Saturday, September 5, 2009

Tennis Talk - US Open Part 1

by Savannah

Ana Ivanovic - out.
Elena Dementieva- out
Maria Sharapova - out
Dinara Safina - out

One of the semifinalists from the top half of the Women's Tournament will be from among the following:

Gisela Dulko ranked # 40
Kateryna Bondenko ranked #51
Yanina Wickmayer ranked #50
Petra Kvitova ranked #72

Nadia Petrova Ranked #13, Caroline Wozniacki ranked #9, and Svetlana Kuzetsova ranked #6 along with Melanie Oudin ranked #70 round out the field competing for a finalist position from the top half of the draw.

The bottom half of the draw will features the following women:

Francesca Schiavone ranked #26,
Li Na ranked # 18,
Kim Clijsters who came in unranked,
Venus Williams ranked #3,
Vera Zvonareva ranked #7,
Flavia Pennetta ranked #10
Daniela Hantuchova ranked #22
Serena Williams ranked #2

Have no fear though dear tennis fan. The WTA's most consistent player will remain number one. All is right with the world.

Seriously though is it time to start having that conversation about the, let's call it softness, in the WTA? Oh I know people are talking about the "depth" of the WTA tour and how what is going on with the rankings simply represents the high quality of the players. I'm sorry but I call bullshit. There are six women remaining in the draw who are ranked in the top ten. Ironic isn't it that four of them are on one side of the draw. I know, the draw is random and what we're seeing is simply one of the possible scenarios as a result of that random draw. I don't think the powers that be wanted any scenario coming out of the top half of the draw that didn't involve Maria Sharapova and Dinara Safina. With both of them out now the hype and the bull will have to shift. I wonder if the WTA honcho's have been put under observation? This is not what they wanted by any stretch of the imagination.

John Isner scored the biggest upset on the men's side by ousting #5 seed Andy Roddick in a five set thriller. He will play Fernando Verdasco in the next round.

2 comments:

Salmon said...

Why would the organizers want Safina to do well? She is an unattractive, unmarketable player with an ugly game that fans have turned on en masse. I understand why they would want to help Sharapova out, but Safina? Not seeing it.

Savannah said...

Hi Ben. The criticism about a Slamless #1, no matter how it's spun, is not good for women's tennis.

During all of Dinara's matches and in the prematch discussion the word everyone was using to defend the situation was "consistency". Virginia Wade even defended the situation saying that a top player had to support the tour implying that Dinara, by playing and winning smaller events, was doing just that.

I've also heard it said that it's not Dinara's fault that she's number one. Maybe it's time to revisit the system although the new WTA head has not given any indication she wants to change things.