Oh Canada!

by Savannah


via The Guardian

Lets start with Samantha Stousur's win over nemesis Victoria Azarenka in Carlsbad Sunday afternoon.

Better yet lets go to Victoria Azarenka's victory over Ana Ivanovic on Saturday. Azarenka needed three sets to win that match, a win that leap frogged her over Maria Sharapova and into the #2 ranking behind Serena Williams. Victoria had already been seeded #2 in Toronto but after losing to Stosur she withdrew citing a bad back. You don't have to be a match whiz to know why Azarenka would, uh, find her back giving her a problem after that three set win and err on the side of caution. I get it. If Sharapova sits out Cincinnati as well I'd like to be the second seed at Flushing Meadows too.

Sorry for that long aside Samantha. You played well despite your opponent being injured. In fact no one has seen you play that well in ages. Playing to win not playing scared is a good thing.


via ATP World Tour

Way across the sea Marcel Granollers defeated the King of Kitzbühel Robin Haase of the Netherlands on his way to winning the title there. He faced Juan Monaco in the final.


via Seattlepi.com

Washington DC in the summer has all the charm and personality of the swamp it sits on. It's nasty hot and humid. During the Citiopen they love to show images of a cool stream flowing through nearby Rock Creek Park but those in the know aren't fooled.

There are players who seem to thrive there though. One of them is Magdalena Rybarikova. She won the title last year and repeated this year, defeating Andrea Petkovic in the final.


via France24.com

The other player who thrives here is Juan Martin del Potro. He defeated American favorite John Isner in three sets after playing his semi final against Tommy Haas into the wee hours of the morning thanks to a rain delay. Isner finished his match before the rains came and got a good rest but you wouldn't have known it by the way he crumbled from the end of the first set to the end of the third set. Delpo blew Isner off the court rendering his aces a footnote to the match. Delpo's forehands coupled with his movement left Isner rooted in place, unable to react quickly. Then again the way Delpo was hitting the ball his racquet would've been knocked out of his hands. Congratulations Juan on your third Citiopen title.

There is something that I heard one of the ESPN2 comms say that has to be mentioned. They were all gushing on how well Isner is doing of late and one said that he seemed to be doing something different the last few weeks asking out loud if it was better fitness and possibly scouting players that was behind the change. POSSIBLY scouting players? Why would scouting players be a new thing for Isner? What he just walks on court thinking he'll blow them away so there's no need to look at an opponent to see what tactics should be used? If that is how he rolls that's not even arrogance. It's stupidity.

Rogers Cup 2013

The Europeans are on North American soil! Play begins Monday April 5 in Montréal, Quebec and Toronto, Ontario. Both are of course part of the country of Canada and not a part of the United States.

I should like this event but it's always been "meh" for me. Maybe it has to do with the strong arm tactics the USTA and Tennis Canada used to try and strong arm the top players into coming by messing with the European spring clay court calendar or maybe it's the way they've split the venues so that on a good day you'll need your computer, tablet and television to watch matches.

The tournament(s) are a huge part of the US Open series with the distinction of having the top players in the world on their courts. It's going to be interesting to see who makes the trip from Canada to the normally hot and humid Mid West of the United States.

Still it's tennis, in my time zone, no waking up at some obscene hour of the morning and falling asleep in the middle of the first game of the first set. I'll be sitting at home having a leisurely day of it watching what I hope is high quality tennis.


Idle Chit Chat

Remember when Serena caught hell from the tennis media and some fans for skipping out on a tournament while legitimately injured and showing up at a wedding? Remember that? Well guess what? Maria Sharapova begged off Toronto due to injury sustained at Wimbledon. She was supposed to do P.R. work in Toronto as is the norm when you pull out of a major. It helps fulfill your commitment and avoid a fine. Guess where she was this weekend?

Dancing at a wedding. In some kind of get up with the bride's head dress on. Or something.
Meanwhile all I hear are screams of delight from fans because her image will be in Toronto next to the booth featuring her candy. Rolling eyes. Hard. Oh, I didn't see any pictures of her with her fiancé at the wedding.

If you follow Twitter you know Patrick Mouratoglou is quite chatty. He promotes his players and drops in little personal asides from time to time. I'm trying to picture Ivan Lendl on Twitter. I'd better stop doing that or I'll end up like BMO and fry my circuits.


Miscellany

An interesting interview with Li Na's husband Jiang Shan popped up on a fan site:

Author: Chinese women’s tennis, as a whole, is quite strong nowadays, but what about men’s tennis? What’s holding them back?

JS: The knowledge of how to be successful is there. What’s lacking is someone with enough courage and conviction to go ahead and do those things. Starting young, training abroad, taking losses and grinding out wins in tournaments all around the world – it just takes someone committed enough to take that risk and not give up. I think it’s a cultural issue.

Author: What do you mean ‘a cultural issue’?

If a young Chinese player tried to break through internationally for 2 years, without getting the right results, he will come to the conclusion that he does not have the talent, and give up. A young North American in the same situation will instead think that it is because he is not working hard enough. The North American was brought up in a culture which has always taught him that he can do anything if he sets his mind to it. Not so in China. My generation (on the ATP tour, Jiang Shan topped off at #987 in the world back in 2001) was brought up with a “weak country” mindset. Everything was “beat the US,” or “beat England,” but when they showed up, we might as well have called them uncle. We just didn’t think we were good enough to compete. Nowadays, it’s better. China’s GDP has gone up and there’s more belief in us being on the same level as other global powers. I have a feeling that Chinese kids born after 1995 will not have the same negative mentality as we did growing up. After that, success will just be a matter of time.

Author: What about table tennis or badminton? Is there more success for Chinese players in those sports because the mindset is different?

JS: No. The reason why China does so well in those sports is simply because North Americans and Europeans generally don’t care for them. Outside of China, sports are market-driven. If there is no interest, there is no money. If there’s no money, then there will be less high-level players; the best athletes will go to other sports. If Americans or Europeans decided that they want to be a global power in table tennis, they could do it within a few years. Look at Old Wa (Jan-Ove Waldner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan-Ove_Waldner). He’s been playing at the highest level for 30 years, and beaten all the best Chinese players. But it’s just him. Everyone else in Sweden is playing hockey.

Author: Do you think Li Na winning a Grand Slam title would’ve been possible without the “Fly Alone” strategy (Note: in 2008, Li Na partially broke away from the traditional centralized Chinese tennis program in order to set her own tournament schedule as well as manage her commercial interests and training routines)

JS: You need to take risks and get away from a culture which promotes mediocrity and “just getting by.” The French Open victory would never have happened has we stayed with the Chinese federation. Tennis is an individual sport and you have to do things differently if you want to have an uncommon level of success.

I've been tempted to talk about Chinese tennis but due to lack of familiarity I haven't. Jiang's comments are honest and open, the way he appears to be. I wonder why he wasn't asked if height affects the Chinese men? Nishikori Kei isn't a big guy and he's doing okay but he trained in the States. David Ferrer isn't a giant but it took him years to get where he is today. Until or unless more is known about the Chinese tennis scene Jiang's comments stand as the best analysis to date.

Saturday's Children

by Savannah

The preliminary tournaments wound up today. The Big Show starts tomorrow at 5a in the Eastern United States. The winners today deserve credit for supporting their respective tours.


Andrea Petkovic won at Strasbourg after Marion Bartoli, citing a quad injury, retired down 4-6, 0-1.

Team Germany defeated Argentina to win the Power Horse World Team Cup in Dusseldorf.

Caroline Wozniacki battled for two hours and thirty five minutes to defeat Peng Shuai to win the initial WTA Premier event in Brussels.

Nicolas Almagro won the ATP tournament at Nice. He defeated Victor Hanescu.

Rise of the Frauleins?

by Savannah

At some point during the TennisTV broadcast of Andrea Petkovic's match against Jelena Jankovic the commentators started talking about the state of German tennis. They were focusing on the women's game and with good reason.

Last weekend the German Fed Cup team wiped the floor with the United States team winning every rubber and shaming the once powerful Unites States team into relegation. One of the underlying assumptions was that the US team with it's reliance on teenagers with little pro tour experience was just not ready for the German fans. Throw in the traditional clay allergy of American players and you had the recipe for a perfect storm. Not much was made of the German women however. The only "star", and she is a star among tennisheads for now, is Andrea Petkovic and she was known more for doing a jig after winning a match than for her play. Well the jig is history and after this week the attention has begun to turn to the women who play tennis as Germans.

The first thing I noticed today was that there was a full house in Stuttgart. That's right. There were fans in the seats cheering and applauding women's tennis. Usually you can fire a bazooka in a stadium featuring women's tennis and not harm a soul. That's not what was going on today.

The other thing I noticed is that the level of the tennis was very good. There was fight as well as skill being exhibited by the players as they took out some of the big names in women's tennis.
Li Na, Jelena Jankovic, Victoria Azarenka and Marion Bartoli all found themselves losing to women who have been overlooked by publicists for the tour.

And that brings me back to what the commentators were saying.
German tournaments have been the ones taking major hits when either tour decides retrenchment is needed. They ended up agreeing that those decisions may have been made too soon. It's not like the German tennis authorities haven't tried to fight it's just hard when you're not part of what I've been calling the Axis and your last great players are both married with children and making lives for themselves that don't revolve totally around tennis.

Do I think a new golden age of tennis is about to bloom? I say we'll know better at the end of the season. As it stands now four German players are into the quarterfinals at Stuttgart. And they're beating players the average tennis fan would say they should be losing too. I don't know when an American tennis fan could say four American women made the quarters of any tournament no matter the level. To paraphrase Marion Bartoli it's much easier being the hunter than the hunted. The guns are now trained on Andrea, Sabine Lisicki, Kristina Barrois and Julia Goerges.

Davis Cup Follow Up

According to some tennis writers the ITF is now saying there aren't 91 surfaces for the USTA to choose from. The organization in charge of both Fed Cup and Davis Cup is now saying that there are four manufacturers from which to choose. I think that the ITF will let the US Davis Cup team use the surface it's chosen.

Miscellany



Ever heard of Nadia Lalami? I think I've seen her name on some ITF player lists but I never saw her play. Since TennisTV is not showing Fes in the States I watched her play Aravane Rezai via live stream. Rezai, who had a terrible start to the year due to personal issues, needed a win and I thought that this was a match Rezai would easily win. I was wrong. Should I start touting Ms Lalami who is from Morocco? I've only seen her play once. What I saw looked good. She's made history as the first Moroccan to make the quarters of a main tour event. The jury is still out of course.

2011 Sony Ericsson Open - The Ladies Final

by Savannah



I've been pretty quiet about the tournament formerly known as the Fifth Slam. I have been watching, and tweeting, so if you follow me there you know pretty much how I've viewed the tournamanet, in 140 characters or less. The title of Fifth Slam has been given to the tournament in the California desert and Miami is now being marketed as the South American Slam. Forget that it takes place in North America. Miami is Latino enough, at least in the eyes of the pro tours, to be considered part of South America and the Spanish speaking Caribbean. Besides, the improvements made by Larry Ellison at Indian Wells have made that tournament deserving of the faux slam title. IMG has a long way to go to bring its tournament up to the standards set at Indian Wells. So does the US Open but that's another tale for another day.




But I digress. The women's final will take place today and will be broadcast on CBS. Will Mary Carillo, the High Priestess of Big Babe Tennis, be in the broadcast booth or will the conflicted Mary Jo Fernandez preside over the festivities? How should I know? I'm just a fan with a keyboard so my thoughts on this don't matter. Rather I should be home spamming other fans with typewriters, er, keyboards and creating phony Twitter accounts in my spare time huh? I'm not that person though and I'll continue to put my thoughts into cyberspace as long as I'm able to.

Damn. I digressed again. Silly me. The final today will be between Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka. If both women play the way they've been playing it should be an interesting match. Of course some of us may end up with our ears bleeding but them's the breaks I suppose.

I've never been a fan of Maria Sharapova. I have to say that for those who may be new to this blog. Her game has always been a copy of early Venus Williams and has not progressed much beyond that. The commentators still go on ad nauseam about her injuries and what they see as the resultant service issues but that is not what has made me gain respect for her as a player.

You see in this incarnation of the WTA she is one of the few who can put butts in the seats. People want to see her play for whatever reason. Miami is where she was booed a few years back for turning her back on an injured Tatiana Golovin and she's never been a fan favorite. Still they come out to see her. And she's decided to embrace Miami and let bygones be bygones.

She also seems to be listening to her new coach. When he makes a courtside visit she sips from her little brown bottle and doesn't argue or bitch at him. She listens. She also fights like hell on the court. Her match against Alexandra Dulgheru showed what she's made of. There were times it looked as if she would go under during that match but she refused to. When she messes up there are no on court tantrums and racquet smashing. All a fan gets to see is the raptor like spirit in her eyes as she picks herself up and forges ahead. That is all a fan can ask of a player.

There may come a time I will learn to respect Victoria Azarenka as a player. Hell, I've come to respect Sharapova right? But as I indicated above Sharapova has never disrespected the game of tennis on court. She hasn't cursed out chair umpires or let herself be overtaken by angry outbursts or gone on cursing jags like Azarenka has. Again it speaks volumes about the state of the WTA that Azarenka has reached today's final playing what passes for pretty good women's tennis these days. I read a fansite where one tennishead called Azarenka "Sharapova Lite". I can't disagree with that assessment. There are fans of what I guess can be called her "fighting" spirit. I see her as a spoiled brat and will continue to do so whether she wins today or not.

But once again what I think doesn't matter. I said to myself after Sharapova won her semi that the folks at CBS could stop doing their rosaries. Do you think they wanted a final that included fan favorite Andrea Petkovic? Purists would've been interested but the casual tennis viewer would have been scratching their head wondering who she was. That network and media favorite Sharapova will be facing another blonde across the net is icing on the cake. The WTA will be happy because their image of the WTA would be perpetuated. If you like mindless ball bashing you'll be happy.

Still, with all that said, I hope it goes three sets.

Miscellany

Melanie Oudin, perhaps in preparation for her Fed Cup turn, took a wild card into a $25k in Alabama. She was taken out in the first round by one Ashley Weinhold. Some are questioning her choice for the United States Fed Cup team and saying that Coco Vandeweghe should've been the choice. Melanie got overtaken by the hype beast. Her game has not progressed past the junior level. A woman her size, unless she's a badass like Dominika Cibulkova, is going to have a very hard time at the pro level with a game like hers these days. I think Coco Vandeweghe's game is, just like Melanie's, still a junior game so putting her on the team wouldn't do much for the US's chances.

Still it is Fed Cup and someone can catch patriotic fever and get through. If the United States loses it will be the first time we've ever been out of the World Group. On Mary Jo Fernandez' watch no less. She was the great savior of the US Fed Cup team remember?

The WTA Has A New Top Dog

by Savannah

The Official WTA Statement

Friday, February 11, 2011

KIM CLIJSTERS BECOMES WTA WORLD NO.1

Four-time Grand Slam Champion regains top ranking for the first time since March 2006

PARIS, FRANCE – By reaching the semifinals at the 2011 Open GDF SUEZ, Kim Clijsters will return to the
top of the WTA Rankings on Monday, February 14, 2011. Clijsters will surpass the current World No.1
Caroline Wozniacki who has held the top spot for 18 consecutive weeks since October 11, 2010. Clijsters
will be ranked WTA World No.1 for the fourth time in her career and will climb to the top of the WTA
Rankings for the first time since March 19, 2006. It has been 256 weeks since the last time Clijsters was
World No.1, the second longest streak between No.1 rankings in men’s or women’s tennis history (S.
Williams, 265 weeks).

“I am happy to regain the No.1 here in Paris as I feel like it’s close to home in Belgium,” Kim Clijsters
stated. “I’m proud that I have achieved this in my second career and as a mom. I hope that I can now go
on and win the tournament.”
“I congratulate Kim on achieving the World No.1 ranking once again in her career. It is incredible that
five years have passed since Kim was No.1, but the fans of women’s tennis are incredibly lucky to have
her back and playing the best tennis of her career. To be able to excel on the tennis court while being a
working mother is truly commendable,” said Stacey Allaster, Chairman and CEO of the WTA.

Clijsters has enjoyed a great beginning to the 2011 season, winning 15 out of 16 matches, highlighted
by capturing the 2011 Australian Open title, her fourth career Grand Slam, and reaching the final at the
Medibank International (Sydney) where she lost to China’s Li Na. In the past 52 weeks, Clijsters has won
five titles, including the 2010 US Open, the year-end WTA Championships (Doha), the Sony Ericsson
Open (Miami) and the Western & Southern Women’s Open (Cincinnati), in addition to the Australian
Open.

Clijsters is the owner of 41 WTA singles titles – 13th all time – and has 495 career match wins. She
boosted her career prize money earnings to more than $23 million at the Australian Open and ranks
third best all-time, behind Serena and Venus Williams, respectively. Since her WTA comeback in August
2009, Clijsters owns the best match winning percentage (.861, 68-11) and has won seven WTA singles
titles, including three of the last five Grand Slams.

TOTAL WEEKS AT WORLD NO.1

PLAYER DATE REACHED No.1 WEEKS*

Steffi Graf (GER) August 17, 1987 377

Martina Navratilova (TCH/USA) July 10, 1978 332

Chris Evert (USA) November 3, 1975 260

Martina Hingis (SUI) March 31, 1997 209

Monica Seles (YUG/USA) March 11, 1991 178

Serena Williams (USA) July 8, 2002 123

Justine Henin (BEL) October 20, 2003 117

Lindsay Davenport (USA) October 12, 1998 98

Amélie Mauresmo (FRA) September 13, 2004 39

Dinara Safina (RUS) April 20, 2009 26

Tracy Austin (USA) April 7, 1980 21

KIM CLIJSTERS (BEL) August 11, 2003 20

Jelena Jankovic (SRB) August 11, 2008 18

Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) October 11, 2010 18

Jennifer Capriati (USA) October 15, 2001 17

Maria Sharapova (RUS) August 22, 2005 17

Ana Ivanovic (SRB) June 9, 2008 12

Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (ESP) February 6, 1995 12

Venus Williams (USA) February 25, 2002 11

Evonne Goolagong (AUS) April 26, 1976 2

The good news is that a Slam winner sits on top of the WTA heap. I know her fans are happy for what she has accomplished in her second career. As usual the tired phrase "you can only beat who's across the net from you" will be repeated by some. My comment on this is not mine. It comes from a tennishead calling herself "Lilac".

As I have written before. I feel cheated. Clisjters was second tier in her era; never able to beat her rivals, Capriati, Serena, Venus, Henin for a trophy. Each is either retired or on the downside of their careers; and she's returned after a long rest to compete in a women's field with no great champions. Like I told Craig Hickman -- hey, if you can't win in your era, just wait and come back in a less competitive one to pick up slams. I'm no fan of Davenport, but I think it sucks that Clisjters has surpassed her in slam titles. Booo.

Not much more to say is there?

Miscellany

Dmitry Tursunov has learned the perils of social media at severe cost to his reputation as a player and a person. He tweeted today that he was stealing wi-fi from someone riding on the same train he was and then made what in my opinion was a slur aimed at people of Jewish descent. His major defense was that he dogs Russians as well and no one cared about that.

We're all adults here so lets be real. Every group has things that are considered peculiar to their cultural, racial or ethnic group. That said most people in today's world don't repeat those things outside of the group, and certainly not on a platform like Twitter where you never know who is following you and posts can go viral in a matter of minutes. I thought Tursunov would say "sorry" and disappear for awhile. Instead he continued to try and defend his comments. Speaking personally I stopped following a person who made insulting racial comments about Serena Williams.

I hope someone has gotten to Tursunov and his attempts at defending himself stop.

Tennis Talk

I'm sorry I don't remember the names of the commentators who covered the Milos Raonic vs Richard Berankis match in San Jose this afternoon but I applaud their analysis of the current situation in men's tennis especially as it relates to the United States.

Raonic as we know is a young Canadian who has been the story of 2011 so far. He is tall, with a huge serve and mobility similar to Juan Martin del Potro. Long story short the commentators talked about how the USTA would simply love to have a talent like Raonic but that none is forthcoming at this time. They spoke frankly about Andy Roddick having been the standard bearer for men's tennis in the States and that he may not have another Slam in him. They discussed the wisdom of regional vs national centers for up and coming players, and the allure that baseball, football and even hockey have on young American athletes. They talked about Roger Federer and how he seems to think the change in his style of play was his brainchild and that new coach Paul Annacone has not been given the credit he should be in Federer's public comments. They spoke about the Player Development structure in Spain and France and how France, while producing good players has not produced Grand Slam winners while Spain has. Guys, I don't know your names but I hope to hear more from you. I doubt very seriously that ESPN2 will hire you because you speak frankly and honestly. Enjoyed your broadcast.

If Bethanie Mattek-Sands keeps it up she'll become known for more than just her on court attire. I read somewhere today that a lot of the credit for her improved level of play - she defeated Andrea Petkovic today in Paris - goes to Fed Cup Captain Mary Jo Fernandez. If so my hat is off to Mary Jo. She still has no business being a commentator but if she brings out the latent talent Bethanie has always had she deserves her props.

It should be noted that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is into the semi finals in Rotterdam after Tomas Berdych withdrew from the tournament due to illness.

There is also a flu epidemic sweeping Russia at the present time. As you all know Maria Sharapova withdrew from Paris due to a viral illness.

Both Alexandr Dolgopolov and Janko Tipsarevic have confirmed that the Tennis Integrity Unit has contacted them. The TIU is the sports anti-corruption arm that deals with suspicious betting. Dolgopolov said that he was not the only player contacted. "I wasn't really surprised because I knew some guys, you know, like Russian guys, they got those letters."

Janko Tipsarevic also confirmed that he was contacted over his three-set defeat to Horacio Zeballos in Moscow in October.

"I said to the TIU that I have no problem, they can send me a letter every week if they want," he told ubitennis.com. “All it needed was a phone call to my bank, to my phone company and I gave them everything. Easy, just took seven days, I sent them my account, the telephone list, everything they wanted, what’s the problem?"—

SOURCE

Sunday Winners 7/26/2009

by Savannah

New champions and some returns to the winners circle are featured this weekend.

Bad Gastein

Andrea Petkovic won her first title
The doubles team of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka won the doubles crown

Hamburg

Nikolay Davydenko won his first title of the year after a long injury layoff.

Paul Hanley and Simon Aspelin are the Doubles Champions

Portoroz

Dinara Safina won at Portoroz.

Julia Gorges and Vladimira Uhlirova are the Doubles Champions

Indianapolis (US Open Series)

Robby Ginepri 2009 Indianapolis Champion.

New doubles pair Ernests Gulbis and Dmitry Tursunov win the Doubles Crown at Indianapolis