This and That

by Savannah

John Dolan, a former WTA Tour communications director is now Kim Clijsters' public relations manager. Speaking of Clijsters I saw a poll on a fan site saying that she should be given a WC into Doha. The reasoning is based on the following:

According to the rules for the Year Ending Championship the 7 best ranked players in YEC race and 1 Wild Card player are allowed. In practice it's always been the top eight with one exception having been made I believe for Monica Seles. The fan then goes on to say that Clijsters should take the place of the #8 ranked player since she won the US Open this year.

Here are the current Race standings.

#1, 7652 pts - Safina (16)

#2, 7437 pts - S.Williams (16)

#3, 5570 pts - Wozniacki (21)

#4, 5365 pts - Dementieva (17)

#5, 4773 pts - Kuznetsova (16)

#6, 4316 pts - V.Williams (14)

#7, 4171 pts - Azarenka (14)

#8, 3301 pts - Zvonareva (17)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

#9, 3111 pts - Jankovic (16)

#10, 3060 pts - Pennetta (21)

I guess Vera Zvonareva, who came back from serious injury, Jelena Jankovic who is fighting like hell to make the cut, and Flavia Pennetta who fought her way into the Top Ten should all just bow at the altar of Clijsters and slink off to Bali? It's my understanding that in the ATP if you win a Slam you're in. That's not so in the WTA.

Normally I would ignore stuff like this. After all it's just a random fan off on a pipe dream right? I just found it odd that this would come up now. I also remember seeing fan sites used to "test the waters" regarding Pete Sampras for example. Let's see what happens.

From @samquerrey
just got back from the doctor, i should be able to hit balls in a month and hopefully ill be back to 100% in 2 months.
Sam as you know injured his right arm falling through a glass table he was sitting on.

Just in case you were wondering what is going on in Tokyo here are the four semi finalists.

Na Li vs Jelena Jankovic
Maria Sharapova vs Agnieszka Radwanska

I wonder what Maria Sharapova has against Samantha Stosur? I haven't seen Maria play the way she did in that match before or since. She so totally dominated Stosur I thought to myself that she will win if she keeps playing with that level of intensity. She hasn't but she's won.

Belgian tennis players Xavier Malisse and Yanina Wickmayer are being called before the Belgian Anti Doping Tribunal. Wickmayer failed to register her whereabouts three times with the ADAMS people and Malisse missed a test. Here is a LINK to the WTA Regulations.
And no I'm not going there.

Martina Hingis drug suspension is over. She didn't fight it. Now she's blaming the "system" for not doing so. I have a few words for you Martina: Guillermo Canas. Guillermo Coria. Richard Gasquet.

And I'm still not going there because she didn't fight it either.