The Virginia Slims series began 40 years ago today. The first women to break away and sign up for the series were ostracized by many male players they thought were their friends. Women getting paid real money to play tennis?! One of my favorite stories about this difficult period is told by Billie Jean King: Tennis umpires would not have anything to do with the series at first, so the women hired baseball umpires, who--when they called faults--would yell "foul ball!"
Maria Sharapova has turned down a wild card to play in Sydney. The wild cards have been given to Anastasia Rodionova and Jelena Dokic.
The Hong Kong Classic is in progress. So far, Aravane Rezai defeated Zhang Shuai, Maria Kirilenko defeated Melanie Oudin, Vera Zvonareva defeated Venus Williams, and Caroline Wozniacki defeated Li Na.
Caroline Wozniacki is not the only Sunshine on a cloudy day.
Simon Reed says that Elena Baltacha can break into the top 50 this year, and--if she stays injury-free--may break into the top 40.
Serbia is into the Hopman Cup final, but lost 1-2 to Belgium in the last rubber.
Kim Clijsters, who has repeatedly said that 2011 will probably be her last full season, now says she may play another four years. How long she stays, in my opinion, will probably have to do more with her injury status than anything else.
I think Clijsters also talked about playing until her daughter has to go to school.
ReplyDeleteThat's what she's saying now, yes, but it was quite recently that she repeated her intention for this to be her last season. I don't think she really knows, nor should she be expected to know.
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