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Sharapova Soft Draw, Venus Pulls; WTA Amelia Open Preview
Posted on April 6, 2008
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. -- Venus Williams withdrew over the weekend citing an undisclosed medical reason, but the 2008 Bausch and Lomb Championships still kicks off Monday with one of its strongest fields featuring former No. 1s Maria Sharapova, Lindsay Davenport and Amelie Mauresmo.
After Sharapova won the Australian Open it brought up talk of the Russian winning the "Golden Slam," all four Grand Slam titles and the Olympics, a slim-to-none prospect considering Sharapova is yet to win her first claycourt title, much less the French Open.
Mauresmo will be the one to watch at Amelia, not as a title threat but more as traffic slowing down to rubberneck at a roadside car crash. The confidence-challenged Frenchwoman has failed to reach a semifinal this year and has on various occasions spoke with the media on possibly retiring this year. Mauresmo lost in her second match at both Indian Wells and Miami.
Like Sharapova, the tall Davenport is a suspect mover on clay who has nonetheless won the Amelia Island title three times, first in 1997, then back-to-back in 2004-05.
The top-seeded Sharapova's draw is soft until the quarterfinals where her potential opponent is Russian countrywoman Dinara Safina. In the semifinals Sharapova could line up against Davenport. Sharapova leads Davenport 5-1 in their career meetings, none of which have occurred on clay.
Davenport's road is slightly tougher, with an opener against American Vania King, and a potential third-round meeting against Top 10er Daniela Hantuchova.
"[Clay] has always been a challenge for me, [but] I do well here. I don't know how that is," Davenport told the media at Amelia Island. "If any claycourt tournament I'm going to do well, it's here, so hopefully it shows up again."
The Top 8 seeds among the 16 seeded players at Amelia Island are Sharapova, Russian Anna Chakvetadze, Hantuchova, France's Marion Bartoli, Swiss Patty Schnyder, Safina, Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, and Hungary's Agnes Szavay.
Mauresmo is seeded No. 11, and Davenport No. 16.
Other American hopefuls in the draw are Jill Craybas and Meghann Shaughnessy, with potential American additions via the final qualifying rounds, which were forecasted to be rained out on Sunday. The weather is scheduled to clear on Monday, and remain sunny until the final weekend where the rains could return.
Names of note in the qualifying draw are former Top 10er and Florida resident Brenda Schultz-McCarthy, former Top 20-ranked Croat Karolina Sprem, University of Florida player Audra Cohen, former Top 20 player and Wimbledon semifinalist Alexandra Stevenson, Aussie former Top 10er Alicia Molik, and former Croat Wimbledon semifinalist Mirjana Lucic.
Last year's Amelia Island winner, Tatiana Golovin, is unable to defend her title after undergoing surgery for a cyst that was causing back pain.
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