WTA Madrid: 3rd Round Predictions

Li Na

Victoria Azarenka v Ana Ivanovic

Azarenka and Ivanovic both progressed to a third round meeting with two straight set wins in Madrid.  In the second round, Azarenka beat Andrea Hlavackova with a 6-3 7-6 victory, meanwhile Ivanovic had a good win against Nadia Petrova, 7-5 6-1, who despite being inconsistent is still a threat on the clay.  Ivanovic leads their head-to-head by 2 wins to 1, but Azarenka has come on leaps and bounds since their last encounter in Cincinnati in 2010.  The world number one has not looked at her best this week, but I still think she will be too solid for Ivanovic.

Prediction - Azarenka to beat Ivanovic 6-3 7-5

Angelique Kerber v Li Na

Kerber continued her dazzling recent form with a 6-4 6-1 victory over Venus Williams in the second round. Li has been making far less headlines but looked equally impressive as she took out Silvia Soler Espinosa, 6-3 6-1.  Li has actually played some very solid tennis in 2012 and looks to be finding her feet on the blue clay.  Li and Kerber last met in the Indian Wells quarter-final where Kerber prevailed in straight sets, 6-4 6-2.  Li is a dark horse for me this week so i'm going to go for what I consider to be a surprise (although not based on seeding) and side with Li for the win.

Prediction - Li to beat Kerber, 2-6 6-2 6-4

Varvara Lepchenko v Anabel Medina Garrigues
Lepchenko has won four matches in Madrid this week having come through qualifying.  She has had a good 2012 so far but fallen short in several tight matches; however things have changed this week as she beat Francesca Schiavone in the first round and then edged Shahar Peer in a tight two setter today.  Medina Garrigues had a much tougher match in her second round compared to the first round as she defeated Sorana Cirstea, 6-1 3-6 7-5.  I think this will be a tight match, but I believe Medina Garrigues will progress through the quarter-finals.
Prediction - Medina Garrigues to beat Lepchenko 6-2 3-6 6-1 

Sam Stosur v Petra Cetkovska

Sam Stosur

Stosur has struggled her way through the draw with two tough three setters.  In the last round, she won eight straight games from 6-2 4-4 down to record a 2-6 6-4 6-0 win over Christina McHale.  After a disappointing start to the season, Cetkovska has started to record some impressive wins and has already beaten Vera Zvonareva and the useful clay-courter, Lourdes Dominguez Lino in the first two rounds.  I don't fancy Stosur on this surface, but I think she will have played her way in to some form with the long matches she has had so far and be too strong for Cetkovska in this match.

Prediction - Stosur to beat Cetkovska, 6-4 6-4

Caroline Wozniacki v Serena Williams
Wozniacki was tough as boots as she saw off Mona Barthel in a 6-4 7-6 second round victory.  It was made all the more impressive because she picked up an ankle injury in her first round match where she toiled for over three hours to beat Ksenia Pervak.  Serena has picked up right where she left off from in Charleston several weeks ago looking in terrific form so far.  She eased past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round, 6-2 6-1.  Serena lost her last encounter with Wozniacki in Miami and something tells me she is going to be raring to go for this one...
Prediction - Serena to beat Wozniacki, 6-3 6-2

Lucie Safarova v Maria Sharapova

Lucie Safarova has beaten the Estoril champion and runner-up, Kaia Kanepi and Carla Suarez Navarro, in her opening two rounds.  She looks to be playing very well on the blue clay and has yet to have her serve broken having saved a total of ten break points.  Sharapova has yet to be fully tested with straight set wins over Irina-Camelia Begu and Klara Zakopalova.  Safarova has actually won their only encounter, which also took place on the clay courts in Madrid although that was when Sharapova was making her return from that shoulder injury.  I think this will be a very tough match for Sharapova, but I cannot see Safarova having the mental toughness to quite pull the shock out of the bag.

Prediction - Sharapova to beat Safarova, 7-6 7-5

Highlights from the Azarenka/Hlavackova and Sharapova/Zakopalova

You can view my original predictions for the WTA and ATP draw in Madrid.  I haven't done too badly yet although the mens has yet to really get going with Tomas Berdych and Novak Djokovic the only two players into the third round. 

There has been very limited coverage of the matches today, which is very disappointing for a Premier Mandatory tournament.    There have also been some more grumbles from the players regarding the blue clay... bring on Rome next week.

Serena cruises past Vesnina in Madrid

Serena Williams hit 40 winners as she beat the Budapest runner-up Elena Vesnina, 6-3 6-1 and set up a second round clash with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at the Mutua Madrilena Open.  Serena served particularly well including hitting four aces in one game in the second set.  She produced some beautiful angles throughout the match and defended very well against Vesnina, who was thoroughly outplayed.  Both players seemed to have some issues with the blue clay surface and some irregular bounces.  There has been a very mixed reaction to the clay so far; Sergiy Stakhovsky noted on Twitter that his qualifying match, which was on court 6 was the worst court on the ATP tour.  I think it looks great, but if the players are not happy with playing on it, then there are going to be problems...

Serena Williams

In yesterday's action, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova both moved into the second round with straight set wins.  Azarenka was handed a very tricky first round match against Svetlana Kuznetsova, but managed the task well coming through, 6-4 7-6.  Sharapova continued her excellent form of late as she eased past Irina-Camelia Begu, 6-0 6-3.  Caroline Wozniacki fought for over three hours to get past Ksenia Pervak, 7-6 3-6 6-4.  Wozniacki picked up a nasty ankle injury and fought valiantly to progress to a second round meeting with Mona Barthel.  I will be very surprised if Wozniacki was to take to the court, let alone beat Barthel in the second round.  Varvara Lepchenko and Roberta Vinci both won by beating seeds.  Lepchenko beat Francesca Schiavone, 6-4 6-7 6-3 and came back admirably in the final set after wasting match points in the second set.  Vinci produced a serving masterclass with 16 aces (including an astonishing seven aces in one game!) to beat Dominika Cibulkova, 6-3 6-2.

Caroline Wozniacki

Bartoli & Zvonareva out, Barthel beats Goerges in Madrid

The women kicked off the action on the first day of the WTA Mutua Madrid Open with some upsets and epic encounters.  The first match to hit the blue clay was the longest one of the day as Marion Bartoli succumbed to Sorana Cirstea in a 6-7 6-4 6-3 loss that lasted just short of three hours.  Both players showed their fighting qualities with a total of 21 saved break points, but it was surprisingly Bartoli who blinked first.  Vera Zvonareva joined her on the sidelines as she was comprehensively beaten by Petra Cetkovska, 6-2 6-2.  In other matches, Sam Stosur and Venus Williams were both pushed to third set tiebreaks but hung on for the wins.  Stosur's match with Petra Martic included just two breaks of serve as the Aussie fought hard to pull out the 7-5 4-6 7-6 victory.  Venus had her chances to close out her match with Simona Halep in two sets but was made to fight due to a typically gutsy performance by the Romanian.  Mona Barthel also continued to impress as she lost just one game from a 4-2 first set deficit to overwhelm Julia Goerges, 6-4 6-1.

Sorana Cirstea