Sunday 25 June 2017

Federer v Zverev - Halle final

After dropping her opening set  against a threatening sixth seed Garbine Muguruza, unseeded Australian Ash Barty unleashed her several grass court weapons to deny the Spaniard's attempt to reach the Birmingham final.

The variety of Barty's game has earned her a place alongside seventh seed Petra Kvitova who was carving up her opponent mercilessly, winning the first five games against Lucie Safarova, before taking the first set 6-1.
Safarova retired after losing her first serve in set two, not wanting to worsen a leg injury before Wimbledon.

The contest will be a huge test for Barty, but she has done much this year and her Muguruza victory is her first over a top twenty player.
Kvitova meanwhile is improving her odds for Wimbledon each day.

The Mallorca final will be fought out between second seed Anastasija Sevastova and unseeded Julia Goerges.  Sevastova was too strong for Caroline Garcia and Goerges continued her consistent serving to dismiss Catherine Bellis for the loss of only two games.  Bellis had a fine tournament but could win only 12 points from her 38 serves in the semi.

The old and new are set to battle in Halle, the final featuring Roger Federer for the 11th time and home countryman, fourth seed Alexander Zverev.  Federer had more trouble than expected with Karen Khackanov, but still won in straight sets 6-4 7-6.
Zverev struggled further, dropping the opener to Richard Gasquet before settling and running out the match with 32 points from 35 first serves.

The Queens Club final should be a thriller.  
Feliciano Lopez was a finalist last week in Stuttgart and has made a second successive final, this one in London, unseeded and knocking out Wawrinka, Berdych and in the semi final Dimitrov on the way.

The next task for Lopez is to beat 4th seed Marin Cilic who dropped his first set in the tournament en route to defeating Gilles Muller in their semi final.

No comments:

Post a Comment