WTA Week Ahead: Kuala Lumpur, Monterrey

Kuala Lumpur

International, Alisa Kleybanova defending; draw here.

Top 8 seeds: Francesca Schiavone, Marion Bartoli, Alisa Kleybanova, Jarmila Groth, Lucie Safarova, Ayumi Morita, Kimiko Date-Krumm, Bojana Jovanovski

Points of interests: Well, top seed Schiavone has already lost, hampered by an ankle injury and upset by Jelena Dokic in the first round. So … Jelena Dokic? Also, say hello to the unseeded Dinara Safina in the draw. She plays Xinyun Han in the first round.

Monterrey

International, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defending; draw here.

Top 8 seeds: Jelena Jankovic, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Aravane Rezai, Julia Goerges, Anastasija Sevastova, Sara Errani, Iveta Benesova, Polona Hercog

Points of interest: Well, I’d pay good money to watch first round meetings between Melanie Oudin and Vania King, Simona Halep and Alize Cornet, and Iveta Benesova and Gisela Dulko. But that might just be me. Also: JJ! 

WTA Week Ahead: Acapulco, Kuala Lumpur

Two Internationals for the women this week …

Acapulco

Draw here.

Top Seeds: Venus Williams, Agnes Szavay, Gisela Dulko, Sorana Cirstea. If Venus doesn’t defend here, too … Christ on a bike.

Kuala Lumpur

A new tournament, this. Draw here.

Top Seeds: Elena Dementieva, Li Na, Zheng Jie, Alisa Kleybanova 

Kolya. Kuala Lumpur. Coincidence? Yes.

But he still won. Hooray. Kolya beat Fernando Verdasco in straight sets, 64 75, to pick up the first ever Atomic Kitten Malaysian Open trophy. And once more, hooray.

Anyone else mildly disquieted by Verdasco cradling his trophy like a wee babby?

Never suck all the juice out of a vampire tractor trophy.

Don’t pretend that doesn’t turn you on.

Sunday’s OOP

Bangkok

Center (from 1 p.m.)
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez / Mischa Zverev vs. Eric Butorac / Rajeev Ram
Viktor Troicki vs. Gilles Simon (NB 3 p.m.)

Beijing (WTA main draw, ATP qualifying)

Center (from 11.00hrs)
1. Ji Chun-Mei vs. Lucie Safarova
2. Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Zheng Jie
3. Dinara Safina vs. Roberta Vinci
4. Kaia Kanepi vs. Serena Williams
5. Elena Dementieva vs. Anna-Lena Groenefeld (NB 19.00hrs)
6. Yaroslava Shvedova vs. Peng Shuai

Court 1 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Sorana Cirstea vs. Vera Zvonareva
2. Maria Kirilenko vs. Kateryna Bondarenko
3. Magdalena Rybarikova vs. Marion Bartoli
4. María José Martínez Sánchez vs. Caroline Wozniacki
5. Anabel Medina Garrigues vs. Lu Jingjing (NB 19.00hrs)

Court 4 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Mayer vs. de Chaunac
2. ATP: Fognini vs. Dlouhy
3. Zhang Shuai vs. Iveta Benesova

Court 5 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Sara Errani vs. Virginie Razzano
2. Urszula Radwanska vs. Patty Schnyder
3. Jans/Rosolska vs. Errani/Pennetta (NB 13.00hrs)
4. Bondarenko/Bondarenko vs. King/Petrova

Court 7 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Elena Vesnina vs. Melinda Czink
2. Olga Govortsova vs. Victoria Azarenka
3. Shahar Peer vs. Ekaterina Makarova

Court 8 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Young vs. Kubot
2. ATP: Ginepri vs. Llodra
3. Pavlyuchenkova/Wickmayer vs. Dushevina/Rodionova (NB 13.00hrs)
4. Chuang/Raymond vs. Han/Ji

Kuala Lumpur

Centre (from 2.30 p.m.)
Mariusz Frystenberg / Marcin Matkowski vs. Ignor Kunitsyn / Jaroslav Levinsky
Nikolay Davydenko vs. Fernando Verdasco (NB 3.45 p.m.)

Tokyo qualifying here.

Kuala Lumpur: You Better Win This, Kolya

How many times do I have to tell people that Fernando Verdasco is pure evil? (Although at the end of that Janko video there were a couple of seconds of ‘Nando’ footage that tell me I’m not going to be able to keep that argument going for much later without being basically a massive bitch). Anyway, he beat Gonzo in straight sets, 64 75. And that for me is proof enough. 

He’s getting a lot of mileage out of giving away his smashed racquets, isn’t he?

And no Elf to come pick him up. Sadness.

So I’m pinning all my hopes on Kolya, who made inroads on his 2-5 H2H against Soderling by beating him 16 76(1) 62 – first time since 2007, incidentally. He’s 5-1 up against Verdasco. I really hope this is a good omen of some sort. Go Kolya!

Saturday’s OOP

Bangkok

Beijing

(WTA/ATP qualifying & WTA first round)

Center (from 11.00hrs)
1. Flavia Pennetta vs. Han Xinyun
2. Samantha Stosur vs. Alizé Cornet
3. Czink/U.Radwanska vs. Yan/Zheng (NB 14.00hrs)
4. Kuznetsova/Safina vs. Craybas/Glatch
5. Vera Dushevina vs. Venus Williams (NB 19.00hrs)
6. Agnes Szavay vs. Alona Bondarenko

Court 1 (from 10.00hrs)
1. Urszula Radwanska vs. Tatiana Poutchek (Singles Q Final)
2. Yaroslava Shvedova vs. Sun Shengnan (Singles Q Final)
3. Ji Chun-Mei vs. Angela Haynes (Singles Q Final)
4. Aravane Rezai vs. Aleksandra Wozniak
5. Sun/Sun vs. Kudryavtseva/Makarova (NB 19.00hrs)

Court 4 (from 10.00hrs)
1. Melinda Czink vs. Galina Voskoboeva (Singles Q Final)
2. Alexa Glatch vs. Olga Govortsova (Singles Q Final)
3. Grandin/Kops-Jones vs. Benesova/Voskoboeva (NB 14.00hrs)

Court 5 (from 10.00hrs)
1. Kamil Capkovic vs. Lukasz Kubot
2. Lukas Dlouhy vs. Brendan Evans
3. Sybille Bammer vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

Court 7 (from 10.00hrs)
1. Shao-Xuan Zeng vs. Sebastian De Chaunac
2. Feliciano Lopez vs. Donald Young
3. Shahar Peer vs. Vania King (Singles Q Final)

Court 8 (from 10.00hrs)
1. Florian Mayer vs. Michael Yani
2. Robby Ginepri vs. Ze Zhang
3. Kateryna Bondarenko vs. Chanelle Scheepers (Singles Q Final)

Court 9 (from 10.00hrs)
1. Fabio Fognini vs. Tsung-Hua Yang
2. Ivo Klec vs. Michael Llodra
3. Nuria Llagostera Vives vs. Alla Kudryavtseva (Singles Q Final)

Kuala Lumpur

Tokyo

WTA

Center (from 12.00hrs)
1. Singles Final: Maria Sharapova vs. Jelena Jankovic
2. Doubles Final: Kleybanova/Schiavone vs. Hantuchova/Sugiyama

ATP (qualifying)

Kuala Lumpur: Sort of Rhymes With ‘Oompa Loompa’

That has no relevance to anything, I just wanted to point it out. Anyway, I thought there was a good chance that all four quarter-finals at the Atomic Particle Of Your Choice Malaysian Open would go three sets, which just showed how much I know. Fernando Verdasco probably had the toughest time of it, eventually beating Richard Gasquet 75 64; that’s still a good little run for Richie. The Cokeback continues!

Actually, all the top four seeds are into the semis. Kolya beat Monfils 63 63, a result I choose to blame on the hair; third seed Soderling dropped just four games to Berdych, and Gonzo beat Youzhny 63 64. Solid stuff. Solid stuff.

Singles – Quarter-finals
[1] N Davydenko (RUS) d [5] G Monfils (FRA) 63 63
[2] F Verdasco (ESP) d R Gasquet (FRA) 75 64
[3] R Soderling (SWE) d [6] T Berdych (CZE) 62 62
[4] F Gonzalez (CHI) d M Youzhny (RUS) 63 64

Friday’s OOP

Tokyo

Center (from 12.00hrs)
1. Li Na vs. Jelena Jankovic
2. Maria Sharapova vs. Agnieszka Radwanska
3. Dulko/Petrova vs. Hantuchova/Sugiyama
4. Black/Huber vs. Kleybanova/Schiavone

Bangkok

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur: Hello, Goodbye

Say hello to Joachim Johansson:

Say goodbye to Joachim Johansson. The Pimback, or at least this manifestation of it, came to an end when he lost to Richard Gasquet 62 in the third. I heard he was tapped after two sets against Hewitt the other day, but still a good effort from him. It’ll be Verdasco for Richie next in the quarters, who dropped just four games after Karol Beck.

Actually, the quarter-final lineup looks pretty good in a lot of senses. Gonzo-Youzhny? Yes please.

Tomas Berdych will face Robin Soderling next (another yes please) after it took him three sets to beat Simon Greul. But he still had time to hang around with the ballkids.

I hate that I’m starting to like him. This can only lead to misery. Anyway, the fourth quarter-final is possibly the most cracking of the lot. Gael Monfils beat Vassallo Arguello 64 62 and will take on Nikolay Davydenko next. Crikey!

Hair’s not improving upon closer acquaintance, though.

Singles – Second Round
[2] F Verdasco (ESP) d K Beck (SVK) 64 60
[4] F Gonzalez (CHI) d [Q] R Bopanna (IND) 64 36 64
[5] G Monfils (FRA) d M Vassallo Arguello (ARG) 64 62
[6] T Berdych (CZE) d S Greul (GER) 63 46 63
R Gasquet (FRA) d [WC] J Johansson (SWE) 46 76(1) 62

Doubles – Quarter-finals
[1] M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) d A Golubev (KAZ) / D Istomin (UZB) 57 64 10-1
[3] M Damm (CZE) / R Lindstedt (SWE) d M Melo (BRA) / A Sa (BRA) 64 62
S Huss (AUS) / S Lipsky (USA) d M Elgin (RUS) / F Moser (GER) 63 62

Thursday’s OOP

Tokyo

Center (from 10.30hrs)
1. Stosur/Stubbs vs. Kleybanova/Schiavone (tbc)
2. Jelena Jankovic vs. Marion Bartoli (NB 11.00hrs)
3. Hantuchova/Sugiyama vs. Medina Garrigues/Ruano Pascual
4. Iveta Benesova vs. Maria Sharapova (NB 14.30hrs)
5. Victoria Azarenka vs. Li Na (NB 17.00hrs)
6. Magdalena Rybarikova vs. Agnieszka Radwanska

Bangkok

Kuala Lumpur