Russians Preview in WTA Tournaments

It had been a poor first month of the season for Russian it what has recently been a strong part of the season for them, but in 2014 they had notched no titles and had just 2 tour quarterfinalists, Sharapova and Tursunov, both in Sydney.  But that changed this week.  While the men are off contending Davis Cup (I will recap that tomorrow night as some ties are still finishing), Russians were winning titles in Paris and Pattaya City.  Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat four seeds and three top 10 players including Sharapova en route to the biggest title of her career, leaving me wondering if she might finally be ready to take that elusive next step.  Ekaterina Makarova played well in Australia and parlayed that momentum into a title in Thailand, just the second of her career.

WTA Premier: Paris, France
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) def. 3) Sara Errani (ITA) 3-6 6-2 6-3
-Pavlyuchenkova wins 6th career title, last '13 Oeiras
-Americans: none
-Another tournament, another loss for Vinci, who is now 0-4 on the year.
-There were 2 third-set tiebreaks, Q) Voskoboeva def. Voegele in the first round, and a quarterfinal battle where Pavlyuchenkova def. 4) Kerber.  Both tiebreaks were won 7-3.
-Sharapova dropped just 1 game to Hantuchova in the second round.
-Mona Barthel was the defending champion but lost her first match to Flipkens.

WTA International: Pattaya City, Thailand
4) Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) def. Karolina Pliskova (CZE) 6-3 7-6(7)
-Makarova wins 2nd career title, last '10 Eastbourne (3.5-yrs ago)
-Americans: 1-3, Riske def. Medina Garrigues then l. to 3-Cirstea, 7-Mattek-Sands l. to Pliskova and King l. to 5-Vesnina
-Zvonareva notched the first win of her comeback, albeit over a Thai wildcard.
-World no. 125 Tadeja Majeric (SLO) won her first WTA main draw match, def. Hsieh.
-Kumkhum did not make it out of the first round (l. to Goerges, who made the semis - best result in a while), but 22-yr-old no. 347 Lertpitaksinchai did, presumably her first WTA main draw win.
-The match of the week was Date-Krumm defeating a woman half her age, Muguruza 6-7(2) 7-5 7-6(6)
-The top two seeds Lisicki and Kuznetsova handed out second round walkovers after winning the first round matches.
-Maria Kirilenko was the defending champion, but she is still out injured.

The women will be scattered over the world this week playing Fed Cup.  I will try to get a preview post out in a couple days.