Victoria Azarenka, Dominika Cibulkova, Anna Chakvetadze and Alona Bondarenko appear on this month’s French edition of FHM men’s magazine. The article, which coincides with the tournament of Roland Garros being held in Paris, includes interviews with the tennis players and very sexy pictures in bikini.
Vera Zvonareva has been named a “Promoter of Gender Equality” as part of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s partnership with UNESCO.
Here’s what the world No.6 Russian said about the honor:
I think that the UNESCO-Sony Ericsson WTA Tour partnership is incredibly important and this is a role that I value highly and will work extremely hard in helping young girls and women all around the world to gain better opportunities to succeed in whatever they wish to do. In particular I very much believe in the importance and value of education and the rights of all women and girls to have equal access to it.
Other WTA players that already have that role are Venus Williams, Tatiana Golovin and Zheng Jie, as well as Tour founder Billie Jean King, who was named “Global Mentor for Gender Equality” in November last year.
Many people, including me, thought Maria Sharapova’s decision to return to the tour in Warsaw was misguided. A premier level event on her worst surface in the week immediately prior to the French Open did not seem like the place to gain momentum or confidence. She would probably crash out early against a middling clay court specialist and be doubting herself and her comeback going into one of the biggest events of the year.
That was before. Now, she seems like a genius. The field has been decimated by withdrawals and only two seeds have advanced into the Quarterfinals. The toughest obstacle for Sharapova en route to the final now will be Alona Bondarenko – a tough player in her own right but not in Sharapova’s league. This event, where she appeared destined for an early loss, now looks like it could provide Sharapova with her first title on red clay. Even if she doesn’t win, she has already achieved the desperately needed momentum.
This doesn’t just apply to Sharapova. There are other players who can take advantage of the weakest Premier level field of the season. British hope Anne Keothavong used to avoid clay courts like the plague. In the last few years, she has made a concerted effort to improve her play on clay and it is showing. She is having the best clay season of her life and can certainly advance deep in this draw, potentially carrying that confidence through to next week. Dare we even day it? A British woman could actually put together a run at the French.
2009 has hardly been a season to remember for Daniela Hantuchova, but as the only seed left on the bottom half, she now looks like the clear favorite to make the final. She played a solid, if tense, match against clay specialist Llagostera Vives in the first round and advanced past hometown hope Urszula Radwanska in the second. A title here could put Hantuchova on track to salvage this season and return to where she belongs in the rankings.
While the withdrawals of Wozniacki and Radwanska seemed to hurt the field, they have actually created one of the more compelling events of the season. Sure, those two are more likely to make a French Open run than anyone left in this field (save for possibly Sharapova), but they have given this tournament the gift of the unexpected and provided a huge opportunity for ranking points, prize money, and momentum. And who knows what will happen in the coming days? An Olaru/Dulgheru final, anyone?
Marin Cilic is a young player from Croatia who currently finds himself at number 14 in the world singles rankings. Marin has had a very quick rise to the top. He was playing junior tennis up until 2006 in which he then received his highest ranking of the world number one junior. While at the same time as holding this junior ranking Marin was also trying to build up a senior career and as many points as possible.
After moving away from junior tennis in 2006 Marin focused on building up as many points as possible on the ATP and ITF tours so that he could really make a living from tennis and live up to his potential. Within his first season on the ITF tour he finished 2006 ranked 173 in the world. This season really pushed his career and pretty much put him where he is today. At the start of 2006 Marin was receiving a lot of wildcards into major tournaments in which he would not have received unless he was the top junior in the world, and he made the most of it. Following in 2007 Marin continued his rise to finish the year at 71 and to now be on the ATP tour fulltime. Finally the growth continued even further to finish 2008 at number 22 and top be now a top player who everyone else wants to beat.
It is amazing how Marin Cilic has risen in the world of tennis and this has really been a steady growth from the age of 16. Marin is now a top 20 player in the world who no matter what tournament he plays is seeded. Im a firm believer that when a player progresses from juniors to seniors they deserve a few wildcards in major tournaments to help them get experience and raise their rankings fast at the same time. However, at the same time the player needs to keep his eye on the ball and actually get strong results on the ITF tours, cause that is really where you learn as a player to fight for every point and every match.
A few days ago it was announced that Kim Clijsters would be returning to womens professional tennis. Kim has had a few years away from the game and im sure she will come back with a bang. I hope Kim performs a lot better than Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis when they return from retirement.
In the couple years Kim was away from tennis she has got married and even had a baby. So this time round she will have a lot more life experience and maturity on court and hopefully this will lead to more outstanding results.
The Belgian has mentioned that it will be a tentative return. She will play three tournaments—Cincinnati, Toronto and most notably, the US Open.
Overall it will be very interesting to see how she fair against the like of the Williams sisters and the young girls who are currently on tour.
Dinara Safina is now officially the womens world number one tennis player. On Monday Dinara Safina has now joined the group of world number one tennis players. Dinara and Marat as the only brother and sister combination to have every been both world number one.
Safina is still yet to win a Grand Slam title but she has twice reached the final. Dinara Safina is the 19th woman to top the rankings since they were introduced in 1975.
Safina won four titles last year, but lost to Serena Williams at the Australian Open this year, who she replaced as world number one.
It is good to see however that Dinara is still in search of more and more titles.
“He has two Grand Slams,” Safina said of her brother in a video posted on the WTA’s Web site. “He’s still much better than me, so I have to catch him.”
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.
As you might know there have been arguments about the tight schedule of the tennis player between the player representatives and the ATP for many years. One of the recent years’ complaints was for instance that the season lasts longer and longer, now until late November with the Masters Cup followed by the Davis Cup. This leaves the players not enough time to recover from a long season and of course cuts short the preparation time for the next season.
The latest complaint concerns the Australian Open: players like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal wouldn’t mind if the Australian Open was moved to February. Rafa argued: “Why play one of the most important tournaments one week after the beginning of the season?”
Andy Murray agreed with his rival Nadal and added another wish thinking of Wimbledon: according to him there is not enough time between the French Open and Wimbledon which makes it difficult to switch from clay court to lawn.
Let’s wait for the reaction of the ATP where recently some changes took place and Adam Helfant became new chairman and president…
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.
We have previously reported about the relationship between Ana Ivanovic and Fernando Verdasco and this time they have been out and about together.
