2016 Australian Open-Sara Errani vs Margarita Gasparyan

17th seed Sara Errani does not have the easiest opening round match at the Australian Open as she takes on young Russian Margarita Gasparyan. This match is set to take to open the action on Court 6 at 11:00 Melbourne Time (00:00 UK Time) and the winner of the clash faces either Kurumi Nara or Oceane Dodin in the second round.

It hasn’t been the best start for either women in 2016. They both started in Brisbane where Gasparyan lost to Makarova in three sets (an encouraging display- she was also a lucky loser) and Errani was drubbed by Belinda Bencic in the opening round. Gasparyan then moved onto the Hobart International where she lost in the second round to Johanna Larsson, whilst Errani lost to eventual champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarter-finals in Sydney; despite some disappointing results, they have both played some decent tennis.

There could certainly be an interesting clash of styles in this match. Gasparyan is more powerful than Errani and her game is beginning to develop though her main weapon- her one handed backhand- can be erratic and there is an argument that she relies on that shot too much; Errani is experienced enough to know this. Errani’s fight and determination will be difficult for the Russian to play against, though Gasparyan does have the power and potential to control this match; she must also attack Errani’s weak serve at every opportunity to have a good chance of winning this.

The two have never played before and because of that it will be interesting to see how their respective games match up. Errani’s fight and determination will be extremely tough to break down and though Gasparyan is improving her game and has the potential to win, it seems that Errani will edge this due to her extra experience and greater consistency.

Prediction: Errani in 3

 

Review- Hamburg, Gstaad, Atlanta, Florianopolis and Baku

A total of five ATP and WTA titles were won last week, as the penultimate week of the clay court season and the beginning of the US hard court season took place. Here is my review of the tournaments!

Hamburg

Is the King of Clay back? Rafael Nadal is certainly back to some extent, and his title in Hamburg means he has won at least one European clay court title each year since 2004. It wasn’t the easiest start for Rafa, with tough tests against Fernando Verdasco and Jiri Vesely, before more comfortable victories against Pablo Cuevas and Andreas Seppi. He then got revenge in another tough match in the final, as he saw off Fabio Fognini (Who has won their other two meetings this year) 7-5 7-5. Going up one spot in the rankings to 9th, he will be full of confidence and will be ready to push for a top eight seeding at the US Open.

Gstaad

It was two titles within a week for Austrian young gun Dominic Thiem, as he followed up his success in Umag with a third title of the year in the Swiss town of Gstaad. Unlike Umag, where he benefited from two retirements, Thiem had to play four full matches to get the title. After a first round win against Federico Delbonis, he played two tight three setters against Spaniards Pablo Carreno Busta and Feliciano Lopez before surviving a tight first set and eventually cruising in the second to win the title against David Goffin 7-5 6-2, exactly a year after the Belgian beat Thiem in the Kitzbuhel final. Now at a career high of 21st, Thiem goes to his home tournament in Kitzbuhel as the top seed looking to go one better than last year and win a third straight title.

Atlanta

It was a ‘three-peat’ for John Isner as he won his third consecutive title in Atlanta, and his 10th career title overall. Isner faced tough matches against Radek Stepanek and Ricardas Berankis and  dropped the first set against Denis Kudla, before coming through 7-5 in the third. His best performance was saved for the final, where he saw off Marcos Baghdatis 6-3 6-3. Early signs of a good hard court season are there for Isner and he has little time to rest as he is playing at the Citi Open, but he has only made the US Open quarter finals once (In 2011) and will be looking for more match wins.

Florianopolis

Teliana Pereira gave her home crowd a treat as she won her second title of the year in Florianopolis, in the final clay court event of the year on the WTA tour. Pereira had a tough first round match, beating Maria Irigoyen 7-5 in the third set, but then reached the final without losing sets to Risa Ozaki, Laura Siegemund and Anastasija Sevastova. In her second career final, both of which have come this year, the Brazilian battled past Annika Beck 6-4 4-6 6-1 to maintain her 100% record  in WTA main draw finals. Now at a career high ranking of 48th, it will be interesting to see how Pereira plays for the rest of the year and when she is back on clay courts next spring.

Baku

Margarita Gasparyan was a surprise winner at the Baku Cup, having never won a WTA main draw match before this tournament. She defeated 5th seed Dominika Cibulkova, Yang Zhaoxuan and Evgeniya Rodina in straight sets before battling past 2nd seed Karin Knapp in three sets in the semi-finals, before beating fellow surprise finalist Patricia Maria Tig 6-3 5-7 6-0 to capture her first title. It will be interesting to see how Gasparyan, the first women to win a singles title with an one handed backhand for over a year, will fair for the rest of the season.

Doubles

All of the five tournaments had Doubles tournaments as well

– Britain’s Jamie Murray and partner John Peers won their sixth title together in Hamburg, defeating the Colombian pair of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 10-8 in a deciding Champion’s tie break.

– In Gstaad the unseeded pair of Aliaksander Bury and Denis Istomin defeated Oliver Marach and Aisam-ul-Haq 10-5 in the deciding Champion’s tie break.

– The Bryan brothers won their 107th doubles title together, defeating Colin Fleming and Gilles Muller 10-4 in the deciding Champion’s tie break.

– Annika Beck went one better than her result in the singles in Florianopolis, winning the doubles with fellow German Laura Siegemund 6-3 7-6 against Maria Irigoyen and Paula Kania

– Margarita Gasparyan also won her first career doubles titles, winning with fellow Russian Alexandra Panova 6-3 7-5 against Olga Savchuk and Vitalia Diatchenko.

This Week

In the coming week Dominic Thiem will be looking to win three titles in a row at Kitzbuhel, whilst Andy Murray is back in action in Washington and is the top seed in the Citi Open. The women are also in action in Washington, with Ekaterina Makarova top seed, whilst Caroline Wozniacki is the top seed in Stanford at the Bank of the West Classic. Check out my predictions for these tournaments in my previous posts!