Serena Williams has certainly staked her claim at the top of the women’s’ game after reclaiming her No1 ranking from Dinara Safina after the 2009 US Open. The latter part of the season usually sees players drop their intensity and look forward to the prospect of a holiday. The Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha was more an exhibition of the consequences’ of over playing than a showcase of the best in women’s tennis.
Despite this, Serena Williams looked the freshest of the crop and came through some tough conditions with strapping on her thigh to win the singles. Elena Dementieva said after her 2-6 4-6 defeat, “She’s too good for me” Serena has accelerated her pace at the top of the women’s’ game, it’s reported, with the aid of Power Plate.
“On tour, playing back-to-back matches is tough on your body. Being ready the next day is the difference between winning or losing. If I can accelerate the recovery and healing process, I have a definite advantage. With my Power Plate®, I have that advantage,” Williams says.
Talk of Williams prowess at the Australian Open was accompanied by assurances that she will be around for a few years to come and I wonder if we will see her accelerate away from the rest of the field, or will they match the pace and keep up with her?
As the news broke that Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin would not be competing for Belgium in the February 6-7 Fed Cup tie against Poland many fans on the forums questioned Kim and Justines’ tenacity. Clijsters, who fell to Nadia Petrova in the 3rd round of the Australian Open 0-6 1-6 had let it be known that she “needs a fresh period to build up training” to “make it impossible to compete in the Fed Cup.” said the Belgian federation. Henin, the Australian Open finalist had already stated that it is too early in her comeback to play a best of five series.
Many fans have expressed anger at a lost opportunity to see these two women compete, but both women have expressed their desire to continue playing tennis on their own terms. Their respective returns to competition have already seen a grand slam victory and grand slam runner-up, deepening the field in the womens’ game. Both players know how gruelling the tour can be and will be looking to enjoy their time in competition. Avoiding injuries will be paramount if the best is yet to come and given their results in their 2.0 Grand Slam debuts, the future is bright.
For those fans hungry to see more of Justine, her next outing will be Indian Wells. Kim’s next match will be The Billie Jean King Cup at Madison Square Garden on 1st March.
Over the years Elena Dementieva has received a lot of stick about her serve. Here is quite a fun video of Dementieva serving. I dont think she actually did this first go, but maybe over the series of several hours!
I love it when tennis players get all upset over the smallest things. Here is a match yesterday at Wimbledon between Sabine Lisicki and Caroline Wozniacki, the two ladies but each other at the net during a change over. How funny!
Is it just me or do both of these girls look exactly the same? I really wish these clothing companies would give some more of their top players just a different outfit to wear!
And so both Serbian “sisters” go out in the first round. But while there was nothing particularly shocking about Ivanovic’s loss – since it came to Petrova, last year’s finalist and possessor of the kind of power serve you expect to be successful on grass – Jankovic’s loss is pretty shocking. Although Chakvetadze is a former top-five player (in 2007, her best year, she reached the US Open semifinal and won several titles) she has barely won a match all year and her ranking is down to 31. Jankovic finished last year number one, and has dropped to 6 after an overtraining left her muscle-bound in the first part of the year.
Jankovic returns a shot from Chakvetadze on her way to a first-round loss
Jankovic, who said yesterday she’s been working to improve her serve, learn to volley, and shorten the points on grass, nonetheless looked uncomfortable in the first set, starting with a string of errors while Chakvetadze barely put a foot wrong for six games. Until 5-1, when Chakvetadze was serving for the set and stopped being able to find her first serve. Five games later, Chakvetadze had to serve to save the set, succeeded, and then dropped a tightly-fought tiebreak.
At that point, it seemed obvious that Chakvetadze was going to melt down further and Jankovic would win in straight sets. Still, the pair stayed level until 3-3, when Chakvetadze saved five break points to go 4-3, then broke Jankovic for 5-3, and served out to love.
In the third set, Jankovic set afterwards, her legs gave out from the strain of having to bend so low to get back all those deep, skidding shots. Her quads started to hurt, and her legs were tired, and she didn’t have the ernergy to keep running.
When you have two slujmping players playing each other, one of them has to lose. Surprising that the one who lost was Jankovic. But Chakvetadze does have a long history of playing on grass – the first time I saw her was at Wimbledon in the juniors, playing Michaela Krajicek probably ten years ago.
Jankovic herself admits that grass is her weakest surface – she’s made the semis of all the other Slams but never been past the fourth round at Wimbledon.
It has been reported that Indian female tennis star Sania Mirza is now engaged. 22 year old Sania is engaged to Sohrab Mirza, a business scholar from her hometown of Hyderabad.
The 22-year-old Sania, now ranked only 95th in the world, is not planning to stop playing competitive tennis, just as her fiancé wants to pursue higher studies. Their marriage will therefore not take place in the near future.
I also find it a little strange that she is engaged to someone with the same surname, but The Tennis Times wishes them the best of luck.
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.
Chinese brand ANTA has officially released their new dress which Jelena Jankovic will be wearing throughout the 2009 French Open starting in just over a day. It is going to be very interesting to see how this dress looks in real life away from all the special affects in this picture above.
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?
And so both Serbian “sisters” go out in the first round. But while there was nothing particularly shocking about Ivanovic’s loss – since it came to Petrova, last year’s finalist and possessor of the kind of power serve you expect to be successful on grass – Jankovic’s loss is pretty shocking. Although Chakvetadze is a former top-five player (in 2007, her best year, she reached the US Open semifinal and won several titles) she has barely won a match all year and her ranking is down to 31. Jankovic finished last year number one, and has dropped to 6 after an overtraining left her muscle-bound in the first part of the year.
Vera Zvonareva has been named a “Promoter of Gender Equality” as part of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s partnership with UNESCO.
