oh right, Wozniacki is back to number one in the world and If you thought former number Ana Ivanovic was back, think again! The only thing she is back to is bad ball toss and childlike behavior.

Elsewhere in Memphis, the Canadian Rebecca Marino had to retire in finale with abdominal strain handing out the trophy to Rybarikova. She was in tears on the court, knowing that in good shape, she could have win this. BUt there is no shame in that, the Canadian can be proud of her run. Hopefully, she will be back soon.

In Bogota, Lourdes DOMINGUEZ LINO won XIX Copa BBVA Colsanitas championship defeating Johansson. The top 2 seeds, Julia Goerges and Polona Hercog lost in earlier round.