First grass court week:Aga and Genie keep losing

The 1st week on grass was hiding other upsets for Radwanska and Bouchard. Genie,ranked no11 in the world lost 4-6 6-1 4-6 by Shvedova in the 1st round of the tournament in Den Bosch while Radwanska suffered another defeat in the semis of the Aegon Open in Nottingham 7-5 4-6 0-6 by Monica Niculescu.So,what's happening to Aga and Genie?This week was marked as the switch to their favourite surface but they still had some unexpected defeats.I will make an effort to analyze the problem.

• FOCUS:GENIE BOUCHARD

The 21-year-old Canadian took the world by storm last year when she reached the semis of the Australian Open,failing to the eventual champion Li Na. Genie continued to play in top level last year reaching the semis in Charleston and in RG and the finals in Wimbledon and Wuhan. These results made her climb up the rankings and qualify for the WTA finals.Genie is for sure a very talented player. She has beautiful groundstrokes,with which she can attack from everywhere in the court and she can play defence in a way or two.This year,she started well reaching the QFs in the Australian Open losing in streight sets to Maria Sharapova,but she has been losing and losing in the rest tournments,except for Rome and Indian Well,in which she made the round of 16. There are a lot of scenarios about what is happening to the Canadian. Many say that she has become a bit arrogant and she has started caring more for modeling etc. That has a lot more than a grain of truth. I believe that Genie seeing her results must think more about stopping modeling to focus on tennis and to build SPORTMANSHIP! The incident when she refused to shake her hands with Alexandra Dulgheru before their match in the Fed Cup is an example of her arrogance,Basically,I can say that Bouchard doesn't care for tennis as before .That's about the out of the court factor. Now,into the court Bouchard does not think enough when striking a ball. Thus, sometimes she loses points that were going her way.Also,her hunger for more and more points makes her to attack balls in which she must defend. That quick game of the Canadian is a beautiful thing to watch and I must admit that if it weren't for that she would not have accomplished all that she has,but she must be a little bit more careful. Moreover,she chockes frequently enough,a break even when she is 6-0 5-0  up might be the start for a turnaround.

• FOCUS:AGA RADWANSKA

Oh Aga!!My queen has been struggling this season and unfortunately the reasons are many!I'm going to be a little strict judge because I'm a passionate fan and I feel bad watching her lose. Aga has at least a positive persentage between wins and loses this year and has got past the QFs even in just 2 tournaments. However, in the first tough and tricky opponent she faces we see her lose. She has lost 2 times from Venus Williams and Garbine Muguruza,from Annika Beck in The French Open 1st round,her most devastating result,from Caro Wozniacki,Svetlana Kuznetsova,Maria Sharapova,Timea Bacsinzsky,Monica Niculescu,Carla Suarez Navarro,Heather Watson.Camila Giorgi and many other tough but easy regarding her abilities opponents.Let's see the reasons for all these defeats. I will start with her performance inside the court. She can't attack!NO,she cannot! Watching her matches I have seen her showing her great defensive skills but she has lost her ability to end the point attacking when the opportunity appears.This year the word attack is absent from her mind probably.She makes tries into the net and she tries to become more aggressive that the older days but she makes ridiculous mistakes. She must work on setting the ground to come to the net and ending a point with a volley,not making a volley(duh,she makes perfect volleys),but ending the point with it.I hope we will see Aga using serve and volley effectively and taking advantage of every window of oportunity without changing her game,because it may lead to new mistakes. Another think I have observed in Aga's game is that sometimes she doesn't know what to do,she doesn't have a plan,especially in 3rd sets and she resorts to devastating shots. Now ,about her mental struggle I have to say that she is not able to play a good 3rd set this year.The most of her defeats hove come in 3 sets with devastating final sets. I really don't know why this happens. The most of the times she is a bit blurry in the 1st set,she plays perfect in the 2nd and she loses easily the 3rd.Moreover,Aga seems to be very unhappy and very frustrated for this situation. She is nervous in the court,she becomes frustrated after some errors etc. I want anyway her to know that we, her fans, we will always be by her side giving our stronger support even in her worst times.
 Now,lets give a look at the winners of the first week on grass.
Den Bosch:
A really interesting tournament with a Rising-Star final between Bencic and Giorgi. I think that they are 2 nice players with powerful groundstrokes and I hope we will see them more in the future. Giorgi won in streight sets and finally in her 4rth attempt she won her 1st title. She didn't have many problems with her serve and she was able to enable her game. Anyway,it's nice to see rising stars making finals of events because they are the future.
Nottingham:
Another thriumph of a youngster,Ana Konjuh.Last year,she started playing in the WTA,leaving juniors,where she succeded and she finally won her first title beating Monica Niculescu in 3 sets with her agressive game working perfectly in the last 2 sets, I'm waiting more from Konjuh ;)
This week:
The event in Birmingham just ended with Angie Kerber winner of this Premier Title,I will make an article in the week about it.

The French Open:as it happened(Part 2)

In the first part of this review I told about the 1st week and the upsets. Now, I will analyze the 2nd week and the matches of the 2 finalists. From all the QFs the only interesting match was the clash between Safarova and Muguruza. It was a fascinating match between 2 very talented players. Garbine is a hard-hitter with nice shots and I hope she will be able to show up in the future,while Lucie has always been an excellent player and during the last years her game is shining. Lucie won 7-6 6-3 and she set a clash with Ana Ivanovic who overcame Elina Svitolina. For me, Ana was a surprise. She has not been playing her best tennis this year and I didn't expect from her to change in Roland Garros but she proved me wrong. Ana has the game of a top player and she has won Roland Garros and reached the world no1 for a reason. In terms of the other side of the draw, Timea Bacsinzsky edged Alison Van Uytvanck in a first-timers QF. Timea is playing nice tennis and she seems to have rejuvenated after years of injuries.For her opponent I don't have many  things to say,she had matches in her potential despite her low ranking and she took advantage over the upsets to make her biggest result.The other QF was an easy match-up for Serena Williams who faced Sara Errani. I know that Paris is probably Sara's favorite court and she has made her best results but as long as her serve is not improving she has no chance against Serena,we all remember their semifinal match-up 2 years ago. Serena won 6-3 6-1 and she set a semifinal clash with Timea Bacsinzsky. Serena was clearly unwell inside the court and as Chris Evert said she was on the verge of dying in every point. She wanted to make the rallies shorter and shorter and when a rally ended she was like she had been drinking all the night. She lost the 1st set 6-4 but her will to win woke up and she took the other 2, 6-3 6-0. Generally speaking about Williams, she had the worst tournament of her life in Paris. She played bad tennis and the only thing that saved her was her mental strength and her will to win. She told that she was battling with flu but she had some good matches also(the minority) like the one with Errani,with Azarenka and of course the final. The 2 dropped sets with Safarova and Azerenka are not due to Serena's bad game but to the perfect game of her opponents.Now,to the other semifinal Lucie proved that she was into the semifinals for her undoubted skill. Her serve was firing and she took advantage as a lefty and she led Ivanovic to her "drawback", her backhand.The match was great,Lucie had a little choke in the game when she served for the match but she handled it and prevailed 7-5 7-5. About the final, I have to say that it was a good final. In the first set Serena seemed more healthy than her semifinal match and there were not many signs of the flu.Moreover,Lucie was a bit nervous and that gave the chance for Serena to lead 6-3 4-2. However,after a tremendous forehand, Lucie took confidence and she started playing her game again winning 3 games in a row to put Serena back in the score. The set went to the tie-break when Lucie was perfect so eventually she grabbed the 2nd set 7-6 and with confidence in her side she led 2-0 in the 3rd. Then, Serena's will woke up and she was able to return winning 6 straight games and eventually to close the match.
However, the Czech may have left disappointed the singles final but she won the trophy in doubles with her friend Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
That's all from Paris... Let's head now to the grass court season(my favorite one).
Tournaments this week
-Den Bosch,Eugenie Bouchard(no11 after RG) is the hiighlight
-Nottingham,Aga Radwanska(no13) is the top seed

the finalist and new world no7 Lucie Safarova 

The French Open:as it happened(Part 1)

                  Another French Open came to an end today with many great matches.Let's see what happened in the second Grand Slam of the year. The world no1 Serena Williams came out victorious after many tough matches. But,let's start from the beginning. The first day was hiding a disappointing surprise for me,after the loss of my favorite player Aga Radwanska by Annika Beck,who reached the 3rd round with a scoreline of 6-2 3-6 6-1. In general, Aga has had a bad year and she was not a favorite to reach even the 4rth round,however I hope she will bounce back. Personally, I think that the partnership with Martina Navratilova didn't work at all and it really messed up her game. I think that she has to forget all about her training with Martina and to find the tracks of her old game again leaving the aggressive side that,correctly enough,Martina wanted to introduce to her. I hope I will find the time to make a post all about Aga and her drop this year,we will see!!!Another upset showed Eugenie Bouchard ,last years semifinalist and no6 seed to oust the tournament after her defeat by France's Kiki Mladenovic with an emphatic 6-4 6-4. For me, the loss of the Canadian wasn't even an upset. She has been losing and losing this year. I believe that Bouchard even last year she was inconsistent and except for her results in the Grand Slams and the final in Wuhan she didn't make something else. She is an aggressive player but there are kinda of a lot players that have the same playing style as Genie and this year she has not been able to enable it to everybody. Also, I think that the sudden fame and the changes on the expectancies of the crowd have played their role. In the 2nd round we saw one of the biggest favorites for lifting the crown,the no 3 seed and last years finalist Simona Halep,leaving Paris. The dream girl of the late '90's Mirjana Lucic-Baroni who is back now and she is playing some nice tennis did the same as in the last years Us Open beating the Romanian 7-5 6-1.I really thought that Halep could lift her maiden Grand Slam title,but when I saw her 1st match and then learnt that she was playing Lucic I saw my predictions start losing ground. And that happened...It was not the best clay court season for Simona and I don't what was the problem.Maybe her tries for becoming more and more aggressive led to some mistakes,most notable the 60 unforced errors in her semifinal match with Suarez Navarro in Rome.The next seed to see the door of exit was Caroline Wozniacki world no5 and former world no1. That was a surprise for me. She played a nice first round against an inspired Karin Knapp wh had just won the tittle in Nuremberg. I didn't see her match because I was sure she will pass but Julia Goerges surprised her with her aggressive play and won 6-4 7-6. I don't really know what went wrong for Caro,who had her best clay court season so far. As the 3rd round kicked off we had first of all the blockbuster of Serena and Vicka but I will leave it for the part 3.Also,Carla Suarez Navarro and Andrea Petkovic lost as long as Angelique Kerber who had 2 titles on clay this year. However,I think that all of this 3 players had tough opponents. The 1st encountered Flavia Penneta who is always capable of everything,Petkovic not only had injury problems but she had the 2012 finalist Sara Errani and Kerber had a blockbuster with hard-hitting rising star Garbine Muguruza.So,like that we reached the 4rth round,here the ultimate favorite before the tournament Maria Sharapova,world no2 and former champion felt victim to the inspired Lucie Safarova who went all the way to the final. Masha was battling with a cold which prevented her from playing her best game and the Czech was perfect beating the Russian 7-6 6-4. Also, for me the top competitor for Serena Williams, Petra Kvitova world no4 was ousted by Timea Bacsinzsky after a weird match with a scoreline of 2-6 6-0 6-3. Petra didn't play well throughout the tournamnt and she had trouble complying to the slow court of Paris.Those are the most noticeable matches of the 1st week. In the part 2 I will anayze the road of the 2 finalists and in general the 2nd week

First post!!!

Hey guys!!!My name is Panagiotis(you can call me Pan)and this is my blog. I am a teenager from Greece and I love tennis.I was introduced to the world of tennis 3 years ago. I have been playing in my school for the past 2 years and of course I fancy watching and analyzing matches,especially of women's tennis. My favourite shot is the two-handed backhand and any type of volley. It's a pity that the tennis players nowadays don't volley a lot. My favourite surface(to watch,because I haven't played in any other surface than hard) is grass and my favorite tournament is Wimbledon. I am a huge fan of Aga Radwanska. She is from Poland and she is ranked no14 in the world,but she has gone as far as the no2.Her best result is the final in the 2012 Wimbledon championships. In this blog, I will tell my opinion about matches and players of the wta and in general about anything that has to do with tennis,I will try to post as often as I can analyzing matches,making potential predictions and speak about tennis. I am open to any discussion about tennis if it is introducted in a polite manner.I hope you will enjoy my blog!!!
P.S. I'm not a native speaker of English as my mother language is Greek but I have recently taken the exams for the highest level of the English language for foreigners of the University of Michigan and I'm waiting for the results,so I can handle a weblog in English.However,I will make mistakes for sure so don't be annoyed!!! :)