Francesca Schiavone has been defeated by Marion Bartoli in the first round of the Qatar Ladies Open which is being played at Doha. Bartoli won the match in the straight sets by 7-6(5), 6-3.

In the next round, Bartoli will face Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia who made her way into the second round with a win over Bethanie Mattek-Sands of USA.

Bartoli didn’t have a good start in the match against Schiavone. She dropped her serve in the second game of the opening set and got trailed by 0-3. The next five games went with the serve and at the end of the eighth game; Bartoli was trailed by 3-5. The Frenchwoman got a breakthrough in the ninth game and then, she held her serve in the next game to level the scores.

Both the players held their serve in the next couple of games and the scores got tied at 6-6.

In the tie breaker, both the players fought hard for each and every point, but, it was Bartoli who prevailed eventually.

In the second set, Bartoli again had a poor start and she dropped her serve in the very first game. But, she recovered quickly by breaking Schiavone’s serve in the second game. There were no breakthroughs in the next three games and at the end of the fifth game; the score was 3-2 in the favour of Bartoli.

In the sixth game, Bartoli managed to sneak another breakthrough and then, by serving out the next game, she got ahead by 5-2. Schiavone desperately needed breakthroughs to prevent Bartoli from running away with the match, but, she didn’t succeed in that. With a serve hold in the 9^th game, Bartoli won the match and cruised into the next round.

Francesca Schiavone has been defeated by Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic in the first round of the Australian Open 2013. Kvitova won the match in the straight sets by 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. She took approximately two hours to win the match.

Kvitova’s form hadn’t been that good before coming into this tournament. She had been thrashed in the first round of the Apia International Sydney Tennis tournament by Dominika Cibulkova and then, she was knocked out from the second round of the Brisbane International Tennis tournament last week.

Kvitova struggled a bit in this match as well. She made a total of 42 unforced errors and also served 9 double faults. But, despite making quite a few mistakes, Kvitova managed to get better of Schiavone.

Kvitova got a couple of breakthroughs in the first set and won the first set easily by 6-4. But, in the second set, she failed in capitalizing on the chances that she got. She got four breakpoints, but, she couldn’t convert any of them. She paid the price for that and ended up losing the second set by 2-6.

But, in the final set, Kvitova bounced back. She held all her serves and broke Schiavone’s service twice to win the third set and thus, the match.

In the post match interview, Kvitova said, “I could have performed better, but, I am happy with the end result. This year hasn’t been good for me so far. I was knocked out early in the last couple of tournaments. I don’t want the same thing to happen in this tournament as well. I want to go all the way through and win the tournament. That would make up for my failures in the last two events.”

In the second round, Kvitova will take on Laura Robson of Britain.

Francesca Schiavone will start her 2013 season by participating in the Hobart International Tennis tournament which is going to start from 4^th of January. Apart from Schiavone, some other top ranked players including Sorana Cirstea, Vera Zvonareva, and Su-Wei Hsieh are also going to participate in this tournament. But, Schiavone has more experience than all these players and she is the top favourite to win this tournament.

Schiavone didn’t have a very good 2012 season. When she had started the season, she was at no. 11 in the official rankings of WTA, but, she ended the season as the no. 35 player in the world which indicates how poor her performance was in the 2012 season.

Schiavone played 47 matches in 2012 out of which she managed to win only 25. She won only one title in the 2012 season i.e. WTA event at Strasbourg. She defeated Alize Cornet of France in the final match of that tournament in the straight sets. After that, she didn’t manage to reach the final of any tournament.

Confirming the participation of Schiavone in the Hobart International, the tournament director Mark Handley said, “We are delighted to inform you all that Francesca Schiavone will take part in the Hobart International Tennis tournament next year. She is a star player and a Grand Slam Champion. So, she will definitely increase the popularity of the tournament and will draw more and more people towards the Domain tennis centre.”

Handley also said that talks are going on with some other players as well and he would confirm their participation in the following weeks. The tournament is going to be played on the hard courts of Tasmania. So, it is a perfect warm up tournament for the players before the Australian Open.

Francesca Schiavone has defeated Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan in the first round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open. Schiavone won the match by 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4. Schiavone was not looking in the greatest of forms at the start of the match and she lost the opening set. But, the 32 years Old Italian veteran made a tremendous come back and won the match. The match went on for 2 hours and 50 minutes.

Both the players broke each other’s service twice in the first four games of the opening set and the scores were levelled at 2-2. The next four games went with the serve and the scores remained levelled. Shvedova managed to get another breakthrough in the ninth game and she didn’t lose that advantage. She easily served out the next game and won the first set by 6-4.

Shvedova got some confidence after winning the first set and she started the second set pretty well. She broke Schiavone’s service in the very first game and held her service in the second game to make the score 2-0. But, the young Kazakh star didn’t manage to maintain the lead till the end of the set. Schiavone got a breakthrough in the sixth game and the scores got levelled. There were no breakthroughs in the next six games and the set went into the tie breaker. Schiavone won the tie breaker and took the match to the third set.

In the third set, Shvedova looked a bit nervous and her service was broken in the third game. Schiavone held her service in the fourth game to get ahead by 3-1. Shvedova wasn’t able to level the scores after that and lost the match.

In the second round, Schiavone will take on Samantha Stosur of Australia.

Francesca Schiavone has been defeated by Sloane Stephens of USA in the opening round of the US Open. Stephens won the match in the straight sets by 6-3, 6-4. The American youngster showed brilliant temperament in the match and stunned the experienced Italian player. Schiavone looked under pressure throughout the match. She didn’t serve well and neither did she manage to play the return shots with fluency.

Stephens was off to a fantastic start in the match. She got a breakpoint in the second game of the first set and she capitalized on that to take a lead of 2-0. However, the Italian veteran made an immediate comeback in the match and broke Stephens’ service in the next game to make the score 2-1. Schiavone levelled the score by holding her service in the 4^th game. The next three games went with the serve and Stephens was ahead by 4-3 at the end of the seventh game. The American youngster managed to sneak a breakthrough in the eighth game and then, held her service in the next game to win the first set by 6-3.

Stephens carried on the momentum in the second set as well. She broke Schiavone’s service in the very first game of the second set and then, served out the next game to make the score 2-0. But, Schiavone was able to equalise the score by capitalizing on the breakpoint that she got in the 4^th game. Stephens got ahead in the set again by sneaking a breakthrough in the very next game. She maintained the lead till the end of the set and won the match. In the second round, Stephens will take on Tatjana Malek of Germany who made her way to the second round by defeating Akgul Amanmuradova.