The Tennis Thread

[Scott]

awww...i know she wanted this. she certainly deserved it because she had the tougher path ultimately getting through aga then maria but alas.....it might end up being a blessing in disguise.

 

[Scott]

fed cup this weekend and big news for france and new captain amelie mauresmo.....she finally got marion bartoli back on the team. bartoli has credited mauresmo with being open with her by creating a dialogue with her instead of sending out very obnoxious comments in the press. she's been to a lot of marion's matches since being named the new captain and said that was her primary goal to get bartoli on the squad again. and i say kudos to momo on that.

 

[Chaky]

In Europe/Africa Zone I play-off Croatia just lost the decisive doubles rubber to Poland's Radwanska sisters. But what an impressive week by the Croatian youngsters Donna Vekic and Ana Konjuh.

Konjuh barely has a senior tour ranking yet (she's only 15) but is already beating players much more highly ranked and experienced that herself. And Vekic (at 16) is starting to cement her Top 100 position and rising star reputation with some decent wins.

The other big story of the week must be the return to the tour of Rafa Nadal. So far in Chile a successful one.

 

[Scott]

and you know after i posted the news about bartoli,i learned that bartoli had to pull out because she had been ill with the flu all week and she and mauresmo decided it would be better if she sat out the tie. still,you'd have to think despite the unfortunate news for bartoli this tie,this is certainly a step in the right direction in mending some of the contentiousness between she and the FFT.

chaky,vekic is definitely on my radar. konjuh now? she beat ursie,wow. okay we'll probably hear about her more in the coming couple years i bet.

interesting ties this weekend though. the czechs swept the aussies after kvitova clinched it in a hard-fought match between she and sam. maybe this is what could wake kvitova back up again. she even said it was the best match she played all season thus far.

and the russians vs japan....i did not expect that to be as close it turned out but credit ayumi morita on that.

and the italians and the americans.....very commendable performances from varavara lepchenko in her debut. i think mary jo should seriously think about keeping lepchenko when deciding the next squad. she and sloane stephens. of course,with a not so confident liezel huber,the italians pretty much ran away with it in doubles. really tough for the italians having to rely on two players in singles and in doubles....definitely a different kind of circumstance and they prevailed nevertheless.

 

[maxlinden]

I just can't believe how Rafa has been playing in this Tournament in Chili. I fear he will retire soon which will be a travesty.

 

[paulinab]

its chile, i dont think he will retire soon ¡¡¡¡¡

 

[Scott]

actually the chilE and brasil events are the only clay tournaments active during this part of the calendar and rafa has decided he wanted to make his comeback on the red clay so it'll be an easier transition into competition after being out with a knee injury. that's all.

 

[Scott]

so utterly heartbreaking to hear that agnes szavay announced her retirement today.

 

[Scott]

petra is back on form!!! yeaa!! more so the confidence and the focus looks like its returned again. shaping up to be a contender at the rest of the majors this year.

some controversy this week though with sveta kuznetsova...so much so that it even left serena williams befuddled. apparently she as well as many others were left wondering why sveta wasn't offered a w/c for dubai given that she's returning from a long injury lay-off instead of relegating her to qualies.

btw,did you guys see this nonsense?

http://www.changeovertennis.com/video-piotr-wozniacki-argues-with-chair-umpire-refuses-to-leave/

seriously,he is some piece of work. even worse the chair umpire that caved into the two of them and their bully tactics,not to mention the security that tried to escort him out of the stadium. caroline not only should have been given a point penalty but her dad should have been forced to leave instead of they giving in. just terrible sportsmanship and decorum from these two.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

HUGE win for Nole today to end Rafa's amazing streak at Monte Carlo, and it certainly adds a certain level of interest and unpredictability to the clay season!

 

[Scott]

No Frills on the Road Back

LANDISVILLE, Pa. — There were a lot of tennis tournament essentials missing on Sunday at the $10,000 U.S.T.A. Pro Circuit tournament at Hempfield Recreation Center here.

There were no ball girls or boys. No line judges. No chair umpire. No electronic scoreboard.

But there was a woman who was ranked No. 20 in world in singles and No. 10 in doubles a little more than two years ago.

In May 2011, two months after reaching those career highs, Alisa Kleybanova, then 21, received a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma that forced her off the tour.

She beat the disease, a triumph more important than victories over the former No. 1s Kim Clijsters and Jelena Jankovic.

Kleybanova tried a comeback just 10 months after receiving her diagnosis, accepting a wild card into the tournament in Key Biscayne, Fla., in March 2012. She won her first-round match against 64th-ranked Johanna Larsson. But after losing her next match, to 22nd-ranked Maria Kirilenko, she began to realize that her body was not ready for such a high level of competition.

“My body just gave up, because I wasn’t physically ready to do that,” Kleybanova said. “Basically, the match I won with Larsson, I was going way far over my limits.

“I was completely exhausted way before we finished the match. I basically had so much will that I mentally overpowered that match.”

For the next year, Kleybanova dedicated herself to training, not competing. But she is playing this week to maintain her eligibility for a protected ranking.

Because she is playing, she will be able to enter as many as eight tournaments using the ranking of 22 that she had at the time of her diagnosis.

Kleybanova picked Landisville because she correctly thought higher-ranked players would be playing in Europe, allowing her to qualify for the field and play against less-threatening competition. Her first-round match was against an 18-year-old Australian, Brooke Rischbieth, ranked No. 1,149 in the world.

Kleybanova won convincingly, 6-1, 6-1. She was not as quick or consistent as she had previously been, but nearly any time she hit the ball with conviction, Rischbieth could not send it back across the net.

“I got taught a lesson on tennis today,” Rischbieth said in a Twitter message after the match.

Kleybanova won two more routine matches to qualify for the main draw. She will play Jacqueline Wu, an unranked American, in the first round of the main draw Wednesday night.

The matches in Landisville were a far cry from her fourth-round match with Venus Williams at Wimbledon in 2008. Kleybanova had to fetch her own balls, call her own lines and keep her own score.

In the match preceding Kleybanova’s, the players twice met at the net to argue line calls and even the score itself. For Kleybanova, play was often delayed when a ball bounced into a cluster of shrubbery, with the player nearest having to forage through the leaves.

Kleybanova had not played in such a low-level tournament since she was 14. In the fifth tournament of her professional career, she won a main draw match at the prestigious Indian Wells event and did not look back.

Still, this step down served to relax Kleybanova, who likened the atmosphere to a practice session.

“The girl was trying hard today; she gave me some trouble as well during the points,” Kleybanova said. “But when you’re playing at this level, for me, it’s always a few important points during the set that you have to make, and then the set is yours. It’s not the time when you have to give 100 percent every point.”

For her three qualifying wins, Kleybanova pocketed $104 in prize money. The tournament’s eventual champion will receive just 18 ranking points and $1,440.

It is different this week in Rome, a tournament Kleybanova played shortly before receiving her diagnosis two years ago. A player who wins just one main draw match there will earn 70 ranking points and roughly $13,000. The champion in Rome will claim 900 ranking points and roughly $444,000.

Kleybanova, who has earned more than $2 million in her career, said she had enough saved to not have to worry about prize money during this stage of her comeback.

“When I’m feeling good, I’m going to start playing big ones, get my ranking up, and there the prize money is going to come,” she said.

The one thing she did have to worry about Sunday was the four balls that were allotted for the match. As the winner, she had the duty of returning all four to the tournament referee’s desk. After some digging through the shrubs, she found them and walked off court a winner.

*nytimes.com

it's too bad she wasn't automatically eligible for a protected ranking despite being unranked. but it seems alisa is taking this road back slowly and steadily....focusing on getting back into competitive form rather than looking for wins. she's supposed to also be playing some WTT this summer as well. it's just great to have alisa back healthy.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

I am enjoying the grass tennis - was getting tired of clay!

Hoping for a Djokovic vs Tsonga or Murray final.

On the ladies' side, anyone but Serena. I am tired of her winning. Someone else please!!

 

[Scott]

haha....and all the needling high school drama from she and maria over the weekend plus the other stuff revealed last week from rolling stone....i'm bored with both,frankly.

really iffy day though from vika with the knee....and then seeing petra kvitova being forced to call the trainer for a lower back issue....i don't have high hopes for petra this year. really loved the way kristina mladenovic played today against maria...rare sight to see women players not getting broken for an entire set which went to a tie-break. a lot of potential the young frenchwoman...but needs to improve that backhand more.

was hoping that jamie hampton,who i've become big fan of now,would have carried that momentum from the weekend at eastbourne(where she had to go through qualies and then knocked out aga and caro) in her first round but i was surprised that sloane played such a high level today given her struggles since australia. still,jamie has a lot to be proud of...she made her first-ever tour-level final(which i think sloane has yet to accomplish despite her higher rank) and has steadily risen since brussels prior to RG....now top 25 and beaten three top 10 players in a matter of weeks. should be able to get seeded now come the summer HC season.

and rafa today....wow. just got outplayed today by darcis whose game really adapts well to grass. and for rafa's form,likely a symptom of no grass preparation....opting not to play a grass tune-up like the queens event where he usually participates. before today his last match on grass was the loss to rosol last year. definitely rusty in the movement and the way the ball bounces off the court today.

 

[VogueDisciple93]

There's no stopping Serena!

 

[maxlinden]

OMG Sharapova is not to be messed with! That was super shady what she said in retaliation in her press conference.

So sad Rafa went in the first round I was rooting for his return to the top.

Murray is my fav to win now. If not, I'd love to see an upset.

 

[Scott]

well kirilenko's stay in the top 10 is short-lived. she got knocked out by laura robson who played a fantastic match today. thus kirilenko by her QF result last year will lose a great deal of points.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

I really like Laura Robson's game; I hope she makes a splash here!

 

[Chaky]

This Wimbledon has already been better than the first few rounds of Roland Garros.

 

[anaa lpz]

Vika had to withdraw. That makes me really sad.
Poor thing, you could feel her pain when she got injured.

 

[VogueDisciple93]

What a strange day it has been.

Only positive is that Sharapova is out