Friday, August 21, 2009
BUSINESS NEWS
US Open Women’s Singles Wild Card Recipients Announced
The USTA announced the names of players that have been awarded women’s singles main draw wild cards for this year’s US Open.
Gail Brodksy (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Mallory Cecil (Spartanburg, S.C.), Alexa Glatch (Newport Beach, Calif.), Vania King (Long Beach, Calif.), Christina McHale (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Kristina Mladenovic (France) and Olivia Rogowska (Australia) will join former US Open Champion Kim Clijsters (Belgium) as main draw wild cards at the 2009 US Open Tennis Championships, which will be played August 31 – September 13 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.
Brodsky, 18, of Brooklyn, N.Y., is receiving a wild card for the second straight year; she earned a wild card last year with her victory at the 2008 USTA Girls’ 18s National Championships (she finished third at this year’s event).
Cecil, 19, of Spartanburg, S.C., won the 2009 NCAA singles title as a freshman at Duke University. She also helped lead the Blue Devils to the 2009 NCAA team title and was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Player of the Year.
Clijsters, 26, of Belgium, returned to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour this month after a two-year retirement.
Glatch, 19, of Newport Beach, Calif., is currently ranked a career-high No. 102. She made her debut for the U.S. Fed Cup team in April and won both of her singles rubbers to help propel the U.S. to the Fed Cup final for the first time since 2003.
King, 20, of Long Beach, Calif. is currently ranked No. 123, and has played in the US Open main draw in each of the last four years. King has won seven Sony Ericsson WTA Tour doubles titles and reached the mixed doubles final at the French Open earlier this year.
A full-time resident at the USTA Training Center Headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla., McHale, 17, of Englewood Cliffs, N.J., earned her wild card by winning the 2009 USTA Girls’ 18s National Championship last weekend in Berkeley, Calif., where she also won the doubles title. McHale also earned a wild card into the 2009 Australian Open by winning a USTA wild card playoff.
Mladenovic, 16, of France, is currently the No. 1 player in the ITF World Junior Rankings. She received her wild card through a reciprocal agreement with the French Tennis Federation, which gave a 2009 French Open wild card to the USTA that was awarded to Lauren Embree. Madenovic won the girls’ singles title at Roland Garros this year, and reached the girls’ singles and doubles finals at Wimbledon.
Rogowska, 18, of Australia, is currently ranked No. 167 and received her wild card through a reciprocal agreement with Tennis Australia, which will give a 2010 Australian Open wild card to a player selected by the USTA. Rogowska has competed in the main draws of the 2009 Australian and French Opens.
In addition to the eight US Open women’s singles main draw wild cards, the USTA also announced the nine women who have been awarded wild card entries into the US Open Qualifying Tournament, which will be held August 25-28 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Players receiving US Open qualifying wild cards are: Kristie Ahn (17, Upper Saddle River, N.J.), USTA Girls’ 18s runner-up Lauren Embree (18, Marco Island, Fla.), Irina Falconi (19, Jupiter, Fla.), Nicole Gibbs (16, Manhattan Beach, Calif.), Asia Muhammad (18, Henderson, Nev.), Alison Riske (19, McMurray, Pa.), Laura Robson (15, Great Britain), Sloane Stephens (16, San Pedro, Calif.) and reigning US Open girls’ singles champion Coco Vandeweghe (17, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.)
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Russian Tennis Players to Play for Azerbaijan?
Russian tennis players who are not able to qualify into the Russian national team, could perform for any former Soviet country or overseas, sources in the Russian Tennis Federation have reported.
According to Russian press recently Azerbaijan and some others CIS countries have expressed great interest in “obtaining” some of the Russian players.
The head of Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpischev supports this idea which he again confirmed during his recent arrival to the capital of Azerbaijan Baku.
For the last ten years a lot of Russian tennis players decided to play for foreign countries. For example, such tennis players as Yaroslava Shvedova, Galina Voskoboeva, Andrey Golubev, Yury Shchukin and Mikhail Kukushkin decided to play for Kazakhstan while others for New Zealand, and Australia.
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Woodbridge has Taken to his New Assignment for Tennis Australia
Todd Woodbridge has recently taken on not only the role of Davis Cup captain for Australia, but the task of overseeing player development. It might be paying dividends already, as Chris Guccione reached an encouraging third round of the Cincinnati Masters with a fine win over seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Although he has done well on home soil, reaching the final in both Sydney and Adelaide, the Victorian has struggled to repeat that success elsewhere.
As part of his new role, former doubles great and Wimbledon singles semifinalist Woodbridge has been advising Guccione and speaking with him by phone. "His results this year hadn't been great up until Wimbledon, but I actually think he's taken a good, hard look at himself," Woodbridge told Melbourne’s The Age. "I think he decided to be more responsible for his own actions, and go out there and become more of an adult, make some hard decisions and try not to rely on a system, or people, and I think that was important for him."
The 24-year old, who fell in the third round in Cincinnati to Tomas Berdych, has received a wild card into the US Open.
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Ivanovic has Eliminated her Advisory Staff
A season without a title left Ana Ivanovic not only out of top ten, but also decimated her entourage. Last to go was Scott Byrnes, her strength and conditioning coach.
“You know, working with someone three years it's a long time. He was coming from Australia and we spent a lot of time together because he wasn't going back that often. It just gets to a point when you stop maybe learning from each other and stop improving. It's best to take some break. It was just, I think, best for both of us to have some break and some fresh opinions,” explained Ana departure of a man credited to forge her #1 fitness.
But, there are more missing people. With loss of big titles and big checks Ivanovic cannot bring so big entourage all over the world.
“You know, you get used to being around. So now I'm actually traveling with my mom mostly, and before I used to have four or five people. So I'm like, where has everyone gone? No, I feel really good, because this also made me realize more things on my own, what I'm doing and what helps me to play good, these kind of things, rather than relying on people telling me certain things. I think it's a learning process, and it made me also a lot more mature,”
Ivanovic had dropped from #1 to #11 in less then a year, but she is not planning hiring new coaches.
“At the moment I think my fitness is at a pretty good level, and a lot of fitness comes from practicing and from intense tennis sessions. That's what I need in order to play well anyway. So just focus on that and then do a lot of just stretching and recovery off the court and prevent little injuries that I had. In a couple week's, month's time, I'm going to look into that again, having a full time coach for preparation, obviously, for next year.”
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Russian Tennis Stars Cannot Train in Russia
Russia still does not have acceptable conditions for the preparing of professional tennis players within the country, believes the majority of Russian sport analysts.
Despite the rapid development of tennis in the country, observed in recent years, almost all major Russian tennis players do not consider Russia as a residence for their training and preparation for competitions.
Despite considerable investment in Russia's tennis being made in recent years, the country still does not have its own quality infrastructure and conditions for professional athletes training. That’s why most Russian tennis stars today prefer to train in Europe, with the exception of Maria Sharapova who currently lives and trains in the United States.
“There are a lot of problems in Russian tennis right now,” says one of the leading Russian tennis experts, Alexey Nikolayev, “and lack of infrastructure is only one of them. If we would like to keep our talents we need to export them abroad. Currently it is the only formula that gives the result.”
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Williams to be Honored for Speaking Up
One of the most enduring images of tennis in 2009 was that of Venus Williams taking centre stage at the presentation ceremony after winning the women’s title at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, staring up into the mass of dignitaries gathered to watch the tournament’s climax and admonishing the government of the United Arab Emirates for refusing Israel’s Shahar Peer the requisite visa to contest the event.
It has been a week when international politics had taken precedence over sport and there was a need for somebody from the playing fraternity to take a lead. Williams proved herself to be just that person and now she will be honored with the Anti-Defamation League’s Americanism Award.
The ADL National Director’s, Abraham H. Foxman will present the award next Tuesday (August 25) at the League’s Headquarters on Third Avenue in Manhattan, New York in recognition of Venus’ commitment to democratic values and for standing up for equality and fair treatment for all.
At the time the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s former chief executive Larry Scott and tennis icon Billie Jean King both praised Venus for her brave stand. The tournament’s organisers were subsequently hit with a record $US 300,000 fine and told to post a $2,000,000 guarantee to ensure various conditions of entry were met for the 2010 tournament. The following week Israeli player Andy Ram was allowed to enter the UAE to contest the men’s event.
“I wasn’t out there to rock the boat or upset anyone,” said Williams. “I just believe in trying to do what’s right and to represent what’s right. I thought Shahar had to be mentioned and I felt I was going to, whether anyone else did or not. I had the opportunity because I had the microphone. I thought how brave she (Peer) was to come over here, to play the event in Doha (last year), and suddenly here not be allowed to in Dubai.”
Venus maintained the experiences of Althea Gibson, who overcame discrimination and exclusion to become Wimbledon's first black champion more than half a century earlier, influenced her thinking. "I thought of Althea who was excluded," she added. "She played and I thought of people who stood up and played with her when no-one else would.
"My dad grew up in a place where if you spoke too much, it was your life. I had a small opportunity to say something where everyone would listen.”
The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 "to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all." Now the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency, ADL fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects civil rights for all.”
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Wild Cards Granted for New Haven
World no.10 Fernando Verdasco, former top tenner Marcos Baghdatis and the 121st ranked American Rajeev Ram have all been awarded wild card entries into next week’s Pilot Pen tennis tournament in New Haven.
But John Isner, the American who earlier this week rose 20 places on the ATP World Tour rankings to a career spot of No. 55, withdrew his wild card request due to heat exhaustion after being forced to retire from the this week’s Western and Southern Financial Group Masters tournament in Cincinnati
Verdasco, the Australian Open semi-finalist in January, will be making his fifth appearance at the Pilot Pen, where he reached the semifinals last year and the quarters in 2005 and 2007. But the Spaniard was amongst the early exits from Cincinnati and after reaching the quarter finals on American hard courts in Indian Wells and Miami earlier this year, has struggled to find his form so far this summer.
Baghdatis, world no.8 in 2006 after reaching the Australian Open final, has struggled with injuries over the last couple of years and missed Wimbledon after suffering a painful wrench to his knee at s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands. However, distinct signs of recovery appeared as he won this month’s Challenger event in Vancouver, beating Belgium’s Xavier Malisse in the final.
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Federer is Up to The Challenge of His New Life
Trying to balance being the best player in the world with striving to be the best father in the world isn’t an easy task. And Roger Federer has revealed on the ATP World Tour website that he has received encouragement on how to deal with the challenge from another world No.1 - his good friend Tiger Woods.
"Well, it's hard, but it isn’t impossible. You’ll love it," said Woods, also a father of two.
"I haven't felt any impact yet," Federer admitted, after becoming the father of twins last month. "I’ve been sleeping enough. It's not been bad like I sort of expected. But things have changed in a good way. I love my life now. I'm happy Mirka could join me (in Cincinnati) with Myla and Charlene as well. It's been a lot of fun outside of the tennis grounds, let's say."
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Stosur Explains Why She Wears Sunglasses on Court
Samantha Stosur is enjoying the most successful period of her career, so it is no surprise that she was invited to write about her experiences while playing in Toronto for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour website. One thing she addressed was why she wears sunglasses during her matches. Surely it makes it more difficult to see the ball clearly. Apparently not.
"I've heard some people wonder about me wearing shades when I play," she wrote. "I'm one of the few out there who does it. I think it helps. I started to wear them when I was 14, so I'm very used to them. Back then I just wore them 'cause I thought it was cool, but now I think it does help. Everyone hates having to serve into the sun or deal with the glare on the hardcourts, so wearing my Oakley’s just helps that little bit. My lenses aren't too dark though, so it pretty much looks the same through them, minus the glare, and maybe when I'm older I won't have so many wrinkles from squinting my whole life."
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We Hear---
--that Israel’s Tzipora Obziler has announced her retirement at the age of 36. During her modest 21-year career she won 14 ITF titles, reached one final on the WTA Tour (Guangzhou 2007), earned almost $600,000 and reached a career-high ranking of 75 a little over two years ago. Despite her decision to quit the Tour she has left the window open to represent her country in further Fed Cup ties.
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THIS WEEK
MEN
Cincinnati
WOMEN
Toronto
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NEXT WEEK
MEN
New Haven
WOMEN
New Haven
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