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28
Mar
09
2009 sony ericsson awards party.
Belgium Fed Cup team coach Sabine Appelmans believes Kim Clijsters can make a successful comeback and once again become a grand slam champion.
The 25-year-old, who is a former world number one and US Open champion, announced her return to tennis on Thursday, and will play WTA tournaments in Cincinnati and Toronto before heading to New York for the final grand slam of the year, which begins on August 31.
“Kim has so much talent,” Appelmans said in the TV show Phara. “I don’t see her playing in the whole circuit so it’s going to be difficult to reach the top of the rankings.
“But she is not there to do that. She wants to win titles and play top games.”
Appelmans added: “When you see that Dinara Safina could be number one soon – Kim is usually better than her.
“Winning the US Open? It’s possible.
“The Fed Cup game against Canada comes too soon. You can’t directly play for your country with pressure on your shoulders, I understand that. But she will train with us.”
SYDNEY International tournament director Craig Watson has wasted no time trying to lock in the ever-popular Kim Clijsters for next January’s tournament.
Barely 24 hours after Clijsters confirmed she would be returning to professional tennis, Watson began planning to tempt the two-time Sydney winner back.
“I’ll certainly be talking to her management to make sure Sydney is part of her schedule for 2010,” Watson said.
The Belgian champion was given the nickname “Aussie Kim” due to her lengthy relationship with Lleyton Hewitt.
But even after the pair split in September 2004, Clijsters continued to strike a fond chord in Australian tennis fans’ hearts.
“We would love to have Kim come back. As everyone knows, we see her as an honorary Australian,” Watson said.
The Sydney International — which Clijsters won in 2003 and 2007 — was also the last WTA singles trophy she collected before retiring in May 2007 to marry American basketballer Brian Lynch. The couple had a daughter, Jada, born in February last year.
While Caroline Wozniacki was serving 12 aces, Jelena Dokic was serving 10 double faults, hardly the formula for winning for Dokic. But she fought hard after losing the first set 6-3, and forced the match into a 3rd set by winning 7-5 in the second. But the double faults were her undoing as she lost 6-2 in the third set.
Marion Bartoli(12) had the distinction of being the first seeded player to lose as she went down 6-2, 6-4 to Anastasiya Yakimova. But she was not alone as #19 Almagro lost to Taylor Dent 2-6, 6-2, 7-6, followed by Rod Soderling(23) who lost to US qualifier Kendrick. Marcos Baghdatis also lost, going down 3-6, 6-2, 2-6 to Paul Henri Mathieu.
27
Mar
09
Dementieva wins in 3rd set.
Fourth seed Elena Dementieva survived a scare from wild card Anastasia Pivovarova to prevail 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 in an all-Russian second round clash at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami on Friday.
In a match featuring 13 breaks of serve, Dementieva converted eight of 19 break point opportunities to secure victory over her 172nd-ranked compatriot in one hour and 51 minutes – avoiding a repeat of the second round upset she suffered in Indian Wells two weeks ago (l. to Cetkovska). The 27-year-old is making her ninth main draw appearance at the Sony Ericsson Open and was the runner-up to Serena Williams in 2004.
The Monte-Carlo resident has enjoyed strong results on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in 2009 and has a 22-4 match record. She captured back-to-back titles at the start of the year in Auckland (d. Vesnina) and Sydney (d. Safina), was runner-up in Paris (l. to Mauresmo) and reached the semifinals at the Australian Open (l. to S. Williams).
Italian 15th seed Flavia Pennetta defeated doubles partner Maria Kirilenko of Russia 6-4, 7-5 to secure her place in the third round. Pennetta and Kirilenko are the eighth seeds in the Sony Ericsson Open doubles event and reached the semifinals together in Indian Wells last week. The 27-year-old Pennetta has not advanced past the third round in four previous main draw appearances at the Sony Ericsson Open, and will look to do so for the first time when she takes on either Magdalena Rybarikova or No. 20 seed Amelie Mauresmo.
Czech Nicole Vaidisova was in devastating form as she accounted for No. 28 seed Alona Bondarenko 6-1, 6-0. World No. 71 Vaidisova, who reached a career-high No. 7 in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings on May 14, 2007, was a quarterfinalist in Miami in 2007 (l. to S. Williams). She goes on to face either No. 8 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova or Tamira Paszek.
27
Mar
09
2008 award recipients announced.
Ana Ivanovic
was named Humanitarian of the Year during the 2008 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Player Awards ceremony in Miami. The 21-year-old is recognised for her charitable efforts as a UNICEF National Ambassador for Serbia, as well as her generous personality.
“Ana Ivanovic is a fantastic ambassador for our sport, both on and off the court,” said Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Chief Executive and Chairman Larry Scott. “Her willingness to give back to the communities in which she plays and in particular her commitment to helping children in need in her native Serbia is a testament to Ana’s character.”
“Wow!” said Ana. “This is such a nice honour. I’m not sure if I deserve it. I enjoy working with UNICEF and trying to help kids in some small ways. I love spending time with children, so it’s my pleasure to take part in these kind of activities.”
Serena Williams was voted the WTA Tour player of the year for the second time.
Williams also received the award for 2002. She won the U.S. Open in September and ended last year ranked No. 1.
Dinara Safina was selected most improved player for 2008, and Zheng Jie was chosen comeback player of the year. Top-ranked Cara Black and Liezel Huber were chosen doubles team of the year for the second time.
Caroline Wozniacki was selected newcomer of the year, and Elena Dementieva was honored with the Karen Krantzcke sportsmanship award.
Williams was the only winner not to attend a ceremony Thursday at the Sony Ericsson Open to honor the award winners. She released a statement through the WTA Tour.
Roger Federer won the ATP World Tour’s Stefan Edberg sportsmanship award for a record fifth consecutive year, and he was chosen the favorite player for the sixth year in a row in a poll of fans.
Top-ranked Rafael Nadal was chosen player of the year, and Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic were selected doubles team of the year.
James Blake won the Arthur Ashe humanitarian of the year award for his charitable efforts, and Rainer Schuettler was chosen comeback player of the year. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was chosen most improved, and Kei Nishikori won newcomer of the year.
The awards were announced Wednesday at the start of the Sony Ericsson Open.
“It is great to receive two more awards,” Federer said. “It is always important for me to be a good sportsman on the court and give the right example for others to follow and hopefully inspire the next generation. It also means the world to me to be the fans’ favorite player for the sixth year in a row.”
Tennis Australia has confirmed it wants its Davis Cup match against India moved out of the southern city of Chennai in May due to security concerns.
“We have received advice from a variety of sources referring to traveling to India,” Tennis Australia chief executive Steve Wood said in a statement Thursday. “It is on that basis of security concerns that we have asked for the tie to be moved out of India.
“The ITF has received our request and is doing its own security assessment. The safety of our players and staff is of paramount importance to Tennis Australia.”
The winner of the Asia-Oceania Group 1 match, scheduled for May 8-10, will advance to the playoffs for a spot in the elite world group.
In London, the International Tennis Federation confirmed it had received Tennis Australia’s request to switch venues, and had asked its security advisers to submit a report which it hopes to receive next week.
The ITF said there would be no discussion of alternative venues until it had reviewed that report and, until then, the match would take place in Chennai as planned.
The All India Tennis Association said in a statement that it was confident of the match being held in Chennai.
“There’s no need to shift it,” the statement said. “The International Tennis Federation wrote to us about Australia’s security concerns and we’ve sent a reply.”
The Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament was moved this week to South Africa due to security concerns in India.
A terror attack on the Sri Lanka team in Lahore, Pakistan earlier this month heightened concerns about security for sports events on the Indian sub continent. Seven test players, an assistant coach and a match official were among those injured. Six policemen and a driver were killed in the ambush by heavily armed gunmen.
In November, terror attacks in India’s financial capital Mumbai left 164 people dead and forced the cancellation of a Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament involving provincial teams from five countries.
Former No. 1-ranked player Kim Clijsters announced her return to the tennis circuit Thursday after two years in retirement.
“The hunger is back,” the 25-year-old Belgian said. “I look forward to the challenge.”
Clijsters, who retired in May 2007 to get married and start a family, announced her comeback at the tennis facility in Bree, Belgium, where she has been practicing recently.
She said she has already requested wild cards for hard-court tournaments in Cincinnati and Toronto in August and the U.S. Open.
“I want to be back at my peak as soon as possible, but I know that is not logical to ask that,” Clijsters said. “I will have to take it match by match.”
Clijsters won the 2005 U.S. Open for her only Grand Slam title. She won 34 career titles overall and was runner-up at four majors.
Rising to the top at the same time as another Belgian who retired early, Justine Henin, Clijsters held the No. 1 singles ranking for 19 weeks.
Her career was marred by a series of injuries, including to her hip and back.
Clijsters, who gave birth to a daughter last year, returns at a time when the WTA tour is wide open and without a single player dominating the rankings.
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Mar
09
Dokic moves forward.
Yesteday’s win by Jelena Dokic may not propell her into the forefront of the Women’s tour, but it was a significant step forward for her. Her opponent, Edina Gallovits is ranked 14 spots higher than Jelena, and is considered to be an up and coming future star on the rise. Coupled with her fine showing by winning 6-3, 7-6, Jelena proved that her training is paying off. Next up is Carline Wozniacki, a player just outside the top ten who is young and also on the rise.
Who is Gallovits?…..
Romanian tennis clay court specialist Edina Gallovits first cracked the top 100 in 2007 and has remained there ever since.
Gallovits achieved a career-high ranking of No.54 in April 2008 and now stands at No.66 in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings.
In January she equalled her best Grand Slam performance by reaching the second round at the Aussie Open and has been enjoying a successful season since then.
At the start of the year Gallovits reached the quarter-final in Auckland, defeating No.3 seed Anabel Medina Garrigues en route. Following that she reached the semi-final at Bogota, eventually losing out to Argentine Gisela Dulko.
The Romanian star has since then had two first round losses at Acapulco and Monterrey, but was evidently motivated by these two losses at the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden where she overcame Russian world No.37 Maria Kirilenko 3-6, 7-5, 7-5.
Gallovits was extremely successful as a junior reaching a career-high world ranking of No.7, in addition to making the final of the prestigious Orange Bowl Championships.
The 23 year-old started playing tennis aged four with her sports mad parents; her mother is a handball coach while her father is a sports teacher.
Edina’s goal is to reach the top 10 so perhaps with her recent successes and with the clay court season around the corner she can do it.
25
Mar
09
Verdasco’s new squeeze.
She’s supposedly Joe Jonas’s girlfriend, but there’s widespread speculation over whether or not Camilla Belle has been exploring other options in her dating life.
Last week, the “When a Stranger Calls” cutie was spotted looking awfully friendly with Spanish tennis ace Fernando Verdasco at the ATP Tournament of Indian Wells.
25
Mar
09
sharapova’s other interest.
Is tennis ace Maria Sharapova’s absence from the tennis circuit due to romance not injury?
The 6ft 2in former Wimbledon champion and world number one no longer obeys her father Yuri and is devoting all her attention to a mystery man.
This is what is claimed by Dzhamal Chakvetadze, father of another Russian tennis player Anna Chakvetadze.
“Maria’s mind is just not set on tennis these days, it’s all set on love,” he told a Moscow newspaper. “I talked to her father Yuri several days ago.
“He’s upset. He’s lost all his influence on his daughter. Maria doesn’t listen to him any more. She is in the middle of a love affair and doesn’t need anyone except for this guy. I understand Yuri’s feelings very well since I have my own daughter of about the same age.”
Last year Sharapova, 21, was linked to American Charlie Ebersol, son of Dick Ebersol, US TV channel NBC Sport’s chairman and president. The dude in these pictures is not Ebersol, but he does appear to be about 6′ 6″ tall, who ever he is.
Sharapova missed the Australian Open apparently due to the recurrence of a shoulder injury. She was also absent from Russia’s national team clash against China at the weekend.
Russian tennis captain Shamil Tarpischev says: “She’ll be back when she wants to.”
25
Mar
09
murray will play at queens club
Andy Murray has already won 10 high-level tournaments in his short career but he craves a first title in Britain and wants to make it happen before launching his Wimbledon challenge this summer.
The world number four has confirmed his entry for the AEGON Championship at Queen’s Club, which runs from June 8-14, and is hoping to dethrone last year’s champion, Rafael Nadal, who went on to triumph at Wimbledon.
“Grass is a good surface for me and obviously it would mean a lot to me to win a tournament at home,” said the 21-year-old Scot.
“All the guys that have played well at Queen’s tend to have gone on to do well at Wimbledon, so it’s a good marker to see where your game is at.
“The tournament has got an unbelievable history and all the guys use it as pretty much the perfect preparation for Wimbledon. I think this year I’ve got a good chance of doing well.”
Murray reached the quarter-finals at Queen’s Club last year before an injured thumb ended his campaign.
He is aware of Tim Henman’s impressive record at the tournament, with the former British number one having been a runner-up on three occasions, losing to Pete Sampras and then Lleyton Hewitt twice.
Although all his singles titles and his most impressive performances have come abroad, most notably his run to last year’s US Open final, Murray wants to put on a performance in front of a home crowd.
He said: “I really enjoy playing on grass – it’s a different sort of challenge to the rest of the year. We play so much on hard courts and clay that it’s nice to have a change of scenery on the tennis court.
“I go in with the same attitude to all of the tournaments; I want to try to win them.”
Three-time former Sony Ericsson Open semifinalist Lleyton Hewitt highlights the start of main draw action on Wednesday. The former World No. 1 and two-time Grand Slam champion takes a 1-0 career lead into his first round clash with Israeli lucky loser Dudi Sela in the first match of the evening session, beginning not before 7:00pm local time.
Indian wild card Sania Mirza features in the second match of the evening session as she looks to advance to the second round in Miami for the first time when she takes on France’s Mathilde Johansson.
Fan favorite Marcos Baghdatis opens his campaign against Latvian Ernests Gulbis in the second match on Stadium. The Cypriot takes a career 3-0 lead over Gulbis into the encounter.
Another player on the comeback trail – Australian wild card Jelena Dokic – features in the fourth match on Court 2 against Romania’s Edina Gallovits. The 25-year-old Dokic, who lit up this year’s Australian Open with a run through to the quarterfinals (l. to Safina), reached the quarterfinals in Miami in 2001 (l. to V. Williams) and 2003 (l. to Clijsters).
24
Mar
09
ana and rafa play a round.
24
Mar
09
Dokic will try again in Miami.
Jelena Dokic will try again in Miami. Since her winning week at the Aussie Open Jelena has not done well. After recording 4 great victories and making it all the way to the quarter final, she has failed to record a victory in either of the two WTA tournaments she has entered. She has been awarded another wildcard entry to the Sony Ericsson in Miami where she will face Edina Gallovitis of Romania in the first round. If she manages to win this match she will go on to face Caroline Wozniacki in the second round. Wozniacki was one of the players she beat in Australia, but she also lost to her in the first round in Memphis. Last week at Indian Wells she also lost in a first round match to Jill Craybus.
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