Wk.42- A Whole New World?

The future is now, don't ya know.

No, I'm not talking about Victoria Azarenka potentially sending a 2011 message by closing out the WTA's 2010 regular season by winning a title in Moscow. I'm talking about the WTA's new logo, of course.

Apparently, its purpose is to serve as a "distinctive and modern reminder of the captivating athleticism and excitement that has driven the international popularity and growth of women's pro tennis."



Yep, it surely reminds ME of "captivating athleticism and excitement," and I'd say by the look on Jelena Jankovic's face that she agrees. I mean, it definitely makes a person think more about the incredible athletes of the WTA tour than that old, failed-and-phased-out logo, which somehow was supposed to do the same by including an actual player doing something athletic.

Now... wait. Hmmm.

I guess the powers that be have a point about the new "Sony Ericsson-less" logo being "functional and effective" for the tour's partners, because why would another company teaming up with the tennis tour want to use a logo that reminds the public that the WTA is a tennis tour, rather than say, the World Turducken Association, Watery Tailors for Aquaman or Worried Troll Architects.

But, as we know, the WTA higher-ups ALWAYS know best. They certainly NEVER make mistakes (not right before a tournament begins in the Middle East, at least). So I've come to the quick conclusion that this is, by far, the GREATEST logo in the history of logos for tennis tours, overindulgent food combinations, superhero clothiers and/or poor souls who waste their talent designing buildings to fit under bridges.

So there.

*WEEK 42 CHAMPIONS*

MOSCOW, RUSSIA (Premier $1m/hard indoor)
S: Victoria Azarenka/BLR d. Maria Kirilenko/RUS 6-3/6-4
D: Dulko/Pennetta d. Errani/Martinez-Sanchez

LUXEMBOURG, LUXEMBOURG (Int'l $220K/hard indoor)
S: Roberta Vinci/ITA d. Julia Goerges/GER 6-3/6-4
D: Bacsinszky/Garbin d. Benesova/Zahlavova-Strycova


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Victoria Azarenka/BLR
...well, well, well. Has the 21-year old from Belarus started to turn the corner? She still has work to do this offseason (after getting a shot to erase her bad Doha memories from '10, that is), but getting a late-season title in Moscow is a very good sign that she's starting to fortify her efforts at the end of a long, grueling season. A string of good wins over Andrea Petkovic, Alisa Kleybanova, Maria Jose Martinez-Sanchez and Maria Kirilenko (she also reached the doubles semis with the Russian) was impressive, and it easily trumps her win in Stanford as her latest-in-the-season title run. Last year, she grabbed three titles in the season's first three months, but wasn't up to getting #4 the remainder of the season. Stanford came in July, and this October win in Russia could surely be looked upon as a perfect springboard into her '11 season. Of course, she could still flame out again this week in Qatar.
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RISERS: Maria Kirilenko/RUS, Julia Goerges/GER and Timea Bacsinszky/Tathiana Garbin, SUI/ITA
...both Kirilenko and Goerges lost singles finals, while Bacsinszky/Garbin won yet another title. In Moscow, Kirilenko played in her first singles final of '10 after defeating the likes of Alexandra Dulgheru, Kateryna Bondarenko (6-0/6-0!!), Zarina Diyas and Vera Dushevina. Goerges, who won her first tour title earlier this season in Bad Gastein, played in the Luxembourg final after knocking off Mandy Minella, Carla Suarez-Navarro, Ana Ivanovic (so much for Linz meaning something?) and Angelique Kerber. In the same event, Bacsinszky/Garbin defeated Iveta Benesova/Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova in the final to win their third title of 2010. Only Dulko & Pennetta have claimed more.
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SURPRISE: Roberta Vinci/ITA
...the 27-year old Vinci is the very definition of a late bloomer. In 2007, she was just another talented 24-year old serve-and-volleyer without a career tour singles title. She won her first that season. She got another last year, and then won her third this weekend in Luxembourg by stringing together wins over Sofia Arvidsson, Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova, Kirsten Flipkens, Anne Keothavong and Julia Goerges.
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COMEBACKS: Anne Keothavong/GBR & Maria Jose Martinez-Sanchez/ESP
...Keothavong, whose comeback from injury has taken the long route this season, reached her second tour singles SF of the season (her first since Week 7 in Memphis) in Luxembourg, getting victories over Virginie Razzano, Patty Schnyder and Iveta Benesova. For her part, MJMS's injury-bothered second half of the season meant she entered last week having not reached a tour SF since she won the title in Rome in May. That ended in Moscow, as wins over Alla Kudryavtseva, Alona Bondarenko and Dominika Cibulkova got her into the Kremlin Cup's final four. She also reached the doubles final with Sara Errani.
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VETERANS: Gisela Dulko/Flavia Pennetta, ARG/ITA
...the 2010 season's #1 doubles team (without a slam title) won their tour-leading sixth as a pair (their ninth overall) in Moscow. As they head to Doha's season-ending championships as the #1-seeded doubles team, they both find themselves just fifty points behind Liezel Huber in the WTA computer's doubles rankings.
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FRESH FACES: Zarina Diyas/KAZ & Karolina Pliskova/CZE
...Diyas, who turned 17 last Monday, isn't one of the "borrowed" Kazakhs now populating the tour. She's actually native born, and she just had the best week of her career in Moscow. She made it through qualifying, gettings wins over Alexandra Panova and Ekaterina Dzehalevich, and then upset both Gisela Dulko and Jelena Jankovic to reach her first career tour QF. Meanwhile, the Pliskova Sisters had yet another odd, but hardly unusual for them, week in the $25K challenger in Glasgow. First, Kristyna lost to Eirini Georgatou in the 1st Round, then the sisters went down in the doubles QF at the hands of a team that included Greece's aforementioned Georgatou. But Karolina managed to uphold the family honor, and get a little sweet revenge, in the end by defeating Georgatou in the singles final by a 3-6/6-0/6-3 score to grab her second ITF title of 2010.
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DOWN: Jelena Jankovic/SRB
...in Moscow, JJ was sick (though I'm sure it had nothing to do with the new WTA logo)... and is probably tired of waiting for the '10 season to end so that she can get herself physically sound during the offseason. It seems like it's been quite a while since she was just that. Her 6-1/6-2 loss to Kazakh teen Diyas, during which the Serb called trainers and had her blood pressure checked, makes the former #1 player in the world just 6-8 since she wrapped up her Round of 16 performance at Wimbledon.
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ITF PLAYER: Alison Riske/USA
...anything Rebecca Marino can do, Riske is trying to do better. Last week, the Canadian won her third straight ITF challenger. This weekend, Riske did it, too, taking the $50K event in Saint Raphael, France with a 6-4/6-2 win in the final over Urszula Radwanska.
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JUNIOR STAR: Zheng Saisai/CHN

...the spectacled 16-year old from China became the first female from her country to win the Osaka Mayor's Cup in Japan, defeating Miho Kowase 7-5/6-7/7-6 in the Grade A final. She did it even after failing to put away the match in the 2nd set, and then having to move along with the match indoors for the 3rd in order to escape the rain.
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1. Moscow Final - Azarenka d. Kirilenko
...6-3/6-4. Thus, Azarenka becomes the all-time winningest tour player from Belarus, with her fifth career title moving her one ahead of Hall of Famer Natasha Zvereva, who won four singles titles during the 1990's. Of course, for most of Zvereva's career, she represented the U.S.S.R..
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2. Luxembourg Final - Vinci d. Goerges
...6-3/6-4. Vinci becomes the third member -- with Schiavone and Pennetta -- of the Italian Fed Cup team to also win tour singles titles in 2010.
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3. Luxembourg QF - Goerges d. Ivanovic
...6-3/6-1. Luxembourg is not Linz.
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4. Moscow 2nd Rd - Diyas d. Jankovic
...6-1/6-2. 2010 is not 2008, either.
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5. Luxembourg 2nd Rd - Flipkens d. Rezai
...6-0/6-1. A season ago, Rezai won the season-concluding Tournament of Champions in Bali.
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6. Moscow Doubles 1st Rd - Govortsova/Kudryavtseva d. Huber/Vesnina
...6-7/6-4/12-10. Looks like Elena won't be Huber's regular doubles partner in 2011.
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7. Luxembourg Q's - Barthel d. Cirstea
...6-0/3-1 ret. The 20-year old German wins when Cirstea can't make it through the match. At this rate, there'll be no Wimbledon show court appearances in 2011 for Cirstea no matter where she ranks on the All-England Club's "hotness" scale. In qualifying and main draw matches this season, the Romanian is 28-30.
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8. $10K Seville Final - Karin Knapp d. Andrea Gamiz
...6-0/6-1. Last week, the former Top 40 tour player lost in a challenger final. This week, she won one.
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9. $25K Rock Hill SF - Camila Giorgi d. Krista Hardebeck
...7-5/7-6. Giorgi went on to win the title, but the 16-year old American Hardebeck had an impressive week. Before losing close here, she notched wins over Julia Cohen and Valeria Solovieva.
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10. $10K Dubrovnik Final - Diana Enache d. Vivienne Vierin 6-3/7-5
$10K Antalya Final - Cristina Dinu d. Polina Vinogradova 6-2/6-2
$10K Ain El Sokhna Final - Alexandra Cadantu d. Zuzana Zlochova 6-2/6-3
... Sunday was a good day for the Romanian women. Combined, these three have now won six challenger titles in ten 2010 finals.
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HM- Stockholm Final - Roger Federer d. Florian Mayer
...6-4/6-3. With his third title of '10, Federer joins Rafael Nadal and Caroline Wozniacki as the only players, male or female, to win three tour singles titles in each of the past three seasons. Oh, and his 64th career win tied some guy named Sampras on the ATP's all-time title list.
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**2010 WTA FINALS**
7...Caroline Wozniacki, DEN (6-1)
6...Vera Zvonareva, RUS (1-5)
5...Maria Sharapova, RUS (2-2)
4...Belgian Barbie, BEL (4-0)
4...VICTORIA AZARENKA, RUS (2-2)
4...Elena Dementieva, RUS (2-2)
4...Justine Henin, BEL (2-2)
4...Venus Williams, USA (2-2)

**DOUBLES TITLES**
[2010 - teams]
6...GISELA DULKO/FLAVIA PENNETTA
3...TIMEA BACSINSZKY/TATHIANA GARBIN
3...Iveta Benesova/Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova
3...Serena Williams/Venus Williams
[career team titles - both players active]
33...Lisa Raymond/Rennae Stubbs (2010: 1)
29...Cara Black/Liezel Huber (2010: 2)
20...Lisa Raymond/Samantha Stosur
19...Serena Williams/Venus Williams (2010: 3)
11...Cara Black/Rennae Stubbs
11...Yan Zi/Zheng Jie
9...GISELA DULKO/FLAVIA PENNETTA (2010: 6)
9...Nuria Llagostera-Vives/Maria Jose Martinez-Sanchez (2010: 1)

**FIVE CAREER TITLES - ACTIVE PLAYERS**
[w/ year of last title]
VICTORIA AZARENKA, BLR (2010: 2)
Marion Bartoli, FRA (2009)
Eleni Daniilidou, GRE (2008)
Jelena Dokic, AUS (2002)
Maria Kirilenko, RUS (2008)
Alicia Molik, AUS (2005)
Shahar Peer, ISR (2009)
Agnes Szavay, HUN (2010: 2)

**MOST WTA CHAMPIONSHIP TITLES**
[all-time]
8...Martina Navratilova
5...Steffi Graf
4...Chris Evert
3...Monica Seles
[active]
2...Belgian Barbie
2...Justine Henin
2...Serena Williams
1...Maria Sharapova
1...Venus Williams

**ALL-TIME ATP SINGLES TITLES**
109...Jimmy Connors
94...Ivan Lendl
77...John McEnroe
64...ROGER FEDERER
64...Pete Sampras





DOHA, QATAR (SEC $4.55m/hard outdoor)
09 Final (s): S.Williams d. V.Williams
09 Final (d): Llagostera-Vives/Martinez-Sanchez d. Black/Huber
10 Top Seeds: Wozniacki; Dulko/Pennetta
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=MAROON GROUP=
1. #1 Wozniacki (3-0)
2. #4 Schiavone (2-1)
3. #5 Samantha Stosur (1-2)
4. #7 Elena Dementieva (0-3)
=WHITE GROUP=
1. #3 Belgian Barbie (3-0)
2. #2 Vera Zvonareva (2-1)
3. #8 Victoria Azarenka (1-2)
4. #6 Jelena Jankovic (0-3)

=SF=
Wozniacki d. Zvonareva
Schiavone d. Barbie
=FINAL=
Wozniacki d. Schiavone
=DOUBLES CHAMPIONS=
Vania King & Yaroslava Shvedova

...of course, all of these picks could be tossed aside if, once again, injuries wreak havoc with the field in the desert heat at the end of a very long season. I almost went with Barbie here... but, you know, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Part 1 of the 2010 Backspin Awards is coming next. All for now.



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