RG Preview: LPT+1=OMFG...JJ?

2008's second grand slam won't be played in Paris. For this one two-week period, Roland Garros will temporarily be transported to a magical locale easily identified on Google MapQuest as "The Land of Opportunity"... an all-female nation-state currently lacking a legitimate Queen.

The battle for the red dirt throne is up for grabs, and there may be no player who'll benefit more from the potential power vacuum than Jelena Jankovic.



Last year, this space previewed Roland Garros with an eye toward the "Ahabian" Jankovic and her potential semifinal meeting with her personally elusive "White Whale," Justine Henin, the object of her career-long, star-crossed pursuit. The matchup came about, as did the expected result when Henin dispatched her "peg-legged" opponent and went on to win her fourth career RG title. This time around, it'd be impossible to talk about this tournament without once again mentioning the 23-year old Serb.

Fresh off a successful defense of her Rome title and, in a true stunner, somewhat rested, at least by her previous standards (she's played ten fewer clay tune-up matches and about ten fewer overall matches on the season as opposed to this time a year ago), Jankovic comes to Paris on an upswing that can't be matched by any other player in the draw. Henin's retirement a week and a half ago leaves nary a single remaining player in the field who's appeared in multiple RG finals, and the lone former champion saw her only title won a full six seasons ago during the preternatural "Serena Slam."

"You know why I won? Because Henin didn't come."

That's what Jankovic, hardly oblivious to what turned out to be her nine failed attempts to pull off a coup d'état against the Belgian, said last year after she survived the Taureau-less draw in Rome to claim her first red clay Tier I crown. Twice Henin bounced Jankovic from a slam SF in the past six majors (including after the Serb had led 6-4/4-2 at the '06 US Open). So with her Whale having willingly beached herself, the biggest obstacle (well, at least the biggest one not actually named "Jelena," or her sometimes criminally negligent serve) preventing her from a breakout slam won't even be around to play on her psyche as a future face-off approaches.

Jankovic has reached the SF of three of the four slam events (the most recent coming in Melbourne in January), but she may never have a better chance to win one than she does in the environment of this Roland Garros. The hard court and grass slams have generally been the domain of the tour's most dominant power players (and Henin) in recent years, but the terre battue mostly neutralizes their advantage. With Ana Ivanovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova, the last two RG runners-up, hardly burning up the clay in recent weeks, Maria Sharapova still seeking to master the red stuff (and follow up a somewhat unexpected RG SF from '07), Serena Williams her usual enigmatic self after retiring in Rome with a back issue and Venus Williams on the short end of Jankovic's most impressive victory in the same tournament, the fanciful Serb finds herself in good standing with the field. Maybe even ahead of the group by a nose.

I previously held the notion that Jankovic, in spite of her obvious talent, would likely never win a slam with the lethal combination of her inability to upend Henin and her own propensity to ride an emotional and mental rollercoaster in big events (her blown US SF against Henin came about after she lost her focus arguing a call with the umpire, then lost the final ten games of the match) working a tag-team offensive against her. But the landscape of the post-Taureau WTA is somewhat more forgiving, and Jankovic's Rome title in the wake of Henin's retirement is simply symbolism too savory to slight. It had to be a sign of SOMETHING, right?

Parisian surprises don't come around too often on the women's side of the draw, but it's significant to note that the most recent one -- the '04 final between Anastasia Myskina and Elena Dementieva -- came about because the draw opened wide when Henin, in the early throes of her battle with the cytomegalovirus, was upset in the 2nd Round by Tathiana Garbin. It was the only match the Belgian lost the last five years in Paris. A Jankovic title wouldn't be in the Iva Majoli ('97) category of "shockers," as it would be right at home in The Land of Opportunity era, but it would be one that Your Friendly Neighborhood Backspinner wouldn't touch with a ten-foot net post if Henin were still standing in JJ's way.

Jelena, being herself, would likely wryly "thank" Henin for retiring were she to be fortunate enough to lift the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen two weeks from now. In a way, it would be an uncanny tribute to La Petit Taureau if she were to be the player to benefit most from her absence in Paris. "Dowager Champion" or no, only the whimsical personality of Jankovic could dream such a fractured fairy tale outcome into reality.

And, come on, who's more "fractured" than Jelena... in a charming way, of course?




=QUALIFYING ROUNDS=
TOP PLAYERS: Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez & Yanina Wickmayer
RISERS: Carla Suarez-Navarro & Jarmila Gajdosova
SURPRISES: Bethanie Mattek & Anastasiya Yakimova
VETERANS: Selima Sfar & Jelena Pandzic
FRESH FACES Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova & Magdalena Rybarikova
DOWN: Barbora Zahlavova Strycova
COMEBACKS: Iveta Benesova & Zheng Jie



=POTENTIAL FIRST SEEDS OUT?=
1. #25 Nadia Petrova vs. Aravane Rezai
2. #17 Shahar Peer vs. Samantha Stosur
3. #15 Nicole Vaidisova vs. (Q) Iveta Benesova
4. #13 Dinara Safina vs. Kateryna Bondarenko
5. #18 Francesca Schiavone vs. Jill Craybas
HM- #6 Anna Chakvetadze vs. Nuria Llagostera-Vives

=LAST QUALIFIER STANDING?=
1. Iveta Benesova, CZE
2. Yanina Wickmayer, BEL
3. Jarmila Gajdosova, SVK
4. Zheng Jie, CHN
5. Carla Suarez-Navarro, ESP
HM- Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, RUS

=BIZARRO SEMIFINALS=
#13 Safina or #21 Kirilenko vs. #16 Azarenka or #25 Petrova

#22 Mauresmo or #19 Cornet vs. #10 Schnyder or #23 Alona Bondarenko

....through the looking glass.



Hmmm, considering Jankovic was recently the subject of actress Brittany Snow's short film, would it be bad to dub Jelena "The Snowflake"... a beautiful sight to see, but capable of frustratingly melting on contact? It'd be a moniker of perplexed endearment, of course.

Then again, maybe I thought of that because I'm still in "Non Sequitur Jubilee" mode.




=THE QUALIFIERS=
*BY AGE*
16...Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, RUS
18...Yanina Wickmayer, BEL
19...Magdalena Rybarikova, SVK
19...Carla Suarez-Navarro, ESP
21...Jarmila Gajdosova, SVK
21...Anastasiya Yakimova, BLR
23...Bethanie Mattek, USA
24...Zheng Jie, CHN
25...Iveta Benesova, CZE
25...Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, ESP
25...Jelena Pandzic, CRO
30...Selima Sfar, TUN
(lucky losers)
20...Monica Niculescu, ROU

*BY RANKING*
#68...Iveta Benesova
#95...Yanina Wickmayer
#108...Bethanie Mattek
#122...Carla Suarez-Navarro
#148...Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez
#158...Magdalena Rybarikova
#171...Anastasiya Yakimova
#188...Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
#191...Jelena Pandzic
#197...Jarmila Gajdosova
#201...Zheng Jie
#239...Selima Sfar
(lucky losers)
#86...Monica Niculescu




=ROUND OF 16=
#1 Sharapova d. #21 Kirilenko
#11 Zvonareva d. #7 Dementieva
#16 Azarenka d. #4 Kuznetsova
#6 Chakvetadze d. #12 Szavay
#8 V.Williams d. #22 Mauresmo
#3 Jankovic d. #19 Cornet
#5 S.Williams d. #10 Schnyder
#2 Ivanovic d. (Q) Benesova

...Kirilenko (vs. Safina in the 3rd) and Zvonareva (Dementieva) survive matches against fellow Hordettes that could easily go the other way. The Supernova perseveres. The Contessova doesn't. The Doll sees a speck of light at the end of the tunnel. Cornet gives Jankovic a battle, while the Williams sisters set up a pair of battles with the Serbs.

Weird, even without Henin, the draw still has an odd distribution to it -- all the Russians are in the top half, while the Serbs and Williams sisters are in the bottom.

=QUARTERFINALS=
#1 Sharapova d. #11 Zvonareva
#16 Azarenka d. #6 Chakvetadze
#3 Jankovic d. #8 V.Williams
#2 Ivanovic d. #5 S.Williams

...originally, I had Zvonareva upsetting Sharapova here. But then I realized I needed a "backup plan." The road to the final in the top half, even with all the Russians, is a potentially far less strugglicious one than on the bottom.

=SEMIFINALS=
#1 Sharapova d. #16 Azarenka
#3 Jankovic d. #2 Ivanovic

...the draw presented just too golden an opportunity to pass up to push Sharapova into the final in spite of her lack of a proven resume on red clay. Oh, and I mentioned something last week about maybe this being the moment when the Serbs "switch places" in the standings?

=FINAL=
#3 Jankovic d. #1 Sharapova

(first, I just noticed something -- here's what I said last year at this point in the RG preview where I picked Henin to win. It proved to be kind of prophetic):

"...hmmm, could it be that Justine is both the White Whale to Jankovic, AND Ahab in her own mind? Single-minded, driven to maniacal lengths to achieve her goals no matter the price? She's not evil, she's just drawn that way. While a nice Kim might have worked for Clijsters, Backspin fears that a Justine who wants to be perceived as "nice" might cause the entire house to come tumbling down around her, opening her up to all the demons of mental fragility that her well-built walls have previously kept at bay in moments of crisis. "Le Petit Justine" may not have the edge of "Le Petit Taureau." Thus, maybe this title, should it come, may need to be savored... it could signal the end of an era."

...who knew? Anyway, a year later this Roland Garros won't be won without a nod to the champion who didn't return to defend her title yet again. Speaking of whales...



On Wednesday, over 100 whales beached themselves in Senegal. Was it another sign? Maybe. Maybe not (hence, the "backup plan" and the Supernova's presence... can you say "Sharapova Scenario?"). But I know I'm not going to ignore it or the other collection of "signs."

Don't call Jankovic Ishmael... call her "champ." Or not. I like the story and, in the absence of another better one, I'm in Snowflake's (yep, I kind of like it for now) corner for the next two weeks..





All for now.



ON SATURDAY: Bare Bones Backspin, with "guest Backspinner" Carl Caveman

Read more...

Wk.20- Non Sequitur Jubilee

What better format for a week in which Jelena Jankovic wins a singles title?

Go ahead, pick a "favorite" for Roland Garros. I dare you. Let's see... there's Justi- (sorry, force of habit). Umm, there's Maria Sharapova (the new #1, but without a red clay title), Serena Williams (her back acted up last week), Ana Ivanovic (not exactly burning up the court in Europe) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (ditto). Not sure any are as "locked-in" as Big Brown at the Belmont.

Miss Jankovic, the Tour might be ready for your close-up.

Could we see a Paris "shocker" along the likes of Anastasia Myskina being the last woman standing? Or maybe it'll be another Iva Majoli-style moment? The only former RG champ in the draw will be Serena, and she last won the title six years ago. While Henin had four titles, not a single remaining player has appeared in more than one final in Paris (with Serena, there's also Venus, Dementieva, Kuznetsova and Ivanovic).

Rafael Nadal is 108-2 in his last 110 matches on clay. (Hey, it's "Non Sequitur Jubilee," don't you know.) He's just 90 points behind #1 Roger Federer, while Novak Djokovic is just 450 behind.

The Supernova is now #1 in the world, while AnaIvo is #2. Both have big points to defend ('07 SF and RU, respectively) in Paris. Jankovic and Kuznetsova aren't far back. Neither is Serena, considering her propensity to grab HUGE titles out of nowhere. Toss in injuries and streaky play, and we might see (counting Henin) as many as five or six different players ranked #1 at various times in 2008. The record is four, in 2002 and 2006.

Borg. Austin. Jaeger. Hingis. Clijsters. Henin. Why are we surprised any longer? A long tennis career is the exception, not the rule. Big Brown only has to win a handful of races to reach the top, while WTA players have to do it nearly every week. Or maybe even more often, if your name is Jankovic. They also don't have the situation where their closest competitor might literally run herself to death trying to catch up down the stretch. Plus, nothing beats the "studly" future of Big B as a carrot to succeed, right?

No matter how many planes Justine will now jump from to continue to feel the "high" that winning Roland Garros titles used to provide her, Big Brown is eyeing a lifelong vacation that begins in about a month.

Plus, he's a horse... he doesn't do "regret."

Right on cue, just as Henin walks out the door, leaving a Backspin storyline void, Jankovic rises, Jelena Dokic makes a move toward a comeback and Backspinner fave Chelsey Gullickson wins her first career ITF title. The space is a little less vacant now, proving that the tennis Gods are looking out for Your Friendly Neighborhood Backspinner... or at least that's the story I'm going with after Week 20.

If Nadia wins a title this week, I'll swear I'm seeing religious icons (or maybe Andre Agassi?) on my toast.

Is it good or scary that China's best shot at a tennis medal in Beijing might rest on the shoulders of Peng Shuai? At least Sun Tiantian can carry half the load.

While I doubt it'll happen, I'd say the chances of seeing Henin on the court in '09 or '10 are better than any for Kim Clijsters during the same period. Tennis just never seemed important enough for her to chuck her new life for it one more time.

AnaIvo must have a bad karma signature at the moment. Think about it, had Henin retired a week earlier then Ivanovic would have become the first Serb to be atop the tennis rankings. But she failed to defend her Berlin title, fell from #2 to #3 last week... then saw new #2 Sharapova claim La Petit Taureau's position. With RU points to defend in Paris, Ivanovic might actually see Djokovic beat her to the #1 position... and then there's new world #3 Jankovic, who's only a little over 400 points behind Sharapova.

I hate these opening Sunday starts for Roland Garros. I'm not the only one, either. It'll be interesting to see who draws the short straw and has to play early. Sharapova complained when she had to do it. You don't think someone would seek to antagonize the Supernova and schedule her again, do you? And there'd be no compromise in the works for this beef.

You know, it'd been nice if someone at ESPN had had enough knowledge about Henin's career to provide something resembling a semi-informed opinion about the not-totally-shocking nature of her retirement announcement last Wednesday. Of course, we ARE talking about the network (ESPNEWS, to be accurate) that presented a screen full of early round scores from Berlin a little while back, and had the anchors stumbling through the "blow-your-mind" surnames, then laughing and wondering why the producer was even including scores like this in the every-thirty-minutes update show. Never mind the fact that the same anchors likely followed up by perfectly pronouncing a slew of NBA and/or NHL-related names that probably were strikingly similar to the "foreign" WTA ones, considering the country of origin of the athletes in question are so similar these days. Peja Stojakovic? Hello?

Maybe if one of the players had repeatedly hit herself in the head with her racket until her frustration drew blood, ala Mikhail Youzhny? Or announced an engagement to a model, ala Andy Roddick? Is that what it would have taken for a few more "heads" to apply themselves just a little more? Now, on to another Patriot Spygate story.

In "other news," ESPN recently proudly announced it'll have a hand in broadcasting all four grand slams starting in 2009 now that the U.S. Open is under its all-controlling, but less-than-discriminating wing. Hopefully, the likes of Fowler, Fernandez, Shriver and Co. will be on a SportsCenter or PTI producer's speed dial should something important happen in the sport during a future afternoon... but what are the odds of that?

Whatever they are, they're surely far longer than Big Brown's will be in New York in a few weeks.

And as for Barbaro? Amazingly, still dead.

*WEEK 20 CHAMPIONS*

ROME, ITALY (I-Red Clay)
S: Jelena Jankovic def. Alize Cornet 6-2/6-2
D: Chan/Chuang d. Benesova/Husarova


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Jelena Jankovic, SRB

AFP PHOTO/TIZIANA FABI
.... Did we catch a glimpse of Jelena version 2.0 -- or, in other words, Jankovic with her White Whale safely beached -- in Rome? It seemed perfectly fitting that in the same week that Henin retired that the player who was 0-9 against her found her way through the weeds to pick up her first title of the season in defending her '07 crown. There's been no question that Jankovic has had a mental block when coming up against Henin, and it cost her slam final appearances in the past. Without Justine, could Paris turn out very differently for her this time around? Career title #6 wasn't important in and of itself as far as Jankovic's potential career upgrade is concerned... but the symbolism was certainly as bright as any smile she may flash on the court over the next few weeks.
=============================
RISERS: Peng Shuai/Sun Tiantian, CHN & Chan Yung-Jan/Chuang Chia-Jung, TPE
.... Rome doubles wins over Black/Huber and the Sisters Bondarenko, even while the team topped out with a SF result, might mean the Peng/Sun combo might be China's best shot at a tennis medal in Beijing. Of course, irony being sweet... the rise of the Taiwanese pair of Rome title-winning Chan/Chuang might mean a spoiler moment could be in the works. Chan/Chuang knocked out Peschke/Stubbs, then Benesova/Husarova in the final, to claim the first Tier I for the combo this weekend. But eyes are already starting to turn toward 8-8-08.
=============================
SURPRISES: Tsvetana Pironkova, BUL & Jelena Dokic, AUS

.... Bulgarian Pironkova's been known to pull off a big upset or two along the way, and she got another in Rome when she overturned top-seeded Ana Ivanovic in the 2nd Round. As a qualifier, the 20-year old added a win over Victoria Azarenka to reach her first tour QF since reaching the Stockholm SF last August. Sesil who? Meanwhile, Jelena version 2.0 ...umm, that's already taken, so how about The Debu-... uh, no, not yet. The old moniker can't be reclaimed before any real Big Tour success against better competition (there's a chance as a Wild Card in the Strasbourg main draw this week) is posted, either. Let's just note that Jelena Dokic won her second ITF event in as many weeks with her title at the $25K Caserta event, which began with a win over #1-seed Jorgelina Cravero in three sets and ended with nary a dropped set the rest of the way. After having a career-best mark of eight straight tour wins (three times between 2001-02) in her "previous life," Dokic has now won twelve straight matches on the ITF circuit over the past two weeks. Her ranking is "up" to #318, which says a great deal about where her starting point was. This run won't likely mean anything in Paris, if she sees any action there, but it could raise an eyebrow or two in London.
=============================
VETERANS: Patty Schnyder, SUI & Venus Williams, USA
.... Perhaps sensing an opportunity (yes, this is going to be a persistent theme until a champion is crowned in Paris), Sneaky Patty bounced back "almost-big time" in Rome with a QF run that included wins over Mariya Koryttseva, Virginia Ruano-Pascual and Marion Bartoli, as well as a tight three-set loss against Sharapova. Venus returned from her "not a hiatus" with wins over Sammy Stosur and Vera Zvonareva (impressive one there) to reach the Rome QF. Still, one senses she's just tuning up for SW19.
=============================
FRESH FACES: Alize Cornet, FRA & Chelsey Gullickson, USA
....could 18-year old Cornet be the best Pastry going in a year where they've mostly gone a bit stale? She reached her second '08 final in Rome, this time as a qualifier (the second Q-er to reach a tour final this year), with big wins over Vera Dushevina, Francesca Schiavone and -- wait for it -- Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anna Chakvetadze, with a walkover from Serena in the QF for good measure. Meanwhile, make way for the Naturals (their dad was a major league baseball player), as Carly's little sister, 17-year old Chelsey, won her first career title at the $25K in Raleigh, North Carolina. In making it through qualifying, and getting a QF win over Carly's 1st Round-conqueror Maria Fernanda Alves, Gullickson won seven straight matches and notched additional victories over fellow Americans Audra Cohen, Kimberly Couts and Lauren Albanese (in the final). Earlier this season, Carly won an event in Hammond, Louisiana, while Chelsey reached the SF, and the sisters paired to reach the event's doubles final that same week.
=============================
DOWN: Ana Ivanovic, SRB & Svetlana Kuznetsova, RUS
.... if AnaIvo is looking to capitalize on Henin's absence in Paris, the '07 RG RU surely didn't appear to be chomping at the bit last week in Rome with her 2nd Round exit a week after she failed to defend her Berlin title. Coming up a week short of becoming the first Serbian to be ranked #1 was one thing, but having Jankovic jump at the chance to become the first post-Henin champion on tour was another. Are we about to witness a changing of the Serbian pecking order, as we did when Henin began to outpace Clijsters after the latter had come closer to winning a slam earlier in their careers? And what about '06 RG RU Kuznetsova? Well, the Contessova was taken out in the 3rd Round by Cornet last week, dropping her to 2-2 on red clay in '08 one season after she reached both the Berlin and Rome finals.
=============================
ITF PLAYER: Petra Cetkovska, CZE
.... edging out fellow Maiden Strycova for ITF POW honors, 23-year old Cetkovska won the $50K Saint-Gaudens event with wins over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (in the final), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Elena Bovina and Marie-Eve Pelletier. It was Cetkovska's second ITF crown in '08. She's one of five different Maidens to claim little circuit titles this season.
=============================


1. Rome 2nd - Pironkova d. Ivanovic
....6-4/5-7/6-2. Maybe AnaIvo is just lulling everyone into a false sense of security? She's 4-3 on tour since winning in Indian Wells, with straight set losses to vets Davenport and Dementieva.
=============================
2. Rome QF - Jankovic d. V.Williams
....5-7/6-2/6-3. Considering Jankovic has had some success against Venus in the past and that this was Williams' first event back from her break, it's probably not wise to read TOO MUCH into this result as far as the Serb's Parisian prospects are concerned. Still.
=============================
3. Rome 3rd - Cornet d. Kuznetsova
....6-2/6-4.
Rome SF - Cornet d. Chakvetadze
....3-6/6-4/6-4. For a player that was winning the RG Girls title a year ago, it's safe to say that she's progressing nicely. Of course, The Doll did lead the SF 6-3/3-0.
=============================
4. Rome Final - Jankovic d. Cornet
....6-2/6-2. Talk about everything breaking right for JJ. Henin retires, Serena and Maria pull out of the event, then Jankovic gulps up a Tier I title defense in the gaping hole that was left behind in Italy. She wears opportunism well. Hmmm...
=============================
5. Rome 1st - Makarova d. Vaidisova
....6-4/4-6/6-2. And then there's Nicole. Zzzzzzzzzzz.
=============================
6. Rome 1st - Wozniacki d. Paszek
....6-3/6-0. Is the young Austrian still having Fed Cup nightmares? She's gone 0-2, losing 24 of 34 games, since losing her grip on that match against Stefanie Vogele.
=============================
7. Rome 2nd - Sharapova d. Cibulkova
....6-2/3-6/6-4.
Rome 1st - Kirilenko d. Petrova
....3-6/7-5/6-4 Sharapova's rematch with Amelia Island RU Cibulkova ended up with her winning again, but after a tougher, three-set fight. If not for Kirilenko -- or maybe because of her? -- Nadia would be flying very low under the radar heading into Paris. Maria2 took out Petrova in both Berlin and Rome. Crossing fingers for a good draw.
=============================
8. Rome 1st - Stosur d. Krajicek
....6-3/6-2. Krajicek has lost 1st Round matches in seven of her nine 2008 tournaments. The other two events? She lost in the 2nd Round... after 1st Round byes Yep, that makes her 0-9. Ouch.
=============================
9. Rome 1st - Ruano-Pascual d. An.Rodionova
....6-1/6-3. You don't see a lucky loser vs. lucky loser matchup too often in the 1st Round of a WTA event.
=============================
10. Rome QF - Cornet walkover S.Williams (back)
Rome SF - Jankovic walkover Sharapova (calf strain)
....skill is great, but a little good fortune is nice, too. Can you say, "Saving myself for Paris?" How about, "Justine who?"
=============================
HM- Strasbourg Q2 - Lisicki d. Karatantcheva
....7-6/7-5. By this weekend, Sesil was "the other Bulgarian."
=============================
HM- Szczecin $25K Final - Zahlavova-Strycova d. Wienerova
....6-4/6-2. In Poland, Strycova took out Poles Piter and Brozda on her way to her circuit-leading third ITF title of the season.
=============================


*HIGHEST WTA RANK AT TIME OF RETIREMENT*
#1...JUSTINE HENIN, BEL (2008)
#3...Steffi Graf, GER (1999)
#4...Kim Clijsters, BEL (2007)

*WEEKS AS WTA #1*
377...Steffi Graf
331...Martina Navratilova
260...Chris Evert
209...Martina Hingis
178...Monica Seles
117...Justine Henin
98...Lindsay Davenport
57...Serena Williams
39...Amelie Mauresmo
22...Tracy Austin
19...Kim Clijsters
17...Jennifer Capriati
15...MARIA SHARAPOVA
12...Arantxa Sanchez Vicario
11...Venus Williams
2...Evonne Goolagong
--
ALSO: Margaret Smith-Court & Billie Jean King were year-end #1's before computer rankings

*MOST DIFFERENT #1's IN A SEASON*
4...2002 (Davenport-Capriati-V.Williams-S.Williams)
4...2006 (Davenport-Clijsters-Mauresmo-Henin)
3...1980 (Navratilova-Austin-Evert)
3...1995 (Sanchez Vicario-Graf-Seles)
3...2001 (Hingis-Capriati-Davenport)
3...2003 (S.Williams-Clijsters-Henin)
3...2004 (Henin-Mauresmo-Davenport)

*MOST SINGLES TITLES - LAST 2 SEASONS*
12...Justine Henin (10/2)
5...JELENA JANKOVIC (4/1)
5...Serena Williams (2/3)
5...Anna Chakvetadze (4/1)

*MOST 2008 WTA SF*
5...Vera Zvonareva (4-1)
5...MARIA SHARAPOVA (2-1 +WL)
5...JELENA JANKOVIC (1-3 + W)
4...Svetlana Kuznetsova (3-1)
4...Elena Dementieva (3-1)
4...Ana Ivanovic (2-2)
4...ALIZE CORNET (2-2)

*WORST 2008 FINAL WIN PCT - 2+*
.000 - Svetlana Kuznetsova (0-3)
.000 - Victoria Azarenka (0-2)
.000 - ALIZE CORNET (0-2)

*QUALIFIERS IN 2008 FINALS*
Feb - Nuria Llagostera-Vives (Bogota, #114/ESP) - W
MAY - ALIZE CORNET (Rome, #34/FRA) - L

*DEFENDED TITLES IN 2008*
Serena Williams - Miami, 2007-08
JELENA JANKOVIC - ROME, 2007-08

*MOST 2008 TITLES - DOUBLES TEAMS*
3...Cara Black/Liezel Huber
2...Alona Bondarenko/Kateryna Bondarenko
2...CHAN YUNG-JAN/CHUANG CHIA-JUNG
2...Katarina Srebotnik/Ai Sugiyama





STRASBOURG, FRANCE (III-Red Clay)
07 FINAL: Medina-Garrigues d. Mauresmo
08 TOP: Bartoli/A.Bondarenko
=============================
=SF=
Bartoli d. Kvitova
Medina-Garrigues d. Dokic
=FINAL=
Medina-Garrigues d. Bartoli
....yeah, not really sure I truly believe in a Dokic SF here (she'd likely have to scale an impoved-competition wall that includes bricks named Bacsinszky, Yan and A-Bond). But, memory serves that a confident and in-form Dokic can roll over a series of opponents with little regard to ranking. Sure, it's a six or seven-year old memory, but still. We'll see if the tennis Gods are still paying Backspin a stipend this week.


ISTANBUL, TURKEY (III-Red Clay)
07 FINAL: Dementieva d. Rezai
08 TOP: Dementieva/A.Radwanska
=============================
=SF=
Dementieva d. Petrova
A.Radwanska d. Pironkova
=FINAL=
Dementieva d. A.Radwanska

....Dementieva and AMG are equally difficult to gauge, yet both won these same tournaments a year ago. BOTH defending probably isn't likely, but what the heck? Maybe I'll get ONE correct. Punch-Sober's recent form says this SHOULD be her tournament to win, though. Maybe we'll get an idea about whether or not she might be up to taking advantage of the Taureau-less draw in Paris to come up with her best performance there since her 2004 RU (she's yet to reach the QF).

ALSO: ROLAND GARROS QUALIFYING



All for now.



THIS WEEKEND: Barebones Backspin & Roland Garros Preview: LPT+1=OMFG

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BACKSPIN SPECIAL: The Best of Henin

Justine Henin has been a big part of Backspin over the past nearly six years, so as a final tribute I thought I'd post a collection of links to past La Petit Taureau-centered columns as a sort of "Best of Henin" Special Edition.



(First, the oldest Backspin mention I could find, excerpted here because it appears that the original Tennisrulz.com link no longer exists.)

=2002=

TENNISRULZ.com WTA REPORT
WEEK 43; October 28, 2002

WAFFLES, ANYONE?

It was a Belgian Waffle Sunday as, for the first time ever, both Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters emerged with two different singles titles in the same week. Who says there are no WTA stories without the Sisters?

2002 hasn't exactly been kind to the Waffles, with injuries causing several setbacks for both. But as most of the rest of the Top 10 limps toward this season's finish line, Henin and Clijsters are surging toward dual Top 5 rankings. Henin, in fact, has already risen to a career-high #4, and Clijsters is right behind her at #6.

Hmmm, could L.A. be shaping up to be a battle of the Williams family vs. the Belgians? Could we be so lucky to see that story begin to develop a week from now? Stay tuned.

WEEK 43 CHAMPIONS
LINZ (TIER II)
S: Justine Henin d. Alexandra Stevenson
D: Dokic/Petrova d. Fujiwara/Sugiyama
LUXEMBOURG (TIER III)
S: Kim Clijsters d. Maggie Maleeva
D: Clijsters/Husarova d. Hrdlickova/Rittner

PLAYER AWARDS
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: The Waffles
...In the midst of their dual rises up the WTA rankings, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin have never both won singles titles on the same weekend. That's now changed. But Clijsters gets the slight edge here since she took the Luxembourg doubles, as well.

MATCHES
1.Season-lifting Finals -
...The Belgians are rising again. After rollercoaster seasons for both, Henin and Clijsters are hitting their strides as the season winds down. Henin's win over Stevenson in Linz shot her to a career-best #4; while Clijsters' working over of Maleeva to defend her 2001 Luxembourg title leaves her a potential Championships Final run away from possibly joining her fellow Waffle in the season-ending Top 5.



And now the Backspin history of Henin... in link form:

=2003=
May 12 - To Choke or Not to Choke
June 9 - 2003 Clay Court Awards (RG '03)
August 18 - Signs, Eh?
September 8 - Queen Justine (US '03)
October 20 - Le Petit Taureau is a Queen

=2004=
February 2 - Taureau in a Clijsters Shop
August 23 - Athena Would Be Proud (Olympics '04)

=2005=
April 18 - Le Petit Taureau est de Retour
June 6 - Long Live the Queen (RG '05)

=2006=
January 28 - Amelie Clicks Her Heels (Oz '06)
January 29 - Dorothy Tour Awards '07 (post-Oz controversy)
February 27 - Justine's Port of Call
June 10 - Restoring Order (RG '06)
June 24 - Welcome Back, Petit Taureau
November 7 - Intriguing Answers: A Tale of Two Champions
November 13 - A Final Poke in the Eye of Convention (YEC '06)

=2007=
June 9 - The Pursuit of Happiness (RG '07)
September 8 - Eternal Sunshine of the Henin Mind (US '07)
October 8 - Last Belgian Standing
October 22 - The Reign of Queen Justine, Pt.IX
November 13 - 2007 Backspin Awards
November 21 - "What a way to end a season." (YEC '07)

=2008=
May 15 - Into the Good Night



ALSO OF NOTE: The Best of Clijsters

All for now.

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Into the Good Night

She should never have been what she turned out to be. Luckily for the tennis world, size didn't matter. But who could have guessed the dimensions of the heart and fight that turned out to reside inside the five-foot-five and three-quarter inch body of Justine Henin?



La Petit Taureau. The Little Bull. Yesterday's stunning retirement announcement from the seven-time grand slam-winning Belgian secured her place in history, as she defied convention one final time by becoming the only woman to walk away from the sport while still positioned atop the singles rankings. After having overcome her physical disadvantages to become the WTA tour's dominant figure over the last half-decade, the 25-year old said that the decision had been brewing inside her since the end of last season, and that the difficulty she had finding the desire to do even the simple things necessary (such as just packing her suitcase) to maintain her prominent position in the game made her choice to call it a career an easy one. In the end, it was a familiar case of emotional burn out.

"I felt, deep inside, something was getting out of my grasp," she said. "I decided to stop fooling myself and accept it."

Was Wednesday's declaration stunning? Of course. Was it totally shocking? Well, not exactly. It's never felt like we were getting all of the "old" Henin in the opening weeks of the '08 season. Still, even a less-committed version of herself managed to win two titles and 80% of her twenty matches.

A day later, maybe the fact that Henin will never patrol another baseline again hasn't quite sunk in. It likely won't fully until Roland Garros begins less than two weeks from now without its four-time, three-time defending champ in attendance. The full impact of her absence will surely be great news for the rest of the field. Suddenly, it'll be any woman's tournament to win. A new reigning champion will be crowned in Paris in June, but the "Queen of Clay"will be nowhere in sight... the memory of her exploits already beginning the process of fading from memory. Athletic careers are forever fleeting. "Old" becomes "young" in the blink of an eye once one phase of an athlete's life ends and another begins (imagine going from a "worn out veteran" to a barely-out-of-college aged young woman of 25 just by concluding a press conference). She'll turn 26 on June 1, just as the second week of play begins at Roland Garros. Needless to say, it'll provide a jarring moment of reflection, wherever Henin may geographically find herself that day.

But as an athlete's "real" life moves forward, so does the game she leaves behind. But before that happens, it'd be proper to recognize that we just witnessed one of the more remarkable careers in tennis history.

In an era when power tennis ruled, when Steffi Graf and Monica Seles altered the direction of the sport, the Williams sisters revolutionized the game and the likes of Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic (who'll fittingly immediately do battle for Henin's vacated #1 position) ushered in a generation of players whose only memory is of "big babe" tennis, "little babe" Henin made it impossible for other supposedly "physically overmatched" players (hello, Swiss Miss) to have a ready excuse for a lack of success. By any right of human evolution, Henin should have been anything but the most steadily accomplished player of her generation. But, pound for pound, no player got as much power from her shots or consistently excellent results as the diminutive Belgian.

Surely, natural talent had a great deal to do with Henin's success. But it was her single-minded desire and focus, sometimes to the detriment of her reputation outside of a close clique that sometimes seemed to begin and end with her coach since the age of 14, Carlos Rodriguez, that set Henin apart from the rest. It was what made her refuse to quit training, sometimes to the detriment to her own body, until her health compelled it. It was what made finishing second-best so distasteful, sometimes costing her fans because of a misunderstood "lack of sportsmanship." And, ultimately, it was the waning of it that cost her career the longevity that might have lifted her even higher in the pantheon of women's all-time champions.

Still, from 2003-07, Henin was arguably the dominant figure in her sport. She won seven slams, spent 117 weeks at #1, three times finished as the season-ending #1, and won 41 singles titles. She won Olympic Gold in Athens, two Year-End Championships and a Fed Cup title. Only a title at Wimbledon, where she was twice runner-up, escaped her clutches (with it she would have joined only Graf and Andre Agassi with a least one crown at every major event the sport had to offer). In 2006, Henin reached the finals of all four slams, the YEC and Fed Cup. But it was the '07 season that proved to be her masterpiece: she went 63-4 (the best WTA season by win percentage in eighteen years), won ten titles (becoming the first woman to do so in ten seasons) in fourteen events (reaching at least the SF in the other four) and won two slams, including her third straight Roland Garros. Earlier this season, what turned out to be her final tour title was won in Antwerp, her first victory in her home country since she became the fifth of now six women to win their first tournament in their tour debut, which a 16-year old Henin did in Antwerp in 1999.

If this truly is the end of Henin's career and she never wakes up one day to find her competitive juices firing once again, then this wraps up the unique and surprising Belgian chapter of the WTA history book just one year after Henin's fellow Waffle, Kim Clijsters, retired at age 23 to start a family and recover from a body-battering career of grind-it-out tennis.

As it is, Henin leaves 'em wanting more. Just like Bjorn Borg, who walked away with a trail of major championships in tow at age 25 in 1981 (though he did attempt two short-lived comebacks over the next ten years), forever leaving an ellipses of "what if's" behind but never a hint or rumor of "wasted" talent in any thumbnail sketch of a Hall of Fame career.

"There are no regrets. I did everything I had to do in tennis."

Not a bad legacy. Maybe not the one many would have preferred to see her leave behind with her final act as a professional tennis player. But a life is never perfect... and no one knows that fact better than Henin herself.

Henin's road has never been easy. She's always been fighting back against SOMETHING. In her early years, there were the typical problems of a young player trying to overcome her own failures in putting away big matches. In 2004, it was the energy-sapping cytomegalovirus. In 2006, it was the absurd furor created when she retired against Amelie Mauresmo in the Australian Open final. In 2007, it was the divorce from her husband Pierre-Yves Hardenne that caused her to skip the activities in Melbourne. But all that was nothing compared to what she'd already endured... and therein lies the not-so-big secret to Henin's success.

La Petit Taureau's desire was both shaped and concentrated by the death of her mother from cancer in 1995. When Henin won her first Roland Garros title in 2003, she recalled the day eleven years earlier when her mother had taken her to Court Suzanne Lenglen. In the stands, Henin said that she'd told her mother, "'One day I'll be on that court and maybe I'll win.' And today I did.'"

Henin's career was a testament to that promise and her devotion to the notion of it, even as it caused a rift between herself and her remaining family that lasted a decade... until her brother was injured in an auto accident late last year. With her own personal life crumbling around her, Henin broke form and reached back for her family. It changed everything.

With her emotional connection to her family -- and maybe her mother -- renewed, Henin put together her masterful '07 campaign. Somewhere, one could envision her mother being more proud than ever. And when it was over, Justine was done. There was nothing left.


Photo by Mark Renders/Getty Images

I wondered a year ago if "Nice Justine" would wear well. Could a player who'd spent years being inspired to fight ghosts and adversaries both real and constructed be the same player when she exchanged her "black hat" for a "white" one? Could a player who said she was "finally at peace" find the determination to be the single-minded force she'd been when she was forever striving for something that maybe even she didn't know if she'd recognize when and if she stumbled upon it? As it turned out, with nothing left to fight against, La Petit Taureau lost her fight. Without the mental edge that made her fiercely want success more than her opponents, the desire to push forward at whatever cost was gone.

The sight of the oddly "off" Henin that began this '08 season, losing early and sometimes badly, isn't the lasting image anyone would prefer of her, including Justine. I know I'll always choose to remember the damn-the-torpedoes La Petit Taureau who spat in the face of odds no matter who or what opposed her, and the thought of watching something less than that is an unpalatable one on every level. By retiring, Henin spared us the uncomfortable experience of watching her career wane, and herself the fate of not living up to her own expectations.

Who knows? Maybe one day we WILL see Henin on the court again... but maybe the effort to get there wouldn't even be worth it.

A few weeks ago, Henin surprised the citizens of Grand Place de Bruxelles by unexpectedly showing up in the city's square and playing tennis with passers-by picked from the crowd. Only she would know if that "Justine of the People" moment was her personal thank-you/farewell, characteristically cloaked in secrecy, to her fans, or a last ditch effort to recapture her lost desire. But it's impossible now not to look back at such an odd moment as anything but one or the other. Her talk last week of her post-tennis life was but another red flag that something was amiss, and that the edge she used to get her to the top may have somehow dulled. Faced with a no-win situation, her final press conference was but the "official" ritual that she had to complete.

As if often the case with misunderstood public figures who must uncomfortably live in the public eye, we were really just getting to know Henin as she was preparing to walk out the door. The glimpse was intriguing, but sadly evanescent. Her beautiful backhand now takes up residence in tennis' unofficial Louvre, next to the likes of the Graf forehand, McEnroe volley and Sampras serve... but "Justine Henin" will always retain a certain air of mystery. Thus, the aura of Henin will never disappear.

What a wonderfully strange trip it's been, too. Contrary to the current state of things at Backspin the last few years, there was no love lost for Henin at the beginning. The "wave off" against Serena Williams in Paris earlier this decade rankled Your Friendly Neighborhood Backspinner, but Henin's '03 U.S. Open run changed all that. She won me over with one match -- the epic SF win over Jennifer Capriati in New York which still rates as the most dramatic match I've ever seen, and one that stands as a monument to all that La Petit Taureau brought to the court.

Looking back, I'm so glad Henin the Player had the low-to-high experience of '07. It helped to humanize her, and erase a few of the bad feelings her win-at-all-cost actions (gamesmanship?) might have roused over the years. At least for one brilliant season, she was the one with the heart. She always had been, but was averse to showing it, and consequently was rarely given credit for it in the heat of the competition that her backstory made so important to her daily existence.

Many players in today's game fail to live up to expectations but, while conservatively giving away a half-foot height advantage to some opponents, Henin got everything out of her game and body that she could. Only the reputation she built over the course of her career makes calling her an "overachiever" sound ridiculous. She could have won quite a few more matches before she walked away, but it will never be said that La Petit Taureau left a career's worth of accomplishments unclaimed. Her career will always win that tug-of-war with history. I surely wish there was more to be seen from her, but if the same Henin that secured her spot in the Hall of Fame in Newport is truly no longer with us, maybe it's better she walk off into the good night rather than try to continue in the light of day as a shadow of her former self.

As was the case with Clijsters, Backspin HQ won't be quite the same without La Petit Taureau (though for selfishly different reasons), but it's time for her to find new hurdles to overcome and obstacles to hurdle.

Au revoir, Justine. It was swell.



NEXT: The Best of Henin

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Henin Retires

At age 25, world #1 Justine Henin retired from tennis today.

A Backspin Special Edition honoring La Petit Taureau's legacy is coming soon.

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Wk.19- One Day in May

At least for one day in May, the tennis world was Jelena Dokic's oyster.

All right, maybe it wasn't the W-T-A world, but the ITF one instead... and not a $100K, $75K or $50K event, but rather a $25K one. And, who knows, maybe the Yugoslav turned Aussie turned Serb turned Aussie is allergic to seafood, which would give that first sentence an entirely different meaning.

Ahh, such is the tennis career that has turned out to be Dokic's. So, allow me for a moment to go off on something of a Week 19 tangent (sorry, Dinara... you won your first Tier I on the wrong weekend), for in Florence, Italy the walking embodiment of any "Even You Can Screw up Your Career" mantra managed to accomplish something she'd never done before.



No, she didn't lose to a player ranked #709 in the qualifying rounds of a $25K event. She did that in 2006. And she didn't fall to an unranked no-name in the qualifying of a $10K, either. She did that LAST year... get with the program. Dokic actually WON an ITF event, a little milestone that a young Jelena simply "skipped over" in her previous incarnation. In this case, it took a 6-1/6-3 win in the final over Lucie Hradecka to complete the task.

How is it, you wonder, that a player that had so much early success managed to never win an ITF event? Easy. Dokic was good enough early enough to never give it a second thought.

After playing a few ITF events when she was 15, reaching a final in Saga, Japan (she lost to fellow Aussie Alicia Molik) in 1998, Dokic hit the ground running at the 1999 Wimbledon. As a qualifier, she famously upset world #1 Martina Hingis in the 1st Round and raced to the QF. She only played one other lower circuit event until 2005 (when she finally "stooped" after all else had failed and her career was in literal free fall).

Dokic rode her early career wave to great effect. A year after defeating Hingis, she reached the SF at SW19. By 2002, she'd won five titles, two Tier I's, completed a "surface slam" with championships on all four surfaces, and climbed to #4 in the rankings.

Then the bottom dropped out.

Quicker than you can say "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," Dokic nearly blew her career to smithereens with a lethal combination of familial discord, injuries and a lack of confidence, a one-dimensional game that her innate stubbornness refused to allow her to correct with sane coaching decisions, the propensity to cut-and-run from tennis camps as well as nations, an almost Jankovician desire to play herself into the ground (sometimes in a panicked reaction to a string of bad results), and a frustrating failure to see that the path back to the main road might mean swallowing a little pride until it was almost too late.

(Whew! Pardon me, my head is spinning.)

Dokic's year-end ranking graph looks like Mount Everest, and she was able to travel from base camp to summit and back down the other side without the aide of a single Sherpa, too. She bottomed out last season, dropping off the WTA rankings computer entirely after playing just two $10K events (she failed to qualify in one, and lost in the 1st Round in the other).

She entered Florence ranked #429, with her last grand slam main draw victory a tennis lifetime ago at the 2003 U.S. Open. So, it'd be easy to dismiss last week, even with her crazy dad in her rear view mirror, as but a blip on the Dokic career radar. But there are few players whose success that Your Friendly Neighborhood Backspinner would welcome with more delight than any cobbled together by the Ex-Debutante, even if it was only on a "lesser" scale. Check that, Justine & Nadia... there is NO player's success that would be more welcome in these parts.

Along the hard road from there to here, maybe Dokic has finally matured. Just a bit? It'd be quite a journey, considering she's been her own worst enemy for most of the past half-decade as her once-promising career careened out of control, sometimes from an embarrassing lack of direction and common sense. She never fell into a Capriati-esque period of delinquency, but that fact only makes her inability to gain any real traction or semblance of stability since 2002-03 all the more vexing.

Once referred to as the Fair One (in the Jelena-Dokic.com "Jelena Corner" years), Dokic was staring down her career's possible last chance before the start of this season. I guess such a back-to-the-wall moment has a way of forcing someone to bite their lip and make the correct decisions. Heading back Down Under was the right move. Not getting depressed and/or panicked when she was injured during her attempt to capture a wild card, then lost in the qualifying rounds of the Australian, was another. Waiting until Fes in Week 18 to return? Another good move.

Fes provided Dokic with the chance to get a win over The Kid, Michelle Larcher de Brito, a player who, if you squint hard enough, might actually call to mind a young 16-year old Aussie slamming winners all over the court and clenching fists against a now-veteran player on the comeback trail. Time plays tricks with the mind, and it's turned the tables on Dokic. But she still has time to win a few important battles.

Florence might stand as an extremely important one. Other than her brief comeback when she won the Australian tennis federation's wild card playoff tournament in 2006, before this weekend Dokic hadn't won ANYTHING since claiming Birmingham in June 2002 in singles (then the Linz doubles later that year). She hadn't played in a final since losing to Justine Henin in Zurich in 2003, or reached a SF on tour since 2004 in Tokyo (she DID reach one in a $10K in '06, though).

So, for at least this brief instant, Backspin HQ is celebrating with Jelena. It wasn't too long ago that even something as "nominal" (at least for a one-time world #4) as a $25K crown seemed to be an "impossible dream" for a player that was THIS CLOSE to becoming an afterthought. That is, except for that ounce of stubbornness that once was a winning trait of a teenager on the rise, and so many years later still caused Dokic watchers to leave a door partly ajar for her to step through one more time... but not really expecting her to come knocking before she packed away her tennis bags for good.

The now 25-year old Dokic's bubble may burst at any moment, but RIGHT NOW Jelena is perched atop it, albeit precariously, and able to consider her next move without wondering if another failure might cause her to considering calling it her last. For the first time in a long while, she has a reason to smile.

Just a little, at least... but isn't that what May is for?

*WEEK 19 CHAMPIONS*

BERLIN, GERMANY (I-Red Clay)
S: Dinara Safina def. Elena Dementieva 3-6/6-2/6-2
D: Black/Huber d. Llagostera-Vives/Martinez Sanchez


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Dinara Safina, RUS

Michael Kappeler/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
.... as the lucky #13-seed in Berlin, Safina's first career Tier I crown makes one wonder what Maria Kirilenko's Estoril title-winning run has wrought. Following up on Maria Sharapova's first-ever clay title, Kirilenko's awakening seems to have jostled a slew of other young Hordettes to action. Vera Zvonareva won in Prague a week ago, then Safina made it four Russian champs in the last six WTA events. MAYBE Safina's exploits in Germany -- which included impressive wins over both Justine Henin and Serena Williams -- will signal a course change for her career. But, remember, we ARE talking about Marat's sister here. She reached the Top 10 for the first time in 2006, but didn't win a title that season. She claimed just one in 2007 and managed to top out at #9 in the rankings, but had fallen to #17 heading into Berlin. Maybe her recent doubles success has emboldened her game, making her a more take-charge force more willing to put away points on her terms. As usual, we'll have to wait and see.
=============================
RISER: Agnes Szavay, HUN & Alona Bondarenko, UKR
.... one's never known what to expect from either of these two so far this year, but both were in good form in Berlin. Szavay finally seems to have gotten over her early-season stall and is now stringing together the good results she'll need to protect her ranking/seeding heading into the North American HC season at the end of the summer. Last week, she put away Yan Zi and Marion Bartoli before taking the opening set from Ana Ivanovic in the QF, only to see the match suspended mid-way and the Serb charge back to take the deciding 3rd set a day later. Meanwhile, while the Sisters Bondarenko results have dipped of late, Alona herself pulled off wins over Dominika Cibulkova, Anabel Medina-Garrigues and '07 Berlin RU Svetlana Kuznetsova on her way to her own QF result in Germany.
=============================
SURPRISES: Angelika Bachmann, GER & Sofia Arvidsson, SWE

.... 28-year old Bachmann, an Oz qualifier back in January, began Berlin by upsetting Fed Cup star Nuria Llagostera-Vives in qualifying, then notched a main draw win over Ekaterina Dzehalevich. On the ITF circuit, Arvidsson's nice under-the-radar season continued with a $75K title in Zagreb with a win in the final over Severine Bremond.
=============================
VETERANS: Elena Dementieva, RUS & Cara Black/Liezel Huber, ZIM/USA
.... never underestimate Punch-Sober (I didn't last week, since I somehow managed to correctly predict her Berlin RU), even when you think she has to be seeing the latter stages of her career within her peripheral vision. She didn't win another Tier I title last week, but wins over the likes of Kateryna Bondarenko, Vera Dushevina and (most impressively) both Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic before losing to countrywoman Safina in the final certainly means it won't be a surprise if Dementieva grabs a big one before the year is out. Hmmm, if Henin isn't as big a force in Paris as in the past... well, why jinx anything? Black & Huber DID win in Berlin, claiming the team's second Tier I crown of a season that started slowly but is now beginning to resemble the dominant one of a year ago for the pair.
=============================
FRESH FACES: Victoria Azarenka, BLR & Yanina Wickmayer, BEL

.... Azarenka followed up her Tier IV RU in Prague (and FF award) with a Tier I SF in Berlin (and another FF) after wins over Casey Dellacqua, Anna Chakvetadze, Gisela Dulko and Alona Bondarenko. She reached the doubles SF with Shahar Peer, getting a win over the Bondarenkos, too. 18-year old Waffle Wickmayer finally got her first '08 ITF title in her third final appearance of the season, winning the $50K Indian Harbour Beach event in Florida by taking out Bethanie Mattek (by defeating her on the court, not in a shopping spree at one of those odd places where Bethanie buys her outfits) in the final.
=============================
DOWN: Justine Henin, BEL
.... one Waffle goes up, so one must come down. And with Kim Clijsters on diaper duty, that pretty much only leaves La Petit Taureau since a Flipkens flop wouldn't exactly be earth-shattering. It's not that Justine is having a BAD season (she's won two titles, after all), but it's just that she's not having an HENIN type of season. She 16-4 on the year. Not bad... until you compare it to her 63-4 mark of a season ago. After never losing before the SF in fourteen events a year ago, she's already had four QF-or-earlier losses in '08. Last week, it was in the 3rd Round in Berlin to Safina after seeing her serve let her down once again. Henin's "dirty little secret," which has been a hit-or-miss weapon for her ever since she changed her service motion to protect herself from injury a while back, produced eight DF and had just a 43% 1st Serve percentage against the Russian. With her serve acting up, the pressure mounts on the rest of Henin's game and makes her as vulnerable as a player her size SHOULD be, but rarely has been in recent seasons.. But maybe it's something else? Last week, Henin WAS ruminating on her post-tennis life and her plans to continue to reduce her schedule. Might Henin be losing her focus and, hence, her mental edge over the field? She pulled out of Rome, citing fatigue even though she hasn't exactly been a Jankovician workhorse in 2008. Paris looms, but will Henin's Lenglen Court aura make the flight there with her?
=============================
ITF PLAYER: Jelena Dokic, AUS
.... looking like she MIGHT be ready to lose her "Ex," the Ex-Debutante has gone 10-1 since her return to action over the last two weeks. Counting her "unofficial" action in the pre-season Australian Open Wild Card Playoff tournament, she's managed to win 18 of the 22 matches she's played since her last ditch return Down Under before this season. Perhaps showing a bit of the old verve, she overcame dropping the 1st set of her 1st Round match at love to pack away fourteen of her next fifteen sets in the tournament to claim the crown. Maybe her near-bagel win in qualifying over a Florence -- Haring -- was a sign that the Florence event was her's to win or lose? Winning a $25K is a long way from becoming something other than a life lesson for other young phenoms, but it's been so long since Dokic has had anything to smile about it's difficult NOT to look at what just happened as a potential stepping stone toward recapturing at least a portion of her lost tennis career. Crossing fingers.
=============================


1. Ber 3r- Safina d. Henin
....5-7/6-3/6-1. Is Henin's dominance slipping away, just as this match did on the red clay? She's going to head to Paris looking to four-peat with little-to-no meaningful clay tune-ups. More than in any other year in recent memory, La Petit Taureau's Roland Garros pelt could be there for the taking in two weeks.
=============================
2. Ber QF - Safina d. S.Williams
....2-6/6-1/7-6. Back from a set down against probably two of three best players on the planet? Just like her big brother, sometimes Dinara does things that make you shake your head and wonder why we don't see THIS family member more often.
=============================
3. Ber F - Safina d. Dementieva
....3-6/6-2/6-2 Make it three come-from-behind wins against Top 10 players, though it's hard to avoid looking at this one as something of a "big whoop" after the other two (of course, if Safina had lost the final after such a highlight-filled week...). You know, this is the type of scoreline we used to see from Punch-Sober back in her Punch-Drunk days. Of note, this was the fourteenth all-Hordette final in WTA history, and Dementieva has played in seven of them. And Safina is the sixth different Russian champion through just nineteen weeks in 2008, a season after there were eight different titlists over the course of the entire schedule.
=============================
4. Ber QF - Ivanovic d. Szavay
....3-6/6-4/6-3 With a night to think about the situation she found herself in (the match was suspended after AnaIvo had erased Szavay's lead), the Serb righted the ship.
=============================
5. Florence $25K QF - Dokic d.. Lucic
....3-6/7-5/6-2. Nine years after both were surprise Wimbledon quarterfinalists (and, though most might get the results reversed when thinking back, Lucic reached the SW19 SF), the two troubled stars-on-the -comeback-trail finally met on the court for the first time. It turned out to be a pretty good one, even if it did come a little late in the game.
=============================
6. Fukuoka $50K QF - Nakamura d. Date-Krumm
....6-2/6-2 Given a second chance at the 37-year old, Nakamura didn't make the same mistakes twice. To further show the difference a week makes, Tamarine Tanasugarn wasn't the ultimate winner of the tournament, either. She was RU to Tomoko Yonemura.
=============================
7. Irapuato $25K F - Duque Marino d. Frankova
....6-4/3-6/3-6. A year ago, the young Colombian was a surprise RU in the Roland Garros Girls competition last year. Looking back now, her list of conquered foes is something akin to a junior murderer's row -- Ksenia Pervak (still a Top 15 junior), Klaudia Boczova (who also won an ITF event this weekend), Zhou Yi-Miao (a recent ITF champ), Michelle Larcher de Brito and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She dropped the final to Pastry Alize Cornet in three sets.
=============================
8. Ber Doubles F - Black/Huber d. Llagostera-Vives/Martinez Sanchez
....3-6/6-2/10-2. Hold off, Katarina & Ai. Cara & Liezel don't want to loosen that grip on the #1 ranking, after all.
=============================
9. Ber 1st - Dulko d. Vaidisova
....4-6/6-1/6-2. This is the type of match that one might expect Dulko to lose just days after winning a title. Good for her for avoiding the celebratory letdown. As for Nicole, well... we COULD finally get that first Sharapova-Vaidisova match in the 3rd Round in Rome this week. But what are the odds of THAT happening, and is it even intriguing enough to warrant any excitement at the moment, anyway?
=============================
10. Ber 1st - Dushevina d. Schnyder
....6-2/6-3. Might another Russian Vera be the next late-in-developing Hordette to put together an inspiring run on the clay?
=============================
HM- Rome 1st - Razzano d. Vakulenko
....6-1/6-2. Hey, it's just nice to have Julia back.
=============================
HM- Rome 1st - Stosur d. Krajicek
....6-3/6-2. Ditto for Sammy... and she won, too!.
=============================


*2008 ALL-RUSSIAN FINALS*
Doha - Sharapova def. Zvonareva
Dubai - Dementieva def. Kuznetsova
BERLIN - SAFINA DEF. DEMENTIEVA

*ALL-RUSSIAN WTA FINALS (14) - MOST APPEARANCES*
7...ELENA DEMENTIEVA (2-5)
4...Anastasia Myskina (4-0)
4...Maria Sharapova (3-1)
4...Svetlana Kuznetsova (2-2)
2...Anna Chakvetadze (2-0)
2...Nadia Petrova (0-2)
1...DINARA SAFINA (1-0)
1...Vasilisa Bardina (0-1)
1...Elena Bovina (0-1)
1...Elena Likhovtseva (0-1)
1...Vera Zvonareva (0-1)

*2008 TIER I FINALS*
2...Serena Williams (2-0)
2...Vera Zvonareva (0-2)
1...Ana Ivanovic (1-0)
1...DINARA SAFINA (1-0)
1...Maria Sharapova (1-0)
1...ELENA DEMENTIEVA (0-1)
1...Jelena Jankovic (0-1)
1...Svetlana Kuznetsova (0-1)

*CAREER WTA SINGLES TITLES - RUSSIANS*
19...Maria Sharapova (2003-08)
10...Anastasia Myskina (1999-05)
9...Svetlana Kuznetsova (2002-07)
9...Elena Dementieva (2003-08)
9...Olga Morozova (1969-75)
7...Nadia Petrova (2005-07)
7...Anna Chakvetadze (2006-08)
6...Vera Zvonareva (2003-08)
6...DINARA SAFINA (2002-08)

*LONG 2008 WINNING STREAKS*
18...Maria Sharapova (Jan/Mar) - lost to Kuznetsova
17...SERENA WILLIAMS (MAR-MAY) - lost to Safina

*2008 SINGLES FINALISTS BY NATION*
[titles]
15...RUSSIA [8]
6...United States [5]
3...Italy [2]
3...Serbia [1]
3...Belarus [0]





ROME, ITALY (I-Red Clay)
07 FINAL: Jankovic d. Kuznetsova
08 TOP: Ivanovic/Sharapova
=============================
=QF=
Ivanovic d. A.Radwanska
Kuznetsova d. S.Williams
Zvonareva d. Jankovic
Sharapova d. Schnyder
....yep, I guess I'm taking the Serena-on-clay bait after her loss last week to Safina. I originally picked Sneaky Patty to upset the Supernova, then chickened out.

=SF=
Ivanovic d. Kuznetsova
Zvonareva d. Sharapova
....why not go all out with the Zvonareva thing?

=FINAL=
Ivanovic d. Zvonareva
....well, then again, let's not get carried away.

All for now.

Read more...

Wk.18- Hordette-in-Waiting?

In the halls of the Justice League of Mother Russia there lurk many SuperHordettes with "special Backspin privileges."

There's Punch-Sober (formerly Punch-Drunk), The Contessova, The Empress, The Doll, The Supernova and, of course, the currently-on-leave-for-however-long-she-wishes Czarina (now sporting a stylish baby carrier for wee-one Zhenya).

But what about Vera Zvonareva? Why has she never truly been able to be awarded her own "super identity" and all that it entails? Well, she DID pick up something of one a few years back.

It was "Vera the Almost."

It sort of tells you where her career has pretty much stood since she reached the Top 10 nearly four years ago. She's never really been able to earn anything more than "second tier" status at the Justice League.

But that may be about to change.


MICHAL CIZEK/AFP/Getty Images

Playing in a red clay event for the first time in two years, after a wrist injury in Charleston destroyed what might have been her summer to shine a year ago, Zvonareva stopped off in Prague on her way to Paris and picked up a singles title with a win in the final over young Belarus star Victoria Azarenka (speaking of "almost"... but more on her later).

Zvonareva did this just a week after her win over Vania King clinched Russia's Fed Cup SF victory over the United States, and but two weeks after she returned to Charleston and did her '07 self one better by healthily reaching the final to kick off her "do-over" clay season. It might not be premature to say that we just witnessed the beginning of a rather intriguing spring/summer storyline.

Zvonareva's talent has always been apparent. It's been the intangibles -- or would it be "tangibles," in her case? -- that she's always had difficulty overcoming. Usually, it's been her emotions (often dancing across the border of Breakdown City during a particularly tough match) that have done her in, but just when she seemed to be learning to control one part of herself a year ago, it was her body that let her down. That wrist injury last season came weeks after she'd upset Maria Sharapova in Indian Wells, and right as she'd reached the Charleston SF. A potentially breakthrough EuroClay season turned into four frustrating months of inactivity, two missed slams and an entire North American hard court season that nearly passed her by before the Russian was able to set foot on the court again.

She did finally return at last year's U.S. Open, pulled off a surprisingly good 3rd Round result (considering her long layoff, and then went to work. Picking up where her good '07 start had left off, she reached the QF-or-better at four of her five post-Open tournaments and finished the season ranked #23, her best year-end ranking in three years despite all her injury woes.

Enter 2008... and so far, so good.

Currently ranked #13, Zvonareva has put together a 31-7 record in '08 and is the only tour player to reach four finals (including two Tier I's) this season, as well as the sole woman with five SF results to her credit. Of course, before Sunday in Prague she had nothing concrete to show for her progress (she's reached at least the QF in eight of her nine events) since she'd failed to close out a final opponent, and even started to show a few signs of emotional regression. But now (hopefully) that's changed.

The climb can officially begin.

Of course, the distance between Zvonareva finally beginning to reach her potential and becoming the next true Hordette "heroine" is a long one. Her QF result at Roland Garros in '03 is still her best career slam result, but it's safe to say that Zvonareva is WAY overdue for another similiar-or-better run. But just how far COULD she go in Paris, under the right circumstances?

Well, Justine Henin is still the best clay courter in the world, but is she as imposing in '08 as she has been in resent seasons? We'll get a better idea this week in Berlin, where she might face off against Serena, and then still have have to face Kuznetsova and/or Ivanovic if she were to make it past the American. Sharapova reached the RG semis a year ago and recently won her first career (green) clay title, but she's still searching for her first final on the red stuff. The Serbs will be factors, but neither has been able to close the deal at a slam yet. Then, there's always the aforementioned Serena, of course.

Recent Roland Garros semifinalists have included Elena Likhovtseva and Nadia Petrova (both in '05), Nicole Vaidisova ('06) and Anna Chakvetadze ('07). Zvonareva adding her name to that list would seem to be a reasonable and reachable goal.

So, why not Vera? Or should I say "The Czarinette"?

Of course, she still has to earn a seat at the big Hordettes' table, and any new identity that might go with it. The seat is open, and waiting for her.

No more "almost" allowed.

*WEEK 18 CHAMPIONS*

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC (IV-Red Clay)
S: Vera Zvonareva def. Victoria Azarenka 7-6/6-2
D: Hlavackova/Hradecka d. Craybas/Krajicek

FES, MOROCCO (IV-Red Clay)
S: Gisela Dulko def. Anabel Me