TENNIS in DEPTH.

Serena Williams is back on the U.S. Fed Cup team for the first time since 2007.

Surprise U.S. Open quarterfinalist Melanie Oudin is also on the roster announced Tuesday by the U.S. Tennis Association for the Nov. 7-8 final against host Italy.

Williams leads active women with 11 Grand Slam singles titles and is 4-0 in Fed Cup singles matches over her career. Her sister Venus is not on the team.

Top-ranked doubles player Liezel Huber and Alexa Glatch round out the roster.

U.S. captain Mary Joe Fernandez says she strongly believes her team can win the Fed Cup title, something the country hasn’t done since 2000.

Italy could reach top spot in the ITF Fed Cup Nations Ranking for the first time in the country’s history.

If Italy triumphs over USA in the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Final, being held in Reggio Calabria on 7-8 November, it will over take Russia, the reigning champion and current No. 1.

Italy defeated Russia 4-1 in April’s semifinals, a victory that was inspired by Francesca Schiavone’s superb three sets win over Svetlana Kuznetsova, who clinched the title at Roland Garros just a few weeks later.

On the other hand, if USA is victorious – which would be its 18th title – it will leapfrog Italy into second place, with Russia remaining top.

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Serena gained revenge over French Open conqueror Svetlana Kuznetsova, winning her opening group match at the 4.55 million dollar tournament 7-6 (8/6), 7-5 in an error-plagued encounter.

The American, the champion in 2001, did it the hard way against the Russian, saving two set points in the first set tie-breaker and coming back from a 1-3 deficit in the second.

The win helped Serena strike the first blow against Dinara Safina who controversially deposed her as world number one on Monday. The American second seed needs to out-perform the Russian this week to regain the year-end top spot.

“I had chances in the tie-break and my mind was still in the first set at the start of the second,” said Serena, who needed an ankle injury taped at the end of the first set and committed 32 unforced errors.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Centre Court (from 17.00hrs)

1. Caroline Wozniacki vs. Victoria Azarenka

2. Dinara Safina vs. Jelena Jankovic

3. Serena Williams vs. Venus Williams

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Elena Dementieva lit up the WTA Championships on Tuesday with a sensational comeback to beat title holder Venus Williams 3-6 7-6 6-2 on the opening day of group matches.

The tenacious Russian looked down and out when she twice trailed by a break in the second set but blazed back under the Khalifa Stadium floodlights to leave her American opponent reeling.

In the other group, former world number one Jelena Jankovic lost 6-2 6-3 to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, one of two players making their debuts in the season-ending showpiece which will decide who ends the year as world number one.

Serena Williams, battling to overtake world number one Dinara Safina, plays later against French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova before meeting her sister on Wednesday.

Quite how much Venus, the world number seven, will have left in the tank is debatable after a brutal contest in high humidity against Dementieva, a player making her ninth appearance in 10 years at the Championships.

She seemed to be well in control when she led 3-1 in the second set against the Olympic champion who she had beaten in nine of their 11 previous matches, but Dementieva dug deep to level at 3-3.

A Dementieva double-fault at 5-5 gave Williams the chance to serve for the match but the Russian hit back immediately with a searing backhand pass to set up a tiebreaker which she clinched when Williams also served a double-fault.

The deciding set was one-way traffic as an inspired Dementieva broke twice for a 4-0 lead before clinching her first victory over Venus for more than five years with another backhand winner.

“In the end I was very emotional very positive,” Dementieva, who lost to Serena Williams in a high-quality Wimbledon semi-final this year, said on court.

“When you play against a player like Venus you can’t put pressure on yourself but you have to fight or every point.”

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Victoria Azarenka made short work of Jelena Jankovic on her Sony Ericsson Championship debut in Doha on Tuesday.

The Belorussian raced to a 6-2 6-3 win over her Serbian opponent in one hour 22 minutes in the opening match of the tournament, which features the top eight players in the world.

It was Azarenka’s second win over Jankovic in their fifth career meeting, and her success on her opponents’ serve proved key.

Azarenka broke twice in the first set and three times in the second to pave the way for victory.

The 20-year-old won 50% of points of Jankovic’s first serve and 60% on her second, carving out nine break opportunities.

She faced just two break points of her own, losing one. “I struggled throughout the match. I made a lot of unforced errors. My game was completely off,” Jankovic said. “That’s part of the game though. Sometimes you want to play your best but it just doesn’t happen. I just hope I can play better tomorrow, and I’ll keep trying my best in this whole competition.”

Azarenka and Jankovic are in the White Group along with Russian Dinara Safina, the world number one, and Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki.

The Maroon Group gets under way later today with Elena Dementieva taking on Venus Williams and Serena Williams facing Svetlana Kuznetsova.

The top two players from each group advance to the semi-finals.

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Venus Williams, at 29, is the elder stateswoman in all respects. The defending champion from the United States is charming and relaxed – though her form at the end of this year suggested she ought to be a touch troubled.

Since the final of Wimbledon in July, Williams has played seven tournaments, reached a single semi-final and in her last two events, in Japan and China, was beaten by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the Russian teenager, long before the business end of the week. As a form-guide for surviving against the other seven “best of the best” in 2009 this week, it is not healthy.

“I love what I do, so that’s a complete up for me,” she said. “I get to work outside. My thing is I get to make a living looking good. It’s my job to stay fit. It doesn’t get better than that.” Indeed not, though in relishing all of the positive attributes, one cannot help but wonder whether Venus can again lift one of the game’s golden pots.

Of her last 16 grand slam tournaments, Venus has won two, the Wimbledon titles of 2007 and 2008. Serena, her sister, bagged five in that time.

“I’m always determined, you got to have that determination hat on every single day, even at practice, to be prepared,” she said. “It’s a lifestyle. I’m at the point in my career where I’ve been very successful at every tournament just about, almost on every surface. For me it’s about obviously playing great tennis, adding to my repertoire, continuing to get better, to enjoy the challenge of it all obviously while being on top.”

Today’s initial challenge in the Maroon Group, comes from Elena Dementieva, the third Russian in the field with Dinara Safina, back at the head of the rankings, and the French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsoava.

The fresh faces are in the White Group where Caroline Wozniacki, the Dane who reached her first grand slam final in New York in September, and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, are this year’s debutants. They are ranked No 4 and No 6 respectively, two Europeans on the cusp of greatness, who are sure to be making noises in the game when Venus has kicked back in her rocking chair.

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Andy Murray and Laura Robson will team up for Great Britain at the Hopman Cup in January, tournament organisers have confirmed.

World number four Murray and former Wimbledon girl’s champion Robson will compete as a mixed doubles team for the first time, while the format of the tournament means they will each also play singles matches.

The tournament is staged in Perth, Australia, from January 2-9, and Murray’s involvement points to a change in his preparations for the Australian Open, which begins on January 18 in Melbourne.

He has for the past three years started the season by competing in Doha, where this year he beat Roger Federer and Andy Roddick on the way to successfully defending his title.

Hopman Cup director Paul McNamee told WA Today: “It’s the first time he’s chosen to prepare for the Australian Open in Australia so that’s a big statement by Andy.

“He’s never done well at the Australian Open.

“He indicated through his management he wanted to do something different this year.

“They noticed (Novak) Djokovic (in 2008) and (Marat) Safin (in 2005) used the Perth route to win the Australian Open so they are giving it a shot.

“Andy wants to break through for his first grand slam.”

Robson, meanwhile, could have the chance to face some of the tour’s top women’s players, with the 15-year-old’s possible opponents set to include Elena Dementieva and Melanie Oudin.

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 Elena Dementieva and Maria Kirilenko will take on Zheng Jie of China and Sania Mirza of India in a “Russia v Asia” clash at Malawati Stadium in Shah Alam on Dec 19-20.

The tentative format of play is one doubles on the first day and two singles matches the next day.

This is the first time WTA Tour players will play an exhibition in Malaysia as the previous two years featured ATP stars. Billed as the ‘Asia versus Russia — The Gram Slam’, the tournament sees Russian beauty Anna Kournikova as its ambassador. Kournikova will join Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Ng Yen Yen at the official launch of the exhibition match in Bukit Bintang at 2pm and is set to meet ‛fans’ at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) along Jalan Duta at about 4pm.

World No 5 Elena is a seasoned campaigner on the tour, having won 16 WTA titles and also the gold medal in last year’s Beijing Olympics while Maria, who was World No 18 last year, is a rising star.

Zheng Jie’s prowess is in doubles and her most memorable year was in 2006 when she and Yan Zi won two Grand Slam titles (Australian Open and Wimbledon).

This year, she created history by becoming the first China player to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals.

Sania, who won the mixed doubles gold with Leander Paes in the 2006 Doha Asian Games, has won one singles and eight doubles titles on the WTA Tour.

The exhibition is also a nice introduction to the Malaysian Open Classic, a new event on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour calendar, to be hosted in Kuala Lumpur next February.

Tourism Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen will launch the Russia v Asia match at the Pavilion in Kuala Lumpur today and joining her will be former star Anna Kournikova, the ambassador of the event.

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Nikolay Davydenko is not one to mince words. The Russian tends to say exactly what he thinks, at all times – much to the chargin of the ATP and sometimes fellow players.

During the week at the Shanghai Masters he criticised tournaments in the USA (saying Asian events are “ten times better organised”), slammed players who claimed the season was too long and freely admitted he loves the “great prizemoney” that the big events offer.

The 28-year-old was also quite willing to compare the games of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for the benefit of the world’s media.

It was fascinating to hear a player’s insight into facing the two great champions. According to Davydenko, Federer’s big serve and tendency to go for winners mean the play feels very fast. “He didn’t make so long rally and you need always running with him. It’s much more difficult.”

In contrast, Nadal preference for longer rallies means a slower place. “You have always chance to control ball. You have always chance to play long line across (crosscourt), always fighting with him. Essentially Davydenko emphasised that Nadal, great player and competitor that he is, is emimently beatable whereas the Swiss is often untouchable

“If he [has] very good feeling, have very good confidence, it’s not so easy to beat him. Davydenko recalled their Roland Garros fourth round clash in 2009, where he had many chances but couldn’t get near the eventual champion

“I have always chance to win first, second or third set, but I didn’t because he was better, you know, good concentration and did the job.”

Such honesty is rare in sports, especially individual sports like tennis. It is hard to imagine Phil Mickelson discussing the merits of Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia is such a fashion.

Davydenko trumped Nadal to win the Shanghai Masters, but made it clear things would have been very different had the Fed express been in town. “I don’t know if I play today against Federer what can happen. “Really, it’s a different situation, you know. I was really happy it was not Federer today.”

Courtesy of Michael Burgess TVNZ.co.nz.

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