TENNIS in DEPTH.

Serbia has chosen Bojana Jovanovski to get proceedings under way against Slovak Republic’s No. 1 Dominka Cibulkova ahead of this highly anticipated World Group play-off in Bratislava. Serbia captain Dejan Vranes’ decision not to play Jelena Jankovic in the singles may come as a surprise to many, but Jovanovski was the star for her country in its thrilling victory over Canada in the World Group II clash February. The 19-year-old fought so valiantly that she was chosen as the year’s first winner of the BNP Paribas Heart Award and she will be looking to replicate her form against superior opposition this weekend. Unless Jankovic is injured and requested not to play singles, then this may be the dumbest decision ever made by a Fed Cup captain. Jovanovski certainly played well against Canada, but Canada is not the Slovak Republic! Not only is Jankovic the highest ranked Serbian player, she is also the heart and soul of their Fed Cup team, and is the reason that Serbia is in the World Cup Group play-offs. Ivanovic, who has a habit of choking under pressure and declined to represent her country previously, will be asked to carry the load in two singles matches!!

Daniela Hantuchova and Ana Ivanovic face off in the second match on court on Saturday. The Serbian leads 3-1 in previous match-ups between these two former Top 10 players. Hantuchova has also been chosen to play in the doubles rubber partnering Magdalena Rybarikova. The Slovak pair will face Jankovic and Aleksandra Krunic in what could prove to be the decisive rubber of this close contest.

Saturday

R1: Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) v Bojana Jovanovski (SRB)

R2: Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) v Ana Ivanovic (SRB)

Sunday

R3: Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) v Ana Ivanovic (SRB)

R4: Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) v Bojana Jovanovski (SRB)

R5: Daniela Hantuchova / Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) v Jelena Jankovic / Aleksandra Krunic (SRB)

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Roger Federer beat Marin Cilic 6-4 6-3 while fourth seed David Ferrer reached the quarter-finals with a 6-1 6-3 win over Milos Raonic. Nadal’s Spanish compatriot, Tommy Robredo, was leading Viktor Troicki 6-3 1-2 when he was forced to withdraw through injury.

Rafael Nadal extended his unbeaten run at the Monte Carlo Masters to 34 matches as he reached the last eight with a solid win over Richard Gasquet. Nadal was rarely threatened and two breaks in the first set and two in the second gave him a 6-2 6-4 win. He will now play Ivan Ljubicic, who beat fifth seed Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-2.

After breaking in the first game of the match, world number one Nadal found his first service game a tricky affair but after fighting off several deuces he duly held and, even at that early stage, there was only going to be one winner. Gasquet tried to be aggressive and produced some good shots but his opponent was a class apart and a second break at 4-2 helped Nadal take the first set in 44 minutes. The Spaniard dropped only six points on his serve in the opening set and he was equally in control for much of the second.

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Andy Murray returned to the winners’ circle on Wednesday at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters as he defeated Czech wild card Radek Stepanek 6-1, 6-4 in his opening second-round match on Court Central. The 23-year-old Scot had not won a match since finishing runner-up to Novak Djokovic in his third Grand Slam final at the Australian Open in January, suffering opening-round losses in Rotterdam (l. to Baghdatis), Indian Wells (l. to Young) and Miami (l. to Bogomolov Jr.) Murray returned to form with an impressive performance against the 32-year-old Stepanek, only faltering once as he surrendered a break advantage at 4-2 in the second set. He had been near flawless in the first set with three breaks of serve and only two points dropped on serve, and recovered well from his blip in the second set, breaking Stepanek again in the 10th game to claim victory in one hour and 32 minutes.

The Scot will next face one of three remaining Frenchmen, Gilles Simon, after the World No. 24 defeated Spain’s Albert Montanes 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 33 minutes.

Seventh seed Jurgen Melzer and ninth seed Nicolas Almagro both came through testing encounters to set up a third-round meeting. Austria’s Melzer finished strongly to defeat Dutchman Robin Haase 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 in one hour and 31 minutes. Meanwhile, Almagro saved four match points to overcome Argentine qualifier Maximo Gonzalez 6-7(6), 7-5, 7-6(10). The Spaniard trailed 4-5, 0/40 in the third set before reeling off five straight points, and later saved another match point at 7-8 in the tie-break before triumphing in three hours.

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The 20-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., defeated Ernests Gulbis 6-4, 7-5 to advance to the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters tennis event Tuesday. The contest between two of the game’s top young guns was another stern test for Raonic, who is playing in his first ATP event on clay. Raonic held his nerve in a struggle lasting just over 90 minutes, failing to serve out the win despite holding three match points. But he calmly broke his emotional Latvian opponent a game later before clinching the victory.

In fact, the 34th-ranked Raonic earned the victory in style with his eighth ace. He finished with 21 winners and registered breaks on all four of his chances against Gulbis, who is ranked 30th in the world and tossed his racket in frustration at times. “I’m still learning every day on clay,” said Raonic. “I’ve never even played a Challenger on it but I’m getting more comfortable by the match. “I have confidence and believe I can win. But I have to keep control of myself. I have a good team of people around me who make sure I do that. I won’t want my ego to get ahead of my tennis, that will only slow my progress.”

Raonic will play the winner of the match between Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and fourth-seed David Ferrer. Raonic lost to Ferrer in the fourth round of this year’s Australian Open.

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Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to come from a set down to get the better of Juan Monaco at the Monte Carlo Masters on Monday. Tsonga lost the first set 6-4, but hit back to win the next two 6-3 6-2. ”I think there are many things I liked in my game today, and I played a very good match.”

Tenth-seed Mikhail Youzhny was an early casualty, losing in three sets to Florian Mayer. The Russian, a semi-finalist in Marseille in February, went down 6-3 2-6 6-3 as German Mayer continued his recent fine form which saw him reach the round of 16 in Miami last time out.

Nicolas Almagro, seeded nine, beat Marcel Granollers 6-3 6-3, 11th seed Viktor Troicki struggled in the first set before seeing off wild card Jean-Rene Lisnard 7-6 (7/4) 6-1 while Richard Gasquet (13) required three sets to overcome Denis Istomin 5-7 6-3 6-4.

Clay court specialist Tommy Robredo proved too strong for Ivan Dodig and there were also wins for qualifiers Olivier Rochus and Frederico Gil. Croatian Marin Cilic lost just six points on serve and broke his opponent five times as he crushed Italian qualifier Filippo Volandri 6-2 6-1, while Robin Haase ended a run of four succesive first-round losses with a hard-fought win over Nikolay Davydenko. The 24-year-old won the first set 7-5, lost the second 4-6 but won the game with a third-set 6-4 win.

Wild card entrant Radek Stepanek saved two match points to come from behind and beat Marcos Baghdatis. Stepanek saved match points at 5-6 and 6-7 in a third-set tie-break, before prevailing 3-6 6-1 7-6 (9/7). He will now meet Andy Murray.

The day’s other games saw Jarkko Nieminen beat Julien Benneteau 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7/3) and Daniel Gimeno-Traver get the better of Santiago Giraldo 7-6 (7-4) 7-5.

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RUSSIA v ITALY

Venue: Sports Palace Megasport, Moscow, Russia

Surface: Indoor hard

The Italians are the two-time defending Fed Cup champions, but the absence of Flavia Pennetta and reigning Roland Garros winner Francesca Schiavone will make it very difficult for them to keep that run alive.

Corrado Barazzutti will instead have to rely on the services of Roberta Vinci and Sara Errani. Both are ranked inside the top 50, although they have largely played support roles for Italy in recent times.

Russia, on the other hand, has named a strong side that includes world No. 3 Vera Zvonareva and Svetlana Kuznetsova, a former US Open and Roland Garros champion. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Ekaterina Makarova provide significant depth.

Russia

Vera Zvonareva

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

Ekaterina Makarova

Shamil Tarpischev (captain)

Italy

Roberta Vinci

Sara Errani

Alberta Brianti

Maria Elena Camerin

Corrado Barazzutti (captain)

BELGIUM v CZECH REPUBLIC

Venue: Spiroudome, Charleroi, Belgium

Surface: Indoor hard

The injured Kim Clijsters has been forced out with shoulder and wrist problems, so Yanina Wickmayer and Kirsten Flipkens are the likely pair to lead the Belgian challenge.

“I think this is a great pity,” said Clijsters on her official website. “The Fed Cup is something I was really looking forward to, but I felt that something was out of the ordinary. There were too many minor ailments, one after the other, which did not seem to disappear. Something like that gets into your head.”

Czech Republic’s strength in depth is impressive. The in-form Petra Kvitova, who has won two titles in 2011 and reached the Australian Open quarterfinals, fills the No. 1 position for the visitors, while Lucie Safarova, Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova will be vying for the remaining singles spot.

Belgium

Yanina Wickmayer

Kirsten Flipkens

An-Sophie Mestach

Alison van Uytvanck

Sabine Appelmans (captain)

Czech Republic

Petra Kvitova

Lucie Safarova

Iveta Benesova

Barbora Zahlavova Strycova

Petr Pala (captain)

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The US and Australian Open winner faces six weeks on the sidelines and is a doubt for Roland Garros where the tournament begins on May 17. Clijsters suffered what was described as a severe injury at the wedding of her cousin Tim. The injury was revealed on her personal website, although no details of how she suffered the injury were given.

Scans revealed she had strained both the medial and lateral ligaments of her right ankle as well as suffering injuries to the ankle joint and tendon damage. On her website the injuries were described as ‘a severe strain of both the medial and lateral ligaments of the right ankle and torn ligaments, a torn capsule of the ankle joint, a hematoma and torn tendon sheath’. The ankle has been immobilised and Clijsters will not be able to use her foot for several days.

The recovery time is set between four and six weeks, meaning Clijsters could miss the start of the French Open. Even if she recovers from the ankle injury in time to take part in Paris, Clijsters still needs to finish her rehabilitation from existing shoulder and wrist injuries.

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The 23-year-old American wild card saw off the Japanese sixth seed 6-4 7-6 (7-3) in Houston. Sweeting, trailing 5-4 in the second set, had to overcome three set points on his own serve before holding on a lob error by Nishikori. In the tie-break, he double-faulted to make it 3-3 but two errors by Nishikori saw him close in on victory. A forehand volley winner by the brought the contest to match point and it ended when a Nishikori forehand skipped wide. Sweeting’s win capped a fine week’s work which also saw him defeat second seeded compatriot Sam Querrey and former champion Ivo Karlovic. He is the first wild card to reach the Houston final since Mardy Fish won in 2006 and the fifth first-time winner on the ATP Tour this year. Sweeting fell to the ground in jubilation and fatigue after a hard-fought second set and later took a victory dive into the pool at the Oaks Country Club.

“I needed a little help to get in. I want to thank [the organisers] for the opportunity, and for giving me the wild card,” he said. ”It was a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to coming back and defending the title next year.”

Sweeting will move up to a career-best world ranking of 71st after his win.

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