The Australian Open 2012 is the first Grand Slam of the year and it is going to be amazingly exciting. Six players on the womens side have the ability to finish the tournament with the World Number 1 ranking.
Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, Sam Stosur and Agnieszka Radwanska could also take the top ranking, but the No. 2-ranked Kvitova is the favorite.
Caroline Wozniacki currently holds the top spot, but with her poor run in Grand Slams I doubt highly that she will be number 1 when the tournament ends.
Since Maria Sharapova decided to withdraw from the WTA Tour Championships, this means that Caroline Wozniacki will finish the year as the worlds number 1 female tennis player. Wozniacki had a strong year, but yet again no Grand Slam title to her name! It seems like Wozniacki is very consistent, but lacks the killer instinct in the big matches.
Wozniacki becomes only the 8th women in history to get the number 1 spot in back to back years.
Samantha Stosur has had a great start to the WTA Tour Championships. This is the first time Stosur defeated Sharapova in the last 10 meetings. Stosur won 6-1 7-5.
“Obviously it’s a big feat for me. You never want to lose to someone 10 times in a row,” Stosur beamed said. “I was feeling pretty focused, relaxed and ready to go. I did a few things differently and thankfully it paid off.”
This was also Maria Sharapova’s first tournament in a month since her ankle injury.
“It’s obviously tough to come back after a month and compete at this level but the good thing is I gave myself a chance and did everything I could to even be here, so I’m happy,” she said “I still have a couple of matches to go and time to improve”
Samantha Stosur is the latest player to qualify for the WTA tour year ending championships in Istanbul.
Radwanska’s 7-5 0-6 6-4 win over German Andrea Petkovic ensured Stosur’s place in Turkey.
However, since winning in New York Stosur has been struggling with form and only won oen match in two tournaments. Hopefully she can improve her play before year end.
Serena Williams wont be playing any more events in 2011. The WTA has confirmed that Serena isnt entered into any more events this year.
After falling in the final of U.S. Open to Samantha Stosur, Serena pulled out of mandatory tournaments Tokyo and Beijing for unspecified medical reasons. Serena will receieve zero-pointers for both those tournaments and will also be fined.
It has been three days since the US Open Womens Final and Serena Williams finally came out with a statement on Twitter.
“My emotions did get the best of me this past weekend when I disagreed with the umpire. It has been a long road to get back to the US Open this year, and I am thankful to have had such a great two weeks in New York,” she wrote.
Still no apology to the chair umpire Eva Asderaki? Serena your a joke! Terrible role model.
Wimbledon is often considered sacred ground from the perspective of a professional tennis player. Victory on these revered lawns presents the ultimate tennis glory. A majority of professional tennis players would sight Wimbledon as the most desirable title in all of tennis. There is a distinct, indescribable eminence that comes with claiming the Wimbledon trophy.
No player better represents not only the brilliance but pure elegance that is characteristic of a Wimbledon champion than Roger Federer. The graceful nature with which Federer plays the game is of no comparison and is truly visible on grass. It is on this surface that Federer’s fluidity and variety really provide him with the upper hand against virtually every opponent.
Unfortunately, the beauty associated with grass court tennis is only seen for an abbreviated time span. The grass court season begins the Monday following the French Open and ends around a month later. With four warm up tournaments over a span of two weeks, transitioning from the slow, high bouncing clay courts to the fast, low bouncing grass courts presents a formidable challenge. Many players such as Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have even opted to skip these warm up tournaments and jump into Wimbledon cold.
For the surface on which the most striking and highly technical tennis is played, it would seem a just exploit to the tennis world to extend the season much beyond its current length. The Clay court season, which spans from February to June, is four months of relentless back court grinding that presents an extremely demanding physical challenge. The Hard court season, which lasts from July to the end of November, arguably takes an even bigger physical toll on players. A prime example of this is Rafael Nadal. Nadal plays the game with a never say die attitude, but unfortunately because of this he has encountered various knee problems throughout his career due the incredible effort and grit he puts into every single point. The toll taken on his knees on grass is not nearly as severe as the aggravation experienced on the hard and clay courts.
With this being said the grass courts are considerably less destructive to the body and allow the players to focus more on what’s being done on the court as opposed to what the court is doing to their body. Despite all of this, I am in full recognition that there are obvious obstacles in the way of extending the grass court season such as a lack of venues and scheduling. If the ATP is in fact able to extend the life of the grass court season, it would not only be a positive improvement for the health of the players but it would also be nothing short of a gift to tennis fans all around the world.
The new WTA Tour rankings are out and here is what has changed after the Rogers Cup in Toronto.
The complete top ten according to the August 15 rankings is below:
1. Caroline Wozniacki
2. Vera Zvonareva
3. Kim Clijsters
4. Victoria Azarenka
5. Na Li
6. Petra Kvitova
7. Maria Sharapova
8. Francesca Schiavone
9. Marion Bartoli
10. Samantha Stosur
Serena Williams won the Rogers Cup in Toronto and she is now 31st in the world rankings.
This week is the Cincinnati tournament in which we will see Serena Williams possibly play Samanthat Stosur in the second round.
WTA CEO Stacey Allaster will be looking at grunting in the womens game.
“We have a hindrance rule,” Allaster said. “The reality of it is the athletes themselves are not coming to me say, we have an issue. (But) I’m very fan-centric and if there is a number of fans who are communicating with us that it’s an issue, then it’s something that we need to look at.”
It was annoying watching Serena Williams play Victoria Azarenka in the Rogers Cup semifinal because both players have amazingly noisy grunts.
“It’s very difficult to change the existing athletes because this is how they’ve trained, prepared for their entire lives,” said Allaster, who noted that some male players grunt too but, “unfortunately our decibels are a little bit higher Our DNA is different.”
Li Na is now by far the richest tennis player! Maria Sharapova was previously the highest, earning over $24 million each year in prizemoney and endorsements. Now, Li Na has over $42 million on endorsement contracts.
“We could do five more endorsement deals but she just doesn’t have the time,” said Eisenbud, a vice president at Coral Gables, Florida-based IMG Tennis who signed Li in November 2009. “It’s incredible.”
Since winning the French Open, Li Na has signed contracts with Daimler and Chinese insurance company Taikang Life Insurance Co.
“It was hard to set the price” after Li’s triumph in Paris, Eisenbud said. “We had to change it a lot.”
Last week we reported that Coco Vandeweghe had split with coach Tom Gullikson. Now, it has been announced that her new coach is Jan-Michael Gambill. Gambill got to know Vandeweghe during the World Team Tennis and they are now going to work together through the US Open.
After that I wouldnt be surprised if Vandeweghe drops Gambill and finds yet another coach.
WTA Tour rankings are out and Caroline Wozniacki is still leading in August. I still think Kim Clijsters would be the best player in the world if she played more than once a month on average!
Singles
1. Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark, 9,915 points.
2. Kim Clijsters, Belgium, 7,625.
3. Vera Zvonareva, Russia, 6,850.
4. Victoria Azarenka, Belarus, 6,115.
5. Maria Sharapova, Russia, 5,941.
6. Li Na, China, 5,855.
7. Petra Kvitova, Czech Republic, 5,437.
8. Francesca Schiavone, Italy, 4,831.
9. Marion Bartoli, France, 4,425.
10. Sam Stosur, Australia, 3,275.
11. Andrea Petkovic, Germany, 3,245.
12. Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russia, 3,220.
13. Agnieszka Radwanska, Poland, 2,915.
14. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Russia, 2,775.
15. Jelena Jankovic, Serbia, 2,775.
16. Dominika Cibulkova, Slovakia, 2,595.
17. Peng Shuai, China, 2,580.
18. Ana Ivanovic, Serbia, 2,555.
19. Yanina Wickmayer, Belgium, 2,470.
20. Julia Goerges, Germany, 2,335.
Zhang Shuai has had to retire from her second round match at the WTA Collegar Park tennis tournament due to heat illness after dropping the first set 6-4 to Irina Falconi.
After her first round win, Zhang complained that she was tired and sick in her head and stomach.
