TENNIS in DEPTH.

Marin Cilic (my pick to win it all!)became the first biggest casualty in the men’s draw as he fell to Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6(1), 6-0. After failing to serve out the opening set, Cilic managed to win just 13 more points the rest of the match.

It was Cilic’s earliest exit this season, after beginning the year with a circuit-best 18-2 mark. He had defended his titles at Chennai and Zagreb, reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open and quarter-finals in Dubai.

Vera Zvonareva was seeded to meet  Ana Ivanovic in the third round, but saw  Ivanovic lose 6-2, 6-4 to #63 ranked Latvian Anastasija Sevastova. 

Playing her first competitive match in over a month, Ivanovic was badly out of form. She never found her rhythm and made a host of unforced errors almost whenever she went on the offensive. Her serve was similarly poor.Sevastova, who beat world No.9 Jelena Jankovic in Monterrey last week, did an excellent job of capitalising on Ana’s stuttering performance. She broke the 24th seed at the first time of asking and added another break later in the set.

“I felt like I was tracking the ball well, but it was very, very slow,” said Ivanovic. “I miss-hit a lot of the balls. I also thought she couldn’t really hurt me with anything, but I also couldn’t finish the point. So it was kind of frustrating. It was a fight out there. I’m just disappointed I didn’t find the answers. Had a lot of opportunities, I think.”

If Ivanovic continues to lose in tournament after tournament in the first or second round, she might get a call from Adidas asking for their money back!

They are paying for product exposure, and she’s certainly not giving them any.

Related Posts:

• Marin Cilic is the one to beat at Indian Wells!.
• Sharapova an unimpressive winner at Indian Wells.
• Gisela Dulko sends Justine Henin home with a 3 set win!

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Maria Sharapova beat compatriot Vera Dushevina to progress to the third round at the Indian Wells $4.5 million BNP Paribas Open tennis event.

The former world number one, who won the event in 2006, came back from a set down to win 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Sharapova, seeded tenth, will face China’s Zheng Jie, seeded 18, in the next round.

In a desperate move to ‘popularise’ tennis, the Sony Ericsson Open Miami has announced a special doubles tennis exhibition for Tuesday, March 23. The match titled “Glam.Set.Match” will pair Novak Djokovic with Spice girl Mel B against Maria Sharapova and musician Jay Sean.

Jay Sean said, “I don’t think you can do better than Maria Sharapova – to be honest, I think I’m going to let her do the majority of the work and I’ll just watch from the back! This is such a different vibe from what I normally do, its going to be great fun!”

Maybe with ridiculous ideas such as this it is a good omen that Sony Ericsson is going to take a back seat in the future of the WTA. Can you imagine Roger Federer agreeing to play tennis with Whitney Housten?

Related Posts:

• Cilic loses while Ivanovic drops down out of the top 50!
• Gisela Dulko sends Justine Henin home with a 3 set win!
• Watch and donate to ‘Hit for Haiti’ tonight.

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Justine Henin, even though she entered the Indian Wells tournamnet as a wildcard entry, was considered to be one of the favourites to win the event. But she ran into a determined Gisela Dulko who took advantage of a sub- standard performance by the former #1 player, by defeating her 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.

“It was a tough day today, I agree,” said Henin. “I was never into a good rhythm and never really found my way to win. Even in the second set it was better, but still a lot of ups and downs. She (Dulko) was playing quite high balls, also, and I never really found a good timing. So I wasn’t consistent enough. That’s very simple. It’s a bit of an off day and you have to deal with it.”

This result will go down in the records as one of the greatest upsets in Womens tennis, and will rank as Dulko’s finest win to date. It also reflects the unpredictability of Womens tennis, and most likely will not be the only upset of this event.

British fans have reason to cheer as Elena Baltacha defeated #10 ranked player Li Na in three sets 7-6, 2-6, 7-6. Baltacha, entered as a qualifyer, came for 1-5 down in the third set tie breaker to win the match.

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• A Clijsters/Henin final is possible…my pick is Azarenka.
• Indian Wells is wide open for the WTA players.
• Justine Henin given a wildcard to 2010 Indian Wells.

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The BNP Paribas Open “Hit for Haiti” exhibition, presented by Oracle, on Friday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. PST, will feature players with an astounding total of 94 Grand Slam singles titles. The first match will include Stefanie Graf and Lindsay Davenport playing Martina Navratilova and Justine Henin, and the second match will include Pete Sampras and Roger Federer playing Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal.

To donate text “HAITI” to 90999 and a $10 donation will be added to your phone bill.

Related Posts:

• Cilic loses while Ivanovic drops down out of the top 50!
• Gisela Dulko sends Justine Henin home with a 3 set win!
• Alicia Molik advances as Jelena Dokic’s woes continue.

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Alicia Molik has scored another impressive win in her comeback to professional tennis, beating German Tatjana Malek in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Thursday.

Molik turned in a dominant display against the world No.78, cruising through 6-1 6-3 in 63 minutes.

The Australian has now had four wins over top 100 players this year having already beaten Ekaterina Makarova at the Brisbane International, Sania Mirza at the Moorilla Hobart International and world No.20 Zheng Jie at the Dubai Open.

She will face Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues in the second round.

The news wasn’t as good for Jelena Dokic, who suffered a comprehensive 6-0 6-3 loss to Russian Vera Dushevina in 49 minutes.

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• Molic and Dokic team up for the doubles.
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• Gisela Dulko sends Justine Henin home with a 3 set win!

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The Australian Fed Cup team will play on clay against Ukraine in its World Group play-off tie in April.

Australia will meet the No. 7 seed, Ukraine, in the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas on the 24 and 25 April at the Palace of Sports “Lokomotiv” in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

The indoor stadium has already hosted three Ukrainian Fed Cup home ties where the Ukraine team has won two, against Israel in 2009 and Belgium in 2008.

The two wins were on hard court and claycourt indoor with the Bondarenko sisters, Alona world No.24 and Kateryna world No.32 winning the doubles in both to take the ties 3-2.

“At present Samantha Stosur, who is ranked No.11 and Rennae Stubbs, who is No.7 in doubles have been named in the squad but there are two remaining places yet to be named.

“With Jelena Dokic, Anastasia Rodionova, Jarmila Groth, Casey Dellacqua and Alicia Molik all available for the World Group play-off tie, the Ukraine’s selection of clay, as the court surface, and the girls’ upcoming results will play a major factor in who makes the team.”

Stosur currently holds a 2-0 head-to-head record over Alona Bondarenko and a 0-1 head-to-head record against Kateryna Bondarenko.

Stosur and Stubbs last played the Bondarenko sisters in doubles in Dubai in 2009 when they won 3-6 6-3 12-10.

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• Heart Award nominees announced.
• USA v Russia Fed Cup tie to be played in Birmingham.

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“Back on the court in Indian Wells today,” Federer wrote on his Facebook page. “Felt great to hit as it was the first hit I had in two-and-a-half weeks.”

And defending champ Nadal is also in positive mood ahead of the year’s first Masters 1000 event, saying his knee will not be a handicap in California.

“I have been training hard for three weeks,” he said. “We have worked during the pre-season to recover the form which I had when I arrived in Australia. I feel strong and my knees do not hurt me – now I just want to compete.

“My main objective, the most immediate goal, is to play well during the American hard court season. I have 1000 points to defend at Indian Wells as the defending champion. But the main idea is to play well.”

The Spaniard is also keen to put himself in contention for the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup after missing the opening round victory over Switzerland, which Federer also skipped.

“The next elimination stage in France will be very hard and to get through it we need to all be at 100%. I would like to be there,” said Nadal.

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• Safina is out of Indian Wells….will Federer withdraw?
• ‘Hit for Haiti’…..part 2.
• Djokovic believes the Fed/Rafa era is ending!

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