First congratulations to Rafael Nadal and his legion of supporters. The Spaniard has waited a long, very long time to get the top of tennis and he’s finally done it.

A slew of players ranked in the 20s and 30s make up the rest of the seeded contingent, most notably Alona Bondarenko, the No.2 seed. Bondarenko has had her strongest results of the year so far on clay, making quarterfinals at Amelia Island and Berlin, and taking out the likes of Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova along the way.

“She’s a young player with great potential, and I just didn’t know how she was going to play,” Jankovic said. “And of course, she wasn’t the favorite. I was the favorite and had the pressure on me. I was defending my title and I’m glad I could cope with the pressure and win it for the second time.”

Last year the ATP and WTA tours each circulated a contest among their staff, ‘Let’s Confuse Fans Again by Renaming Our Top-Level Events.’

The top women’s tennis stars are opting for exhibition play or rest as none of the Top 10 players on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour are in action as the 2008 season kicks off this week at the Mondial Australian Women’s Hardcourts in Gold Coast, and at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand.
ADHEREL
Former No. […]

In 2006, Justine Henin, Amelie Mauresmo and Maria Sharapova were all considered favorites to win the year-end Sony Ericsson WTA Championships. Kim Clijsters was in the mix too.

There’s a method to the seeming madness in the WTA Tour announcing a second season-ending tournament to start in 2009 in Bali, Indonesia.

POWER CONTEST: Does anyone besides me enjoy watching women’s pro matches where players know how to slice, volley, dropshot, change the pace up on opponents and construct a point, rather than just whaling away from the baseline hoping to hit the first winner?

An unintended consequence of my last post is that it brought on an important discussion around the proposed calendar changes for both Tours. I laid out each Tour’s proposals in one handy document which can be viewed here.
This calendar is based on best-known info and I will be updating this document as more information becomes […]

Guillermo Canas’ second dramatic win over Roger Federer had nothing on the off-court action that took place in Miami. Professional tennis turned into a serial drama including a player petition, a storm-off during a meeting with the ATP Chair, one lawsuit being filed, and another threatened to be on the way.
Get the popcorn ready. This […]