In her Doha blog, Liezel Huber hints that big changes are in store for doubles teams next season. Of course, that really wouldn't be anything new--for various reasons, many players change doubles partners quite a bit. A few players have consistent partners, and some--like Gisela Dulko--have more than one partner, and rotate, depending on the tournament.
Huber says that she will remain with Cara Black, and I think we all know that the Williams sisters will also remain a team. Katarina Srebotnik lost her partner, Ai Sugiyama, to retirement, and will play with Kveta Peschke next season. Peschke has been out for a long time with injury (like Srebotnik, until recently), so her 2009 partner, Lisa Raymond, has done without her for the past several tournaments. It is unknown right now who Raymond's new partner is; she has not revealed the name, as far as I know.
Will Sam Stosur and Rennae Stubbs continue to play together? They were supposed to have been a team for the 2009 Australian season only, but they stayed together for the year, and did well. Alicia Molik is back in the mix, too. She did well in the past with Svetlana Kuznetsova, who has been playing doubles only at major tournaments, and always with Amelie Mauresmo. Right now, Mauresmo's plans are unknown.
One can safely predict that Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez will stay together, and--if Virginia Ruano Pascual continues to play--that she and Anabel Medina Garrigues will stay together. Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Patty Schnyder did well this year, as did Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Nadia Petrova, but there is no word as to whether these teams will compete next season.
I miss the team of Chan Yung-Jan and Chuang Chia-Jung. Yan Zi and Zheng Jie, though still together, have faded from the spotlight for various reasons, and I haven't heard whether they will be playing together next season.
3 comments:
Raymond and Chuang played together a bit at the end of the season. Considering they won a title together in Osaka, maybe they'll team up in 2010.
I thought about that, but Raymond is hinting that her new partner is someone with more of a singles reputation. I don't know why there is often such secrecy surrounding these announcements.
Stubbsy has announced who her new dubs partner is for 2010, starting at Sydney and continuing for the year. Go to the Australian Open's official Facebook page and follow the link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/AustralianOpen?ref=ts
Post a Comment