Still wearing the sporty Lotto Spring Shela III Dress before switching to the risky camouflage tulle design, seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska lost to Ekaterina Makarova 6-2 6-4 in the first round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, meaning that Maria Sharapova will face the unseeded Russian if she gets past Roberta Vinci in the most highly anticipated match of the tournament.
After an uninspiring first set, we were treated with a quality second set, in which Makarova ended the streak of five streak breaks with a hold of serve to lead 4-2. Makarova, who had lost to Radwanska in straight sets in their three previous meetings, showed signs of nerves when she faced the score 0-40 while serving for the match, but she managed to save four break points in that game and converted her first match point.
Germany’s Laura Siegemund, who had a career breakthrough at last year’s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix by storming through qualifying all the way to the final, advanced to the second round on Tuesday with a 6-2 7-6(4) victory over Zhang Shuai. Eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Kiki Bertens 6-3 5-7 6-3 in a marathon affair, while Barbora Strycova opened the main-draw play with a 6-2 6-2 win over lucky loser Jennifer Brady.
Stay tuned, in an hour I will publish my photographer’s gallery from Tuesday’s action in Stuttgart!
She played even worse than a mere journeyman… she better shut her mouth and go back practice harder… Let the racquet do the talking because thats all we, avid tennis fans, would like to see…. a great tennis, not a great talk…
Maria would have said… “Isn’t she back in Poland yet?” hahaha