Sharapova within striking distance of World #1 - wins Brisbane

Happy 2015 tennis fans. 

And what a way to start the year, with the first 3 WTA winners of 2015... All familiar names... that was very prominent during 2014.

Those of Sharapova, Halep and Williams (but not Serena) - are the first to be engraved on 2015's opening week Trophies...

In the lead-up tournaments to the #AustralianOpen2015, it was wonderful to see that some of 2014's most prominent players are still looking to be in great form. 


Venus Williams - winner in the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand. What a positive start to her year. I personally hope that she remains healthy and fit this year. 46 singles titles.

Simona Halep - winner in the Shenzhen Open, Shenzhen, China. Picking up where she left off in 2014. Keep your eyes on her in 2015. I personally have a feeling that there may be a Grand Slam Trophy with her name on it this year. 9 singles titles. 

Maria Sharapova - winner of the first Premier Level WTA tournament for 2015. It's great to see Maria win a trophy in the first week of the year. She has now won at least 1 tournament on tour since 2003, and also only around 700 points behind Serena at #1. 34 singles titles. 

Without getting into match details, I believe that we have great things to look forward to this year. With some of the big names playing in the Hopman Cup. Everyone looks great. Serena, Maria, Simona, Venus, Caroline, Ana... I am looking forward to the best year on the WTA ever. 

On that note. My bags are packed and I am off to my very first ever Grand Slam as a major women's tennis fan. #AustralianOpen2015, here I come. Look out for some feedback in about 2 weeks. 

Let's close of today's blog with some shots of the first winners of 2015... 

Greetings
Charlize

Maria with her Premier Level Trophy in Brisbane. 

Venus Williams with her ASB Classic Trophy.

Simona Halep with her Shenzhen Trophy.

Roger's Cup Montreal... last 8 women standing

Rain interrupted yesterday's play, may the quarterfinal action not be interrupted by inclement weather.

With the hectic-ness of life kicking in all round again, I have been away from my keyboard for far too long. I apologise for the slow content updates my friends. 

I would like to stop by on the tour at the Montreal edition of the Roger's Cup for the WTA. This is one of my favourite ATP-WTA tennis stops on the North American Hard court swing pre US Open. For the pure and simple reason that this is a floating tournament. And even though it is a WTA and ATP combined tournament, the men and ladies are not even in the same town. And it is only in the same place every two years, alternate years, the men and women's tournament swop venues. 

This year's Women's edition takes place in Montreal, while the Men are fighting it out in Toronto. 

So defending Ladies Champion, the illustrious Serena Williams, is defending her Toronto Title in Montreal this year, and so far she is looking ready to put all of this year's disappointments behind her, while she is preparing to rack up another US Open Series title. 

Joining Serena in the first set of quarter-finalists in Montreal is her next opponent, former World #1, Caroline Wozniaki. Wozniaki dusted off young pretender Shelby Rogers who had a magnificent 1st round win over Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard. 

In the second quarterfinal the surprise package is Carla Suárez-Navarro, who efficiently dealt with the 3 set queen, Maria Sharapova. 

(I say that for this reason Maria's 3 set win-loss record over the past 3 and a half years, looks as follows 41-8, check out this year-by-year breakdown...

2011 - 12-1              2012 - 14-1              2013  -  5-1                 2014  -  13-5

Thus far 2014 has been her worst year in 3-setters, and yesterday was one of those bad days at the office... but this is a topic for another day)

Sharapova, in her first tournament back since her 4th round Wimbledon exit had a delicious win over Suárez-Navarro's doubles partner, the stunningly talented Garbine Muguruza in her first match back. 

Suárez-Navarro confounded Sharapova with all sorts of angles and spins, and with that amazing one-handed backhand reminicent of a Justine Henin of old, crafted delightful points to win through a rain interrupted match.

She will face Venus Williams in her quarter final, who had her own magical win over Angelique Kerber yesterday. 

The question now remains that should both Williams sisters notch up a win, if either one of them will be withdrawing. A highly contentious subject that haunts the sisters, although... each still has one match to win before that can be talked about.

The 3rd quarterfinal pits Vika Azarenka against the crafty backwall, Aga Radwanska... Vika leads their head to head 12-4, but the last time they played Radwanska defeated her, in Australia, if memory serves

However, Vika seems to be back on track too after a few months out due to injury. This match should be a humdinger.

And the 4th quarterfinal will pit Coco Vandeweghe against Ekatarina Makarova both surprise packages, Vandeweghe defeated and in-form Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic in consecutive matches to make it through to the quarters and Makarova had an equally impressive win over Petra Kvitova in the previous round. 

So Friday night is Ladies' quarterfinal action, things are already interesting, let's see who comes out victorious. Or will Serena repeat at the Roger's...