BACKSPIN SPECIAL: The Best of Henin

Justine Henin has been a big part of Backspin over the past nearly six years, so as a final tribute I thought I'd post a collection of links to past La Petit Taureau-centered columns as a sort of "Best of Henin" Special Edition.



(First, the oldest Backspin mention I could find, excerpted here because it appears that the original Tennisrulz.com link no longer exists.)

=2002=

TENNISRULZ.com WTA REPORT
WEEK 43; October 28, 2002

WAFFLES, ANYONE?

It was a Belgian Waffle Sunday as, for the first time ever, both Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters emerged with two different singles titles in the same week. Who says there are no WTA stories without the Sisters?

2002 hasn't exactly been kind to the Waffles, with injuries causing several setbacks for both. But as most of the rest of the Top 10 limps toward this season's finish line, Henin and Clijsters are surging toward dual Top 5 rankings. Henin, in fact, has already risen to a career-high #4, and Clijsters is right behind her at #6.

Hmmm, could L.A. be shaping up to be a battle of the Williams family vs. the Belgians? Could we be so lucky to see that story begin to develop a week from now? Stay tuned.

WEEK 43 CHAMPIONS
LINZ (TIER II)
S: Justine Henin d. Alexandra Stevenson
D: Dokic/Petrova d. Fujiwara/Sugiyama
LUXEMBOURG (TIER III)
S: Kim Clijsters d. Maggie Maleeva
D: Clijsters/Husarova d. Hrdlickova/Rittner

PLAYER AWARDS
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: The Waffles
...In the midst of their dual rises up the WTA rankings, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin have never both won singles titles on the same weekend. That's now changed. But Clijsters gets the slight edge here since she took the Luxembourg doubles, as well.

MATCHES
1.Season-lifting Finals -
...The Belgians are rising again. After rollercoaster seasons for both, Henin and Clijsters are hitting their strides as the season winds down. Henin's win over Stevenson in Linz shot her to a career-best #4; while Clijsters' working over of Maleeva to defend her 2001 Luxembourg title leaves her a potential Championships Final run away from possibly joining her fellow Waffle in the season-ending Top 5.



And now the Backspin history of Henin... in link form:

=2003=
May 12 - To Choke or Not to Choke
June 9 - 2003 Clay Court Awards (RG '03)
August 18 - Signs, Eh?
September 8 - Queen Justine (US '03)
October 20 - Le Petit Taureau is a Queen

=2004=
February 2 - Taureau in a Clijsters Shop
August 23 - Athena Would Be Proud (Olympics '04)

=2005=
April 18 - Le Petit Taureau est de Retour
June 6 - Long Live the Queen (RG '05)

=2006=
January 28 - Amelie Clicks Her Heels (Oz '06)
January 29 - Dorothy Tour Awards '07 (post-Oz controversy)
February 27 - Justine's Port of Call
June 10 - Restoring Order (RG '06)
June 24 - Welcome Back, Petit Taureau
November 7 - Intriguing Answers: A Tale of Two Champions
November 13 - A Final Poke in the Eye of Convention (YEC '06)

=2007=
June 9 - The Pursuit of Happiness (RG '07)
September 8 - Eternal Sunshine of the Henin Mind (US '07)
October 8 - Last Belgian Standing
October 22 - The Reign of Queen Justine, Pt.IX
November 13 - 2007 Backspin Awards
November 21 - "What a way to end a season." (YEC '07)

=2008=
May 15 - Into the Good Night



ALSO OF NOTE: The Best of Clijsters

All for now.

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Into the Good Night

She should never have been what she turned out to be. Luckily for the tennis world, size didn't matter. But who could have guessed the dimensions of the heart and fight that turned out to reside inside the five-foot-five and three-quarter inch body of Justine Henin?



La Petit Taureau. The Little Bull. Yesterday's stunning retirement announcement from the seven-time grand slam-winning Belgian secured her place in history, as she defied convention one final time by becoming the only woman to walk away from the sport while still positioned atop the singles rankings. After having overcome her physical disadvantages to become the WTA tour's dominant figure over the last half-decade, the 25-year old said that the decision had been brewing inside her since the end of last season, and that the difficulty she had finding the desire to do even the simple things necessary (such as just packing her suitcase) to maintain her prominent position in the game made her choice to call it a career an easy one. In the end, it was a familiar case of emotional burn out.

"I felt, deep inside, something was getting out of my grasp," she said. "I decided to stop fooling myself and accept it."

Was Wednesday's declaration stunning? Of course. Was it totally shocking? Well, not exactly. It's never felt like we were getting all of the "old" Henin in the opening weeks of the '08 season. Still, even a less-committed version of herself managed to win two titles and 80% of her twenty matches.

A day later, maybe the fact that Henin will never patrol another baseline again hasn't quite sunk in. It likely won't fully until Roland Garros begins less than two weeks from now without its four-time, three-time defending champ in attendance. The full impact of her absence will surely be great news for the rest of the field. Suddenly, it'll be any woman's tournament to win. A new reigning champion will be crowned in Paris in June, but the "Queen of Clay"will be nowhere in sight... the memory of her exploits already beginning the process of fading from memory. Athletic careers are forever fleeting. "Old" becomes "young" in the blink of an eye once one phase of an athlete's life ends and another begins (imagine going from a "worn out veteran" to a barely-out-of-college aged young woman of 25 just by concluding a press conference). She'll turn 26 on June 1, just as the second week of play begins at Roland Garros. Needless to say, it'll provide a jarring moment of reflection, wherever Henin may geographically find herself that day.

But as an athlete's "real" life moves forward, so does the game she leaves behind. But before that happens, it'd be proper to recognize that we just witnessed one of the more remarkable careers in tennis history.

In an era when power tennis ruled, when Steffi Graf and Monica Seles altered the direction of the sport, the Williams sisters revolutionized the game and the likes of Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic (who'll fittingly immediately do battle for Henin's vacated #1 position) ushered in a generation of players whose only memory is of "big babe" tennis, "little babe" Henin made it impossible for other supposedly "physically overmatched" players (hello, Swiss Miss) to have a ready excuse for a lack of success. By any right of human evolution, Henin should have been anything but the most steadily accomplished player of her generation. But, pound for pound, no player got as much power from her shots or consistently excellent results as the diminutive Belgian.

Surely, natural talent had a great deal to do with Henin's success. But it was her single-minded desire and focus, sometimes to the detriment of her reputation outside of a close clique that sometimes seemed to begin and end with her coach since the age of 14, Carlos Rodriguez, that set Henin apart from the rest. It was what made her refuse to quit training, sometimes to the detriment to her own body, until her health compelled it. It was what made finishing second-best so distasteful, sometimes costing her fans because of a misunderstood "lack of sportsmanship." And, ultimately, it was the waning of it that cost her career the longevity that might have lifted her even higher in the pantheon of women's all-time champions.

Still, from 2003-07, Henin was arguably the dominant figure in her sport. She won seven slams, spent 117 weeks at #1, three times finished as the season-ending #1, and won 41 singles titles. She won Olympic Gold in Athens, two Year-End Championships and a Fed Cup title. Only a title at Wimbledon, where she was twice runner-up, escaped her clutches (with it she would have joined only Graf and Andre Agassi with a least one crown at every major event the sport had to offer). In 2006, Henin reached the finals of all four slams, the YEC and Fed Cup. But it was the '07 season that proved to be her masterpiece: she went 63-4 (the best WTA season by win percentage in eighteen years), won ten titles (becoming the first woman to do so in ten seasons) in fourteen events (reaching at least the SF in the other four) and won two slams, including her third straight Roland Garros. Earlier this season, what turned out to be her final tour title was won in Antwerp, her first victory in her home country since she became the fifth of now six women to win their first tournament in their tour debut, which a 16-year old Henin did in Antwerp in 1999.

If this truly is the end of Henin's career and she never wakes up one day to find her competitive juices firing once again, then this wraps up the unique and surprising Belgian chapter of the WTA history book just one year after Henin's fellow Waffle, Kim Clijsters, retired at age 23 to start a family and recover from a body-battering career of grind-it-out tennis.

As it is, Henin leaves 'em wanting more. Just like Bjorn Borg, who walked away with a trail of major championships in tow at age 25 in 1981 (though he did attempt two short-lived comebacks over the next ten years), forever leaving an ellipses of "what if's" behind but never a hint or rumor of "wasted" talent in any thumbnail sketch of a Hall of Fame career.

"There are no regrets. I did everything I had to do in tennis."

Not a bad legacy. Maybe not the one many would have preferred to see her leave behind with her final act as a professional tennis player. But a life is never perfect... and no one knows that fact better than Henin herself.

Henin's road has never been easy. She's always been fighting back against SOMETHING. In her early years, there were the typical problems of a young player trying to overcome her own failures in putting away big matches. In 2004, it was the energy-sapping cytomegalovirus. In 2006, it was the absurd furor created when she retired against Amelie Mauresmo in the Australian Open final. In 2007, it was the divorce from her husband Pierre-Yves Hardenne that caused her to skip the activities in Melbourne. But all that was nothing compared to what she'd already endured... and therein lies the not-so-big secret to Henin's success.

La Petit Taureau's desire was both shaped and concentrated by the death of her mother from cancer in 1995. When Henin won her first Roland Garros title in 2003, she recalled the day eleven years earlier when her mother had taken her to Court Suzanne Lenglen. In the stands, Henin said that she'd told her mother, "'One day I'll be on that court and maybe I'll win.' And today I did.'"

Henin's career was a testament to that promise and her devotion to the notion of it, even as it caused a rift between herself and her remaining family that lasted a decade... until her brother was injured in an auto accident late last year. With her own personal life crumbling around her, Henin broke form and reached back for her family. It changed everything.

With her emotional connection to her family -- and maybe her mother -- renewed, Henin put together her masterful '07 campaign. Somewhere, one could envision her mother being more proud than ever. And when it was over, Justine was done. There was nothing left.


Photo by Mark Renders/Getty Images

I wondered a year ago if "Nice Justine" would wear well. Could a player who'd spent years being inspired to fight ghosts and adversaries both real and constructed be the same player when she exchanged her "black hat" for a "white" one? Could a player who said she was "finally at peace" find the determination to be the single-minded force she'd been when she was forever striving for something that maybe even she didn't know if she'd recognize when and if she stumbled upon it? As it turned out, with nothing left to fight against, La Petit Taureau lost her fight. Without the mental edge that made her fiercely want success more than her opponents, the desire to push forward at whatever cost was gone.

The sight of the oddly "off" Henin that began this '08 season, losing early and sometimes badly, isn't the lasting image anyone would prefer of her, including Justine. I know I'll always choose to remember the damn-the-torpedoes La Petit Taureau who spat in the face of odds no matter who or what opposed her, and the thought of watching something less than that is an unpalatable one on every level. By retiring, Henin spared us the uncomfortable experience of watching her career wane, and herself the fate of not living up to her own expectations.

Who knows? Maybe one day we WILL see Henin on the court again... but maybe the effort to get there wouldn't even be worth it.

A few weeks ago, Henin surprised the citizens of Grand Place de Bruxelles by unexpectedly showing up in the city's square and playing tennis with passers-by picked from the crowd. Only she would know if that "Justine of the People" moment was her personal thank-you/farewell, characteristically cloaked in secrecy, to her fans, or a last ditch effort to recapture her lost desire. But it's impossible now not to look back at such an odd moment as anything but one or the other. Her talk last week of her post-tennis life was but another red flag that something was amiss, and that the edge she used to get her to the top may have somehow dulled. Faced with a no-win situation, her final press conference was but the "official" ritual that she had to complete.

As if often the case with misunderstood public figures who must uncomfortably live in the public eye, we were really just getting to know Henin as she was preparing to walk out the door. The glimpse was intriguing, but sadly evanescent. Her beautiful backhand now takes up residence in tennis' unofficial Louvre, next to the likes of the Graf forehand, McEnroe volley and Sampras serve... but "Justine Henin" will always retain a certain air of mystery. Thus, the aura of Henin will never disappear.

What a wonderfully strange trip it's been, too. Contrary to the current state of things at Backspin the last few years, there was no love lost for Henin at the beginning. The "wave off" against Serena Williams in Paris earlier this decade rankled Your Friendly Neighborhood Backspinner, but Henin's '03 U.S. Open run changed all that. She won me over with one match -- the epic SF win over Jennifer Capriati in New York which still rates as the most dramatic match I've ever seen, and one that stands as a monument to all that La Petit Taureau brought to the court.

Looking back, I'm so glad Henin the Player had the low-to-high experience of '07. It helped to humanize her, and erase a few of the bad feelings her win-at-all-cost actions (gamesmanship?) might have roused over the years. At least for one brilliant season, she was the one with the heart. She always had been, but was averse to showing it, and consequently was rarely given credit for it in the heat of the competition that her backstory made so important to her daily existence.

Many players in today's game fail to live up to expectations but, while conservatively giving away a half-foot height advantage to some opponents, Henin got everything out of her game and body that she could. Only the reputation she built over the course of her career makes calling her an "overachiever" sound ridiculous. She could have won quite a few more matches before she walked away, but it will never be said that La Petit Taureau left a career's worth of accomplishments unclaimed. Her career will always win that tug-of-war with history. I surely wish there was more to be seen from her, but if the same Henin that secured her spot in the Hall of Fame in Newport is truly no longer with us, maybe it's better she walk off into the good night rather than try to continue in the light of day as a shadow of her former self.

As was the case with Clijsters, Backspin HQ won't be quite the same without La Petit Taureau (though for selfishly different reasons), but it's time for her to find new hurdles to overcome and obstacles to hurdle.

Au revoir, Justine. It was swell.



NEXT: The Best of Henin

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Henin Retires

At age 25, world #1 Justine Henin retired from tennis today.

A Backspin Special Edition honoring La Petit Taureau's legacy is coming soon.

Read more...

Wk.19- One Day in May

At least for one day in May, the tennis world was Jelena Dokic's oyster.

All right, maybe it wasn't the W-T-A world, but the ITF one instead... and not a $100K, $75K or $50K event, but rather a $25K one. And, who knows, maybe the Yugoslav turned Aussie turned Serb turned Aussie is allergic to seafood, which would give that first sentence an entirely different meaning.

Ahh, such is the tennis career that has turned out to be Dokic's. So, allow me for a moment to go off on something of a Week 19 tangent (sorry, Dinara... you won your first Tier I on the wrong weekend), for in Florence, Italy the walking embodiment of any "Even You Can Screw up Your Career" mantra managed to accomplish something she'd never done before.



No, she didn't lose to a player ranked #709 in the qualifying rounds of a $25K event. She did that in 2006. And she didn't fall to an unranked no-name in the qualifying of a $10K, either. She did that LAST year... get with the program. Dokic actually WON an ITF event, a little milestone that a young Jelena simply "skipped over" in her previous incarnation. In this case, it took a 6-1/6-3 win in the final over Lucie Hradecka to complete the task.

How is it, you wonder, that a player that had so much early success managed to never win an ITF event? Easy. Dokic was good enough early enough to never give it a second thought.

After playing a few ITF events when she was 15, reaching a final in Saga, Japan (she lost to fellow Aussie Alicia Molik) in 1998, Dokic hit the ground running at the 1999 Wimbledon. As a qualifier, she famously upset world #1 Martina Hingis in the 1st Round and raced to the QF. She only played one other lower circuit event until 2005 (when she finally "stooped" after all else had failed and her career was in literal free fall).

Dokic rode her early career wave to great effect. A year after defeating Hingis, she reached the SF at SW19. By 2002, she'd won five titles, two Tier I's, completed a "surface slam" with championships on all four surfaces, and climbed to #4 in the rankings.

Then the bottom dropped out.

Quicker than you can say "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," Dokic nearly blew her career to smithereens with a lethal combination of familial discord, injuries and a lack of confidence, a one-dimensional game that her innate stubbornness refused to allow her to correct with sane coaching decisions, the propensity to cut-and-run from tennis camps as well as nations, an almost Jankovician desire to play herself into the ground (sometimes in a panicked reaction to a string of bad results), and a frustrating failure to see that the path back to the main road might mean swallowing a little pride until it was almost too late.

(Whew! Pardon me, my head is spinning.)

Dokic's year-end ranking graph looks like Mount Everest, and she was able to travel from base camp to summit and back down the other side without the aide of a single Sherpa, too. She bottomed out last season, dropping off the WTA rankings computer entirely after playing just two $10K events (she failed to qualify in one, and lost in the 1st Round in the other).

She entered Florence ranked #429, with her last grand slam main draw victory a tennis lifetime ago at the 2003 U.S. Open. So, it'd be easy to dismiss last week, even with her crazy dad in her rear view mirror, as but a blip on the Dokic career radar. But there are few players whose success that Your Friendly Neighborhood Backspinner would welcome with more delight than any cobbled together by the Ex-Debutante, even if it was only on a "lesser" scale. Check that, Justine & Nadia... there is NO player's success that would be more welcome in these parts.

Along the hard road from there to here, maybe Dokic has finally matured. Just a bit? It'd be quite a journey, considering she's been her own worst enemy for most of the past half-decade as her once-promising career careened out of control, sometimes from an embarrassing lack of direction and common sense. She never fell into a Capriati-esque period of delinquency, but that fact only makes her inability to gain any real traction or semblance of stability since 2002-03 all the more vexing.

Once referred to as the Fair One (in the Jelena-Dokic.com "Jelena Corner" years), Dokic was staring down her career's possible last chance before the start of this season. I guess such a back-to-the-wall moment has a way of forcing someone to bite their lip and make the correct decisions. Heading back Down Under was the right move. Not getting depressed and/or panicked when she was injured during her attempt to capture a wild card, then lost in the qualifying rounds of the Australian, was another. Waiting until Fes in Week 18 to return? Another good move.

Fes provided Dokic with the chance to get a win over The Kid, Michelle Larcher de Brito, a player who, if you squint hard enough, might actually call to mind a young 16-year old Aussie slamming winners all over the court and clenching fists against a now-veteran player on the comeback trail. Time plays tricks with the mind, and it's turned the tables on Dokic. But she still has time to win a few important battles.

Florence might stand as an extremely important one. Other than her brief comeback when she won the Australian tennis federation's wild card playoff tournament in 2006, before this weekend Dokic hadn't won ANYTHING since claiming Birmingham in June 2002 in singles (then the Linz doubles later that year). She hadn't played in a final since losing to Justine Henin in Zurich in 2003, or reached a SF on tour since 2004 in Tokyo (she DID reach one in a $10K in '06, though).

So, for at least this brief instant, Backspin HQ is celebrating with Jelena. It wasn't too long ago that even something as "nominal" (at least for a one-time world #4) as a $25K crown seemed to be an "impossible dream" for a player that was THIS CLOSE to becoming an afterthought. That is, except for that ounce of stubbornness that once was a winning trait of a teenager on the rise, and so many years later still caused Dokic watchers to leave a door partly ajar for her to step through one more time... but not really expecting her to come knocking before she packed away her tennis bags for good.

The now 25-year old Dokic's bubble may burst at any moment, but RIGHT NOW Jelena is perched atop it, albeit precariously, and able to consider her next move without wondering if another failure might cause her to considering calling it her last. For the first time in a long while, she has a reason to smile.

Just a little, at least... but isn't that what May is for?

*WEEK 19 CHAMPIONS*

BERLIN, GERMANY (I-Red Clay)
S: Dinara Safina def. Elena Dementieva 3-6/6-2/6-2
D: Black/Huber d. Llagostera-Vives/Martinez Sanchez


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Dinara Safina, RUS

Michael Kappeler/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
.... as the lucky #13-seed in Berlin, Safina's first career Tier I crown makes one wonder what Maria Kirilenko's Estoril title-winning run has wrought. Following up on Maria Sharapova's first-ever clay title, Kirilenko's awakening seems to have jostled a slew of other young Hordettes to action. Vera Zvonareva won in Prague a week ago, then Safina made it four Russian champs in the last six WTA events. MAYBE Safina's exploits in Germany -- which included impressive wins over both Justine Henin and Serena Williams -- will signal a course change for her career. But, remember, we ARE talking about Marat's sister here. She reached the Top 10 for the first time in 2006, but didn't win a title that season. She claimed just one in 2007 and managed to top out at #9 in the rankings, but had fallen to #17 heading into Berlin. Maybe her recent doubles success has emboldened her game, making her a more take-charge force more willing to put away points on her terms. As usual, we'll have to wait and see.
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RISER: Agnes Szavay, HUN & Alona Bondarenko, UKR
.... one's never known what to expect from either of these two so far this year, but both were in good form in Berlin. Szavay finally seems to have gotten over her early-season stall and is now stringing together the good results she'll need to protect her ranking/seeding heading into the North American HC season at the end of the summer. Last week, she put away Yan Zi and Marion Bartoli before taking the opening set from Ana Ivanovic in the QF, only to see the match suspended mid-way and the Serb charge back to take the deciding 3rd set a day later. Meanwhile, while the Sisters Bondarenko results have dipped of late, Alona herself pulled off wins over Dominika Cibulkova, Anabel Medina-Garrigues and '07 Berlin RU Svetlana Kuznetsova on her way to her own QF result in Germany.
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SURPRISES: Angelika Bachmann, GER & Sofia Arvidsson, SWE

.... 28-year old Bachmann, an Oz qualifier back in January, began Berlin by upsetting Fed Cup star Nuria Llagostera-Vives in qualifying, then notched a main draw win over Ekaterina Dzehalevich. On the ITF circuit, Arvidsson's nice under-the-radar season continued with a $75K title in Zagreb with a win in the final over Severine Bremond.
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VETERANS: Elena Dementieva, RUS & Cara Black/Liezel Huber, ZIM/USA
.... never underestimate Punch-Sober (I didn't last week, since I somehow managed to correctly predict her Berlin RU), even when you think she has to be seeing the latter stages of her career within her peripheral vision. She didn't win another Tier I title last week, but wins over the likes of Kateryna Bondarenko, Vera Dushevina and (most impressively) both Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic before losing to countrywoman Safina in the final certainly means it won't be a surprise if Dementieva grabs a big one before the year is out. Hmmm, if Henin isn't as big a force in Paris as in the past... well, why jinx anything? Black & Huber DID win in Berlin, claiming the team's second Tier I crown of a season that started slowly but is now beginning to resemble the dominant one of a year ago for the pair.
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FRESH FACES: Victoria Azarenka, BLR & Yanina Wickmayer, BEL

.... Azarenka followed up her Tier IV RU in Prague (and FF award) with a Tier I SF in Berlin (and another FF) after wins over Casey Dellacqua, Anna Chakvetadze, Gisela Dulko and Alona Bondarenko. She reached the doubles SF with Shahar Peer, getting a win over the Bondarenkos, too. 18-year old Waffle Wickmayer finally got her first '08 ITF title in her third final appearance of the season, winning the $50K Indian Harbour Beach event in Florida by taking out Bethanie Mattek (by defeating her on the court, not in a shopping spree at one of those odd places where Bethanie buys her outfits) in the final.
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DOWN: Justine Henin, BEL
.... one Waffle goes up, so one must come down. And with Kim Clijsters on diaper duty, that pretty much only leaves La Petit Taureau since a Flipkens flop wouldn't exactly be earth-shattering. It's not that Justine is having a BAD season (she's won two titles, after all), but it's just that she's not having an HENIN type of season. She 16-4 on the year. Not bad... until you compare it to her 63-4 mark of a season ago. After never losing before the SF in fourteen events a year ago, she's already had four QF-or-earlier losses in '08. Last week, it was in the 3rd Round in Berlin to Safina after seeing her serve let her down once again. Henin's "dirty little secret," which has been a hit-or-miss weapon for her ever since she changed her service motion to protect herself from injury a while back, produced eight DF and had just a 43% 1st Serve percentage against the Russian. With her serve acting up, the pressure mounts on the rest of Henin's game and makes her as vulnerable as a player her size SHOULD be, but rarely has been in recent seasons.. But maybe it's something else? Last week, Henin WAS ruminating on her post-tennis life and her plans to continue to reduce her schedule. Might Henin be losing her focus and, hence, her mental edge over the field? She pulled out of Rome, citing fatigue even though she hasn't exactly been a Jankovician workhorse in 2008. Paris looms, but will Henin's Lenglen Court aura make the flight there with her?
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ITF PLAYER: Jelena Dokic, AUS
.... looking like she MIGHT be ready to lose her "Ex," the Ex-Debutante has gone 10-1 since her return to action over the last two weeks. Counting her "unofficial" action in the pre-season Australian Open Wild Card Playoff tournament, she's managed to win 18 of the 22 matches she's played since her last ditch return Down Under before this season. Perhaps showing a bit of the old verve, she overcame dropping the 1st set of her 1st Round match at love to pack away fourteen of her next fifteen sets in the tournament to claim the crown. Maybe her near-bagel win in qualifying over a Florence -- Haring -- was a sign that the Florence event was her's to win or lose? Winning a $25K is a long way from becoming something other than a life lesson for other young phenoms, but it's been so long since Dokic has had anything to smile about it's difficult NOT to look at what just happened as a potential stepping stone toward recapturing at least a portion of her lost tennis career. Crossing fingers.
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1. Ber 3r- Safina d. Henin
....5-7/6-3/6-1. Is Henin's dominance slipping away, just as this match did on the red clay? She's going to head to Paris looking to four-peat with little-to-no meaningful clay tune-ups. More than in any other year in recent memory, La Petit Taureau's Roland Garros pelt could be there for the taking in two weeks.
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2. Ber QF - Safina d. S.Williams
....2-6/6-1/7-6. Back from a set down against probably two of three best players on the planet? Just like her big brother, sometimes Dinara does things that make you shake your head and wonder why we don't see THIS family member more often.
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3. Ber F - Safina d. Dementieva
....3-6/6-2/6-2 Make it three come-from-behind wins against Top 10 players, though it's hard to avoid looking at this one as something of a "big whoop" after the other two (of course, if Safina had lost the final after such a highlight-filled week...). You know, this is the type of scoreline we used to see from Punch-Sober back in her Punch-Drunk days. Of note, this was the fourteenth all-Hordette final in WTA history, and Dementieva has played in seven of them. And Safina is the sixth different Russian champion through just nineteen weeks in 2008, a season after there were eight different titlists over the course of the entire schedule.
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4. Ber QF - Ivanovic d. Szavay
....3-6/6-4/6-3 With a night to think about the situation she found herself in (the match was suspended after AnaIvo had erased Szavay's lead), the Serb righted the ship.
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5. Florence $25K QF - Dokic d.. Lucic
....3-6/7-5/6-2. Nine years after both were surprise Wimbledon quarterfinalists (and, though most might get the results reversed when thinking back, Lucic reached the SW19 SF), the two troubled stars-on-the -comeback-trail finally met on the court for the first time. It turned out to be a pretty good one, even if it did come a little late in the game.
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6. Fukuoka $50K QF - Nakamura d. Date-Krumm
....6-2/6-2 Given a second chance at the 37-year old, Nakamura didn't make the same mistakes twice. To further show the difference a week makes, Tamarine Tanasugarn wasn't the ultimate winner of the tournament, either. She was RU to Tomoko Yonemura.
=============================
7. Irapuato $25K F - Duque Marino d. Frankova
....6-4/3-6/3-6. A year ago, the young Colombian was a surprise RU in the Roland Garros Girls competition last year. Looking back now, her list of conquered foes is something akin to a junior murderer's row -- Ksenia Pervak (still a Top 15 junior), Klaudia Boczova (who also won an ITF event this weekend), Zhou Yi-Miao (a recent ITF champ), Michelle Larcher de Brito and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She dropped the final to Pastry Alize Cornet in three sets.
=============================
8. Ber Doubles F - Black/Huber d. Llagostera-Vives/Martinez Sanchez
....3-6/6-2/10-2. Hold off, Katarina & Ai. Cara & Liezel don't want to loosen that grip on the #1 ranking, after all.
=============================
9. Ber 1st - Dulko d. Vaidisova
....4-6/6-1/6-2. This is the type of match that one might expect Dulko to lose just days after winning a title. Good for her for avoiding the celebratory letdown. As for Nicole, well... we COULD finally get that first Sharapova-Vaidisova match in the 3rd Round in Rome this week. But what are the odds of THAT happening, and is it even intriguing enough to warrant any excitement at the moment, anyway?
=============================
10. Ber 1st - Dushevina d. Schnyder
....6-2/6-3. Might another Russian Vera be the next late-in-developing Hordette to put together an inspiring run on the clay?
=============================
HM- Rome 1st - Razzano d. Vakulenko
....6-1/6-2. Hey, it's just nice to have Julia back.
=============================
HM- Rome 1st - Stosur d. Krajicek
....6-3/6-2. Ditto for Sammy... and she won, too!.
=============================


*2008 ALL-RUSSIAN FINALS*
Doha - Sharapova def. Zvonareva
Dubai - Dementieva def. Kuznetsova
BERLIN - SAFINA DEF. DEMENTIEVA

*ALL-RUSSIAN WTA FINALS (14) - MOST APPEARANCES*
7...ELENA DEMENTIEVA (2-5)
4...Anastasia Myskina (4-0)
4...Maria Sharapova (3-1)
4...Svetlana Kuznetsova (2-2)
2...Anna Chakvetadze (2-0)
2...Nadia Petrova (0-2)
1...DINARA SAFINA (1-0)
1...Vasilisa Bardina (0-1)
1...Elena Bovina (0-1)
1...Elena Likhovtseva (0-1)
1...Vera Zvonareva (0-1)

*2008 TIER I FINALS*
2...Serena Williams (2-0)
2...Vera Zvonareva (0-2)
1...Ana Ivanovic (1-0)
1...DINARA SAFINA (1-0)
1...Maria Sharapova (1-0)
1...ELENA DEMENTIEVA (0-1)
1...Jelena Jankovic (0-1)
1...Svetlana Kuznetsova (0-1)

*CAREER WTA SINGLES TITLES - RUSSIANS*
19...Maria Sharapova (2003-08)
10...Anastasia Myskina (1999-05)
9...Svetlana Kuznetsova (2002-07)
9...Elena Dementieva (2003-08)
9...Olga Morozova (1969-75)
7...Nadia Petrova (2005-07)
7...Anna Chakvetadze (2006-08)
6...Vera Zvonareva (2003-08)
6...DINARA SAFINA (2002-08)

*LONG 2008 WINNING STREAKS*
18...Maria Sharapova (Jan/Mar) - lost to Kuznetsova
17...SERENA WILLIAMS (MAR-MAY) - lost to Safina

*2008 SINGLES FINALISTS BY NATION*
[titles]
15...RUSSIA [8]
6...United States [5]
3...Italy [2]
3...Serbia [1]
3...Belarus [0]





ROME, ITALY (I-Red Clay)
07 FINAL: Jankovic d. Kuznetsova
08 TOP: Ivanovic/Sharapova
=============================
=QF=
Ivanovic d. A.Radwanska
Kuznetsova d. S.Williams
Zvonareva d. Jankovic
Sharapova d. Schnyder
....yep, I guess I'm taking the Serena-on-clay bait after her loss last week to Safina. I originally picked Sneaky Patty to upset the Supernova, then chickened out.

=SF=
Ivanovic d. Kuznetsova
Zvonareva d. Sharapova
....why not go all out with the Zvonareva thing?

=FINAL=
Ivanovic d. Zvonareva
....well, then again, let's not get carried away.

All for now.

Read more...

Wk.18- Hordette-in-Waiting?

In the halls of the Justice League of Mother Russia there lurk many SuperHordettes with "special Backspin privileges."

There's Punch-Sober (formerly Punch-Drunk), The Contessova, The Empress, The Doll, The Supernova and, of course, the currently-on-leave-for-however-long-she-wishes Czarina (now sporting a stylish baby carrier for wee-one Zhenya).

But what about Vera Zvonareva? Why has she never truly been able to be awarded her own "super identity" and all that it entails? Well, she DID pick up something of one a few years back.

It was "Vera the Almost."

It sort of tells you where her career has pretty much stood since she reached the Top 10 nearly four years ago. She's never really been able to earn anything more than "second tier" status at the Justice League.

But that may be about to change.


MICHAL CIZEK/AFP/Getty Images

Playing in a red clay event for the first time in two years, after a wrist injury in Charleston destroyed what might have been her summer to shine a year ago, Zvonareva stopped off in Prague on her way to Paris and picked up a singles title with a win in the final over young Belarus star Victoria Azarenka (speaking of "almost"... but more on her later).

Zvonareva did this just a week after her win over Vania King clinched Russia's Fed Cup SF victory over the United States, and but two weeks after she returned to Charleston and did her '07 self one better by healthily reaching the final to kick off her "do-over" clay season. It might not be premature to say that we just witnessed the beginning of a rather intriguing spring/summer storyline.

Zvonareva's talent has always been apparent. It's been the intangibles -- or would it be "tangibles," in her case? -- that she's always had difficulty overcoming. Usually, it's been her emotions (often dancing across the border of Breakdown City during a particularly tough match) that have done her in, but just when she seemed to be learning to control one part of herself a year ago, it was her body that let her down. That wrist injury last season came weeks after she'd upset Maria Sharapova in Indian Wells, and right as she'd reached the Charleston SF. A potentially breakthrough EuroClay season turned into four frustrating months of inactivity, two missed slams and an entire North American hard court season that nearly passed her by before the Russian was able to set foot on the court again.

She did finally return at last year's U.S. Open, pulled off a surprisingly good 3rd Round result (considering her long layoff, and then went to work. Picking up where her good '07 start had left off, she reached the QF-or-better at four of her five post-Open tournaments and finished the season ranked #23, her best year-end ranking in three years despite all her injury woes.

Enter 2008... and so far, so good.

Currently ranked #13, Zvonareva has put together a 31-7 record in '08 and is the only tour player to reach four finals (including two Tier I's) this season, as well as the sole woman with five SF results to her credit. Of course, before Sunday in Prague she had nothing concrete to show for her progress (she's reached at least the QF in eight of her nine events) since she'd failed to close out a final opponent, and even started to show a few signs of emotional regression. But now (hopefully) that's changed.

The climb can officially begin.

Of course, the distance between Zvonareva finally beginning to reach her potential and becoming the next true Hordette "heroine" is a long one. Her QF result at Roland Garros in '03 is still her best career slam result, but it's safe to say that Zvonareva is WAY overdue for another similiar-or-better run. But just how far COULD she go in Paris, under the right circumstances?

Well, Justine Henin is still the best clay courter in the world, but is she as imposing in '08 as she has been in resent seasons? We'll get a better idea this week in Berlin, where she might face off against Serena, and then still have have to face Kuznetsova and/or Ivanovic if she were to make it past the American. Sharapova reached the RG semis a year ago and recently won her first career (green) clay title, but she's still searching for her first final on the red stuff. The Serbs will be factors, but neither has been able to close the deal at a slam yet. Then, there's always the aforementioned Serena, of course.

Recent Roland Garros semifinalists have included Elena Likhovtseva and Nadia Petrova (both in '05), Nicole Vaidisova ('06) and Anna Chakvetadze ('07). Zvonareva adding her name to that list would seem to be a reasonable and reachable goal.

So, why not Vera? Or should I say "The Czarinette"?

Of course, she still has to earn a seat at the big Hordettes' table, and any new identity that might go with it. The seat is open, and waiting for her.

No more "almost" allowed.

*WEEK 18 CHAMPIONS*

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC (IV-Red Clay)
S: Vera Zvonareva def. Victoria Azarenka 7-6/6-2
D: Hlavackova/Hradecka d. Craybas/Krajicek

FES, MOROCCO (IV-Red Clay)
S: Gisela Dulko def. Anabel Medina-Garrigues 7-6/7-6
D: Cirstea/Pavlyuchenkova d. Kleybanova/Makarova


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Vera Zvonareva, RUS
.... wins in Prague over the likes of Roberta Vinci, Katarina Srebotnik and Azarenka garnered Zvonareva her sixth career title, but her first since taking Cincinnati in 2006 and her first on clay since her maiden title in Bol in 2003. She's the fifth different Hordette to take home a WTA singles crown in 2008.
=============================
RISER: Gisela Dulko, ARG

Sony Ericsson WTA Tour
.... the Argentine finally broke through with her first two career titles last season, and #3 came in Fes this weekend with a string of wins over youngsters (Sorana Cirstea & Aravane Rezai) and vets (Emilie Loit & Anabel Medina-Garrigues) alike. Only 23, and three years beyond when her career-high ranking stalled out before she could reach the Top 25, the current world #48 might just be able to carve out a little niche for herself ON tour as well as off, after all.
=============================
SURPRISES Karolina Pliskova, CZE & Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, THA

.... 16-year old Maiden Pliskova (#416 in the world) was given a wild card into the Prague main draw and she took advantage of it. She got her first career tour victories with wins over Alicia Molik and Kaia Kanepi that put her into her first career WTA QF in her third tour level event (all in Prague, with her previous attempts ending in qualifying and the 1st Round). Thailand's Lertcheewakarn, 16, is already the world's #4-ranked junior, but it was on the ITF tour that she shined last week, winning a $25K event in Balikpapan, Indonesia. It was her first career pro singles title.
=============================
VETERANS: Kimiko Date-Krumm, JPN & Klara Zakopalova, CZE
.... Date-Krumm nearly stole the show in her return to the tour after twelve years in retirement. Apparently, those exhibitions the 37-year old felt so good about weren't just flights of fancy. Returning in a $50K event in Gifu, Date won seven straight matches as she qualified and knocked off countrywoman Rika Fujiwara (1st Rd.) as well as #1-seeded Aiko Nakamura (in the QF). The seven-time WTA tour titlist finally lost in the final to 30-year old Tamarine Tanasugarn, who maybe should have ALSO been celebrated in this category... but I'm going with Zakopalova instead for the Maiden's impressive run of wins over Sara Errani, Vera Dushevina and Shahar Peer en route to her third '08 SF in Prague.
=============================
FRESH FACES: Victoria Azarenka, BLR & Sorana Cirstea/Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, ROU/RUS

.... Azarenka is still looking for that first singles title after four trips to WTA finals, but her inability to finally secure the prize doesn't dampen her accomplishments in Fes, where her wins over Petra Kvitova and Zakopalova advanced her to her second final of 2008. Meanwhile, a pair of up-and-comers named Cirstea and Pavlyuchenkova had "secondary" success in Fes by teaming to claim both the first career tour doubles title for both players. In singles, Cirstea reached the QF, defeating Marina Erakovic and, yes, Pavlyuchenkova along the way; while Pavlyuchenkova qualified and got her first tour main draw win in the 1st Round.
=============================
DOWN: Aleksandra Wozniak, CAN
.... a year ago in Fes, Wozniak won four straight matches and made a surprise run to the final. Since then, things haven't gone so well. She's a combined 5-14 in main draw tour matches since Fes '07, and last week was taken out in the 1st Round by Alisa Kleybanova in her return to Morocco.
=============================
ITF PLAYER: Victoriya Kutuzova, UKR
.... the 19-year old from Odessa claimed the biggest ITF prize of the weekend, the $100K event in Cagnes-Sur-Mer that included the likes of a returning-from-injury Tatiana Golovin, Nathalie Dechy and Camille Pin in the field. Kutuzova defeated Maret Ani in the final.
=============================


1. Prag F - Zvonareva d. Azarenka
....7-6/6-2. This one's final score wasn't as close as the final in Fes, but the storylines for both players are far more compelling. Zvonareva's attempt to climb back into the Top 10 for the first time in years, and Azarenka's so-far-star-crossed attempts to finish first just ONCE will be plot points in search of traction for the remainder of this season.
=============================
2. Fes F - Dulko d. Medina-Garrigues
....7-6/7-6. That being said, it's hard to get much closer than this, barring a deciding set, of course.
=============================
3t. Fes 1st - Karatantcheva d.. Baltacha 7-5/6-2
Fes 2nd - Medina-Garrigues d. Karatantcheva 3-6/7-6/6-1
.... Sesil's long trek back finally reached the main road. Well, at least an on-ramp the leads to a less-traveled highway. A win is a win is a win, and this was her first on tour since November '05 in Philadelphia. Ultimately, she lost to Medina-Garrigues in three sets in the next match, but not before being a 2nd set tie-break away from knocking out the #1 seed and eventual RU.
=============================
4t. Fes Q2 - Dokic d. de Brito 6-3/7-5
Fes 1st - Arn d. Dokic 6-4/6-2
.... Dokic's first action since Oz didn't end in glory, but there was enough good news under the surface to warrant turning a hopeful eye to the future... so far.
=============================
5. Fes 2nd - Cirstea d. Pavlyuchenkova
....6-4/6-2. The best opponents...
=============================
6. Fes Doubles F - Cirstea/Pavlyuchenkova d. Kleybanova/Makarova 6-2/6-2
.... sometimes make the best partners.
=============================
7. Berlin Q1 - Bachmann d. Llagostera-Vives
....7-5/6-1. Fed Cup hangover encapsulated (though Llagostera-Vives and FC teammate Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez rebounded quickly with a win over Yan/Zheng in 1st Round today).
=============================
8. Berlin 1st - Petrova d. Srebotnik
....7-6/3-6/7-6. Knock me over with a feather. Is that a real live nice win for Nadia I see?
=============================
9. Berlin 1st - Lisicki d. Peer
....7-5/6-1. After her Fed Cup debacle, Peer was knocked out of the QF in Prague before going down in flames to the German today in Berlin.
=============================
10. Berlin 1st - Wozniacki d. Golovin
....7-6/6-2. After losing in the 2nd Round of a challenger last week, Golovin's road back from injury got even rockier on Monday.
=============================
HM- Bucharest $10K F - Simona Halep d. Elena Bogdan
....6-1/6-3. Just two 16-year old Romanians trying to make their way in the tennis world.
=============================
HM- Roland Garros Wild Card Playoff - Madison Brengle d. Ahsha Rolle
....6-3/6-0. BrengleFly does it again! Whenever there's any sort of wild card playoff for a spot in a slam (in this case, the RG main draw), count on Brengle to pull through. The world #274, who didn't get onto a court during the Fed Cup SF a week ago, won the spot by claiming the U.S.'s eight-player round robin, which included Rolle, Melanie Oudin, Lauren Albanese, Alexa Glatch and CoCo Vandeweghe.



=APRIL/MAY (Wk.15-18) AWARDS=

*TOP PLAYERS*
1. Serena Williams, USA... a factor in Paris, six years after Serena Slam?
2. Maria Sharapova, RUS... the green clay hurdle has been overcome. Is red next?
3. Vera Zvonareva, RUS... ready for her close-up?
4. Nuria Llagostera-Vives, ESP... appearing in Cookie nightmares at this very moment.
5. Katarina Srebotnik/Ai Sugiyama, SLO/JPN... hot on the tails of Cara & Liezel.
HM- Maria Kirilenko, RUS & Gisela Dulko, ARG... even the most disappointing players find a title in the dirt sometimes.

*RISERS*
1. Vera Zvonareva, RUS
2. Maria Kirilenko, RUS
3. Gisela Dulko, ARG
4. Agnes Szavay, HUN
5. Katarina Srebotnik, SLO

*FRESH FACES*
1. Alize Cornet, FRA
2. Dominika Cibulkova, SVK
3. Petra Kvitova, CZE
4. Victoria Azarenka, BLR
5. Carla Suarez-Navarro, ESP

*SURPRISES*
1. Dominika Cibulkova, SVK
2. Stefanie Vogele, SUI
3. Edina Gallovits/Olga Govortsova, ROU/BLR
4. Elena Makarova, RUS
5. Ana Jovanovic, SRB

*VETERANS*
1. Nuria Llagostera-Vives, ESP
2. Katarina Srebotnik/Ai Sugiyama, SLO/JPN
3t. Iveta Benesova, CZE & Klara Zakopalova, CZE
4. Tzipora Obziler, ISR
5. Francesca Schiavone, ITA

*COMEBACKS*
1. Kimiko Date-Krumm, JPN
2. Iveta Benesova, CZE
3. Amelie Mauresmo, FRA
4. Sesil Karatantcheva, BUL
5. Karolina Sprem, CRO

*DOWN*
1. Chinese Fed Cup Team
2. Shahar Peer, ISR
3. Michaella Krajicek, NED
4. Daniela Hantuchova, SVK
5. Lindsay Davenport's aching body, USA

*ITF PLAYERS*
1. Soledad Esperson, ARG
2. Petra Kvitova, CZE
3. Arantxa Rus, NED
4. Victoria Azarenka, UKR
5. Stephanie Vogt, LIE
HM Cheyanne Ewijk, NED & Bethanie Mattek, USA

*TOP PERFORMANCES*
1. Nuria Llagostera-Vives leads Spain to upset win over China in Fed Cup SF
2. Serena Williams wins third straight event in Charleston
3. Maria Sharapova wins first career clay court title in Amelia Island

*TOP MATCH*
Fed Cup World Group Playoff, ITA/UKR - Schiavone d. Koryttseva
....3-6/7-6/7-5. FC heroine Schiavone overcomes three match points..
*BIGGEST CHOKE*
....at home on hard court, China stumbles under the Fed Cup pressure, losing the SF against Spain's "B" team by a 4-1 score. What does this bode for the Olympics? Well, for what it's worth, in their first action since the Fed Cup, the doubles team of Yan Zi & Zheng Jie was bounced out in the 1st Round in Berlin today. Cue the "Jaws" music.
*WORST TIMING*
....the USA's Fed Cup team for the SF versus Russia consisted up nary a single player ranked in the Top 100 in singles thanks to various injuries, medical issues and/or a lack of interest from the nation's top-ranked players. Maybe Vania King, Ahsha Rolle and Madison Brengle (the last of which didn't see any action) will ultimately benefit from the exposure... but what are the chances that any of them will be counted on to win a big FC match down the line if the team's coaches have their drothers?
*BEST COMEBACK MOMENTS*
....37-year old Kimiko Date-Krumm returned to the tour after a 12-year absence and proceeded to upset the top seed of a challenger event and reach the final. Meanwhile, after a drug suspension and some "penance" on the ITF circuit, Sesil Karatantcheva gained her first WTA tour win since 2005 with a 1st Round victory over Elena Baltacha in Fes.
*BIGGEST UPSET*
Fed Cup World Group II Playoff, SUI/AUT - Stefanie Vogele d. Tamira Paszek
....4-6/6-1/7-5. The Swiss teen prevented the Austrian teen from putting away the tie, which was then promptly won by the veteran doubles combo of Schnyder and Gagliardi for Switzerland
*BIGGEST UPSET, PT.II*
Charleston 2nd Rd. - Cirstea d. Chakvetadze
....6-2/1-6/6-2. Beware the young Romanians.
*BEST DECISION (so far)*
....for once, Jelena Dokic held her horses. After being injured during the Australian Open qualifying in her latest comeback attempt, she managed to stay out of competition long enough to not risk her entire season (and maybe last chance) by playing too soon. Her reward? Good qualifying victories in Fes over youngsters Michelle Larche de Brito and Johanna Larsson. Sure, she lost in the 1st Round to veteran (and eventual semifinalist) Greta Arn, but she's also living to fight another day. And in the Ex-Debutante's case, that's never a given.

And finally...

*CALL THE PRINTERS!!*
....and order some spiffy invitiations for the "Graf/Clijsters/Davenport/Myskina/Bammer Family Invitational," featuring a grand doubles tournament that'll include teams made up former WTA stars and their tennis-playing daughters.. Surely, getting everything ready now will cut down on the costs, since printing will be far more expensive by the time the REAL get-together takes place sometime around 2025. Be sure to RSVP.


*MOST 2008 WTA FINALS*
4...VERA ZVONAREVA (1-2 +L)
3...Maria Sharapova (3-0)
3...Serena Williams (3-0)
3...Svetlana Kuznetsova (0-3)

*MOST 2008 WTA SF*
5...VERA ZVONAREVA (4-1)
4...Svetlana Kuznetsova (3-1)
4...Maria Sharapova (2-1 +W)
4...Jelena Jankovic (1-3)

*MULTIPLE 2008 FINALS, NO TITLES*
0-3...Svetlana Kuznetsova
0-2...VICTORIA AZARENKA

*CONSECUTIVE 2008 FINALS*
3...Serena Williams (Mar/Apr, 2-1)*
2...Maria Sharapova (Jan/Feb, 2-0)#
2...Svetlana Kuznetsova (Feb/Mar, 0-2)
2...VERA ZVONAREVA (APR/MAY, 1-1)*
-
*-active
#-3 consecutive with '07 final

*DEFEATED TOP SEED, WON TITLE*
Na Li - Gold Coast - def. Vaidisova/QF
Maria Sharapova - Australian Open - def. Henin/SF
Serena Williams - Miami - def. Henin/QF
FES - GISELA DULKO - DEF. ANABEL MEDINA-GARRIGUES/F

*2008 DIFFERENT CHAMPIONS, BY NATION*
5...RUSSIA (Chakvetadze, Dementieva, Kirilenko, Sharapova, ZVONAREVA)
2...United States (Davenport, S.Williams)
1...ARGENTINA (DULKO)
1...Belgium (Henin)
1...China (Li)
1...Greece (Daniilidou)
1...Italy (Pennetta)
1...Poland (A.Radwanska)
1...Serbia (Ivanovic)
1...Spain (Llagostera-Vives)





BERLIN, GERMANY (I-Red Clay)
07 FINAL: Ivanovic d. Kuznetsova
08 TOP: Henin/Ivanovic
=============================
=QF=
Henin d. S.Williams
Kuznetsova d. Wozniacki
Dementieva d. Jankovic
Ivanovic d. Szavay
....will red clay allow Henin to put an end to Serena's recent non-slam dominance over her? Much pressure will be on defending champion Ivanovic this week, which should be good practice for her just weeks before she has to defend her '07 RG runner-up.

=SF=
Henin d. Kuznetsova
Dementieva d. Ivanovic
....Kuznetsova upset Henin in the Berlin SF a year ago. I have a hard time judging when Punch-Sober will rise up and put together a good result.

=FINAL=
Henin d. Dementieva
....when in doubt, more in the earlier rounds than in this one were she to make it this far, go with La Petit Taureau.

All for now.

Read more...

Wk.17- Cup Capitalization & Capitulation

Even before the first ball was struck, this weekend's Fed Cup semifinals looked to be uncompetitive affairs. The assumption turned out to be true... with an unexpected twist.



When the dust had settled in Moscow, Team Russia had capitalized on the United States' team of "B" (or would "C" be more accurate?) players, as had been expected. American teenager Vania King put up a bit of a fight in two singles matches, but the Hordettes still raced to a 3-0 lead in singles play to advance to a fourth FC final in the past five years. Once the win was clinched, the hounds were kindly called off by coach Shamil Tarpischev, effectively allowing the U.S.'s "fresh faces" to grab a pair of misleading wins to wrap up the scoring in Russia's 3-2 victory.

What happened in Beijing was another story, or China was slow out of the box against Spain... then proceeded to fold up like a cheap tent in front of the home crowd.

Fed Cup competition has not been kind to Team China. A year ago, the federation's misinterpretation of the FC and Olympic eligibility rules caused it to needlessly sit China's two top-ranked players, resulting in a 5-0 1st Round loss to the Italians. With the rules and regulations squared away, the Cookies managed to rebound earlier this year, advancing to these SF and being in position to play host. So, when the clay court-loving Spaniards announced that a team of "second-stringers" would head to Beijing to do battle on a hard court surface rather than the usual array of seasoned FC veterans, the Chinese looked as if they would have an easy road to a maiden Fed Cup final (even without injured top-ranked Cookie Li Na on hand).

As it turned out, Spain only needed one veteran -- 27-year old Nuria Llagostera-Vives) -- to turn the tide in the favor of Espana.

Newcomer Carla Suarez-Navarro opened the tie with a win over Peng Shuai, then Llagostera-Vives took out both Zheng and Peng in straight sets to salt away an eyebrow-raising 4-1 victory that sends Team Spain to a tenth FC final.

As things stand, Chinese tennis watchers have every reason to feel a bit shaky about the Cookies' Olympic prospects come August. Unless Li manages to pull through with a great tournament a little more than three months from now, undue pressure will be placed on the top Cookie doubles teams to prevent a medal shutout.

Considering the Chinese federation was largely funded because of 2008's Olympic stage, this could turn out to be a case of being careful what you wish for.

*WEEK 17 - FED CUP SF WEEKEND*


=FED CUP MVPs=
(SEMIFINALS)
RUS d. USA 3-2
ESP d. CHN 4-1

Nuria Llagostera-Vives, ESP: There was no calling off of any hounds in the ESP/CHN battle. To add further insult to insult, after sweeping through both Peng and Zheng and singles, Llagostera-Vives got a third victory in doubles along with Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, too. After winning her first WTA singles title since 2005 earlier this season in Bogota, the veteran has staked her claim for Comeback Player of the Year, not to mention added some much needed depth to the Spanish team, which could come in handy in the FC final.

Anna Chakvetadze, RUS: it'd be easy to go with Vera Zvonareva as the Russian MVP since her tie-clinching victory over Vania King provided the final point in the Hordettes' victory. But King took Zvonareva to three sets, while Chakvetadze dispatched the American in a tight straight sets in match #1, squelching any potential dreams of a Goliathian achievement being possible by the Americans.

(WORLD GROUP PLAYOFFS)
ITA d. UKR 3-2
FRA d. JPN 4-1
ARG d. GER 3-2
CZE d. ISR 3-2

Francesca Schiavone, ITA: two years ago, Schiavone led Italy to its first Fed Cup title, and she has a history of seizing-victory-from-the-jaws-of-defeat when playing for her country. Well, she did it again in a wild one against Ukraine's Mariya Koryttseva (making her FC debut) in match #1 of the ITA/UKR tie. Down three match points, two in the 2nd set and another in the 3rd, the veteran Italian somehow managed to fight back to claim a victory. Koryttseva served for the match at 5-3 in the 2nd, only to see Schiavone knot the set at 5-5 and win twelve consecutive points (including a 7-0 tie-break). In the 3rd, Schiavone raced to a 4-1 lead, only to see the Ukrainian battle back and serve for the match at 5-4. Back to the wall again, Schiavone came out fighting. In the end, she won the final three games (losing just one point in the final two) to claim the point. On Sunday, she handled Alona Bondarenko in straight sets.

Amelie Mauresmo, FRA: Is the Amelie of old finally back? Even before she had her grand slam breakthrough in 2006, Mauresmo had shined in Fed Cup play. Recently, her tour results have begun to tick upward... and now she's back in top FC form, as well. Against Japan, she allowed youngster Ayumi Morita a total of just two games, and veteran Ai Sugiyama managed to claim a paltry five.

Gisela Dulko, ARG: At least for one brief shining moment, Dulko was better than Lindsay Davenport. She handled Germany's Sabine Lisicki, who upset the American in FC play earlier this season, in quick 6-2/6-2 fashion in match #1 of ARG/GER. While the Germans must have wished that the Americans had field their "B" team a round earlier, they found out what a difference a round can make. One thing that remained the same? The Germans lost BOTH ties.

Iveta Benesova, CZE: CZE/ISR was the most competitive of the WG Playoffs. Israel's Tzipora Obziler single-handedly kept her team alive with wins over Lucie Safarova and Petra Kvitova, but fresh-off-her-Estoril-RU Benesova grabbed a win over a star-crossed Shahar Peer to knot the tie at 2-2. In the deciding doubles match, Benesova and Kveta Peschke took out Obziler/Peer in straights to claim the victory.

(WORLD GROUP II PLAYOFFS)
SUI d. AUT 3-2
BEL d. COL 5-0
SVK d. UZB 5-0
SRB d. CRO 3-2

Stefanie Vogele, SUI: The least know player involved in singles play in the SUI/AUT tie turned out to be the most important. #200-ranked, 18-year old Swiss Miss Vogele (not countrywoman Patty Schnyder or Emmanuelle Gagliardi) was called upon to defend Switzerland's honor against Tamira Paszek in match #4 with the Austrians just one win away from clinching a victory. The 17-year got extremely close to accomplishing her goal, too, saving match points and knotting the 3rd set at 5-5. But Vogele buckled down to claim the final two games and hand things off to Gagliardi/Schnyder in the deciding doubles match. The veteran pair lost just one game, but if not for their younger teammate's well-earned moment of glory, it wouldn't have mattered.

Kirsten Flipkens, BEL: Flipkens has had her FC troubles in the past, but she notched wins over Catalina Castano and Mariana Duque Marino in the Waffles' shutout of the Colombians.

Dominika Cibulkova, SVK: With Daniela Hantuchova out, the Slovaks were led by Amelia Island RU Cibulkova, whose close straight set wins over vets Iroda Tulyaganova and Akgul Amanmuradova assured her debut performance in this new #1 role would be a successful one.

Ana Jovanovic, SRB: Yes, both Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic notched wins in Serbia's win over Croatia, which (as happened in RUS/USA) "transformed" a dominant 3-0 lead into a not-as-close-as-it-looks 3-2 win once the "B" team came in to mop things up in the later stages. But it was little noticed 23-year old Jovanovic's match #1 win over Jelena Kostanic Tosic that was the biggest of the three... largely because it was anything but a sure "W" for the Serbs before play began.

(FRESH FACES)

Carla Suarez-Navarro, ESP: The 19-year old, a surprise semifinalist as a qualifier in Bogota a few weeks back, opened SF play (in her FC singles debut!) with the win over Peng that set the tone for the entire tie.

Vania King & Ahsha Rolle, USA: The U.S.'s "fresh faces" only garnered one singles win (Rolle over Elena Vesnina, once the Russians had clinched), but the pair did themselves proud under adverse conditions in Moscow. King, especially, sparked with a close (4-6/5-7) loss to Chakvetadze, and a three-set defeat at the hands of Zvonareva.

Petra Kvitova, CZE: The 18-year old's game has been popping all over the place in '08, and it did again in FC play when she opened up the CZE/ISR tie by bageling Peer in the 3rd set of their match.

Yanina Wickmayer, BEL: Wickmayer is quickly becoming a seasoned FC performer, though she's never played a truly BIG match. She was 2-0 against Colombia.

Sara Errani, ITA: She was only given a light workload against Ukraine, but it was her win over Kateryna Bondarenko in match #4 that clinched the tie for Italy.

(VETERAN)
Tzipora Obziler, ISR: Peer may have let down the Israeli team, but Obziler most certainly did not. The newly-turned 35-year old did all she could to keep the team's collective head above water, getting wins over Safarova and Kvitova, but it wasn't enough to prevent a Czech triumph.

(DOWN)
Peng Shuai & Team China: Still waiting for that Chinese Revolution to show a few snarling teeth.. Fed Cup disappointment came once again in Beijing, and Peng's failure to be part of even one victory in three attempts in the tie makes one wonder if her post-Michael Chang backslide is now something that cannot be stopped.

Shahar Peer, ISR: The Corporal was AWOL over the weekend. Bageled in the 3rd by Kvitova. Dropped in three sets by Benesova. Then, with a fortunate victory still attainable, going 0-for-3 as part of a doubles pair with Obziler in the deciding match. Coming off such a downer, she'll need all her will to swim rather than sink this week in Prague.

Tamira Paszek, AUT: It's hard to get get too down on a (barely) 17-year old failing to put away an opponent to clinch a win for her team in FC play, but with great talent comes great expectations... especially when the opponent that needs to be taken down is another teenager with a less-heralded reputation to live up to.

(ITF PLAYER OF THE WEEK)
Bethanie Mattek, USA
...while the other Americans were losing in the FC SF, Mattek won a $75K in Dothan, Alabama with wins over countrywomen Ashley Weinhold, Asia Muhammad, Alexa Glatch, Jamea Jackson and newly-minted American Varvara Lepchenko in the final. Maybe Bethanie should have been included on that FC roster... if only to see what fashion choices she'd make in an attempt to "accessorize" a Fed Cup uni.


**FED CUP FINALS - 2000-08 SEMIFINALS**
2000 USA def. Spain
2001 Belgium def. Russia
2002 Slovakia def. Spain
2003 France def. USA
2004 Russia def. France
2005 Russia def. France
2006 Italy def. Belgium
2007 Russia def. Italy
2008 RUSSIA vs. SPAIN

**TEAM RUSSIA - BEST FC RESULTS**
CHAMPIONS (3): 2004, 2005, 2007
RUNNERS-UP (2): 1999, 2001
RUNNERS-UP (2, as USSR): 1988, 1990

**TEAM SPAIN - BEST FC RESULTS**
CHAMPIONS (5): 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998
RUNNERS-UP (4): 1989, 1992, 1996, 2000




PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC (IV-RCO)
2007 FINAL: Morigami d. Bartoli
2008 TOP: Zvonareva/Peer
=============================
SF: Zvonareva def. Srebotnik;
Zakopalova def. Kvitova
FINAL: Zvonareva def. Zakopalova

...though I worry about Fed Cup hangover.


FES, MOROCCO (IV-RCO)
2007 FINAL: Sequera d. Wozniak
2008 TOP: Medina-Garrigues/Dulko
=============================
SF: Medina-Garrigues d. Garbin; Cirstea d. Rezai
FINAL: Medina-Garrigues def. Cirstea

...though I'd love to be able to talk about one of the young Romanians finally coming through with a title a week from now.


All for now.

Read more...

Wk.16- Shake It Up (Scrambled Backspin & Eggs)

**2008 SINGLES FINAL**
3...Maria Sharapova (3-0)
3...SERENA WILLIAMS (3-0)
3...VERA ZVONAREVA (0-2 + L)
3...Svetlana Kuznetsova (0-3)

**MOST SINGLES TITLES - last 2 seasons**
(2007/2008)
12...Justine Henin (10/2)
5...SERENA WILLIAMS (2/3)
5...Anna Chakvetadze (4/1)
4...Maria Sharapova (1/3)
4...Ana Ivanovic (3/1)
4...Lindsay Davenport (2/2)
4...Jelena Jankovic (4/0)

**2008 TIER I CHAMPIONS**
Doha - Maria Sharapova, Peschke/Stubbs
Indian Wells - Ana Ivanovic, Safina/Vesnina
Miami - Serena Williams, Srebotnik/Sugiyama
Charleston - Serena Williams, Srebotnik/Sugiyama

**DEFEATED TOP SEED/DEFENDING CHAMPION, BUT DIDN'T WIN TITLE**
Memphis - Petra Kvitova (1r-V.Williams), 2nd
Dubai - Francesca Schiavone (QF-Henin), SF
Charleston - Vera Zvonareva (QF-Jankovic), RU

**THREE CAREER WTA SINGLES TITLES - active**
(most recent)
Marion Bartoli, FRA (2006)
Elena Bovina, RUS (2004)
Daniela Hantuchova, SVK (2007)
MARIA KIRILENKO, RUS (2008)
Michaella Krajicek, NED (2006)
Elena Likhovtseva, RUS (2004)
Emilie Loit, FRA (2007)
Shahar Peer, ISR (2006)
Virginia Ruano-Pascual, ESP (2003)
Lucie Safarova, CZE (2006)
Iroda Tulyaganova, UZB (2001)
Zheng Jie, CHN (2006)

**SERENA vs. SHARAPOVA**
2004 Mia 4th - Williams 6-4/6-3
2004 Wimb F - Sharapova 6-1/6-4
2004 WTA Chsp F - Sharapova 4-6/6-2/6-4
2005 Aust SF - Williams 2-6/7-5/8-6
2007 Aust F - Williams 6-1/6-2
2007 Mia 4th - Williams 6-1/6-1
2008 Charleston QF - Williams 7-5/4-6/6-1