It might come as a surprise to tennis fans that the player who may invigorate the slumping women’s tennis tour (discounting the Williams sisters) may not be a flashy, grunting teenager, but instead, a veteran 26-year-old mother. Kim Clijsters, the 2005 United States Open champion and former world No. 1, will make her return to the W.T.A. next month at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open in Cincinnati.
Clijsters has been slowly warming herself up for the summer hard courts of America since announcing that she was coming out of retirement in late March of this year. She played a Wimbledon exhibition in May against Steffi Graf, then handily beat Michaella Krajicek, a former top 30 player, in another exhibition last month. This month, Clijsters will return to American soil on the World TeamTennis stage, playing for the St. Louis Aces. In the spring of 2007, Clijsters retired at 23 after winning one major, 34 tour titles and holding the top ranking for 19 weeks. She cited boredom, injuries and the desire to start a family as reasons for stepping away from the game.
This has to be one of the funniest videos I have seen in a while. It is a scream off between Maria Sharapova and Michelle Larcher De Brito. I simply find all this screaming very over the top and it also kind of makes me wonder what type of noises these girls make when having sex.
As every year at the end of January the tennis world focuses on Down Under, where the year’s first out of four Grand Slam is taking place. But what to expect of this year’s Australian Open?
A surprise and a close battle for the title! As every year, at least one of the finalists will be a newcomer, as in recent years Marcos Baghdatis or last year’s finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. One of those “newcomers” might this year be the British Andy Murray, who from last year’s second half of the season gradually improved his game and was rewarded with a US Open Final and a Masters Cup Semi Final. As if it were not enough he also defeated the Swiss Roger Federer in their last three confrontations. Lucky for Federer Express that number 4 seated Murray finds himself at this year’s Aussie Open in the upper part of the draw which means Nadal will have to deal with him. Murray with his recent victory in Doha is ready to rumble, but what about the other Top Ten players?
Nadal after a forced break of two months due to his knee problems seems too lack some preparation and practice, but still appears to be confident as he says: “My type of game needs rhythm. But I feel good, I trained hard. I just need some match practice to know where exactly I stand.” After the first week of the tournament he is most likely to be on top of his game again.
Djokovic arrives with two weights: His two defeats in a row at the beginning of this season and of course he needs to defend his title at the Australian Open in order to not lose any points. The fact he changed his racket might also cause him some adaptation problems, but with his self-confidence he should be able to overcome those difficulties and show us a few hours of beautiful tennis during the next two weeks.
Federer, still trying to beat Sampras’ all time record of 14 Grand Slam titles, lost gradually his feeling of invincibility during the last season. Nadal is now not his only opponent anymore, which was recently proven by Andy Murray, but Federer lost from what he benefited so much before: the fear and respect the other players had when it came to play him. He became Human again, but his talent remains and he is still capable of becoming untouchable if he has one of his magic days. On the Australian Open’s pre-tournament press conference on Sunday a cool and fit Federer said: “I want to do well, not only this year but [in] many more years to come. So I don’t feel this is my last chance …”. He also warned to not rule him out of winning this year’s Australian Open.
Let’s also not underestimate Gilles Simon who preferred to delay the start of his season in order to work on his game. With a good second half year he surprised at last year’s Masters Cup with victories against Federer and Stepanek after which he lost in the Semi Final in three sets against Djokovic, who went on to win the tourney. Same counts for recently injured Tsonga who just declared that he will be able to defend his points in Melbourne this year. He declared the day before Melbourne Park opened its doors for two weeks of world class tennis that he felt better and that he was impatient to start. Tsonga enjoys huge popularity in Down Under which is probably why he was helped by tournament’s organizers who moved his opening match to Tuesday evening so as to give him one extra day of preparation. Tsonga’s reaction to this favor: “They gave me the opportunity to play as late as possible and I am very thankful. I hope I will be able to honor this favor.”
Anyways, great two weeks of tennis can be expected and a tournament where the battle for the title hasn’t been that close for a few years…
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…
Laura Robson, the 14 year old British players is set to make her WTA tour debut at the Luxembourg event this week. I think this is really going to be one step too much.
The confident, bubbly Robson became the first home winner of the junior tournament at the All England Club since Annabel Croft in 1984 when she marched to victory in July this year. But Croft has told the youngster that the women’s tour can be an unforgiving and lonely place.
“I’m still going to play juniors in the big events next year and just work my way into the women’s tour because there is no rush at all.”
Robson is going to be one of the youngest players on tour for quite some time. Im not really too sure I’m looking forward to seeing her play. I think she is still a long way from developing fully and there is way too much pressure already coming from the British press.
I’m an Aussie currently based in the UK, and from my point of view the British press tend to really hype up new stars, then putting so much pressure on them to succeed ultimately leads to their downfall. This has happened with so many potential stars in the past, however it seems lately British sports stars are actually getting results, Andy Murray, Luis Hamilton and more.
The top players could boycott next year’s WTA Tour if their questions are left unanswered, third-ranked Dinara Safina said Saturday.
The Russian said the players were unhappy with the planned changes to the schedule.
“If they [WTA] don’t listen to what we have to say, we might even choose to boycott the new tour,” Safina told reporters after losing 6-2, 7-6 to compatriot Vera Zvonareva in the Kremlin Cup semifinals.
“They said the leading players would have to play in designated tournaments while lower-ranked players would be able to enter any event they like. There’s no logic in that at all.
“What if all the top players choose to enter the same tournament? What will the WTA do then? We want to know.”
Under the so-called Road Map 2010, 26 Tier One and Tier Two events will be combined into 20 Premiere tournaments with players committed to play in at least 10.
Four $4.5 million tournaments, to be held in Indian Wells, Calif., Miami, Madrid and Beijing, will be mandatory for all players who qualify.
Below the mandatory events will be five $2 million stops in Canada, Dubai, Rome, Cincinnati and Tokyo, of which the top-ranked players must play at least four.
The WTA has committed to having at least seven of the world’s top 10 players at each of these events. Players will complete their schedules by competing in at least one or two $700,000 events.
“There are a lot of grey areas,” said Safina. “No one seems to understand which tournaments you can play and which you can’t.”
“I was told only two players from the top 10 could enter a smaller tournament like the Kremlin Cup next year,” said seventh-ranked Kuznetsova.
“What if [No. 1-ranked] Jelena Jankovic and Serena or Venus [Williams] want to play here? Then all the top Russian players, and there are five of us in the top 10, will not be able to play in their home tournament. That’s nonsense.”
In an e-mail to ESPN.com on Sunday, a WTA Tour official said the Kremlin Cup can receive unlimited top players under the new plan.
Safina, who will become a career-high No. 2 when the new rankings are released on Monday, said the leading players will get together at next month’s season-ending WTA Championships in Doha to share their concerns.
Below are the key changes the WTA have outlined for the 2009 season. I’m amazingly disappointed to see that they are now going to allow on court coaching, this has to be the biggest mistake a sports organisation has ever made!
Longer Off-Season
- 30% increase in off-season (from 7 to 9 weeks, with season to end in October)
Streamlined Calendar Structure
- 20 Premier events featuring top players (reduced from 26 Tier I/II events previously), including:
+ 4 Premier, mandatory, $4.5 million equal prize money combined events anchoring calendar in Indian Wells, at Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Mutua Madrilena Madrid and China Open in Beijing
+ 15 other Premier events, including $2 million tournaments in Dubai, Rome, Cincinnati, Toronto and Tokyo, and other top events in Paris, Charleston, Stuttgart, Stanford, Los Angeles, Sydney, Berlin, Eastbourne, New Haven and Moscow
+ Season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, featuring equal prize money of $4.45 million
- 30 International tournaments, culminating in season-ending Commonwealth Bank International Tournament of Champions
Healthier Calendar
- Longer off-season, and more in-season breaks for players (e.g., post-Wimbledon)
- Player commitment reduced by 23%, from 13 to 10 tournaments for top players
- Limitation on top player ability to play tournaments outside of 20 Premier events
Record Prize Money
- 39% increase in Tour prize money from 2006 – 2009
Equal Prize Money
- Equal prize money at 4 Grand Slams, 4 Premier cornerstone events (Indian Wells, Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Mutua Madrilena Madrid, China Open in Beijing), Barclay Dubai Tennis Championships in Dubai, and year-end Sony Ericsson Championships
Record Investment
- $710 million in new stadium facility investments, including world-class new stadiums in China and Madrid
- $84 million in year-end Sony Ericsson Championships deals in Doha 2008-2010 and Istanbul 2011-2013
More Combined/Back-to-Back Events
- 31% of events will be combined men/women
- 46% of events will be either combined or back-to-back in 2009
Revenue Sharing
- Tennis’ first ever revenue sharing to see players share in tournament revenue growth, and link player commitment to increases in prize money
China
- Major Tour presence and expansion into China market, with China Open as one of the four cornerstones of the Roadmap calendar, and a new Asia-Pacific Tour HQ in Beijing
New Ranking System
- Best 16 results and more directly linked to the Tour’s top events by awarding of “zero pointers” for any missed Premier commitment tournament, Grand Slam or the Sony Ericsson Championships
Stronger Penalties/Suspensions
- Suspension system for Top-10 players who miss Premier commitment tournaments and increased withdrawal fines
The 2009 Tour calendar features 54 tournaments (inclusive of the four Grand Slams) across 31 countries and record prize money of over $86 million.
The international breadth of tournaments includes 25 events in Europe, 15 events in the Americas and 14 events in the Asia-Pacific region. Seventeen combined events include Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Beijing, Sydney, Moscow, Eastbourne, New Haven, Brisbane, s’Hertogenbosch, Estoril, Memphis and Acapulco, along with the four Grand Slams.
Eight back-to-back men/women events include Dubai, Tokyo, Rome, Cincinnati, Canada, Auckland, Bastad and Warsaw. 2009 will also see new tournaments in Madrid, Brisbane, Monterrey, Ponte Vedra Beach, Bastad, Warsaw and Osaka. Additionally, in 2011 Rome, Cincinnati and Canada will all be combined men/women events.
On Court Coaching
The 2009 Roadmap calendar will also feature on-court coaching at all events, following approval by the Tour Board at its US Open meeting of this fan entertainment innovation.
The decision to implement on-court coaching follows extensive testing of the concept and strong support from broadcasters, sponsors and tournaments and majority support from the Tour’s Players’ Council.
Under the new rule, players can request their coach once per set, either on a changeover or at the end of a set. In addition, a player may request her coach if her opponent has requested a medical timeout or change of attire/toilet break. All coaches called on court during televised matches will be required to wear a microphone to capture the coaching conversation for TV viewers.
Alicia Molik has officially announced her retirement from the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Molik has been a top ten player and has been leading women’s tennis in Australia for years. Molik has won five singles and seven doubles titles, including the 2005 Australian Open doubles trophy with Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Molik was on tour for over twelve years and she is still only 27. Alicia has had a lot of injuries over the years and recently she found it near impossible to recover from an inner ear infection which caused her to miss six months.
Molik will really be missed, but I’m sure we will see her at the Australian Open in a commentary job.
It might come as a surprise to tennis fans that the player who may invigorate the slumping women’s tennis tour (discounting the Williams sisters) may not be a flashy, grunting teenager, but instead, a veteran 26-year-old mother. Kim Clijsters, the 2005 United States Open champion and former world No. 1, will make her return to the W.T.A. next month at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open in Cincinnati.
