Australian Open final turns spotlight on problem

First, let me give all credit to the great Serena Williams, who played magnificently in the Australian Open final. There is reason to believe Williams would have won the match, no matter what was going on on the other side of the net. But her opponent, Dinara Safina, is too good a player not to have taken it to three sets, or at least two very close ones. Even a Safina win should have been a possibility. Instead, we got a train wreck.

Former tour star Virginia Wade appropriately calls the Australian Open final outcome embarrassing. "It's upsetting," she says, "that the women's game is so scratchy at the moment."

Wade continues: "What I find in the women's game, and I watch all these big names throughout the year and at the major tournaments, there are all these players who can hit the ball fantastically well when they are playing well. But I don't see them doing anything to help them relax when they get into a state. Tennis is all about the preparation, about being ready when the proverbial hits the fan. Tennis is about being ready and when it gets tough it's all about the head and not just about the game."

Wade is, of course, correct. Dinara Safina, Ana Ivanovic, Marion Bartoli, Daniela Hantuchova, Anna Chakvetadze, Patty Schnyder, even Jelena Jankovic--to some extent (as evidenced in Melbourne)...all have great games, but fragile mentalities. In the case of Safina and Ivanovic, it's the ball toss that goes awry when the nerves click in. With other players, choking begins, or their games just suffer in quality.

I have some theories about the possible causes of this problem:

1. So much attention is given to the power game that the mental part has been neglected.
2. Players are not seeing sports psychologists when they should.
3. Sports psychologists are not using hypnotherapy, which would be the quickest, easiest, most effective intervention for solving this problem.
4. Women, regardless of their culture, tend to have low self-esteem and do not impose themselves the way they need to in order to be winners in tennis, or in anything else. We are still culturally conditioned to not be good enough.

During the Australian Open final, Mary Carillo was in high rant mode about the lack of commitment in women's tennis. She wondered why more women's matches aren't filled with grit and sweat and high quality. It is really difficult for fans--especially fans of truly good players like Safina--to watch a major final--or any match--end the way this one ended.

Venus Williams enters Family Circle Cup

Venus Williams has joined Serena Williams and Vera Zvonareva in entering the 2009 Family Circle Cup in Charleston. Williams won the event in 2004.

What they said

"You said your energy was a bit low in the semifinals. Did you feel that today, or..."
"Not as much. I think I upped my dosage of jelly snakes."

Laura Robson

"But I was not nervous, not even close like before the French Open final. I couldn't even sleep the night. But today I slept good and everything was fine. But just pity."

Dinara Safina

"You had some choice words in the first set. Is there perhaps something to be learned about how to deal with a couple of points that don't necessarily go your way?"
"Yeah. I'll try to be a bit quieter next time."

Laura Robson

"Why did you choose to play the juniors here?"
"You know, because like it takes a long ways to come here from Russia exactly, so that's why."

Ksenia Pervak

"Should we be surprised or maybe worried a little bit when a set in a Grand Slam final could be won at love?"
"Uhm, hmm. I don't know. I don't know how you should feel. You should never be surprised by anything that I do, though."

Serena Williams

"What was the difference? Was it physical?"
"I think it was everything. Like I played better."

Ksenia Pervak

"I don't see any reason to panic or to make thousand thoughts in my mind."

Dinara Safina

Faster than a speeding bullet...

More powerful than a locomotive...able to beat tall Russians in a single hour

Halfway into the first set of the 2009 Australian Open women's final, I was thinking that I had seen it all before, and I had--kind of. The beat-down Serena Williams gave Dinara Safina was very much like the beat-down she gave Safina's countrywoman, Maria Sharapova, in 2007. Williams found her serve. She found it with such authority, that she won the point 95% of the time when she got her first serve in. She was fast, she was aggressive, she was confident.

Could anyone have stopped her? We'll never know, because the opposite dynamic was occurring on the other side of the net. Safina's serve was nowhere to be found. Safina, Ivanovic and a few others should form an "errant ball toss" support group so that the Russian can get some help she can't seem to give herself. Safina is capable of serving quite well--she even served three aces in the final--but when the stakes are high, her serve is the first thing to go. Between that, and the fact that Williams played like a champion from the first point, Safina was completely overwhelmed.

She was so overwhelmed that she failed to win a game in the first set, and she didn't even hold serve until the twelfth game of the match. How Safina handles this humiliating loss will be key to how she handles the rest of the year. It is a shame to see such a good player be such an enemy to herself at such an important moment.

Williams, for her part, has now won ten majors in singles. This was also her fouth Australian Open win, so--regardless what the fans call her--she is Aussie Serena, for sure. She also won the women's doubles title with her sister, Venus, and--at 27 years of age--can dictate play against just about anyone. Williams has had problems in the past staying injury-free, but if she can dodge injuries, she is the clear favorite to do a lot of winning this year.

World number 1 Serena Williams def. Dinara Safina, 6-0, 6-3

McHale and Tomljanovic win junior girls doubles title

Christina McHale, whose cramping led to her exit from the first round of the main draw of the Australian Open, has--with her partner, Ajla Tomljanovic--won the Australian Open junior girls doubles title. McHale and Tomljanovic defeated Alexandra Krunic and Sandra Zaniewska, 6-2, 2-6, 10-4 in the final.

Pervak wins Australian Open

In her last interview, 2008 Wimbledon champion and 5th seed Laura Robson said she felt depleted, and didn't know if she had anything left to give in the junior girls final at the Australian Open. She didn't have much, as it turns out. Robson was defeated by 3rd seed Ksenia Pervak, 6-3, 6-1.

Pervak, a left-handed Russian, is currently ranked 154 in the world on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Robson is ranked 514.

Had Robson won the final, she would have become number 1 in the world in juniors.

Vergeer does it again

Esther Vergeer, the wonder of women's wheelchair tennis, has won the Australian Open, once again defeating her countrywoman, Korie Homan. Vergeer did it in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2. Vergeer and Homan were seeded 1 and 2, respectively. Vergeer and Homan also won the doubles title.