San Diego Preview

The Mercury Insurance Open at San Diego is a 56 entrant premier level event. The winner of the tournament will receive 111,000 dollars and 470 ranking points. The draw came out last night, and it didn't disappoint. Although Kim Clijsters, Petra Kvitova and Svetlana Kuznetsova withdrew, there are still some big names coming to the Mercury Insurance Open. The top seed at San Diego will be Vera Zvonareva, the third ranked player in the world.

Read on for my analysis of the contenders for the title and for some possible matchups.


Draw Analysis:
I will be looking at the top players in each quarter and predict the winner of each quarter. 

First quarter: Sabine Lisicki

The top seed, Zvonareva, has to be considered one of the favorites for the title. Although she's had a rough time since she left her coach, Sergey Demekhine, Zvonareva has been showing signs of improvement- she recently won the international tournament at Baku. She shouldn't be challenged until the quarterfinals where she will most likely meet Sabine Lisicki.

Dominika Cibulkova is the other high seed in that quarter of the draw. However, her status as a contender remains in doubt because she retired earlier today from her semifinal match against Marion Bartoli in Stanford. During her match against Marina Erakovic, she started to notice an abdominal strain, but she played through the pain. She has not officially pulled out of San Diego though, so if she can recover over the next couple days, she will be hard to beat.

Sabine Lisicki is the final contender in this quarter of the draw. She is currently in the semifinals of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford. She is a contender at every tournament she plays, but if she wants to win San Diego, she will need to improve her first serve percentage so that she can avoid having to hit very many second serves. Her first serve is monstrous while her second serve is below par.

Second Quarter: Peng Shuai

Peng Shuai is the fourth seed at this tournament. She is a solid player who relentlessly wears down her opponents. However, she lacks a true weapon she can use to finish off her opponents. Nonetheless, she has a pretty clear run to the quarterfinals, and she won't face a top 30 player until at least then. Furthermore, the other eighth in her quarter is weak as well.

Although she could potential face the fifth seed, Ana Ivanovic, in the quarters, Ivanovic has been struggling with tennis lately. She is currently ranked 40 in the race to the YEC, which means that, if she continues her current form, Ivanovic will find herself at 40 in the world by the end of the year. Ivanovic also has a 50% chance of facing Ayumi Morita, the woman who eliminated her in the first round of Stanford earlier this week, in the second round.

Third Quarter: Daniela Hantuchova

The two players to beat in this quarter are Agniezska Radwanska and Daniela Hantuchova. Radwanska is a crafty player who gets a lot of balls back. She's very consistent. Her round of 16 opponent, Jarmila Gajdosova, is a dangerous player who hits one of the hardest balls in the WTA tour. However, I see Radwanska using her consistency to get through.

Daniela Hantuchova is one of the cleanest ball strikers in the game. She hits hard off of both wings and is good at taking the ball early. However, she isn't the best mover. Her Round of 16 opponent would probably be Roberta Vinci, a player known mainly for her clay court prowess. Vinci plays with a lot of variety which can make a player like Hantuchova hit many errors. However, Hantuchova has been showing great tennis lately, taking Maria Sharapova to three sets in Stanford and showing some more consistency. I think that Hantuchova will get through to the semis.


Fourth Quarter: Andrea Petkovic

Besides Petkovic, the other contenders in the quarter of the draw are Maria Kirilenko, Tamira Paszek and Julia Goerges.

Maria Kirilenko is a player who lacks power but gets a lot of balls back in play. She most likely will be playing Tamira Paszek in the second round and Julia Goerges in the third round. Paszek is a player with solid ground strokes, but a terrible serve. She reached the semifinals of the Citi Open last week. Julia Goerges is a player with a great serve and forehand but very little consistency. Kirilenko defeated Goerges in the first round of Stanford.

Petkovic is my pick for the semifinals in this quarter because she doesn't really have any weaknesses in her game apart from her serve. However, besides Goerges, none of the other players in this quarter have enough power to really punish her serve.

Lisicki is my pick for the title. If she's serving well, she can beat almost anyone.