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My interview with Mona Barthel - Star in the Making

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Last week I had the opportunity to witness a player who could be a new star in the making. Her name is Mona Barthel from Germany and she received a confidence boost by winning the WTA Paris Indoor event at the Stade de Coubertin.   Mona won the title in style winning all of her matches in straight sets at the business end of the tournament with an incredible display of attacking tennis which the Parisians enjoyed immensely. A friend of mine who works for the WTA tour told me 12 months ago to check out Mona Barthel, he was convinced that she is the most talented of the German players coming through and has the most potential if she believed in herself and things fell into place.   That’s the beauty and difficult thing about top level sport, identifying potential and hopefully watching it come to fruition.   Some players can take a bit longer to realise it, but what that means is when they are ready to fulfil their potential, they are mature enough to stay th...

My vist to WTA Paris Indoors 2013 (Open GDF Suez)

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I returned to London today after attending the WTA Paris Indoors (Open GDF Suez) at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin in the south west corner of Paris. It is the 2nd year in a row I attended the event.   Last year the tournament celebrated 20 years with a special exhibition with tournament Director Amelie Mauresmo, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and Martina Navratilova; and Angelique Kerber won her first title in a thriller of a final against Marion Bartoli in front of a raucous partisan crowd. I wasn’t expecting a repeat of that sort of drama and excitement but it was an enjoyable tournament; and for the 2nd year in a row, an exciting young German player won the event, the sort of win that can lead to bigger and better things in her career. I attended the quarterfinals onwards and four good matches were lined up.   The first between Dutch qualifier Kiki Bertens and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.   The 1st set went in a flash, Safarova started play...

Andy Murray - Still Room for Improvement at Grand Slam Level

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 Andy Murray lost the final of the 2013 Australian Open in 4 sets to Novak Djokovic   Murray started strongly taking the first set on a tiebreak and had three breakpoints at the start of the 2nd set but was unable to convert them.   After that, Djokovic started to find his rhythm on his groundstrokes and serves and took the 2nd set to a tiebreak, which he won to square the match.   I got the distinct feeling that it was going to be difficult for Murray to regain the momentum, taking into consideration he played Roger Federer in a tough 4 hour battle two nights before.   That turned out to be the case as Murray was broken at 4-3 in the 3rd set, leaving Djokovic to serve it out. The 4th set proved to be a procession for Djokovic, breaking Murray twice who by now was spent physically and emotionally, Djokovic taking it 6-2 to win his 4th Australian Open and 3rd in a row.   The interesting thing was that the pundits were prepared to say ...