The Calm Before the Storm

Shoes are tied. Wristbands are pulled on. Racket handles are affixed with extra glue (Agnieszka Radwanska only). Yep, the 2012 season is ready to begin.



BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA (Premier $655K/hard outdoor)
11 Final: Kvitova d. Petkovic
11 Doubles Champions: Kleybanova/Pavlyuchenkova
12 Top Seeds: Stosur/Petkovic
=============================
=SF=
#5 Clijsters d. #4 S.Williams
#2 Petkovic d. Voskoboeva
=FINAL=
#5 Clijsters d. #2 Petkovic

...talk about an unbalanced draw -- Stosur, Clijsters and Serena are all in the top half. On the bright side, a few of the very interesting potential opening week matches seem to stand a good chance of happening -- including Clijsters/Ivanovic, Cibulkova/Hantuchova, Pervak/Voskoboeva (hi, new countrywoman!), Jankovic/Schiavone, Clijsters/Stosur and either Stosur/Serena or Clijsters/Serena. And all of those would happen BEFORE the final, which might turn out to be a bit anticlimactic.


AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND (Int't $220K/hard outdoor)
11 Final: Arn d. Wickmayer
11 Doubles Champions: Peschke/Srebotnik
12 Top Seeds: Lisicki/Peng
=============================
=SF=
#1 Lisicki d. #4 Pennetta
#7 Wickmayer d. #8 Niculescu
=FINAL=
#1 Lisicki d. #7 Wickmayer

...so, here's the first reality check on whether or not Lisicki is going to have any shot to carry over her '11 success. Whether she can stay healthy might not be addressed this week, but whether she can continue to win WILL get its first test. That said, I can't say I wouldn't do a few backflips (well, at least wish I COULD do a few backflips) if a certain member of the Dokic family (possibly facing Lisicki in the 2nd Round) got a very welcome upset win to begin her season to allow her to head to Melbourne with visions of 2009 dancing in her head.


HOPMAN CUP; PERTH, AUS (Exhibition/hard indoor)
11 Final: United States d. Belgium (Serbia w/d from final)
12 Top Group Seeds: Czech Republic (A), France (B)
=============================
=FINAL=
Czech Republic (Kvitova/Berdych) d. France (Bartoli/Gasquet)

...come on, how could I not go with Kvitova here? Err, I mean Kvitova AND Berdych. Speaking of which, with Kvitova coming into this event off a 21-0 indoor record in '11, Lucie's boyfriend had better not drop the ball. Of note here, world #2 Kvitova is set to face world #1 Wozniacki on the final day of Round Robin play.

All, but that's not all. Carl has managed to convince me (maybe it was our Christmastime truce?) to let him make picks every week. So, here he is:


BRISBANE
=SF=
stosur def. serena
petkovic def. jankovic
=FINAL=
stosur d. petkovic

...Carl want to pick Kim, but Todd do. Carl no pick with Todd. Christmas over.

AUCKLAND
=SF=
pennetta d. dokic
mchale d. peng
=FINAL=
pennetta d. mchale

...Todd take Carl's Kim. Carl take Todd's Jelena. And keep Flavia from him, too.

HOPMAN CUP
france d. united states

...Berdych let Kvitova down. Carl will laugh at sullen Todd. Marion dance like Petko. Carl, too. This just start of Carl defeating Todd in picks over whole 2012 season.




**HOPMAN CUP CHAMPIONS**
[since 1999]
1999 Australia (Dokic/Philippoussis)
2000 South Africa (Coetzer/W.Ferreira)
2001 Switzerland (Hingis/Federer)
2002 Spain (Sanchez-Vicario/Robredo)
2003 United States (S.Williams/Blake)
2004 United States (Davenport/Blake)
2005 Slovak Republic (Hantuchova/Hrbaty)
2006 United States (Raymond/Dent)
2007 Russia (Petrova/Tursunov)
2008 United States (S.Williams-Shaughnessy/Fish)
2009 Slovak Republic (Cibulkova/Hrbaty)
2010 Spain (Martinez-Sanchez/Robredo)
2011 United States (Mattek-Sands/Isner)
[most titles]
6 - United States
3 - Slovak Republic, Spain
2 - Germany, Switzerland
1 - Australia, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Russia, South Africa, Yugoslavia

**MOST "DOROTHY TOUR" TITLES**
[active players; Wk.1 titles in parenthesis]
5 - Kim Clijsters (1), Serera Williams (0)
3 - Eleni Daniilidou (2)
2 - Petra Kvitova (1), Li Na (1), Alicia Molik (0)




=AUSTRALIAN OPEN - POWER RANKINGS... from two-plus weeks out=
1. Kim Clijsters: the defending champ, and in likely her last AO appearance in the nation that "adopted" her even after she broke up with its native son Lleyton
2. Serena Williams: a five-time champ at historically her "best" slam, and with something to prove
3. Petra Kvitova: her first "year after" test
4. Samantha Stosur: ditto
5. Li Na: back to the final or bust, with neither option more likely than the other
6. Caroline Wozniacki: Oz might be her best '12 chance to get the 'roo -- err, I mean monkey -- off her back
7. Victoria Azarenka: she's come close to conquering the moment in Melbourne in the past, but the heat and/or Serena has usually conquered her (think she'll be searching her draw for someone?)
8. Agnieszka Radwanska: can A-Rad 2.0 work in 2012, or has the new her already been corrupted by dad?
9. Maria Sharapova: it's been four years since she won slam #3 at the AO in '08, and she comes in dragging an injured ankle
10. Vera Zvonareva: holding on
Wild Card- Andrea Petkovic: Ms. Consistency in the slams
Wild Wild Card- Sabine Lisicki: if not, the countdown to Wimbledon begins
Just Because- Jelena Dokic: no player has recently ridden an emotional wave in Melbourne better (well, maybe one... a few times)


Until we have our first champions of 2012. All for now.



==2012 PREVIEW SERIES==
* - Grand Slam Master List
* - 'Twas the Backspin Before Christmas: The Search for Caroline's Roo
* - The Intriguing 100
* - Prediction Blowout
* - 2012 Week 1 Picks & AO Power Rankings (you are here)

Read more...

Prediction Blowout '12

The world #1 was still without a slam title at the end of the 2011 season, but the goal of securing the foundation upon which the tour can thrive in a post-Williams/Belgians world made quite a few strides over the last twelve months.

As Justine Henin walked away for good, and the Sisters and Kim Clijsters missed much of the season with injuries and/or health issues, the Next Generation finally stepped into the fray after seeing the late-twentysomething crowd claim eight straight slams, and eleven of twelve following Ana Ivanovic's win in Paris in '08. Two of the three first-time slam champs from '11 were in their late twenties, but 21-year old Petra Kvitova (the first slam champ born in the 1990's) won at Wimbledon and may have set the tour on a different course for the rest of this decade. Two of the Czech's fellow semifinalists in London were also 21 and, by the end of the year, the top of the rankings had a decidedly younger look, as well.

For the first time since 2003, the women's year-ending Top 3 were all 22 years of age or younger. Eight years ago, the combination of Justine Henin (21), Kim Clijsters (20) and Serena Williams (22) finished 1-2-3, bringing together arguably the top three players of their generation (though Venus might slip in there on some lists) at the top of a single season's rankings for the first and only time in their Hall of Fame careers. The '11 finish of #1 Caroline Wozniacki, #2 Kvitova and #3 Victoria Azarenka could prove to be another era-defining moment when the three best players of THEIR generation all were at or near the top of their form, as well.

But don't think the previous era is COMPLETELY a thing of the past.

Serena is back. Kim, too. Both will come to Australia having last left Melbourne with some pretty impressive hardware in tow, and could end up elbowing out the younger set Down Under in a head-to-head battle royale for slam supremacy. Ditto come late summertime in London, as both are angling for a singles Gold in what will likely be their last chance to savor an Olympic experience. Throw in the continued attempt by Maria Sharapova to regain her Supernovic slam form, along with the rise of still more members of the twentysomething set and, in something of a blessing (maybe for ALL involved, even the Dane in question), the ongoing (droning on?) story of Wozniacki's search for her first slam title might actually be put on the backburner, if not shunted aside altogether by the end of the year.

Just holding onto her #1 ranking will be a difficult, if not impossible, task.

Opening with just a 115-point lead in the rankings over Kvitova, Wozniacki could lose her position atop the WTA heap in 2012's early-going. And the Czech isn't the only player within striking distance. Azarenka and Sharapova aren't far behind, and the dual threat of Williams and Clijsters could pose a serious threat by mid-season. If any of those players make their expected climbs, conversations about what the Dane is lacking on her career resume will soon be replaced by the tour's current events. Ultimately, it would all put even more pressure on Wozniacki to finally succeed in a slam (or in the Olympics), but she'd likely be able to toil in a little less-accusatory environment if there are enough "good" WTA stories for everyone to focus on. Not that oddly, if Wozniacki can't win a slam this season, it'll be a better thing for the tour (and maybe for her, in the short term) if she ISN'T #1. And, at some point this season, she probably won't be.

Now, when it comes to trying to predict 2012's season-ending Top 10, I've officially done away with any tempting of Backspin's old "Kuznetsova Curse" being brought on by actually attemping to rank the tour's best players from #1 through #10. Not that determining the Top 10, even just as a group, one year from now isn't a potentially-twisted tale. After all, only four of 2010's Top 10 managed to maintain their standing last season. Three year-end Top 10 newcomers (including Li Na) rose to new heights, including two (#32 Andrea Petkovic & #34 Kvitova) who climbed the rankings mountain from base camps that were quite a distance away. Three other woman reclaimed Top 10 ranks after absences of varied length, including Marion Bartoli (last in '07), Sharapova ('08) and Agnieszka Radwanska ('09). As 2012 begins, the likes of Serena (with no ranking points to defend until June) and Clijsters are positioned OUTSIDE the Top 10, so the current roster will surely have to up their games to avoid exchanging views with the vets.

Since I think there's a decent chance that the aforementioned Belgian might have a Top 10-worthy season, but retire before it's over and be immediately removed from the rankings, I'll slightly amend my picks for this year. So, here's an early prediction for the ELEVEN top-ranked players of 2012 ('11 ranks in parenthesis), with Top 10 Repeats & Top 10 Climbers highlighted accordingly:

Victoria Azarenka, BLR (3): The Belarusian is getting there. Her good Danish friend saw HER career surge ahead of Vika's own in their opening stages, but Azarenka still might just play the role of the tortoise to Wozniacki's hare when all is said and done. The world's #3-ranked player made quite a few strides in '11 -- reaching her first slam SF, and closing her season with back-to-back finals, including in Istanbul at the WTA Championships -- but she's still got enough room to improve that she can dream about slipping through the cracks and edging out BOTH Wozniacki and Kvitova to claim the #1 ranking. She had a shot in last season's final week, and enters '12 less than 1000 ranking points from overtaking them. Over the past two years, Azarenka has learned to better manage her emotions, and her anger issues don't pull her down as they used to. Her goal to get her body -- or maybe her willingness to play with niggling ailments? -- into the sort of condition that will prevent the sort of injuries and/or heat illness problems that continue to dog her is an ongoing one, though. She cut down her retirement/walkover numbers to five premature exits in twenty-one tournaments last year (hey, the 24% attrition rate was still better than in '10), but that's still too many for a player with a shot to win slams and reach #1, if not in that particular chronological order.
=============================
Marion Bartoli, FRA (9): might Bartoli, who'll turn 28 this season, be the next woman in line to have her greatest slam success in her late twenties? Evidence of such a surge was there in '11. She climbed back into the Top 10, ending the season there for the first time since '07, and reached the semifinals at Roland Garros. Unlike with some father/daughter coach/player relationships, the unorthodox -- in training techniques, as well as in-match dynamics, as we saw when Marion ordered her parents to leave their courtside seats during a particularly tense match at Wimbledon last season -- setup the Bartolis have seems to work. The one thing that probably needs to be worked out for Bartoli to avoid being ground down to dust in the back half of her career, though, is for her to reassess her schedule, especially when you consider her (tiring) almost-constant movement during her matches. She's often battling some sort of injury (and was struck by a viral illness at the end of her season), and how could cutting back her schedule at least a bit (her 29 tour level events last year were more than any other player in the Top 100) NOT serve to alleviate that issue at least a little? As things stand, Bartoli enters '12 not being talked about all that much. But she might, much as the likes of late-blooming slam champs Schiavone and Li were the past two seasons, turn out to be one of the upcoming season's biggest stories that will suddenly pop up "out of nowhere" (but not really).
=============================
Dominika Cibulkova, SVK (18): I HAVE to pick one slightly surprising Top 11 woman, so Cibulkova is it. The Slovak is a tenacious little (5'3") fighter with a bigger shot than anyone has the right to expect. She's always had the ability to pull off upsets (she's reached a slam SF) and get on a nice run. Until late last year, though, she's never been able to win her first tour singles title. That changed when she ended her '11 season with a win at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. Other than Kvitova (and maybe Stosur), no one could have gone into their offseason feeling better about how she's set herself up for an even more successful '12. It's been ten years since a woman from her country (Hantuchova in '02) rose into the Top 10 for the first time. Cibulkova might not do it. But I'll go with her as this coming season's "confidence player" and take a chance that she will.
=============================
Kim Clijsters, BEL (13): Not that I've done much of it the last few seasons (at least not like I USED to), but this Backspinner might not have Clijsters to kick around for much longer. Even with the "disaster" her season devolved into in '11, she made it more than worthwhile by rumbling to a fairly routine fourth (third post-retirement) career slam title, her first in Melbourne. She even reclaimed the #1 ranking for a single week before injuries -- one of the reasons for her previous WTA exit -- came fast and hard and took her season down to Chinatown (well, that is, if she'd take the risk of going there... sorry, I have to have a little fun, right?). Clijsters won just one slam match, and played in just two, after winning the Australian Open last January. She's opening the season in good health, so she might be the favorite to defend her title Down Under, and she's more than focused on playing (and winning?) the Olympics in London. But will Clijsters' body allow her to last that long? It's a real question. If she DOES get there, finally donning the Belgian Olympic regalia that she declared wasn't for her the last time (2004) she was an active player in an Olympic year, will her possible "farewell" season -- and career -- come to an immediate end without her attempting to win her fourth straight (spread out over eight years) U.S. Open? With anyone else it'd be an unthinkable occurrence, but not with Clijsters. She operates in her own reality, balancing things in her life in ways that other top athletes would likely shy away from. In the end, it's worked out pretty well for her, though. So it's kind of hard to argue against it.
=============================
Petra Kvitova, CZE (2): even with a few of her hit-herself-out-of-a-match moments sprinkled throughout, Kvitova more than played like a champion in 2011. Rising to the occasion on several handfuls of key moments, she tied Caroline Wozniacki for the tour lead in titles, winning crowns on all surfaces, including at Wimbledon and the WTA Championships. Finishing off a 21-0 record indoors for the season, she ended her year by leading the Czech Republic to its first Fed Cup title as an independent nation. About the only thing she didn't manage to pull off was taking over the #1 ranking, coming up just 115 points short of world #1 Wozniacki. Okay, so other than rectify that situation, what can she do to ensure an appropriate encore? Well, it's not as if she has to rearrange her game and/or completely scuttle her approach. Basically, she just needs to keep her success in perspective (that doesn't seem to be a problem for the soft-spoken 21-year old), polish up a few things in her game and continue to improve her fitness. She was already coming to net more often as '11 ended, as well as trying to pull back on her desire to "go for the winners" on occasion in order to cut down her errors, and just went through a training period in the mountains this offseason in order to continue to make her court movement less of an aspect of her game that opponents might try to exploit. In other words, she's not content with being a slam winner, the world #2 and the object of fawning admiration by so many past champions (from one named Amelie, to another who was her childhood idol... a fellow Czech named Martina). Less enamored with the off-court trappings of success than some other past highly-ranked players her age, she seems content to focus on her tennis and making herself the best champion she can be. Geez, should it really have taken this long for such an elemental idea to take root? No matter what's happened in recent years, Kvitova surely has the looks of the sort of big match, big game champion who could become the "unassailable" #1 that the tour has been looking for for years. Ah, but one never TOTALLY knows how a player will handle the sort of pressure of expectation that Kvitova takes into '12. She seems well-equipped to triumph over it, though. So far, she's managed to stand out in many ways from the other players of her generation. Here's to hoping that the trend continues.
=============================
Agnieszka Radwanska, POL (8): Was Radwanska's back-half surge a mirage, or the start of a career with new possibilities for the Pole? After breaking away from the verbally (and publicly) abusive, life-long coaching relationship with her father, A-Rad flourished with a new set of coaching eyes. Her first serve improved big-time, and her career-long combo of on-court cleverness and defense was made even more dangerous by the addition of a mindset that allowed her to go for more winners over the course of the match. The result? Three singles titles, each one progressively bigger than the last, in the second half of the season after having gone three years without winning anything. I'd always been frustrated watching A-Rad over the years, seeing the many in-point openings her game presented her with being passed up on nearly every occasion, and her almost always being shut down in big matches against players with a more aggressive approach that made the Pole's small moments of brilliance even smaller than usual, and ultimately irrelevant when it came to winning the match. In the closing months of '11, though, I actually enjoyed watching her play more than almost any other player (the "Most Favored Player" honor having been officially passed on from LPT, a certain Czech has to be the one exception) on tour. Radwanska has never been a true slam threat in her career, but the game she sported at the end of '11 might be good enough to give her a shot to reach her first slam semi. If she can get there (and avoid having her father's influence creep back into the equation), who's to say what might be within her grasp?
=============================
Maria Sharapova, RUS (4): The tour needs Sharapova to be a major figure on the WTA landscape. Maybe not as much as some people (such as ESPN or any other major North American media outlets that don't bother to pay attention to any players who aren't either fair-haired Russians, smiling Belgians or a Williams) might lead everyone to believe, but one can't argue the sport is helped by the presence of the woman that has probably the most recognizable face in the world of all the active players. She's won at least one WTA title every season for NINE straight years now. One title in '12 will place her alone in sixth place for the longest such streak in tour history, behind only such luminaries as Martina Navratilova (21 years... geez Louise), Chris Evert (18), Steffi Graf (14), Evonne Goolagong (11) and Virginia Wade (11). Still looking for that elusive fourth slam (she'll have gone four full years without a major if she doesn't win in Melbourne), though, it's no longer a case of when Sharapova will get it, but if she gets it at all. She's admirably climbed back near the top of the rankings after battling past shoulder surgery, but the confidence she used to possess (mostly in her serve) isn't always around in the abundance that it once was. The Russian's game, going back to when she first stunned Serena at Wimbledon in '04, has always emanated outward from the strength of her serve. She's managed to get enough of the old verve back to make herself a slam contender again, but her lack of consistency has made it impossible to avoid having one bad service day -- and it always comes -- dash her hopes of closing out one of seven potential opponents on her way to a slam crown. So many people have worried (myself included) that not being able to win slams might drive her from the sport, but her long-time (underrated) competitiveness has shown through and maybe made such fears a bit unfounded. Still, Sharapova's career, even at 24, has already been a long one, and she's not likely to have a Navratilova-esque career when it comes to length. She can't afford to squander slam opportunities anymore, as she can never tell just how many real shots she has left to win one. She looked great at Roland Garros last year, but topped out in the semis. At Wimbledon, she was run over by Kvitova. Now, her late-season ankle injury is making her preparation a question going into Melbourne. If she can't win another slam in '12, it's just going to get progressively harder to do so every time out.
=============================
Samantha Stosur, AUS (6): Through eight of the season's nearly eleven months, 2011 hadn't been a great year for the Aussie. But then she went to New York and won the U.S. Open, and everything changed as all the lingering doubts about her big match mettle were swept away with one win over Serena. Suddenly, the potential for her to win a slam back home in Melbourne seem great, and Stosur is even talking like a confident, she-believes-she-can-do-it-now multiple slam champion. I want to believe she CAN be. And I sort of do. As long as SHE continues to believe it... but that mindset could easily be upset by an untimely early exit in Oz. With a slam in hand, quite the opposite of a player like Wozniacki, what Stosur really needs to do is become more consistent and win a few titles on the regular tour so that she can keep her ranking up and get better draws throughout the course of the season. She's won just one title in each of the past three years, and had lost five straight finals before she won in Flushing Meadows (shades of the 0-5 record in finals that began her career before she finally won her first in '09 at age 25). If the Aussie can begin her season in good form, earning multiple titles (whether one comes in the AO or not) early on, the player who's reached the finals of two different slams over the last two seasons could be in line for a fabulous season.
=============================
Serena Williams, USA (12): Serena is Serena. And until evidence proves otherwise, she'll always be Serena. And that means she'll contend for (at least) her 14th career slam win in 2012. After what happened (again) around Williams' exit from a U.S. Open last September, it's easy to let her 18-0 mark in North American hard court matches BEFORE she lost the final to Stosur slip your mind. And that run came after she'd missed nearly a full year's worth of action. She's got something to prove once again, and has taken on a famous trainer of boxers in order to get herself into the best condition of her athletic life. But, of course, Mother Time eventually gets to all the very best players before they're fully ready (well, maybe everyone except Ms. Navratilova, that is), and Serena is now THIRTYsomething. Only six women have ever won a slam after their 30th birthday, and it's been nearly twenty-two years (Martina at SW19 in '90) since it happened. '12 has the potential to be a career legacy-capping year for Serena. An Olympic women's Gold would put her in elite company when it comes to grabbing the most prestigious singles titles the sport has to offer (only Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi have won all four slams, a season-ending championship and Olympic singles Gold). With Wimbledon essentially being held twice this season, it'd have to be considered a major disappointment for her, assuming she's healthy enough to compete twice at the All-England Club, if she didn't win there at least once. So, it's "game on." But, as usual with Williams, we can never be TOTALLY sure what we're going to get.
=============================
Caroline Wozniacki, DEN (1): she's a Top 10 lock. Probably a Top 5 lock, too. There's a better-than-even chance she'll lead the tour in titles, as well. But, truthfully, she could have a '12 season much like Clijsters had a year ago -- missing most of it with injury and finishing at #13 -- and have it be cause for rejoicing and optimism if she, like the Belgian, had a slam title thrown into the mix. As far as everyone outside the Wozniacki inner circle is concerned, the Dane will be playing in just four tournaments (five, if you count the Olympics) this season. How that inner circle -- now with new co-coach Ricardo Sanchez serving as the "prize?" at the bottom of the cereal box -- prepares Wozniacki for those events will tell the tale if her 2012 is a transformative "success," or just "the usual." Of course, if the "usual" means six or seven titles and a third straight season-ending #1 ranking, it would be hard to argue that she's not doing SOMETHING right... but, make no mistake, the argument would have to be made if at least one slam final hasn't been added to her career resume by the time '13 arrives.
=============================
Vera Zvonareva, RUS (7): I must admit, I had to think a while about whether or not I wanted to even include Zvonareva in this Top 10 group this year. Going with eleven players, though, she ended up making the cut. She's finished in the Top 10 four years in a row, but the onslaught of younger players like Kvitova and Azarenka might be about to regularly push her out of the SF mix at the slams. And since the Russian, unlike the Dane, doesn't exactly win on a constant basis in the tour's "regular season" she'll probably need those big point grabs to stay in the Top 10. Zvonareva has been in on the late-twenties success that has become common on the tour. In her first twenty-four slams, she had zero SF-or-better slam results. Beginning in 2009, she reached that stage or better four times in eight slams. She's gone the last three without doing so (her accompanying ranking fell from #2 to #7), though, just as she's set to turn 28 during the upcoming season. Zvonareva is at the stage where lingering injuries might hold her back (or put her off-tour entirely), or a typical late-career slide might be about to begin. That is, unless that slide has already started.
=============================

*FOUR MORE TO PONDER*
* - Li Na, CHN (5): encores are a you-know-what, especially for a nearly-30 year old player with consistency-of-results issues
* - Sabine Lisicki, GER (15): I want to think that Sabine will stay healthy and continue to thrive, but I'm very much afraid to do it
* - Andrea Petkovic, GER (10): she'd probably have to dance into her first slam SF to keep a Top 10 spot in the wake of Serena and Kim's returns
* - Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, RUS (16): her time will come, but it might have to wait until 2013

*ALSO FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION*
* - Julia Goerges, GER (21): consistency is the hobgoblin of mortal Germans
* -Francesca Schiavone, ITA (11): at nearly 32, her Top 10 days are probably over, but so what?
* -Yanina Wickmayer, BEL (26): Belgium's "forgotten" woman
* - Venus Williams, USA (103): sure, it's mostly out of respect for her overall career at this point. But did I mention that Wimbledon is being held TWICE?




*WINNERS*
FIVE POSSIBLE FIRST-TIME CHAMPIONS: Irina-Camelia Begu/ROU, Petra Cetkovska/CZE, Simona Halep/ROU, Monica Niculescu/ROU & Galina Voskoboeva/KAZ
FIVE POSSIBLE FIRST-TIME FINALISTS: Irina Falconi/USA, Petra Martic/CRO, Christina McHale/USA, Evgeniya Rodina/RUS & Lesia Tsurenko/UKR
THREE FIRST-TIME ITF CHAMPIONS: Caroline Garcia/FRA, Madison Keys/USA & Francoise Abanda/CAN
NCAA CHAMPION: Lauren Embree, University of Florida
JUNIOR SLAM CHAMPIONS: Two Hordettes (Irina Khromacheva, Yulia Putintseva or Victoria Kan?), a Bannerette (Madison Keys, Taylor Townsend or Alexandra Kiick?) and someone else (Anett Kontaveit/EST, Alison van Uytvanck/BEL or Indy De Vroome/NED?)
OLYMPIC DOUBLES GOLD MEDALISTS: Serena Williams/Venus Williams, USA
DOUBLES SLAM WINNERS: Flavia Pennetta/Francesca Schiavone, ITA/ITA
FIRST TOUR TITLE-WINNER REPRESENTING KAZAKHSTAN: Ksenia Pervak

*RANKINGS*
#1-RANKED SINGLES PLAYERS DURING SEASON: Caroline Wozniacki, Petra Kvitova & Serena Williams
CO-#1 RANKED DOUBLES PLAYERS DURING SEASON: Liezel Huber & Lisa Raymond
TOTAL WEEKS FOR WOZNIACKI AT #1 IN CAREER BY END OF 2012: between 75-85
RUSSIANS IN YEAR-ENDING TOP 5 SINGLES: none
SOUTH AMERICANS IN YEAR-ENDING TOP 50 SINGLES: none
KAZAKHS IN YEAR-ENDING SINGLES: two in Top 30, three in Top 50
YOUNGEST IN TOP 100: Laura Robson/GBR
OLDEST IN TOP 100: Venus Williams/USA
TOP 20 JUMPS: Irina-Camelia Begu/ROU, Kaia Kanepi/EST, Monica Niculescu/ROU, Ksenia Pervak/KAZ, Yanina Wickmayer/BEL
TOP 30 JUMPS: Jelena Dokic/AUS, Simona Halep/ROU, Christina McHale/USA, Galina Voskoboeva/KAZ
TOP 50 JUMPS: Irina Falconi/USA, Rebecca Marino/CAN, Aravane Rezai/FRA, Magdalena Rybarikova/SVK, Yaroslava Shvedova/KAZ
TOP 75 JUMPS: Misaki Doi/JPN, Silvia Soler-Espinosa/ESP, Sloane Stephens/USA, Lesia Tsurenko/UKR, Heather Watson/GBR
TOP 100 JUMPS: Casey Dellacqua/AUS, Cristina Dinu/ROU, Caroline Garcia/FRA, Reka-Luca Jani/HUN, Alison Riske/USA, Laura Robson/GBR
TOP 125 JUMPS: Michelle Larcher de Brito/POR, Karolina Pliskova/CZE
TOP 150 JUMPS: Noppawan Lertcheewakarn/THA, Kristyna Pliskova/CZE

*MISCELLANEOUS*
Caroline Wozniacki wins an Olympic medal
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Kim Clijsters retires
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After one more short-lived comeback attempt, Dinara Safina retires
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The two highest-ranked players without a title: Christina McHale/USA & Peng Shuai/CHN
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The Russians win no Olympic medals or grand slam singles titles
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Comeback Player: Yanina Wickmayer/BEL
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Most Improved Player: Monica Niculescu/ROU
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Surprise Player: Lesia Tsurenko/UKR
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Nicole Vaidisova plays... somewhere (maybe in an exhibition), raising questions about a possible return to the WTA in '13
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=EARLY OUTLOOKS=
AO: S.Williams d. Clijsters
RG: Stosur d. Bartoli
WI: Kvitova d. Azarenka
OL: S.Williams d. Kvitova
US: Clijsters d. Sharapova
WTA: Kvitova d. Wozniacki

Of course, I could be waaaaaay off.


All for now.



==2012 PREVIEW SERIES==
* - Grand Slam Master List
* - 'Twas the Backspin Before Christmas: The Search for Caroline's Roo
* - The Intriguing 100
* - Prediction Blowout (you are here)
* - 2012 Week 1 Picks & AO Power Rankings.

Read more...

The Intriguing 100

The new year is nearly here. What better time to look at 100 of the upcoming season's most intriguing questions, region-by-region?

*NORTH AMERICA*
1. If she can stay on the court, is there any question that Serena Williams will be in position to challenge for the #1 ranking again when Wimbledon rolls around? Remember, after missing the first five months of '11, she has zero points to defend from the Dorothy Tour until the start of grasscourt season. Even with just thirteen events counting in her ranking points total, she finished the season at #12. If she would happen to win slam #14 in Oz, then has her usual one or two good-to-great results over the next four months, she'll come to England with big prizes within her grasp. And, this year, she'll be able to essentially play Wimbledon TWICE, since the Olympics (which count in the WTA rankings) will be held there a few weeks after the Ladies champion is crowned on Centre Court.
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2. Heading Down Under, which is more important? Serena's implosion in the U.S. Open final against Sam Stosur, the 18-0 record she'd sported on North American hard courts leading into that match, or the five titles she's won in Melbourne the last seven times she's showed up to play? She hasn't played an "official" match since Flushing Meadows, not that that has ever really meant much when its come to her grand slam fortunes.
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3. Give her some room, Steffi and Andre? If Serena win the singles Gold medal at the Olympics, she'd join Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi as the only players in professional tennis history to have won all six major singles titles -- the four slams, the Olympics and the season-ending championships -- in their careers. Interestingly, this group could conceivably double (or more) in size by the end of 2012. Roger Federer, like Serena, needs just to win the Olympics at Wimbledon to join the select group (he, also like Serena, already owns Olympic Gold... but in doubles). Hmmm, Federer in the Olympics at Wimbledon... I'd say he has a shot. Additionally, Maria Sharapova and Novak Djokovic both need only to win Roland Garros and the Olympics, while Rafael Nadal has only failed to claim the ATP's season-ending title to complete the six-pack.
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4. Should we be worried? (Part 1) Venus Williams WAS scheduled to begin her '12 season in Auckland, but recently withdrew. She's still expected to arrive in Melbourne, making her usual stop at (nearly) all the grand slams. It's not exactly the everything-is-fine start that Williams and her supporters were looking for after her Sjogren's Syndrome diagnosis last summer, but it is what is it. Without considering the creeping health issue that she's unknowingly dealt with for years, even while she was an often little-seen individual at most regular tour sites, Venus' ability to show up at slams on a like-clockwork schedule has been almost remarkably admirable. With what we know now, that's even more the case. Her absence in Paris last year ended what had been a fourteen-year run of consecutive appearances at Roland Garros, as well as an uninterrupted string of sixteen straight slams in which she'd played. In a slam career that began with her '97 RG debut, she's played in 54 of 59 slams. Quite a feat, considering how often so many (fragile?) younger (or Belgian) players haven't been able to regularly answer the bell.
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5. Although she made her slam breakthrough there at age 17, hasn't it sort of become clear that Serena no longer has the temperament to fully thrive in the swirling fish bowl experience that is the U.S. Open? We all eventually outgrow the things of our youth. Oddly enough, Williams hasn't had the same sort of on-court problems with authority (and losing) in Melbourne and London in recent seasons. Of course, she doesn't lose big matches (i.e. finals or semifinals) as often there, either.
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6. Is this the beginning of something big? 16-year old Madison Keys has the biggest game of the current wave of (seemingly more interesting, competitiveness-wise) Bannerettes flooding the circuit. In winning the recent Australian Open Wild Card Playoff tournament, Keys can now claim to have won the last TWO wild card qualifying events held by the USTA, having also taken the tournament held to win a free trip into last year's U.S. Open main draw. She won a 1st Round match at Flushing Meadows, and pushed Lucie Safarova in the 2nd Round. Next stop: Melbourne.
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7. How long before Sloane Stephens' Twitter proficiency results in at least a little trouble? It's all right to embrace technology, but isn't it also wise to beware it? An 18-year old tennis star with a Twitter account attached to her brain stem is likely to lead to something being said that probably shouldn't, in 140 characters or less. Just ask Donald Young... though his seems to have been the exact lesson he needed to learn to finally bear down and begin to live up to his talents.
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8. Considering the rough go of things that Melanie Oudin had -- and continues to have, Mixed Doubles title or not -- after HER U.S. Open heroics, is there any doubt that Beatrice Capra probably made the right decision about deciding to go the college route? Umm, nope.
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9. A year ago, the argument would have been a quick one, but NOW which Canadian has the brightest future? Rebecca Marino, Gabriela Dabrowski or Eugenie Bouchard? Or maybe even Francoise Abanda?
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10. Is Gigi smiling? Monica Puig, the best Puerto Rican-born player since, well, Hall of Famer Gigi Fernandez. (But don't forget Kristina Brandi and Charlie Pasarell, either.)
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11. There timing couldn't have been any better, but will it matter? Although their long (future Hall of Fame) careers have mostly coincided over the past decade, surprisingly, Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber had never teamed up in doubles until last May. With Huber's bitter break-up with long-time teammate Cara Black, and Raymond's seemingly endless search for a reliable partner in her career's final stages, both were searching for a right (or would it be left, depending on their court positioning?)-hand woman. What a fortuitous moment their teaming has turned out to be. They combined to form THE dominant duo on tour over the back half of the '11 season, winning the four biggest second half titles (including the U.S. Open and WTA Championships). The surge pushed Huber back into the #1 doubles ranking, and brought Raymond up to #4, her best season-ending rank since '07. Now, with the Olympics beckoning in '12, both halves of the all-American pair might end up walking into their first trips to a ring-lined medal stand. Well, that is, assuming Raymond, who hasn't played Fed Cup since '08, will be eligible for London. If not, what a lost opportunity for the two of them after such a great "found" one.
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12. She's the highest-ranked, but is she the best... and does it matter? The computer says that Christina McHale is currently the most advanced of the NextGen Bannerettes. Time will tell whether she'll turn out to be the best, but, as with almost all "national revolutions" in the sport, the players at the leading edge of the group's success set the pace for the rest. McHale seems the best prepared to potentially put up some attainable marks for the rest of the young Americans in her generation to take shots at matching, or bettering, in the near future. She's already the first of the group to reach the Top 50. Next up: the Top 20, and/or winning a tour singles title. At least one of those goals might be met in 2012. Only one other American teenager (Vania King in '06) has won a WTA singles title since Serena won at the Open in '99. McHale turns 20 in May. Can she make it in under the birthday wire?
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13. What have you done for me lately, MJF? After surprising success in her first two seasons as Fed Cup coach for the U.S., resulting in a pair of runner-up results, Mary Joe Fernandez nows finds her team barely avoiding falling off a cliff. After losing both of its 2011 ties, by a combined 9-1 score, Team USA fell out of the World Group for the first time. Ever. The Americans will now have to take part in Group II action in '12, opening up with not-exactly-an-easy-out Belarus (especially so, of course, if Victoria Azarenka is in action). A loss there, and the U.S. could be facing a Group II Playoff tie in the spring where a loss could -- gulp -- sent the team back into Zone play in '13. Needless to say, MJF is counting Williams Sisters in her sleep right about now, hoping they'll make her nights a little less restless.
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14. Is a slight recalculation in order? I somewhat passed off Irina Falconi's fiery U.S. Open run as a case of great heart producing a wonderful result, rather than the result being a sign that better things could be in the offering for the young American. Following her tournament-claiming work at the Pan Am Games, could something quite good be cooking in Falconi's future, after all?
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15. Is a second helping of junior Bannerette coming at the end of the summer? Last season, unseeded Grace Min was the surprise winner of the U.S. Open Girls title. With so many young Americans popping up with good results in the juniors, could a second straight home grown junior champ at the nation's slam become a reality in September? The last time American girls won in New York in back-to-back years was 1994-95.
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16. Scared, anyone? Sure, the Williams Sisters have never been above issuing hardly-veiled "threats" about what they're going to do to the field of doubles teams in any major event in which they enter. Well, at least Serena has something of a history of such a thing. Don't look now, but the gauntlet has already been laid down for the London Olympics. Said Serena about her and Venus' chances for a third Gold (they won in 2000 and '08), "We're the defending champion, and we want to defend our title and I don't see why we wouldn't." Lest such sords seem like an idle warning to the field, remember, before their shocking upset loss at SW19 in '10 (with both coming back from long absenses, they didn't compete as a pair in '11), the Sisters had won thirty-three straight sets as a team at the All-England Club from 2007-10. Overall, they're 32-2 on the grass at Wimbledon, with four titles.
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*SOUTH AMERICA*
17. Umm, then will she be relevant AT ALL in 2012? Gisela Dulko finally won her first slam Doubles crown last year in Melbourne, but saw her singles ranking fall from the Top 50. She was still the highest-ranked South American, but that's sort of damning with faint praise all these years after Gabriela Sabatini and Paola Suarez's careers came to an end. With the Olympics this summer, Dulko won't be teaming regularly with Flavia Pennetta in '12. Unless she finds great success with someone else (maybe not likely, expecially, with London calling, if she joins up with a fellow Argentine), it means the soon-to-be 27-year old's season might just rise and/or fall on her scattershot singles results. It sort of makes you wonder, come November, if we might not even remember that Gisela played at all this coming season.
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18. She got next? All right, moving into the on-deck circle for the maybe, sort of, with luck, if everything falls just right, shot to be a South American singles player of note... Pan-Am Games semifinalist Florencia Molinero?
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19. Caro, Petra, Vika, Maria... Paul Simon, and Valdiron? The Top 3 players in the world -- Caroline Wozniacki, Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka -- weren't even alive the last time a Brazilian woman won a WTA tour singles title (in 1988). The highest-ranked Brazilian woman in '11 was #282. (Cue up the Simon music.) "Oh, where have you gone, Maria Bueno? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Ooh-oo-ooh." Too bad Brazil can't cobble together something, ala China, for Rio de Janeiro '16. On the bright side, the PBR season starts up in a week or so... and the Brazilians simply rule the bull riding circuit. Go Valdiron! (Seriously, I've really gotten into that sport over the last eighteen months.)
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*EUROPE*
20. Which is more likely? Caroline Wozniacki finishing the season ranked #1 for a third straight year, or her winning a fifth title in a row at the (Wozniacki) Open at Yale? The last woman to end three consecutive seasons in the top spot was Steffi Graf, who completed a four-year stint in the season-ending #1 in 1996. The last woman to win the same tournament five straight times was also Graf, who won in Hamburg for a WTA record-tying six straight years from 1987-92.
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21. #1 vs. 100? As 2012 begins, Wozniacki will have held the #1 position on the computer for 63 weeks. What are the chances, with Petra Kvitova (and possibly others) breathing down her neck over the course of the season, that she can stay on top long enough to hit 100 weeks at #1 by the time 2013 begins? She needs 37 more weeks of the upcoming 52. Well, really, 30 of 45, since the last seven come in the offseason. It might come down to whether or not Kvitova can wrestle away the #1 ranking from Wozniacki sometime in the opening two months of the year.
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22. Come 2013, will these be questions that have definitive answers, or will they simply start whole new arguments? Has the personal good of Wozniacki's relationship with golf champ Rory McIroy balanced out the emotional "distraction" and possibly unwanted attention it's garnered? Was signing up Ricardo Sanchez a brilliant stroke of genius, or just another move that can be criticized and picked-at like a scab? After all, it's already pretty easy to poke fun at the idea of a defensive-minded, over-scheduled #1 who can't seem to find a way to win a slam going through a long, drawn-out process of finding a new set of coaching eyes before settling on a coach whose most famous female charge (Ms. Jankovic) was... a defensive-minded, over-scheduled former #1 who never could seem to find a way to win a slam. See, the story sort of writes itself.
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23. Just how important is the '12 Australian Open to Wozniacki's season, and maybe her career? It was easy to wonder at the end of the '11 season just how different things might have been had Wozniacki managed to convert match point in the Oz SF against Li Na and reached her second career slam final. At least half of the she-can't-do-it-at-the-slams argument would have been neutralized by winning a single point, even if she'd been blitzed by a certain Belgian in the final. Might the same be said about this year's AO? With so many players in flux at this time of year, again, Melbourne might provide the Dane with her best slam opportunity. Additionally, with the addition of Ricardo Sanchez as coach, and all the potentially tense moments he brings along (of course, really, it's hard to tell how taking away Queen Chaos herself from the equation might change what is thought to be "normal" where Sanchez's coaching style is concerned), a poor showing in Melbourne surely wouldn't do a lot for the confidence Wozniacki would have in her new set-up being the right way to go. A great result would probably move things along nicely, but the Spaniad might wear thin very fast for the Dane if that doesn't happen. They only have a one-year agreement to work together, but nothing says that it even HAS to last that long. By the end of '12, Wozniacki could end up back at Square One: without a slam, without a "new" coach, maybe without her #1 ranking... and looking for answers without really even knowing how to pose the questions.
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24. What is going on in this picture, and who was smart enough not to show up for the occasion? Answers: Mirjana Lucic is dancing after her wedding... and Kim Clijsters is no where to be found. A good move, for safety's sake, for all involved, I'd say.
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25. Is Petra Kvitova destined to begin her '12 season on the right foot? A year ago, she won a title in Brisbane in Week 1. This year, she's in Perth playing the Hopman Cup with fellow Czech Tomas Berdych (is Lucie jealous?). The event is held indoors, so...
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26. Are the members of AnaIvo's constantly-evolving (and sometimes revolving) team of coaches and trainers forced to wear name tags and punch a time clock every day they show up for work? Just wondering. I mean, it'd make the yearly cutting-of-the-checks easier, you know, if she -- down to the minute -- knew exactly how long each of her oh-so-many on-again, off-again employees worked for her over the course of the season.
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27. Umm, now what? I'm talking to you, JJ. Go ahead and scream if it makes you feel better. Or, better yet, maybe stick little pins in your new Caro & Ricardo voodoo dolls.
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28. Close, but no cigar? If Victoria Azarenka ate her Wheaties last offseason, it showed. Well, occasionally... but only for a while. On the bright side, the Belarusian reached her first slam semi in 2011, rising to #3 (she had a shot at #1 in the closing week of the season) and reaching the WTA Championships final. But she still had to retire or withdraw in the middle of five different events over the course of the year. Percentage-wise, she was healthier and better able to stay on the court last year than in 2010. But, still.
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29. Will Esther Vergeer lose a match? Yeah, I know. Dumb question.
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30. Wasn't it great that Francesca had no desire to have a "Hollywood" ending? After not walking away from the game on a puffy, silver-lined cloud after her career year of '10, it was hard to know what we'd get from Schiavone last year. As it turned out, she didn't have ANOTHER career year. But she DID put together a collection of dramatic matches (both wins and losses) at all four grand slam stops, including the longest-ever women's slam match (4:44) last January in Melbourne. Thank goodness she didn't go away a year too soon. But what will she do in '12 as an encore to her encore?
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31. What is Justine thinking? (Part 1) "Awwwwl, I want to be just like Kim when I grow up."
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32. If the whole slam thing doesn't work out, will an Olympic medal -- any color will do -- suffice? For Caroline, maybe. At least it would give her something tangible -- really, she could literally give her accomplishment to someone to hold -- to put up to show that she's more than just an "on top , but only on paper" Dane.
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33. What's the definition of "disappointing?" That, apparently, Marion Bartoli will not be eligible to be a part of France's Olympic team, and won't be sporting the Pastry colors at the All-England Club this August.
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34. Are you restless yet? I'm talking to you, Nicole Vaidisova. Until you're about Kimiko Date-Krumm's age, I have to ask that every year, I guess. And the season after so many of the Czech's countrywomen were so successful, it seems even more appropriate. Wouldn't it be nice to celebrate in November as Petra, the Lucies and Kveta did this past season?
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35. Does the Olympic doubles teaming of Flavia Pennetta & Francesca Schiavone mean they'll also go back to being the heart-and-soul of the Italian Fed Cup team? Crossing fingers.
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36. I probably don't even need to change this, do I? Here's what I said about Petra Kvitova in last year's "Intriguing 100" edition: "No player's results swung as wildly as Kvitova's did last year (2010), as she showed slam semifinalist talent one moment, then can't-overcome-her-own-head deficiencies for long stretches afterward. We don't have a Czech case of 'Novotna II' here, do we?" You know, sometimes it's funny how things work out.
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37. There's no reason to worry, right? Petra Kvitova, after a few minor hiccups over the late summer and early fall, served notice that she wasn't your "typical" recent high-ranking European women's tennis player. In other words, she seems to prefer to focus almost-solely on the actual tennis aspect of the job, and has the goods to live up to the high expectations that she manages to create for herself. Her destruction of the field down the stretch in her "Player of the Year"-clinching finish to '11 surely made disappear nearly all of those lingering questions that arose after her post-Wimbledon title dip in results. After adding her name to the list of Czech slam winners and Fed Cup team-leading champions, now the hard part begins. Or the fun part, if she handles it right. Next for the taking by the reigning "Ms. Backspin" is the #1 ranking, another slam and maybe the first-ever singles Gold for a Czech woman (Jana Novotna claimed two Silvers and a Bronze in past Olympics, while Miloslav Mecir won the only tennis Gold for Czechslovakia in the men's singles in '88). Oh, and, of course, managing to do all that when everyone can see her coming from many miles away. Winning tennis honors in even a semi-"shocking" manner is great, but is it even more satisfying when the opponent and the world knows what the player is capable of, and yet are unable to prevent it from happening. Fellow Czech, and Kvitova idol, Martina Navratilova got to experience how dealing with such pressure and triumphing over it felt. Many times during her career, in fact. Petra will get the chance to learn about it firsthand in 2012. Fresh from her training trip to the High Tatras mountain range, look out WTA, here she comes again. Try to stop her (while some of us hope she doesn't find a way to accentially stop herself).
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38. What is Justine thinking? (Part 2) "Smile and act like you're listening to her. Smile and act like you're listening to her. Smile and act like you're listening to her."
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39. Was it just what she needed? Dominika Cibulkova finally won her first tour singles title last season, and road the momentum to her best-ever year-end rank (#18). Was such a boost just what the former slam semifinalist, and another of the tour's many when-she-gets-on-a-run-she-can-challenge-almost-anyone players, needed to shoot herself toward the Top 10 in 2012?
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40. Will I continue to crack open the old Backspin chestnut...? ...at every slam about how Anabel Medina-Garrigues and Anna Smashnova are the ony players in WTA history with double-digit singles titles, but zero QF-or-better slam results in their careers? Umm, I think I just answered my own question. Of note, if Roberta Vinci does her '11 season one better in '12 and wins four singles titles, while not reaching a slam QF, she'd make this group a trio. But the Italian vet would stand alone as the ONLY of the three to have never even reached a slam Round of 16, with her best result a series of 3rd Round finishes. Come on, Roberta, win four titles and give birth to a whole new Backspin chestnut that I can roast on an open fire.
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41. Maybe CSN should confer with AMG, and vice versa? While her countrywoman Medina-Garrigues has those ten titles but no slam QF, Carla Suarez-Navarro has two career slam QF but no tour singles titles. Hmmm, too bad some mad scientist couldn't take these two's various parts and make a COMPLETE champion. We could call her Carla-Anabel Medina Suarez Navarro-Garrigues, aka "The Spanish Human Centipede."
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42. You're not going to let a little dinner throw you off course -- off "course," get it? -- are you? Sabine Lisicki's grand comeback season sort of ran off the road down the stretch after her bout with food poisoning. Hopefully, it wasn't a case of a laboriously-built house of cards starting its crash back to earth because of one misplaced card... or, poorly-prepared entree.
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43. Let's just say we give you a "mulligan" for 2011? Kaia Kanepi's season was injury-troubled before it even began last year, but she still managed to get close to being back in form by year's end, notching wins over Caroline Wozniacki, Francesca Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta. Of course, then she went and played a $25K in Helsinki in late November and pulled out of the SF with a back injury. Oh, good grief. Here we go again?
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44. But is that knee sound? Andrea Petkovic's on-court results more than held their own with her creative off-court hobbies. Not only was she the first German to finish in the Top 10 since Steffi Graf in '98, but, in many ways, she was also the most consistent slam performer on the entire WTA tour. She was the only player to reach three slam QF in 2011. But a knee injury, shadows of a more serious one a few years ago, slowed her down and messed a bit with her mind down the stretch, preventing her season-long improvement from allowing her to end '11 on a high and spring into '12 with a head of steam. Petkovic's inclusion into the WTA mix has been great fun the last two years. Hopefully, her presence -- and success -- will continue to grow.
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45. Should I dare her to do it again? Tsvetana Pironkova at Wimbledon...Part III? It's just too bad that, apparently, NONE of the editions of the Bulgarian's would-be trilogy would ever be shown at any theater other than the one at the All-England Club.
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46. Is this the year? Laura Robson, who finally turns 18 in January, still leads in media attention when it comes to the British women, even if she's not the highest-ranked, and has somewhat been passed over by another player from her generation, Heather Watson. The youngest player in the Top 200 last season, is '12 the year Robson reaches the Top 100 and catches her fellow teenaged countrywoman where it counts the most, on the court?
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47. How long is it going to be before Kvitova says something that doesn't make me nod in appreciation and smile "on the inside?" "I must say that the role of tennis players I like more than the role of models," said Petra, after having gone through a long, tiring photoshoot. Your soon-to-be #1-ranked player in the world, ladies and gentlemen.
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48. Should I begin to compose my "Dear Kim" letter now? If this IS Clijsters' farewell season, I suppose some sort of "fitful" goodbye should be in the works in this space down the line, huh? Yeah, I guess. Well, it won't be anything like when you-know-who left (either time), but, contrary to what my little "thought bubble" quotes when it comes to Kim & Justine in this post might imply, a farewell letter to THIS Kim Clijsters (KC 2.0) certainly won't have the same tone as one that might have been written by a certain Backspinner when she retired the first time, either.
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49. Be mindful, Aga, all right? Sometimes, family ties, be they linked to coaching or not, are hard to sever and/or manage. (See Jelena Dokic.) That said, after seeing her career suddenly sprout new prospects after her break with her verbally abusive father, perhaps Agnieszka Radwanska can use that clever brain of her's to figure out a way to keep her father and her tennis career seperate if and when some sort of reconciliation begins. Maybe even more than Dokic or Wozniacki, A-Rad is the "high-wire act" to keep an anxious eye on in 2012.
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50. Will no one ever again get to speak in the latter stages of a slam, with a distinctly Romanian accent, of "Venus f---ing Williams?" The swarm of tennis-playing Romanians is growing in size and WTA stature (just ask Petra and Na in NYC), but, aside from Sorana Cirstea's QF result in Paris in '09, none have really been able to yet put together a sustained run at a slam, although Monica Niculescu came close last year at Flushing Meadows, reaching the Round of 16 before losing to surprising Angelique Kerber. The last Romanian slam semifinalist was Irina Spirlea at the Open in '97, who lost to, as she memorably referred to the then Open-debuting American, "V.F.W." (only without using the initials)... but not until after she "accidentally" bumped into Venus during a changeover. And, of course, we all knew it was an "accident" because of the knowing smirk on Spirlea's face after the incident. Ah, what "fun" the Romanians have brought to us in the slams in the past. And I didn't even get around to Ilie Nastase.
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51. So, after the likes of Schiavone, Li and Stosur became late-twentysomething first-time slam champs in recent seasons, who might be next to belatedly put her name on the list? Hmmm, Mademoiselle Marion Bartoli, maybe?
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52. Would three Germans in the Top 20 be better than the one or fewer that we had for the decade or so before 2011? Why, of course. But, I suspect that Julia Goerges' sometimes-upside down, sometimes-rightside up game, Petkovic's knee and Lisicki's entire body will have something to say about all that.
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53. Is Germany a threat to Europe? Hey, hold on! No wartime allusions allowed! What? Oh, I see. I'm sorry. So ahead with what you were saying then. Geez, give me a break, "imaginary editor in the sky." As I was saying, don't look now, but the tour's collection of Germans might actually have a chance to put up a better overall season in '12 than the two nations who currently reside atop the heap, Russia and the Czech Republic. First, the leading '11 numbers (excluding the one-woman gang from Denmark's stats): in total SF appearances, Russia led with 32, followed by the Czechs with 22 and Germany with 21. Finals: Russia-14, Czechs-13, Germany-7. Titles: Russia-7, Czechs-7, Germany-4. With Russia coming off a season in which the Hordettes combined for their lowest total numbers of titles since 2002, and Germany (hopefully) getting a full season from a highly-ranked Lisicki, and maybe a little improvement from Goerges, the '12 race's numbers could really tighten up. Hey, speaking of Germany and the Czech Republic, is anyone else looking forward to the 1st Round Fed Cup match-up between the two nations in February? Should be a good one.
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54. What is Justine thinking? (Part 3) (Raises hand, closes one eye, and positions her fingers between herself and Kim) "I'm squishing your head."
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*AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST*
55. Can Shahar Peer become relevant again? In 2010, the Israeli rebounded from a controversy-filled '09 campaign (remember the Dubai Debacle?) to put together the best season of her career, finishing at #13. Early last year, she was one singles match win in Charleston away from becoming the first woman from her country to ever reach the WTA Top 10. She lost that match to Julia Goerges, then immediately saw the bottom drop out of her season. She lost six of her next eight matches. Within a few months, she'd dropped entirely out of the Top 20, was the First Seed Out at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon, and, excluding a runner-up finish in College Park, won just seven of her other twenty post-one-win-from-the Top 10 matches and very nearly abdicated her position as the highest-ranked player in the Africa/Middle East region.
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56. Was Chanelle Scheepers a one-year wonder, or is she a late-bloomer? Finishing at #38, Scheepers was the player who nearly surpassed #37 Peer as the region's top-ranked woman. By every standard, 2011 was a career year for the 27-year old South African who'd never previously ended a season ranked higher than #107. She notched nice wins over Maria Kirilenko (two,actually), Monica Niculescu and Magdalena Rybarikova, pressed Francesca Schiavone in a dramatic match at the U.S. Open and won her first tour singles title in Guangzhou, becoming the first woman from her nation to take a WTA tournament crown since Amanda Coetzer in 2003.
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57. Is "Chanelle/Chanel" the new "Petra?" After the Czech Republic cornered the market on success by players named Petra (Kvitova & Cetkovska), South Africa is the Land of Chanelle/Chanel. While Scheepers was doing things that a woman from her nation hadn't done in nearly a decade, teenager Chanel Simmonds claimed three ITF circuit singles titles.
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58. Did Cara take note? One of the key issues that broke up the Cara Black/Liezel Huber doubles team in '10 was the American's belief that her playing partner from Zimbabwe was too wrapped up in her ranking and that she was closing in on Martina Navratilova's all-time record for longest uninterrupted span as the doubles #1 (Black held all or part of #1 for 33 straight months, behind Navratilova's record 41). With Anastasia Rodionova her most regular partner (teaming in four of CB's seven '11 events) in an injury-marred season, Black slipped from #13 to #77 in the rankings (prior to the break with Huber, she's been #1 four of the previous five seasons), while Huber rode a brilliant second half run back to the #1 position. Because she ended the season in the top spot, as the '12 season begins, in a slightly ironic twist of fate, Huber will pass Black (at 163) on the career weeks-at-doubles-#1 list, moving into the second place behind Navratilova (237).
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59. Shouldn't Cara have known all along? Huber's rise back to the top of the doubles rankings -- while Black fell down them -- coincided with her regular teaming with fellow American Lisa Raymond. Quite possibly, Cara should have recognized that Raymond would eventually play a part in the latter, not exactly winning, stage of her eventual Hall of Fame career. Call it something of a balancing out of the fates. After all, the one career tour singles title that Black won in her career (in Hawaii in 2002) came when she defeated, you guessed it, Raymond in the final. Additonally, as of now, the last doubles titles that Black won came when she TEAMED with Raymond to take the Birmingham title in 2010. Who did they beat in the final, you ask? Why, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and... yep, Huber. Oh, brother (though Wayne Black, with which Cara won two Mixed Doubles slams, had nothing to do with it).
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*ASIA/PACIFIC*
60. Is Anastasia Rodionova a modern day Nostradamus? Before the '11 season began, Samantha Stosur's countrywoman essentially predicted that she'd win a grand slam before the year was over. Things didn't look good for a while, but then Sammy arrived in NYC.
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61. Just how much did the U.S. Open change Samantha Stosur? A year ago, I really didn't think that Stosur had the nerve to actually win a slam. And, outside of Paris, where she'd managed to build up a great deal of pressure-blocking-out confidence in 2009-10, I figured she wouldn't even be able to contend. For sure, the Aussie's biggest liability in big matches had always been the six inches of space between her ears. Her lack of confidence and focus seemed to have doomed her chances of ever winning a slam, and three-quarters of the way into 2011 her career window for winning one looked like it might have closed. But then she burst through it with ungodly force with a dream run -- mostly played out, it should probably be noted, on the less-pressurized outside courts, usually under the cover of darkness, and with another big match on a show court -- in New York City. The way she handled Serena Williams in the final, though, put to rest all lingering doubts about whether she had "it." Thing is, it might have accomplished the same, more difficult, feat within her own mind. She's now -- glory be! -- talking like a confident grand slam champion. Maybe even one looking to star in her nation's biggest event in January. In the past, the pressure of such a moment seemed certain to get the best of her. But after she stared down, and ran over, Serena in NYC, who's to say she can't do it? Hmmm, I wonder what Rodionova thinks?
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62. Could the timing be any more perfect? (Part 1) Timing is everything, after all. And that this year's Australian Open is the 100th edition of the event puts intense pressure on a player like Stosur to succeed on a championship level... or it sets things up rather nicely for a feel-good run to a (gulp) second consecutive grand slam title. The last Aussie woman to go back-to-back in slams was Margaret Smith-Court in 1973.
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63. Could the timing be any more perfect? (Part 2) As with Stosur, Ashleigh Barty seems in a uniquely good position to ride the wave of the AO's 100th anniversary celebration. The 15-year old won the junior Wimbledon crown a year ago (becoming the first Aussie girl to win a slam since Jelena Dokic in '98), then reached the U.S. Open's Girls SF, as well. Additionally, she just climbed over multiple older players -- getting wins over Casey Dellacqua, Anastasia Rodionova & Olivia Rogowska -- to win Tennis Australia's Wild Card Playoff tournament to get into the AO women's main draw (without question, she'll be the youngest player of the 164). But, naturally, her best chance in Melbourne will still be in the junior competition. The last Australian girl to win the AO junior event was Siobhan Drake-Brockman in 1995.
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64. How nice is it to not have to "sweat it out," for once? For only the second time in the last eleven years, Jelena Dokic's ranking (year-end #66) and desire to play in the Australian Open have joined hands in a way that will allow her to gain automatic entry into the main draw of her adopted nation's grand slam. In five of the previous ten seasons, Dokic skipped the event entirely (for far too many reasons to recount... this is the "Intriguing 100," not "Intriguing 1000"), twice she had to win Tennis Australia's Wild Card tournament ('06 & '09) to get in, once she lost in qualifying ('08), and one year ago she lost in the WC tournament before receiving the discretionary wild card into the main draw from TA. 2010, after finishing #57 in '09 (the only other year since '03 in which she's finished in the Top 100), was the only other season in which she automatically qualified for the AO since she was a Top 10 player a decade ago.
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65. When will the clock tick down to 00:00? Since, you know, everyone is sort of wondering when Dokic's recent reconnection with "crazy tennis dad" Damir will once again go haywire, as it has oh so many times in the past (it led to her exit from Australian ten years ago, leading to her absence from the AO between 2002-05 after her father made claims of "draw rigging" after Jelena had drawn Lindsay Davenport in the 1st Round in '01). Hopefully, the expected meltdown won't happen this time... but no one with any real sense would ever put any money on it.
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66. So, is Rennae Stubbs REALLY retired now? Really? Just wondering. Not that an occasional on-court appearance would be frowned upon, of course.
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67. Maybe she knew it wasn't "official?" After her loss in the U.S. Open last year, Casey Dellacqua fell into an epic addiction to winning. Putting together an ITF circuit record 30-match winning streak, she ended her season by claiming six events in a row. She didn't lose a singles match until she was taken out in Tennis Australia's Wild Card Playoff tournament by eventual winner Ashleigh Barty. But, technicially, that loss "doesn't count," so in the eyes of the Tennis Stat Gods, she STILL hasn't REALLY lost since Flushing Meadows.
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68. Who'll cross the finish line first? Last year in Seoul, Galina Voskoboeva reached the final in one of the best results of her monsterous-climb-up-the-rankings 2011 season. But the wait continues for the first woman representing Kazakhstan to win a WTA tour singles title. Much like her countrywoman before her, Yaroslava Shvedova saw her ranking plummet (#39 to #206) last year. So, will she be the next Kazakh to ride a resurgence into a final... but win it? She's won a tour title before (2007), but was representing Russia at the time.
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69. Meanwhile, from the womb of Chelyabinsk, Russia, is that yet another Kazakh savior I hear arriving on horseback? Well, yes, in a way, since Ksenia Pervak has become the latest Hordette-born player to leave the crowded Russian tennis landscape (and the hard-to-come-by spots on the nation's Fed Cup & Olympic teams) behind for the "holy land" of Kazakhstan. Pervak won her first career title in '11, and is one of the best up-and-coming young stars in the WTA. Galina and Yaroslava just got some REAL competition to be the first woman with "KAZ" by her name to win a tour singles title. But, throw in Zarina Diyas and you've got the makings of a pretty fine Fed Cup team here.
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70. But if neither Pervak, Voskoboeva or Shvedova win a title in '12, what would be a nice Kazakh consolation prize? Well, how about two... err, or maybe THREE, players in the Top 50? A nice comeback singles season from Shvedova, and there's a decent chance of the latter happening. By comparison, there was only ONE Pastry (Bartoli) in the Top 50 at the end of '11.
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71. Does Mother Time's clock have an unending battery? If Martina Navratilova's tour record for oldest singles match winner is still in jeopardy, it would mean that we've got at around six more years of Kimiko Date-Krumm to look forward to. She maintained a Top 100 ranking at age 41 last year, winning a tour doubles title (her first in fifteen years) and a $100K challenger crown in singles.
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72. Is it wise to underestimate Li Na? It never has been. But, then again, it's never been wise to expect great things from her, either. Now, after reaching the AO final and winning RG, both the high and low end of her results spectrum in this year's slams are even more outlandish. Just last season, she was a first-time slam champ AND a 1st Round slam loser. Yeah, so was Petra Kvitova... but it's somehow "different," and only partially because the Czech is nearly a decade younger than the Chinese vet. That said, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Li catch a wave in "the Grand Slam of Asia/Pacific" and have another fun-loving ride in a few weeks. Of course, she could lose in the 1st Round, too. Such is the tennis life of Li.
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73. China's tennis future knows no boundaries... or does it? Li Na won Roland Garros and all, putting all sorts of new tennis dreams into the minds of billions of little girls, but it didn't stop this year's long-time Week 1 exhibition in Hong Kong from being cancelled due to a lack of sponsorship.
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74. Has anyone seen China's Fed Cup team? Just wondering. After the astounding neglect of recent years had relegated Team China, a World Group semifinalist in 2008 right before the Beijing Olympics, all the way down into Zone play in '11, one would think that the powers-that-be had taken on a very Clijstersian "we won't play in Asia" stance on the matter.
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75. Ah, but why do we KNOW that China is still building a potential women's tennis empire? Why, because the nation has its very own pair of racket-wielding, title-winning twins: the Lu Sisters -- Jia-Jing & Jia-Xiang, both 22. Jia-Jing won two of her four career ITF singles titles in '11, while Jia-Xiang reached a final of her own (she hasn't won a title since '07, though). Together, they were even better, claiming four challenger titles as a duo last season. They've yet to face off with each other in a singles final (they've met in a QF). But, hey, give 'em time.
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76. Will imitation be the most sincere form of flattery? So, Peng Shuai saw Li Na become the first Asian to win a grand slam title. Then, later in the year, saw Dominika Cibulkova erase her name from the highest-ranked-player-without-a-tour-title list. Hint, hint. The current #17-ranked singles player, Peng is still waiting for HER first time in the winner's circle.
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*RUSSIA*
77. Should we be worried? (Part 2) Although she put on a valiant run on the clay, winning in Rome and reaching the Roland Garros SF, then reached her first Wimbledon final in seven years and put herself in position to challenge for the #1 ranking last season, Maria Sharapova still wasn't able to hold the tantalizing combination of her serve, game and nerve together in one piece consistently enough to win seven straight matches over a two-week span in '11. Like Venus Williams, another former slam champ who doesn't seem capable of winning those same seven consecutive contests, maybe we DID see the last of the "real" her in 2008.
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78. Should we be worried? (Part 3) Sharapova's chances to finish '11 at #1 were thwarted largely because of an ankle injury. With her ankle still "not 100%" nearly two months after the end of the season, Sharapova has already pulled out of her only Australian Open tune-up event (hmmm, again, much like Venus), though insists she'll be ready for Melbourne (ditto, V). This 100th edition of the Aussie Open will mark the four-year anniversary of Sharapova's third, and most recent, slam title run. Maybe there'll never be a fourth.
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79. You think Elena Dementieva has ever regretted the (maybe one year too early) timing of her retirement after seeing all the first-time slam champs that were born in '11? Yeah, me neither.
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80. Has the time finally come? No new Russian woman has climbed into the Top 10 since Anna Chakvetadze in 2007. Is Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who climbed into the Top 20 in '11, finally ready to become the next "Hordette of note?" Every few months, AP seems to have improved just a little bit more, but unless she can pull a big slam run out of her nesting doll, her steady-but-sure progress might mean '13 will end up being the site of her long-awaited awakening.
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81. Is it time to give up and declare that all the good chapters have already been written? I'm talking to you, Sveta.
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82. And if no more big wins are in store for the future, is the Hall of Fame REALLY a given? Future "Hall of Famer Svetlana Kuznetsova." It just doesn't "sound" right, even if the chances of it NOT happening for a multiple slam and multiple Fed Cup winner are pretty much nil.
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83. From a sweep to a shutout? Four years after the Russians swept the medal stand in singles at the Beijing Olympics, they might struggle to win even a single disc of honor in London this summer. 2008 medalists Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina are retired, or nearly so, and Vera Zvonareva seemed to slip ever so slightly last season. Maria Sharapova should be a contender, but, well, she's hardly dependable these days. On the grass, the medal stand advantage goes to the Williams Sisters (one, at least, and maybe two if things go right over the first six months of '12) and Kvitova, not the Hordettes.
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84. We all know Marat was likely just repeating what he heard you say, right, Dinara? Unfortunately, the career probably IS over, save for an aborted comeback attempt to two.
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85. Who's more likely to play a match in 2012? Safina or Alisa Kleybanova? Hopefully, both will. It's probably more likely that only one, or neither, actually will.
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86. The beginning, or the end? Team Russia's surge back into the Fed Cup final in '11 was a great rebound for the four-time champs after disappointing results in the two previous years. But, even with the inevitable decline of the aging Italian team removing one top team from constant contention, will the Hordettes ever be able to dominate the ever-more-competitive event like they did a few years ago? Probably not.
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87. Will Anna Chakvetadze earn as many rankings points in '12 as votes in her run for Russian state parliament? Ending '11 ranked all the way down at #230, Chakvetadze clocked in with just 248 qualifying ranking points last season.
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88. Has the unstoppable drift begun? Vera Zvonareva won two titles last season, twice what she did in '10, but saw her ranking drop from #2 to #7. She'll turn 28 in 2012, placing her right smack in the middle of the "fork in the road" age bracket where (as we've seen recently) players either get a second wind and put together a couple of slam-contending (or winning) runs, or (as we saw for most of the years before recent events) their career decline begins and just staying healthy and consistent enough to manage to stay in the Top 15 or 20 is a major accomplishment.
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89. Is she forever fated to be underappreciated? I guess it goes with the territory when you're Russian, blond, once appeared in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue (but with two of your fellow WTA stars, not solely on your own level of fame), and are named Maria... but not Sharapova. "Second-fiddle," thy name is Kirilenko. Although, for quite some time, its name was "Chakvetadze." So maybe Maria can run for political office someday, just like a certain "less famous" Russian Anna.
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90. Is the next wave of Hordette contenders washing up on shore? In the closing weeks of 2011, the three big season-ending Grade A junior events -- the Yucatan Cup, Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl -- saw three different Russian teenagers fill four of the six spots in singles finals. Yulia Putintseva went 1-1, while Irina Khromacheva won, and Victoria Kan lost, in their sole deciding match attempts.
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91. She was the newest, but did you know that she wasn't the youngest? There was just one grand slam Round of 16 newcomer representing Russia in 2011 -- Ksenia Pervak (at Wimbledon). But the 20-year old wasn't the youngest Hordette who reached a slam 4th Round last season. That'd STILL be the aforementioned Pavlyuchenkova, who is five weeks her former countrywoman's junior.
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92. As she learned before, "perfect" isn't everything? Kudos to Anna Kournikova for at least having the guts to wade back into the television waters quite a few years after her disasterous turn as a tennis coverage interviewer/reporter a few years ago. But after her stint as the on-air trainer on "The Biggest Loser" came and went with mostly universally poor reviews, and she won't be back for a second season stint, maybe she should just stick with goodwill tours, the WTT, and being the subject of the paparazzi and professional photographers, while leaving alone anything that involves a microphone and TV cameras. As Andre Agassi once famously said, "Image is everything."
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*NO REGION REQUIRED*
93. Are three servings of home cooking possible this year? Consider this: defending U.S. Open champ Sam Stosur wins in Melbourne, '11 semifinalist Marion Bartoli steps up and wins Roland Garros this time around, while Serena Williams overcomes her many NYC demons and takes the Open. That's make three of the four WTA slam champs winning their crowns on home soil. The only time such a thing has happened in the Open era was 1977, when Virginia Wade (GBR) won Wimbledon, Chris Evert (USA) the U.S. Open and Evonne Goolagong (AUS) in Oz (actually, Aussie Kerry Reid won the AO that year, too, as the tournament was held in both January and December).
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94. Will the WTA's game of "#1 Hot Potato" start up again? Don't look now, but it's also not out of the question that we could see more different women at #1 in '12 than in any other season, or at least get close to it. Since 1975, the most different players in the top spot in a calendar year was five in 2008. Four have held the spot during two seasons, while three have passed around the #1 rankings six times. Caroline Wozniacki begins the year at #1, just 115 points ahead of Petra Kvitova. Some exchange(s) there seems probable during the course of '12, but it's not that difficult to map out scenarios where players such as Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova (that makes six!) turn the top spot into a Sisterhood of the Traveling Rankings Pants over the run of the upcoming season.
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95. #1 vs. #2 would be nice, right? With more potential #1's, the chances for a few #1-vs.-#2 matchups would seem to go up (maybe not if someone ACTUALLY crunched the theoretical numbers, but still). There were zero official (tour level or Fed Cup) meetings of the two top-ranked players in '11, and there has only been a single such match over a span of nearly four years. Since #1 Justine Henin faced off with #2 Svetlana Kuznetsova in Sydney in Week 2 of 2008, the only #1-vs.-#2 matchup we've seen was Caroline Wozniacki's meeting with Vera Zvonareva in the 2010 WTA Championships. In Week 1 of this season, #1 Wozniacki and #2 Kvitova are slated to meet on the seventh day of round robin action at the Hopman Cup. But, again, that would be an "unofficial" meeting of the top two players.
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96. Will the active double-digit title winners list balloon this year? Counting the on-the-shelf Dinara Safina, there are currently twelve active players who have won ten or more career tour singles titles. The "exclusive" group might not be so exclusive for much longer. Amongst the players who should/could get their tenth titles: Flavia Pennetta (needs 1 title), Victoria Azarenka (2), Petra Kvitova (3), Marion Bartoli (3) and Agnieszka Radwanska (3). Go a little out on the edge, and Roberta Vinci (4, after winning 3 in '11) and Jelena Dokic (4) are true longshots, while a confident Sam Stosur stands seven titles away from ten.
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97. Doubles drama, aside, am I crazy to think it'd be even better? Once again, I'll question why the Fed Cup has never adopted the Davis Cup's format of playing the doubles match in the middle of the tie rather than at the end, thereby virtually assuring that every roster player will take part in a meaningful match. Plus, it'd set up the possibility of some super-intense Match #5 singles battles that would decide things. Deciding doubles battles are nice -- and 2011's final DID come down to the doubles match -- but imagine how crazed things would get in a head-to-head, singles battle for a title. Hey, I complained for years about the WTA announcing official season awards in the spring of the FOLLOWING year, and in 2010 the Powers-that-Be did eventually see the logic of the idea (or at least the illogic of the former setup) and begin announcing awards at the END of the year rather than a quarter of the way into the next one. So, I'll continue to wish for this one to happen, too. At the very least, the home team should be able to choose which format to use.
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98. Will anyone really notice, or care? The Washington Kastles, the WTT's first-ever undefeated champions a season ago, will be looking to extend their summertime dominance in 2012. Technically, they're Backspin's "local team"... but I'd have to almost be forced to take notice.
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99. With so many players scrambling for position, is it even remotely possible for one woman to win ten singles titles, or nine? While both went through "soft spots" in their '11 schedules when it came to lifting titles, the world's #1 and #2 players, Wozniacki and Kvitova, tied for the tour title lead last year with six each. Kvitova's ability to get on a good run makes one think she might be able to run off a string of titles on multiple occasions in '12, but could she win enough to get to double-digits? The last woman to win ten or more titles in a single season was Justine Henin in '07, and she's the ONLY woman to have done it in the last fourteen years. The last to win nine was Kim Clijsters in '05, and before that, Clijsters again in '03.
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100. Will anyone miss NBC's presence at Wimbledon? Hahaha. That's a good one, I know. I just wanted to end this year's "Intriguing 100" with a laugh. Mission accomplished, I'd say.
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All for now.



==2012 PREVIEW SERIES==
* - Grand Slam Master List
* - 'Twas the Backspin Before Christmas: The Search for Caroline's 'Roo
* - The Intriguing 100 (you are here)
* - Prediction Blowout
* - 2012 Week 1 Picks & AO Power Rankings.

Read more...