Wk.44- Hope Springs Eternal... finally

As the WTA's 2010 season came to a close, some good news finally managed to slip through the cracks.

This year has often been throttled, both in this space and elsewhere, for all that it DIDN'T turn out to be. For all the matches that DIDN'T happen. And for all the would-be champions who DIDN'T rise to the occasion. But on the final weekend of top level women's tennis for this calendar year, quite the opposite occurred.

In Bali, Ana Ivanovic provided us with hope. Not just for her own ability to reclaim a career that has hit hard times over the two years since the Serb rose to new career heights, but for the proof that no player's career need be defined by their failures. The former #1 and '08 Roland Garros champion closed out her year by displaying the sort of tennis that made everyone pay attention to her talents in the first place. THAT AnaIvo has been in hibernation, seemingly afraid to come out into the light on most occasions since June '08. But as this season has gone along, she's displayed a spine again, along with a noticable desire to reclaim what she's lost and once again re-write the story of her career. Two 4th Quarter titles are enough to elicit hope for a great future (again), and that's something that was in short supply when it came to her immediate future one year ago.

Meanwhile, in San Diego, the Italians once again showed how things SHOULD be done. Flavia Pennetta, Francesca Schiavone & Co. were, as expected, professional and upright in their successful attempt to defend their Fed Cup title. Age usually provides wisdom (well, unless your name is Charlie Sheen, I guess), and Team Italia is filled to the brim with it. The Italians arrived in California as the odds-on favorites to emerge once again as champions, and they ultimately proved more than up to the challenge. It sort of gives one hope that all those supposedly-great champions who were supposed to dominate the WTA landscape in 2010, but usually didn't, WILL find a way to claw their way back into the limelight next season.

All in all, it was an uplifting way to close down one season, and the perfect teaser for the next. The Italians aren't the only ones who should be celebrating.

Whew!

*WEEK 44 CHAMPIONS*

BALI, INDONESIA (TOC/$600K/hard indoor)
S: Ana Ivanovic def. Alisa Kleybanova 7-6/6-2

FC FINAL (San Diego/hard indoor)
S: Italy def. United States 3-1


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Flavia Pennetta/ITA
...Francesca Schiavone has more Fed Cup wins (24) than any other Italian woman in tennis history, but make no mistake about it that it was Pennetta who was Team Italia's star performer in 2010. As Italy wrapped up its third FC crown in the last five years, Pennetta was the player who put away the championship-clinching point for the second straight season on Sunday in San Diego. The "MVP" of her nations three FC victories in '10, Pennetta is without question the Fed Cup Player of the Year. This weekend, she put down a game Bethanie Mattek-Sands on Saturday to give Italy a huge 2-0 lead, then quickly squashed Coco Vandeweghe's hopes on Sunday after Schiavone had failed in her attempt to secure the title in the day's previous match. It seems that so many of the WTA's veterans are getting better with age, and surely the 28-year old Pennetta is right in there with the best of them when it comes to that conversation.
=============================
RISERS: Alisa Kleybanova/RUS & Urszula Radwanska/POL
...Kleybanova had the chance to win a third title on the season and place herself behind only Caroline Wozniacki and Barbie on the WTA's 2010 title list if she'd been able to end her tour season by winning the Tournament of Champions final over Ana Ivanovic. But after having knocked out defending champ Aravane Rezai, then Daniela Hantuchova, losing a combined seven games in the two matches, she lost 7-6/6-2 to the Serb. Nevertheless, she still had a career year in '10, and should be included on the short list of of players who could make a huge leap in '11. Meanwhile, U-Rad never really was able to get herself fully back on track after being injured in January. But as the season ends with her sister Agnieszka the one on the injured list, the young sibling in the Radwanska family is starting to get her game back in gear. In a $50K in Ismaning, Germany over the weekend, she picked up a singles titles with a 7-5/6-4 victory in the final over Andrea Hlavackova.
=============================
SURPRISE: Yuliana Lizarazo/COL
...yet another young South American grabbed a challenger title over the weekend, as 17-year old Colombian Lizarazo won the Bogota $10K with a win in the final over American Nataly Yoo. She also won the doubles.
=============================
COMEBACKS: Ana Ivanovic/SRB & Julia Glushko/ISR
...after announcing that Heinz Gunthardt's inability to travel with her will prevent him from being her full-time coach in '10, the progress that AnaIvo has made since joining forces with Steffi Graf's former coach once again was on full display. After following up her Linz title with a quick exit in her next event, the Serb won all three of her matches in Bali to take the title at the second Tournament of Champions event. She lost just one set in total, defeating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Daniela Hantuchova and Alisa Kleybanova while grabbing career title #10 on the same weekend in which she celebrated her 23rd birthday. Without Gunthardt's total support, questions will linger about whether Ivanovic can carry over her 4th Quarter momentum into 2011, but she HAS made it clear that if she can just maintain her recent steady progress she might just get back to the '08 form yet. If she can, a return to the Top 10 next season might just be in the cards. After having looked promising in '08, Glushko made more headlines in '09 when her coach/father popped off about whether or not Sarah Gronert should be allowed to play women's tennis than she did with her own on-court success. As this season has progressed, though, the Israeli has started to pick up where she left off. In the $25K in Kalgoorlie, Australia, she won her third challenger title of the season, defeating the likes of Jessica Moore, Melanie South, Gail Brodsky and, in the final, Aussie Isabella Holland along the way.
=============================
VETERAN: Kimiko Date-Krumm/JPN
...although she was ranked just #53, Date-Krumm was given a wild card into the Tournament of Champions field in Bali (only she, '09 champ Aravane Rezai and Yanina Wickmayer have played in the event in both of its two seasons). A year ago, she reached the semifinals after making it through group play. This year, with the round robin scrapped, she won her QF match over #1-seed Li Na, then was the only player to take a set off eventual champ AnaIvo in the SF. After that, she won the 3rd Place match over Daniela Hantuchova.
=============================
FRESH FACE: Melanie Oudin/USA
...people in tennis have notoriously short memories, but I didn't expect that Mary Joe Fernandez would be one of them on the final Fed Cup weekend of 2010. Even after Oudin cut her proverbial tennis teeth in Fed Cup action the last two seasons, led the American team through the 1st Round in February (going 2-0 vs. France) and was sporting a 3-1 FC season record (losing only a three-set contest to Elena Dementieva in the SF vs. Russia) as everyone arrived in San Diego, Oudin was passed over by MJF in favor of Cup neophyte Coco Vandeweghe in the first singles match on Saturday. In her debut, Vandeweghe lost in straight sets to Francesca Schiavone. Oudin would have sat out Day 2, as well, were it not for Bethanie Mattek-Sands' injury. Pressed into action, Oudin defeated Schiavone in Match #3 to prevent the Roland Garros champ from clinching the title for Italy. One can make the case that being passed over served to inspire Oudin on Sunday, but the teenager has a history of rising to the occasion on big stages such as those provided by grand slams and the Fed Cup. Fernandez has made many good decisions in guiding the Bannerettes to back-to-back unexpected FC final berths, but overlooking Oudin's big match history -- no matter how lackluster her overall season has been, or how promising a talent Vandeweghe is -- wasn't one of them. It seems to me that it was one "cute/unconventional" maneuver too many in a Final which pitted a very experienced Italian team against an American one that was a mix of upstarts, a just-coming-into-her-own veteran and doubles specialist Liezel Huber. As far as singles FC competition goes, the 18-year old Oudin was the most experienced of the lot, and deciding to leave her out of the equation was MJF's first real misstep as the American coach. Still, her win on Sunday it was a nice reminder of the guts and guile that Oudin showed while becoming such an instant star over the course of the '09 season.
=============================
DOWN: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova/RUS
...the Russian has shown no Zenyatta-like drive down the stretch of the 2010 WTA season. Both lost in their only attempt at victory last week. The horse came close, but Pavlyuchenkova didn't. She lost love & one to Ivanovic in Bali.
=============================
ITF PLAYER: Peng Shuai/CHN
...Peng won the $100K challenger event in Taipei, notching wins over Yan Zi, Bojana Jovanovski, Tamarine Tanasugarn and Ayumi Morita in the final.
=============================
JUNIOR STAR: Gabriela Dabrowski/CAN
...the 18-year old from Ottawa, the #9-ranked junior in the world, won her biggest pro title in the $50K challenger in Toronto. Teaming with Sharon Fichman, she won the doubles with a victory in the final over Americans Alexandra Mueller and Brittany Augustine. It's Dabrowski's second ITF doubles title, but first since she and Fichman won a doubles crown in a $25K in Toronto (Dabrowski was just 15 at the time) in 2007. In singles, Dabrowski also notched a nice straight sets 1st Round win over #2-seeded Christina McHale by a 6-3/6-4 score.
=============================


1. FC Match #4 - Pennetta d. Vandeweghe
...6-1/6-2. Vandeweghe broke Pennetta to open the match and take a 1-0 lead, then was up 40/love on serve in Game #2. But with her nerves settled, Pennetta went about her business and took control of the proceedings, winning the next six games to take the 1st set, and twelve of the final fourteen games in the match.
=============================
2. TOC Final - Ivanovic d. Kleybanova
...7-6/6-2. AnaIvo's second indoor title run gives her more than any other woman on tour in 2010 under the roof.
=============================
3. FC Match #2 - Pennetta d. Mattek-Sands
...7-6/6-2. Pennetta raced to a quick 5-1 lead in the 1st, but Mattek-Sands battled back to hold a set point. She failed to get it, littered the opening set tie-break with errors, then cramped up in the 2nd set (apparently, for the first time in her career) as Italy took a commanding 2-0 lead in the tie.
=============================
4. FC Match #3 - Oudin d. Schiavone
...6-3/6-1. Showing why she should have been playing on Day 1, but only playing then because of Mattek-Sands' physical condition, Oudin put her foot down and prevented Schiavone from closing out her banner year by clinching the Fed Cup crown for Team Italia.
=============================
5. $50K Grapevine TX Final - Varvara Lepchenko d. Jamie Hampton
...7-6/6-4. While those other Americans were losing in San Diego, these two were battling it out for a challenger title in Texas.
=============================
HM- $50K Toronto ONT Final - Heather Watson d. Alize Lim
...6-3/6-3. After taking out another American not present in San Diego, Sloane Stephens, in the semis, Watson claimed her second challenger title of the season with a win over Pastry Lim.
=============================


**FED CUP CHAMPIONSHIPS**
[2000-10 Finals]
2000 United States d. Spain 5-0
2001 Belgium d. Russia 2-1
2002 Slovak Republic d. Spain 3-1
2003 France d. United States 4-1
2004 Russia d. France 3-2
2005 Russia d. France 3-2
2006 Italy d. Belgium 3-2
2007 Russia d. Italy 4-0
2008 Russia d. Spain 4-0
2009 Italy d. United States 4-0
2010 Italy d. United States 3-1
[All-Time Titles]
17...United States
7...Australia
5...Czechoslovakia
5...Spain
4...Russia
3...ITALY
2...France
2...West Germany/Germany
1...Belgium
1...Slovak Republic
1...South Africa

**BACKSPIN 2010 FED CUP MVPs**
[1st Rd.]
ITA: Flavia Pennetta
CZE: Lucie Hradecka
RUS: Svetlana Kuznetsova
USA: Melanie Oudin
[Semifinals]
ITA: Flavia Pennetta
USA: Bethanie Mattek-Sands
[Final]
ITA: Flavia Pennetta

**CAREER WTA TITLES - ACTIVE**
43...Venus Williams, USA
43...Justine Henin, BEL
40...Belgian Barbie, BEL
37...Serena Williams, USA
22...Maria Sharapova, RUS
16...Elena Dementieva, RUS (retired)
13...Svetlana Kuznetsova, RUS
12...Caroline Wozniacki, DEN
12...Jelena Jankovic, SRB
12...Dinara Safina, RUS
11...Patty Schnyder, SUI
10...Vera Zvonareva, RUS
10...ANA IVANOVIC, SRB
[last three seasons]
12...Caroline Wozniacki [3-3-6]
9...Serena Williams [4-3-2]
8...Elena Dementieva [3-3-2]
7...Jelena Jankovic [4-2-1]
7...Dinara Safina [4-3-0]
6...Belgian Barbie [x-1-5]
6...Maria Sharapova [3-1-2]
5...Victoria Azarenka [0-3-2]
5...ANA IVANOVIC [3-0-2]
5...Flavia Pennetta [2-2-1]
5...Vera Zvonareva [2-2-1]

**BEST 2010 WTA FINAL WIN PCT. - 2+**
1.000...Belgian Barbie (5-0)
1.000...ANA IVANOVIC (2-0)
1.000...Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (2-0)
1.000...Aravave Rezai (2-0)
1.000...Francesca Schiavone (2-0)
1.000...Agnes Szavay (2-0)
0.750...Caroline Wozniacki (6-2)
0.667...ALISA KLEYBANOVA (2-1)

**2010 4Q WTA FINALS**
3...Caroline Wozniacki (2-1)
2...ANA IVANOVIC (2-0)
2...ALISA KLEYBANOVA (1-1)
2...Alla Kudryavtseva (1-1)

**2010 WEEKS AT #1**
[singles]
40...Serena Williams, USA
5...CAROLINE WOZNIACKI, DEN (+7 weeks to end '10)
[doubles]
20...Liezel Huber, USA
15...Cara Black/Liezel Huber, ZIM/USA (co-#1's)
8...Serena Williams/Venus Williams, USA/USA (co-#1's)
2...GISELA DULKO, ARG (+7 weeks to end '10)

**YEAR-END #1's - SEASON RECORDS**
[last ten seasons]
2001 Lindsay Davenport (62-9)
2002 Serena Williams (56-5)
2003 Justine Henin-Hardenne (75-11)
2004 Lindsay Davenport (63-9)
2005 Lindsay Davenport (60-10)
2006 Justine Henin-Hardenne (60-8)
2007 Justine Henin (63-4)
2008 Jelena Jankovic (65-19)
2009 Serena Williams (50-12)
2010 Caroline Wozniacki (63-16)


Part 2 of the 2010 Backspin Awards arrives later this week, as the latest "Ms. Backspin" will finally be crowned. All for now.



Juump is a free online community that makes it easy to meet people and play more tennis – right in your neighborhood. . With Juump, you can FIND players and groups who play at your favorite courts, MEET players with similar skill levels, interests and schedules, and PLAY more tennis.