Wednesday, October 28, 2009
WORLD NEWS
U.S. Fed Cup Team Announced
The USTA announced that Serena Williams will lead the U.S. Fed Cup team including Liezel Huber, Melanie Oudin and Alexa Glatch when it meets Italy in the Fed Cup Final which will be contested in Reggio Calabria, Italy, on November 7-8.
The best-of-five rubber tie begins on Saturday, November 7 with two singles rubbers and is followed by two reverse singles rubbers and the doubles rubber on Sunday, November 8. Tennis Channel will present daily live coverage beginning at 5:00 a.m. ET on Saturday and Sunday.
The U.S. is undefeated against Italy in Fed Cup competition, having won all nine previous meetings between the two countries. The U.S. won the last meeting between the two nations in 2003 in the quarterfinal tie in Washington, D.C., as Chanda Rubin and Meghann Shaughnessy each won two singles matches to lead the U.S. to a 5-0 victory. The U.S. and Italy have never met in a Fed Cup final.
The Italian team announcement is expected shortly.
***
The Field is Set for the Bali Tournament of Champions
Former Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli, Australian number one Samantha Stosur and US Open semi-finalist Yanina Wickmayer top the list of entries for the inaugural Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali next week. In addition, wild cards have been given to Germany’s Sabine Lisicki and Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan.
The $600,000 event is open to the top 10-ranked players who have claimed at least one of the 30 International Series events on the WTA Tour during 2009 and are not competing in the WTA Championships in Doha. Matches take place November 4-8.
WTA Tour rules forbid players competing in both the Sony Ericsson Championships and Bali, even though they might qualify for both. Those players include Venus Williams, Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva and Caroline Wozniacki. Alternates in Doha have the option of playing in Bali, but both Vera Zvonareva (who qualified for Bali by winning Pattaya City) and Agnieszka Radwanska declined the opportunity.
Those players competing in doubles in Doha and who have qualified in singles for Bali are allowed to play, and two will do so - Samantha Stosur and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.
Not surprisingly as the tournament is held in Asia and Bali attracts many Japanese tourists, one of the wild cards has gone to Kimiko Date Krumm, who qualified by winning Seoul but whose ranking was too low to allow her to participate. Lisicki has attracted a lot of attention this year and is considered to be the best German player since Steffi Graf, and she only just failed to qualify when she lost last week’s Luxembourg final.
The full list of participants and the International Series events they won is:
Marion Bartoli - Monterrey - ranked 12
Samantha Stosur - Osaka - 13
Yanina Wickmayer - Estoril, Linz - 19
Anabel Medina Garrigues - Fes - 27
Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez - Bogota, Bastad - 31
Shahar Peer - Guangzhou, Tashkent - 32
Melinda Czink - Quebec - 39
Agnes Szavay - Budapest - 42
Aravane Rezai - Strasbourg - 44
Magdalena Rybarikova - Birmingham - 46
Sabine Lisicki - 25 - wild card
Kimiko Date Krumm - Seoul - 100 - wild card
Vera Dushevina - Istanbul - 49 - Alternate
***
Pe’er Avoids International Crisis
Shahar Pe’er, the Israeli player who became the center of an international diplomatic crisis eight months ago when she was prevented from entering the United Arab Emirates to contest the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, has been caught in the midst of a similar issue after qualifying for next week’s Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali.
Indonesia boasts the world’s largest population of Muslims and has no diplomatic relations with Israel. The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, still mindful of February’s events in Dubai and the subsequent $US300,000 fine handed to the organizers, were determined there would be no repeat.
WTA Tour rules state that no host country can deny a player the right to compete at any event on the tour for which she has qualified by ranking but there was a distinct reluctance from the Indonesians to allow Pe’er entry.
Stacey Allaster, the WTA Tour’s chief executive officer was alerted to the situation and made it clear to the Indonesian government that the event would be cancelled if Pe’er, who qualified by virtue of winning back to back titles last month in China at the Guangzhou International Open and then the Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan, was denied entry.
The threat was sufficient and Pe’er was given the all clear to play the new event set up for ten women’s players who have won at least one International Series tournament during the year and who are not participating in singles at the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha.
"I'm happy this issue has been settled and that I can play in Bali," Pe'er said. "I'm looking forward to this event and I'm especially pleased with the fact that the Dubai scandal did not repeat itself."
***
Jankovic Ready to Work Her Way Back to the Top of the Tour
Jelena Jankovic has always been a person who enjoys her vacations but the time for rest and recuperation at the end of a disappointing tennis year that has seen her slip from world no.1 to a distant also ran will be cut short as the Serb desperately tries to recapture her form.
Jankovic was the last of the world’s leading eight singles player to qualify for the year ending Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships in Doha and she began her campaign with a lacklustre straight sets defeat against debutante Victoria Azarenka.
A mixture of despondency and disgust was Jankovic’s mood and in a couple of weeks she will be heading to Florida for concerted hard work in a bid to ensure 2010 does not see her fall further off the pace at the top of the women’s game.
"I will have to do a lot of work in the off-season to get back to my level and get to the top,” said Jankovic That's all I know. There is really a lot of work to be done. I know that I have to make some changes and I have to improve my game because what you have seen today, really, I gave the match away."
Last year Jankovic finished the world no.1 after rising to no.3 in 2007 but this year it seems she will have to be content with eighth place. She has failed to progress beyond the fourth round at any of the majors and after reaching the 2008 US Open final, lost in the second round at Flushing Meadows this time.
She has been hit with personal problems as well as physical issues, but she said: "I just have to try to clean my game. I need to get back to playing good points, hitting the ball, being aggressive, really cutting down all the errors, serve much better, return much better.”
***
Ivanovic is Facing the Climb Back to the Top of the Tour
A few years ago Jelena Jankovic was on the bottom of her career, she lost ten matches in a row, mused about quitting tennis, but bounced back and reached #1 after. Her Serbian fellow Ana Ivanovic is now in a similar situation, there is a string of losses and a drop to #22 behind the former Roland Garros champion.
“I really understand how it is to be down and to not do well”, said Jelena in Doha where she is playing in the WTA Championships. “To come out of this as a champion, it's I think a good achievement, no matter what your ranking is. But to overcome those obstacles and to become a better player, I think it makes you much stronger as a person and as a player as well. So if you can do that, I think it can be a plus, it can be a positive thing. If you go through all of that, you come out, I think in the future you can be much, much better than what you were before you went into those, let's say, crises.”
Jelena is not familiar with Ana’s plans to get back to the top.
“No, unfortunately not. She has her own team. She tries her best. It's hard. We are athletes. You cannot always expect to be on the top of the game. Our years are long on the Tour. We are not playing like some of the other sports where we play for few months and then we have few months off. Our year is very, very long. Even though we try to always play your best tennis, always give good results and do well in the events... So some years are better than others. That's the part of the sport, as well, part of life. We have a lot of ups and downs, not just in tennis, in many other aspects in life. Just it's important to be positive and to always learn, keep learning until you die.”
She is aware how much tougher will be next year because of return of Belgian champions Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters.
“You know, it's surprising not because they are coming to play, it's because when you say that you retire, that you don't want to play any more, then after two years you come back again and you want to compete. But they are great for the sport. Both of them, they're unbelievable athletes. I remember from playing, you know, a couple years ago against them, I was young, but I had really so exciting matches against both of them. They motivated me to work hard and to become a better player.”
***
Staying in Doha This Week is a Treat
Life can be pretty good if you’re a top-ranked player on the WTA Tour. If you’re also playing at the year-end Championships then you’re treated like royalty. And that also applies to the often-forgotten doubles players. Liezel Huber is in Doha competing with Cara Black and she’s loving it, as she reveals in her blog for the WTA. It helps that her husband, Tony, is there for them to share experience, and some memories.
"We are staying at the Ritz Carlton! Probably the nicest hotel we stay at during the whole year. The Championships provide us with two free rooms. On Tour we get a hotel room while we are still in. It's awesome getting my coach's room free this week! We really are spoilt here. The rooms are amazing. Ours is a suite with two balconies.
"The first time we came to Doha was in 2001. How I remember, we got married in February 2000 and we had our first anniversary here. My husband was so sweet and bought me 24 red roses! Good memories in Doha. Tonight when we drove from the airport, we could barely see the Sheraton hotel. Eight years ago it was a landmark and you could see it from afar. It shows how much development has been going on here. I love Doha and look forward to another exciting week!"
***
Navratilova Added to Field at 20th Annual Chris Evert Event
Martina Navratilova has signed on to appear at the 20th annual Chris Evert/Raymond James Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic, set for Nov. 7 and 8 at the Delray Beach Tennis Center in Delray Beach, Fla.
Additionally, Pam Shriver, who teamed with Navratilova to win the Grand Slam of Doubles three times, will be at the event, attending the annual Gala and Dinner Dance on Saturday, Nov. 7 and providing television commentary for the ESPN telecast of the event.
Along with Chris Evert, Navratilova and Shriver, the tennis legends and standouts scheduled to appear this year include former #1 players Lindsay Davenport and Monica Seles, Justin Gimelstob and Vince Spadea. They will be joined by film and television stars Jeffrey Donovan, Elisabeth Shue, Jon Lovitz, Kris Jenner and Maeve Quinlan, Today show host Matt Lauer, musician Gavin Rossdale, Olympic Gold Medalist Bruce Jenner and Fox & Friends hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade.
Tennis Hall of Famer Bud Collins will emcee the weekend’s events.
***
We Hear---
--that a British newspaper is running a serialization of Andre Agassi’s about-to-be-published book, Open: An Autobiography, where he admits using a recreational drug in 1997 and lying to the ATP so as to be able to keep playing on the tour.
--that Li Na has confirmed that she will compete at January’s ASB Classic in Auckland, the first time she will have played in New Zealand. She joins 2009 runner-up Elena Vesnina and top doubles team Cara Black and Liezel Huber.
***
THIS WEEK
MEN
Lyon
St. Petersburg
Vienna
WOMEN
Doha
***
NEXT WEEK
MEN
Basel
Valencia
WOMEN
Bali
Fed Cup Finals USA at Italy
***
Bob Larson’s Stock Report
Tuesday Stock Prices
Stock
Last
Change
Adidas
24.70
-.30
Amer Sports
7.10
0.00
Head
0.91
0.00
K-Swiss
8.69
-.50
Nike
64.09
+.34
Bob Larson Tennis Stock Index $105.49
* The index is based on the total value of one share of each stock we report daily.
***
Results
For complete ATP and WTA results, please see our web site at www.tennisnews.com
Bob Larson - Publisher
Cort Larson - Editor
Bob Larson's Daily Tennis is published
Monday through Friday except Holidays
Monday and Thursday in November and December.
Delivery via e-mail to all countries
Subscription rates are; $97USD a year,
$57USD for Six months, $37USD for Three months.
Bob Larson Tennis
P.O. Box 24256
Edina, MN 55424 USA
952-920-8947 (voice) or 952-920-8940 (fax)
E-mail address bob@tennisnews.com
Visit our website at: www.tennisnews.com
(c) Copyright 2009. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis
Subscribe