Safina, Venus Lose Opening Round in Tokyo; WTA Circus Continues

September 29th, 2009

Safina, Venus Lose Opening Round in Tokyo; WTA Circus Continues

by Sean Randall

One day the WTA appears to have no depth, the next, more than enough depth. Kim Clijsters missed two years, played seven matches upon her return which turned out to be just enough prep for her to slice through the US Open field to win her second major. So much for depth!

Already this week in Tokyo, quite the opposite as the three seeds dropped to qualifiers Monday. Yes, qualifiers! Those bitten were (1) Dinara Safina, (2) Venus Williams and (5) Sveta Kuznetsova. And today another qualifier knocked out a seed when Katerinya Bondarenko upset (3) Elena Dementieva (not a huge upset there).

Incredibly, after just two rounds of play the Top 6 seeds are now out when you add (4) Caroline Wozniacki and (6) Vera Zvonreva were losers as well today. Amazing.

I understand in part that these top girls go to pick up an appearance fee and after a long, tough summer it’s probably difficult to get that motivation up especially against a strong Tokyo field, but the Top 6 seeds can’t go 0-6 in the opening round! They can’t but they did!

And world No. 1 Safina losing to No. 132 Kai Chen Chang, if it wasn’t comical already it is now…

Also worth noting is that Kimiko Date, the 38-year-old (now 39), just capture the title Sunday in Soeul. How old is Steffi? Steffi may be a year older but with a few months of training Mrs. Agassi would easily be winning titles right now. Easily!

If you wanted to know why players like Clijsters and Justine Henin are back in the game this is the reason. Women’s tennis is a total circus right now.

As for the men…Well, perhaps a separate post is in order!

Also Check Out:
Sharapova Pockets First Title after Jankovic Retirement in Tokyo
Penalty-Free Serena Returns to No. 1 Following Beijing Win
Clijsters Beats Schnyder; How Weak is WTA Tour?
Serena Williams Ousted 1st Rd in Rome After Disparaging Safina
Safina Boosts No. 1 Ranking with Revenge Win at WTA Rome

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 2:14 pm and is filed under 2009 Season, WTA.
Tags: Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, Venus Williams

10 Comments for “Safina, Venus Lose Opening Round in Tokyo; WTA Circus Continues”

Leslie Says:

the whole women’s tour is basically a joke peppered with “feel good stories.” more exciting than watching women’s tennis, however, will be watching the WTA implode as they continue to stubbornly bury their heads in the sand.

Posted September 29th, 2009 at 2:42 pm

Elwin Says:

The WTA is really a joke and we already know it for long. I went to the WTA site some time ago and I felt it was more about fashion than the actual sport.

The background of these girls cause a lot of problems as well, most have an one-dimensional game and once they need to go to Plan B they become headcases…

Anyway I’ve always been a fan of men’s tennis so no problem for me.

Posted September 29th, 2009 at 3:30 pm

vared Says:

Woz and Lena are out now too. Chance for JJ.

Posted September 29th, 2009 at 4:26 pm

Andrew Miller Says:

Maybe the tour needs Henin. She was not afraid of being #1 until she began to lose consistently.

Posted September 29th, 2009 at 6:16 pm

Diego Says:

Did you see the demo match Steffi vs Clijsters, that right there tells you that Steffi still has it!

Posted September 30th, 2009 at 4:58 pm

sheila Says:

for me, steffi graff was the best womans player, plus she had a great court presence. no temper tantrums. i love vera zvoneravas game but she really needs to growup i.e.: us open temper tantrum. shes been around long enuff 2no that her behavior is ludicrious. women in tennis today should look @ graff’s presence on court or venus williams who is a class act as well

Posted September 30th, 2009 at 5:24 pm

jane Says:

A first you think it’s all JJ, with Maria hitting errors on JJ’s persistent “get the ball back” strategy, and with Maria regularly “checking” her toss, and then ON comes Sharpie! The serves start clicking, the shots routinely hitting the lines, the approaches struck deep and the swinging volleys hit clean and sure. So she leads 5-2 in the first set after being down 0-3. And now JJ has the trainer out looking at the arm. I’d say this title is Sharapova’s unless she loses her serve and Jankovic capitalizes on it.

Posted October 3rd, 2009 at 12:49 am

jane Says:

Er, I never thought Jankovic would retire in the final match! Wow. Anyhow, it seemed Sharapova would win, but what a shame; it’d've been nice to see a full match.

Posted October 3rd, 2009 at 1:03 am

Lenny Says:

I second what Diego said. Steffi gave Kim - who’s 14 years her junior - a real run for her money. And - if anybody saw the BBC Sport interview with her and Agassi which aired weeks before the event - with just a few weeks’ training, and not much tennis playing at all since her retirement!

Posted October 3rd, 2009 at 5:00 am

Penalty-Free Serena Returns to No. 1 Following Beijing Win Says:

[...] for the rest of Beijing, after last week’s 0-6 first round effort by the top gals in Tokyo, this week there have been fewer upsets. In addition to Safina, Venus and [...]

Posted October 6th, 2009 at 10:01 am