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Post by jimm on Nov 2, 2008 14:55:57 GMT
Top players to challenge WTA leadership in Doha Sun Nov 2, 2008 2:00am GMT By Barry Wood
DOHA, Nov 2 (Reuters) - World number one Jelena Jankovic and her seven fellow qualifiers could have been forgiven if their only goal at the WTA Championships was to pocket the $1.34 million winner's cheque.
Chasing ranking points is also usually high on the agenda. But with Jankovic having already secured the year-ending world number one spot, the top players are more concerned with their future on the Tour.
The likes of Ana Ivanovic want to have a showdown with the WTA Tour's bosses in Doha, which is staging the season-ending event for the first time, to vent their frustrations over the demands placed upon them by the revamped playing schedule.
Under the banner of the Tour's landmark 2009 Roadmap calendar, players will now need to compete in a fewer number of tournaments from next season. But the trade-off is that top-10 players could be suspended if they opt to miss any event designated as "mandatory".
They must compete in at least 10 of the 20 Premier events -- previously known as Tier I and II tournaments -- and the four grand slams. All top 10 players must compete at Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing.
PLAYER MEETING
A WTA spokesman told Reuters there would be a player meeting at the championships on Sunday where, among various agenda items the Roadmap will be discussed with Tour chief Larry Scott.
"We do have our voice and we have to come together," French Open champion Ivanovic said shortly before heading to Doha.
"The changes were made in the middle of the season and when you're playing grand slams you don't really want to think about next year's schedule.
"Many players probably didn't look deep into it and kind of let it go, and all of a sudden you're there with the change so it's a little bit hard."
The new schedule dictates where the top players can compete and, more importantly, where they cannot.
As part of its commitment to tournament directors, the WTA Tour has guaranteed to provide a number of players of a certain ranking for the top tier events.
In 2007, the number of marquee players fell short at every event. In an attempt to prevent that happening in the future, there are far stricter rules and punishments directed at top 10-ranked players.
"If players don't play the big events, there will be zero pointers (in their rankings)," Scott said during the U.S. Open.
"We'll have suspensions for the first time ever in tennis next year."
Players who skip mandatory events will be given several chances during the course of the year to do some promotional work for the tournament. If they fulfil this, they will avoid any suspensions.
"But if they don't do that, then they'll be subject to a (two-tournament) suspension the following year," said Scott.
Although there is much more prize money on the table than before, that might not satisfy players who are already multi-millionaires.
On court, Serena Williams is the only former champion in the running for the Doha crown since title holder Justine Henin quit professional tennis in May while 2004 winner Maria Sharapova has been sidelined for several months with a shoulder problem.
(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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Post by jimm on Nov 2, 2008 17:31:19 GMT
Anastasia Wins $100K Bratislava!!! Final Anastasia PAVLYUCHENKOVA (RUS) def Michaella KRAJICEK (NED) (8) 3-6 1-6 Two in a row for Nastya!!!! Congratulations!! Krakow Next!!
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Post by jimm on Nov 2, 2008 18:35:11 GMT
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Post by jimm on Nov 4, 2008 10:15:28 GMT
Russians make up half of top 8 at WTA championships 18:24 | 03/ 11/ 2008
MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti) - Four Russians tennis players are among the eight competitors in Doha this week ahead of Tuesday's opening matches in the WTA's $4.55 million end-of-season tournament.
They are the top eight players in the Women's Tennis Association rankings, after Vera Zvonareva shot up from ninth to sixth with her win in Quebec. Another Russian, Maria Sharapova, dropped to ninth after sitting out several weeks with a shoulder injury.
Joining Zvonareva in the White Group - the brackets are named for the colors of Qatar's flag - is fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, bumped from world No. 6 to 7 by Zvonareva's rise, the Serbian world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic and her compatriot Ana Ivanovic, ranked fifth.
The Maroon Group comprises the Russian world No. 2, Dinara Safina, and No. 4 Elena Dementieva, Russia's Olympic gold medalist, as well as the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, who are ranked third and eight, respectively.
After the round-robin group stage the top two players from each side advance to the semifinals, where the winner of each pool plays the runner-up from the other. The victors meet in Sunday's final.
Russia has had as many as six women in the top 10 this year, and although Anna Chakvetadze has dropped to No. 20, Nadia Petrova is knocking on the door of the top set having climbed to 11th.
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Post by jimm on Nov 7, 2008 0:20:10 GMT
Is Women’s Tennis in Russia About to Weaken? Russia's position as the foremost power in women's tennis is in danger of being compromised by an alarming drop in the overall standard of junior coaching according to Olga Morozova, the woman who served as the pioneer for the masses of players from her country which today crowd the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour's world rankings.
Morozova, who has spent much of the last six weeks back in her hometown of Moscow after being appointed the new coach of world no.7 Svetlana Kuznetsova, stressed her concerns that the clamor by parents to put more and more children on the path to stardom might affect the overall standard.
Her new job has given her the chance to study many of the top clubs around Moscow as she has sought quality practice facilities for Kuznetsova who has just moved back to Russia after basing herself for many years in Spain. Consequently Morozova has had a chance to inspect the quality of tennis talent set to follow the current generation of Russian players.
"Tennis is getting bigger and bigger and there are so many more courts and clubs than say five years ago," she said. "The success of the Russian players on the world stage means everywhere there are kids playing tennis and rarely is it even possible to find a free court which of course is a very healthy thing.
"However the thing that concerns me is the overall quality of coaching. Before the standard was very high but now there is a greater demand, more people are taking charge of youngsters and I have seen things that make me worry that the standard will drop. I'm not sure what sort of effect this will have on our top flight players in eight to ten years time."
Since the turn of the century the Russian Federation has hugely improved the tournament structure and ensured that it is nation wide rather than just concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg. "That is excellent," added Morozova. "But the clamor for parents to get their children coached is getting more and more intense and sometimes people are doing the job without being properly educated in the best ways of developing young talent."
When it came to writing the initial chapters of Russian female tennis history, Morozova could almost claim a monopoly. She was the first player from the Soviet Union to win the Wimbledon junior title in 1965, the first to contest major singles finals as she lost to Chris Evert at both the French Open and Wimbledon in 1974. That same spring she partnered Evert to win the women's doubles title at Roland Garros.
A year later she also became the first Russian to contest the season ending Virginia Slims Championships in Los Angeles. Now, after living for the last 15 years in Britain and a spell in charge of women's tennis at the Lawn Tennis Association, she is in Doha for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships with her new charge Kuznetsova.
Methinks kinswoman Olga has had too much Voddy. Nastya Pavlyuchenkova, Nastya Pivovarova, Makarova, Bychkova, Lapushchnkova, Rodina Evgyenia, drone drone drone. And thats just the Russkies. A hord from the east is already hitting the tennis shores.
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Post by jimm on Nov 7, 2008 8:57:54 GMT
November 6, 2008
Venus Capitalizes on Serena's Slump
DOHA, Qatar - Venus Williams drew level in her on-court rivalry with sister Serena on Thursday, by coming from behind in their round robin match at the Sony Ericsson Championships to win 57 61 60. The two are now 9-9 in career Tour matches, and 2-2 in 2008, after Serena won at Bangalore and the US Open, and Venus triumphed at Wimbledon. Venus also confirmed her place in the event's semifinals, although Serena's prospects are less certain.
The sisters exchanged breaks to kick off the Maroon Group match, and although they did it again midway through the set the contest remained predictably close. But after No.3 seed Serena made her next move at a crucial moment to go a set ahead, a dramatic reversal of fortune was unfurled as errors sprayed from the younger sister’s racquet.
Still, despite managing to win a solitary game in the second set, Serena appeared ready to stop the rot in the first game of the decider, which went to deuce five times on Venus' serve. But the elder sister held on and proceeded to break the Serena serve three times to race to victory without conceding another game.
"I think I started playing well in the second set," observed Venus, the seventh seed this week. "Serving a lot better, and then that first game in the third was really long. But after that, I think she started to get a little more impatient, a little more upset with her performance. She just started to play faster and faster; when the other person keeps bringing it back, it just starts a domino effect with her."
Wearing her sister-hat, Venus added: "There's nothing I can do. I think she just has to go through it, and figure out in her head what went wrong in the match - just like all the other matches, even though it was against me. I think she'll take some time and come out even stronger tomorrow."
For her part, a despondent Serena struggled to hide her frustration with the result, given the sharp form she had displayed against Dinara Safina in her first match on Wednesday.
"I wasn't playing my best in the first set, but at least I was able to get some serves in," she said. "After that it just kind of fell apart and I couldn't keep more than two balls over the net before I made an error. I've never been in a situation where I just feel like I can’t do anything - usually if I’m not serving well, I can hit a backhand.
"This is definitely the worst match I've played this year by far," added the 27-year-old, who must now defeat Elena Dementieva if she is to qualify for the semis, after the Russian beat Safina on Thursday. "I don't know why. I didn't even look like a Top 8 player today.
"Maybe Top 600 in the Juniors," she suggested, a wry smile spreading across her face.
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Post by jimm on Nov 7, 2008 9:06:22 GMT
Zvonareva in line for Doha semis Wed Nov 5, 2008 10:16pm GMT By Barry Wood
DOHA, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Venus Williams won her second match in two days at the season-ending WTA Championships on Wednesday when she beat Elena Dementieva 6-4 4-6 6-3 to leave herself on the brink of the semis with one round-robin match to play.
Russian Vera Zvonareva also remained undefeated after a 6-3 6-7 6-4 victory over Serbia's Ana Ivanovic in the white group.
Both Williams and Russia's Dementieva had difficulty settling into the the maroon group match and just one service game was held in the first set.
But the quality of play improved as the match progressed, with many well-contested rallies as each player sought an advantage.
Serving was another matter. Williams struggled with hers throughout the match, three times hitting a pair of double faults and finishing the match with 10 in all.
But it was Dementieva, who in her eight appearances at the season-ending event has won just three of her 18 matches, who crucially double-faulted to give Williams a break for 5-3 in the final set.
Bizarrely, the American then called for a fresh pair of shoes before serving out the match.
Ivanovic, who suffered a spell of dizziness while losing on Tuesday to Jelena Jankovic, suffered another attack before she was beaten by Zvonareva. The Serbian halted play when down 4-1 in the opening set and her blood pressure was checked before she continued.
Although there were occasional moments of genius from both players, the match was mostly an untidy affair with neither able to take control.
VERY TOUGH
Ivanovic needed four set points to level at one set all, and even after Zvonareva built a 3-0 lead in the final set for the loss of only three points she had trouble closing out the match.
The Russian served at 5-3, but on match point Ivanovic made a winning return and then broke serve. The two hour 26-minute battle finished in the next game when Ivanovic netted a forehand on her opponent's third match point.
"I don't like to complain, but ever since I came here I wasn't feeling really well," Ivanovic told reporters. "I got a virus and I had pain in my throat. So from the first day I wasn't feeling so good.
"It was very hard for me to breathe, and I was feeling very dizzy and light headed so it was very tough."
Like Ivanovic, Russia's Dinara Safina has also lost her opening two matches this week, this time surrendering 6-4 6-1 to Serena Williams.
Although often matching her opponent for aggression, Safina lacked the consistency of Williams in the first set and resilience in the second.
(Editing by Miles Evans and Padraic Halpin)
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Post by jimm on Nov 12, 2008 19:51:28 GMT
WTA to introduce 'user pays' medical system
STRATEGIC medical time-outs during WTA Tour matches could be drastically reduced by a radical new "user pays" system planned for next season. The women's governing body intends to cap the number of occasions players are permitted to call a trainer on court for an extended consultation and issue bills for any excess.
As prizemoney soars to record levels despite the potential bite of the global economic crisis, the financial penalties are unlikely to inflict excessive pain, ranging from $US100 ($A151) per visit at smaller tournaments such as the new Brisbane International in January, to about $500 at the biggest, such as Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing.
The four grand slams, which are run by the International Tennis Federation, would be exempt from the cap, expected to be set at six or seven for the year. The ATP has no plans to introduce a similar system, but is likely to monitor its impact.
Peter Johnston, the WTA's senior vice-president of operations, said the "nominal" charges were designed to minimise the number of unwarranted time-outs, with the revenue to be reinvested in its sports science services.
"We understand that medical time-outs can be legitimate but we want to make sure that players are conscious of how many they're using up throughout the year, so we're looking to find a system of capping them during the season," said Johnston, the former Australian Open deputy tournament director.
"It would trigger what we'd call a service fee. It's a sports science and health issue, so it's almost like a pay-per-view. You can keep using them, but you pay for them, and the amount would depend on the level of the event. It's not about us revenue-raising, it's more just a mindset — like, 'Hey, checkpoint, you've triggered this. Are they all legitimate?' It discourages the practice of, 'I'm feeling a bit weary, I might take a medical time-out'."
In theory, the system could penalise the lower-ranked players with less capacity to pay than multi-millionaires such as Maria Sharapova and the Williams sisters, but Johnston described the WTA's player council as "very supportive" of the concept, which was likely to be in place when the 2009 season opens in Brisbane and Auckland.
The initiative is one of several designed to improve the presentation of women's tennis — in this case to avoid unnecessary delays. "It's just about helping players understand it's 'the show'," Johnston said. "It all gets into that basket of how we present a tighter, crisper, sharper product."
On-court coaching, which has been trialled in the past, will also be adopted permanently next year as part of the tour's so-called Roadmap 2009. The new TV-driven rule allows a player to request their coach once each set, as well as during an opponent's medical time-out or bathroom break. All coaches called onto the court during televised matches will be required to wear a microphone, but the conversation will not be audible in the stadium.
■Lindsay Davenport is not expected to contest January's Australian Open. Still troubled by a knee injury, the 2000 champion at Melbourne Park is considered unlikely to play at tour-level again, having made a comeback in 2007 following the birth of her first child, Jagger. Now ranked 37, the 32-year-old reached the third round of what is likely to be her farewell tournament, the US Open.
■Former world No. 9 Paradorn Srichaphan will return to competitive tennis when Thailand hosts Australia in a Davis Cup zonal tie in March, according to the Bangkok Post. Srichaphan has been sidelined with a wrist injury since March 2007.
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