Tuesday 25 September 2012

Tokyo day 4: Sharapova's suspect form

Sara Errani vs. Marion Bartoli
Samantha Stosur vs. Dominika Cibulkova
Lucie Safarova vs. Maria Sharapova
Caroline Wozniacki vs. Li Na
Victoria Azarenka vs. Roberta Vinci
Nadia Petrova vs. Petra Martic
Urszula Radwanska vs. Angelique Kerber
Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Jamie Hampton

Sara Errani vs. Marion Bartoli


Sara Errani is almost assured of a place in the YEC with strong performances in the Slams this year. However, Marion's participation in YEC is very dependent on her performances in the last few tournaments; so I expect Bartoli to go all out against the Italian. Sara can be described as the weak link in the top 10, making the term "win over a top 10 player" seem minute. Out of the current top 10, only Kerber seems to be troubled by her. The rest of the girls just demolishes her. Can Marion do the same as the other top girls? I believe so.

Pick: Bartoli in 2 sets

Lucie Safarova vs. Maria Sharapova


After her shit-tastic performance against Watson, you have to give Lucie Safarova a chance of beating Sharapova. With her trusty groundstrokes misfiring and her wobbly serve, even Maria's fighting spirit couldn't save her sometimes. However, Lucie Safarova is a well-known mental midget and will probably try ridiculous shots when all she needs to do is hit the ball over. I expect a struggle, but Sharapova will still come through in the end.

Pick: Sharapova in 3 sets

Caroline Wozniacki vs. Li Na


Oh Carol! I thought she was on the way back to the top but her struggle against journeywoman, Bojana Jovanovski proved otherwise. Despite winning the first set easily, she went off the charts and missed tons of forehands, making things extremely difficult for herself in the last 2 sets. Li Na will not be as merciful as Jovanovski and will almost be certain to pound that forehand to submission. The only way that Li is losing this is if war between Japan and China breaks out.

Pick: Li in 2 sets
Sure win bets: Agnieszka Radwanska, Victoria Azarenka, Samantha Stosur
Upset alert: Sara Errani

2 comments:

  1. I really think you have got this one very wrong. Tennis is not something that you can work out mathematically such as like using past results to determine future results. There was nothing wrong with the Wozniacki victory over Jovanovski who herself is not a bad player. The Wta is getting increasingly competitive these days as more talent is beginning to flood the scene amid a global economic crisis. Different players pose different problems in different matchups, and that plainly is the WTA for you. For you to make a final statement like that regarding Wozniacki's chances of winning is to depict grand scale naievety. Wozniaki is the in form player here and on a hot streak. Li still has the dreggs of the Robson beating to overcome. I am throwing down the gauntlet to say Wozniacki wins and continues in defiant mode.

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  2. thanks isaac for the comment!
    i admit that i have to eat my words with Wozniacki's victory over Li!
    I have to disagree with you though because some players just do not play well against another player. For instance, Cibulkova has never taken a set of Stosur, as evidenced this week again. So past results of course matter.
    anyway, it is very tough to predict WTA matches and the only thing that can be seen as indicators are the recent matches they have played and their head-to-head records. Li isn't Wozniacki's punchbag and has beaten her before and Wozniacki's winning streak comprises of one top 20 player who is Kanepi, fresh from an injury layoff. I know every match is different but Li really has herself to blame after committing 70 plus unforced errors to gift the match away.
    Hope you are not offended by my comments; I am only stating my extremely biased views. ;)

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