10th seed Agnieszka Radwanska, 11th seed Marion Bartoli, 12th seed Flavia Pennetta, 13th seed Alize Cornet, and 14th seed Anabel Medina Garrigues have all been defeated in the first round in Madrid--by Samantha Stosur, Aleksandra Wozniak, Agnes Szavay, Elena Vesnina, and Vera Dushevina, respectively.
Medina Garrigues, a clay specialist, was upset in the first round in Rome last week by Anna Chakvetadze. The week before that, she won the championship in Fes.
It was a bad day for the Spanish today. Lourdes Dominguez Lino won her first round match against Akgul Amanmuradova, but other Spaniards were not so lucky. The highest-ranked Spanish woman, Medina Gagrrigues, went out, as previously stated, but she had some company. Carla Suarez Navarro and Nuria Llagostera Vives were also defeated. Yesterday, Silvia Soler Espinosa lost her match.
Some people may be confused about which players received byes in the Madrid tournament: The only players getting byes were the semifinalists from Rome.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Hsieh and Peng win Rome doubles title
Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai, who won the 2008 Bali title and the 2009 Sydney title, won the Internazionali BNL d'Italia doubles championship today. Hsieh and Peng defeated Daniela Hantuchova and Ai Sugiyama 7-5, 7-6.
Wickmeyer wins the Estoril Open
Depending on how you want to look at it, it's been either a terrible or a very good two weeks for Ekaterina Makarova. Losing in the Fes final to Anabel Medina Garrigues last week, today she lost in the Estoril final, to Yanina Wickmeyer. Wickmayer claimed her first tour title by defeating Makarova 7-5, 6-2. On her way to the final, the 6th seed defeated Petra Kvitova, Olga Govortsova and Sorana Cirstea, and received a retirement from Shahar Peer.
The 2009 doubles champions are Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears, who defeated Sharon Fichman and Katalin Morosi, 2-6, 6-3, 10-5. It is their first tour doubles title as a team.
The 2009 doubles champions are Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears, who defeated Sharon Fichman and Katalin Morosi, 2-6, 6-3, 10-5. It is their first tour doubles title as a team.
Safina wins Rome, and makes it look easy
There was no Thrill Ride today. Instead, the Dinara Safina who the world number 1 claims is the real one showed up for the Internazionali BNL d'Italia final. Aggressive from the first ball she hit, Safina never let up on the pressure against her talented opponent. And the pressure did Kuznetsova in, as she lost the patience she had shown all week, and made errors as she tried to fight back.
Is this a turning point for Safina? Or just a psychological wellness day? Time will tell. It felt to me like it could be a turning point. If it is, I have to confess that I'll miss those 2-5 down in the third matches. But, as she discovered in the French Open final last year, Safina cannot keep those kind of antics going too long and still win championsips. They are too mentally exhausting, not to mention the physical toll they take.
Is this a turning point for Safina? Or just a psychological wellness day? Time will tell. It felt to me like it could be a turning point. If it is, I have to confess that I'll miss those 2-5 down in the third matches. But, as she discovered in the French Open final last year, Safina cannot keep those kind of antics going too long and still win championsips. They are too mentally exhausting, not to mention the physical toll they take.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Some thoughts about on-court coaching
Apparently, Tom Tebbutt is under the impression that non-English-speaking people do not own televisions. In his Globe and Mail editorial about on-court coaching, he says that "...WTA Tour officials have bowed to pressure from television to allow it, despite the fact that most of the conversations these days take place in Russian, Spanish or some other language that the majority of television viewers don't comprehend."
Well, Brits are generally as insular as Americans. After that remark, I had to force myself to read the rest of the editorial, and I'm glad I did. Tebbutt is especially disturbed by the sight of middle-aged men--often fathers--coming onto the court and telling young women and girls what to do (I think he has the wrong impression about Wozniacki's father, however; he is very expressive, but I don't think he "yammers"). I couldn't agree more. The on-court coaching scenario is almost always a microcosm of the real world, in which females, especially younger ones, readily submit to male authorities."
So, in order to provide some balance, where are the women coaches? We don't see too many of them, and there are various theories about why they are scarce. One of the most popular ones is that women do not want to travel because they have children, which leads us to the inevitable conclusion that men do not mind leaving their children behind. I'm not saying I agree with this theory--just that it isn't a pretty one.
It is also possible that most of the players, born during the so-called "post-feminist" (which is to say non-feminist) period, believe that men, not women, should be authority figures. There is no doubt that ATP players believe that; I have never heard of a female ATP coach. If there were one, believe me, there would be hundreds of inane and patronizing articles written about her. In the meantime, members of the sports press don't even ask why women don't have female coaches, much less why men don't.
It could be both of those reasons or there may be other reasons. At any rate, the lack of female coaches is troublesome. And I share Tebbutt's discomfort about the image portrayed by the current on-court coaching scenarios.
Gender issues aside, many people are uncomfortable with on-court coaching because they believe that tennis players are supposed to figure things out by themselves. I used to feel very strongly that way, but I have softened somewhat on that issue. What bothers me more is the attachment of the microphone to the coach so that the television viewers can hear what is being said, and the commentators can make truly ridiculous remarks about it, telling us how "interesting" or "insightful" it is that a coach says something anyone with half a brain has already observed.
Well, Brits are generally as insular as Americans. After that remark, I had to force myself to read the rest of the editorial, and I'm glad I did. Tebbutt is especially disturbed by the sight of middle-aged men--often fathers--coming onto the court and telling young women and girls what to do (I think he has the wrong impression about Wozniacki's father, however; he is very expressive, but I don't think he "yammers"). I couldn't agree more. The on-court coaching scenario is almost always a microcosm of the real world, in which females, especially younger ones, readily submit to male authorities."
So, in order to provide some balance, where are the women coaches? We don't see too many of them, and there are various theories about why they are scarce. One of the most popular ones is that women do not want to travel because they have children, which leads us to the inevitable conclusion that men do not mind leaving their children behind. I'm not saying I agree with this theory--just that it isn't a pretty one.
It is also possible that most of the players, born during the so-called "post-feminist" (which is to say non-feminist) period, believe that men, not women, should be authority figures. There is no doubt that ATP players believe that; I have never heard of a female ATP coach. If there were one, believe me, there would be hundreds of inane and patronizing articles written about her. In the meantime, members of the sports press don't even ask why women don't have female coaches, much less why men don't.
It could be both of those reasons or there may be other reasons. At any rate, the lack of female coaches is troublesome. And I share Tebbutt's discomfort about the image portrayed by the current on-court coaching scenarios.
Gender issues aside, many people are uncomfortable with on-court coaching because they believe that tennis players are supposed to figure things out by themselves. I used to feel very strongly that way, but I have softened somewhat on that issue. What bothers me more is the attachment of the microphone to the coach so that the television viewers can hear what is being said, and the commentators can make truly ridiculous remarks about it, telling us how "interesting" or "insightful" it is that a coach says something anyone with half a brain has already observed.
Quote of the day
"There are moments like now [when] I feel they (WTA) don't care if you are headless, if you don't play a tournament you are severely punished."
Serena Williams, contemplating her loss in Rome
Paszek out in first round of Madrid qualifying
There was a time, not that long ago, when many people thought Tamira Paszek would be the next big thing. But so often, the Next Big Thing is steadily improving and quietly working her way through the rankings, unaffected by the pressure of expectation, whereas all eyes have been on Paszek.
A talented baseliner, Paszek has had her share of instability. She apparently was very attached to her coach, Larri Passos, and had to deal with interference from her father, who sent Passos away and wanted his daughter to get a different coach. My understanding is that Paszek's mother intervened, and Paszek reunited with Passos. But not for long. For whatever reason, she left him again, and is now training at the Sanchez Academy in Spain.
While she was with Passos, Paszek's ranking jumped from 365 to 35. Her current ranking is 60. Paszek won Portoroz in 2006, and made it to the round of 16 at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2007, but since then, she has been inconsistent. I saw her play Cibulkova in the second round in Charleston last month, but she hurt her hand during the match, and was unable to perform well after that.
Today, Paszek lost in the first Madrid qualifying round, to Varvara Lepchenko, who handled her easily, winning 6-1, 6-2.
Paszek is only 18, and the Sanchez Academy is a good place for her to train. I think that she will straighten out whatever is wrong and start climbing up the rankings again--I hope.
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