Moo's plans for the 2013 grass court season

This year I will be attending the WTA event in Birmingham and the WTA/ATP joint event in  Eastbourne.  For Birmingham, I have tickets for the Friday, which is quarter-finals day.   I went for the first time last year and got pretty much rained off so I am hoping for more luck this year! The line-up is also exciting as although there aren't a lot of big names confirmed, many of the up-and-comers, who I have never seen before, will be competing. I also have tickets for Eastbourne and will be going on Monday and Tuesday this year.  Not much beats Wimbledon, but I have a real soft spot for Eastbourne and this will be my fourth year.   

At this moment of time I have been unlucky in purchasing Wimbledon tickets.  I was pretty fortunate last year to go four times as I went a bit crazy with buying Olympics tickets so it kind of makes sense that I haven't got any this year!  I am an LTA member, which gets a direct entry into their ballot; however I have had no joy so far.  All my family have also been unsuccessful in the public Wimbledon ballot, which is a first.  Normally, at least one of us gets tickets, but I am guessing that following an Olympics year and Andy Murray's successes in 2012, the ballot has become even more oversubscribed than usual this year.

My final attempt for tickets will be to try and get tickets on Ticketmaster for Wimbledon Court No.3, the day before play.  I know it is going to very difficult, but I will at least give it a go.  The whole second week of Wimbledon is booked off work so even if I have to park myself by the TV to watch it, I'll be very happy!  

Anyway I hope to do some live tweeting (not excessive as I do plan to watch some tennis!) from both Birmingham and Eastbourne, which you will be able to view via my blog or you can give me a follow on Twitter (@MooTennisBlog).  I will also being doing some blog reports, which I have done for the past two years with my experiences and all my best photos. Here is an example of my posts from 2012...

Birmingham: Quarter-finals day

Eastbourne: Action from Tuesday's first round matches, Part 1 and Part 2

Wimbledon: Magic Monday action from No.1 court including Sabine Lisicki's upset win over Sharapova

Olympics at Wimbledon:  Sunday from No.1 Court, Monday from Centre Court and Wednesday from Centre Court

A sunny day in Eastbourne

WTA Brussels, WTA Strasbourg, ATP Nice: Preview and Predictions

The French Open is very nearly upon us, but we have one more week and four tournaments for players to get their last minute preparations tuned in for Roland Garros.

WTA Brussels

Caroline Wozniacki

Brussels is the strongest of the two WTA tournaments this week with Caroline Wozniacki and Roberta Vinci the headline acts.  Wozniacki has not yet won a match on red clay this year and has made a wise choice in accepting a wild card.  After a first round bye, she takes on Zheng Jie or a qualifier.  The big hitting German, Julia Goerges is a quarter-final prospect, but she has really struggled to string match wins together this year.  Romina Oprandi will also be a danger in this section having made the semi-finals in Oeiras; however she would have to contend with a 0-4 head-to-head record with Goerges if they meet in R2.

I cannot really understand Vinci's reasoning for playing this week in Brussels.  Since winning Katowice and leading her Fed Cup team into the final, she has been hampered by a shoulder injury.  She struggled in Rome and I do not see her going far this week.  In her section, she has a pair of Belgians, Kirsten Flipkens and Yanina Wickmayer.  Flipkens has really struggled on the clay and will be hard pushed to get past Madison Keys in R1.  Wickmayer takes on Jamie Hampton, who is a winnable first rounder and could pave the way for a nice run in front of the home crowd if she can get her act together.

In the weakest quarter, Sloane Stephens and Peng Shuai are set to meet in the quarters.  Both should really make it into the quarters from a section that features Tsvetana Pironkova, Arantxa Rus and Sofia Arvidsson, who are all in a terrible run of form.  The third quarter sees the toughest first round match between Kaia Kanepi and Dominika Cibulkova.  If Kanepi comes through that, I expect her to go all the way to the title.  Varvara Lepchenko will also be dangerous and is projected to meet Kanepi/Cibulkova in the quarters.

1st Round Predictions - Stephens to beat Pironkova in 2 sets, Lepchenko to beat Jovanovski in 2 tight sets, Kanepi to beat Cibulkova in 2 tight sets, Keys to beat Flipkens in 3 sets and Wickmayer to beat Hampton in 2 sets.

Moo's Final Prediction - Kanepi d. Oprandi

WTA Strasbourg

This year's tournament in Strasbourg looks completely wide open with Marion Bartoli and Tamira Paszek the top two seeds.  Bartoli has made just two quarter-finals this year, meanwhile Paszek has only mustered one main draw win all year.  Both face tricky openers as Bartoli takes on Camila Giorgi and Paszek plays an always dangerous Serena-slayer, Virginie Razzano.  Paszek's section is a free-for-all with the biggest excitement, the return from injury by Petra Cetkovska, who takes on Johanna Larsson in R1.

Things don't get much better in the middle quarters; Alize Cornet and Chanelle Scheepers are the two seeds in the second quarter and Daniela Hantuchova and Hsieh Su-Wei are projected to meet in the third quarter.  Cornet is defending finalist points and can come unstuck against anyone on her day.  Scheepers played well on the clay in Marrakech so may be the one to back in this section if you are brave.  Hsieh faces a tough opener against Annika Beck, meanwhile Hantuchova faces the clay courter, Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor first up.

1st Round Predictions - Bartoli to beat Giorgi in 3 sets, Soler-Espinosa to beat Bouchard in 3 sets, Erakovic to beat Niculescu in 2 sets, Cornet to beat Johansson in 3 sets, Beck to beat Hsieh in 2 sets, McHale to beat Davis in 3 sets, Muguruza to beat Hradecka in 3 sets and Razzano to beat Paszek in 2 tight sets.

Moo's Final Prediction - McHale d. Scheepers

ATP Nice
The ATP 250 event in Nice has taken a big hit with the inevitable withdrawal of Tomas Berdych, who has wisely chosen to rest before Roland Garros following back-to-back semi-finals in Madrid and Rome.  His place in the draw is taken by the lucky, lucky loser, Albert Montanes.  The first quarter features a number of competent clay courters including Rome quarter-finalist, Marcel Granollers, Davis Cup hero, Carlos Berlocq and the Spaniard, Albert Ramos.

The middle section of the draw is padded out by Sam Querrey and John Isner, who have both done nothing significant during the clay court season.  Both have a fair chance of making the semi-finals with Isner having the tougher section as he could meet Gael Monfils or Fabio Fognini in the quarters.  Gilles Simon bookends the draw and is likely to have to contend with a pair of Italians, Paolo Lorenzi and Andreas Seppi.

1st Round Predictions: Berlocq to beat Mayer in 3 sets, Monfils to beat Giraldo in 3 sets, Seppi to beat Lu in 2 sets and Andujar to beat Hewitt in 3 sets

Moo's Final Prediction - Fognini d. Berlocq

There is also an ATP tournament in Dusseldorf this week where you can see my full predictions using the tabs at the top of the page.  Both Dusseldorf and Nice have already started today.  There will definitely be less blogging this week as I recover my energy for what will be an EPIC month.

Rome Round-Up: Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal triumphant again

Serena Williams

I was hoping today's finals would be competitive, but we saw two terrific performances from Serena and Rafa as they both completed the Madrid-Rome double.  Serena Williams was up first as she produced a clinical display to dispatch Victoria Azarenka, 6-1 6-3.  Serena hit a staggering 41 winners to just 19 unforced errors and will go into Roland Garros as the mahoosive favourite.  I thought Azarenka actually did pretty well and she needs more matches before she is back to her best.  Clay is not her best surface, but I still prefer her match-up with Serena over Maria-Serena on any surface.  Although Serena will be the big favourite, there will also be a lot of expectation and pressure so its NOT going to be a walk in the park by any means at the French.

The ATP final was equally one-sided as Rafael Nadal rather dismantled an error-leaking Roger Federer, 6-1 6-3.  The highlight of the match for me was a jaw dropping  Nadal backhand pass at 6-1 4-1 to get the break.  Federer did get one break back, but it was just delaying the inevitable.  Nadal goes into Roland Garros as the big favourite, but despite poor showings in Madrid and Rome, I still don't think Djokovic can be discounted.  We have two heavy favourites going into RG, but tennis is a funny game and i'm still weighing up my predictions, which will ALL depend on the draw.

It has been another superb week of tennis I am sure you will agree!  My previews for next week's tournaments will be posted tonight, but I will not be following the tournaments in much detail throughout the week as I want to recharge the blogging batteries for the busy weeks ahead.  I love doing my blog, but its been a bit hectic trying to keep up the last two weeks in around a full-time job! I hope you will continue to follow Moo's Tennis Blog as we move into the most exciting stage of the season.  I will post in the week about my blogging plans for the grass court season so stay tuned and spread the word to follow Moo :-)