TENNIS in DEPTH.

A season 2009. has ended! It was quite a difficult and tumultous tennis year. Lots of things happened, which influenced me, my personality, the mood on the court, and my game. Beside all these circumstances I managed to stay strong and to finish the year in the top eight players of the world. I learned a lot in this year, and everything that happened to me was a great experience to me, also a great school, because I started to appreciate all the things I have, much more than before, and not to take tennis so seriously, since it is just a game. My family is the most important to me, and they are my greatest happiness and joy. It is important that we are all healthy. For the rest we will take care as it goes.

The time for a vacation finally came. It is better to say that this is more a short relax, because, just like in any other business these days, professional obligations can’t wait. It means that enjoyment in the fruits of hard labour lasts very short, only for twenty days.

It is nice to be home, again, in Belgrade, especially during the winter when snow falls. I like it because most of the time of year I’m in warmer parts of the world, and I don’t have much possibilities to enjoy winter magic. In the morning, when I wake up it is unusual not to

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Former world No.8 Alicia Molik has set her sights on contesting all four grand slams in 2010 as her tennis comeback slowly gains momentum.

Molik has played a number of events on the Australian Pro Tour ending her seven-month retirement in April, winning an ITF event in Darwin and reaching the final in two other tournaments.

The 28-year-old, now based in Perth, is currently ranked 308 in the world but is eyeing a return to the top 100 next year as she attempts to gain entry into January’s Australian Open through December’s wildcard playoffs.

“I think my goal next year is to play in all the grand slams, to be in a position where I can contest the French Open, Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open,” Molik said. “To do that I need to be sitting on 100 or just inside. “That would be a pretty achievable goal given the way I’m been playing at the moment.

“I still feel like I can trouble a lot of girls in the top 20, 30 in the world.

“On a pretty good day I know I can still have decent results against the likes of the Williams sisters. “And the game is really open now, that’s what I’ve realised watching women’s tennis over the past 12, 24 months. “I still feel like I’ve got a little bit left to give in the

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Fabrice Santoro played what everyone assumes was his final match on home soil yesterday, in what was the end of a rare tennis fashion. We not only saw a man who invented shots no one else would imagine playing but he was still bamboozling the opposition as he approached his 37th year.

The roof was almost taken from the Palais Omnisports yesterday when Santoro beat his retreat, exchanging sweaty shirts with American James Blake at the end of a straight-set first-round defeat.

 ”Before coming onto the court, I was in the locker room with two close friends and my dad. We were joking. We made a few photos. We tried to immortalize the moment,” he said. “We knew it might be the last time. When I left the locker room, I immediately focused on the match. I knew I was ready, because I practiced very well during the past days. I worked hard, I had no pain. I was playing well during practice, but this doesn’t mean you can play a high-level match. So I wasn’t sure.

“I was able to hold my serve. I was the first one to break him. It was a very intense match with high-level tennis. But that feeling of thinking [as I was] coming out of the locker rooms that it might be the last time I would walk down those steps and be in the middle of this huge arena is something very difficult to express. Although

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Janet Maslin of the NY Times writes her review of the Agassi $28.95 book.

Andre Agassi often says in “Open” that tennis is a lonely game. But the writing of this autobiography was a team sport. Mr. Agassi’s memoir was put together by J. R. Moehringer, who wrote “The Tender Bar,” a shapely and expert memoir of his own. The same gift of gab that colored Mr. Moehringer’s tales of being a boy in a barroom now magically finds its way onto the tennis court and into Mr. Agassi’s much-analyzed, follicularly challenged head.

Inevitably one wonders which of them actually wrote “it’s the main reason for my pigeon-toed walk” about Mr. Agassi’s troublesome bottom vertebra. The ease with which Mr. Moehringer slips into telling someone else’s story is both consummate and spooky. As for Mr. Agassi, he uses his writing partner in the same way he uses his tennis support staff: as talented individuals in a universe where he, Mr. Agassi, is the one and only sun. (He said that he offered to put Mr. Moehringer’s name on the book, and that Mr. Moehringer declined.)

Welcome to Mr. Agassi’s world. As described in “Open” it is lively but narrow, since Mr. Agassi’s curiosity does not extend far beyond tennis, more tennis, the misery of tennis, the way sportswriters misunderstand tennis and the

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Roger Federer missed out on a fourth successive Swiss Indoors title when he lost to third-ranked Novak Djokovic in the final on Sunday.

The Serbian won 6-4 4-6 6-2 to record his third win over Federer in five meetings this year.

Federer, who had not dropped a set or lost a service game on his way to the final, had his serve broken four times as he lost a final for the third time this year, following defeats at the Australian and U.S. Open.

The match featured an extraordinary 10th game in the first set where Federer saved six set points and Djokovic saved five break points before the Serbian wrapped up the game at the seventh attempt. The third and deciding set was unusual as for the first time in memory Federer looked tired! His movement around the court was laboured and half a step slower than his norm. It seems obvious that his 8 week lay-off has not done much for him except make him unprepared for top quality tennis.

Andy Murray on the other hand looked comparetively sharp as he picked up his sixth title of the year and the 14th of his career with a comprehensive victory over Mikhail Youzhny at the inaugural Valencia Open.

The world number four, playing in his

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Italy is the Fed Cup champion nation for 2009. It should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed this years championship. As expected they easily defeated the young American team on their home ground, on the surface of their choice before throngs of cheering Italian fans.

The question will be raised as to whether the Williams sisters would have made a difference to the outcome, and would their inclusion on the American team given the USA a victory. We will never know the answer. In my opinion they would have also been defeated by the experienced Italians, but it might have been closer.

Without the Williams sister, and they can’t last forever, American women’s tennis is at an all time low, and tennis fans must get used to the idea that the USA cannot win as they used to do in the ‘good old days’.

Melanie Oudin, Alexa Glatch and Liezel Huber deserved to be in the final, they were the ones who were responsible for the team reaching the final, and the experience they gained in Italy was invaluable. They have formed a camaraderie that can only benefit them in the future, and make them into better players and competitors. Representing their country in a hostile environment, with only a handful of friendly faces in the crowd, on a cold wet weekend far away

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 ”To receive a one-year ban because of this seems extremely harsh and is potentially career-ending for both of them,” US Open champion Clijsters said on her Twitter message system.

“While they may not have followed correct administration, they did not register a positive doping offence either.

“I feel I have to write about this. Its very, very unfortunate what’s happened to Yanina and Xavier this week.”

“I hope the authorities and athletes can work together on finding better solutions to keep our sports clean.”

Both players can appeal against their suspensions to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Wickmayer and Malisse were on Thursday handed one-year bans by the Flemish Doping Tribunal (VDT) for falling foul of doping regulations.

Wickmayer, the world number 18, was suspended for failing to fulfill the controversial “whereabouts rule” while Malisse was also punished for missing a drug test.

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