FoxNews.com wonders where the young women contenders are. We got Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin,  Serena & Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova. But where are the likes of Caroline Wozniacki, Yanina Wickmayer or Victoria Azarenka?  Fox Sports goes into details. Read all about it here: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2010/03/11/young-womens-contenders/

Greg Couch is attending Indian Wells and blogs. One of his blogs is an interesting read.  It deals with America’s tennis sweetheart  Melanie “Miracle Melanie” Oudin. She got ousted in the first round of the Indian Wells tournament losing to Roberta Vinci, 3-6, 6-3, 6-0. But that’s not the worst part according to Greg.  Mel’s playing as if she no self confidence at all and it’s a not a fun sight.  http://tennis.fanhouse.com/2010/03/12/miracle-melanies-missing-confidence/

TheSportReview.com wonders about the, according to them, sad state of the WTA Tour. Will the WTA Tour be able to bounce back after a bad year filled with bad headlines? TheSportReview.com thinks they can. http://www.thesportreview.com/tsr/2010/03/is-womens-tennis-finally-about-to-bounce-back/

TMZ.com has a cute photo of lovebirds Maria Sharapova and boyfriend and Lakers star Sasha Vujacic.

Sister Serena was unable to attend the BJK cup due to a leg injury, missing the opportunity to avenge the loss of last year’s controversial match at the US Open.

“On the way here, I kept thinking, ‘I’m going to see Serena in New York,”’ Venus said. “We talked today, but we didn’t talk about tennis at all.”

Kim Clijsters was given a tough time in front of a Venus-friendly crowd of 11,702 and struggled especially in the beginning.

“In the beginning it took some time to find an aggressive game,” Clijsters said. “If you’re not feeling the ball 100 percent, it’s very hard. I kind of just had to look for my game a little bit, really look for my position on court. I got better as my match went on.”

Among the 11,702 people who attended in Madison Square Garden, New York,  were David Duchovny, Star Jones and Herb Wilson and Nancy Kerrigan.

Star Jones and Herb Wilson

Nancy Kerrigan

David Duchovny

A year on after the political tumult in 2009 caused by the refusal to admit Israeli Shahar Peer, even with the correct visa to enter the United Arab Emirates to compete in the Barclay’s Dubai Tennis Championships and the subsequent debate over whether to also exclude the men’s doubles player Andy Ram, both tournament and player overcame the political ‘Peer’ pressure to succeed in a continuing hostile political climate.

Shahar Peer

This year’s tournament played just a couple of hundred yards from the hotel where the senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed last month was still able to amass crowds of tennis fans to watch the WTA event and World number 22 Peer, showed extreme strength of character to reach the semi finals under the constant threat of violence on and off court, for she played her four singles and two doubles matches on an outside court at the insistence of the Dubai State Police for security reasons while all spectators were forced to pass through airport-like metal detectors before entering.

Peer insisted that ‘I’m not here to play politics’, but surely the mental effects from last year’s events must have fuelled her desire to perform well at this year’s tournament. She has won a huge amount of respect from her fellow competitors for her grit and determination earning $88,000 in beating the in-form Wozniaki convincingly en route to her semi final loss against Venus Williams, ironically the player who during her acceptance speech at last year’s final spoke passionately in defense of the Israeli, earning her an award from the Jewish community in New York.

Last year, tournament organizers defended their decision to exclude Peer from the tournament as they maintained Peer’s presence ‘would have antagonized our fans who have watched live television coverage of recent attacks in Gaza’ believing that ‘the entire tournament could have been boycotted by protesters’. This argument provoked a strong reaction, not only from Williams, Andy Roddick also famously refused to play the men’s event on moral grounds.

The lucrative tournament was nearly cancelled by the former chief executive of the WTA Tour, Larry Scott, who forcibly refused to concede that the effects of a three-week Israeli offensive in Gaza, which caused the death of 1,300 Palestinians allowed the organizers enough evidence to ban an Israeli from competing, which led to the tournament being fined a record $300,000, raising the issue of sport and politics to the foreground of much media debate.

Despite the media frenzy surrounding Peer’s reintroduction, Stacy Allaster, Scott’s successor insisted that ‘what happened last year is over and the chapter is most definitely closed’ and went on to say:

‘We will always stand by our insistence no host country can deny a player the right to compete at any event on the tour for which she has qualified by ranking. We took our stance by imposing the largest fine imposed in our history and requiring the tournament to put up a letter of credit for the prize money. We also insisted that any Israeli player would receive a visa well in advance of this year’s event. The tournament met all of those obligations and we are 100% happy with the way things have been.’

For Peer, who also suffered cruel jibes at the Australian Open, where anti-Israeli protestors held up placards of her in uniform with a Palestinian baby on her racket, the mental scars have clearly not healed. She revealed in an interview, ‘it hurt mentally and professionally, because I was playing very well. I was on a good run and I was ready for the tournament. It was a big tournament and I couldn’t go, so it really stopped my momentum. To be barred from a country is not a nice feeling. I think there’s no place for that in sport. I actually think that sport can make it better and help political situations, not make it worse.’

She also recently reflected before competing in this year’s event ‘it was a difficult time but sport should be outside of politics, so obviously I want to come and play here. We all need to be equal. I really wanted to win here, not only because of tennis, but because I want to make a statement that politics and sport should not be mixed.’

Can sport ever be truly separate from the political world climate? Can it, like Peer suggested, be a harmonizing force, making political situations better, rather than worse?

There have been numerous incidents across the sporting world where politics and sport have collided causing catastrophic effects, the most notorious being when terrorists attacked a bus carrying Sri Lanka’s cricket team in the Pakistani city of Lahore in 2009. It is a terrible shame that sport’s stars should sometimes live in fear of their lives while playing the sport they love, but unfortunately it is a reality that sport and politics will always be inextricably linked.

Melina Harris is a freelance sports writer, book editor, English tutor and PTR qualified tennis coach. For more information and contact details please visit and subscribe to her website and blog at http://www.thetenniswriter.wordpress.com and follow her twitter updates via http://www.twitter.com/thetenniswriter. She is available for freelance writing, editing and one to one private teaching and coaching.

Return of the Bull – Rafael Nadal says that he is planning to return to tennis in the desert at the Indian Wells Masters 1000 event, the BNP Paribas Open. He states that his knee is healing nicely, and furthermore insists that he can return his body to peak physical condition. Nadal is a fierce competitor, and I sincerely hope that he’s right about that last part. But given his brand of physical tennis and refusal to take an extended break to allow his body to completely heal, it’s hard to imagine he’ll ever be able to sustain his top form for any length of time. I’ll be the first to admit if I’m wrong on this one, but I disagree with Nadal’s strategy to forgo the extended break and tweak his game to make it less physical.

Will Rafael Nadal find a way back to the top?

Welcome to the Main Event – After the surprising news that Marat Safin would be playing an event on the Champions Series senior circuit in March, there then came the news that the lovable Russian is going to be playing an exhibition on April 10 in Atlantic City at Caesar’s Palace. Perhaps the only thing more shocking is that the Caesars Tennis Classic exhibition is also going to feature Ivan Lendl, who hasn’t played a match since 1994. The field will be rounded out with Andy Roddick and Mats Wilander, with Venus Williams playing the hostess. With the spectacular tennis those men are able to produce, coupled with their mesh of personalities, it’s a safe bet that a good time is in store for any lucky enough to get a ticket.

Back at Last – It wasn’t as soon as he had hoped, but it had to feel good to Argentine David Nalbandian to finally make his return to competitive tennis in his home country at the Buenos Aires Copa Telmex event. Nalbandian opened his campaign with a solid straight sets win over Italian Potito Starace before giving the home crowd something to cheer about with a nail-biting win over Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver, 9-7 in the third set tiebreak. Given Nalbandian’s talent and ability to upset the big boys in tennis, I’m sure I’m not alone in hoping this is just a sampling of the good things to come.

Seizing the Opportunity – It was just last year when Israeli Shahar Peer was denied a visa to compete in Dubai. This year, she was allowed entry, and she’s making the most of it. After having never taken a set off of 2009 US Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki, the compact Peer cruised her way to a routine victory over the Dane in straight sets. Perhaps the only downside to the match was that it was forced to be played on Court 1 instead of Center Court, as Court 1 was more secure. Credit to Wozniacki who had the class to acknowledge that while the court speed was different on Court 1 as compared to Center, the conditions were the same for both players and did not blame the switch for her loss.

Kournikova in the News – But this time, it isn’t Anna K. It’s her mother, Alla. In one of the more bizarre scandals to come up in tennis news this week was the case of Alla Kournikova, who is being charged with felony child neglect. She allegedly left her five-year-old son home alone while she ran some errands. Neighbors spotted the child outside and then called authorities. When questioned, the five-year-old son claimed that he had gotten outside by jumping out of a second story window (but was uninjured). Alla could face up to five years in prison. I somehow think the next time Anna K does a press conference, the questions aren’t going to be about her latest modeling gig.

This Final match, the first Grand Slam final of the 2010s brings the two greatest female players of the 2000s into battle for the fourteenth time. Their first match took place at 2001 US Open, where Serena defeated Henin in the fourth round, 7-5 6-0.  The nineteen year-old Henin, had been a semi-finalist at Roland Garros that year and was the finalist at Wimbledon, losing to the defending champion, Venus Williams.  Many would argue that these two players are not merely the two best players of their generation – but the greatest female players *ever*.  Both of these players have the singular ability to hit winners from any part of the court – still exceptional on the women’s Tour – and the capacity to utterly dominate their opponents.  As such, they remain the most aggressive players at the top of the women’s game.  This was demonstrated emphatically by Serena in her quarter-final against Victoria Azarenka. Finding herself 4-6 0-4 down, and seemingly out, of the match Serena cut down her groundstroke errors, and began hitting the ball much harder, hitting return winner after winner, producing yet another serving clinic, hitting 17 aces and many other unreturnable serves to close out the match – dragging out a titanic performance, seemingly from nowhere.  Serena struck 57 winners to Azarenka’s grand total of 22.  She made the match totally about herself, her own  performance.  As Azarenka said: “She [Serena]  started playing unbelievable from 4-0. I’m really impressed with her… . She has very powerful shots. You don’t see many girls serving 200 in the third set”.  In very similar fashion, after struggling through her second, third and fourth round matches against players ranked in the top 5 and top 30, and producing a solid 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 win against the former world no.3 Nadia Petrova, Henin demonstrated her full all-court mastery in her semi-final match against China’s Jie Zheng. In a match that lasted only 50  minutes, Henin struck 23 winners to Zheng’s grand total of 3 and won 10 out of 13 of her net approaches.

As such, this final represents the fourteenth meeting between the two principle goddesses of tennis, a clash that can be allegorised to a battle between the warriors Artemis and Athena.  Here, the splendid Rod Laver arena is the grand stage equivalent of mount Olympus, Rod Laver arena being the Centre Court of the the first Grand Slam tournament of the year.  Remarkably, this will be Henin and Serena’s first clash in a Grand Slam tournament final, because the players have repeatedly found themselves in the same half of a Grand Slam tournament draw – in all six on their Grand Slam meetings.

Here, I will review how these extraordinarily gifted players match-up, stroke for stroke, in primary features of the game.

SERVE
Serena Williams

Serena Williams has the best first serve and the one of the best second serves in the women’s game.  Though not struck quite as hard as her record-breaking older sister’s, Serena can hit all parts of the service box, and hit ‘flat’, slice and kick serves with ease.  Serena consistently leads the ‘ace’ and ‘points won on 1st serve’ categories, at every Grand Slam tournament. At this tournament, Serena has struck a total of 53 aces, to
Henin’s 23.  Venus Williams, a quarter-finalist, finished with a total of 21.  On numerous occasions, Lindsay Davenport described Serena’s serve as the ‘best serve in women’s game’ and the best serve that she had faced in the entire length of her career.  Of Serena’s serve, her fourth-round opponent,  Samantha Stosur said: “I think the three breakpoints I got, she hit two aces and were a completely unreturnable and they were all over 190… Couple times I actually guessed where she was going and she still got me…. (.)more so than even the power, the variety. When she’s on, she’s able to hit it within ten centimetres of whatever line she wants. When she’s got that trajectory and is so close to the lines, it’s not easy to return.  She doesn’t hit every serve over 190. She goes 160, 170, and you think it’s not that fast. But when they’re on or very close to the line, they’re still very hard to get”.  Serena’s serve exhibits a perfect confluence of
technical excellence and simplicity of production.

Henin has a good, and very powerful serve – she has been serving up to 190 kmh at this year’s tournament.  However, she has not been serving as well as she did back in 2003 and 2006 – 2007.  Henin’s serve has always earned her some free points, and allows her to begin most rallies from an offensive position. However, both Henin’s first and second serve can break down, and critically during key points in matches. This occurred in the Brisbane final, when Henin held two match points, serving at 5-4 in the third set against Kim Clijsters.  This brittleness occurs partly because Henin has continuously reworked and reformed her service motion during the length of her career, as far back as the autumn of 2001.  Thus, as Sam Smith has pointed out, Henin’s service motion is never “fully part of her”.  Any frailty on Henin’s service will be brutally exposed by Serena, the most fearsome, and destructive, returner in the women’s game.

RETURN of SERVE
Serena / Henin

Both players have very destructive returns and frequently hit outright winners on both second *and* first serves – which has the effect of immediately demoralising their opponents.  Serena’s return-of-serve [look out for her forehand crosscourt return-of-serve from the 'deuce' court] can be a little more powerful than Henin’s but Henin gets slightly more of her service returns back into court.  In her 2006 – 2007 prime, Henin was winning as much as 55 – 60%+ points on the return-of-serve, more than any player on the women’s Tour.  Both players are roughly equal in this feature of the game.

FOREHAND
Henin

Serena possesses a very powerful forehand – and has recorded, from the data that i have collected, the fastest groundstroke in the ‘Hawk-Eye’ era; a forehand meassured at 154 kmh [= 96 mph] in her quarter-final match against Ana Ivanovic in Dubai on the 19th February 2008.  However, Serena’s forehand can break down, primarily because as she needs a lot of set-up time to prepare for the full-length of stroke. To explain, on the take-back, Serena often takes the racquet face as far back as [behind] her head and completes the swing with the racquet face lying down the length of her back, over her left shoulder.  The whole stroke is comparatively long and requires both good timing and excellent footwork to be fully effective. See: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2114649/safina_vs_s_williams_forehand_r45_view_slow_motion/ – this is only moderate swing-length for Serena’s forehand.

Serena likes to perform the stroke with full extension, and when she doesn’t have the time for this, the stroke can lose a lot its potency and effectiveness.  There are some players on the Tour, notably Elena Demenetiva [specifically from 2007 onward], that exploit the mechanics of the stroke by taking the ball very early off their much shorter swings, hitting shots directly down the length of the court, straight at Serena. This takes away Serena’s set-up time on the ball, and forces Serena to improvise by using an almost ‘emergency’-type swing, tamely brushing up against the ball, yielding a midcourt ball that can easily be attacked by the opponent.  However, when Serena’s footwork and balance are fully co-ordinated with the stroke production on forehand, it can be utterly devastating.

Henin’s forehand is equally as powerful as Serena’s, and certainly at average rallying speeds – but is produced from a far shorter and more compact swing, so is more functional, and efficient, especially when placed under direct pressure in a rallying situation.  At coaching conferences, Henin’s forehand has been isolated in seminars as the best in the women’s game.  My last coach, a performance coach based in the UK, explains that, almost unique among women players, Henin’s stroke production on the forehand closely resemble that of an ATP player. Henin’s forehand is both technically and (uniquely, in the women’s game) biomechanically excellent.

BACKHAND
Serena

Henin’s backhand received enormous attention from the tennis establishment when she broke into the top of the game in 2001 because it is a single-handed stroke that combines both high levels of power and variety.  However, much like Serena’s forehand, Henin requires a good deal of set-up time to unleash her single-handed topspin backhand – and many players exploit this by taking the ball early and hitting the ball very hard into the corner of the ‘ad.’ court.  This forces Henin to employ her slice backhand, as a defensive response to keep herself in the rally.  Early on in their head-to-head series, Serena directly attacked Henin’s backhand, knowing that she could rob Henin of time on the ball, and force defensive replies.  Many other players employ this strategy now, though some players find it hard to adjust to Henin’s slice -which can cut right into the court. Historically, though, Serena has been able to pounce upon defensive shots coming off
Henin’s backhand, and take control of the rally.

Serena’s backhand remains one of the more powerful backhands in the game, is technically sound and rarely breaks down.  Also, Serena is able to create acute angles off her crosscourt backhand, even when placed under pressure.

VOLLEY
Henin

Both Henin and Serena can volley well, especially at critical points in a match.  However, Henin is a superlative volleyer, with exceptional feel – and she has wide repertoire of volleying shots.  Henin has the ability to hit volleys from behind the service line – and still create winning shots from a very difficult position on the court.  Henin is probably the best volleyer in the women’s singles game, and certainly at the elite level.  Henin volleyed with increasing frequency towards the end of her first career, circa 2006 – 2007, and seems to be picking up from where she left off in this feature of her game.

Serena’s speciality is the forehand drive-volley, which she can play to spectacular effect. Her drive-volley is the best, the most destructive, in the game – a shot that she helped to popularise at the top of the sport. However, Henin has an almost equally good drive-volley, and has employed it frequently during this year’s tournament.

FOOTWORK
Henin

Henin has sublime footwork around the ball, perhaps the best in the women’s game. She rarely overruns the ball and is especially economical in her movement.  In marked contrast, and especially for a player of her ability, Serena has relatively poor footwork.  It can take Serena a full set of matchplay before Serena has properly conformed her footwork to the stroke production on her groundstrokes – as clearly evinced in her quarter-final match against Victoria Azarenka, where appeared off-balnace for almost a set and a half of matchplay.

BALANCE
Henin

Again, Henin is exceptional in this feature of the game – and normally retains superior balance than Serena on the fundamental strokes.

COURT COVERAGE
Henin

Though athletically restricted because of her height and natuural wing-span [Henin stands  1.67 m), Henin is one of the best technical movers in the sport and covers the court remarkably well.  Serena used to be an especially athletic player, able to retrieve many balls hit past the sidelines and return them with ease.  However, though she still covers the court well, Serena is no longer one of the very best athletes on the women’s Tour – players such as Elena Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jelena Jankovic have all overtaken Serena in terms of court coverage and athletic output.

* * * * * * * * * * * *
Serena and Henin are roughly equals, when examined across all features of the game, which serves to make this rivalry especially compelling.

Two external factors may effect the outcome of this match, however – Serena has clearly been injured from early on in the tournament, and her multiple leg and ankle injuries seem to have become more serious in her last two matches, inhibiting her movement, specifically in the ‘ad.’ court. Serena has made no attempt to retrieve what are, for her, easily makeable balls, hit within metres of her reach.  This is potentially concerning as Henin has the perfect game to exploit weaknesses in movement and court coverage, hitting to short angles off wings, to both sides of the court.  In particular, the short angles produced off Henin’s crosscourt backhand could be very damaging – and telling – for Serena.

On the other hand, Henin has struggled both mentally and especially physically to complete some of her matches in Melbourne, appearing physically exhausted in the closing stages of her third and fourth round matches.  Henin has spoken, quite honestly, of how her body has yet to fully adjust to the demands of playing physically and emotionally draining matches, having been absent from tournament play for a full twenty months.  Henin’s very quick semi-final win will help her enormously in this regard going into Saturday’s final.  However, the and the greater question may well prove to be Henin’s level of mental resilience in a Grand Slam Final – Henin’s first since September 2007.

The Favorites:

Number one ranked Serena Williams has a pretty sweet ride to the quarter-finals from the looks of it. I don’t expect her to drop a set for the first week that’s for sure. There’s simply nobody in her section of the draw that can keep up with her power, experience and winning-attitude. If she truly did tweak something against Elena Dementieva in Sydney, this draw gives her some time before she has to bring out her ‘A’ game. Williams will be the favorite to add to her existing collection of four Aussie Open titles, the most recent being a year ago.

A nice third round match-up in the top-half could include Vera Zvonareva against Ana Ivanovic. Either one of these players could use a good Grand Slam showing to correct their career progress after a disappointing 2009. Zvonareva started strong in 2009 with a semi-final showing in Australia, but after missing two months in the middle of the year with injury she never returned to top form. Ivanovic’s season was a total disaster and it was hard to believe she was ever the number one ranked player in the world. One of these two should still be able to push through to the quarters.

U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki has a great path to perhaps a semi-final berth in Australia. Only Daniela Hantuchova may cause her some trouble before the quarters, although Hantuchova has not had a big win in quite some time.

Wozniacki may meet the winner of an intriguing fourth round match between Americans Venus Williams and Melanie Oudin. A Williams/Oudin match would give tennis fans a nice glimpse of the past, present and future of American tennis and perhaps that future is now. Oudin has some winnable matches early on while Venus has looked mediocre since Wimbledon and as she approaches thirty, is only a huge threat on grass.

In the bottom-half don’t get your hopes up for second-seeded Dinara Safina. The mentally fragile Russian attained the number one ranking for a period of time in 2009, but will most be remembered for tanking in two Slam finals in Australia and Paris, along with a brutal defeat in the semi’s at Wimbledon. A back injury hampered the last portion of her season and was acting up again at the start of 2010 to keep her out of Brisbane. Safina does not have enough match-play under her belt to be considered a major threat here in Australia nor is her mental game ready to compete in this first Slam of the season.

There are plenty of other top-level players ready to contend for the title in the bottom section of the draw however, and the Belgians are leading the charge.

Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin and Yanina Wickmayer are all in the same quarter of the draw, which is unfortunate because they could all have easily advanced quite far given their play of late. Clijsters has the most favorable path and should get past Svetlana Kuznetsova to make the quarter-finals. A second-consecutive Slam is a distinct possibility for her.

Henin, entered as a wild card, is not going to enjoy the same Grand Slam return that Clijsters had at the U.S. Open. After a first round match with up and coming Sorana Cirstea, Henin will most definitely face fifth seeded Elena Dementieva – the same Dementieva who just won in Sydney defeating Serena in the finals. Henin leads their head-to-head battles 9-2, but will have to fight hard to beat the in-form Russian. I think Henin can beat Dementieva, but expecting her to have a similar Cinderella-run like Clijsters did in Flushing Meadows is unlikely.

The third Belgian, and the future of tennis in that country, Yanina Wickmayer, has already fought through three qualifying matches in order to secure entry into the tournament. Wickmayer was not allowed to take the 16th seeded spot that she is due because of the timing of her return from a mishandled doping violation. She may face Italian Flavia Pennetta in the second round and either Henin or Dementieva in the fourth round. Regardless of how she fares here in Australia, the twenty year old has a bright future ahead of her.

In the very last quarter of the draw we’ve got the unpredictable Jelena Jankovic. Fairing no better than the fourth round of any Slam in 2009, Jankovic has much to prove this year. She has a nice section of the draw and should stay untroubled until the quarter-finals. Don’t expect her to move much farther than that however, as the Serbian is not the huge threat she used to be.

Do keep an eye on Maria Sharapova to have a big Aussie Open. The talented Russian has come back admirably from shoulder surgery last year and has the power game to defeat anyone on tour. If she can keep her serve consistent and free of double-digit double faults, then she is more than capable of winning this tourney. If she does come up against Safina in the round of sixteen, I see Sharapova advancing with ease. There are more Grand Slam titles within her and this could be the next one on her list.

Anticipated First-Round Matches:

Kimiko Date-Krumm vs Yaroslava Shvedova: The 39 year old veteran Date-Krumm has been very impressive since returning to the tour in 2008 and has worked herself back into being a dangerous player to face. Her return is even more impressive given the fact she was away from the sport for six years. She’ll face a difficult player in Shvedova, who impressed in the late stages of 2009 with victories over Daniela Hantuchova in Toronto and Jelena Jankovic at the U.S. Open.

Caroline Wozniacki vs Aleksandra Wozniak: It amazes me how often these two near-identical names get paired together in so many tournaments. Unfortunately for the Canadian Wozniak, it rarely ends up in her favor. The fourth seeded Wozniacki has won five of their six meetings although the pair have usually produced closely contested matches. Wozniak is ranked 34th in the world right now, so this is a fairly strong first rounder.

Jelena Dokic vs Alisa Kleybanova: While it was nice to watch Dokic have her fairy-tale run to the quarter-finals in last year’s edition, the same fate will be difficult to duplicate. Dokic faces hard-hitting Russian Kleybanova whom she defeated here in the fourth round last year by a tight score of 7-5, 5-7, 8-6. Kleybanova’s court movement is limited due to her stature, but she can really hit the ball and was able to defeat Venus Williams, Vera Zvonareva and Jelena Jankovic (twice) in 2009.

Maria Sharapova has arrived in Melbourne to prepare for the Australian Open that will start this Monday on January 18.  I am hoping that she’ll win the Aussie Open with a great three set match. I don’t want any of the dull finales we have had in some of the previous years. I want battle on the courts. Blood, sweat and tears. Genuine emotion and, again, most of all I want Sharapova to win.

Ofcourse there are more potential winners for this year’s Aussie Open crown and as a small preview, I will name some of the women who, I think, have a great shot at the title.

1. Maria Sharapova – Injury has sidelined her much of last year but let’s hope that she has recovered enough and that she is fit and in form enough to take home the title.

2. Kim Clijsters – The tennis mom. Retired and came back. Pretty much a veni, vidi, vici last year when she entered US Open on a wildcard and took home the title. She brushed off adversaries as if they weren’t there. A force to be reckoned with.

3. Justine Henin – Another player who decided to unretire herself.  Though it may look like she is going to make a serious run for the Wimbledon crown. The Australian Open could be hers.

4. Dinara Safina – Yes, her. Why? It’s about time that she added a GS title to her impressive collection and she is hungry for it.  The Australian Open could be just it!

5. Jelena Jankovic – Pretty much the same story as Dinara Safina.

6. Serena Williams – You never know with this black beauty. Was laughed at when she entered in 2007 but baffled every criticaster when she took home the title with relative ease.

7. Venus Williams – Wherever Serena goes, Venus goes. Venus was upset by Maria Sharapova earlier this year in Hong Kong but that was just the first match of the year.

8. Caroline Wozniacki – She took the world by storm last year and deservedly got a place in the finals at the US Open. That proved that she is doing very well on hardcourt.  Let’s hope that the hardcourts in Australia and her are a match.

9. Yanina Wickmayer – She is eager and  hungry for success after a desastrous year end.

10. Elena Dementieva – If she can control her nerves she can finally win that Grand Slam title.

Let me know who YOU think will win the Australian Open 2010 crown by using our comment box. Enjoy the photos!

[View with PicLens]

As an extra bonus I added Maria Sharapova photos of her sensational win over Venus Williams earlier this week. It’s sensational because I say so. No, seriously. After so many months of injury and being sidelined it’s great to see Sharapova grace the courts in stylish fashion once again.

I say stylish fashion because I think that Maria Sharapova and tennis fashion have become one. And no, no not with with the Force as Star Wars fans would say but it’s just that in my view Maria Sharapova and Tennis Fashion have become one word. That’s how good I think she dresses on the courts.

About Jelena Dokic, it’s great that she’s making another come back after many years of absence.  A lot of trouble and turmoil in her private life. From pesky fathers to changing nationalities more often than most men would change their underwear. But it’s all going to be good now, I hope.  Whatever she does, I’ll never forget that Wimbledon match where she crushed Martina Hingis.

Then we have Ana Ivanovic. She got a new coach and hopefully her results will come back straight up. She made a free fall and stopped performing consistently after winning the Roland Garros tournament in 2008. I guess the success and the attention of winning a Grand Slam tournament must have been so overwhelming that it takes time to adjust.  Let’s just hope that she has adjusted because when fully focussed on her game this Serbian Siren is top 1 potential!

Another name on the list is Elena Dementieva. There is a lot I can write and / or say about this Russian bombshell but what I have to say about her is actually perfectly written in this article by Galen E. Bull called “Defending Dementieva“.

Furthermore I hope this is going to be a “Maria Sharapova” – year. When injury free Sharapova is almost unbeatable.  Ofcour her shrieking is lewd, lascivious, salacious, outrageous! But who cares…she’s one of the best in the world and the WTA Tour can praise themselves with a personality like Sharapova’s gracing the tennis courts.

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Just to show you how successful she was this season I found the top ten of money leaders for 2009. She is ranked 6th. Not bad huh!

1, Serena Williams, $6,545,586.

2, Dinara Safina, $4,310,218.

3, Svetlana Kuznetsova, $3,658,841.

4, Venus Williams, $3,126,894.

5, Jelena Jankovic, $2,491,514.

6, Caroline Wozniacki, $2,371,550.

7, Elena Dementieva, $2,343,481.

8, Victoria Azarenka, $2,115,536.

9, Vera Zvonareva, $1,642,145.

10, Kim Clijsters, $1,632,560.

Enjoy the bikini pics of Caroline Wozniacki!

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It hasn’t been easy, especially lately. Elena Dementieva is the proverbial bridesmaid but never a bride. The Olympic gold was fine, but I think even she knows a Slam title would be finer. She’s been close and was a net cord away from her first Wimbledon final only to lose to Serena Williams in what was called the best women’s match in recent memory.

Elena Dementieva

In Australia, she was leading Serena in their semifinal match when the tournament officials decided to close the roof due to the heat. All that did was favor a badly out-of-shape Serena and allow her to recover and win the match.

The Rogers Cup title before the U.S. Open was a nice win over Maria Sharapova, but even I’ll say it was partially due to Maria’s semifinal match the night prior going well past midnight due to a rain delay. In the final, Sharapova was visibly fatigued and there were of course, the double faults.

I’m not going to say time is running out because Elena is only 27. But easing up on her tournament schedule would help. She played tournaments in Auckland and Sydney leading into the Australian Open and won them both. Leading into the U.S. Open she played Stanford, Cincinnati and Toronto in successive weeks. One less warm-up event may have prevented the loss to Melanie Oudin.

She had a lackluster end to the 2009 season. Her Asian tourney swing consisted of a second round loss to 33rd ranked Kateryna Bondarenko in Tokyo. In Beijing, she suffered a quarterfinal loss to Agnieszka Radwanska. She managed only one win in the year end tour championships over Venus Williams and ended the year ranked at number five.

She worked hard to improve her serve and has the best ground strokes in the women’s game. I do think things will eventually gel for her and she’ll play her best in a Slam instead of peaking at a smaller tournament.