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.

The Top 5 happenings in pro tennis heading into the week of Nov. 5, 2007.

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.

I’m really unclear what Sports Illustrated has against the World’s Number 1 male tennis player, but they seem to really have it bad. For details on their snub of Roger Federer as Sportsman of the Year, check out my blogging buddy Sean Randall’s most excellent post, Federer Snubbed, Wade Wins SI Sportsman of the Year, […]

At its best, the women’s game can lay claim to a field of 8 players, each of whom are entirely capable of winning the Year-end Championships: Amelie Mauresmo, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Kim Clijsters, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, newly un-retired Martina Hingis, Nadia Petrova, and Elena Dementieva.
One would think that this kind of variation would lend itself […]

Happy New Year to all. May your 2006 be healthy, successful and of course, full of tennis.

Tennis is one of those rare sports which basically begins with the New Year. Unfortunately for the pros, the year ends in November, and for some in December making the off season a bit on the short side.

Here’s a good goof in case yout missed it.

Last week after 16-year-old boy wonder Donald Young won the Orange Bown junior event, the USTA rushed out a press release announcing him the 2005 Year-End Junior No. 1, just barely edging out the second-ranked Croat Marin Cilic.

A big congrats go out to our two year-end champions, Amelie Mauresmo and David Nalbandian.

Both players are well noted for having never won the big one - well, they still haven’t - but they did manage to win the next biggest thing in their sports, the year-end championships. And both did it in similar fashion overcoming a large deficit to claim victory in the finale.

How do you spell U-G-L-Y. How about T-M-C.
Talk about a faint finish, the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai just got the news this morning that both Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal have pulled out. Ouch! Replacing the two stars are Mariano Puerta and Fernando Gonzalez which makes the remaining 2005 field about as exiciting as […]

Maybe it’s just me but doesn’t the conclusion to the 2005 tennis season feel like a complete bust.

The WTA Championships are a lame duck tank job of an event. The stands are empty, there’s no media buzz and TV coverage is uneven. Without the Williams sisters there’s no real drama on court. Seeing Lindsay wrap up No. 1 was nice if not awkward because she did it by losing, but it leaves the event with no real “story” per se, except perhaps that it is indeed lifeless.