TENNIS in DEPTH.

Defending champion Venus may again be the one to watch. Not only did the American sizzle in the desert when the Sony Ericsson Championships were held here last year, her biggest title win so far in 2009 was just down the road in Dubai.

But if anyone is due, maybe it’s Dementieva. Having won three titles and reached two Grand Slam semis this year the 28-year-old is making her ninth appearance at the event – the most of any active player. Serena has also qualified nine times, but on three occasions injury or illness has kept her on the sidelines.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Centre Court (from 17.00hrs)

1. Victoria Azarenka vs. Jelena Jankovic

2. Elena Dementieva vs. Venus Williams

3. Serena Williams vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova

This year’s doubles event also promises to enthrall, not least because Serena and Venus are in the field.

Roland Garros was the only Slam the sisters didn’t win in 2009, but although they also won at Stanford their trophy haul was surpassed by co-world No.1s Cara Black and Liezel Huber, who won five titles and are gunning for a third straight SEC crown this week. Spanish first-timers Nuria Llagostera Vives and María José Martínez Sánchez did even better, though, winning six titles. The draw is rounded out by Australians Samantha Stosur and, making her 14th SEC appearance, Rennae Stubbs.

The Williamses, who also qualified in 1998 but withdrew because Venus was injured, could achieve joint No.1 status if they win here – as long as Black and Huber don’t reach the final. Serena, therefore, has a rare shot at finishing the year as No.1 in both disciplines. At the start of the week, the difference between No.1 (Safina) and No.2 (Serena) is 155 points. Each round robin win awards 160 points, so the math is simple.

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A total prize money purse of $4,550,000, and the coveted year-end No.1 ranking is up for grabs.

The stellar eight-woman line-up includes four players who have been No.1, three Grand Slam champions, and four who’ve been to at least one major final. Two of the field made their Top 10 debuts this season and are at the championships for the first time. Between them, they pocketed 21 of the 53 titles that were on offer during this landmark ‘Roadmap’ season.

As last year, the competitors have been divided into two groups named for the colors of the Qatari flag. The White group comprises No.1 seed Dinara Safina, No.4 seed Caroline Wozniacki, No.6 seed Victoria Azarenka and No.8 seed Jelena Jankovic. The Maroon Group is made up of No.2 seed Serena Williams, No.3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova (the only player who arrives on a winning streak after her triumph at Beijing), No.5 seed Elena Dementieva and No.7 seed Venus Williams.

Last year’s runner-up, Vera Zvonareva, and Agnieszka Radwanska wait in the wings as alternates.

The only certainty, then, is that there will not be an all-Williams final. But before anyone thinks that far ahead they need to survive the round robin, which makes the career head to heads relevant. Against her White group peers Safina is 8-4; Wozniacki is 1-5; Azarenka is 4-8 and Jankovic is 8-4. In the Maroons, reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Serena is 22-16, French Open champion Kuznetsova is 12-12, Dementieva is 10-21 and Venus is 22-17.

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Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland defeated Sabine Lisicki 6-2, 7-5 to record her first WTA title in Luxembourg. She reached the final by ending Yanina Wickmayer’s winning streak in the semi final, and in Sunday’s final she dominated from the first game. Lisicki could not find any rhythm to her game, and had trouble winning points in the first 5 games of the first set. The second set was much closer with both players using the drop shot to win points. Timea served for the match at 5-4 but was broken and had to wait until the score was 6-5 in her favour before she eventually served to win the match.

“I’m really happy with the way everything went today. I played in a smart way and just went for it. I wasn’t nervous at all,” Bacsinszky said. “It’s great to win my first title. I don’t think I’ve realized what it means for me yet. For now I just want to stay focused because I have another tournament next week.”

“Timea played well. My leg was hurting a bit but I still tried to fight. I rushed too much today and I could tell that I was tired from my semifinal,” Lisicki said. “I didn’t take my chances but you can always learn from something like this.”

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 Marcos Baghdatis lifted his first ATP World Tour title since February 2007, after defeating Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-1, 7-5 at the If Stockholm Open on Sunday. Baghdatis became the 10th unseeded winner of the ATP World Tour this year.

World No. 66 Baghdatis earned €93,000 in prize money and won 250 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking points, while Rochus pocketed €49,000 and 150 points.

Baghdatis, who won his third ATP Challenger Tour title last week at Tashkent (d. Istomin), made a confident start in his seventh ATP World Tour final.

The 24 year old converted his third break point opportunity in the fourth game and his decisively broke in the sixth game. He won 66 per cent of service points and hit eight aces in the 40-minute first set.

The pair exchanged service breaks at the start of the second set and again in the sixth and seventh games. Baghdatis, who beat Rochus 7-5, 6-4 at the 2006 Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, broke serve for the fifth time in the 11th game and went on to wrap up victory in one hour and 39 minutes.

The talented Baghdatis, who has not quite lived up to his promise after reaching the Australian Open final in 2006, sunk to his knees and celebrated.

Clearly moved, he kissed the floor of the Royal Tennis Hall.

“It’s a great feeling and I’m so happy,” Baghdatis said in an on-court interview. “It’s been a long while since I’ve won a tournament, especially an ATP tournament.”

Baghdatis’s two previous wins came in Beijing in 2006 and in Zagreb in 2007.

“Last year was really hard for me, so it’s great to have this win today. I don’t really know what to say right now, I’m just happy. I wish it continues.”

“First set, I was a bit lucky and broke him twice. Then in the second set Olivier started playing, he began returning me and reading my game.”

Asked about his future, Baghdatis, 24, said: “I don’t want any limits, and I don’t want to set any goals. I just want to be more consistent than ever.”

Baghdatis won 62 per cent of service points, hit 15 aces and saved four of six break points. It was his third ATP World Tour trophy (3-4 lifetime) and first since 4 February 2007 at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors.

The former World No. 8 (21 August 2006) improved to a 23-16 match record on the year. Rochus, 28, dropped to 3-4 in ATP World Tour finals and to 13-7 this year. It was his first final appearance since 30 September 2007 at Mumbai (l. to Gasquet).

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Mikhail Youzhny took Russian domination of the Kremlin Cup into a sixth year after seeing off Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic to win the title in Moscow.

The event has been won by a Russian for the last five years and Youzhny made sure that trend continued after coming from behind to put in a dominant performance.

Youzhny, seeded third in the competition, had not lost a set coming into the showpiece but was soon behind after Tipsarevic took the opener 7-6 (7/5).

He responded in emphatic fashion, levelling the scores without reply to take the second set 6-0 and closed out victory by taking the decisive set 6-4.

Youzhny’s dominance in the serve was a key factor as he hit 14 aces in a match which occupied two hours and 45 minutes.

In the gentler side of the Kremlin Cup there was hardly a Russian woman to be seen anywhere, and Francesca Schiavone was the long-shot winner.

Schiavone, the No.8 seed at the Premier-level tournament, battled for two and a half hours to escape her first round match against qualifier Nuria Llagostera Vives, but didn’t drop a single set the rest of the way, including losing a total of just 12 games in her last three matches combined.

In Sunday’s final, Schiavone found herself on serve with the unseeded Olga Govortsova at 4-3 in the first set but reeled off eight games in a row to win, 63 60. During those eight games she lost only 11 points to the Belarusian.

“At the start it was a fight. We had a big game, the sixth game of the first set, that lasted about 15 minutes. I won it to go up 4-2, then I won the first set,” Schiavone said. “In the second set I was very solid. When I got to 4-0 in the second set I looked at the trophy and said to myself, ‘I’m coming to get you!’”

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Maria did a conference call with media where she talks about playing Memphis next year and her comeback this year amongst other things.

Maria, we’re looking forward to having you back in Memphis and looking forward to a terrific 2010 Cellular South Cup.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: Thank you. I’m looking forward to it, as well.

BILL RAPP: I know you returned to the tour just before the ’09 French Open after a 10-month layoff with the shoulder injury. At the time your ranking was around 160. You finished strong, 31-9, winning Tokyo. Talk to us about how you’re feeling right now and what your plans are for the 2010 season.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: I’m really excited and so blessed finishing off the season I have a couple of months going into next year. Sitting down and looking back into what kind of happened this year, what I achieved personally to get back on the court, play tennis and do what I love, win my title in Tokyo, it was great. It makes you realize that all the hard work you put in for so many months is really worth it at the end of the day.

I’m looking forward to the off-season. I have a couple of months to train and get ready and build a good base for 2010.

BILL RAPP: From a more local angle, tell us your thoughts about the excitement to return to Memphis and play the Cellular South Cup.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: It’s been so long since I’ve been back. I think I was 17. It was a few months before I won my first Grand Slam. That seems like a very long time ago. So I felt like I needed to renew that and come back again. I heard so many great things about the renovations of the courts and the stadium as well. I’m really looking forward to going back and playing.

It actually fit into my schedule really well, considering I’ll be traveling pretty far away from basically January on for the Australian and a few XO’s before that. To be able to come home and probably train a week and then have almost like a local tournament to me is really great. It fit perfectly into my schedule. So I’m really fortunate that I’m playing there.

Q. Your comeback was very visible. You were on TV an awful lot and went through some things that were pretty impressive in terms of missing so much time. Talk about how important it was to get the win in Tokyo for your confidence.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: It was. You know, after losing at the US Open, it was interesting because I was really excited to go back on the court and work hard because I felt like I knew what I needed to work on. I just had a fresh perspective. I didn’t get angry. I was a little bit disappointed. But in a day I found myself back on the court again and training and working.

I think because of that attitude and the positive thoughts, the determination that you put into the work every day, I think it ultimately brings good things to the table. It was certainly a really great test for me to play six matches in six days against really tough opponents. In Toronto only a few weeks before that I kind of ran out of steam. In Tokyo, I felt really good and fresh.

So I felt like I learned something. I feel like I’ve learned so many things this year, as well.

Q. When you miss time on the tour, even a couple months, how difficult is it coming back? When you’re gone, things don’t slow down.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: Oh, absolutely.

Q. How hard is it to return from a psychological standpoint?

MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah, I mean, the tennis world still goes around. There are many younger players coming up, everyone is still playing. But you got to get back on the train fast. There’s no real choice. But you can’t expect to do something more than you’re able to do. You got to realize that we’re all human, we’re all going to learn from our mistakes. At the end of the day, it’s how you come from the tough, not just when you’re up, up, up.

It’s definitely a process. It still is. Like I said, it’s a blessing to be able to do what I do and still be able to do it.

Q. Obviously you put Memphis on the calendar for next year. You didn’t play a full season this year.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: Right.

Q. What is your take on the Roadmap so far? This has been the first year.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: Right. I mean, I only got to experience it from the second part of the year. But I think there are many great things to it. I definitely think the back-to-back big events are probably one of the most challenging of the year, where you probably have Rome and Madrid together, then Tokyo and Beijing together, so close together, big draws, all the top players. That’s probably maybe something that we’ll try to look into and see how we can make it into a little bit more efficient than it is, ’cause it’s some of the things that many of the players have been talking about.

But overall I think it’s great to be able to have bigger tournaments than we did before with, you know, more players playing, bigger prize money as well. To be able to have that in tough times like this, you know, it’s pretty darn good.

Q. What about the situation where some top players haven’t been able to play events they wanted to play because of the new commitments?

MARIA SHARAPOVA: The top 10 list, you mean?

Q. Yes. Haven’t been able to play some of the smaller tournaments they wanted to play.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: Right. Well, I think the reason behind that is because we want to encourage all the players to be playing the big events. That’s where the points are. That’s where the money is. That’s why they’re there. That’s why the tournaments are so big. I don’t know how they do it, but if girls are playing 30 tournaments a year, obviously you’re only counted for 16. At the end of the day, it’s not only tough, it’s tough for your body, for your mind, and it’s a long season. I think we’re trying to protect injuries and we’re trying to encourage players – not me – to play the bigger events, a smaller number of them, so they can compete at a higher level at the right time.

Q. We talked about the schedule and the Roadmap, supposed to make it easier to stay injury-free. What do you think about the players who play a long season and then play exhibitions? Isn’t that sort of talking out both sides of your mouth?

MARIA SHARAPOVA: It’s actually a good point. I think the most important thing about that is when do you do it? If you have an off-season for, I don’t know, two months, two and a half months, obviously the men it’s very different, their off-season is only about one month, but we’re fortunate to have a little bit of a longer off-season. If you’re doing XO’s maybe close to the first Grand Slam of the year, towards the end of the year as preparation, as part of your training, then that’s a great thing.

Q. How is this off-season going to be different after coming back from the injury compared to some of the past off-seasons?

MARIA SHARAPOVA: I think it will be refreshing after this year because, one, in a way I felt like I’ve kind of been playing catch-up this whole year. I was trying for the first part of the year just to get myself back on the court. Then when I finally got myself back on the court and was feeling better than I was before, I was trying to get into match shape. But then, you know, you don’t get into match shape just by practicing for three weeks. So I felt like it was kind of catch-up.

Now in the next few months, next couple of months, before the big one, I have time to really create a base and to actually, you know, go on the court and work on things without having to think about the consequences of what it can do to this or my shoulder or other things. That’s why I’m excited about it.

Q. You mentioned thinking about the consequences. Do you think sometimes the reason that kind of looms is because the media can use an injury or a comeback as a story line?

MARIA SHARAPOVA: It’s tough for me to think that way. I’m way too experienced. Even though I’m 22, I’ve been on the tour for long enough to know that everyone’s going to have an opinion and everyone wants a story line. That’s what makes the world go round. If we didn’t have opinions, if everyone liked the way you were, the world would be really boring. You have to appreciate everyone’s opinions and respect them.

At the end of the day, you have to do what’s right for you, not what’s right for, say, who’s writing a story.

Q. Going through what you went through as far as surgery, how difficult was the actual process of recovering and rehabilitating? Was it harder than you thought physically and mentally?

MARIA SHARAPOVA: It was a lot longer than I thought, yeah. But I learned that’s the doctor’s way. They keep you optimistic. Then after a few months, you find out that the reality pretty much is in your own hands and in time’s hands. If the shoulder is going to heal in six months, I mean, it will be pretty tough to get back on the court in three months.

In the beginning, I found myself figuring out when I was going to play or looking at the schedule and saying, I’m going to be ready by this tournament. So many of those goals were shredded to pieces. I came to a point where I was like, I don’t really care when I come back, I just want to come back, whenever that is.

The fact that I realized that actually helped me. That was kind of a tough time ’cause I wanted to know when I was going to be back. But, I mean, mentally and physically it was work. I mean, I wasn’t on vacation. I wish I could say that I was traveling around the world and on vacation. But I worked probably harder than I have in my career just to get back to playing, and that wasn’t even on the court.

It was a process. But it’s all worth it. It will be worth it, so…

Q. When you go into your off-season training, how will that process change? Will you do anything differently?

MARIA SHARAPOVA: I’ll definitely be able to spend more time on the court, you know, ’cause I’m feeling a lot better. My arm is definitely feeling a lot better than it did just, say, maybe two or three months ago. I feel like I can do a lot more on the court, more repetition, more time, and also not worry as much as I did. So I think in that perspective, I’ll be different. I hope it will be different (laughter).

Q. You mentioned more time on the court. Now that you’re 22, do you tweak your off-season program, mixing in weight training, adding some things now since you are healthy, trying to build your base again?

MARIA SHARAPOVA: I mean, unfortunately, I’ll still be doing shoulder rehab exercises for rest of my career. That’s just the way it goes. That’s part of an athlete’s life after you’ve had a pretty serious injury. So that will still be part of the regime. I’ll definitely be working on my fitness going into Australia.

Most importantly, I want to spend time on the court ’cause ultimately you can do all the weight training, this and that, at the end of the day, the only thing that’s going to make you better is by playing tennis.

Q. You had some very memorable battles against Justine Henin. Thinking about the match you played a couple years ago at the year-end championship.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah, that was fun.

Q. Just a few comments on her comeback. Were you surprised? Are you looking forward to having her in the mix again?

MARIA SHARAPOVA: I mean, to be honest, I think I was more surprised she retired than she’s coming back. The competitor that she is, when you do something for such a long time, when you stop, it must be nice for a little bit. But because of what we do, because of our competitive spirit, I’m sure she watched some of the tennis on TV, as well, and she got that back.

If you really think about it, I mean, we have a pretty darn good life. We travel around the world. We play some of the most amazing tournaments in the world. We stay at great places. We make good money. I mean, why not? I’m definitely not surprised.

Q. Her comeback spurred a lot of discussion about whether there should be a provision for a mental health break or a sabbatical. What do you think about that idea? I know you had forced time off.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: I just about spit my oatmeal out of my mouth. That was really funny (laughter).

With so many things on our plates right now, the Roadmap, everything else, I don’t see that being something that we’re going to be talking about too much in the near future. I mean, I think it’s a personal choice. It’s about how you feel, and every individual is different. Every individual is in a different part of their career. One can be coming up, is 17, is hungry, has all the energy in the world. Somebody might be playing for years and years and is tired. Everyone is different.

I think it’s about listening to yourself and realizing what you need and what you feel. I mean, if you need a break, you need a break, and you take a break. I mean, it’s your choice.

Q. Sorry about the oatmeal.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: That’s okay. That just came out of left field (laughter).

Q. What do you feel over the past six months on court worked for you well and what has to work better for you next year?

MARIA SHARAPOVA: I mean, I can take a few good things away from this year. I think the fact that I wasn’t able to serve for so long, you know, I worked on my return quite a bit. I felt like towards the end of the year that really improved and that was really strong and it pulled me out of many matches without serving great.

You know, there are other little things that I had worked on, minor details, but I feel like in the time that I had, they were pretty specific and I had time to work on them.

As far as what I can improve, I mean, I can definitely get stronger, I can get quicker. That’s something that I’d like to work on. Overall, God, I don’t know. I mean, I feel like you can add a little percentage here, a little percentage there. In today’s game that’s pretty huge. That’s what you strive for. That’s what we go out on the court for.

Q. The young players like Azarenka, Wozniacki, Radwanska, who has impressed you the most?

MARIA SHARAPOVA: Did you say besides them?

Q. No, including them.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: Well, how much younger are they?

Q. Three or four years younger than you.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: Why do you have to make me feel so old on a Thursday morning (laughter)?

You know, goodness, what can I say? I mean, I thought Azarenka is probably one of the best out of the pack. I think she has a really great fighting spirit. You know, she has a great all-around game. I felt like from the time I played her in L.A., to the time I played her in Beijing, you could see she lost the match against me, and there’s that game plan going into the next match. She definitely improved how she played. I thought as a player, that’s always pretty impressive because you always try to learn from your losses.

But, yeah, I think she’s probably up there.

Q. On the whereabouts issue with drug testing, do you find it overly burdensome and do you feel it should be modified to accommodate the peripatetic lifestyle of tennis players, especially at tournaments?

MARIA SHARAPOVA: Personally, I don’t mind. I don’t have a problem listing where I’m going to be every single day of my life. That’s not a big issue. I think if it’s going to make our sport clean, then that’s the most important thing. I mean, I had someone come last year on the 23rd of December, two days before Christmas, and they were sitting upstairs with me because I couldn’t pee. They were like doing a puzzle with me for an hour. You know, you laugh at the situation.

Q. That must explain why I didn’t get a present last year.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: I didn’t have time, you see (laughter).

You know, it obviously sounds ridiculous, but in a way it’s smart.

Q. But at tournaments when we know where you are, does it seem overly burdensome to put down where you’re going to be every day when you know you’re at an event?

MARIA SHARAPOVA: I mean, why? Everyone knows you’re at the event, right? I mean, one of the toughest things is when we play, say, a quarterfinal, a night match, and we get randomly tested after the quarterfinal match, then we win the match and we have to play the next day. That’s probably the toughest thing because we can be sitting in there for an hour, you know, at 1:00 in the morning you find yourself going to bed with a 1 p.m. match the next day. So that’s a little bit tough. Probably the smartest thing to do is when you’re out of the tournament or when you lose, or if you win the tournament, like we do in the Grand Slams.

GINA CLEMENT: This concludes our call. As you know, Maria will play her first-round match at the Cellular South Cup on Monday, February 15th, at 7 p.m. Thank you, everyone, for your time.

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No. 1 Safina: Has a 55-15 record overall, 20-4 in Grand Slams this year with three titles (Rome, Madrid and Portoroz). Had a great start to the year and has slipped badly in the second half of 2009. Not worth putting a nickel on her.

No. 2 Serena: Has a 45-12 record overall, 23-2 in Slams with two titles (Australian Open, Wimbledon). She’s had a busy year, playing more tournaments, posing tastefully nude for a magazine, talking about the insecurities she has with her body, doing beau coup book signings for her autobiography and then ripping a new one for some Asian lineswoman in the semis of the U.S. Open. Hasn’t been too active on the court since that over-heated match with Clijsters in New York. Still, this is Serena Williams. If she’s motivated, she wins this.

No. 3 Dementieva: Has a 54-16 record overall, 13-4 in Slams with three titles (Auckland, Sydney and Toronto). I love a lot of things about her game and her once pathetic serve has progressed considerably. But she’s going down as one of the finest women players never to win a Slam. Marginal chances at this event.

No. 4 Wozniacki: Has a 65-21 record overall, 13-4 in Slams with three titles (Ponte Vedra Beach, Eastbourne, New Haven). Young, beautiful, athletic, talented. And she’s played 86 matches this year, which is more than you’d like if you weren’t a teenager. At some point, her still-young emotional state is going to catch up with her talent level, though probably not at this event. She could be overwhelmed at an eight-player event with only the best on tour in the house.

No. 5 Kuznetsova: Has a 42-14 record overall, 16-3 in Slams with three titles (French Open, Stuttgart, Beijing). You thought that win at Roland Garros would give her a major bounce into the rest of the season, didn’t you? Winning a Slam means the season is a success, but she wasn’t nearly as consistent as she could be. Rated along with Serena and Venus as one of the three who can win this.

No. 6 Azarenka: Has a 44-13 record overall, 13-4 in Slams with two titles (Memphis, Key Biscayne). The female version of Andy Murray. She will get forced errors out of you, but won’t hit you off the court.

No. 7 Venus Williams: Has a 36-13 record overall, 12-4 in Slams with two titles (Acapulco, Dubai). She hasn’t played V-Ball since her first six matches at Wimbledon. Injuries continue to nag at her, but she’s had a good rest since the Open.

No. 8 Jankovic: Has a 47-16 record overall (as of today), 9-4 in Slams with two titles (Marbella, Cincinnati). One of those handful of players who luxuriated, briefly, as No. 1 after Henin’s retirement a year and a half ago. Has failed to add a compelling serve to go with her ground stroking and annoyingly effective defense.

Charles Bricker can be reached at bricker@tennisnews.com

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Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky defeated fifth-seeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 on Saturday to make the finals of the Luxembourg Open.

Bacsinszky struggled in the third set to keep her lead, as Wickmayer fought back to tie the set 5-5 before the Swiss player won the match after the Belgian hit the ball into the net. Wickmayer was suffering from too much tennis in too few weeks. She continually lost her focus and concentration, and at times seemed tired and disinterested. This loss brings to an end her phenominal win streak that will place her in the top twenty when the WTA rankings come out on Monday.

Bacsinszky will play for her first WTA Tour single’s title on Sunday against sixth-seeded Sabine Lisicki of Germany. Lisicki fought hard to come back from 2-4 in the third set against Shahar Peer to force a tie breaker which she eventually won for a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 victory.

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