PORSCHE TENNIS GRAND PRIX Stuttgart, Germany April 23-29, 2012 $740,000/Premier Red Clay/Indoor
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Singles - Second Round (2) Maria Sharapova (RUS) d. (Q) Alizé Cornet (FRA) 63 10 ret. (right shoulder injury) (4) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) d. (Q) Greta Arn (HUN) 63 64 Singles - First Round (6) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. Jelena Jankovic (SRB) 63 10 ret. (low back injury) (LL) Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB) d. Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 62 57 63 (WC) Mona Barthel (GER) d. Ana Ivanovic (SRB) 75 76(4) Doubles - First Round Goerges/Groenefeld (GER/GER) d. (3) Peng/Vesnina (CHN/RUS) 76(2) 61 Pavlyuchenkova/Safarova (RUS/CZE) d. (WC) Kerber/Petkovic (GER/GER) 64 75 Llagostera Vives/Niculescu (ESP/ROU) d. Chan/Fujiwara (TPE/JPN) 62 63
Stuttgart. Fantastic tennis – and big disappointments. The fifth day of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix was full of emotion. First Mona Barthel advanced to the last 16 of the long-standing tournament where there is 740,000 dollars prize money at stake. Then Alize Cornet (against Maria Sharapova) and Jelena Jankovic (against Caroline Wozniacki) were both forced to retire in the second sets of their matches due to injuries.
World star in town. Maria Sharapova came to the long-standing tournament, saw the almost full Centre Court in the Porsche Arena and won in only 50 minutes against the French quali-fier Alize Cornet. The world number two would have obviously liked to have played a little longer on the clay – a surface she doesn’t always feel comfortable on. Her opponent from Nice was however forced to retire with an injury to her right shoulder with the score at 6-3, 1-0 to the superstar from Russia. For the world No. 100, the match was her fifth on the fifth day of the tournament. And that against a top class player like Maria Sharapova who hits the ball extremely hard. “I hope for Alize that the injury will have cleared up before Paris,” said Sharapova after the match. The next match up for the Russian should probably last a little longer as she will meet the winner of the encounter between Julia Görges (Germany) and Samantha Stosur (Australia). “I need quite a few more matches on clay to get my rhythm,” said the world No. 2.
Shortly after the match, a second world class player also had to stop prematurely. Serb Jelena Jankovic was unable to finish her match against Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) due to an injury to her lower back. Jankovic, the winner of the 2008 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, was given treatment in the first set but was then forced to retire with the score at 6-3, 1-0 in Wozniacki’s favour. The pain was too big. “We top players are always under pressure, the stress is extremely high,” commiserated Caroline Wozniacki. “And everybody wants to play at this great tournament.” On Thursday, Caroline Wozniacki will now once again meet Angelique Kerber from Porsche Team Germany who she lost to over a week ago in the final of the Copenhagen tournament.
Mona Barthel had nothing to lose in her first round match – and gained a lot. The 21-year-old up-and-coming German, who within the space of 12 months has moved up the rankings from No. 196 to No. 35, was only in the main draw field of the world class tournament after being given a wild card. In her match against the Serb Ana Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open cham-pion, Mona Barthel was only considered to have an outside chance of winning. After putting on a great display she eventually beat the world No. 15, 7-5, 7-6. Her excellent serve often caught the Serb on the wrong foot. “I was still at school and watched Ana’s win at the French Open on television,” said Mona Barthel. “At the time she was a role model for me and it’s naturally something special to play her and then to beat her is even more so.” In the second round, Mona Barthel will now meet Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli, the world No. 7. “Another player, I know from watching television,” said Mona Barthel, who once again will have nothing to lose but a lot to gain. She’s already a crowd favourite in the Porsche Arena.
Record participant Daniela Hantuchova was unable to make her eleventh singles appearance at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Wednesday. An old ankle injury flared up again and prevented the 29-year-old from playing. Replacing Hantuchova in the main draw was the qualifier Akgul Amanmuradova. The Uzbek took full advantage of her unexpected chance to beat Dominika Cibulka (Slovakia) 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. Earlier Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska was another to reach the next round. The world No. 4 had little trouble when beating qualifier Greta Arn (Hungary) 6-3, 6-4.
In the doubles, Julia Görges and Anna-Lena Grönefeld (Germany) beat the pairing of Shuai Peng (China)/ Elena Vesnina (Russia) 7-6, 6-1. The other German team on court however lost 6-4, 7-5 to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) and Lucie Safarova from the Czech Re-public.
