After a brief flurry of Premier Tier action on the WTA Tour at Indian Wells and Miami, things will be tempered down a little bit at the Family Circle Cup in early April of 2013, even though it is a Premier tier event as well. The next really big target for the stars of the women’s game will be Roland Garros in late May, but there is still plenty of time to squeeze in some extra practice and workouts before them. The Family Circle Cup is one of the first clay court tournaments of the season for the WTA Tour and is actually played on green clay. Hosted in Charleston, South Carolina, it has always attracted a quality field. The great likes Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert have all won this won before, and one of the modern greats, Serena Williams goes as the defending champion.
After climbing back to world number one, American Serena Williams will be back in Charleston to defend her title. She goes as the red hot favourite, even though her powerful play has not taken her as far as she would like to have gone this season in terms of getting titles under her belt. Still, in a field like this, it is hard to look past her as the red hot favourite, being one of only three top ten players expected at the event. She is one of the best clay court players around to start with, and combine her power on top then you have almost an unstoppable force. She blitzed the field here last season, as she crushed Sam Stosur 6-1 6-1 in the semi’s and then destroyed Lucie Safarova 6-0 6-1 in the final itself. That was her second Family Circle Cup title.
The last twelve months of Sara Errani’s professional career have gone blazing well. She won four clay court titles last season and has actually pushed on in terms of ability from last season. She has been doing great rounds on the hard courts in early 2013, took a title in Acapulco (on clay) and has been to two other finals beside that. She gave Maria Sharapova a stern test in the quarter finals of Miami, and the diminutive Italian is growing in stature all the time. She is tremendous on clay, you would be hard pressed to find a better player than her on the surface, if you perhaps took Serena’s power out of the equation.
Therefore, Errani makes the most sense to back behind Williams. Williams will go off a strong tournament in Miami, but would expect Errani to get through her clay matches quicker than Williams. Australia’s Sam Stosur had a good run to the semi finals last season, and then ran into Serena Williams. Stosur, the former US Open winner is fairly decent on clay, but overall, her general form is so patchy that it is hard to back her with any confidence at any level of competition. Just now and again she pulls something special out of her hat, like she did in 2010 when she went all the way and won the Family Circle Cup title. She did have a comfortable run that year, and hit the quarters in 2011 as well. Not a bad track record and one of the top draws for this season’s renewal.
There is a great crop of players who will all be representing value behind the three top ten players. The USA will also be represented by Sloane Stephens and Venus Williams, but the Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova is generally pretty comfortable on clay and could show up well again. Jelena Jankovic, former world number one, found some wonderfully renewed form at Miami, while big hitting German Julia Goerges is solid enough on clay to surprise as well. Perhaps the best outside bet will be Mona Barthel though, the young German a rising star in the game and capable of gunning down the best. Clay is a great leveller though and it is hard to look beyond the draw of either Williams or Errani.
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After climbing back to world number one, American Serena Williams will be back in Charleston to defend her title. She goes as the red hot favourite, even though her powerful play has not taken her as far as she would like to have gone this season in terms of getting titles under her belt. Still, in a field like this, it is hard to look past her as the red hot favourite, being one of only three top ten players expected at the event. She is one of the best clay court players around to start with, and combine her power on top then you have almost an unstoppable force. She blitzed the field here last season, as she crushed Sam Stosur 6-1 6-1 in the semi’s and then destroyed Lucie Safarova 6-0 6-1 in the final itself. That was her second Family Circle Cup title.
The last twelve months of Sara Errani’s professional career have gone blazing well. She won four clay court titles last season and has actually pushed on in terms of ability from last season. She has been doing great rounds on the hard courts in early 2013, took a title in Acapulco (on clay) and has been to two other finals beside that. She gave Maria Sharapova a stern test in the quarter finals of Miami, and the diminutive Italian is growing in stature all the time. She is tremendous on clay, you would be hard pressed to find a better player than her on the surface, if you perhaps took Serena’s power out of the equation.
Therefore, Errani makes the most sense to back behind Williams. Williams will go off a strong tournament in Miami, but would expect Errani to get through her clay matches quicker than Williams. Australia’s Sam Stosur had a good run to the semi finals last season, and then ran into Serena Williams. Stosur, the former US Open winner is fairly decent on clay, but overall, her general form is so patchy that it is hard to back her with any confidence at any level of competition. Just now and again she pulls something special out of her hat, like she did in 2010 when she went all the way and won the Family Circle Cup title. She did have a comfortable run that year, and hit the quarters in 2011 as well. Not a bad track record and one of the top draws for this season’s renewal.
There is a great crop of players who will all be representing value behind the three top ten players. The USA will also be represented by Sloane Stephens and Venus Williams, but the Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova is generally pretty comfortable on clay and could show up well again. Jelena Jankovic, former world number one, found some wonderfully renewed form at Miami, while big hitting German Julia Goerges is solid enough on clay to surprise as well. Perhaps the best outside bet will be Mona Barthel though, the young German a rising star in the game and capable of gunning down the best. Clay is a great leveller though and it is hard to look beyond the draw of either Williams or Errani.
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