Archive for: event
Serena Williams showed championship form as she won the cumbersomely titled BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup at Madison Square Garden last night. The event showcased four of the best players in women’s tennis as Serena, Venus Williams, Ana Ivanovic, and Jelena Jankovic faced off in an abbreviated tournament format, with the winner taking home $400,000.
The semifinals were one set, no-ad scoring, and the first saw Venus Williams take on Jankovic, a foe who had troubled her in the past. The set was erratic from both players as they struggled to get accustomed to the court and atmosphere. Serving at 4-4, Jankovic sailed four consecutive errors, which sealed the match for Venus who went on to win 6-4.
The second semifinal saw a much better quality match with some truly fantastic points, but Serena was able to prevail over Ivanovic 6-3. Serena showed too much consistent aggressive play and did not make enough errors to allow Ivanovic into the match. Nonetheless, Ivanovic performed much better in this set than she had in the second half of 2008 or in Australia this year, so she should take some positives from this night as well.
Before the final, former President Bill Clinton spoke eloquently about Billie Jean King and her impact on women’s sport and her use of sport in general to help enact social change. King then spoke about the origins of women’s professional tennis and how far the game has come, expressing great optimism about the future of the game.
In the final match, Serena continued her solid form from earlier through a tight first set that, like Venus’s semifinal, hinged on one break. This time it was Serena who came out on top and took the first set 6-4. Serena seemed the fresher of the two players, which is understandable as Venus was coming off of a title on clay in Acapulco just days before. This form continued in the second set as Serena was more assertive and powerful than Venus, who could not display the kind of shotmaking that she used to defeat Serena a few weeks ago in Dubai as Serena took the second 6-3.
The night was an important tribute to Billie Jean King and what she has done to establish the game of professional women’s tennis. The best women’s tennis players in the world got to spend a night competing for a $1.2 million purse in one of sport’s greatest stages. This momentous event is a far cry from the $1 contracts that the first professional tennis players signed to play a tournament in Houston 40 years ago.
The International Level event in Monterrey, Mexico kicks off this week boasting a field headlined by world #10 Agnieszka Radwanska and former Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli. With many players resting up for the four week run through Indian Wells and Miami, this event could be a golden opportunity for an unheralded player to take home a trophy, 280 ranking points, and $37,000.
For most of the top seeds, it’s easy to find a reason why they won’t win the title. Radwanska, Szavay and Kirilenko have been monumentally struggling with form, and a consistent and confident challenger could send any of them out of the event early. Bartoli pulled out of Dubai with injury, but knowing Bartoli, that could mean absolutely nothing coming into this week. Pennetta seemed to break out of her slump last week, reaching the final in Acapulco, but she looked completely lost against Venus Williams in the final, and the transition back to hardcourt may be difficult for her. All of these question marks will make for a very interesting appetizer to the spring season.
First Quarter:
The draw gods made sure that this event would be compelling from the first day, as the top seed Radwanska goes up against the supremely dangerous Li Na of China. Li came back from injury last month and challenged Jelena Jankovic in Paris. Combine that with Radwanska’s struggles, and we could very well see a first round exit for the top seed. The other seed in this quarter, Maria Kirilenko, has yet to win a set in 2009 and should be a non-factor in this event. The other big challenge in this section may be Czech Lucie Safarova, who can play brilliantly one day and horrendously the next. If she is having a good day, she will be a threat.
Prediction: Li Na
Second Quarter:
The #3 seed Flavia Pennetta heads up this quarter and may see a challenge from Anna-Lena Groenefeld in the second round, but Pennetta should still be the favorite in that match. The #6 seed Iveta Benesova, she of ‘looking kind of like Daniela Hantuchova’ fame, has a nice draw up to a quarterfinal meeting with Pennetta. These two played just last week with Pennetta prevailing in straight sets. It should be the same result this week.
Prediction: Pennetta
Third Quarter:
The seeds Dulko and Zheng should face little opposition in this quarter unless the veteran Nathalie Dechy is able to find her excellent form of years past, in which case Dulko might find herself in trouble in the first round. Zheng should sail through to the quarterfinals for an encounter with Dulko. On clay, this could be a real match, but Zheng will be too strong on a hardcourt and will prevail rather easily.
Prediction: Zheng
The severity of Bartoli’s Dubai injury is unknown, but nonetheless she should be thankful for her easy draw. She is seeded to meet the lost-in-the-wilderness Agnes Szavay in the quarterfinals, but more likely she should sail through to the semifinals without meeting a top-50 opponent.
Prediction: Bartoli
Semifinals:
Li still seemed to be a bit rusty in her return matches, so she may lament her lack of match play in the later rounds. Pennetta may have struggled against Williams, but she will not meet that level of competition in this event, which should help her make a deep run. Bartoli will struggle when she finally meets an opponent of her level, which should benefit Zheng in that semifinal.
Prediction: Pennetta and Zheng into final
Final:
I expect Zheng to be playing too consistently for Pennetta in this match, who will fall short in a tournament final for the second consecutive week. Zheng looked in very solid form in her Dubai loss to Serena Williams, and that should carry her through to a tournament victory here.
Lindsay Davenport is rumoured to be returning to Indian Wells next month but not as a player, as a reporter. Instead of headlining the competition in the desert, Davenport will take her place in the broadcast booth at the BNP Paribas Open.
I didnt know but the BNP Paribas Open is the most attended tennis tournament outside of the Grand Slams. Thus, Lindsay and former ATP player Justin Gimelstob will have a lot of commentating to do at the event.
Slovakian glamour girl, Daniela Hantuchova, is the latest to confirm her attendance at the Brisbane International in January.
The world number 19 was a semifinalist at the Australian Open in 2008 and broke into the top 10 when she reached number 5 in August 2002.
She will be joined by French Open Champion Ana Ivanovic and reigning Australian Women’s Hardcourt Champion Na Li in the women’s draw.
The men’s draw boasts Novak Djokovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Marcos Baghdatis, Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet and Mardy Fish with the player cut off date, for the tournament ,on the 21 November.
Daniela Hantuchova said “I am really excited about returning to Australia and playing a strong field in the lead up to the Grand Slam.
“I took home some really nice memories last year. It was something very special for me.
“With my preparation this year and the quality field at the Brisbane International, I will be even more ready.
“I love Australia and have played in tournaments there since 2001. I am looking forward to playing in this new event and challenging some high quality players in the lead up to the Australian Open.”
World Number 3 Novak Djokovic spoke very enthusiastically about how he has been able to help Serbia to possibly host its first ATP tournament.
Djokovic, who has already qualified for the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai, and his family are on the point of buying out the rights to the Dutch Open tournament in Amersfoot and transferring that week’s action to Belgrade.
The 21-year-old Australian Open champion, who hails from the Serbian capital, revealed earlier this month he was in negotiations with organisers to transfer the event with help from his father and uncle and said the arrangements were all but in place.
“Now I can say the country is supporting us and we have all the things we need – just the formality from the ATP to really take the tournament Amersfoort to Serbia,” Djokovic said after reaching the third round of the Paris Masters when Dmitry Tursunov of Russia withdrew with a shoulder injury in the second set of their encounter.
Djokovic said he expected an official announcement in Shanghai and he was delighted at the prospect.
Back home in Australia we have an airline called Virgin Blue which states they have the best looking stewardesses in the world, but at the Madrid Masters they take it one step further, by hiring models to be ball girls.
Feminism, whats that? I think most females probably don’t like the idea, however it seems to be having a great promotional affect for the tournament. It is kinda portraying a more fun side of tennis.
I still really believe that the ATP and WTA tour are doing such a poor job at marketing and building the sport. Models as ball girls is probably not the best idea in the world, but at least it is giving tennis and tournament a bit more press and stands them out from the rest of the crowd. These types of ideas are only going to help give tennis more exposure and obviously more exposure means more money for everyone involved.
TENNIS.com has been named as the new title sponsor of the Zurich Open in Switzerland in a few weeks.
“We’re proud that one of Europe’s most important tournaments will operate under our name,” declared George Mackin, Director at The Tennis Company. “We decided to title sponsor the TENNIS.com Zurich Open based on its long and successful history and the outstanding player field they have this year.”
“We are delighted to be teaming up with Octagon to title-sponsor the TENNIS.com Zurich Open and hope that it will be the first of many future tennis event title sponsorships that we work on together, “ added Dave Morgan, Chairman of the Tennis Company.
TENNIS.com is one of the worlds premier tennis destinations and it is good to see them trying to promote their services a little bit more within the sport. I do think however they have a lot of issues with their own tennis website, and they probably should have spent this sponsorship money on redoing their site! After launching several new media companies, im always open to becoming an evangelist for them.
It has been reported that Maria Sharapova will be missing the remainder of the season, and she will be making her return in the second week of January at an exhibition event in Hong Kong.
After the layoff from her healing shoulder injury she is planning on heading to Melbourne to defend her Australian Open crown. After such a long layoff can we really expect her to challenge again for the Australian Open title?
With Lleyton Hewitt and Casey Dellacqua already confirmed starters, tournament director Paul McNamee announced the Russian siblings Marat Safin and Dinara Safina would team up for the first time to form the second team in the tournament. McNamee also admitted he is chasing Djokovic to play the tournament, but there will be no Roger Federer or Raphael Nadal in Perth because they have already committed to other tournaments. Im really looking forward to seeing some new faces in the Perth teams event this year, instead of having most of the top players finding a few up and comers has to be on McNamee’s list.
With the Rogers Cup in Toronto starting today who are the players to watch? With Roger Federer and Raphael Nadal both playing it should really be both of those 2 players in the semi finals, but what other 2 players are going to join them? Looking at the draws I really think we will see both Tommy Haas come through the draw to play Roger in the semi, and I think Wawrinka also has a chance to sneak through the Djokovic section of the draw to play Rafa in the other semi.
Who else might have a chance of making the semi finals in the Rogers Cup? You can find the single drawsheet here.
