OMG!
This is one of the best news I've received this year!! For the next
five years, I can finally watch the WTA year-end championships! I'm
sure many tennis fans here in the Philippines would be very excited as
well! Anyway, I just hope they make access to the tennis players easy
also like what they did before in the HK invitationals, para naman we
can have photo ops with them and even maybe have a chat or autograph.
As soon as I get the 2014 dates, book the plane ticket na agad para mura
pa!
Well, Tommy Haas just lost a close semi-final here in the Miami Open against David Ferrer. Ferrer is probably my most favorite player in the men's tour so I was actually rooting for him, but I was also happy to see Tommy Haas play really well. He actually raced to a 62 win in the first set. However, David is a fantastic driver of a player and he will chip and chip and chip away at you and that's what he did in the second set. It was another close third set but at 33, David took over the driver's seat and was helped by some unforced errors from Tommy. It looked like at this point, Tommy lost a bit of his mojo and David won the third set 63 and the semifinal match as well. Even though the Miami Open is just one of the many events in the ATP tour, but I can tell you, the level of play here is uber high!! I just love how these guys play! I haven't seen a tennis match since the Australian Open, and believe you me, the two semi's I saw tonight were just amazing!
It's great to Serena Williams back in the #1 spot of women's tennis, where she should really be! At least it won't wreck the expectations of anyone whenever the draw is released and finds her on their side of the draw! Serena has always been seesawing up and down the rankings but her performance for the past two years has really been impressive! Anyway, I don't know how long she can stay at #1 as Vika Azarenka is really close by but at least a week at #1 is still an achievement. I hope she can hold the ranking till the French Open draw is released.
It's very difficult to enter the main draw of any of the events in the Australian Open so I am proud to announce to you that we had a local entry in this year's Australian Open. Jurence Mendoza played in the main draw of the Boys Singles but had the misfortune of drawing the #1 seed from Serbia Nikola Milojevic in the first round, and promptly lost 36 16.
He's in the quarterfinals though of the boy's doubles as he and his partner from Hong Kong Pak Leong Yeung will compete later for a slot in the semifinals. His experience here can put him in good stead as he finds ways of improving his game of play - especially at a grand slam level!
I admit I was one of those who watched the quarterfinal match between Spanish players David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro, who couldn't believe how Nicolas Almagro just let his 30-0 lead 5-4 over David Ferrer in a crucial game in the third set slip him by! Nicolas was only two points away from his very first grand slam semifinal - and he allowed David Ferrer back into the match. That was the turning point for Ferrer in that match - and he never looked back.
Almagro is one of my favorite players in the tour and I think his quarterfinal appearance here should beef up his points to finally make it into the top 10. I know it's very tough to beat any of the top four players right now - including Ferrer, who is standing in for his injured compatriot Rafa Nadal, but he had his chance and let it go. I think he has to work on the mental toughness department more and find the drive to get back up after committing a major blunder.
