TENNIS in DEPTH.

Photo courtesy of ‘Forty Deuce’……..just couldn’t resist the opportunity!

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“Every single opponent was tough,” Zvonareva said. “Right now women’s tennis is at a very high level and very competitive, and I know if I don’t have my full concentration or give my best there’s no chance I’ll win a match. Maybe I didn’t play my best tennis this week but I still fought very hard and played every match from the first point to the last. It’s a great feeling to win at the end of the day.”

Vera Zvonareva sharpened up her hardcourt game at the inaugural Baku Cup this week, passing a very tough test in the quarterfinals and then cruising to her second WTA title of the year and the 12th of her career. Zvonareva, the top seed at the International-level event, was pushed particularly hard in her quarterfinal match on Friday, getting to two points from victory at 75 54 against Anna Tatishvili but losing that second set and ending up on the court for over three hours before finally beating the Georgian, 75 67(4) 62. After a 61 62 win over the Ukraine’s Mariya Koryttseva in the semifinals Zvonareva was back on her game, and apart from some trouble closing out the match she had little trouble with No.7 seed Ksenia Pervak in the final, storming out to a 61 41 lead and eventually beating her fellow Russian, 61 64.

Pervak, who turned 20 in May, recently reached her first Grand Slam second week at Wimbledon and was playing in her first career WTA final. ”Vera is a really good player and has a lot of experience. It was tough to play against her,” Pervak said. “I don’t think I showed my best game but I didn’t play that badly in the second set. It was a really tough match but I played well.”

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Fifth seed Gilles Simon clinched the German Open title with a three-set win over Nicolas Almagro in Hamburg. Simon, who became the first Frenchman in 25 years to claim the trophy, survived a second-set fightback to win 6-4 4-6 6-4 in two hours and 38 minutes. Almagro squandered eight break points in the opening set and Simon pounced with a solitary break to move ahead. The third-seeded Spaniard established a 3-0 lead in the second and despite a wobble took it to level the encounter on the clay at the Rothenbaum Club. Simon hit back with an early break in the decider and held on to become the first Frenchman to win the German Open since Henri Leconte in 1986.

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“I like competing in Canada, especially in Toronto,” she said Wednesday on a conference call. “I think I won there before (in 2001), but it feels like a lifetime ago. So it’s time to get back there and do it again.” The 29-year-old Williams is on the rebound from health problems that emerged after winning her fourth Wimbledon title in 2010. First she suffered a serious foot injury after stepping on some glass. Then in February, she was diagnosed with a potentially fatal blood clot in a lung and some internal bleeding. She returned after a 50-week convalescence for a tournament at Eastbourne in England last month, where she lost in the round of 16 to Marion Bartoli of France. The hard-hitting right-hander who has been ranked first in the world five times, most recently in 2009, has seen her ranking drop to No. 172. But the trip to England had her upbeat that she can regain her championship form again.

“Everything feels a lot better,” she said. “I got a good report from the doctor and he says I can play with confidence. I think that’s the key word — going out and playing with confidence and not thinking it could ever happen again. “That’s a great feeling and hopefully I’ll be able to do better now.”

Williams is entered in a tournament at Stanford starting Monday, then has a week off before the Rogers Cup and an event in Cincinnati in back-to-back weeks. The U.S. Open begins Aug. 29 in New York. “That’s more than I usually play,” she said. “It will be more than I played all last year, so that will definitely propel me to be really fit going into the Open.” Asked if she aspires to be No. 1 again, Williams said: “My goals right now are to do well at the Rogers Cup and the grand slams, pretty much every tournament I play in. If I can get back to No. 1 that would be a bonus but right now my goal is just to do the right thing on the court and do the best I can to win. “I hate losing, as everyone probably knows. But I also know that when you lose it gives you motivation and makes you better.”

Also on the horizon are the 2012 Olympics in London. Williams is a two-time gold medallist and wouldn’t mind going for the hat-trick. “I’m hoping I can get there,” she said. “The way I’m ranked now I’ll have to put in a lot of good work, so we’ll see.” Then she added with a laugh: “I think I deserve it though.”

Bill Beacon

The Canadian Press

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Clijsters said in a TV interview on Friday that her injured right ankle had healed and that she had been hitting for more than a week, but apparently she didn’t feel like she had enough time to prepare for San Diego, which begins on August 1. The seventh-ranked Kvitova is suffering from a pulled abdominal muscle. Both women are scheduled to play the tournament in Toronto the week after San Diego.

However, San Diego did add the strong German trio of Andrea Petkovic, Julia Goerges and Sabine Lisicki to its field, and still features No. 3 Vera Zvonareva, defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic.

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Simon came into the match off the back of an impressive quarter-final performance against fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils and again had to show his class to come from behind and see off Youzhny 3-6 6-3 6-1. Almagro will meet Simon in the final after the third seed was victorious in the all-Spanish semi-final against Fernando Verdasco, beating his compatriot 6-4 6-1. The two met in the final of the Open de Tenis Comunidad in Valencia back in 2006, with Almagro winning 6-2 6-3 on that occasion.

Simon has yet to win an ATP World Tour 500 tournament whereas his opponent has two 500 series titles to his name, both coming in Mexico in 2008 and 2009.

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The 2011 Bank of the West Classic draw was announced on Friday evening, with defending champion Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova both earning first-round byes and locking up the top two seeds, respectively. There are several notable matchups on both sides of the draw, which should make for another competitive tournament when main draw competition gets underway on Monday, July 25.

The first quarter of the draw features top-seeded Azarenka, who defeated Sharapova in last year’s title match despite making the final as a wildcard. After a first-round bye, Azarenka will face either Sofia Arvidsson or a qualifier. Wildcard Dominika Cibulkova, the tournament’s No. 8 seed, battles Kimiko Date-Krumm in another interesting contest. A potential clash between No. 3 seed Marion Bartoli and No. 7 Ana Ivanovic highlights the second quarter of the draw. Bartoli, the 2009 Bank of the West Classic champion, will take on the winner of Rebecca Marino and Coco Vandeweghe after a bye in the opening round. Ivanovic, the former World No. 1 and 2008 French Open champion, battles Ayumi Morita in her first round matchup. This portion of the draw will also feature a first round match between two qualifiers.

Samantha Stosur and Agnieszka Radwanska headline the third quarter of the draw. Stosur, seeded No. 4 overall and ranked No. 10, meets the winner of Simona Halep and Sabine Lisicki after a first-round bye. Radwanska, seeded No. 5 overall and ranked No. 14, opens her tourney run against Barbora Zahlavova Strycova. Wildcard entrant Hilary Barte, who recently wrapped up her Stanford career as a four-time All-American in both singles and doubles, faces Kai-Chen Chang. Plenty of star power is on display in the lower portion of the draw, most notably with Sharapova and Serena Williams. Seeded No. 2 and ranked No. 5, Sharapova has been awarded a first-round bye and will take the court for her first match on Wednesday night. Williams battles Anastasia Rodionova in a first round match slated for Tuesday night. Meanwhile, No. 6 seed Julia Goerges hooks up against Maria Kirilenko in another must-see contest.

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Second seed Jurgen Melzer was surprised 6-3 2-6 6-4 by eighth seed Fernando Verdasco, who will next take on fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro after the third seed beat Germany’s Florian Mayer 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (7/3).

Top seed Gael Monfils suffered a final-set collapse as he was knocked out of the German Open at the semi-final stage by fellow Frenchman and fifth seed Gilles Simon. World number seven Monfils started the match in Hamburg as the clear favourite but was broken twice in the first set and despite levelling matters he suffered a calamitous decider, winning just four points as Simon ran out a 6-4 3-6 6-0 winner. The result earned Simon a semi-final meeting with fourth seed Mikhail Youzhny after the Russian was forced to work hard before squeezing through against Croatia’s Marin Cilic 4-6 6-3 7-6 (8/6).

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