Roland Garros Fast Forward: Federer, Serena, Venus, Headline Day 1
Today features the first edition of a daily Roland Garros preview series that offers a few notes on the next day’s most interesting matches. After each day ends, moreover, a recap of similar length will guide you through the key headlines.
ATP:
Pablo Carreno-Busta vs. Roger Federer: This qualifier reeled off a long winning streak at lower-level events over the last year and reached the Portugal semifinals, also as a qualifier, with victories over Julien Benneteau and Fabio Fognini. Carreno-Busta also upset defending champion Pablo Andujar in Casablanca, shortly before the latter stormed to the Madrid semifinals, and won a set from Stanislas Wawrinka in Portugal. Paris is not Portugal or Casablanca, though, nor is it even Bordeaux, where Carreno-Busta lost in the first round of a challenger.
Gilles Simon vs. Lleyton Hewitt: This tournament might mark Hewitt’s final appearance at Roland Garros. If it does, a match on a show court against a fellow grinder, likely with a strong crowd, seems a fitting way to go. Simon has flown under the radar for most of the year, stringing together some victories at small events and upsetting two top-ten opponents. He reached the second week at the Australian Open despite largely unimpressive form, so he should muddle through here too.
Andreas Seppi vs. Leonardo Mayer: The Italian must defend fourth-round points at Roland Garros, where he won two sets from Novak Djokovic last year. Seppi’s 14-14 record this year does not bode well, and he has survived his first match at only one of six clay tournaments. Fortunately for him, Mayer lost his only clay match this year.
Marcel Granollers vs. Feliciano Lopez: A quarterfinalist in Rome, Granollers owes Andy Murray twice over in recent weeks. First, the world No. 2 retired from their match there, allowing the Spaniard to gobble extra ranking points. Then, Murray’s withdrawal nudged Granollers into a seeded position at Roland Garros. He should take advantage of it against the fading serve-volley specialist Feliciano Lopez, although matches between two Spaniards often get trickier than expected.
WTA:
Serena Williams vs. Anna Tatishvili: Everyone remembers what happened to Serena in the first round here last year. Nobody remembers it more clearly than Serena does. Expect her to put this match away early, exorcising Razzano’s ghosts.
Urszula Radwanska vs. Venus Williams: Both of these women must cope with being the second-best women’s tennis player in their respective families. Hampered by a back injury, Venus has played just one match on red clay this year, losing routinely to Laura Robson. Urszula is not quite Robson at this stage, but she recorded clay wins over Dominika Cibulkova and Ana Ivanovic this year. Venus should pull through in the end after some edgy moments.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Andrea Hlavackova: When Pavlyuchenkova gets through her first match, she has reached the semifinals at four of five tournaments this year, winning two. The problem is that she has lost her first match no fewer than seven times against opponents of varying quality. (Azarenka and Ivanovic are understandable, Lesya Tsurenko and Johanna Larsson less so.) Since reaching the second week of the US Open, Hlavackova has won one main-draw singles match, over the hapless Melanie Oudin. Surely Pavlyuchenkova won’t double that total?
Kiki Bertens vs. Sorana Cirstea: Their big weapons and questionable movement would seem better designed for fast-court tennis. But both of them have found their greatest success on clay, Cirstea reaching the Roland Garros quarterfinals four years ago and Bertens winning her only WTA title so far at Fes last year. This match looks among the most evenly contested of the day with plenty of heavy groundstrokes to go around.
Mallory Burdette vs. Donna Vekic: One of the top American collegiate prospects, Burdette left Stanford last fall to turn pro and has reaped some solid results. Her victims so far include Lucie Hradecka, Ksenia Pervak, and Sabine Lisicki as well as fellow American rising star Madison Keys. Burdette will train her vicious backhand on Croatian rising star Donna Vekic, who reached her first WTA final last year as a qualifier. Vekic has not accomplished much above the challenger level since then, losing her only clay match this year to Chanelle Scheepers in Madrid.
Ayumi Morita vs. Yulia Putintseva: Is Paris ready for Putintseva? The volatile French crowd pounced on fellow pocket rocket Michelle Larcher de Brito, but the distant venue of Court 7 should take some of the scrutiny off the strong-lunged youngster. Putintseva took Serena to a first-set tiebreak in Madrid but will have her work cut out with Morita’s double-fisted strokes. Unlike Coco Vandeweghe, the Japanese star will win points with more than her serve.
Australian Open 2011: A Promising Bunch
If you’re like me, which you’re probably not, you’ve been watching at least 5 or 6 hours of tennis a day this week and religiously checking scores when you can’t be near a TV. However, if you’re reading this, you’ve probably watched at least some of the Australian Open this week. While there haven’t been any particularly surprising upsets, there have been a lot of stunning performances by young players both known and unknown. Commentators have been complaining for years that there are no promising young players, but the numbers tell a different story. They may not all be winning majors yet, but give them time. Since all tennis players are relatively young, I’m going to limit my observations to players born after January 1, 1990.
Caroline Wozniacki (Born 11 July 1990)
Probably the brightest star on the list, Caroline Wozniacki usurped Serena Williams’ spot as No. 1 in the world at the end of last year. The fresh faced 20 year old has handled the pressures and criticism of being No. 1 with a lot of grace. Some fans and media have been extremely critical of Caroline as she has yet to win a Grand Slam and because they believe she would never have become No. 1 if Serena Williams remained in good health. While that is probably true, Wozniacki didn’t drop the bottle that cut Serena’s foot. Tennis players get hurt, it’s part of the game and sometimes it gives new players a chance to shine. In 2009, Caroline made the final of the US Open and last year she lost to Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals. Her resume’s not so bad when you consider that she’s only played 15 Grand Slams, not to mention that she won 6 titles last year (the same amount of tournaments Serena played.) At 20, I don’t think Caroline is a flash in the pan player and I do believe that she will win a Grand Slam in the future, possibly even in the next week.
Anastasija Sevastova (Born 13 April 1990)
Anastasija Sevastova is a young player from Latvia, which not traditionally a country to provide a lot of top players, well pretty much just Ernests Gulbis. She provided us with one of the early upsets at this year’s Australian Open. Ranked 45th in the world, she took out the 21st seed, Yanina Wickmayer, who was in white hot form, coming in runner up in the Australian Open warm up tournament in Aukland and beat up and comer Jarka Groth in the first round. Sevastova actually won her first WTA title last year in Estoril, beating Arantxa Parra Santonja. She will be playing Caroline Wozniacki in the 4th round for a chance at her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. Either way, there will be a 20 year old in the quarters.
Simona Halep (Born 27 September 1991)
We don’t see as many successful teenagers in tennis as we used to. I attribute this to a physically stronger women’s field and actually think it makes women’s tennis more interesting. This makes it all the more impressive when a teenager actually does manage to hang in there with veteran players. Simona won the junior French Open in 2008 and has since competed in only 3 adult Grand Slam events, already making the 3rd round of this year’s Australian Open. She’ll face Agnieszka Radwanska in the 3rd round.
Ayumi Morita (Born 11 March 1990)
Ayumi is ranked 64th in the world and has also already surpassed her previous Grand Slam performances at this year’s Australian Open. She is also appearing in the 3rd round, against Shuai Peng, who took out Jelena Jankovic in round 2. Morita previously made it to the 2nd round of Wimbledon in 2010. She is currently the second highest ranked Japanese player.
Petra Kvitova (Born 8 March 1990)
Petra is certainly one of the most promising young players on tour right now and you’ve got to love the fact that she’s still in braces. She had her best Grand Slam showing last year at Wimbledon, where she reached the semifinals, defeating Sorana Cirstea, Zheng Jie, Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki, and Kaia Kanepi before falling to Serena Williams. She backed up this performance by making it to the 3rd round of the US Open and is now into the 3rd round of the Australian Open, where she will face Aussie Sam Stosur.
Bernard Tomic (Born 21 October 1992)
Coming into the Australian Open, Tennis Australia got a lot of flak for giving Tomic the last wildcard into the main draw. It appears that Bernard skipped out on the wildcard playoff tournament, feigning illness, because he was so confident that they would provide him a wildcard whether he played or not. It’s never good to be this cocky, and personally I would have skipped him over, but he is most likely the future of Australian tennis. However, his overconfidence seems to have helped him tremendously thus far in Melbourne, considering he’s beaten Jeremy Chardy and Feliciano Lopez. He will face the biggest test in tennis when he takes on Rafael Nadal in the 3rd round. Win or lose, he has proven himself worthy of the wildcard, even if I am still a bit sore that they skipped over Nicolas Mahut.
Milos Raonic (Born 27 December 1990)
This 6’5” Canadian is probably the most promising player to come out of Canada in years. He’s already the first Canadian since Daniel Nestor in 2001 to reach a Grand Slam 3rd round. Milos has beaten Bjorn Phau and Michael Llodra to reach his career best Slam performance, where he will play Mikhail Youzhny. His serve is absolutely massive and he did an excellent job of closing out the match against a seeded player in Michael Llodra. At just 20 years old, he’s bound to get stronger and fitter. I believe he has the potential to be a Top 20 player or possibly even better if he continues to improve his game.
Richard Berankis (Born 21 June 1990)
Berankis hails from Lithuania, also not a country to produce many famous tennis players. There’s been a lot of buzz about Berankis on the challenger and future level and he’s finally been able to break through a bit at a Grand Slam. This is only his third Grand Slam appearance, and his first Australian Open. He’s done a brilliant job, beating Marinko Matosevic, a promising young player from Australia, and absolutely demolishing David Nalbandian before he retired from the match. He will face David Ferrer in the 3rd round, but has already given a career best performance.
Mondays With Bob Greene: I am like a machine, fit for every match
STARS
Ayumi Morita beat Ksenia Lykina 6-1 6-3 to win the 2008 Dunlop World Challenge women’s event in Toyota City, Japan
Martin Vassallo Arguello won the Lima Challenger 2008, beating Sergio Roitman 6-2 4-6 6-4 in Lima, Peru
Go Soeda beat Hyung-Taik Lee 6-2 7-6 (7) to win the Dunlop World Challenge men’s singles in Toyota City, Japan
Grega Zemlja beat Martin Alund 6-2 6-1 to win the Abierto Internacional Varonil Ciudad de Cancun in Cancun, Mexico
SAYING
“This was our worst defeat. We had a sinister weekend.” – David Nalbandian, who earned Argentina’s lone point in Spain’s 3-1 Davis Cup victory.
“I think he’s my natural successor. He’s very close to this group of players who are integrated into the nucleus of the team and he’s demonstrated his qualities as a coach by leading Feliciano (Lopez), who has shown notable progression in the last while.” – Emilio Sanchez, on Albert Costa’s prospects for becoming Spain’s Davis Cup captain.
“I am like a machine, fit for every match, and I give my best for all my matches. I have a consistent style of play, which is my major strength and keeps me going. I am fine with the current ATP schedule and love playing tennis, which keeps me going.” – Nikolay Davydenko.
“It goes back to what my dad said: I peaked at 12 years old.” – Jimmy Arias, who in 1980 at the age of 16 became the youngest player to make the main draw of the US Open.
“She will have an opportunity but she will have to earn it.” – Craig Tiley, Australian Open tournament director on Jelena Dokic playing in a wild card playoff for a direct entry into the first Grand Slam tournament of 2009.
SUFFERIN’ SUCCOTASH
His business manager says Jimmy Connors is “extremely disappointed and embarrassed” about an incident that led to the tennis legend being charged with a misdemeanor. Karen Scott says a man tried to pick a fight with Connors and his son before a basketball game between the University of California Santa Barbara and the University of North Carolina. Police asked Connors to leave, but the eight-time Grand Slam tournament champion was arrested after he said he wanted to wait for his son to finish watching the game. Connors was charged with disrupting campus activities and refusing to leave a university facility.
STEPS DOWN
The day after leading Spain to its third Davis Cup championship, Emilio Sanchez Vicario retired as captain of the victorious team. “I will not be there for the tie against Serbia,” said Sanchez, referring to Spain’s first-round tie in 2009. “I started something three years ago and the cycle is now complete with this reward for all the players, and I hope that whoever replaces me can share all the magical moments I have experienced.” The next Spanish captain is rumored to be Albert Costa, the 2002 Roland Garros champion.
[ad#adify-300×250]SAME IN ARGENTINA
Alberto Mancini apparently is through as coach of Argentina’s Davis Cup squad. He announced his resignation just hours after Spain clinched its third Davis Cup title, defeating Argentina 3-1 in the best-of-five-matches tie. The fifth match was not played. According to reports, Mancini had planned to resign after the final regardless of the outcome.
SCORING MORE
As an incentive to play better, Chinese tennis players will be able to keep more of their winnings. China’s players will keep 70 percent of the money they win, twice the amount they have been able to put into the bank. But the country’s top players, including Li Na and Wimbledon semifinalist Zheng Jie, are eligible to keep even more if they do well at Grand Slams and other big tournaments. In China, the sports associations have paid for coaches, travel and other expenses for the players. In making the announcement, Sun Jinfang, head of the Chinese Tennis Association (CTA), didn’t say if the players would now have to pay for some of their own expenses.
SQUARING OFF
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer could resume their rivalry in their opening 2009 tournament. The world’s top two players are scheduled to play the Qatar Open in Doha, Qatar, which begins January 5. According to Nasser al-Kholiafi, Qatar tennis federation president, the star-filled field will also include Andy Murray and Andy Roddick. The Qatar Open is one of three tournaments that will begin the 2009 ATP season, the others being the Brisbane International in Australia and the Chennai Open in India.
STOPPED
Kimiko Date-Krumm’s latest tournament ended quickly in the singles. Once ranked number five in the world, Date-Krumm lost her second-round match in the 2008 Dunlop World Challenge Tennis Tournament in Toyota, Japan, to Russian wild-card Ksenia Lykina 5-7 7-5 6-3. She did much better in the doubles, teaming with China’s Han Xinyun to reach the final, where they lost to Finland’s Emma Laine and Britain’s Melanie South 6-1 7-5.
SLUITER RETURNS
Dutch tennis player Raemon Sluiter is returning to the ATP tour after a 10-month retirement. He reached his highest world ranking of number 46 in 2003. The right-hander from Rotterdam turned pro in 1996 and earned a little more than USD $1.6 million in his career. Sluiter began his Davis Cup career in 2001 by upsetting Juan Carlos Ferrero as the Netherlands beat Spain and Germany to reach the World Group semifinals before losing to France. He also has a Davis Cup victory over Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen.
SET TO EXPLODE
A live bomb from World War II was discovered when a court at a British tennis club underwent renovation. The bomb was thought to be a piece of old farm machinery and handed to Steve McLean, chairman of the Greenlaw Tennis Club in Berwickshire, who put it in a bin. Six weeks later, he realized it was a bomb and called police. Army bomb disposal experts took the bomb away so it could be detonated safely.
STUMBLE
The first event in a closed tour for Asian players was canceled because of the lack of top players. The Asian Tennis Federation said it was planning a closed Asian Tennis Tour to help Asian players make more money. The first two events were to be held in India in December, a men’s tournament in Pune, followed by a women’s event in Indore. But some of the eight countries who had pledged their participation in the tour ended up nominated their third- or fourth-string players for the tournaments.
SENDS WARNING
John McEnroe hasn’t been quiet about his chances at the BlackRock Masters Tennis championships at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The lefthander, who at the age of 49 is by far the oldest in the eight-man draw, sent a video message to his rivals warning them not to underestimate him. McEnroe’s recent victory in Luxembourg has convinced the American that he can still compete. McEnroe is in a group with American Pete Sampras, Frenchman Cedric Pioline and Britain’s Jeremy Bates. The other group consists of Sweden’s Stefan Edberg, Australian Pat Cash, Britain’s Greg Rusedski and France’s Guy Forget. Jamie Murray, Wimbledon mixed doubles champion in 2007 and the brother of Andy Murray, will play doubles, joining, among others, Peter Fleming, Henri Leconte, Mansour Bahrami, Mark Woodforde and Anders Jarryd. Goran Ivanisevic withdrew from the singles field because he will undergo knee surgery.
SITTING ON TOP
For the third consecutive year, France has more players in the year-ending ATP Top 100 than any other nation. This year, however, Spain has tied France with 14 players in the Top 100. With Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at number six and Gilles Simon at number seven, it is the first time since 1986 that two Frenchmen have been in the year-end Top Ten. Yannick Noah and Henri Leconte did it then. Twenty-nine countries are represented in the Top 100. After France and Spain, Argentina has nine players in the Top 100, followed by the United States with eight, Germany and Russia with seven each, Croatia with five, the Czech Republic and Italy with four each, and Serbia and Belgium with three apiece.
STARS FOR SALE
The Heineken Open has reportedly been forced to shell out record appearance fees in order to land a couple of top players for the tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, beginning January 12. The headliners will be world number eight Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina and former champion David Ferrer of Spain. Tournament director Richard Palmer would not reveal the exact amount of appearance fees he had to pay to get the two, but said it was considerably less than the sums some top 10 players were demanding.
SO HAPPY
Organizers of the US Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston, Texas, are smiling these days. Because of the changes in the ATP calendar for 2009, Lleyton Hewitt and the Bryan brothers, Bob and Mike, have committed to the US Clay Court. The Houston event now doesn’t bump up against Davis Cup competition or a popular clay-court tournament in Europe. And it directly follows the Masters 100 tournament in Miami, Florida. “This is a perfect example of how we’ve improved our prospects of getting some players we probably wouldn’t have had a shot at before,” said Van Barry, tennis director of River Oaks Country Club, site of the tournament.
SERBIAN DREAMS
The decrepit courts of the Milan Gale Muskatirovic Sports Centre in Belgrade, Serbia, will be restored in time to hold an ATP tournament in May. Tennis Masters Cup champion Novak Djokovic and his family are behind the changes, having acquired the ATP event only a few weeks ago. The Serbian government, city of Belgrade and municipality of Stari Grad will jointly pay more than USD $1 million for the venture. The courts also will be used by the Serbian Tennis Federation for Fed Cup and Davis Cup practice as well as university competition. When completed, the complex will have seven courts with seating for 5,000 at the Central Court. The restoration is scheduled to be completed by mid-April, two weeks before the tournament will begin.
SYDNEY CALLING
The Medibank International Sydney 2009 tournament will feature a number of top players, including Serena Williams, Jelena Jankovic, David Nalbandian and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Officials say the competition will be Sydney’s international sporting event of the Australian summer. Also in the field will be Russian Elena Dementieva and Frenchman Richard Gasquet, while Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt will be gunning for his fifth title in the tournament.
STICKING WITH IT
Argentina’s David Nalbandian refuted rumors that he is considering quitting his country’s Davis Cup team because of its loss to Spain. “For me it’s really an honor to represent my country. I’m going to continue defending these colors in the best way possible. For me, playing Davis Cup is the best and I’m upset that people have doubted me.” Nalbandian won the opening singles in the three-day competition, beating David Ferrer. But he and Agustin Calleri lost their doubles match and his “reverse singles” match was never played because Spain had already wrapped up its victory. “We’ve played in two Davis Cup finals in the last three years and I still think we can win it,” Nalbandian said.
SET FOR CHENNAI
India’s two top-ranked singles players, Somdev Devvarman and Prakash Amritraj, have been given wild cards into the Chennai Open tournament scheduled to begin January 5. The third wild card into the main singles draw has been offered to Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic, who will partner India’s Leander Paes in the doubles. India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and his partner, Mark Knowles of the Bahamas, have also entered the tournament. While Paes and Bhupathi are India’s best-known players, neither play singles that much any more.
SAD NEWS
Anne Pittman, who coached Arizona State’s women’s tennis program for 30 years, died in Tempe, Arizona, after suffering a stroke. She was 90 years old. Pittman guided ASU to a 338-71 record from 1954 through 1984 and led the Sun Devils to national championships in 1971, 1972 and 1974. In 1995, she was selected as one of the charter members and only coach into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Women’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame. During her tenure, the women’s tennis coach was considered a volunteer position. Pittman refused to retire until funding was approved during the 1983-84 season to make the coach a paid, full-time position.
SHARED PERFORMANCES
Toyota (women): Emma Laine and Melanie South beat Kimiko Date-Krumm and Han Xinyun 6-1 7-5
Lima: Luis Horna and Sebastian Prieto beat Ramon Delgado and Julio Silva 6-3 6-3
Toyota (men): Frederik Nielsen and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi beat Chen Ti and Gazegorz Panfil 7-5 6-3
Cancun: Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach beat Lee Hsin-Han and Yang Tsung-Hua 7-5 6-2
SITES TO SURF
London: www.theblackrockmasters.com/
Australian Open: www.australianopen.com/
ATP: www.atptennis.com
WTA Tour: www.sonyericssonwtatour.com
ITF: www.itftennis.com
TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK
SENIORS
BlackRock Masters Tennis, London, England, carpet