BACKSPIN SPECIAL: The Best of Dementieva

The elusive chase is officially over. Elena Dementieva will never win a grand slam singles crown. She voluntarily ended her quest today in Doha, making the surprise announcement that she was retiring, effective immediately. And, thus, the 29-year old Russian puts a final period on the end of a career that always seemed to come up just short.


Elena in Her Beijing Glory

The career of the former world #3, two-time slam singles finalist, and Olympic Gold and Silver Medalist will forever be debated around tennis corners. Is she a Hall of Famer, or simply a member of The Hall of the Very Good? Will her season-by-season consistency (her string of forty-six straight slam appearances finally ended earlier this season), participation in Russia's leading Fed Cup role in the 2000's and all-around likability eventually trump her failure to lift "the big one" on a grand slam stage and usher her into Newport?

Today, it would appear the answer might be "no."

It's unfortunate, for Dementieva will now close the book on a career that was essentially "one match away" from immortality. Fittingly, she announced her retirement today at the season-ending championships after losing a round robin match one day after having secured a victory that had, for at least a few hours, kept alive her hopes of advancing to the semifinals of what she knew would be her last tournament. As it turned out, naturally, she came up one win short of doing so.

As far as this space goes, while Dementieva has never existed on the top shelf of "Backspin personalities" ala the Belgians, Williams Sisters, Jankovic, Sharapova and a few others, she's always been a consistent (though oft-frustrating) presence. I've said in the past that there would be few in the tennis world who wouldn't smile if Dementieva were to finally be able to be called a "grand slam champion." It'll never happen now, and I'd hazard a guess to say that there are few tonight who aren't at least a little bit sad about that fact.

"It is so emotional. It's so hard to say goodbye. I am going to miss you so much." - Dementieva, today in Doha

What follows is a Backspin history of Elena (aka "Punch-Drunk," aka "Punch-Sober"), in link form, from 2003-10. Looking back, I'm happy that I was able to write about each of her sixteen career tour singles titles.

Before that, though, are two telling excerpts from the past year in which I discussed the star-crossed nature of Dementieva's career:



October 24, 2009: "The Decade's Best: Players #11-15" (Dementieva #15)

Though she ranks on the bottom rung of this particular five-player (#11-15) ladder, Dementieva is the one woman who isn't somewhat "anonymous" to semi-casual followers of the sport. And that says a great deal about what she HAS managed to accomplish in her career, even while playing most of it with a serve that at times seemed to be something MORE than a simple liability. Still, that ugly serve, which she's only in recent seasons found a way to improve and turn into a sometimes-weapon, is probably THE reason why she's arguably the best women's player in the world to so far still be missing a grand slam singles championship. Nonethless, the two-time slam finalist ('04 Roland Garros & U.S. Open) and Olympic Gold ('08) and Silver ('04) Medalist with the crisp groundstrokes that have traditionally been the envy of most of the women on tour is without question one of the top players of the decade.

It took Dementieva until age 21 (in 2003) to finally win her first career tour singles title, as I had come to refer to her in this space as "Punch-Drunk" because of her propensity to take the 1st set against lesser-ranked opponents only to stumble around and ultimately squander the match, but she's since become a regular WTA titlist. Morphing into "Punch-Sober," she's now won fourteen titles (second on the all-time Russian list behind Maria Sharapova) and is ending the decade with four consecutive multiple-title seasons, the longest current streak on tour. A Top 20 player since 2000, she's been a year-end Top 10er every year except one ('07) since 2003. After having reached a career-high #4 ranking on the back on her two slam runner-up results in '04, she returned to the spot in '08 before bettering it in '09 (#3). Still in pursuit of that elusive slam championship, her RU's have been joined by an additional four slam SF, three QF and ten 4th Round results over the years. In 2009, she narrowly missed a third slam final appearance when she failed to convert match point in the Wimbledon semis against eventual champion Serena Williams in one of the classic matches of the 2000's.

While not a regular doubles participant, Dementieva has had her share of success outside of singles, as well. She's won six tour titles, including a Season-Ending Championships title in '02 (with Janette Husarova), and slam Doubles RU results at the '02 and '05 U.S. Open. In 2003, she reached a career-high doubles rank of #5.

When Dementieva faced Anastasia Myskina in the Roland Garros final in '04, it was the first time two Russians faced off for a slam crown (Dementieva faced another countrywoman, Svetlana Kuznetsova, in the U.S. Open final that summer, too). It was fitting that Dementieva participated in both historic matches, considering she's appeared in more all-Russian tour finals (11) than any other Hordette. Her six wins in those matches also tops the list. So, that she's missing a slam singles title on her resume will remain a sore point, even if Dementieva forever holds to her initial belief that her Olympic Gold in Beijing last year was as good or better than winning an actual slam title. I'm sure she was sincere when she said it... but, if given the opportunity in the future, it's more than likely that she might reconsider, too.



February 15, 2010: "A Case for The Hall of the Very Good?"

With Elena Dementieva, it's so often been about how good she COULD be... if only.

As good as the Russian HAS been through the years, she seems forever destined to be the "best player who never... (fill in the blank as you wish)." To never win a slam. To never reach #1. To never develop the serve that enabled the rest of her game to flourish BECAUSE of it rather than IN SPITE of it.

Ah, that serve. It used to be the ugliest thing you'd ever see on a tennis court, this side of a certain Belgian Barbie's desire to be publicly embraced. For years, it prevented Dementieva from taking advantage of perhaps the game's best groundstrokes. Yet, still, she found a way to win. In 2004, while her countrywomen Anastasia Myskina, Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova became the first (and, so far, still the only) Russian women to win slam titles, Dementieva was the only Hordette to reach two slam finals that year. She's finished in the Top 10 six times in the last seven years (and seems well-positioned to do so again in '10), and the only time she didn't she just missed the mark as the year-end #11.

With her serve holding her back in key moments early in her career, Dementieva often had a difficult time closing out matches. She earned her original Backspin moniker of "Punch-Drunk" because of the way she stumbled from pillar to post after taking one set leads over lesser-ranked players, only to eventually lose in three sets as she attempted to drag her serve over the finish line. In her first four career singles finals, she went 0-4. After so many of her countrywomen won their maiden tour titles as teenagers (Dinara Safina was 16, as was Sharapova, while Kuznetsova was 17, and Myskina and Vera Zvonareva both 18), it took Dementieva until she was 21 before she finally did it at Amelia Island in 2003.

She did it the hard way, too, overcoming match point against Justine Henin in the SF, then a 6-2/4-2 deficit against Lindsay Davenport in the A.I. final. Playing from behind, she was able to do what so many hard ball-striking players have traditionally been able to do -- hit with abandon, having nothing to lose. It worked for her, and "Punch-Sober" was born as she began to often come from a set down to defeat those lesser-ranked players who she'd so often squandered leads against in the past. Infused with new confidence, she soon began to win those matches in straight sets.

She still couldn't win "the big one," though. Then came the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

With her serve, after a long struggle, no longer the liability it once was, when the Russians hogged the tennis Medal stand in China it was Dementieva who was finally at the top of the heap. What still stands as her career-best moment might have provided the stepping stone to that elusivie grand slam success, too. But it still hasn't happened. She held match point in the Wimbledon SF against Serena Williams last year, but lost while Williams went on to win the title. At this year's Australian Open, just days after defeating Serena in Sydney, Dementieva was taken out by an unseeded wild card in the 2nd Round. Her name? Henin, the same person the Russian had successfully gone through for her initial tour breakthrough seven years earlier.

While eventual finalist Henin was undertaking a second go 'round as a slam champion, Dementieva was once again cut off at the pass before she could take her first.

This weekend, Dementieva added a title in the Paris indoors to her Week 2 crown in Sydney to give herself two titles in the young season's first six weeks for the second straight season. Naturally, she did it in classic Punch-Sober style, coming back from a set down against both Melanie Oudin and Lucie Safarova in the semifinal and final.

Even without a slam title, Dementieva has had a wonderful career. But has it been a "great" one? The way her career has played out, it's oh-so-close to being a non-issue. If only she'd had better match toughness early in her career. If only she'd developed her serve earlier. If only she'd been able to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that were seized by the other Russians back in 2004, or by other slam winners who were "lucky" enough to rise during the brief interludes when either the Williams Sisters or Henin were injured, retired or otherwised engaged. But the star-crossed Dementieva has always seemed to be a step behind, and seen players cut in line in front of her to steal the glory "meant" for her. She's gone forty-five slams without winning a title. No woman has even won her first later in a career.

At age 28 and still "in search of," it's time to start crunching the numbers for Dementieva's potential for post-career honors. Is she Hall of Fame-worthy, or just Hall "of the Very Good" eligible? Does she need to win a slam to make that historical leap? Is she fated to be the "best player without a slam," the "best player to never reach #1" AND the "best player not enshrined in Newport," too?

Personally, in my mind, I consider the full impact of Dementieva's career to be more "Hall of Fame"-ish than, say, Kuznetsova's, if only for her ability to overcome so much (that serve) in order to succeed, while Kuznetsova seems to somewhat "waste" her superior talent for mulitple-year spans that are bookended by slam titles. While Kuznetsova often drifts, Dementieva remains solid, if not spectacular in the season's four biggest tournaments. But, with two slams on her resume, Kuznetsova is a virtual Newport lock. Dementieva... not so much. One title shouldn't mean so much, but it does.

Minus any other career landmarks, it's a non-issue (see Iva Majoli, and probably Myskina), but when you're dancing on the HOF/Hall of Very Good fence like Dementieva it could mean everything. In many ways, Dementieva is this generation's version of Conchita Martinez. Martinez was a very good player, a leader along with Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in the rise of Spanish tennis in the late 1980's/early 1990's, who was a consistent threat but never climbed higher than #2 in the rankings. If not for her oddball Wimbledon title in '94 (defeating no less than a 37-year old Martina Navratilova in what was her last major final) Martinezmight have no chance of reaching Newport. With it, along with her Fed Cup play, she stands a good chance to eventually make the cut.

Dementieva, too, has played a key, though often supporting (ala Martinez's to ASV), role in the Russian tennis revolution. She's second behind only Sharapova in career titles by her countrywomen, and has easily been the most consistent, healthiest, season-long performer amongst the Hordettes through the years. She's the only Russian woman to have a singles Gold Medal, but is that prize enough to secure a HOF announcement down the line if she never wins anything bigger?

She might have to hope so.

Of course, there's something to be said for being the "best never to..." rather than to disappear within the ranks of one-time slam champs that are often lost to history once the last of their generation hangs up their rackets. There's a certain "cache" to it that keeps a player's name active in ongoing discussions in the sport. But believing that notion that might be a case of trying too hard to put a shine on a semi-tarnished resume, sort of like what Dementieva did when she said after winning the Gold Medal that it was actually "better" than winning a slam. It's easy to say such a thing when you've never done the latter, and fear you might never do so.

Dementieva's chances of correcting that aren't finished, but they ARE dwindling. Fast.





=2002=
December: "2003 Top 10 Most Intriguing Questions"

=2003=
February 10: "Round and Round, Round by Round"
April 14: (Jelena-Dokic.com's "Jelena Corner") "Dear Elena... / Punch-Drunk Love"
April 21: "The Tale of Punch-Drunk & Wonder Girl" (1st career title - Amelia Island)
September 15: "Zombies, Punch-Drunk & Me" (birth of "Punch-Sober" - Bali title)
September 22: "Honor Thy Elena" (back-to-back titles - Shanghai title)

=2004=
June 7: "Anastasia the Great" (RG Final)
September 14: "Finally a Bride" (U.S. Open Final)
October 4: "The Asian Assault" (Hasselt title)

=2005=
January 10: "Act 1, Scene 1" (Hong Kong exhibition title)
April 25: "Another Swiss Miss? (and other Fed Cup Afterthoughts)"
September 8: "U.S. Open Day 10: The Wonderful, Horrible Serve of Elena Dementieva"
September 18: "Twice as Nice" (Fed Cup Final)

=2006=
February 6: "Punch-Sober Also Rises" (Tokyo title)
August14: "Soberly Punching Away" (Los Angeles title)

=2007=
May26: "Bare Bones Backspin" (Istanbul title)
October 15: "How Smart We Were / How Dumb We Were" (Moscow title)

=2008=
March 3: "S.R.O. on the S.E.T." (Dubai title)
August 17: "A Horde o' Plenty" (Beijing Gold Medal)
October 27: "Championis Contagiosis?" (Luxembourg title)

=2009=
January 11: "Act 1, Scene 1 (2009)" (Auckland title)
January 18: "Bare Bones Backspin" (Sydney title)
January 24: "Oz Day 6: "Elena's Latest Escape"
January 29: "Oz Day 11: "Old Habits Die Hard"
July 2: "Wimbledon Day 10: Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Final" (SF vs. Serena)
August 24: "T-Minus One Week" (Toronto title / U.S. Open Series title)
October 24: "The Decade's Best: Players #11-15" (Dementieva #15)

=2010=
January 16: "Bare Bones Backspin" (Sydney title)
January 20: "Oz Day 3: "A Rolling Henin 2.0 Gathers No Moss"
February 15: "A Case for The Hall of the Very Good?" (Paris title)
June 1: "Roland Garros Day 10: "A Crazy Tale of Two Russians"
September 6: "U.S. Open Day 7 3/4: Zombie Queen, Thy Name is Sam" (vs. Stosur until 1:35am)

Good bye, Punch-Sober.

All for now.

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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.
=============================
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.
=============================
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.
=============================
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.
=============================
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.
=============================
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.
=============================
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.
=============================
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.
=============================
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.
=============================


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..
=============================
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.
=============================
3. Luxembourg QF - Goerges d. Ivanovic
...6-3/6-1. Luxembourg is not Linz.
=============================
4. Moscow 2nd Rd - Diyas d. Jankovic
...6-1/6-2. 2010 is not 2008, either.
=============================
5. Luxembourg 2nd Rd - Flipkens d. Rezai
...6-0/6-1. A season ago, Rezai won the season-concluding Tournament of Champions in Bali.
=============================
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.
=============================
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.
=============================
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.
=============================
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.
=============================
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.
=============================
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.
=============================


**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
=============================
=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.



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.

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2010 Regional Honors

The 2010 Backspin Awards are almost here, so consider this something of a mini-preview... region by region.

==NORTH AMERICA==
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Serena Williams, USA
POY (RUNNER-UP): Venus Williams, USA
RISER: Rebecca Marino, CAN
SURPRISE: Beatrice Capra, USA
VETERAN: Liezel Huber, USA
FRESH FACE: Coco Vandeweghe, USA
COMEBACK: Bethanie Mattek-Sands, USA
DOWN: Aleksandra Wozniacki, CAN
JUNIOR: Sloane Stephens, USA
DOUBLES: Vania King, USA
TEAM: United States Fed Cup Team
ITF PLAYER: Jamie Hampton, USA
IMPROVED: Alison Riske, USA
UNDERRATED: Jill Craybas, USA
PERFORMANCE: Serena Williams wins Wimbledon without dropping a set
NATION ON THE RISE: Canada
COMEBACK NATION: United States

==SOUTH AMERICA==
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Gisela Dulko, ARG
POY (RUNNER-UP): Mariana Duque-Marino, COL
RISER: Gabriela Paz, VEN
SURPRISE: Florencia Molinaro, ARG
VETERAN: Catalina Castano, COL
FRESH FACE: Camila Silva, CHI
DOWN: Maria-Fernanda Alves, BRA
JUNIOR: Agustina Sol Eskenazi, ARG
DOUBLES: Gisela Dulko, ARG
TEAM: Maria Irigoyen/Meilen Auroux, ARG (Fed Cup)
ITF PLAYER: Roxane Vaisemberg, BRA
IMPROVED: Paula Ormaechea, ARG
UNDERRATED: Meilen Auroux, ARG
PERFORMANCE: Gisela Dulko wins three Premier-level doubles titles
NATION ON THE RISE: Brazil
COMEBACK NATION: Argentina

==ASIA/PACIFIC==
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Samantha Stosur, AUS
POY (RUNNER-UP): Li Na, CHN
RISER: Jarmila Groth, AUS
SURPRISE: Sally Peers, AUS
VETERAN: Tamarine Tanasugarn, THA
FRESH FACE: Ayumi Morita, JPN
COMEBACK: Sesil Karatantcheva, KAZ
DOWN: Chinese Fed Cup Team
JUNIOR: Sachie Ishizu, JPN
DOUBLES: Yaroslava Shvedova, KAZ
TEAM: Chan Yung-Jan/Zheng Jie, TPE/CHN
ITF PLAYER: Jelena Dokic, AUS
IMPROVED: Anastasia Rodionova,AUS
UNDERRATED: Akgul Amanmuradova, UZB
PERFORMANCE: Li Na & Zheng Jie reach Australian Open singles semifinals
NATION ON THE RISE: Taiwan
COMEBACK NATIONS: Australia & Japan

==AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST==
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Shahar Peer, ISR
POY (RUNNER-UP): Cara Black ZIM
RISER: Nadia Lalami, MAR
SURPRISE: Fatma Al Nabhani, OMA
VETERAN: Cara Black, ZIM
FRESH FACE: Chanel Simmonds, RSA
COMEBACK: Julia Glushko, ISR
DOWN: Shahar Peer, ISR (in SF's, where she was 1-6)
JUNIOR: Ons Jabeur, TUN
DOUBLES: Cara Black, ZIM
TEAM: Nour Abbes/Ons Jabeur, TUN
ITF PLAYER: Pemra Ozgen, TUR
IMPROVED: Chanelle Scheepers, RSA
UNDERRATED: Cagla Buyakakcay, TUR
PERFORMANCE: Cara Black completes career Mixed Doubles slam with Australian Open Mixed title
NATION ON THE RISE: Tunisia
COMEBACK NATION: South Africa

==RUSSIA==
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Vera Zvonareva
POY (RUNNER-UP): Elena Dementieva
RISER: Alisa Kleybanova
SURPRISE: Alla Kudryavtseva
VETERAN: Nadia Petrova
FRESH FACE: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
COMEBACK: Anna Chakvetadze
DOWN: Russian Fed Cup Team
JUNIOR: Daria Gavrilova
DOUBLES: Maria Kirilenko
TEAM: Russian Junior Fed Cup Team
ITF PLAYER: Anna Lapushchenkova
IMPROVED: Evgeniya Rodina
UNDERRATED: Ekaterina Makarova
PERFORMANCE: Vera Zvonareva reaches back-to-back slam singles finals at Wimbledon & the U.S. Open

==REST OF EUROPE==
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Francesca Schiavone, ITA
POY (RUNNER-UP): Caroline Wozniacki, DEN
RISER: Victoria Azarenka, BLR
SURPRISE: Anastasiya Sevastova, LAT
VETERAN: Kim Clijsters, BEL
FRESH FACE: Alexandra Dulgheru, ROU
COMEBACK: Justine Henin, BEL
DOWN: Jelena Jankovic, SRB
JUNIOR: Karolina & Kristyna Pliskova, CZE
DOUBLES: Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova, CZE
TEAM: Italian Fed Cup Team
ITF PLAYER: Mathilde Johansson, FRA
IMPROVED: Kaia Kanepi, EST
UNDERRATED: Johanna Larsson, SWE
PERFORMANCE: Francesca Schiavone, days from her 30th birthday, wins herfirst slam crown at Roland Garros
NATIONS ON THE RISE: Belarus, Great Britain, Kazakhstan & Romania
COMEBACK NATIONS: Czech Republic & Germany





Looking to "buy stock" in a few players for 2011? Getting cold feet and thinking you should "sell" your holdings in one of those past investments? Here are a few WTA "market tips"... take them to heart at your own peril.

=BUY=
NORTH AMERICA: Rebecca Marino, CAN & Alison Riske, USA
...they've both put together back-to-back-to-back ITF title runs since the end of the U.S. Open.

SOUTH AMERICA: Veronica Cepede Royg, PAR & Camila Silva, CHI
...ready to fully inherit de los Rios' leading role in Paraguayan women's tennis -- and she's still a teenager. Hey, 17-year old Silva is a "Chilean Minor," and I hear they're hot right now. So... naturally.

ASIA/PACIFIC: Chang Kai-Chen, TPE & Yaroslava Shvedova, KAZ
...slowly, but surely, Chang is proving that her late '09 surge wasn't a flash in the pan. Meanwhile, is Shvedova capable of being a Top 5 Doubles AND Top 20 singles player next year?

AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST: Ons Jabeur, TUN
...finally, a player to follow in Selima Sfar's untouched Tunisian footsteps in the sand.

RUSSIA: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
...next stop: Top 10. Or, at least Top 15 in 2011.

REST OF EUROPE: Justine Henin/BEL, Yanina Wickmayer/BEL & Petra Kvitova/CZE
...crossing fingers and toes for LPT 3.0 is the new Backspin pastime. With less off-court stress, maybe Wickmayer can get back to where she was when she ended '09 and successfully rode the crest of her emotions in January '10. Kvitova has the goods, even if she's been struggling to learn how to traverse the new landscape that comes with being a grand slam semifinalist since July.

=SELL=
NORTH AMERICA: Stephanie Dubois, CAN
...a Canadian who can player decent tennis isn't as much of a oddity/novelty as it was a few seasons ago.

SOUTH AMERICA: Gisela Dulko, ARG (in singles)
...even as her doubles results have soared, it's been over two years since she won a singles title. It's not a good thing when your most memorable singles match of the season is the one in which your opponent literally collapses on the court through not fault of your own.

ASIA/PACIFIC: Samantha Stosur, AUS
...I'm just not very confident in her '11 chances after the way her results have dipped since her crushing loss in the Roland Garros final.

AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST: Chanelle Scheepers, RSA
...what are the chances she'll have back-to-back "career years?"

RUSSIA: Dinara Safina
...a tennis player with back (and head) problems is not something on which to bet the family nest egg.

REST OF EUROPE: Tsvetana Pironkova, BUL
...one wondered what sort of player she'd be after reaching a slam semifinal. Unfortunately, we found out.

=HAVE A LITTLE FAITH IN THE INVESTMENT=
NORTH AMERICA: Melanie Oudin, USA
...she's still only 18.

SOUTH AMERICA: Gisela Dulko, ARG (in singles)
...of course, the more successful she is in doubles (could a #1 ranking be in her future?), the more tempting it is to believe that she'll finally round into the consistent singles threat her fans have always hoped she become.

ASIA/PACIFIC: Sania Mirza, IND
...she missed out on Commonwealth Games Gold, but she showed that she still cares.

AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST: Cara Black, ZIM
...the search for the perfect late-career partner continues. But Black has a history of linking up with a new regular doubles teammate every few years and making it work all over again. Maybe she can do it one final time for old time's sake.

RUSSIA: Svetlana Kuznetsova
...she's drifted off before and managed to come back strong. She will again. Eventually.

REST OF EUROPE: Ana Ivanovic, SRB & Sabine Lisicki, GER
...AnaIvo continues to work at finding the right combination. One day she'll jimmy open that post-'08 Roland Garros lock on her potential, and wonder why it took so long to do it. This is the time when everyone should have one of those mass consciousness moments and try to telepathically force Lisicki's body to hold together, and just hope that no one whispers those "spell-breaking" words into her ear. You know what they are... "Julia Vakulenko."


All for now.

Read more...

2010-11 All-Intriguing Team

Hmmm, there're two ways to look at the WTA tour at this time of year. One, there's less than a month remaining in the 2010 season. But, two, we're also less than three months away from seeing the 2011 campaign kick off Down Under. Disappointment could soon turn to celebration, and vice versa, for any and every player on tour... and we're not long from knowing the difference between reality and fiction.

So, with one foot clearly in both the present, as well as the past, whose not-too-distant future would seem to be the most intriguing from where we stand today? Well, here are a few to consider:

Justine Henin, BEL: LPT 1.0 was spectacular. 2.0 ... well, not so much. Oh, it had it's moments, but Henin seemed to lack a natural affinity and/or know-how for her "new" game. It just never became second nature, and at times one could almost see her hesitation as she searched for a non-existent muscle memory to reflexively guide her. As a result, her level of play was often a hit-and-miss proposition. Then an elbow injury at Wimbledon ended her season. As it turns out, the unscheduled break might offer her a rare opportunity to "start over." Again. Knowing what worked and what didn't in '10, she'll return in '11 after having either fully absorbed the style of play that was more forward-moving than the one that won her seven slams, or maybe having decided that she should never have tried something new at all and go back to her previous game. Oh, and hopefully, maybe most importantly, she'll have sured up the serving mechanics that so often broke down after she altered her motion in order to preserve her previously-injured shoulder. The opportunity was there to make 2010 the site of a grand return (Henin's actually continued to progressively move up the rankings even while not playing since late June, highlighting the general flatness of the results of the tour's non-Wozniacki Top 20 players), but maybe '11 is when the Belgian will eliminate any lingering notion that a comeback might have been so hot of an idea.
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Victoria Azarenka, BLR: Will Azarenka learn anything from her seven retirements in twenty-one events in 2010? After all, one would have thought that she'd have learned something after succumbing to the harsh Australian Open conditions in early '09, or from managing to out-cramp a certain physically exhausted Dane in the Doha heat in late '09. But she didn't. Instead, in '10 she continued to resemble a player who doesn't adequately physically prepare herself for the grind of a WTA season. She tried to play at the U.S. Open hours after suffering a concussion, and literally collapsed on the court, and pulled up lame with far more muscle pulls, strains and heat-induced nosedives than a well-conditioned athlete should if her time between tourmaments was being fully utilized to maintain levels of strength, fitness and cardiovascular health. As a result, even though she's always a threat to win any tournament she plays, she can just as easily turn out to be a far more user-friendly opponent than she should be. Azarenka need only look to her friend, Wozniacki, to see an example of a player who's shown the commitment necessary to become a champion. The Dane showed that a player can reach the Top 5 and a slam final but still not be prepared as she could (and should) be. As C-Woz has become better conditioned, she's continued to rise up the rankings to #1, and often is at her best deep into the 3rd sets of marathon matches. Azarenka says all the right things about wanting to be a champion, and her on-court anger makes it appear as if her desire is endless. But she'll never fulfill those goals unless she shows the same commitment in her training off the court. If she didn't learn that lesson this season, then maybe she never will.
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Kaia Kanepi, EST: Kanepi reached the quarters at the final two slams of 2010, and was a match point (five, actually) from finding herself in the Wimbledon semifinals. She won her first career tour singles title, too, as her fitness noticably improved with each passing month. Such a situation surely shines a light on this hard-hitting Estonian as a player just scratching the surface of what she's capable of achieving at age 25. Late bloomers can still accomplish big things if they work hard enough (just ask Ms. Schiavone). If Kanepi can continue to improve just a tab more in '11, she might just find a way to grab something big along the way.
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Caroline Wozniacki, DEN: C-Woz's career is moving along right on schedule. She's been taking steps forward at a regular, honest pace for years. The Junior champion became a WTA titlist, then a Top 20, then Top 10, player. Soon afterward, she was a slam finalist, and this month she became the world's #1-ranked player. Up until she missed out on her first slam title at the Open this summer, she'd never gotten ahead of herself. As the fifth woman to rise to #1 without a slam title to her credit, she now has a singular goal to focus on. She's surely capable of accomplishing it in '11, and has shown a willingness that many of the players in her generation to do what it takes to improve, both off it and on (where she'll still need to increase her aggressiveness in order to consistently compete with the likes of the Williamses and Belgians). Still, this offseason will be tricky. All the pressure that comes with the top ranking has served to help scuttle the results of the last three women to assume the spot for the first time in their careers. But while those players were saddled with newly-high expectations and/or sooner-than-expected fame, Wozniacki has been gradually working toward the place she now finds herself and seems fairly comfortable with it. But she IS just 20, and has expressed a desire to emulate Anna Kournikova as an off-the-court personality... so hopefully her own cheerful nature and grounded family situation will prevent another AnaIvo-esque disappearing act from developing on the court as Wozniacki deals with all the new off-court opportunities that being #1 -- and photogenic -- produces. The Dane got to the top spot by working hard, but she'll have to work twice as hard to stay there. And even if she can it doesn't assure her of winning that elusive slam title in '11. But, no matter what happens next, the quest should prove to be intriguing.
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The Bannerettes, USA: Come on, did you REALLY think that the Williams Sisters would actually play in the Fed Cup final after they committed to being there a few months ago? Oh, well. Regardless of whether the American Bannerettes can pull an upset again the defending champion Italian team in San Diego next month, the long-awaited next generation of admirable U.S. women's players seems to have finally arrived. For the first time since the Sisters arrived on the scene, there appears to be a group of young American players who could populate and win on the WTA scene. One year after Melanie Oudin became a star at the '09 U.S. Open, '10 saw major gains and moments from the likes of Coco Vandeweghe, Christina McHale, Beatrice Capra, Alison Riske, Sloane Stephens and others. Vania King (in 2006) is the only American teen to win a singles title on tour since Serena did it in '99. That could change sometime in 2011.
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Maria Sharapova, RUS: Is 2011 the year when the course of the rest of Sharapova's career will be determined? Over the past six months, some have seen the Russian as being on an extended course toward reclaiming her old spot in the Top 5 and as a consistent slam contender by next summer, but her lack of consistent results, continued post-shoulder surgery service problems, and -- worst of all -- a seeming case of the "yips" when it comes to closing out matches and rising to the occasion in tight situations, the jury is very much still out and the verdict on whether she'll EVER be "Supernovic" again hardly pre-determined. Monica Seles was never the same poke-out-your-eye competitor after her stabbing, and one has to wonder if Sharapova will ever be able to be the hard-bitten opponent she once was now that she's got that nagging notion in the back of her mind that she can't really FULLY trust that her one-time biggest weapons -- her serve and her heart -- will be there when she needs them in a match's crunchtime. Could it be that the hard truth about the Russian's career arc has been hiding in plain sight all along? When I first gave Sharapova that "Supernova" nickname back in 2004, I played off only a portion of the dictionary definition of the word. "A rare celestial phenomenon in which a star explodes" seemed an apt description of her meteoric rise, but I chose to mostly ignore the "resulting in an extremely bright, short-lived object" part of the equation. Maybe it's time to take the blinders off?
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Rebecca Marino, CAN: The big-hitter made quite an impression on Venus Williams when the two played at the U.S. Open this season, but the most important person she proved something to may have been herself. She's been on something of a tear since Flushing Meadows, winning three straight ITF titles and stringing together a fifteen-match winning streak. She's surpassed the tailing-off Aleksandra Wozniak as the top-ranked Canadian female, and could be the most promising Canuck since Carling Bassett. She's still somewhat under-the-radar, but that status might not last much longer.
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Vania King/Yaroslava Shvedova, USA/KAZ: Even with only ten events as a team, King/Shvedova is still the #5-ranked doubles team for the season, thanks mostly to their back-to-back slam titles in London and New York. With the Sisters only a part-time force, and with the former Black/Huber top ranking hegemony now a thing of the past, what might this pair do if they commit to a full season as a team in '11?
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These players might not have made the "official" All-Intriguing Team, but their immediate futures certainly can't go overlooked or unanalyzed:

Sabine Lisicki, GER: Just whether or not she can physically make it through a tournament is intriguing enough, but if she's ever physically sound she's ALSO a threat to win. Her career pretty resembles a human flip of the coin at this point. Take heads, and hope for the best.
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Dinara Safina, RUS, Ana Ivanovic, SRB & Jelena Jankovic, SRB: Before Wozniacki rose to #1 this month, these three other women assumed the #1 ranking for the first time over the previous two seasons. None have managed to win a slam title since they found themselves atop the rankings. AnaIvo, though, was at least fortunate enough to win in Paris in '08 two days before she officially became the #1-ranked woman in the world. Only JJ has avoided a steep decline after taking her place on the women's throne, but she still hasn't been able to match what she did to get there in the first place, largely because of faulty offseason training regimens or a stream of nagging, but not debilitating, injuries that have sapped much of the joy out of the smiling Serb's antics. Safina's back issues are becoming more and more troubling. Ivanovic just won a title in Linz, has climbed back into the Top 30 and is currently showing some upward mobility. Whether or not her recent mini-resurgence is a mirage is one of the leading questions on tour as the '10 season concludes.
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Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, RUS: She won a title and reached the top 20. But it's the leap into the Top 10 that is often the toughest, and it rarely comes without a period of trial-and-error.
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Yaroslava Shvedova, KAZ: She won two slam Doubles titles, was a two-time Mixed Doubles slam runner-up and slam singles quarterfinalist in '10. Her confidence should be at an all-time time going into next season. Here's my first 2011 prediction: Shvedova will become the first player representing Kazakhstan to win a tour singles title (it'd be Shvedova's second, though, as she was still playing for Russia when she won her sole tour crown in Bangalore in '07).
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The Aussies: Jarmila Groth's results haven't been great since she won in Guangzhou, but she's more than proved that her recent slam flashes weren't illusions. In 2011, she'll have to re-prove herself all over again. Might Commonwealth Games champ Anastasia Rodionova join Groth next season as the latest naturalized Australian to win a tour title? Speaking of naturalized Aussies, does Jelena Dokic have one more slam run in her? Meanwhile, Brisbane-born Samantha Stosur's results since she reached the Roland Garros final have raised far more questions than her Paris run seemed to answered. Could 2010 have been the "career" year -- a Top 10 ranking, slam final and win over then-#1 Serena -- that she'll never duplicate?
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Nicole Vaidisova, CZE: She's only 21, and it's still hard to believe that we won't be seeing one of those "guess who's back" stories about the Czech at some point in the near future.
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The 2010 "Regional Honors" (w/ "2011 Market Tips") arrive next on the scene.

All for now.

Read more...

Wk.41- Everything Old is New Again

Everything "old" was new again in Week 41, which was about climbing back and refusing to stop climbing.

In Linz, Ana Ivanovic, who was a slam champion and the #1-player in the world only two years ago (though it seems so much longer), once again showed signs that she might finaly be emerging from her career's twenty-eight month mostly-bad results stall-out. Any win of any kind is a good thing for a player who has battled confidence issues ever since she reached a place in her career when her confidence SHOULD have been at an all-time high. Winning a singles title in Austria, which AnaIvo did on Sunday, should provide the Serb with an even bigger sense of accomplishment, proving that all her coaching decisions and stop-and-starts of the past year or so have been worth it.

But, then again, how do we know?

After all, the last time Ivanovic won a title was two years ago. She won it in Linz, too. So, is this really some sort of resurgence, or simply a case of a player finding their comfort zone in a place where she's previously had success, and that single result might not mean a thing once she escapes over the Austrian border? At the very least, AnaIvo has shown that indoors in Linz she's able to block out all the white noise that has surrounded her since the spring of '08. When -- and if -- she can prove it somewhere else, though, is when we'll know whether this particular title means anything other than being a one-line entry in her career bio.

Meanwhile, in Osaka, the lionesses of Asian tennis, doubles partners at this year's Wimbledon, faced off in singles for the third time in three seasons to decide which player would become the oldest WTA singles champion of 2010. AnaIvo might still be struggling to learn how to successfully exist on tour at age 22, but she need only look to 33-year old Tamarine Tanasugarn and 40-year old Kimiko Date-Krumm to see that there IS indeed a knack to it.

After returning to the tour two seasons ago and winning a WTA title in Seoul at age 39, Japan's Date-Krumm was looking to make an even more indelible mark in the tour's record book this weekend by becoming the WTA's first over-40 singles champion. But she was prevented from doing so by Tanasugarn. The Thai vet, too, knows a thing or two about late-career success. She's now won four career singles titles, but three of them have come since she celebrated her thirtieth birthday. In 2008, she reached her first and only slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon. Generally seen in recent years as a grass court specialist, her hard court crown in Osaka was her first non-grass tour win she was victorious in Hyderabad back in 2003.

Tanasugarn was but a young whippersnapper of twenty-five back then, nearly three years older than AnaIvo is now. In other words, no matter what happens next for Ivanovic, she still has a lot of time to learn how to do things right.

Of course, that doesn't mean that she shouldn't use that time wisely.

*WEEK 41 CHAMPIONS*

LINZ, AUSTRIA (Int'l $220K/hard indoor)
S: Ana Ivanovic def. Patty Schnyder 6-1/6-2
D: Voracova/Zahlavova-Strycova d. Peschke/Srebotnik

OSAKA, JAPAN (Int'l $220K/hard outdoor)
S: Tamarine Tanasguarn def. Kimiko Date-Krumm 7-5/6-7/1-6
D: Chang/Osterloh d. Aoyama/Fujiwara


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Ana Ivanovic/SRB
...after following up her QF result in Beijing (wins over Bartoli and Dementieva) with a title run in Linz (def. Cirstea, Zahlavova-Strycova, Goerges, Vinci & Schnyder), there IS reason for optimism when it comes to AnaIvo's attempts to work her back from her post-#1 nosedive. She's back in the Top 30, and should be seeded at the Australian Open come January. There's no reason career title #9 shouldn't be joined by many more in the next few seasons. The Serb is still a few weeks away from her 23rd birthday, and she should be about to enter the prime contending years of her career with her head held high. We figured at the time that her Roland Garros title and #1 ranking came a bit earlier than expected. Now it's up to Ivanovic to prove that that WAS the case, plain and simple, and that her first taste of incredible success won't also be her last.
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RISERS: Shahar Peer/ISR & Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova/CZE
...after an oft-rocky '09, Peer has proven to once again be one of the more consistent players on tour in '10. Her semifinal berth in Osaka was her seventh this season, good for sole posession of second place on the season's leader list behind Caroline Wozniacki. Problem is, she's only 1-6 in those final four matches. In Linz, Zahlavova-Strycova grabbed her fifth doubles title of the season (only Gisela Dulko has more), and did it with a third different partner. After previously celebrating with Iveta Benesova and Polona Hercog, she split her latest winner's check with countrywoman Renata Voracova.
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SURPRISES: Chang Kai-Chen/TPE & Roxane Vaisemberg/BRA
...a year ago, Chang made something of a name for herself in the latter part of the year, qualifying at the U.S. Open and knocking off the first seed (Kaia Kanepi) to fall at Flushing Meadows. Weeks later in Tokyo, she defeated Kanepi again and, as the world #132, took down then-#1 ranked Dinara Safina. Her leaps-and-bounds improvement hasn't been a weekly thing this season, but she showed she has indeed progressed last week in Osaka. In singles, she reached the QF with wins over Lilia Osterloh and Maria Kirilenko, then won her first career tour title when she and Osterloh teamed to claim the doubles. On the ITF circuit, Brazil's Vaisemberg won her fourth singles title of the season in Sao Paolo, defeating Argentina's Catalina Pella in the final. Vaisemberg has reached seven challenger finals this season, just one behind Romina Oprandi's current season-leading total of eight.
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COMEBACKS: Tamarine Tanasugarn/THA & Eleni Daniilidou/GRE
...nearly two months ago, when the 33-year old Tanasugarn lost in the 1st Round of a $25K challenger event in Japan to young Thai player Nungnadda Wannasuk, one wondered if the end might be near for the greatest female tennis player in the history of Thailand. But hold on. Five weeks ago, the veteran won a $25K challenger title. Then, last week, she just went absolutely nuts in Osaka. She defeated a slew of youngsters (Magdalena Rybarikova, Coco Vandeweghe, Chang Kai-Chen), a Top 20er (Marion Bartoli) and one of the few players on tour actually older than herself (Kimiko Date-Krumm) to win her fourth career tour singles title. After what had been a four-season drought from 2004-07, she's now won at least one title in each of the last three seasons, making her one of only nine women to currently be able to speak of such championship-winning consistency. In Linz, Greece's Daniilidou continued what had before been her recent ITF-based mini-resurgence (she was a $50K in Athens the first week of October) by qualifying to reach only her third tour main draw of '10 (defeating Sorana Cirstea to get there). Once there, she upset Dominika Cibulkova and Sybille Bammer. They were her first tour victories since March '08 in Indian Wells, and they placed her in her first WTA QF since she won a title via walkover against Vera Zvonareva in Hobart in January '08. This weekend in Luxembourg, she knocked off '09 finalist Sabine Lisicki in straight sets in the qualifying rounds, though she failed to make it through to the main draw today, losing to Ivana Lisjak.
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VETERANS: Kimiko Date-Krumm/JPN & Patty Schnyder/SUI
...Date-Krumm's comeback has found footing elsewhere over the last couple of years, but it has found its true footing in Asia. A year ago, at age 39, she won her first tour title in thirteen years in Seoul. Last week in Osaka, she was at it again. She notched wins over Laura Robson, Aiko Nakamura, defending champion Sam Stosur (becoming the only woman in '10 to knock off the defending champ at a WTA event on two different occasions during the season) and Shahar Peer to reach the final. If she'd defeated Tanasugarn, she'd have become the first fortysomething to ever win a WTA singles title (her win in Seoul already made her the second-oldest tour champ in history). Alas, that'll probably have to wait until 2011. Meanwhile, Schnyder continues to refuse to fade away. She hasn't won a tour title since September '08, but she's managed to reach three finals over the last two seasons even while hardly making the on-court (and off) splash she used to on the WTA landscape. Last week in Linz, she reached her second singles final of '10 (Budapest in July) with a string of good wins over the likes of Gisela Dulko, Klara Zakopalova, Daniela Hantuchova and Andrea Petkovic before finally going down at the hands of Ivanovic on Sunday.
=============================
FRESH FACES: Rebecca Marino/CAN & Alison Riske/USA
...in Week 38, Marino defeated Riske in a tight three-set final in a $50K challenger in Saguenay in Marino's native Canada. Since then, neither player has lost a match, going a combined 20-0. Two weeks after their Canadian meeting, Riske claimed a $75K event. This past week, both put away $50K titles. Marino grabbed her third challenger crown in a row (all since her eye-opening U.S. Open loss to Venus Williams), winning the Troy $50K in Alabama, defeating Ashley Weinhold in the final to run her winning streak to fifteen matches; while Riske won in the $50K Joue-les-Tours event, taking out Vesna Manasieva in the deciding match. Might these two young hard-hitters (Marino is 19, Riske 20) be the two players to keep the closest eye on next season amongst the burgeoning group of up-and-coming North Americans?
=============================
DOWN: Samantha Stosur/AUS
...Stosur's road to her first WTA title finally reached its destination one year ago when the Aussie won her maiden crown in Osaka (defeating Francesca Schiavone in the final). This year, though, she turned down a dead end alley, likely because of the local "directions" of Date-Krumm, her Japanese quarterfinal conqueror this time around. The loss continues the decline of Stosur's results since she reached and lost the Roland Garros final to Schiavone. Before that slam final, Stosur was on a 27-4 run and had wins over Serena Williams and Justine Henin. From the RG loss on, she's a very uninspiring 13-10, and is just 2-3 in the season's 4th Quarter.
=============================
ITF PLAYER: Yanina Wickmayer/BEL
...after such a quick start in '10 after her "suspension," Wickmayer has sort of drifted from the spotlight. For the first time since her nine-month old title-winning turn in Auckland, though, the Belgian finally won something again, as in the $100K challenger event held in Torhout, Belgium. There, Wickmayer got early wins over Urszula Radwanska, Pauline Parmentier and Andrea Hlavackova before defeating Simona Halep 6-3/6-2 in the final. A single title wasn't enough for Wickmayer, though. She and Michaella Krajicek also won the doubles.
=============================
JUNIOR STAR: Madison Keys/USA
...the 15-year old claimed the title at the Pan American Closed Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The hard-serving American defeated Kyle McPhilips and Lauren Davis before defeating Christina Makarova 6-2/6-1 in the final. Keys also won the doubles with Annie Mulholland.
=============================


1. Osaka Final - Tanasugarn d. Date-Krumm
...7-5/6-7/6-1. Tanasugarn's title makes Thailand the twenty-first different nation to produce a WTA singles champion this season, one more than the twenty champion nations of 2009.
=============================
2. Osaka 1st Rd - Date-Krumm d. Robson
...6-3/6-3. Kirilenko touched both ends of the age spectrum in Osaka, opening with a win over the 16-year old Robson before closing out her week by playing a final where the combined age of both players was seventy-three.
=============================
3. Linz Final - Ivanovic d. Schnyder
...6-1/6-2. Will AnaIvo not lift another title until Linz '12? Will she better time her bathroom break so that she isn't docked points for taking too long? These are the questions we ponder.
=============================
4. Linz 1st Rd - Kvitova d. Rodionova
...6-2/1-0 ret. Rodionova was one of the few things that DIDN'T break down at the Commonwealth Games site in Delhi. She wasn't able to make it through her first post-Gold medal match in Austria, though.
=============================
5. Osaka 1st Rd - Brianti d. Morita
...7-5/3-6/6-4. The previous week, Morita had beaten Brianti en route to winning a $100K challenger title in Tokyo.
=============================
HM- $50K Joue-les-Tours 2nd Rd - Jelena Dokic d. Karolina Pliskova
...4-6/6-3/6-3. After double-bageling her 1st Round opponent to notch her first singles victory since her pre-U.S. Open three straight ITF tournament title run, Dokic got another over the Czech teen. Dokic ultimately reached the semifinals, losing to Vesna Manasieva in three sets.
=============================


**OLDEST 2010 WTA CHAMPIONS**
33y,4m,3w - TAMARINE TANASUGARN, THA (OSAKA)
29y,11m,1w - Francesca Schiavone, ITA (Roland Garros)
29y,9m,3w - Francesca Schiavone, ITA (Barcelona)
29y,8m,2w - Venus Williams, USA (Acapulco)
29y,8m,1w - Venus Williams, USA (Dubai)

**MOST 2010 WTA SEMIFINALS**
9...Caroline Wozniacki (7-2)
7...SHAHAR PEER (1-6)
6...Vera Zvonareva (6-0)
6...Elena Dementieva (4-2)
6...Samantha Stosur (3-3)
6...Victoria Azarenka (3-3)
6...Flavia Pennetta (3-3)

**WORST WINNING PCT. in 2010 FINALS - 2+ FINALS**
.000 - PATTY SCHNYDER (0-2)
.000 - Elena Vesnina (0-2)
.000 - Klara Zakopalova (0-2)
.167 - Vera Zvonareva (1-5)
.333 - Victoria Azarenka (1-2)
.333 - Flavia Pennetta (1-2)
.333 - Samantha Stosur (1-2)

**2010 - DEFEATED TOP SEED & DEFENDING CHAMP, DIDN'T WIN TITLE**
Eastbourne - Aravane Rezai (1st Rd. def. Wozniacki, reached 2nd Rd.)
Bad Gastein - Alize Cornet (2nd Rd. def. Petkovic, reached SF)
Cincinnati - Akgul Amanmuradova (3rd Rd. def. Jankovic, reached QF)
OSAKA - KIMIKO DATE-KRUMM (QF def. STOSUR, REACHED FINAL)

**CONSECUTIVE SEASONS WITH SINGLES TITLE**
[active streaks]
8 years - Maria Sharapova, 2003-10
5 years - Elena Dementeiva, 2006-10
4 years - Jelena Jankovic, 2007-10
4 years - Flavia Pennetta, 2007-10
4 years - Serena Williams, 2007-10
4 years - Venus Williams, 2007-10
3 years - TAMARINE TANASUGARN, 2007-10
3 years - Caroline Wozniacki, 2008-10
3 years - Vera Zvonareva, 2008-10
--
ALSO: Medina-Garrigues has 6-year streak, 2004-09

**2010 - WTA TITLES BY NATION**
13...Russia
7...Belgium
6...Denmark
4...United States
3...Italy
2...Australia
2...France
2...Hungary
2...SERBIA
1...Austria
1...Belarus
1...China
1...Colombia
1...Czech Republic
1...Estonia
1...Germany
1...Latvia
1...Romania
1...Spain
1...THAILAND
1...Ukraine

**NINE CAREER TITLES - ACTIVE**
[last title]
ANA IVANOVIC, SRB [2010]
Anabel Medina-Garrigues, ESP [2009]
Flavia Pennetta, ITA [2010]
Nadia Petrova, RUS [2008]

**2010 - WILD CARD WON WTA TITLE**
Auckland - Yanina Wickmayer, BEL (#3 seed)
Stuttgart - Justine Henin, BEL
Strasbourg - Maria Sharapova, RUS (#1 seed)
Birmingham - Li Na, CHN (#1 seed)
's-Hertogenbosch - Justine Henin, BEL (#1 seed)
Stanford - Victoria Azarenka, BLR (#8 seed)
LINZ - ANA IVANOVIC, SRB (#7 seed)

**WON 2010 ITF & WTA SINGLES TITLES**
Anna Chakvetadze, RUS - 1 ITF & Portoroz WTA
Jarmila Groth, AUS - 1 ITF & Guangzhou WTA
Kaia Kanepi, EST - 2 ITF & Palermo WTA
Tamira Paszek, AUT - 1 ITF & Quebec City WTA
TAMARINE TANASGUARN, THA - 1 ITF & Osaka WTA
YANINA WICKMAYER, BEL - 1 ITF & Auckland WTA

**2010 ITF LEADERS**
[finals]
8...Romina Oprandi, ITA (4-4)
7...Madalina Gojnea, ROU (6-1)
7...Jamie Hampton, USA (4-3)
7...ROXANE VAISEMBERG, BRA (4-3)
6...Magda Linette, POL (4-2)
6...Olivia Sanchez, FRA (4-2)
6...Johanna Larsson, SWE (3-3)
[titles won by North Americans]
4...Jamie Hampton, USA
3...REBECCA MARINO, CAN
2...Macall Harkins, USA
2...ALISON RISKE, USA
2...Coco Vandeweghe, USA





MOSCOW, RUSSIA (Premer $1m/hard indoor)
09 Final: Schiavone d. Govortsova
10 Top Seeds: Jankovic/Azarenka
=============================
=SF=
#3 Li d. #1 Jankovic
#7 Kleybanova d. Kudryavtseva
=FINAL=
#7 Kleybanova d. #3 Li

...this used to be such a big event that was attended by most of the top players. The field for the '10 version of the Kremlin Cup isn't bad, though. Schiavone isn't around to attempt to defend, but with the SEC and Fed Cup final still on her plate (as well a possible "Ms. Backspin" acceptance speech) for this season she's got a good excuse for staying home.


LUXEMBOURG, LUXEMBOURG (Int'l $220K/hard indoor)
09 Final: Bacsinszky d. Lisicki
10 Top Seeds: Dementieva/Rezai
=============================
=SF=
#4 Ivanovic d. #1 Dementieva
#3 Wickmayer d. Vinci
=FINAL=
#3 Wickmayer d. #4 Ivanovic

...can the Belgian end her season the same way she started it, and forget all those mediocre results from February to September?

The "2011 All-Intriguing Team" arrives tomorrow, with the "2010 Regional Honors (with 2011 "Market Tips") coming up later this week. Oh, and happy birthday to Martina Navratilova.

All for now.



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Wk.40- What's Done is Done

Let the debate begin. Well, no. Not really. Truthfully, there is absolutely nothing to debate.

All Caroline Wozniacki needed to do in Beijing was reach the quarterfinals to assure herself of becoming the twentieth woman to sit atop the WTA singles rankings. She ended up winning the title. Typically, while so many of the tour's top players tend to do "too little," the Dane often finds herself doing more than required. Oh, she hasn't had a plastic doll molded in her likeness, or a triple-image statue dedicated in her honor, but where it counts -- on the court -- she can't be accused of dogging it or having her mind elsewhere.

Yeah, she's still missing that one (most important) career accomplishment when it comes to weighing one champion against another on an epic, historical scale. But, at just age 20, she's working her way toward that goal, and while nothing is destined or should ever even be expected this sport, she surely appears to be doing everything right and working progressively toward being able to lift a slam trophy above her head and clean up any of the "slivers of distrust" that might at that point still remain about her "worthiness" of being the top-ranked female tennis player in the world.

As it is, after failing to grab the U.S. Open title last month, she'll have to live with the "label" of being the fifth woman to rise to #1 without having first won a slam singles title. What's done is done. There's nothing that can change that now. What was she supposed to do, end her season early to make her chances of finishing the season at #2 that much better? Of course not. As usual, and often to her detriment in the past (but not this time), she simply went out and played. Good for her.

The fact is, though, there really is NO reason to question Wozniacki's position as the world #1. Here's the better question: If not her, then which OTHER woman should be #1? The only player with even a whiff of an argument is Serena Williams. While the American surely holds the "unofficial" crown as the "best" player, she's not and shouldn't be the #1-ranked one if there is someone such as Wozniacki around to offer an alternative. While Serena has been often-spectacular when she's been on the court in '10, she's been off it for seven of the season's ten months. She's won two slams, but played in only three other events. We haven't seen her on a court since early July, and with her "re-strain" of her foot she pulled out of this week's event in Linz, and might not return until next January. Williams' slam prowess is great for posterity and Hall of Fame/Greatest of All Time credentials, but it's not what the computer rankings are there to measure -- which is the top player over a twelve-month span, on a week-by-week basis. That Serena could hold the top spot for so long while so rarely playing is a remarkable accomplishment and a testament to her big-event greatness, not to mention the relative inability of the rest of the WTA field to produce a single player who rates as a constant, consistent presence and/or threat on tour. Until now, that is.

Once again, the Dane showed her mettle last week in Beijing. Fresh off the biggest title of her career in Tokyo, she arrived in China battling illness. By the quarterfinals, her left knee was wrapped. In a week where a ridiculous number of top players were announcing that their seasons would be ending early due to injuries, Wozniacki played on. She only lost one set, wrapping up yet another title today against Vera Zvonareva (the second time in '10, with Montreal, Wozniacki has defeated the Russian in a rain-delayed Monday final) to make Beijing the NEW "biggest title of her career." After Zvonareva ended her thirteen-match winning streak in the U.S. Open semifinals, Wozniacki has now rebounded by running off ten more victories in a row. She's 23-1 in her last twenty-four outings, and 29-2 since Wimbledon. In a couple weeks, she'll show up in Doha, ready, willing and probably able to add another feather to her (latest) career season's cap in the same tournament where a year ago she proved about as much as any teenager could without actually winning anything.

Of course, even if Wozniacki does correct that niggling "omission" this time around, she'll still end '10 leading the tour in nearly every meaningful category imaginable EXCEPT slam titles. But she'll have to live with that... until January, June, July or September.

Between now and then, expect the Dane to continue to show the willingness and ability to improve that helped get her to #1 in the first place. One of these days, maybe all that hard work will pay off in an even grander fashion... if the Tennis Gods have any sense of fairness, that is.

*WEEK 40 CHAMPIONS*

BEIJING, CHINA (Premier $4.5m/hard outdoor)
S: Caroline Wozniacki def. Vera Zvonareva 6-3/3-6/6-3
D: Chuang/Govortosva d. Dulko/Pennetta

COMMONWEALTH GAMES (Delhi, India)
S: Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) def. Sania Mirza (IND) 6-3/2-6/7-6
D: Rodionova/Peers (AUS) d. Moore/Rogowska (AUS)
M: Rae/Fleming (SCO) d. Rodionova/Hanley (AUS)


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Caroline Wozniacki/DEN
...the Dane's third consecutive Premier event title included wins over Sara Errani, Petra Kvitova, Ana Ivanovic, Shahar Peer and Zvonareva. It extends her tour-leading title collection to six (half of her career total). She can't make that grand slam leap this season, but there IS still one more opportunity to once again win her "biggest tournament yet." Doha, here she comes.... but will anyone ELSE show up?
=============================
RISERS: Anastasia Rodionova/AUS & Rebecca Marino/CAN
...it's been less than a year since Rodionova was officially declared "Australian enough" to represent her new country in international tennis events, and the former Hordette made good on her desire to win for her country at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. In fact, she very nearly did so THREE times over. She won the event's first-ever women's singles Gold with a win in the final over Sania Mirza, claimed doubles Gold with Sally Peers and just came up short of taking mixed Gold, as well, with partner Paul Hanley, as the pair finished with a Silver Medal. In the $50K Kansas City challenger, Marino won her second ITF crown of the season with victories over Julie Ditty, Alexa Glatch and Edina Gallovits in a 6-7/6-0/6-2 final.
=============================
SURPRISES: Chuang Chia-Jung/Olga Govortsova (TPE/BLR) & Sally Peers/AUS
...Chuang and Govortsova had never won a doubles title together before last week (and had only won one tour doubles crown between them all season), but they made up for that absence of winning moments by taking the championship at the $4.5 million Premier event in Beijing this weekend, defeating Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta in the final. It's Chuang's fifteenth career title, and Govortsova's fourth. In the Commonwealth Games, Aussie Peers, whose biggest previous '10 headline probably came when she showed up for her U.S. Open 2nd Round match with the Belgian Barbie armed with a 2003 photo of her pre-teen self with Jada's Mama, made some noise ON the court. She defeated countrywoman Olivia Rogowska in the event's Bronze Medal match, and took doubles Gold with Anastasia Rodionova.
=============================
COMEBACKS: Ana Ivanovic/SRB & Sania Mirza/IND
...in Beijing, AnaIvo showed some signs that the hoped-for rekindling of her career's flame could be coming -- some day -- with a QF run that included nice wins over Marion Bartoli, Olga Govortsova and Elena Dementieva. Meanwhile, at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Mirza failed to win the event's inaugural women's tennis Gold in front of many of her Indian fans, but she did walk away with a singles Silver and Doubles Bronze to continue to spark her recent post-wedding upturn in results.
=============================
VETERAN: Li Na/CHN
...Chinese fans saw Li begin her season with a SF at the Australian Open. While the remainder of her season didn't match those early high hopes (she's won just one title), she seems to be ending it in a workable physical condition, which isn't always a given when it comes to the veteran. In Beijing, she reached her fifth semifinal of the season with victories over Alla Kudryavtseva, Alisa Kleybanova, Angelique Kerber and Anastasiya Sevastova.
=============================
FRESH FACES: Anastasiya Sevastova/LAT & Alison Riske/USA
...Sevastova made good use of her time in Beijing. A title-winner in Estoril earlier this season, the Latvian made it through qualifying and then got main draw wins over Samantha Stosur, Dominika Cibulkova and Nadia Petrova (walkover) en route to the QF. Meanwhile, hard-serving American Riske won her second career challenger title in a $75K event in Barnstaple, Great Britain (recently, she came within two points in a 3rd set tie-break of defeating Marino in the final of the $50K Saquenay challenger). After defeating #1-seed Romina Oprandi, #4 Ksenia Pervak and #5 Pauline Parmentier earlier in the tournmament, she took out #2 Johanna Larsson in the final.
=============================
DOWN: Victoria Azarenka/BLR & Svetlana Kuznetsova/RUS
...a week after reaching the SF in Tokyo, Azarenka was back to her (unfortunately) "normal" self in Beijing, retiring from her 2nd Round match with a left thigh strain. It's the Belarusan's seventh retirement in twenty WTA/Fed Cup events entered in 2010 -- more than one-third!! Here's to hoping that Azarenka has taken notice of Wozniacki's great results since making a concerted effort to get into better condition over the past year, with special attention to what she did to physically improve her chances of staying on the court in the best shape possible right after Wimbledon. Azarenka simply goes down with far too many muscle pulls and strains, not to mention all her lack-of-conditioning exits in intense heat situations, for a player with as much talent as she possesses. In order to put herself in the best position to capitalize on her abilities, she needs to get with a real trainer and improve herself in every strength and cardio category possible. Of course, since she didn't seem to learn anything from the cramping Dane's ability to STILL defeat her in a match in Doha at the end of last season even while barely being able to stand up, I have my doubts that this offseason will play out any differently from any other for Azarenka -- which means we'll probably be able to look forward to at least half a dozen more "false-starts" from the Belarusan next season, as well. As for Kuznetsova, her week in Beijing pretty much symbolized the majority of her mostly-forgettable season. She entered the tournament as the defending champ, but was quickly dumped out in the 1st Round by Roberta Vinci. Afterward, she announced that illness was leading her to put her '10 season out of its misery... err, I mean to end her trying '10 campaign early while looking forward to a better one in 2011.
=============================
ITF PLAYERS: Ayumi Morita/JPN & Petra Cetkovska/CZE
...two $100K challenger events were decided over the weekend, so I'll go with both winners as the circuit's top players for Week 40. In Tokyo, Morita defeated the likes of Alberta Brianti, Urszula Radwanska, Coco Vandeweghe and Jill Craybas to claim her title; while in Pounieh, Cetkovska claimed her third challenger title of the season with victories over Lourdes Dominguez-Lino, Renata Voracova and Mathilde Johansson in the final.
=============================
JUNIOR STARS: Russian Junior Fed Cup Team
...there were no truly "good" choices here for this week, so I'll go back in time -- well, only a week -- and honor the Russian Junior Fed Cup team for winning its second straight title in Mexico. Daria Gavrilova (the U.S. Open Girls champ) and fellow Hordette Margarita Gasparyan defeated China's team of Zheng Saisai & Tian Ran 7-5/6-4 in doubles to lock away the crown by a 2-1 score.
=============================


1. Beij 2nd Rd - Vesnina d. Sharapova
...7-6/6-2. What exactly is happening with Sharapova? She lost to Date-Krumm last time out, then lost early again here just days after (once again) dropping out of the Top 20. Has her difficulty moved beyond mere shoulder/serving problems, with what is ailing her having migrated less a foot north? That could be something even more troublesome to repair.
=============================
2. Beij 2nd Rd - Kvitova d. Kanepi
...7-5/6-7/6-2. In a rematch of the Wimbledon QF that launched the Czech into her first slam semifinal (after saving five Kanepi match points), Kvitova yet again got the best of the Estonian. Maybe there's hope for her yet.
=============================
3. Beij 3rd Rd - Wozniacki d. Kvitova
...6-3/6-2. Of course, that hope didn't show up in the Kvitova's next match, as she served as the "nameless" opponent officially assured C-Woz that she'd rise to #1 in the rankings today.
=============================
4. Beij Final - Wozniacki d. Zvonareva
...6-3/3-6/6-3. Zvonareva had a great week in China, where she won an Olympic Bronze two years ago, as she defeated the likes of Safina, Petkovic, Kirilenko, Schiavone and Li to reach her sixth WTA singles final in 2010. Thing is, she's now 1-5 in those finals and has lost five straight.
=============================
5. Beij 2nd Rd - Jovanovski d. Jankovic
...4-6/6-2/6-2. Wozniacki grabbed the proverbial #1-ranking torch from Serena in Beijing, while Bojana Jovanovski attempted to rip the not-quite-as-proverbial torch of Serbia women's tennis from JJ's hands in the same tournament. Serena will likely rebound in a big way in '11. Will Jankovic?
=============================
6. Beij 1st Rd - Dulko d. Rezai
...6-4/2-6/6-4. This loss gave Rezai seven consecutive exits in the 1st or 2nd Round of events.
=============================
7. Beij 2nd Rd - Zvonareva d. Safina
...6-4/7-6. And with this, Safina ends her '10 season complaining once again of back problems. Not that she was alone in issuing cease and desist orders on a '10 WTA season. Also shutting down their seasons early were Kuznetsova, Agnieszka Radwanksa, Venus Williams, Kirsten Flipkens and maybe even Serena. Are we certain the season has to last until November? An early October end would seem a much more appropriate end date somewhere down the road.
=============================
8. $10K Nonthaburi Final - Nungnadda Wannasuk d. Zhu Lin
...6-4/6-1. Yes, once again I take the "low road" and note a result of this 20-year old Thai simply because saying her name sort of makes me chuckle. Oh, well. At least we know that she's an ITF titlist, which might not be the case if her name was, say, Jane Smith.
=============================
9. $10K Algiers Final - Silvia Njiric d. Fatima El Allami
...3-6/6-3/6-1. The 17-year old Croat wins her first career challenger title. Njiric began the season as a Top 10 junior, and reached the Australian Open QF and Roland Garros SF in Girls competition.
=============================
10. Commonwealth Games Final - Rodionova d. Mirza
...6-3/2-6/7-6. Two naturalized Aussies (Rodinova and Groth) have now lifted a championship singles trophy this quarter. Sammy... the Australia-born baton has been passed to you, as you attempt to defend your Osaska crown this week.
=============================


**WEEKS AS WTA SINGLES #1**
[singles titles/slam titles]
377...Steffi Graff [107/22]
331...Martina Navratilova [167/18]
260...Chris Evert [154/18]
209...Martina Hingis [43/5]
178...Monica Seles [53/9]
122...Serena Williams [37/13]
117...Justine Henin [43/7]
98...Lindsay Davenport [55/3]
39...Amelie Mauresmo [25/2]
26...Dinara Safina [12/0]
22...Tracy Austin [30/2]
19...Belgian Barbie [39/3]
18...Jelena Jankovic [12/0]
17...Jennifer Capriati [14/3]
17...Maria Sharapova [22/3]
12...Ana Ivanovic [8/1]
12...Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario [29/4]
11...Venus Williams [43/7]
2...Evonne Goolagong [68/7]
1...CAROLINE WOZNIACKI [12/0]

**MOST 2010 WTA FINALS**
7...CAROLINE WOZNIACKI (6-1)
6...VERA ZVONAREVA (1-5)
5...Maria Sharapova (2-3)

**BACK-TO-BACK 2010 TITLES**
February - Venus Williams - Dubai/Acapulco
July - Agnes Szavay - Budapest/Prague
August - Caroline Wozniacki - Montreal/New Haven
OCTOBER - CAROLINE WOZNIACKI - TOKYO/BEIJING *
-
* - active streak

**2010 PREMIER $2m+ CHAMPIONS**
[singles]
Dubai: Venus Williams/USA
Indian Wells: Jelena Jankovic/SRB
Miami: Belgian Barbia/BEL
Rome: Maria Jose Martinez-Sanchez/ESP
Madrid: Aravane Rezai/FRA
Cincinnati: Belgian Barbie/BEL
Montreal: Caroline Wozniacki/DEN
Tokyo: Caroline Wozniacki/DEN
Beijing: CAROLINE WOZNIACKI/DEN
[doubles]
Dubai: Llagostera-Vives/Martinez-Sanchez, ESP/ESP
Indian Wells: Peschke/Srebotnik, CZE/SLO
Miami: Dulko/Pennetta, ARG/ITA
Rome: Dulko/Pennetta, ARG/ITA
Madrid: Williams/Williams, USA/USA
Cincinnati: Azarenka/Kirilenko, BLR/RUS
Montreal: Dulko/Pennetta, ARG/ITA
Tokyo: Benesova/Zahlavova-Strycova, CZE/CZE
Beijing: CHUANG/GOVORTSOVA, TPE/BLR

**LONG 2010 WTA WINNING STREAKS**
15...Venus Williams, February-April
13...Caroline Wozniacki, August-September
12...Agnes Szavay, July-August
11...Yanina Wickmayer, January
11...Samantha Stosur, April-May
10...Serena Williams, January-May
10...Anna Chakvetadze, July-August
10...CAROLINE WOZNIACKI, SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER (active)

**WTA #1's - AGE AT FIRST TOUR TITLE**
[14]
Tracy Austin - Portland '77
Jennifer Capriati - Puerto Rico '90
[15]
Monica Seles - Houston '89
Martina Hingis - Filderstadt '96
[16]
Chris Evert - St.Petersburg '71
Steffi Graf - Hilton Head '86
Arantxa Sanchez - Brussels '88
Lindsay Davenport - Lucerne '93
Justine Henin - Antwerp '99
Belgian Barbie - Luxembourg '99
Dinara Safina - Sopot '02
Maria Sharapova - Tokyo '03
[17]
Martina Navratilova - Orlando '74
Venus Williams - Oklahoma City '98
Serena Williams - Paris '99
Ana Ivanovic - Canberra '05
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI - STOCKHOLM '08
[18]
Evonne Goolagong - Southport '70
[19]
Jelena Jankovic - Budapest '04
[20]
Amelie Mauresmo - Bratislava '99

**IN-SEASON #1-RANKED WTA PLAYERS - 2000-10**
[CAPS - year-end #1]
2000: (2) Davenport, HINGIS
2001: (3) Capriati, DAVENPORT, Hingis
2002: (4) Capraiti, Davenport, S.WILLIAMS, V.Williams
2003: (3) Barbie, HENIN-HARDENNE, S.Williams
2004: (3) DAVENPORT, Henin, Mauresmo
2005: (2) DAVENPORT, Sharapova
2006: (4) Barbie, Davenport, HENIN-HARDENNE, Mauresmo
2007: (2) HENIN, Sharapova
2008: (5) Henin, Ivanovic, JANKOVIC, Sharapova, S.Williams
2009: (3) Jankovic, Safina, S.WILLIAMS
2010: (2) S.Williams, Wozniacki





LINZ, AUSTRIA (Int'l $220K/hard indoor)
09 Final: Wickmayer d. Kvitova
10 Top Seeds: Hantuchova/A.Bondarenko
=============================
=SF=
#3 A.Bondarenko d. #7 Ivanovic
#6 Petkovic d. Schnyder
=FINAL=
#6 Petkovic d. #3 A.Bondarenko

...why not? Maybe she'll dance.


OSAKA, JAPAN (Int'l $220K/hard outdoor)
09 Final: Stosur d. Schiavone
10 Top Seeds: Stosur/Bartoli
=============================
=SF=
#1 Stosur d. #3 Peer
#4 Kirilenko d. #2 Bartoli
=FINAL=
#1 Stosur d. #4 Kirilenko

...Stosur has been a non-factor since the Open concluded, but she won her first career title at this event a season ago. Slingin' Sammy + comfortability = confidence. Confidence = title. Or so the theory goes.


"2011 All-Intriguing Team" and "2011 Market Tips" coming soon. All for now.



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