Victoria Azarenka has qualified as the final woman to play in the WTA Championships, which begin on Doha on October 27. (Not to put too fine a point on it, but the alternate should be practicing seriously.)
The New Haven tournament has been saved, but in the future, it will be a women's only event. Unlike many, I consider this a good thing. Now that Pilot Pen is gone, there will be no main sponsor; the sponsorship will be shared by several entities, including Yale University, Aetna and American Express. The tournament has been re-named the New Haven Open.
Yanina Wickmayer has received a Fed Cup Heart Award.
Rebecca Marino and Alison Riske have been grabbing ITF titles right and left. Marino is now Canada's number 1 player.
As previously mentioned by a reader of this blog, Svetlana Kuznetsova's relationship with coach Loic Courteau has ended after only two months. Courteau did not want to go to Moscow to train with Kuznetsova during the off-season. Don't you sort these things out before your hire someone?
Miscellany:
ReplyDelete"the alternate should be practicing seriously"
The alternate for Doha is Li Na who is often injured. Is there a second alternate just in case? Dementieva went out at Luxembourg with an inflamed foot. So will Doha borrow from the Bali field? It seems like they are holding out on the Bali field until they know who is healthy for Doha. What a year!
Kuznetsova has been having a lot of trouble with coaches lately. I wish I knew what is wrong with such a talent. I guess we will see if this "one year on, one year off" pattern developing lately will continue next year.
I believe there is a second alternate, Sunny--I thought about that, too.
ReplyDeleteI guess the Doha tournament could borrow from the Bali field, but it wouldn't be fair to make them alternates. That's what comes of having the "also ran" tournament.