TENNIS in DEPTH.

Serena Williams has pulled out of next week’s Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo as she continues her recovery from a foot injury.

The 28-year-old American has not played since her victory at Wimbledon after cutting her right foot on broken glass in a restaurant.

Williams described withdrawing from the US Open last month as “one of the most devastating moments of my career”.

Tokyo will be the fifth tournament she has missed because of the injury.

Wimbledon runner-up Vera Zvonareva, French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, world number two Caroline Wozniacki and defending champion Maria Sharapova are among those scheduled to play in Tokyo.

Williams, who was in London this week to attend for a fashion show, underwent surgery in Los Angeles on 15 July.

Victories in this year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon took her career record to 13 Grand Slam titles.

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Fernando Gonzalez is to have hip surgery that will keep him out of action for up to nine months.

The 30-year-old confirmed  that he will go under the knife in New York on October 4 for a procedure on his right hip and is also set to have a minor operation on his right knee.

Gonzalez reached number five in the world after losing to Roger Federer in the final in Melbourne in 2007 but has had a disappointing 2010 and has dropped to 44th in the world rankings, his lowest position since 2002.

The Chilean, who will be operated on by renowned orthopaedic surgeon Dr Brian Kelly, has won only four of his last 10 matches and retired midway through his first-round clash with Ivan Dodig at the US Open.

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Former world number one Ana Ivanovic crashed out, as the Serbian seventh seed was beaten 6-2 4-6 2-6 by Russian Vera Dushevina. 

I’m very disappointed,” said Ana. “After the first set I didn’t play well at all. She put me under pressure and didn’t make many mistakes so she deserved to win.

“It’s extra disappointing because I have been made to feel so welcome here. I really wish I could have gone a lot further.”

Top seed Nadia Petrova moved into the second round of the Korea Open with a comfortable 6-3 6-2 victory over Jarmila Groth of Australia in Seoul.

There was a something of a fixture backlog today after Tuesday’s programme was washed out.

However, the other leading seeds wasted little time in securing their progress.

Number two seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, from Russia, rattled off a straight-sets victory over Australian Anastasia Rodionova, while another Russian Maria Kirilenko, ranked third, defeated Urszula Radwanska of Poland 6-3 6-1.

Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, the number four seed, beat Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei 7-6 (7/3) 6-4.

Dinara Safina – the Russian ranked world number one in 2009 but given a wild card in Seoul as she battles a back injury which kept her out of Wimbledon – secured a 6-4 6-4 win over qualifier Simona Halep to also progress to the last 16.

Eighth seed Agnes Szavay, from Hungary, beat Slovenia’s Polona Hercog in straight sets to secure a second-round clash against British number one Elena Baltacha.

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This is how David Nalbandian sees him……”Whatever he does, is pure energy. He’s tremendous, just tremendous. The energy that he has to play a Grand Slam final is the same energy that he puts into playing Playstation, into eating a plate of pasta, into going for a walk, into talking about cars [formula 1] or football. He’s tremendous. To me, he’s a totally gifted person.

Rafa doesn’t sleep. I swear to you that Rafa doesn’t sleep. He’s up till 2 am either on the Playstation or doing physio work. The other day, he was up at 9am, played 18 holes (golf), then come back and trained, then played soccer in the evening. He’s tremendous. I could probably try to follow [his rhythm] for 1, maybe 2 days, then I will be tired in bed, but this guy keeps going, every day, the same.

People used to say ‘with Rafa, it’s doping, surely…’ It was frequently debated. And people would ask me, and I’d say, ‘you think that because you don’t know him. You spend some time with the guy and you realize that he’s like [the energizer bunny] 24 hours a day.”

This is from Novak Djokovic….“He has the capabilities already now to become the best player ever, I think he’s playing the best tennis that I ever seen him play on hard courts. He has improved his serve drastically. The speed, the accuracy, and of course his baseline is as good as ever. So he’s a very complete player.”

“It’s just great for somebody who had so much success as he did, very young age, and to be able to continue motivating himself to perform his best each tournament, each match he plays regardless who he has across the net. You just have to put a hat down for this guy, everything he does on and off the court. Great champion, great person, and great example of an athlete.”

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Andy Murray is still said to be in no hurry to appoint a new coach and has again engaged his old friend Dani Vallverdu, a Venezuelan Davis Cup player, for training sessions in London.

Sources close to the player say he may see out the rest of the season with Vallverdu in tow and with input from Spaniard Alex Corretja.

Laura Robson is seeking a new coach to take her on to the crucial next stage and is splitting with Martijn Bok, who guided her to the Wimbledon junior title at 14.

Robson will step up the number of tournaments she plays next season because she will be 17, and the Dutchman does not wish to assist with a busier schedule.

The parting appears amicable and Bok will accompany Robson in Asia over the next few weeks for a series of tournaments that will wrap up her season.

After that, the search will be on for someone to build on her steady – if unspectacular – progress this season, in which the number of events she could play has been restricted due to age regulations.

Robson spends a considerable amount of time training at the Mouratoglou Academy just outside Paris, and Bok’s successor will not necessarily be British.

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Ana Ivanovic has been drawn to face Russian world No.62 Vera Dushevina in the first round of the Hansol Korea Open in Seoul. The tournament begins on Monday, with Ana’s round one clash expected to take place on Tuesday.

She is familiar with 23-year-old Dushevina, having played her six times on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. She holds a 5-1 head-to-head advantage.

Should she reach round two, seventh-seeded Ivanovic will meet either Julia Goerges or Klara Zakapolova. Third seed Maria Kirilenko is a possible quarter-finals opponent.

Top seed Nadia Petrova and No.6 Yaroslava Shvedova are potential semi-final adversaries.

The seeded players in the bottom half of the draw, whom Ana cannot meet until the final, are No.2 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, No.4 Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, No.5 Alisa Kleybanova and No.8 Agnes Szavay.

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Austrian teenager Tamira Paszek made a forceful return to the winner’s circle in Québec City Sunday afternoon, edging Bethanie Mattek-Sands for her second career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title.

Paszek, a former No.35 who had to make it through qualifying this week on account of her current No.151 ranking, didn’t drop a set en route to the final and showed she could still play big time tennis on Court Bell, saving two set points in the first set and rallying from a 3-1 deficit in the third to win, 76(6) 26 75.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Paszek, who has ties with Canada – her father lived there for 15 years. “I’m extremely happy. Anytime you win a tournament for the first time it’s very special. This is something I’ll remember the rest of my life.”

Paszek’s 2009 was marred by injury, and at only 19 she is trying to work her way back up. She is projected to return to the Top 100 after this. “I want to thank my family and friends for supporting me during tough times last year.

“I always believed I could come back.”

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Serbia has reached the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas final for the first time, and will be at home to France following Janko Tipsarevic’s straight-sets win over Radek Stepanek.

The Serbs’ No. 2 player defeated Stepanek 60 76(6) 64 in the decisive fifth rubber of the Serbia-Czech Republic semifinal in Belgrade. The tie went to the wire following Novak Djokovic’s four-set victory earlier in the day against Tomas Berdych.

Tipsarevic rode the wave of Djokovic’s win in an emphatic first set, in which he stroked the ball beautifully while Stepanek took seven games to get going. But the second set went with serve until the tiebreak, when Stepanek had the better chances.

He got the early minibreak, and while Tipsarevic clawed his way back, Stepanek always looked the stronger. But the shootout was characterised by increasingly nervous rallies, with neither player trusting himself to hit through his groundstrokes. A tentative 26-stroke rally saw Stepanek to set point at 6-5, and a slightly mis-hit forehand that caught the line opened up the court for the Czech to win the set on a follow-up forehand. But he overhit it by the smallest of margins, and the tiebreak was level at 6-6.

An unreturnable serve from Tipsarevic gave Serbia set point at 7-6, and Tipsarevic gambled by charging the second serve to hit a clean backhand winner down the line to claim the breaker 8-6.

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