TENNIS in DEPTH.

The end of the 2010 tennis season is getting closer. Nole will play in Basel, Paris, London and Belgrade. Four great events, four challenges and four opportunities to continue with great results after China. Novak has captured two titles in 2010, Dubai and Beijing; he’s won 52 out of 66 matches. 12 months ago Nole made his debut at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Basel and lifted the winner’s trophy. The world no. 3 is going back there, eager to defend his title and win his 3rd tournament of 2010. He defeated three-time defending champion Roger Federer in his hometown 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the finals last year.

Novak will be second-seeded again, just like last year. The Swiss Indoors Basel tournament will take place from 1 to 7 November for the prize money of € 1,225,000. The event is celebrating its 40th jubilee with an impressive line-up, including four men from the world’s top ten: Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Tomas Berdych and Andy Roddick. Jurgen Melzer, Marin Cilic Ivan Ljubicic, Marcos Baghdatis, Janko Tipsarevic, Viktor Troicki and many other players will also participate.

The draw will be held on Saturday, October 30, at 16:00 CET.

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Qualifier Zarina Diyas beat top-seeded Jelena Jankovic 6-1, 6-2 Thursday in the second round of the Kremlin Cup. The 268th-ranked Diyas, who celebrated her 17th birthday on Monday, led 5-0 in the first set when Jankovic called for a doctor and had her blood pressure checked.  Jankovic, who has qualified for next week’s WTA championships, managed to break back early in the second set but Diyas then broke the Serb two times. In the quarterfinals, Diyas will face sixth-seeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia, who routed Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-0, 6-0.

Home favourite Nikolay Davydenko was the major casualty in Wednesday’s Kremlin Cup action in Moscow as he lost to qualifier Pablo Cuevas. Davydenko, seeded first in the Russian capital and a three-time winner of the event, lost 7-6 (8/6) 7-6 (7/5) in one hour and 48 minutes to the Uruguayan, ranked 47th in the world, who secured his first-ever ATP Tour win against a top 20 player. It was a much more straightforward day for fourth seed Marcos Baghdatis as the Cypriot stormed past Italy’s Potito Starace 6-4 6-3 in 62 minutes and for Radek Stepanek as the Czech fifth seed disposed of Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3 6-2. Defending champion Mikhail Youzhny was forced to pull out of the event due to a viral infection.

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Fourth seed Ana Ivanovic moved into the second round of the Luxembourg Open with a straightforward win against Sweden’s Johanna Larsson. The Serbian encountered little resistance as she saw off Larsson’s challenge 6-3 6-0.

Elsewhere in the first round Patty Schnyder beat third seed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-4 6-4, Barbora Zahlova Strycova of the Czech Republic beat sixth seed Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 7-5 6-1 while Ivana Lisjak pulled out with a left thigh strain against qualifier Polona Hercog. In the second round, Aravane Rezai of France was outclassed 6-0 6-1 by Kirsten Flipkens on the day, seventh seed Jarmila Groth fell 6-4 7-5 to Iveta Benesova and eighth seed Julia Goerges of Germany beat Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2 6-1.

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Victoria Azarenka has clinched her place in next week’s season-ending WTA Tour Championships for the second year in a row. The Belarussian world number 10 achieved the feat by beating Andrea Petkovic in three sets to reach the second round of the Kremlin Cup. Azarenka will replace Serena Williams in the event which starts on Tuesday in Doha, Qatar. Williams withdrew on Tuesday because of a re-torn tendon in her right foot.

Azarenka and Li Na of China were the two substitutes for the tournament, but Li, who was five points ahead of Azarenka in the standings, lost in the first round in Moscow and will remain top substitute. Azarenka, who won the last five games of the match to beat Petkovic 6-4 2-6 6-1, said afterwards: “My nerves were right on the edge. “Every player wants to play in Doha and I’m happy I turned the match my way in the third set.”

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Tennis legend Billie Jean King and music superstar Sir Elton John are teaming up for their annual charity event — the 18th annual WTT Smash Hits presented by GEICO on November 15, 2010 at the Bender Arena at American University in Washington, D.C. This star studded event will raise money for the Elton John AIDS Foundation and local Washington, D.C. Area AIDS charities.

Billie Jean King and Elton John will each captain a team composed of tennis champions Andre Agassi, James Blake, Stefanie Graf, Anna Kounikova, Martina Navratilova and more who will play the World TeamTennis format. In 2009, Elton John won his 9th overall Smash Hits 16 -13 as Tommy Haas defeated Andy Roddick 5 – 2 in the final set. Despite a strong showing by Team King, Tommy Haas was just too much as he won all three of his sets. Even though it did not count towards the overall match score, Elton John and Serena Williams defeated Andy Roddick and Anna Kournikova 4 – 3 in a celebrity match to open the night.

Last year’s event raised $640,000 for the Elton John AIDS Foundation and AIDS charities serving the Greater Baton Rouge area. Smash Hits has raised more than $9 million for EJAF and various local AIDS charities since 1993.

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“It is with deep frustration that I am withdrawing from the WTA Championships at Doha and the Fed Cup Final. Pushed by my desire to return to competition, I trained too hard too soon and re-tore the tendon in my foot. As a result, yesterday morning I had to have another procedure to repair it. I thank everyone for their continued support during this difficult time and look forward with strength and determination to getting back on the court.” Earlier this year, Serena missed all of February, March and April because of a left knee problem. So she closes 2010 having participated in only six singles tournaments, going 25-4 with two titles—at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. She lost the No. 1 ranking last week to Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, who has yet to win a Grand Slam tournament. Serena also went 18-1 with three doubles titles in 2010, all with Venus as her partner. In singles, Venus went 38-7 with two titles and is No. 4 in this week’s WTA rankings, two spots behind Serena. Venus announced on Oct. 6 that she would be sidelined for the rest of this season because her knee injury.

In August, both Williams sisters told the U.S. Tennis Association they planned to play against Italy in the Nov. 6-7 Fed Cup final on an indoor hard court at the San Diego Sports Arena. “It’s unfortunate about Venus and Serena. The team was really looking forward to having them on the team,” Fed Cup captain Mary Joe Fernandez said in a statement released by the USTA on Tuesday. “We wish them a speedy recovery. Our team is excited to be in final for second straight year and we will give it our all as usual and try to pull off another upset.” Neither Williams has competed for the U.S. Fed Cup team since 2007.

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Australian golf star Adam Scott has confirmed he has split from glamorous Serbian tennis star Ana Ivanovic.  

There had been speculation that the high-profile couple had parted ways, but neither had confirmed an end to the romance until Scott spoke to a Melbourne newspaper. He said the life of an international athlete had driven the pair apart. “We had busy schedules with our respective sports, so no we aren’t together,” Scott told The Age. “It’s been tough.”

Former world No. 1 Ivanovic won her first WTA Tour title in two years after taking out the Generalia Ladies Open in Austria over the weekend.

“I feel very good here and I’m very happy to come back and win the title again,” said Ivanovic. “Winning again after two years is so wonderful, just unbelievable. I have been waiting so long for this and I worked hard to achieve it. “I really feel comfortable about my game and, no matter what happens over the next couple of events, I feel like I’m setting a good base for my preparation for next season.”

Her victory saw Ivanovic climb back to 26th in the world, and there will be plenty of people hoping this is just the start of a real resurgence for the popular 22-year-old.

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Former World No. 1 Thomas Muster will make his return to the ATP World Tour for the first time in more than a decade as a wild card at next week’s Bank Austria TennisTrophy in Vienna. Muster, who celebrated his 43rd birthday earlier this month, will be the first player aged 40 and over to compete in a tour-level main draw since a 43-year-old Jimmy Connors played in Atlanta in 1996. Connors won his last ATP World Tour match in June 1995 at Halle. “I’m looking forward to it enormously,” Muster told Austria’s Krone. “I want to inspire the crowd with my fitness and fighting spirit. I’m fighting like in the good old times and I will give everything in front of the fans in Vienna.”

Muster made his last tour-level appearance in June 1999 at Roland Garros – the site of his lone Grand Slam triumph in 1995 – and bowed out to Nicolas Lapentti in the first round. His last match win on the ATP World Tour came against Thomas Johansson two months earlier at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. The Leibnitz-native has contested the Bank Austria TennisTrophy on 13 occasions and reached the final three times (1998, 1993, 1995). He made his debut at the ATP World Tour 250 indoor hard-court tournament in October 1984 as a 17 year old ranked No. 381 in world, and made a second-round exit on his last appearance 12 years ago (l. to Rusedski). Muster, a winner of 44 tour-level titles, returned to professional tennis earlier this year, compiling a 1-6 record at ATP Challenger Tour events. He re-entered the South African Airways ATP Rankings for the first time since May 2000 after defeating Borut Puc in the first round of the Ljubljana Challenger in September.

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