INDIAN WELLS OBSERVATIONS

by Karen and Master Ace

I have to say that coverage of the women's event at Indian Wells has been amazing.  TennisTV has proven to be a very good investment as not only can I rewatch matches that I missed during the day, but whenever Tennis Channel chooses to showcase a boring men's match, interviews or anything else that is not tennis related, I can just tune out and tune in to TennisTv. I have had a few issues with the service, but none that would make me stop my subscription.  If you are an avid tennis fan, and don't have a subscription to TennisTv.  Get on it folks. The only drawback is that I understand that this service is not available during the Grand Slams.  I will no doubt have to find a way around that.  

ESPN does have a platform on which they showcase the Grand Slam events.  The problem with that is that if you are outside the United States you cannot get it, which in my view, is a disservice to the millions of fans all over the world who rely on ESPN to get their tennis. 

I don't know about you but it always seems to me that tennis fans who attend Indian Wells are more interested in roaming the grounds taking pictures of players practising than actually watching the tennis.  The stands in the "Stadiums" have been scant, but I am sure as the weekend gets here we will see more and more fans in the stands. 

Day 2 Recap - Master Ace 

Day 2 was a very interesting day around the grounds. Will start off with doubles as SvetlanaKuznetsova/Samantha Stosur defeating Sara Errani/Roberta Vinci. Martina Hingis/Sabine Lisicki played a tough match but lost in the supertiebreak to Ashleigh Barty/Casey Dellacqua while Ekaterina Makarova/Elena Vesnina barely advanced as they defeated Chan/Liezel Huber 10-8 in the supertiebreak. 

USA ladies went 2-3 (6-6 overall round 1). Taylor Townsend pulled off the upset of the day as she won in straight sets over Karin Knapp, who defeated Christina McHale and Alison Riske in Fed Cup back in February. First set was very ugly as both ladies had 53 unforced errors compared to less than 15 winners. Francesca Schiavone won her first match of 2014 defeating Mona Barthel, who is off to a slow start compared to her last 2 years. Victoria Duval played very well in her match but lost in three sets to Alisa Kleybanova, who was a tad better on the big points. Duval had 33 winners and 34 unforced errors. Jie Zheng won a thriller over Paula Ormaechea in almost 3 hours to set up a date with Na Li.

There is a lot to like about Duval's game.  I like that she is quite self reliant and does not use the on court coaching that some of her fellow players seem to rely on all the time. 

Today's Matches feature some blockbusters.  I am hopeful that they will live up to their potential billing. The matches that are featured today could very well be the latter rounds of a Grand Slam.  The return of Sharapova to the women's tour is good and Georges, who could not seem to win matches last season, seems poised to at least move forward from her usual first round losses.  

Li, for the first time in her career is the top seed at a Premier Mandatory event.  This is a huge undertaking and one hopes that she can live up to her billing.  Zheng played a fantastic match against Ormachea in the first round and one hopes that she can take this form into her match against her fellow countrywoman.  

The 2010 French Open finalists are at it again with Stosur and Schiavone doing battle.  The young upstarts in Tomljanovic and Stephens complete the night session and hot to trot Muguruza continues her good form against Kleybanova.   

 

Li vs Zheng - Li

Ka. Pliskova vs Zakopalova - Ka. Pliskova

Pavlyuchenkova vs Garcia - Pavlyuchenkova

Wozniak vs Lisicki - Lisicki

Cibulkova vs Vekic - Cibulkova

Niculescu vs Makarova - Niculescu

Kuznetsova vs Zahlavova Strycova - Kuznetsova

Vandeweghe vs Kvitova - Kvitova

Sharapova vs Goerges(match of day) - Sharapova

Giorgi vs Cirstea - Giorgi

Pennetta vs Townsend - Pennetta

Schiavone vs Stosur - Schiavone

Ivanovic vs Svitolina - Ivanovic

Tomljanovic vs Stephens - Tomljanovic

Muguruza vs Kleybanova - Muguruza

Torro-Flor vs Kerber - Kerber

Play begins at 2:00 P.M. EST (11:00 PST) on Tennis Channel with live streaming on ESPN3 and TennisTv