Thursday, January 14, 2010

Miscellany

Sam Stosur fans--brace yourselves. Stosur says she is having trouble dealing with her 2009 success, something you may have already guessed. "I have to really remember that I am a good player," she said after her latest defeat, in Sydney. Stosur has confirmed that expectation "is a new thing for me at the moment. Unfortunately, I'm not handling it quite (as) well."
(Thanks to Forty Deuce for this story.)

Sania Mirza says she is going to retire from professional tennis when she gets married, but that her marriage to Sohrab Mirza is "still some time away."

Maria Sharapova has signed an 8-year deal with Nike that is worth $70 million.

Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin will not get special seedings at the Australian Open.

Serena Williams wants to know: How is it an earthquake can happen in Haiti?"

In case you're wondering what happened to the 2010 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Guide: It's available online and can also be downloaded in PDF form.

7 comments:

Sunny said...

Diane,
Thanks for the heads up on the Official Guide. I would still like it in book form. Sometimes during matches a book is easier to grab. Also that link took me to some match facts that I had been looking for. Just as with Notes and Netcords, the match facts and other items were relegated to the bottom of the page in small print-Press Center. If you click the actual words "press center" you can get some stats. I don't know why they don't show this up on the menu bar. I think you and I discussed the lack of stats before in an e-mail, so wanted you to know.

Sunny said...

I don't even know why they even bother to have a special seeding rule. I have only seen it used in Grand Slams a couple of times at Wimbledon on the men's side. I also didn't understand the tournament director's(?) reason for not changing them at the Aussie Open.

Diane said...

I agree. If tournaments aren't going to use the special seeding option, they should get rid of it. And I'm not sure why the use of special seeding is intimidating to the Australian Open officials. Perhaps because there are two of them?

Overhead Spin said...

Why do you ladies think that either of these players should get a special seeding? Does it have to do with their past? If so, the same argument could be made in 2007 when Serena was coming back from injury and was unseeded, even though she was a 2 time champion of the event. Look at Venus and Wimbledon. I think she has only received a special seeding once and last season they gave Sharapova a special seeding, even though she really did not deserve it. 1 championship and 2 semis do not in my view warrant a special seeding. In addition, Justine has only won the AO once in her career and Kim has never won it. I dont even think she has ever been to a final so not sure why either of them would deserve a special seeding.

Diane said...

Karen, I didn't say I thought Kim or Justine should get a special seeding--sorry to so imply. Frankly, I haven't even thought about it. I was just acknowledging Sunny's statement that it seems pointless to have special seedings if they are never used, and wondering out loud why the Australian officials used apparent fear as a reason not to grant a special seed.

Anonymous said...

Patty isn't in the draw, did she pull out because of injury?

Diane said...

I believe she's still having trouble with her foot.