The Existentialism of A Champion

by Savannah


Scott Heavey/AELTC/Getty Images Europe

ex·is·ten·tial·ism (gz-stnsh-lzm, ks-)
n.
A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts.

In the end the athlete is alone. It doesn't matter whether you play a team sport or an individual sport. In team sports an individual can outshine his or her team members like Michael Jordan who continues to overshadow an entire sport. Then there's a sport like golf or tennis where the individual is held responsible for his or her own performance. Some say the coach is important but if the player can't or won't implement the coaches vision the relationship will crumble and the athlete has to make different decisions about their career.

After losing 4 and 4 to Jana Cepelova at the Family Circle Cup earlier this year Serena made the following statement:

“I’m really just dead,” said Serena, who was coming off a title-winning run in Miami where she defeated world No. 2 Li Na in the final. “I need some weeks off where I don’t think about tennis and kind of regroup. I’ve had a long couple of years, and I’m really a little fatigued…I just need to take a deep breath and regroup. I think actually it’ll really help me for the rest of the claycourt season.”

I think that Serena, the one who needs time off from tennis showed up yesterday to play Alize Cornet who, to her credit, has been trying to live up to her responsibilities as the French Number One. She had never beaten Serena though and while Serena had appeared to be, let's say disinterested, during the run up to Wimbledon most, including me, thought that her competitive juices would kick in and that she'd romp through her draw towards the Final. Yes I believe that Serena would've beaten Maria Sharapova. But she had to get to that round first and she didn't. Instead of her facing WTA favorite Eugenie Bouchard she'll hopefully get to spend some time with herself and not worrying about tennis.

That said you can blame lots of things for Serena's lackluster showing on Saturday. She didn't play a warm up event. Was that down to confidence, maybe arrogance, about her ability to play on grass or was there an underlying injury that made it necessary for her to rest after crashing out of the French Open early?

Watching her take the first set 6-1 against Cornet yesterday there were troubling signs. When she missed her balls were landing in Wales and that was happening a lot in the first set. Her normal serving precision was off, her movement wasn't what it needed to be. The rains came just in time it seemed. It would give her a chance to speak with her coaching team and settle down, be SERENA, Terror Fabulous. By the third set her court sense had deserted her completely and it was obvious she had nothing, not even her famous will, to make her rise to the occasion and overcome a now confident Cornet, who celebrated as if she'd won the Championship.

In the end I think Serena, who played a very heavy schedule last year and the year before, needs a rest. I for one won't blame her for taking most of the summer off and return to the tour at Stanford maybe. She needs to find her motivation again and I'm not sure she needs to play herself to it. Serena turned pro in 1995. She's had some breaks in there, and especially after last year it looks like it's time to take another one. When she spoke very honestly about lesser players playing her "like the ATP" it showed that the filter between her brain and her mouth was lowered, a sure sign of fatigue. Maybe she felt that the press often ignored that fact and that she needed to say it.
In my opinion I think they're going to go right on ignoring it pursuing instead the latest WTA fantasy story line.

Serena was raised on the principal "your word is your bond". She has committed to Båstad and will feel some personal pressure to honor that committment I'm sure. Despite her undeserved reputation she is very loyal to the WTA and tries to do the right think at all times when it comes to her profession. The WTA has never made her it's "golden girl" and has never marketed its product with her in mind though. It's always been someone else who got all the hype.

Take some time off Serena. Find your motivation. Or not. You owe it to no one but yourself.

And So It Begins

by Savannah

No more exhibitions. No more shots taken from various and sundry posh vacation spots around the globe. The coaching changes have been made and the players are in shape (some of them are but I digress). The first full week of the tennis season found tournaments in Doha, Chennai, Shenzen, Auckland and Brisbane. The first full week of tennis found WTA players dropping like flies retiring with injuries that seem real enough but seem to pop up at odd times during matches.

As I said most of the returning players are fit if not match tough but that will come. Some have made changes in their games. Some, like Gaël Monfils have started the year with a new, more mature look and a seemingly more mature approach to the sport he plays for a living. Others, like Dominika Cibulkova showed up with a bit of left over relaxation around the waist that a dark kit couldn't hide. I think we've seen the best of Domi but have yet to see Gaël play a full year healthy and able to control his talent.

Brisbane had the marquee match of the nascent season though as WTA World #1 Serena Williams faced WTA #3 Maria Sharapova. Sharapova was one of the players who added a new coach over the off season and Sven Groeneveld seemed to have more coaching advice for her than her previous coach did. Not once did he tell her that her opponent was about to cave to her specialness. Instead he gave reasoned advice that Sharapova seemed to listen to.


Chris Hyde/Getty Images AsiaPac

During the first set Serena romped but the second set was a war and showed just what Sharapova has been up to while "rehabbing her shoulder" the last few weeks. She seems more comfortable coming in. She pulled off a decent backhand overhead and yes for a while it seemed she would win the second set against a Serena who had started off in her usual laconic style and now found herself in a steel cage match.

This was a Premier event for the women and as soon as the draw came out the only match anyone cared about was Williams vs Sharapova. Groeneveld is considered something of a genius by some although I haven't seen any player he has worked with scale the heights of world rankings. As Karen said in a comment the world of tennis is one of the most incestuous in the sports world and I would add especially in the United States so when you hear someone like Groeneveld hailed as a genius despite no visible results you get an idea of what she means. He's popular and of Scandinavian descent so of course he's the bestest ever.

But all of that did nothing to get his charge the win. Serena wasn't playing her best and was down at critical points in the second set but in the end she won the match in straight sets. Since Sharapova had already said publicly that her shoulder was fine the only narrative available was the one we all saw: even playing "meh" tennis Serena is better that Maria. And she has been for some time, shoulder or no shoulder.


via AP

I didn't see any of Shenzen but thought that it would be interesting to see who won the Final between Li Na and Peng Shuai. Li won and thus advances the career of the loathsome Carlos Rodriguez.



I didn't watch any of the Hopman Cup exhibition either. I was disappointed to see Sloane Stephens drop out after so many reports of her playing very well. She was scheduled to play this week but withdrew as well. That would've looked weird even for tennis. I'm glad Alizé Cornet did well in Perth.

Stepping in here to say that Madison Keys, only 18, is playing in Hobart and I thought that her match against last years phenom Simona Halep would be a showcase for where she is at present and where she would possibly go in 2014. It did, but not in the way I thought it would.

Halep started 2014 the winner of six titles in 2013 and predicted by many to make the top five if not top three in ranking. I thought that she would continue her surge against Madison but it was Madison who literally romped to a 6-1, 5-0 lead over the hapless Halep who seemed to have wandered onto the court by accident with only a rudimentary tennis ability. Don't believe anything you read about Halep having a surge in the second set. Keys succumbed to the pressure of the moment and handed her opponent four straight games. I'm not a fan of on court coaching but it was obvious she had no way to make it back without some help and the visit from her coach seemed to calm and steady her. She won the second set 6-4 and that was that. As Marion Bartoli said it's much easier being the hunter than the hunted. Her coach, Jay Gooding of the USTA, didn't come flying out of the stands and berate her and for once a player coached by the USTA didn't make his charge play worse after his visit. It's going to be interesting to see how Ms Keys does down under.


REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

To be honest I had no great expectations for Rafael Nadal in Doha. Monfils was playing well on his way to the Final and since Monfils has owned Rafa in Doha I figured He had a very good chance at defeating the ATP #1. But Rafa did what he had to do and won against a player he'd had trouble with at this venue.


Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images AsiaPac

So what the hell is Lleyton Hewitt doing holding the victory trophy at Brisbane? To understand that you have to go back to the semifinal match he played against Kei Nishikori. Both men were fighting not only each other but the oppressive heat. At one point I thought Nishikori was going to pass out if Hewitt didn't before him. Hewitt is from Australia and to see him suffering drove home how bad the heat was. Watching I was glad Nishikori didn't win because he wouldn't have been able to play well the next day. When I rewatched I saw that Hewitt wasn't in any better shape and thought that the man across the net, Roger Federer, would have an easy time against a physically depleted Hewitt.

Federer reached the Final by defeating Jarkko Nieminen, Marinko Matosevic and Jeremy Chardy. Matosevic did push Federer to three sets but that was the most difficult match he had. Hewitt faced Thanasi Kokkinakis, Feliciano Lopez, and Marius Copil before Nishikori, the only one to push him to three sets.

I wasn't even going to watch but I was awake so I figured I'd use the match as white noise. The first set had just ended when I turned it on and I woke up. What? Hewitt took the first set 6-1? So I watched. I won't lie I did doze off but woke up to see Federer on his way to winning the second set 6-4.

I'm sorry I don't know the names of the TennisTV commentators. They have many new people working this year and since I came in late I don't know who the two men were.

I can say that one of them was outraged about Hewitt being called for several foot faults going so far as to show video that attempted to prove that he wasn't committing foot faults. He even questioned why, at a critical junction, one was called going as far to say that in that situation it shouldn't have been called at all. Y'all know where my mind went. So there are times when something like a foot fault shouldn't be called? Really? Those of us who said the exact same thing about a similar call a couple of years ago were vilified. Maybe it was because of who was called and the perception many had of that player charging at this tiny little line judge. Tellingly they didn't show the line judge who kept calling the foot fault. Sigh. Hewitt did argue with the chair that he was not foot faulting but of course that was no big deal.

Then there was the out right rooting for Federer from the comms. Again one was worse than the other but it amazes me how invested some of the comms are in this one player. Instead of calling the match as it was happening all I heard was coaching advice for Federer. It would've helped if they'd talked more about what Hewitt was doing instead of what Federer should've been doing.

But Hewitt, looking remarkably fit after the previous day's match held on and won the third set and the match. Hewitt has beaten Federer before. He won at Halle in 2010, Davis Cup in 2003, and the Shanghai and Paris Masters in 2002 but Federer dominates their head to head.

Most players who didn't play last week are playing this week in Sydney, Auckland and Hobart. Everyone will be in Melbourne where play begins January 13.

The month of living backwards has begun.

Seen and Heard Around

by Savannah


From the French language tennis site TENFEM comes the following statement from Jelena Jankovic's coach Ricardo Sanchez to French chair umpire Kader Nouni aka The Voice.

Pour anecdote, on a même entendu son coach espagnol Ricardo Sanchez, dans les couloirs du stade, prendre à parti l’arbitre de chaise du match, Kader Nouni, en lui disant “Tu as complètement cassé le match, c’était n’importe quoi”.

Translation(mine):
Ricardo Sanchez of Spain stopped chair umpire Kader Nouni in the corridor after the match and told him that he had completely destroyed the match.

I saw the match. Did he mean that the match wasn't called fairly? Was he upset at the fan support for Amelie ( I mean it was a French crowd) and that the chair didn't ask them to be silent? They weren't loud during points and if they were restless Nouni did what any chair does and told them not to shout or move around during play. Was he upset at the lukewarm support for his charge? I guess what he did to Venus during her match at Stuttgart against Jelena doesn't count as completely destroying the match huh?
Amelie's fans have to be happy about her comeback from that seven game walkabout to completely shut Jelena down. She hasn't played like that since she became ill with appendicitis. Could it also be that since Alize Cornet is now the French number one Amelie has something to prove?

Gael Monfils deserves a shout out. He had every chance to throw in the towel during his last two matches but declined. I mean it's hard to watch a guy play and wonder if at any second he's going to be voiding from both ends. Anyone who has ever had a stomach virus knows what I mean. Instead he played on. If Nikolay Davydenko got called for "malingering" last year what should
Julien Benneteau be called out for? He played as if winning his match yesterday was the furthest thing from his mind. Tennis. Sometimes you have to be a fan to understand the crap that gets pulled and who gets called on it.
By the way at one point during the match Monfils played a bruising multi shot rally and lay down on the floor. Chair ump Gerry Armstrong gave him a warning. I'd love to see this guy call a match involving one of the Method Actors.
There was another more telling moment when during the changeover between the first game of a new set and the second - you know the one that's now a mini break - Monfils sat down on his chair as if to say "I'm so tired". It only lasted a few seconds but I thought he was going to throw in the towel then.

James Blake also played through discomfort completing a match he would've been forgiven for retiring on. He twisted an ankle during a previous match but played out his match against Mardy Fish losing in straights. Just sayin'.

What's the cutoff age for geezerdom in tennis? Tommy Robredo will turn 27 this year and is being counted among the Old Guard of the ATP. However you define the cut off age Robredo won the Brasilian Open. Congratulations Tommy. Your AARP card is in the mail.

End Notes
The new WTA/ATP online service, TennisTV launched this past Thursday 2/12/2009. The first day went smoothly for me. The second day I experienced some technical difficulties that were quickly rectified after I sent an email to their tech support group. The picture quality is excellent and the commentary is as well. The price is rather high for many but if you can afford it it'll be a good addition to your viewing habits especially if you're in an area of the States that doesn't have Tennis Channel access like I am.

Serena Williams withdrew with a knee injury from her semi final match against Elena Dementieva but is still listed to play Dubai next week. Both the Paris Indoors and the Barclay's Dubai tournament are Roadmap Premier events.

Serena Williams WTA Player of the Year

by Savannah


Why Serena and not someone else? Let's look at Serena's record for 2008.
Overall Record

Four Singles Titles
Two Doubles Titles
Won/Loss Record 44-8

The stand outs are the Wimbledon Final where she lost to her sister
Venus Williams and the victory, after the doubles win at the Olympics, at the US Open over Jelena Jankovic. Let's not forget that she and her sister won the Doubles at Wimbledon after playing one of their best, and one of the best women's matches of the year.
Serena also won Miami, often called the Fifth Slam. Along the way she beat Justine Henin 2 and 0,
Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets, and Jelena Jankovic in the final 6-1, 5-7, 6-3. She followed that up by winning the Family Circle Cup overcoming Maria Sharapova in the quarters 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, up and comer Alize Cornet in straights in the semis, and
Vera Zvonareva 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the final.
Serena did attain the number one ranking and finished the year ranked second in the world. For a complete list of Serena's stats please go HERE

Some will ask why I didn't pick the women's number one as the Player of the Year. Did she play the best tennis? Not in my opinion. She did play the most with an overall won/loss record of 65/19. I said before that Jelena played as many tournaments as she can physically stand and that that is what gives her the cushion to get to number one.

What about Venus, winner of Wimbledon and the YEC with a won/loss record of 40/11? Or Dinara Safina who finished third in the world with four singles titles and two doubles titles and a won/loss record of 55/20?

The amount of tennis Dinara played over the year caught up with her at the end. She is more fit and I think that next year she is going to challenge both Serena and Jelena with a less stressful but more competitive schedule.

Venus seemed to regain her focus at the YEC and if she carries that positive attitude into 2009 she too stands a chance to challenge the top two women.

But this is about Serena. Her schedule this year worked very well for her. I'm sure she wanted to end the year at the top but playing less tennis than the women above and behind her she still made it to number one and ended the year ranked second.

So go on and enjoy your vacations Serena. Dare to have a life. The pundits are finally admitting that you and your sister will probably leave tennis as the most mentally balanced of them all. And congratulations for having the best year of them all.

Tennis Talk

by Savannah


Jelena Jankovic is the number one ranked player on the WTA Tour and once again the argument rages as to whether she is a worthy number one. To define the sides in this debate. Does the number one player mean that said player has racked up the most points and is by that measure number one? Or does being number one mean that said player has played the best tennis, won at least a major during the last fifty two week period, and shown the mental and physical skills in their matches to make them worthy of being called best in the world?

To quote "Oswald56" from Tennis Forum

Of the current top ten only Serena, Sharapova, Venus, Ivanovic and Safina (just) have winning records against the rest of the top ten, Jankovic doesn't (25-31). Whether she wins a slam or not she's certainly not a great player. Her high ranking is due to her racking up a lot of victories against lower ranked players.

Jankovic is not the first player to inspire this debate. Kim Clijsters ascension to number one was also widely questioned. She was called by some tennisheads "Cupcake Kim" for the soft draws she received. Those draws allowed her to rack up a lot of points and propel her to number one. She did eventually win a Slam - The US Open - but soon after retired to marry and start a family.
Lindsay Davenport was also number one without benefit of a Slam victory for quite some time.

On the ATP side I remember when Marcelo Rios became number one and the firestorm it caused. He is still considered one of the best never to have won a Slam.
I don't think Jankovic will ever be put into that category. And that is where the problem lies.

As the poster above says she is not a great player. The deficiencies in her game are many. But over the last couple of years she has played a lot of tennis and piled up the points. It's why when the better players lose, as happens in tennis, she was poised to take over the number one spot. No one can doubt that Serena Williams and
Dinara Safina (for the second part of the year) have been the dominant players. Ana Ivanovic is in a slump right now. Maria Sharapova pulled out with injury for the rest of the year. Venus Williams is playing indoors this year which says to me she wants it too. With the exception of Sharapova I would say all of these women have better all around games than Jelena. They just don't play as many tournaments. For example Jelena is now on her third tournament in a row, the Tier I in Moscow. Win or lose she's going to pad her point total.

As long as ranking is determined by a point system, with no weighting of wins in terms of the tournament's importance, there will be number one players who are there strictly on points. Several fans are advocating a return to some sort of "quality point" system where it's not only that you won but who you beat getting there. There are problems with that system as well since it was scrapped in favor of the present one.

Fans don't like Jelena's on court behavior, the "medical" time outs, the whining, the gamesmanship. You don't see the best act that way on court. Despite that I don't think all the noise is about her on court behavior it's about her level of play. With the WTA switching to a two tiered tour, something I've been against from the beginning, we are likely to see more of this kind of number one. Unless the fans, and players, rise up against the point system I don't think Larry Scott and his minions will change things from the way they are now.

The Roadmap

I mentioned the Roadmap above. Just so we're clear about why it's called "RoadKill" in many circles here is the WTA 2009 schedule. Thanks to tennishead "Missinandre" for the information.

The # in parentheses indicates how many top 10 players that tourney is allowed to have

Jan 05 - Brisbane (no Top-10 players)
-------- Auckland (no Top-10 players)

Jan 12 - Sydney (no restrictions on the number of Top-10 players)
-------- Hobart (no Top-10 players)

Jan 19 - AUSTRALIAN OPEN

Feb 02 - Fed Cup I

Feb 09 - Paris Indoors (one Top-6 and two Top-13 players OR two Top-6 players)
--------- Pattaya City (no Top-10 players)
--------- Vina del Mar (no top-10 players)

Feb 16 - Dubai (seven Top-10 players)
--------- Memphis (no Top-10 players)
--------- Bogota¡ (no Top-10 players)

Feb 23 - Bangalore (no top-10 players)
--------- Acapulco (no Top-10 players)

Mar 02 - Antwerp (no Top-10 players)
--------- TBC (no Top-10 players)

Mar 09 - Indian Wells (MANDATORY)

Mar 23 - Miami (MANDATORY)

Apr 06 - Amelia Island (no Top-10 players)

Apr 13 - Charleston (one Top-6 and two Top-13 players OR two Top-6 players)
-------- Barcelona (no Top-10 players)

Apr 20 - Fed Cup II

Apr 27 - Stuttgart (one Top-6 and two Top-13 players OR two Top-6 players)
-------- Fes (no Top-10 players)

May 04 - Rome (seven Top-10 players)
--------- Estoril (no Top-10 players)

May 11 - Madrid (MANDATORY)

May 18 - Berlin (no restrictions on the number of Top-10 players)
--------- Strasbourg (no Top-10 players)

May 25 - ROLAND GARROS

Jun 08 - Birmingham (no Top-10 players)

Jun 15 - Eastbourne (no restrictions on the number of Top-10 players)
-------- s'Hertogenbosch (no Top-10 players)

Jun 22 - WIMBLEDON

Jul 06 - Budapest (no Top-10 players)
-------- Stockholm (no Top-10 players)

Jul 13 - Prague (no Top-10 players)
-------- Palermo (no Top-10 players)

Jul 20 - Portoroz (no Top-10 players)
-------- Warsaw (no Top-10 players)

Jul 27 - Stanford (one Top-6 and two Top-13 players OR two Top-6 players)
-------- Istanbul (no Top-10 players)

Aug 03 - Los Angeles (one Top-6 and two Top-13 players OR two Top-6 players)

Aug 10 - Cincinatti (seven Top-10 players)

Aug 17 - Toronto (seven Top-10 players)

Aug 24 - New Haven (no restrictions on the number of Top-10 players)

Aug 31 - US OPEN

Sep 14 - Guangzhou (no Top-10 players)
--------- Quebec City (no Top-10 players)
--------- Tashkent (no Top-10 players)

Sep 21 - Seoul (no Top-10 players)
--------- Kolkata (no Top-10 players)

Sep 28 - Tokyo Indoors (one Top-6 and two Top-13 players OR two Top-6 players)

Oct 05 - Beijing (MANDATORY)

Oct 12 - Linz (no Top-10 players)
-------- Japan Open (TBC) (no Top-10 players)
-------- Singapore (no Top-10 players)

Oct 19 - Moscow (seven Top-10 players)
-------- Luxembourg (no Top-10 players)

Oct 26 - WTA Tour Sony Ericsson Championships - Doha

Nov 02 - Fed Cup Final
--------- Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions - Bali***

***Best seven performers in the international level tournaments (who have not otherwise qualified for the Sony Ericsson Championships), along with one wildcard will participate in a Round Robin format.

Note the pattern here? Some venerable tournaments will die. Newer tournaments, which should have to compete for players and fan loyalty like the others did in the past, will thrive because they've been made mandatory. I was taken back by the Pilot Pen now having no restrictions on the number of top ten players since it comes right before the US Open and at the end of the grueling US Open series.

I don't like it. There should be one tour and every woman should have her choice of where to play. You will have a Second Tier tour champion and a Main Tour champion. Let's hope this schedule goes the way of Round Robin in the ATP and quickly.

Sony Ericsson Race to the YEC
Top Ten Only

1 JANKOVIC, JELENA SRB 4355 19
2 WILLIAMS, SERENA USA 3681 12
3 SAFINA, DINARA RUS 3628 19
4 DEMENTIEVA, ELENA RUS 3040 16
5 IVANOVIC, ANA SRB 2952 14
6 SHARAPOVA, MARIA RUS 2515 9
7 KUZNETSOVA, SVETLANA RUS 2513 17
8 WILLIAMS, VENUS USA 2246 11
9 ZVONAREVA, VERA RUS 2135 21
10 RADWANSKA, AGNIESZKA 2096 21


ATP News

To absolutely no one's surprise Carlos Moya was voted by fans to receive the first wild card for the Madrid Masters.The poll is conducted every year by a Spanish newspaper. Here are the vote totals.

Poll Results:

Moyá - 73.39%
Gulbis - 8.74%
Baghdatis - 8.07%
Ljubicic - 7.11%
Dancevic - 2.69%

The Race to Shanghai Rankings
Top Ten only

01 (01) Rafael Nadal (ESP) 1265 (15)
02 (02) Roger Federer (SUI) 921 (--)
03 (03) Novak Djokovic (SRB) 899 (03)
04 (04) Andy Murray (GBR) 520 (11)* * 0 pointer included as one of optionals.
05 (05) Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) 417 (22)
06 (06) Andy Roddick (USA) 354 (22)
07 (07) David Ferrer (ESP) 337 (15)
08 (08) James Blake (USA) 309 (15)

09 (10) Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) 307 (--)
10 (09) Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) 286 (03)

Idle Chit Chat
Some pics from Moscow.

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Flavia Pennetta and Potito Starace

Alize Cornet

Marat and his latest.

Late News
Hamburg isn't finished with the ATP. Here is a translation of the original German:

The German Tennis Federation will appeal together with the Qatari Federation the verdict in the lawsuit with the ATP. This announced the president of the German Tennis Federation, Georg von Waldenfels on Tuesday at a press conference at Hamburg Rothenbaum.

The objective of the appeal is beside the preservation of the Masters Series status the assertion of amends. "We want to save the value of the tournament and that's why we appeal together with the Qatari Federation", says von Waldenfels, who can't comprehend the verdict.

The court in the US-state Delaware entitled the ATP to downgrade the Hamburg tournament. The traditional event at the Rothenbaum will be downgraded from 2009 into the second category. Now it is planned to play a 1.2 million$ 500-points-tournament from July 20th until July 26th.

I think they want to be monetarily compensated.

...And Still Champion!!!

by Savannah

He was supposed to be washed up and ready to step aside so that someone else could take his place in the rankings. Instead he's pulled further away from the pretender and closer to the reigning champion winning 7-5, 6-7(3), 6-3.
Vamos Rafa!

Returning champion Jelena Jankovic played up and coming French teenager Alize Cornet who came through qualifying to make the Italian Open Final taking out Anna Chakvetadze in her semi final. Jelena made it after Maria Sharapova withdrew with a calf injury. Jelena won easily 6-2, 6-2. Congratulations Jelena.

Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor 2008 Mens Doubles Champions Hamburg Masters

Congratulations as well to Chan Yung-Jan and Chuang Chia-Jung for winning the Doubles Championship in Roma.

The Winners

Junior Girls


Alize Cornet French Open Girls Champion

Junior Boys


Vladimir Ignatic Frency Open Boys Champion

Legends


John McEnroe and Anders Jarryd Senior Mens Doubles Champions

Congratulations to them all!