TENNIS in DEPTH.

Doubt has been cast over the plausibility of Bernard Tomic’s excuse for withdrawing from this week’s Australian Open Wildcard Playoffs, potentially creating yet another standoff between him and officials of Tennis Australia. Citing illness, Tomic notified Open officials of his withdrawal on Sunday night, but  Tomic practised for two hours in Queensland on Tuesday, confident he would be handed one of Tennis Australia’s discretionary wildcards for next month’s Open. Medibank International Sydney tournament director Craig Watson said the 18-year-old was no guarantee to play in Sydney from January 9-15 after his decision to abandon the play-offs in Melbourne.

“That wildcard play-off was designed to give the players who deserve to play a chance to play at that [top] level,” Watson said. “It throws a bit of a spanner in the works, the fact that there has been a hiccup with Bernard.”  But Watson said he will still be lobbying Tennis Australia to grant Tomic a wildcard for the event in Sydney. Tomic was also a no-show at Sunday’s wildcard playoff draw in Melbourne – a compulsory event for players to attend. Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said there were no guarantees for anyone hoping to receive a discretionary wildcard. “If what you’re saying is correct, one, I’d be highly annoyed and, two, I’d have to talk to the team on what decision we would be taking,” Tiley said. “He’d be considered [for a wildcard], he’s been considered all year – but if someone makes a decision to rely on the discretionary wildcard, I never advise someone to do that.”

Peter Luczak was slated to meet Tomic in today’s quarter-finals, but will now face James Lemke after a 6-2 4-6 6-2 victory against Luke Saville.

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Andrei Pavel, the best Romanian tennis player in the last 20 years, is the new coach of Jelena Jankovic, a former world number 1 on the women´s tour. Jankovic confirmed that an agreement on cooperation actually was achieved.

Pavel has won three career titles in singles, including the Masters in Montreal in 2001 and seven times he triumphed in doubles competitions (the last 2007th in Barcelona). Back injury didn´t allowed him to play his best during the last year of his career but was able to reached a career-high ranking of the 13th . Because of this injury the last two years played mostly exhibition matches, and tried himself out as coach of Romania’s Davis Cup team – his team lost to Sweden 3-2 in qualifying.

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Samantha Stosur believes she will cope much better with the pressure of playing in her home tournament when the Australian Open gets under way next month. A first-round success at the Brisbane International (January 2-8) could secure the 26-year-old a coveted top-four seeding at Melbourne Park and avoid facing a higher-ranked opponent until at least the semi-finals. Stosur bowed out of the 2010 Australian Open at the fourth round stage, but hopes to improve on that after a stellar season that saw her reach the final of the French Open.

“It was quite difficult last year, it was harder than what I thought it was going to be and I thought I was ready for all the hype and the extra attention, but didn’t really handle it too well in the first couple of weeks. “But as the Aussie Open went on, I started to feel a bit more comfortable and started playing quite well. “So now that I’ve had a good taste of that, not only January this year but throughout the whole year, I think I’ll be much better prepared. “I guess it’s a matter of just keeping your head and really focusing on what’s important and that’s getting on the court and being prepared for matches.”

Stosur also believes that being able to train in Australia will give her an advantage. “I’m one of the few players that are here now training – on the (Plexicushion) court, in the sun, getting used to the conditions, so I think it can only help throughout January,” she said. “It’s not so easy for the Europeans who have been in winter or training somewhere else. “They’ve got to have a long flight over here, a short preparation going into the first couple of tournaments, so hopefully it will put me into a good spot.”

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Ana Ivanovic is currently working with Antonio van Grichen. The pair are training together in Europe and will undergo a trial period, taking in the Australian hard court tournaments and beyond.

Portuguese van Grichen is best-known for his work with Victoria Azarenka: the Belarusian climbed from 250 to No.6 in the world rankings under his guidance. He also worked briefly with current world No.2 Vera Zvonareva.

Ana continues to work with fitness trainer Marija Lojanica.

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Perth tennis fans had better prepare for a long day when Nicolas Mahut, replacing the injured Gael Monfils in the French team, takes on American John Isner in a Hopman Cup match on January 3. With Monfils out of action for at least four weeks because of knee pain, Mahut will partner Kristina Mladenovic at the Jan 1-8 tournament, organisers said on Monday.

Isner beat Mahut in the world’s longest tennis match, a 183-game epic played over 11 hours and five minutes with the fifth set decided 70-68, in the first round of this year’s Wimbledon men’s singles championship. Hopman Cup tournament director Paul McNamee is among those seeking another marathon battle. “That Wimbledon match was an epic in every sense of the word, so it will long be remembered,” McNamee said. “But I am now looking forward to watching these guys battle it out in Perth.”

Monfils was disappointed after being told by a doctor to skip the mixed teams event. “I was looking forward to participating in the Hopman Cup for the first time,” he said. “I sincerely hope that I will have the opportunity to play there in the near future.”

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In the 18s, American Lauren Davis beat compatriot Grace Kim 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-1 for the title, her 33rd win in her last 34 matches.

On the boys’ side, Alexios Halebian, the sole American, fell 6-1, 6-3 to Jannick Lupescu of Netherlands in the semifinals. Britain’s George Morgan won the title with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Lupescu.

 Allie Kiick, the 15-year-old daughter of former Miami Dolphins standout Jim Kiick, won the 16s with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-0 win over Catherine Harrison of Germantown, Tenn.

“This was more meaningful to me than winning the Super Bowl, and I mean that,” Jim Kiick told the Miami Herald. “In football, it’s 11 guys, and I expected to win those games. “To see your daughter alone out there, fighting back like that and winning the Super Bowl of junior tennis at 15 is a magnificent thing. I have goose bumps. I was way more nervous here than the Super Bowl because in football, once the first play is run, the butterflies go away. Here, I had no control, and that killed me.”

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The Dunlop Orange Bowl girls’ singles final will be an all-American affair as both eighth seed Lauren Davis from Cleveland and unseeded Grace Min from Atlanta won their semifinal rounds on the hard courts of the Crandon Park Tennis Center yesterday. For the third time this year, 17-year-old Lauren Davis had no trouble defeating third seed Monica Puig (PUR) to move into today’s final without having dropped a set so far. “I was determined to win,” said Davis. “I knew what I had to do to win and I did exactly that. My strategy was to be aggressive and try to dictate the points rather than running side to side and just being all defensive.”

Davis started strong and easily secured the first set, never letting Puig play her best tennis from the baseline, and finally triumphing 61 63. “I won the first set playing very well,” said Davis. “I was serving well, dictating the points, and being very tough mentally. I tried not to give Puig any free points but I knew she would come on strong in the second set. The first game of the second set was about 15 minutes long. She ended up winning that game. I had a few break points in that game but I did not get discouraged. I told myself to stay calm and to take one point at a time. Telling myself this really helped. Puig was playing well, but I don’t think that I gave her too many chances.” Davis will play 16-year-old Grace Min for the Orange Bowl girls’ singles title after her fellow country-woman reached the final by virtue of Serbian 13th seed Natalija Kostic’s retirement.. With Min leading 4-0 in the first set, Kostic fell victim to injury when she was forced to change directions quickly, rolling her left ankle and collapsing to the court. The Serbian had a medical timeout but she played just one more point before retiring from the match.

In the boys’ event, ninth seed George Morgan (GBR) and number 12 Jannick Lupescu (NED) will contest the final. 17-year-old Morgan from Bolton, England, who was runner-up at the Argentina Bowl last February, reached his second final of the year on the ITF Junior Circuit by defeating seventh seed Joris De Loore (BEL) in Saturday’s semifinal with an emphatic 62 61 scoreline. “I really played a good match against De Loore,” said Morgan. “I kept my calm and stayed with my tactics throughout the match. That paid off.” Lupescu, a semifinalist at both the Grade 1 Loy Yang Traralgon International and at the Open International Juniors de Beaulieu-sur-Mer this year, finished off unseeded Alexios Halebian (USA) to claimed his spot in the final round. Although Halebian had the support of the home crowd, he was unable to maintain a high level of concentration throughout the match against an impressive and solid Lupescu. The Dutchman easily won the first set and saved a break point at 4-2 in the second with a service winner. He never lost control of the match, finally recording a 61 63 win. “I was a little nervous,” said Lupescu, “and I gave Halebian a few chances to recover but he didn’t take them.”

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Martina Hingis has married French show jumper Thibault Hutin in a private ceremony in Paris. The wedding was a family affair, but a major white wedding is planned for next summer.

 The ceremony was a small and discrete family affair without the usual trappings we associate with celebrity weddings.  Martina Hingis is no stranger to the sporting press and the media in general. She was the youngest ever tennis player to win a grand slam, a world number one, and she retired from the sport in 2002 at the ripe age of 22. More recently, she made a successful appearance at Wimbledon in 2010 playing in the Invitational Ladies Doubles event together with Anna Kournikova. The appearance of the two players on the seniors’ players list attracted some snide comments about advanced age as they are 10 years younger than the oldest player in the main event.

Martina Hingis is involved in her second sporting career as a show jumper. She took part in quite a few show jumping events around Europe during 2010. During one of these events she met French show jumper Thibault Hutin. Her record in the sport, though, is at best indifferent.

Thibault Hutin is at 24 a future hope for French equestrians with commendable results during the last year. Descended from an affluent family, his name is refreshingly absent from the tabloid pages. This might change now with his marriage to the Swiss Miss who is a regular feature for the yellow press, usually because of her on-off engagements and relationships. Martina Hingis had been engaged twice before, once to Czech player Radek Stepanek until 2007 and as recently as spring 2010 to Swiss lawyer Andreas Bieri. She wisely (show?) jumped the engagement this time in favour of a discrete marriage. Earlier this year she sold her house near Zürich and moved to Paris.

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