Archive for: GRand Slam
Irving V. Glick, the U.S. Open tennis tournament doctor for more than 25 years, has died after a long illness. He was 92.
Glick died Friday at his home in Great Neck, N.Y., Haggard Funeral Home in Jefferson said.
He was buried Wednesday in the East Texas town of Jefferson, where his wife, Tommie, was born and kept close ties, the Longview News-Journal reported. Jefferson is about 165 miles east of Dallas.
Glick ran the medical department at the U.S. Open until 1991 and served as the International Tennis Federation’s medical representative to the Olympic Games in South Korea in 1988 and Spain in 1992.
Glick was team doctor for St. John’s men’s basketball for about 20 years, including the school’s 1985 Final Four team.
Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman has bowed out of professional tennis after a glittering 17 year career that earned him nine Grand Slam doubles titles.
Bjorkman, 36, was treated to a special ceremony at Qi Zhong Stadium after he and partner Kevin Ullyett were knocked out of the Tennis Masters Cup doubles.
“They reminded me a little bit that this is obviously maybe my last match,” said Bjorkman, who noticed preparations for the farewell ceremony during the match.
“You know, I was trying to do everything possible to stay alive one more day, or maybe two.”
Bjorkman won all four doubles Grand Slams as well as the 1998 Davis Cup with Sweden and also reached the 1997 US Open singles semi-final and the last four at Wimbledon just two years ago.
Bjorkman and Ullyett fell to Poland’s Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski as the Swede failed in his bid for a third year-end title.
“I still think it’s great to end my career in the biggest event of the year, even if I would have gone further. But you can’t have everything,” he said.
“I’ve been mentally prepared for this because I’m mentally very ready to retire. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to play for so long.”
Bjorkman, who will now concentrate on editing a Swedish tennis magazine, cited the 1997 US Open loss to Britain’s Greg Rusesdski as his biggest regret.
“Obviously losing to Greg Rusedski in the semi-final was a tough loss because I think that was a chance for me maybe to go all the way,” he said.
The reigning Australian Open junior champion is eligible to spend another two years bolstering his already impressive age record, if he wants to.
But, after mixing junior and senior events in roughly equal measure in 2008, the talented Gold Coast teenager would prefer to speed up his development by committing fully to the men’s circuit next year.
“I’ve started this year to play more and more (open) Futures and Challengers, but then again I’ve played also juniors,” German-born Tomic said.
“I think it’s time to put juniors away next year hopefully and just focus on Challenger level and Futures and getting my ranking up to where I want it to be.”
Tomic is the junior world No.3, with the two players ranked above him both about 18 months older.
In the senior rankings, he is 772.
While he hopes to steadily cut that number, he needs to rely on the generosity of officials if he is to play in ATP events or senior grand slams.
His chief aims for the coming summer are to make his ATP debut at the Brisbane International, starting January 4, and then play in the Australian Open later that month.
He will need wildcards for both, a prospect that remains uncertain, particularly given Tennis Australia’s recent emphasis on awarding wildcards on a merit basis, with Tomic only the 26th-ranked Australian man.
Congratulations Serena Williams on winning the 2008 US Open Womens Final. This win became Serenas 3rd US Open Win and ninth Grand Slam Title. Australian Open 2003, 2005, 2007. French Open 2002. Wimbledon 2002, 2003 and US Open 1999, 2002 and 2008.
Serena Williams from the USA defeated Jelana Jankovic from Serbia 6-4 7-5. This win also places Serena as the number 1 player in the world again (since 2003).
Name: Serena Williams
Country: USA
Birthdate: September 26, 1981
Birthplace: Saginaw, Michigan, USA
Residence: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
Plays: Right Handed (Double Handed Backhand)
Highest Singles Ranking: 1 (July 8, 2002)
Highest Doubles Ranking: 5 (October 11, 1999)
Website: www.serenawilliams.com
Winner US Open 2008
Scouting: Serena is one of the greatest women tennis players of all time. She has been at the peak of the sport for nearly a decade. Between Serena and her sister Venus they have nearly completely changed womens tennis for the better. Womens tennis is a lot stronger, faster and more exciting since they came on to the scene.
Serena has a very powerful all-round game which consists of strong ground strokes mixed with a powerful serve. Her serve is very compact and tends not to break down. Both forehand and backhands are equally powerful and dangerous. Serena is quite good at moving forward into the court but still doesn’t have the volleys to play a lot from the net. This is really the key weakness in her game. However, that being said she is very hungry to win, but some days in lower level tournaments she just doesn’t come out to play and tend to slip. When it comes Grand Slam time however wait to see her in the closing rounds.
