For Whom the Book Tolls, circa 2009

It's that time of the season again (a little earlier this year, actually... since the li'l tennis elves left the latest edition outside my door BEFORE the start of the Australian Open for the very first time. The official 2009 WTA/ATP Guide to Professional Tennis is out, and the moment is here when we see which players are on the rise -- and which are on the decline -- in the "official" judgment of the WTA tour... I mean, if you can read the inclusion or exclusion of a player's bio in the new Guide as an indication, of course.

(Again, as is often the case, many of the photos used in the bios in the '09 Guide aren't the same ones that are on the player's official bio on the WTA website, so don't judge every "award-winning" book by it's internet cover... or something like that. While the "winners" shown here ARE in sync with the players' current -- in other words, as of TODAY -- Sony Ericsson Tour website shots, they could be replaced on the players' bio pages at any time during the season and the shots appearing here will change, as well.)

The troubling trend of the incredibly shrinking bio section continues in 2009, as the four-year history of this "review" has seen the number of bios included in the Guide go from 130 and 132, respectively, in 2006 and 2007, to 114 and now 111 the past two seasons. On the bright side, the WTA side of the combo Guide takes up 352 pages, while the ATP covers just 336 (though it includes twelve more men's player bios... and the return of the 4th Round-through-Finals slam history section is much appreciated, too).

The WTA "selection process" appears to have been more "by the book,' no pun intended, than ever when it comes to the players whose bios appear in the 2009 Guide. The Top 100 singles and Top 30 doubles players are all included, and only two "discretionary" selections were allowed -- unranked-but-not-officially-retired Mary Pierce and Michaella Krajicek, included despite ending '08 ranked #219 in singles and #106 in doubles.

As it is, thirty-one WTA players are new additions (after 26 newbies appeared in '08), while thirty-four (44 in '08) were ejected either because of retirement or a ranking crash.

Here are the specifics, as well as a few observations and opinions about the 2009 Guide bios, from Akgul Amanmuradova to Vera Zvonareva:

**NEW 2009 BIO ADDITIONS**
Sofia Arvidsson/SWE (imagine if she'd WON those two matches against Jankovic)
Timea Bacsinszky/SUI
Kristina Barrois/GER
Iveta Benesova/CZE
Severine Bremond/FRA
Petra Cetkovska/CZE (representing all the tennis-playing Petras)
Julie Coin/FRA (it's amazing how much one big win can mean)
Rossana de los Rios/PAR
Marta Domachowska/POL
Marina Erakovic/NZL (what a long strange trip it was)
Jarmila Gajdosova/SVK ("AUS" soon?)
Anna-Lena Groenefeld/GER (ahh, the comeback has legs, and a serve)
Hsieh Su-Wei/TPE
Mathilde Johansson/FRA
Anne Keothavong/GBR (beating Robson to the punch)
Alisa Kleybanova/RUS
Mariya Koryttseva/UKR
Petra Kvitova/CZE (ANOTHER Petra)
Sabine Lisicki/GER
Ekaterina Makarova/RUS
Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez/ESP
Bethanie Mattek/USA
Monica Niculescu/ROU
Anna Pavlyuchenkova/RUS (settling in for a long stay)
Magdalena Rybarikova/SVK
Carla Suarez-Navarro/ESP
Tamarine Tanasugarn/THA
Galina Voskoboeva/KAZ
Yanina Wickmayer/BEL (Belgium still has a pulse!)
Aleksandra Wozniak/CAN (Canada FINALLY has a pulse!)
Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova/CZE
==MOST ADDITIONS==
4...Czech Republic
3...France
3...Germany
3...Russia
2...Slovak Republic
2...Spain
1...Belgium
1...Canada
1...Great Britain
1...Kazakhstan
1...New Zealand
1...Paraguay
1...Poland
1...Romania
1...Sweden
1...Switzerland
1...Taiwan
1...Thailand
1...Ukraine
1...United States

**2009 EJECTIONS**
Maria Elena Camerin/ITA
Jennifer Capriati/USA (finally)
Eleni Daniilidou/GRE (geez, WTA, she WON a tour singles title in '08... Krajicek didn't)
Julie Ditty/USA
Laura Granville/USA
Ashley Harkleroad/USA
Justine Henin/BEL
Jamea Jackson/USA
Angelique Kerber/GER
Anne Kremer/LUX
Elena Likhovtseva/RUS
Emilie Loit/FRA
Tatjana Malek/GER
Alicia Molik/AUS
Akiko Morigami/JPN
Martina Muller/GER
Anastasia Myskina/RUS (finally, Pt.II)
Akiko Nakamura/JPN
Tzipora Obziler/ISR
Ioana Raluca Olaru/ROU
Lilia Osterloh/USA
Andrea Petkovic/GER
Tatiana Poutchek/BLR
Olga Puchkova/RUS
Nicole Pratt/AUS
Maria-Emilia Salerni/ARG (she made her first career final, though)
Mara Santangelo/ITA
Olga Savchuk/UKR
Milagros Sequera/VEN
Meghann Shaughnessy/USA (have a heart, WTA)
Sun Tiantian/CHN
Meilen Tu/USA
Vladimira Uhlirova/CZE
Julia Vakulenko/UKR (noooooooo!!!!!!!)
==MOST EJECTIONS==
8...United States
4...Germany
4...Russia
2...Australia
2...Italy
2...Japan
2...Ukraine
1...Argentina
1...Belarus
1...Belgium
1...China
1...Czech Republic
1...Greece
1...Israel
1...Luxembourg
1...Romania
1...Venezuela

**2009 BIOS - BY NATION**
15...Russia
13...France
8...Czech Republic
7...United States
6...Italy
6...Spain
4...China
4...Slovak Republic
4...Ukraine
3...Australia
3...Austria
3...Germany
3...Romania
3..Taiwan
2...Belarus
2...Kazakhstan
2...Poland
2...Serbia
2...Switzerland
1...Argentina
1...Belgium
1...Bulgaria
1...Canada
1...Denmark
1...Estonia
1...Great Britain
1...Hungary
1...India
1...Israel
1...Japan
1...Netherlands
1...New Zealand
1...Paraguay
1...Slovenia
1...Sweden
1...Thailand
1...Uzbekistan
1...Zimbabwe



*QUESTIONS*
Just who does Krajicek have pictures of in a compromising situation in order to slip through and maintain her picture in this year's Guide, anyway?
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Hmmm, would Sania Mirza have been given Krajicek's discretionary slot in the Guide had she slipped a few spots and not finished in the singles Top 100 (she was #99)?
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Wonder what the thinking was with Jamea Jackson? She maintained her '08 spot after falling from #45 to #587 due to injury/surgery, but was dropped after managing to raise her ranking back to #274 in the first stages of a comeback.
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Is Ashley Harkleroad wearing any clothes in her 2009 Guide bio pic? ANSWER: No, because she doesn't have one. She finished #121 in singles.
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With her probably being unlikely to officially retire before the 2010 edition goes to press, is Lindsay Davenport going to keep her place in the Guide until the end of time? After all, she was never dropped while she was out having her first baby and "retiring"/"not quite REALLY retiring" one time before... you know, just like the situation she finds herself in right now.



*BEST '09 GUIDE BIO PHOTOS*

1. Anne Keothavong, GBR (love the artistic near-sepia tone)
2. Caroline Wozniacki, DEN
3. Severine Bremond, FRA
4. Elena Vesnina, RUS

*BIGGEST SMILE*

1. Bethanie Mattek, USA
2. Edina Gallovits, ROU

*BEST PHOTO UPGRADE*

Tamira Paszek, AUT (a more fun smile than before... does it portend a turnaround season?)

*WORST PHOTO CHANGE.. errr, or maybe it's actually the best?*

Ana Ivanovic, SRB (AnaIvo keeps up her new-photo-every-season streak with a more adult-looking photo that's less "come hither" than last year's... I guess whether or not that's an "upgrade" or a "downgrade" depends on your frame of mind, huh?)

*GLAMOUR-SHOTS-R-US*
1. Caroline Wozniacki, DEN

2. Jelena Jankovic, SRB
3. Katarina Srebotnik, SLO

*SPOOKIEST PHOTO *

Iveta Benesova, CZE ("you were supposed to have a sister, but she died when you were both in the womb"... oh, wait -- maybe that's just a stupid line from a movie trailer or something)

*MOST HIGH SCHOOL YEARBOOK-REMINISCENT PHOTO *

Anna-Lena Groenefeld, GER

*STILL THE MOST FRESH-FACED "ALL-AMERICAN"-LOOKING PHOTO OF A PLAYER REPRESENTING KAZAKHSTAN*

Yaroslava Shvedova, KAZ

2010 LAME DUCKS?: Mary Pierce (???), Lindsay Davenport (just kidding), Tatiana Golovin (hopefully not)
EARLY 2010 CANDIDATES (so far): Melinda Czink, Ayumi Morita, Sesil Karatantcheva and (maybe, maybe, maybe possibly) Kimiko Date-Krumm


All for now.