Baku Preview

The international tournament at Baku signals the start of the second hard court season which will last until the end of the year. This is the only WTA event going on next week, and it is the last tournament before the US Open Series starts.


The field at Baku is highlighted by two players in the top 32, the third ranked top seed, Vera Zvonareva and the thirteenth ranked second seed, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Zvonareva is a solid player who hasn't been having great results since she left her coach, Sergey Demekhine. She prefers to stay near the baseline and counterpunch. Her backhand is her more solid and aggressive shot. Pavlyuchenkova has been having a great year with a victory at Monterrey and a run to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros where she was defeated in three sets by the then defending champion, Francesca Schiavone.She hits the ball quite hard off of both sides, but she lacks mobility around the court because of her fitness and weight.
There are also two other Russians in the top 5, the third seed Elena Vesnina and the fourth seed Ekaterina Makarova. Monica Niculescu of Romania is the fifth seed at Baku. Elena Vesnina is an accomplished doubles player who has started to see better results this year in singles reaching the finals of Charleston where she was defeated by Caroline Wozniacki. She has good net play and a decent backhand. Ekaterina Makarova is a crafty lefty who has had some success on hard courts reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open earlier this year. Monica Niculescu is a poor man's Seles, and their first name isn't the only thing they have in common. Like Seles, Niculescu uses two hands off both wings and hits the ball as hard as she can from the baseline. However, unlike Seles, Niculescu doesn't hit the ball very hard.

Although the past two tournaments have yielded unexpected winners, I think that Baku might be the tournament where we might not have that much of a surprise. My picks for the final would be Vera Zvonareva and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova because, with the exception of Makarova, none of the players at Baku can stop either of these two players. As for the winner, I give my pick to Pavluchenkova. Although they share a 1:1 head to head ratio, they have never played on hard courts, and I think that Pavlyuchenkova can overpower Zvonareva. Although the Demekhenite Zvonareva would have been the favorite, she has had disastrous results since leaving him.