Maria Sharapova has been granted a wild card into next weeks WTA Warsaw tournament. She will be seeded fourth with a protected ranking of 30. Her actual ranking is 125. I can't believe she's coming back on clay.
Vania King blogs about some of the strange goings on at La Caja Magica.
So some of the most amazing things have happened at this tournament (and I'm not talking about the disorganization). There have been three "mini" tornados. One I saw three days ago when we were practicing in the afternoon. Alla and Christian were serving on the far back practice court, and we were on the court practicing in front of them. The wind was blowing a bit but not gusting. Suddenly, the wind switched direction and started gusting heavily, tossing around three large umbrellas (with stands) up high in the air. I was already scared for Alla and Christian (and myself, too, but I was watching this from another court), but then a huge gust of wind started a "mini" tornado on her court, just feet away from her. She and Christian crouched in a fetal position, while the tornado ripped apart the back of the court. And then five seconds later, all was calm. It was the most amazing thing.
These "mini" tornados happened three times already. Today on Center Court, apparently one person had to be hospitalized in intensive care because they were hit in the neck by something that was picked up by the tornado.
OK, so amazing thing No. 2... It was raining off and on today, so the matches were postponed at times, and around 3 or 4 p.m., the matches went back out on court. However, after around 30 minutes, court 4's match had to be suspended. The reason? Hundreds of bees swarmed the court, and firefighters had to be called to clear them out. An hour later, the match hadn't been resumed. Hopefully the bees didn't choose to go to court 5 after.
Just in case you thought Serena was talking out of her, uh, asset when she made her comments about the why of playing when injured in today's WTA here are a couple of pics from her match today.
James Blake had two match points in the second set of his title match at Estoril yesterday. He ended up losing the third set to love. I'm giving James a pass on this one since he had to play two matches yesterday after rain and darkness delayed his semi final. He got a good win over Nikolay Davydenko in the semi final. He has to be feeling good about his chances on the dirt going forward.
Andy Roddick and his team have joined Team Lagardere of France. This actually happened last week but with everything else going on I neglected to report it. Andy seems enamored of all things French. He wears Lacoste instead of Adidas or Nike.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was awarded a trophy for Most Promising Young Tennis Player today in Madrid.
I've been watching the matches today on TennisTV, the first ones broadcast from the Magic Box (La Caja Magica) in Madrid. It's a beautiful facility notwithstanding mini tornadoes and swarms of bees. The interesting thing is that even with the roof open the court gives the impression of being indoors. The crowd was almost nonexistent this morning but that's not unusual. Spain is a nocturnal country. The stands are in the process of filling up as I type this since the afternoon break is just about over and people will be out and about.
How is the court playing? More on that tomorrow.
6 comments:
I thougt you can't get seeded by your protected ranking. Or have they changed rules yet again? I wouldn't be surprised...
It is what it is kraa. Here's the entry list from the official site.
1. RADWAŃSKA Agnieszka POL 11
2. WOZNIACKI Caroline DEN 12
3. ZHENG Jie CHN 17
4. SHARAPOVA Maria [WC] RUS 30
5. WOZNIAK Aleksandra CAN 35
6. BONDARENKO Alona UKR 37
7. MATTEK-SANDS Bethanie USA 39
8. ERRANI Sara ITA 40
9. PIRONKOVA Tsvetana BUL 50
10. PEER Shahar ISR 51
11. MARTINEZ SANCHEZ Maria Jose ESP 52
12. KEOTHAVONG Anne GBR 53
13. GOVORTSOVA Olga BLR 57
14. VAIDISOVA Nicole CZE 58
15. ZAHLAVOVA STRYCOVA Barbora CZE 60
16. GARBIN Tathiana ITA 61
17. LISICKI Sabine GER 62
18. BONDARENKO Kateryna UKR 65
19. BREMOND Severine FRA 68
20. DOKIC Jelena AUS 71
21. GALLOVITS Edina ROU 73
22. MAYR Patricia AUT 76
23. CZINK Melinda HUN 80
24. RADWAŃSKA Urszula POL 84
25. CRAYBAS Jill USA 85
26. DOMACHOWSKA Marta [WC] POL 104
27. [WC]
28. [WC]
29.
30.
31.
32
But the entry list doesn't say anything about seeding, does it?
Those ranks aren't even current - Wozniacki is now ranked above Radwanska...
It's been my experience that the entry lists end up being how the seeds will be allotted.
The rankings shown also depend on what the cut off date was. As of now, yes, Caro is ranked ahead of Aggie. Such information is not readily available from the WTA so we'll have to wait and see. They could've just listed her as a WC and not put her in fourth place though.
I'm a newer tennis fan so excuse my ignorance, but what is a protected ranking? And how does a player get a protected ranking? Or should I say how is she/he granted a protected ranking? And why?
Welcome SA. Your question is a valid one. I'll look it up but maybe some of the tennisheads who post here can answer your question before I do later this morning. :)
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