[Curcubeu]

Romanian, that's all I can say.

[Curcubeu]

Miami Doubles QF: King/Niculescu def. AMG/Pennetta 7-5 6-2

Didn't see this one coming.

Bye Irina-Camelia!

[Dorien.]

Great tourney

[Djezonfly]

Wozniacki Open's draw

(4)Monica Niculescu (ROU) v Valeria Savinykh (RUS)
Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) v Stefanie Voegele (SUI)
Q v Petra Martic (CRO)
Q v (7)Ksenia Pervak (KAZ)

The first couple of rounds look easy, although Voegele seems in good form (reaching the third round of Charleston coming thru qualies and taking Zvonareva to a third set, BUT it was on clay). I would a love a 3-hour marathon against Pervak in the QF

[Curcubeu]

First 2 rounds SHOULD be easy for indoor Monica, but I certainly won't survive her match against Pervak...

Wozzo rematch in the semis with psycho Monica in front of Danish crowd has some potential as well.

[Curcubeu]

1st match on Court 1 tomorrow. Organizers favouring the Scandinavian block.

Good luck, though!

[Curcubeu]

Niculescu def. Savinykh 6-2 6-2

Only broken once (although having hit only 50% 1st serves in), closed out the match with 2 love service games, not a single DF.

I don't know if she really served that well or if Valeria had just huge problems on the return, maybe a combination of both aspects.

[Shvedbarilescu]

Originally Posted by Curcubeu

Niculescu def. Savinykh 6-2 6-2

Only broken once (although having hit only 50% 1st serves in), closed out the match with 2 love service games, not a single DF.

I don't know if she really served that well or if Valeria had just huge problems on the return, maybe a combination of both aspects.

Monica is a better server indoors I think that's the answer. As for the low serving percentage, I actually think this was a conscience decision and a good one. The fact that Monica did not hit a single double fault indicates that Monica was very much in control of her serve. Consequently she was able to go for it on the 1st serve, something she rarely does as one can tell by her normally very high 1st serve percentage.

Today obviously on 1st serve she decided to let loose and really go for it. The result was 4 aces and 72% of points won when the 1st serve went in. Obviously by going for it on 1st serve her serve percentage was lower than it usually is but I think this is a good trade off, especially on fast surfaces and really anytime at all when her 2nd serve is working well too as it obviously was today.

[Curcubeu]

You are probably right, she feels more comfortable serving indoors which has maybe something to do with the neutral conditions there knowing how much she struggles in windy environment anyway.

Savinykh isn't exactly the player you should fear as a Top30, so she probably really went for the 1st serve and knew that her game is enough to win most points on the 2nd as well.Good and solid result. She really should take her chances here and reach the semifinal.

[Djezonfly]

Well done Mon

[Curcubeu]

Lost in 3 sets

The same procedure as everytime. Lack of serve, poor decisions, squandering chances in the end etc.

[Djezonfly]

She really was too cray-cray in the third set, playing like she had already given up when trailing against BoJo is hardly a hopeless situation.

[grs]

Bojana played a really very good tennis.

[Curcubeu]

Monica is probably in the main draw for Stuttgart because there is no use for the 'Top 20 wildcards', so she is likely to take their sport as one of the Top ALTs.

[Curcubeu]

WTA Stuttgart, Main Draw:

(6)Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) v Jelena Jankovic (SRB)
Angelique Kerber (GER) v Roberta Vinci (ITA)
Francesca Schiavone (ITA) v Monica Niculescu (ROU)
(3)Petra Kvitova (CZE) v BYE

Couldn't be much better to be honest, but it's her first match on clay, so we'll see.