Madrid Triple

If you're Rafael Nadal, you probably get used to a Swiss fellow standing on the opposite side of the net trying to win a trophy against you.  However, in last weekend's final of the Madrid Open, it wasn't his old nemesis Roger Federer facing him, but his less-prolific compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka.

The European clay court season has seen a turnaround in fortunes for the Swiss number two.  Ending 2012 as the highest-ranked player (#17) to fail to win a title, he has already captured one trophy in 2013, downing David Ferrer in commanding fashion to take honours two weeks ago in Portugal.  Following it up was his final run in Madrid, where he took out Grigor Dimitrov, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych in successive rounds (all in three sets) to earn the right to square off against Rafa in the final.  Such stats have returned him to the top 10 in the rankings, and also give him better year-to-dates than his highly-decorated Davis Cup teammate.

Yet despite Wawrinka's improved achievements this season, he was unable to convert his second successive final appearance into a second successive title.  He came up against a player who was just too strong and inspired on the day to allow the Swiss man any glimpse of a victory.  Nadal went through Sunday's final without facing a single break point, and lifted his fifth trophy since his comeback in February, his third in Madrid.

Nadal's post-knee injury stats are nothing short of phenomenal.  He has entered seven tournaments over the past two and a half months and has reached the final in every one.  In addition he has captured five trophies, and pushed his points total for the year to within 100 of current Race to London leader Novak Djokovic.  With his only significant points left to defend from 2012 being the 2000 he accumulated through his French Open victory, it is not fantastical to suggest that Nadal may end the year back in the top two in the world.  His nearest rivals all have question marks around them.  Federer, for example, continues to fluctuate in form and could see his Wimbledon title under threat this year.  Ferrer has largely failed to capitalise on his superlative '12 season, succumbing to Nadal too easily in their encounters and similarly ceding the final in Portugal to Wawrinka.  And finally, Andy Murray also may still lack the mentality to repeat his stellar feats of last Autumn.  Nadal is poised for an assault on the top two, and it would be foolish to bet against him.

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In the earlier WTA final Maria Sharapova once again wilted when faced with Serena Williams.  Despite the solidity of her tournament and the #1 ranking on the line, she couldn't prevent the American bagging the 50th title of her career.

Williams sits just behind Monica Seles in the records of all-time WTA titlists, the Yugoslav capturing 53 throughout her time on tour.  Serena could eclipse this total by the end of 2013.

Spanish Suns

Despite the tournament director's decision to revert from the 2012 blue clay back to the traditional red clay of previous seasons, the past week of tennis under the Spanish Sun in Madrid has been something of an anomalous one.

It can start with Grigor Dimitrov's unexpected defeat of World #1 Novak Djokovic late on Tuesday.  A three-setter with tie-breaks needed to settle the first two before the Bulgarian took the honours for what is the most significant victory of his fledgling career.  It was followed two days later by the young Japanese hotshot Kei Nishikori's dismantling of the defending champion Roger Federer in what provoked a further round of "Federer's past his best" debates in social media circles.  Added in to the mix was a second set bagel for Anabel Medina Garrigues against Serena Williams in what looked for a while to be a re-enactment of the American's first round dunking at Roland Garros last year.

However, amidst the upheaval and unanticipated results the WTA final to be competed today has a distinctly familiar look to it as the top two seeds, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova line up for 15th time in their careers.  Yet despite the imbalanced match-up between the two, Williams 12-2 without losing to the Russian since 2004, there is a sense that this season and this surface could see a narrowing of the gap between them, and potentially be the first time that Sharapova prevails against her illustrious opponent.

Their paths to the final have been starkly different.  Yet to drop a set, Sharapova dispatched a trio of big hitters in the run-up to the final.  Sabine Lisicki, who after a disappointing 2012 has been finding a new vein of form, fell in the third round, while Kaia Kanepi, returning after a prolonged injury lay-off, found only 6 games against the Russian in the quarter-final.  Facing Serbia's Ana Ivanovic in the semi-final, Sharapova never looked beatable, rolling into the final with a routine 64 63 scoreline and in the process chalking up the 500th win of her career.

Contrastingly, Williams was handed the easier draw after the toughest seeds in her half (Li Na, Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki) all succumbed early.  Her quarter-final against Anabel Medina Garrigues, then, was something of a surprise, seeing the American stroll through the opening set before suffering one of her infamous wanderings to allow the Spaniard a bagel in the second set, only the seventh player ever to bag a 60 scoreline against the World #1.  Medina Garrigues enjoys the accolade of being the most decorated clay court player on the WTA tour, with 10 titles to her name.  Her second set rallying against Williams didn't manage to alter the overall outcome, though, as the American regrouped to edge the final set 75.

One of the features of Williams' game, though, or more accurately, of her progression through a tournament, is the speed at which she learns from her mistakes.  Any threat posed by the AMG bagel set was quickly wiped away as she squared up against last year's Roland Garros runner-up, Sara Errani.  However poor Sharapova's record against Williams may appear, Errani's is equally woeful.  A complete mismatch, the American enjoys a 4-0 record against the Italian, with only 1 set lost out of 9 played.  Perhaps preemptively, Errani took to Twitter on the morning of her match, reTweeting the film star Will Smith's words:

An innocent sharing of Fresh Prince wisdom?  Or apologetic defeatism for an inevitable outcome?  Irrespective, Errani came out of the gate the better player, forcing Serena to twice come back from a break down to clinch the first set 75.  Falling away during set two, Errani was frequently undone by Williams superior power and placement, as her backboard returning game was systematically undone.  The final stats of the game reveal an 80/57 points spread between the two players.  With 39 unforced errors for the American, it recalculates as over two-thirds of the points won by Errani gifted her by Serena's errors.  Errani, despite her clay court prowess, has no real weaponry to hurt Williams.

After multiple rounds of clay court specialists, Williams will face her first power-hitter in the final.  Both players take an impressive stat into the final - going 27-1 on the surface since last season, with Sharapova also boasting a 21 match win-streak on the surface prior to today.  For a player that first found success on the fast European grass courts, her renaissance on the red clay was one of the surprises of 2012.  Taking home the trophy in Stuttgart before crowning her achievements with victory over Errani on the terre bateau at Roland Garros garnered Sharapova a brief return to the #1 spot, as the pack around her wilted with the clay underfoot.  A second Stuttgart title this year suggests that her 2012 successes on the surface weren't a momentary blip within her career, but signal instead a growth in her game.

Contrastingly, Williams has never been fully at home on a clay court, last winning a red clay title back in 2002 (her sole French Open title) and she hasn't made a final on the surface since.  And as hard as it ever is to back anyone other than Serena going into a final, the Russian's growing love affair with clay courts could make this afternoon's final the one that sees Sharapova return to the #1 ranking with her first victory over the American in 9 years.

Images from Eurosport and Twitter

Poking the Rattlesnake

The Family Circle Cup, held in Charleston every April, is the longest standing WTA premier stop on tour, clocking in at an impressive 41 years. It is also marks the start of the clay court season, drawing a line under the twin-pack US hardcourt gladiator events, Indian Wells and Miami. This year's FCC was a memorable one, taking in an all-Williams semi-final before a three-setter decided the championship match.

That match was the 24th meeting of Venus and Serena, and the first time the pair have competed competitively on opposite sides of a tennis net since the Year End Championship in 2009. Injuries for the pair and increased lay-offs went someway to making their delayed meeting a tantalising prospect, if also with the added prospect that the 30-something sisters are reaching an age whereby such an encounter may not be repeated too many more times. If the match-up excited on paper, conjuring up memories of all those all-Williams finals of the 2000s, it failed to ignite in actuality. For while Serena is still at the top of the game, literally with her #1 ranking, the gap between her and the 32-year-old older sister was too cavernous for Venus ever too stand a chance of redressing the 13-10 H2H defecit. Once upon a time, Venus Williams had a serve too be feared, the most ballistic serve on tour. The ease with which Serena batted the ball back suggests that those days evaporated when Venus announced her battle with Sojourns disease. Always a step slower, Venus could only post one game in a lopsided first set, while Serena's near-perfect tennis saw her record no unforced errors over the course of the 7 games. Set #2 allowed Venus to double her efforts but failed to change the course of the game, the 61 62 scoreline the biggest defeat of one Williams vs. the other ever.

Taking the mantle from Venus and attempting to prevent back-to-back Charleston victories for Serena was Serbia's Jelena Jankovic. Another former champion in Virginia, Jankovic has been experiencing a revival in fortunes recently, posting more convincing, consistent results and bagging her first title in over 20 months on the South American clay of Bogota. However, in a direct contrast to Serena, who marched through to the final without dropping a set, the Serb was taken to three by three of her five opponents, including her semi-final challenger, the unseeded Stephanie Voegele. That Jankovic appeared to struggle against opposition outside of the top 40 suggested that the outcome of the Sunday final was odds on to go the way of the American.

However, the green clay of Charleston delivered a story different from that expected. Much is touted around the ATP of players and their backhands, Richard Gasquet and Nico Almagro often being cited as having the best strokes on the men's circuit. On the WTA tour, Jankovic can put her backhand in the mix as one of the best amongst the top 20. Throughout the opening set it was the #9 seed who made the plays, a sluggish Serena frequently undone by a forehand down the line as Jankovic opened up the backhand cross court rally to force the errors.

Williams looked less than sharp than she did against Venus, and was increasingly frustrated as Jankovic, who was clearly enjoying her tennis for the first time in almost two years, broke the American's previously unconquerable serve and took her lead through to a victorious 63 opening set.

So far so good for the Serb, who looked on the way to posting a significant victory. However, as set two commenced, with Jankovic serving, a rash outburst from the Serb served to change the course of the match. Complaining to the umpire about Serena's lack of speed between points when receiving serve, effectively slowing Jankovic down and preventing her from rifling though points, JJ seemed to fire Williams into action.

Sharing a court with a superior opponent, Jankovic had left the predator to her own devices in the opening set, and those devices had largely allowed the Serbian to utilise her strengths to dictate the play and capitalise on the spoils that came her way. Directing a complaint at her opponent served only to provoke Williams' natural predatory instincts and the ferocity rattled through the next six games without loss. Set 3 was similarly taut from the American who eventually posted a 36 60 62 victory to successfully defend her Charleston title and claim her third trophy of the season.

After last year's damp squib of a final, when Serena outclassed the surprise finalist Lucie Safarova from beginning to end, 2013 proved much more enjoyable. Primarily, the threat of a Serena Williams defeat from unexpected quarters elevated the match significantly. However it also benefited from the presence of Jelena Jankovic, a popular player who exhibited her humour on court before some ill-advised whining rotated the match on its axis to play out to a different conclusion.

If the story of Charleston 2013 has a moral to be gleamed from its concourse it would be that it's best not to poke a rattlesnake if its not doing you any harm. Leave it be, else it might strike out in a way that can only end badly for you. And when that rattlesnake is Serena Williams, the outcome is an inevitable victory.

Image from Times website

What Say You, Walkover

An aura of disappointment surrounded the women's quarterfinals at Indian Wells this Thursday as 2 of the 4 scheduled ties were decided by walkovers.

Australian Sam Stosur withdrew from her match against Angelique Kerber, gifting the German her second semi-final appearance of the year. Kerber's next opponent also arrived there by virtue of a walkover, Victoria Azarenka putting health over pride and choosing not to defend her title. Caroline Wozniacki was the beneficiary of this decision, and ultimately, of the two semi-finalists, made better use of the extra day in the schedule, defeating Kerber in their match-up to reach her first final since October.

The Dane is a previous winner of the event, triumphing here back in 2011, and reached the final in the previous year also. During her 2011 campaign she was also presented with a fortuitous route through to her semi-final against a then #9 seed Azarenka, retiring from their QF three games in. Her semi-final opposition back in 2011 will also be her opponent in today's midday final, Maria Sharapova.  Two years ago it was Wozniacki, then world #1, who emerged victorious from their encounter, trouncing the injury-blighted Russian 62 61 in an overwhelming display before a seesaw final against Marion Bartoli saw her capture the Premier title.

Twenty-four months later, the fortunes of both 2013 finalists have flipped: Sharapova is now contesting for the top ranking once again and will leapfrog Azarenka to the number two spot when the points are recalculated on Monday. Wozniacki, on the other hand, has slipped down the rankings after a tumultuous 2012, anchoring herself around the #10 mark at the start of the season. Both will be keen to snag their first silverware of the season with the Indian Wells title.

Whale trophies - all the rage in 2006

The last time the pair met was in the semi-finals of Miami last season. Sharapova was there off the back of a thumping from Azarenka in the Australian Open final, while Wozniacki was busy adjusting to entering tournaments as anything other than the top seed. Going the distance, it was the Russian who eventually triumphed, finding her accuracy at the tail end of the match to breach Wozniacki's defences. Today's final favours Sharapova, leading the head-to-head 4-2, and while she has flirted with inconsistent accuracy during the tournament, she has proved solid when she needed to be.  It would be unsurprising for the pair to push the match to three sets again, but much will depend on which Sharapova makes it out onto court today.  Wozniacki will undoubtedly defend solidly , and although she typically struggles when forced to attack, she could be presented with scarce chances for aggression if the Russian is exacting in her groundstrokes.  Of the two players looking to pick up their second Indian Wells trophy, it is most likely to be Sharapova, the new world #2, who walks away with the crystal at the end of three sets.

image from tennisforum.com

The Psychologies of No Longer #1s

Somewhere in the deserts of California, 96 of the top WTA players battled their way through the first week of the tournament, and now only 8 remain.  A 128-place draw sheet was in operation, granting all 32 seeded women a bye into the second round.  Of the quarter-finalists tying their shoelaces and straightening their visors today and tomorrow, all 8 were seeded at the event.

Victoria Azarenka (1) vs Caroline Wozniacki (8)

Defending champion, Victoria Azarenka, has started 2013 in much of the same vein as she began 2012.  Last year, she zipped through the first three months of the season going 26 without loss before being derailed by Marion Bartoli at the Miami Sony Ericsson Open.  2013 sees her January-March tally at 17 without loss, a feat she achieved by retaining her Australian Open crown and chalking up a victory against Serena Williams in Doha.  That she has ceded the top spot in the official rankings to the American veteran has had little to do with any dips in Azarenka's season, primarily attributable to Williams' increased play activity at the beginning of the year.  With Williams absent from Indian Wells as she was last year, Azarenka cannot take back the coveted #1 spot, even if she ends up defending her title.

She faces off against another former #1 in the quarter-final, the now World #10 and 8th seed at the Indian Wells event Caroline Wozniacki.  The Dane was ousted from the top spot in the rankings by the lady she faces this round.  The affair which both have with the top spot is inherent in their quarter-final match-up.  Wozniacki's plight has been much reported on, her plummet down the rankings eventually stopping around just outside the top 10, where she has flitted up an down for most of the latter half of last year and this.  The young Dane looks unlikely to climb back to the top of the rankings tree, even considering the ageing years of some of the top 10 that she would need to leapfrog - Williams, Li Na and Stosur are all over or nearing 30, and will eventually find that time catches up on them and they cannot sustain their current playing levels or ranking.

It is, instead, players of Azarenka's ilk, such as Petra Kvitova, Aga Radwanska and even Maria Sharapova, that  Wozniacki needs to be compared with - these players will plot their careers alongside the Dane.  And in comparison to them she appears to be the one trying to make up the gap that they opened up between them and her last season.  Far from suggesting that her stint at number one was a fluke or that she was unworthy of it, it is more indicative of the dearth of new talent that has forced its way through the rankings and now sits at the top of the game.  Wozniacki, try as she might, frequently finds herself lacking in tactics when she comes up against the current top 10 - the controlled power of Azarenka, the doubles sharpness of Sara Errani or the wily tactics of Radwanska, for example, prove too much of a game for a player who values safety over aggression.

This is a microcosm of Wozniacki's relationship to the number one spot.  Whilst she was number one she frequently appeared laid back and content with her ranking.  As she drifted out of the top ten the frustrations with her status manifested themselves infrequently enough to suggest that she was resigned to the inevitability of her drop out of WTA title contention, again content with her standing.  Regardless of whether this was a true state of her inner emotions, her outward demeanour suggested it was so.

Similarly, now, even though there appears to be a will to try something new to re-ascend the rankings, it appears as an uncomfortable position for her to be in, and an unlikely way for her to compete, so inevitably she reverts back to plan A - the safe and steady mono-rhythm.  It is almost an acceptance with her current position in the WTA rankings, a complacency to do what she does to maintain her standing rather than improve it.  And it contrasts greatly with Azarenka's demeanour throughout her climb to the number one spot and could hint at her mindset now that she has lost the position to Serena Williams.  Azarenka embodies a determination and the confident swagger of a champion, contrastingly to Wozniacki, there is a demeanour of rightfulness about her that screams that she believes that she should be the player at the top of the rankings.

Losing the top spot to Serena may have the opposite effect to Azarenka than her usurpation had on Wozniacki, and it may spur the 23-year-old on to an even greater resolution to succeed in an effort to reclaim what she thinks is rightfully hers.  And it could, in many ways, be a good indicator of how the quarter-final between the two former number ones could pan out.  It should come down to the greater determination, the bigger drive and the better tendency to clinically execute an aggressive game plan.  On all of these Azarenka trumps Wozniacki, and tomorrow's match could prove to be unnecessarily one-sided in the Belorussian's favour.

In the other quarters it was a clean sweep of seeds, and nearly a full set of the top 8.  The struggling Stosur, whose abysmal opening months of the season have typically cocooned into more solid results the further away from Australia she gets, takes on #4 seed Angelique Kerber.  The German has a wealth to prove after her first season in the top 10, and may be a little short of full fitness.  The Australian may just sneak a victory through to the semi-final this time.

In the bottom half of the draw, Sharapova takes on Italy's Sara Errani.  An on-form Sharapova should prove too strong for the gutsy Errani, but if Sharapova has a nightmare day full of erratic line-missing power-plays, Errani could push her to three sets.

Finally Petra Kvitova takes on the surprise quarter-finalist, Maria Kirilenko.  The other Russian Maria, currently seeded 13th, put out the #3 seed Radwanska, who has seen some of the sheen that she gleamed throughout 2012 fade as she fails to string together results in the bigger events of the year.  Kvitova, by contrast, looks to have addressed some of the failings of her 2012 and should progress against her lower-ranked opponent.

Semi-final predictions: Azarenka vs Stosur; Sharapova vs Kvitova

Image copyright saimad via Wikimedia Commons

Late to the Party

It would appear that March has sneaked up on some of us swifter than anticipated, bringing with it one of the key months in the tennis seasons of both the ATP and the WTA.  With both Miami on the horizon, and Indian Wells already underway, the tours converge Stateside, bringing with them a number of questions ahead of the clay court build up to the second major of the year.

Perhaps the most obvious starting point for the ATP draw at this year's Indian Wells involves a couple of body parts; most specifically Rafael Nadal's knees.  In his first three tournaments since he returned to topflight tennis after an injury-induced hiatus of 8 months, the Spaniard has gone 12-1; the solitary loss coming in the final of his maiden 2013 tournament in Chile.  Since then, the schlumpy clay in Brazil may have witnessed a Nadal victory, but raised eyebrows with the manner of the wins as two of his four matches lacked his trademark conviction and bite and saw him cede sets to unseeded opponents.  Acapulco, his third event during the South American swing, revealed a more typical Nadal.  Racing through the draw, the Spaniard went into a marquee final against the man who had taken his spot in the coveted ATP top 4, countryman David Ferrer.  "Ferru", though, was no opposition for the 11-time slam champion, who went a long way to reclaiming his clay-court supremacy with a convincing 60 62 decimation of the man who had cleaned up all the silverware in Latin America in 2012.

Two significant unanswered questions underpin the Nadal comeback.  Firstly, there is the surface.  So far, Nadal's patella tendinitis has only been tested on the slightly softer clay courts, where a slower ball with more bounce can be more forgiving on ailing joints than a skidding grass court or a relentless hard court.  But there is also the intensity of best-of-five matches.  Over the course of any slam tournament a player could contest a maximum of 35 sets, that's 7 5-set matches from Round 1 through the final.  For the rest of the season, it's three set encounters.  Which means that while Nadal's return to the hard court tour at Indian Wells can answer certain questions around the speed and extent of his recovery by testing his joints on a hard, fast surface, it may not be a decent enough indicator of whether the Spaniard can enter his favourite best-of-5 event of the year at the end of May as a contender or not.

Inevitably, though, where the fifth-seeded Nadal would end up in the draw for Indian Wells, or rather, which of the current top four he would have to face first should he progress to a quarter final, was the big question of the draw.  The man on the receiving end of a potential QF clash with Rafael Nadal is the defending champion and another player with much to prove this season, Roger Federer.  Nadal opens his IW account against home talent Ryan Harrison this evening, and has lucked out with Mikhail Youzhny, then Andreas Seppi or Janko Tipsarevic as his prospective round 3 and 4 opponents.  The Russian is a frequent misfire, so could capitulate under Nadal's pressure, while Tipsarevic may not possess the weapons to test a confident Nadal.

Should Nadal meet Federer at the Quarter stage, the likely outcome would be a Swiss victory.  Indeed, things would have to be severely upset in the Federer camp for the fully-fit defending champion to succumb to a testing, but ultimately rusty opponent on a rehabilitation drive back to full re-integration into the tour.  However, while Nadal has been steadily improving to suggest that he may arrive back at his best, if not immediately then potentially by the end of the season, his opponent is raising questions of his own.

Many accusations were sent Federer's way in 2012 concerning his fitness, his age and his ability to compete with the new crop of 20-somethings dominating the top 10 of the ATP.  The Swiss star answered them all by capturing his 17th slam title amidst a 6-trophy season.  At this point last year he had bagged trophies in Rotterdam and Dubai before coming through Del Potro, Nadal and Isner for the title in Indian Wells.  2013 tells a different story.  While his semi-final loss to Andy Murray at the Australian Open is an indicator of the Scot's growing assertiveness on the biggest stages following his US Open title at the back end of last year, the next event Federer entered was Rotterdam, and there he yielded to an uncharacteristic defeat by France's Julien Benneteau at the quarterfinal stage.  A follow up a fortnight later in dusty Dubai saw him taken out at the semi-final stage by a fellow top-10 stalwart, Tomas Berdych.

Federer last went through the first half of the season without a hardcourt win in back 2009, following up two previous occasions in 2008 and 2001.  Since '09, even amidst the Djokovic dominance of the past two years, Federer has always managed at least one win during the opening months of the season.  What strikes most about the statistic this year is the opponents he is losing too.  In '09, Federer's hardcourt spring was scuppered by a combination of Murray (Doha and Indian Wells), Djokovic (Miami) and Nadal (Australian Open).  This year, in addition to Murray's Melbourne semi-final victory, the former #1 has been defeated by Benneteau (ranked 39) and Berdych, a player against whom he had a 11-5 win-loss record.

The statistics perhaps reveal that Federer have finally crept past his vintage.  Coupled with Nadal's steady trajectory back to the top, there is no longer a sense of awe about either player, each appearing vulnerable to the right player.  Contrastingly, the two most likely successors to the Federer/Nadal rivalry, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, are considered the players to beat at this event.  For 2013 Djokovic is 13-0, the Australian Open and Dubai the two trophies on his mantelpiece so far this season.  Murray is 10-1, his sole 2013 defeat coming on the Australian continent when Djokovic outlasted him in the Melbourne final.  Perhaps it is unfortunate, then, that both are in the same section of the draw, and scheduled to meet in the semi-finals.  It may mean that Federer, or possibly Nadal, gets another shot at the final of Indian Wells, an event that both have won previously.  Inevitably, though, this season's ATP 1000 month of March madness in the USA could pose just as many questions as it answers about the past, present and future constituents of the ATP top 4.

Nadal image from: http://bnpparibasopenblog.com 
Federer image from: http://www.straitstimes.com

Petra 2.0

Thank you for downloading the Petra Kvitova App.  An update is now available.  Petra 2.0 fixes a number of bugs previously experienced by users and now delivers decreased bouts of erratic ground strokes, longer periods of confidence exhibited by positive body language and less dejected leaning on her racquet, greater immunity to stomach bugs and an increased ability to treat every match as if it were a Fed Cup tie.  Would you like to install?

It seems to have been a long time coming for Petra Kvitova to reassert herself as a potential force in the WTA.  Back at the end of 2011 she was most pundit's pick to ascend to the top, surpassing Victoria Azarenka and providing worthy opposition to returning tour vets Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova.  There was a Venus Rosewater Dish with her name engraved on it, and a Year End Championship foremost in the memory that pointed to a Kvitova sweep of the majors in 2012. Somewhere along the line though, round about this time last year, the star of the Belorussian Azarenka was rising high in the sky while Kvitova's Czech star was flickering and dimming.  She started struggling physically, citing stomach bugs and back strains as reasons for her stumbling performances.  The rivalry between Azarenka and Kvitova failed to materialise and the Czech found herself out of the top 5 as she struggled to put together consecutive match wins.

A promising pre-Open swing in North American last summer went someway to suggesting that Kvitova's woes were only temporary, but mediocrity set in once again at Flushing Meadows and her season withered away to leave her at the lower end of the top 10 by the end of the year.  Dubai marks the first time in nearly six months that a buzz surrounds the Czech woman and precedes her participation in a tournament.

Making it all the way to the final of the event, the most significant indicator that Kvitova may be approaching the player that she was when she captured the Wimbledon title came two rounds earlier when she took out the highest seed in the event, defending champion, Aga Radwanska.  A hugely aggressive display from the Czech world #8 saw her overpower her tactically-minded opponent to post a straightforward 64 64 victory.  Radwanska is a player who has stealthily progressed through the rankings to her current residency at #4.  Rather than relying on power like most of her contemporaries, the Pole uses defence to wear her opponents down before exploiting court dynamics and her own superior fitness to expose their weaknesses.  This game plan was irrelevant against an all-firing Kvitova whose power consistently negated Radwanska's strategic play.

More top 10 opposition followed in the semi-final for Kvitova as she took on former WTA top seed Caroline Wozniacki.  Another defensive player, Wozniacki wasn't allowed an opportunity to attack, Kvitova frequently pushing her back behind the baseline, leaving the Dane with few attacking options and resorting to defensive high balls.  Sweeping through the match, Kvitova posted a commanding 64 63 victory.

Saturday's final saw her meet the Little Italian that Could, Sara Errani for the first singles silverware for either player this season.  Both players may have ultimately benefited from Williams and Azarenka withdrawing from the competition through injury, but neither didn't deserve their place in the final.  For the third match in a row, Kvitova played authoritatively, leaping out to an early lead that eventually transformed into a 62 opening set. The winners were once again flying off both wings and Errani was made to look exceptionally short both in foot speed and wingspan.

Taking the opening game in the second set, Kvitova looked to be cruising.  However, Errani, who is currently ranked #1 alongside countrywoman Roberta Vinci in doubles, strategised an emergency game plan to stop the match slipping away.  Rarely seen in the women's game these days, she started to serve and volley, coming into the net more frequently to utilise her obvious doubles abilities.  It began to pay dividends immediately as Kvitova, with a different view of the court, began to lose both impetus and direction on her ground strokes.  Sweet touches from the Italian at the net frustrated the Czech so much that she failed to win another game in the set.

Set three saw the tables flipped once again as Errani held serve in her opening game, but then ceded the next 6 games to Kvitova who had, it appeared, finally found a way to counter the Italian's net game.  With a final score of 62 16 61, the hope that Kvitova can return to the dominant form that epitomised her championship run at SW19 was evident in the commanding displays of the first and final sets.  Her wavering second set can partially be attributed to some clever Plan B play from Errani, but suggests that there is still a way before Kvitova can truly be considered a safe bet for the majors in a field strengthened by the presence of the current top 3.  Indian Wells and Miami could be good indicators of how well Kvitova can sustain this current vein of good form.