It was another week of great display by Rafael Nadal. After coming back from the brink in the 4th round against David Nalbandian, Rafa smoothly captured his second title in Indian Wells by beating Andy Murray in the final.
The final, which probably involved current two best players in the world, was a windy spectacle, which from the start went in Nadal's favour. The Spanish left-hander produced some superb form in the California desert, dictating most of the rallies from the baseline before wrapping up 6/1 6/2 victory in 80 minutes.
"I think I accept a little bit better than him that conditions today." said Nadal. "I think I have good strategy and I played a really good match with those conditions, no? Probably Andy didn't play his best because of the conditions, but I think I played a really complete match, moving very well. I never stop the legs during all the match, and I think that was the key all today, no?" he added.
The major scare for Nadal appeared in the 4th round when he was 3/6 3/5 down against an inspired Nalbandian. Rafa saved 5 matchpoints in the second set before clinching a 3/6 7/6(5) 6/0 victory. Then he easilly beat Juan Martin Del Potro in the quaterfinal and Andy Roddick in the semifinal. After this tournament Nadal clinched wins over every TOP 10 player in this season.
It was a good tournament for A-Rod as he beat Novak Djokovic in his quarterfinal 6/3 6/2. He had also an interesting match in his first round against Daniel Koellerer. The match ended up with a little scandal as Andy shouted at Dani "Fuck you". You should be surprised that this was the only thing that Roddick said, because Koellerer insulted and provoked him for the whole match.
The best US player can be also proud about his doubles performence. Together with Mardy Fish, Roddick captured his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title.
The tournament also occured in another encounter between Murray and Federer. The Scot managed to beat Roger for the fourth time in a row. The Swiss completely broke mentally in the final set and lost the whole match 3/6 6/4 1/6.
There were not many surprises in this tournament as quaterfinals involved mostly top seeded players. The only one who wasn't really expecetd to get so far in Indian Wells was Ivan Ljubicic. The Croat, who seemed to be falling down in rankings recently, showed signs of his best form and managed to beat some good players such as Nishikori, Ancic, Simon and Andreev. He eventually lost to Murray in a match that included a Hawk-Eye scandal. Read more about it HERE.
Indian Wells (WTA Premier Mandatory)
Vera Zvonareva proved to the world she's a force to be reconned with as she won the biggest title of her career. In the final she beat the crowd favourite Ana Ivanovic 7/6(5) 6/2 on an extremely windy Sunday. And because winning is a damn' good feeling, Bepa took the doubles title as well with Victoria Azarenka.
"It's amazing. It's a great feeling to win such a big event. I'm still a little bit in the match." Zvonareva said.
"It was the toughest conditions I've ever played in. Today it was about who could handle it better and stay mentally tougher through it, and she did. She played really well, who was visibly bothered by the blustery conditions. I thought I had her in the first set a couple of times. I was very disappointed with the set points I didn't use. It was tough to come back in the second set." said Ivanovic.
"I'm a little bit disappointed I could be up there with Martina [Navratilova] winning it a couple of years in a row, but I enjoyed playing here," she added.
Two other players, who made the most headlines were Victoria Azarenka and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Both of them recorded their career best wins. Azarenka battled past world No.2 Dinara Safina winning 5 straight games after being 1/3 down in the third set. By virtue of beating Safina the Belarussian made it to the top ten in the world rankings. Prior to her semifinal loss to Zvonareva, she was 17-1 for the season. The only loss was a retirement against Serena Williams, when she was leading by a set. This year the teenager from Minsk either has won the title or lost to the eventual champion. Watch out for her as she's a number one in making!
Pavlyuchenkova showed also signs, she's a contender for the top spot. She stunned world No.3 Jelena Jankovic right at the start of the tournament and then just went from good to better notching up another top ten win against Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarterfinal. The Russian admitted during the week, that backing up that great win over JJ was the most difficult thing to do.
Also having a breakthrough tournament was Urszula Radwańska. Agnieszka's little sister reached the 4th round having nothed up a win over Svetlana Kuznetsova in a nailbiter 6/2 4/6 6/3. In the last game of the match at deuce Ula twisted her ankle, but Kuzy came up with two errors to give the young Pole her second career top ten win.
Petra Cetkovska also made headlines as she produced the biggest shock of the tournament by upsetting Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva 7/6 2/6 6/1. The world No.4 was bitterly honest at her press conference admitting, she shouldn't have come to Indian Wells in first place as she felt tired, burnt out and with no motivation after playing so many matches this year.
Dinara Safina also can't be satisfied with her week as she once again missed her golden chance to be number one. She had to make the final, but she lost a match that seemed to be already won.
~shaw
~jachal
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment