David Fearnhead, long-time reader of Women's Tennis Blog, professional journalist and author of novel Bailey of the Saints (out now!), did a Q&A with Kaia Kanepi about the Olympics. The interview's timing is perfect, as Kanepi is now under a watchful eye of the tennis world following her big victory over Caroline Wozniacki and over her own chokes in the third round of Roland Garros. Today she's facing Arantxa Rus.

Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi has had a great start to 2012, collecting trophies in Brisbane and Estoril. Then she ousted Wozniacki at the French. It’s hopefully the start of a special summer for the 26-year-old. This July Kanepi is set for her 3rd appearance at the Olympic Games. She has the game which could put her in contention for a medal… as long as she stays clear of injury. Here she speaks exclusively about her Olympic Dream.

Before Athens in 2004 I went running and fell, breaking my little finger on my left hand, it meant that I couldn’t really hit my backhand very well. I still had a great time there with all the other Estonian athletes. My favorite thing was the foodcourt, it was huge!

I had my appendix out one month before Beijing 2008. It was my first tournament back following that operation. I still made it through to the third round before going out to the home favorite Li Na. I didn’t get to go to the opening ceremony in Athens or Beijing because it lasts for such a long time and I had to play the next day. I hope I have the chance to go in London. I also want to go and see some of the track and field. Read more »

Kaia Kanepi survived one immense choking session and one regular-size choking session to beat Caroline Wozniacki in the third round of Roland Garros 6-1 6-7(3) 6-3 on the fifth match point.

Let's first mention the timing of the match points, it will explain quite a lot about the match. The first two Kanepi had when leading 6-1 5-2, the third one came like an hour later, at 5-1 in the third set, and Kanepi double faulted to continue the agony! At 5-3 in the third set she earned the fourth one, which Wozniacki saved with a nice winner, and in that same game Kanepi finally converted a match point, her fifth one. Kanepi was serving for the match five times during the encounter!

Here's how it all began. Kanepi raced to a 6-1 5-1 lead in the match. Wozniacki then won a perfect game on her serve, but I thought that would be just a short defense of pride as Kanepi was serving for the match in the following game. However, the outcome turned out to be quite
different. Leading 6-1 5-2 30-0, Kanepi missed a sure point on the net and her choking session began, which turned into a huge choking session.  Read more »

The blue Madrid Open was already heating up while the week’s touraments were coming to a close – Kaia Kanepi saved two match points in the Estoril Open final before defeating Carla Suarez Navarro 3-6 7-6(6) 6-4, and Sara Errani beat Elena Vesnina 7-5 6-4 for the Budapest crown.

After the Australian part of the season, during which Kanepi won the Brisbane International, the Estonian was on the sidelines with a right shoulder injury for a month and a half and only now did she get back into the rhythm in Estoril, where as the sixth seed, she took out seed No.4 Petra Cetkovska and top seed Roberta Vinci en route to the final with unseeded Suarez Navarro, who was close to winning her first WTA title when leading 6-3 5-3 and then having two match points in the tiebreak. Even in the third set Suarez Navarro had a lead, 4-2, but Kanepi worked her way back again to win the most intriguing final of her life.

In Budapest, Sara Errani earned her third straight claycourt title and 15th consecutive match win by beating Elena Vesnina, who considerably assisted Errani’s cruise through the tournament by eliminating seeds No.2, No.6 and No.5, namely, Ksenia Pervak, Petra Martic and Marina Erakovic. In the title match, Vesnina was up 5-3 in the first set, but Errani then won seven games in a row and not long after the match. (via WTA Tour, photos: Neal Trousdale)

In life and in tennis we like to recognize some patterns and predict future based on current facts. Our stats analyst Omair made sure to present us the historical patterns of the Australian part of the season and the chances of an Australian Open tune-up tournament winner to lift the trophy at the Australian Open. You'll see that the Sydney winner is the most likely, which was the case this year with Victoria Azarenka.

A few days before the Australian Open I found some interesting things regarding the winners of the Australian Open warm-up events and their performance at the Australian Open that year. There are four warm-up events which pave the way for the players to get into some form for the first Grand Slam of the year:

• Brisbane
• Auckland
• Hobart
• Sydney

Let's have a look at how well this year's winners performed at the Australian Open and how they compared to the winners of previous years and their performances at the Australian Open that year. Please note that for this article I used the results of Sydney and Auckland from 1988 onwards, since it was from 1988 that all the players played from the first round of the 128 player draw for the Grand Slam.

BRISBANE

• Best Australian Open result in the respective year: quarterfinals
• 2012: Kaia Kanepi won Brisbane and lost in the second round of the Australian Open

The Brisbane tournament started way back in 1997, and was known as Gold Coast back then. The name of the tournament was changed in 2009 to the Brisbane International. This year the Brisbane event went Premier. The first ever winner of the tournament back in 1997 was Elena Likhovtseva who defeated Ai Sugiyama in the final. Elena Likhovtseva could not carry on the momentum to the Australian Open and lost in the first round, while Sugiyama lost in the second round of the Australian Open that year.

The best result a Brisbane winner so far had at the Australian Open was a quarterfinal showing. Three players achieved that feat. Venus Williams was the first Brisbane player to reach the Australian Open quarterfinal back in 2002 when she won the Brisbane event. Venus lost to 8th-seeded Monica Seles in three sets. Patty Schnyder in 2005 and Petra Kvitova in 2011 followed in the footsteps of Venus Willaims and went on to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open after winning the event in the respective years. Schnyder lost in three sets to 19th-seeded Nathalie Dechy, while Kvitova lost in straight sets to second-seeded Vera Zvonareva.

Kaia Kanepi won the Brisbane event this year. Based on the history of the Brisbane winners and their performance at the Australian Open, Kanepi's chances of making it out the second round were 67%.

Twice in the tournament's 15-year history has the Brisbane winner lost in the second round, Kanepi with her second round showing this year made it thrice in the 16-year history of the tournament. Many dubbed Kanepi as the dark horse for the Australian Open after her strong showing at the Brisbane event, however, Kanepi could not carry that momentum and fell victim of Ekaterina Makarova, who would go on to crush Serena Williams, five-time Australian Open champion, in the fourth round.

Brisbane winner has yet to move beyond the quarterfinal stage of the Australian Open, and with the event going Premier this year, this statistic will for sure change in the years to come. Although, I had hoped that this statistic will change this year since the field at Brisbane was very strong with the likes of Kim Clijsters, Serena Williams, Samantha Stosur.

AUCKLAND

• Best Australian Open result in the respective year: semifinals
• 2012: Zheng Jie won Auckland and lost in the fourth round of the Australian Open Read more »

At the Brisbane International, which is now a Premier tournament, Kaia Kanepi won her second and biggest title after beating Daniela Hantuchova 6-2 6-1 in the final. Her maiden WTA title came two years ago at the International-level event in Palermo.

The first to lead, 2-1, was Hantuchova, but from then on Kanepi won nine straight games and in the second set she lost just one point in the first four games. 

Kanepi's most thrilling match was in the first round against Alexandra Panova, 121st-ranked qualifier, which ended after more than two hours of play, 7-5 3-6 6-2. Three seeded players followed and the scoreline was more straightforward, often much more: 6-0 6-3 against seed No.7 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-1 7-6(7) against seed No.2 Andrea Petkovic, and 6-3 6-0 against seed No.3 Francesca Schiavone in the semis.

The 26-year-old Kanepi is a significant Estonian in many ways: she's the first from her country to reach a WTA final, the first to play a Grand Slam quarterfinal, the first to crack  Top 20, win a WTA title and beat a regining world No.1 when she defeated Caroline Wozniacki in Tokyo last year.

The prize of $110,000 reached Kanepi's pocket with the Brisbane title and the Estonian is projected to rise from No.34 to No.26 in the rankings. (photo via Brisbane International)