TENNIS in DEPTH.

End of story!! I have no idea who TMZ Sports are, but I do know they are not a reputable news source. In reporting undocumeted sports gossip they have shown that their need for readership is overshadowing their competence. Trying to sensationalise news by misusing and misquoting statements about innocent reputable sports personalities is the lowest form of jounalism.

There is no story here, and nothing more needs to be said.

Bookmark It

The individual tennis season is far from over, with a host of tournaments still to go before the top players travel to London for the ATP World Tour Finals, but Novak Djokovic is already looking ahead to the Davis Cup Final in early December. Djokovic has led Serbia to the Final for the first time in the nation’s history and the reward is a home tie against France, being played on an indoor hard court at Belgrade Arena.

“Davis Cup is a very unique competition where you get to feel the team spirit that you don’t get to feel that often,” said the world No. 2, speaking at the ATP 1000 event in Shanghai. “We are individuals, so we mostly perform for ourselves. In Davis Cup, it’s about the team, it’s about supporting each other, winning for your country. “That’s why it’s a big pleasure and an honour for me and for all my teammates playing in this competition. It’s why we always try to give the last piece of energy for our country.

“It’s been the best Davis Cup year ever in the history of Serbian tennis. We get to play the Final at home. We hope that we’ll have a full arena of support. It’s very important. “We are playing against France, who has much more success and tradition in this competition than us. Great players, but we’re confident we can pull out the win.” Serbia has already come through a pair of hard fought ties in Belgrade this year, winning 3-2 against both USA and Czech Republic. Sandwiched in the middle was an historic 4-1 victory over Croatia in Split. It was the first time the two former Yugoslavian nations had met in Davis Cup. Djokovic has defeated five Top 25 players during this year’s campaign – Sam Querrey, John Isner, Ivan Ljubicic, Marin Cilic and Tomas Berdych – and remained unbeaten in singles play. With the strength in depth at France’s disposal, it’s likely that the US Open runner-up will need to produce another match-winning performance if Serbia is to enter the history books and become the 13th nation to etch its name onto the famous Davis Cup trophy.

Bookmark It

Rafa Nadal arrived in India late on Saturday night and inaugurated the Rafa Nadal Tennis School at the Anantapur Sports Village in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday. The tennis star quietly slipped in to the country unnoticed. The world No.1 was supposed to be in India for three days but had to cut short his trip after missing a flight and spent only a day at his newly-inaugurated academy set up in collaboration with Fundacion Vincente Ferrer.

The center court was inaugurated at 9.30am after which he interacted with a few children from the school and played tennis with them. “I’m speechless, I have no words to describe just how happy I am,” said one of the girls when asked what it meant to her to have Rafa Nadal in their community caring for them. “I’m very conscious of the fact that I can use my image to help make a difference in a large scale,” he said after the inauguration. “It gives me a great deal of happiness knowing I’m helping them have a better childhood and I really hope they make the best out of this opportunity”. “I would love to come back in a few years and see how those who have studied here have a new life,” concluded Rafa before speaking about his wishes to take it easy in the next two weeks. “I need to rest, mentally and physically.” Rafa’s mother, and president of the Rafa Nadal foundation, Ana Maria Parera, watched with pride as her son concluded his visit in India. “We don’t pretend to make tennis players [at this school]. We just want to trace the mentality and the ideals of Rafa”, she continued. “At the end of the day, they are giving to us a lot more than what we are giving to them”. Moncho Ferrer, son of Vicente Ferrer and Director of the foundation named after his father explained that “everyone wants to be like Rafa. He motivates people and inspires them to be better. We are here to give these kids a chance to follow their dreams.”

Bookmark It

One-time Stockholm runner-up Peter Lundgren can be proud of his pupil. In his debut at the 2010 If Stockholm Open, Stanislas Wawrinka showed impressive form as he needed only one hour and 19 minutes to overcome the challenge represented by Italy’s Andreas Seppi, winning 6-2, 6-2. Seppi seems to have made it a habit to lose to Swiss players after bowing to a certain Roger Federer last week in Shanghai.

Yet the Italian, ranked No. 50 in the World was the first one to break in the third game against a Wawrinka that was still a little rusty early on in the match. But Switzerland’s No. 2 player bounced back strong as he rallied to win the next six games, proving to powerful from the baseline, and particularly efficient on the backhand side. It was in the fifth game of the second set that “Stan” broke to get to a 4-2 lead, as he wasn’t to lose any more game.

In the second round, Wawrinka will meet the winner between Swedish qualifier Filip Prpic, and Dutchman Robin Haase.

Bookmark It

Jelena Jankovic looks to finish the main tournament season on a high this week as top seed at the $1,000,000 Kremlin Cup – the final Premier event of the 2010 season. Champion in the Russian capital two years ago, the 25-year-old Serb is joined by two Top 12 colleagues waging war for prized places as alternates at next week’s WTA Championships: Victoria Azarenka and Li Na. The fact that Jankovic, whose title run at Moscow helped make her the year-end No.1 in 2008, was seventh to qualify for the WTA Championships is testament to a strong first half of 2010. In March she triumphed at Indian Wells, and in June she reached the semis at Roland Garros. But the second half of the season has been less successful; her win-loss record since Wimbledon is 6-7. After a first round bye she faces Gisela Dulko or a qualifier.

Azarenka, who has also had an up-and-down year, is seeded No.2. Champion at Stanford and runner-up at Dubai and Eastbourne, the 21-year-old Belarusian reached the semis at Tokyo two weeks ago, but subsequently retired with a left thigh strain during her opener in Beijing. For her part, Li, whose best season to date has included semifinal runs at the Australian Open and Beijing is seeded third on a wildcard. The highest ranked Russian in the draw, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, is seeded fourth. Also the top teenager in the world, Pavlyuchenkova has won two International titles this season, and might well up the ante at home this week. The second tier of seeds in Moscow features Italy’s Flavia Pennetta at No.5, Russians Maria Kirilenko and Alisa Kleybanova at No.6 and No.7 respectively, and Spaniard María José Martínez Sánchez at No.8.

Bookmark It

Italy will be hoping for a repeat result of the last year’s Final when it travels to San Diego in November as the defending Fed Cup by BNP Paribas champion. USA and Italy are meeting for the second successive year to decide the  destination of the trophy, and the visitors will draw strength from the 4-0 victory on clay in Reggio Calabria in 2009.

That was Italy’s only ever win against the Americans, with the head-to-head score now standing at 9-1. USA has home advantage this time and has selected to host the tie on an indoor hard court. History may lean towards the Americans, but recent form makes the Italians favourite. USA has battled past France and Russia in this year’s campaign, while Italy has lost just one rubber on its way to victories over Ukraine and Czech Republic. Similar to last year, both nations have experienced contrasting routes to the Final. USA has been forced to dig deep, while Italy has cruised through with the loss of just a single rubber.

USA’s first round tie against France was actually a routine affair, as Melanie Oudin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands doubled up to give the away team an unassailable 3-0 lead in Lievin. Mattek-Sands and doubles specialist Liezel Huber successfully teamed up in the fifth rubber to leave the scoreline 4-1 in favour of the visitors. The French team was a far cry from the one that lifted the trophy in 2003, but it was still a positive performance from an American side that possessed a healthy mix of youth and experience.

The reward for USA was a home tie in the semifinals against old foe Russia. The Russians had won the last three meetings between the two powerful Fed Cup nations, but revenge was around the corner for Fernandez’s team. Such is the strength in depth at the disposal of Shamil Tarpischev, Russia’s captain, he consistently has the luxury of naming his team from a pool of over a dozen Top 100 players.

Once again playing as the team’s No. 1 player in the absence of the Williams sisters, Oudin got the home side off to the perfect start. “You know what, it was a big adrenaline rush,” said Mattek-Sands, who became only the third American player ever to win successive live matches to seal victory on the final day. “I’m normally not really emotional on the court, but just playing in Fed Cup, different pressures. I was really pumped, though. I always want to win whether I’m playing singles, doubles, charades, whatever. I think we’re all pretty competitive. So I was ready to go.”

Bookmark It

Ana overwhelmed Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder 6-1, 6-2 to claim the Generali Ladies Linz title. It is the 22-year-old’s first title in exactly two years and the first tournament she has won without dropping a set. It was a 47-minute masterclass by Ana, who had looked to be on a mission from the very first moment she took to the court in Linz. Ana dictated terms immediately and broke the 31-year-old straightaway, partly due to two double faults in the Swiss’ opening service game. Ana was in total command throughout the match. She was fleet footed, gliding around the court and bossing almost every rally. Her returns wer masterful. She broke the left-hander’s serve three times in the opening set and the seventh seed sealed the first set 6-1 with an impressive power display in a 20-minute set. The one-way tennis continued in the second set. Although the audience was hoping for some intriuge, they could not help but appreciate the former No. 1’s marvellous performance and they seemed to enjoy the spectacle. While Ana was painting the lines with magnificent strokes, Schnyder missed them often by a whisker. Ana continued to rampage her way through the final and she took a 5-0 second set lead after just 15 minutes. The Swiss was successful in avoiding the bagel, but two games later, the seventh seed held three championship points. She closed out the match, summing up the final perfectly, with her 25th ace of the tournament. Ana will now head to Luxembourg where she contests the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open next week

Bookmark It

Tamarine Tanasugarn kept Kimiko Date Krumm from a fairytale ending but wrote her own in Osaka on Sunday, claiming her fourth career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title at the second annual HP Open.

With a combined age of 73, two of Asia’s most recognizable female athletes, the Japanese and Thai No.1s, were playing the oldest known final ever. For three hours and seven minutes, the two battled it out on Centre Court with their pinpoint groundstrokes and world class tenacity. It was Tanasugarn’s match early on, as she built a 75 31 lead; Date Krumm fought back to take it to a third set, but once she got there maybe her earlier matches caught up to her, as Tanasugarn cruised to a 75 67(4) 61 victory and her fourth career title. “I tried to be more aggressive in the third set and I finally made it,” Tanasugarn commented after the victory. “Osaka is a great city. This is a great feeling and hopefully I can continue to play like this and get a good start to 2011. Now I’ll have three days vacation on the beach when I get back, then I’ll be playing in Taipei and probably Toyota, followed by the Asian Games.” Tanasugarn’s first three titles came on hardcourts at Hyderabad in 2003 and on grass courts in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in back-to-back years in 2008 and 2009.

Bookmark It