TENNIS in DEPTH.

After writing over 4000 posts, watching every tennis tournament either online or in person, I have decided to retire from the active tennis scene.

I hope someone will continue with their own perpesctive, and gain as much enjoyment as I have.

Email me at Derek@tennis-in-depth.com if you are interested.

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Maybe this is not tennis, but it is major sports news……….The NHL will expand in the 2014-15 season with two new Canadian teams. One will return to play in Quebec City while a new team will be situated in Markham Ontario. A new arena is already under construction in the Warden Ave/Hwy 407 area which will house the new team. A compensation amount of $150 million is to be paid to the Toronto Maple Leaf organisation. The new team is backed by the Bauer Sporting Goods Co.

Speculation about the location of a new team in the Toronto area has been discussed for years with places like Hamilton, London and Kitchener often being mentioned, but now the speculation ends as the new team will be just 20 miles Notheast of Toronto in Markham Township.

A public competition for a name for the new team will be announced soon. How about the Markham Marauders? or the Markham Misfits? Markham has a large Chinese population so The Markham Ming Dynasty might take on a new meaning!

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The big-hitting 26-year-old has produced upset wins over seeds Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Andrea Petkovic and Francesca Schiavone to reach the final and produced the same superb form against Hantuchova. She was particularly devastating early in the second set, dropping just a solitary point in the first four games as she powered towards the biggest win of her career to date, adding to the title she won in Palermo in 2010.  That dominant start to the second set in fact extended Kanepi’s run to nine games in succession from 1-2 in the opener. Hantuchova should have been the fresher of the two players, having been granted a quarter-final walkover following Serena Williams’ withdrawal and then won her semi-final when Kim Clijsters retired during the second set. But Kanepi’s giant-killing run had seen her build momentum and she won 82% of points on her first serve as she recorded her first victory in four career meetings with the Slovakian, eventually finishing the encounter with her fourth match point.

The victory is set to lift Kanepi from 34th to 26th in the WTA rankings, ensuring she will be seeded for the Australian Open. Hantuchova will rise from 24 to 21.

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A mouthwatering clash between Germany and No. 2 seed Czech Republic is arguably the pick of the World Group first round ties. Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who has led her side into this year’s final, will have to be at her very best if the Czechs are to overcome the up-and-coming Germans.

The other three seeds were all handed home ties: Russia against Spain, Italy versus Ukraine and, notably, Belgium against Serbia. The latter could see Kim Clijsters and Yanina Wickmayer taking on Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic.

In World Group II, Australia and Switzerland were drawn to meet just as they were in the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group play-off draw earlier this week, and Victoria Azarenka’s Belarus face a tricky away trip to USA.

Having thrashed Argentina in the postponed World Group II play-off earleir in the day, Japan were rewarded with a home clash against Slovenia next year. France, who are making their first appearance in World Group II have a tough draw against Slovak Republic, who have the likes of Dominika Cibulkova and Daniela Hantuchova in their ranks.

World Group Draw.

RUSSIA v Spain

BELGIUM* v Serbia

ITALY v Ukraine

Germany v CZECH REPUBLIC

World Group II Draw.

USA* v Belarus

JAPAN v Slovenia

SLOVAK REPUBLIC v France

Switzerland v AUSTRALIA

Nations with choice of ground are listed first. Seeded nations are in capitals. Asterisk (*) denotes choice of ground determined by lot.

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Juan Martin Del Potro claimed his ninth ATP Tour title this afternoon with a straight-sets victory over second seed Fernando Verdasco in the Estoril Open final. The eighth seed, playing in his first claycourt event of the year, needed just 76 minutes to see off his Spanish opponent 6-2 6-2 at the Estadio Nacional. There were three straight breaks of serve before the Argentinian took control by holding his serve to establish a 3-1 lead en route to clinching the first set, dropping just six points on serve throughout. Verdasco’s struggles on serve continued in the second set, Del Potro breaking in the first game and capitalising on a number of groundstroke errors to build a 5-2 lead before securing victory in a 14-point service game with a forehand winner. Del Potro dropped just one set all week in Portugal, and has now won 23 of his last 26 matches as he continues his climb up the world rankings following wrist surgery last year. Verdasco admitted he had come up against a man in form today.

Russian Nikolay Davydenko won the BMW Open title in Munich by beating Germany’s Florian Meyer in three sets. Davydenko won the first set 6-3 but lost the next by the same scoreline. But the 29-year-old was in total charge of the decider which he won to wrap up a 6-3 3-6 6-1 victory in an hour and 49 minutes. Davydenko, once as high as three in the world but now ranked 40th, made it 21 career titles with his first win since he took the title in Doha last year.

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Zvonareva set the tone with a 60 62 demolition of Errani in the opening match of the tie. Kuznetsova was then made to battle by a determined Roberta Vinci before prevailing 62 67(4) 61 in the second singles rubber. Saturday’s wins for Russia mean that Zvonareva could seal victory for the team against Vinci in Sunday’s first reverse singles match, though there was no hint of complacency in the Russian camp. For his part, Italian captain Corrado Barazzutti sounded an optimistic, if philosophical, note as he looked ahead to what is likely to be another challenging day for his team. “We have to acknowledge that the Russians played very well today. They have great players,” he said. “Tomorrow is another day and if the Russians win, then we have to congratulate them but we will have to see what’s up tomorrow because anything can happen.” After Zvonareva’s one-sided win, Kuznetsova and Vinci produced a battle that owed plenty to the Italian’s swashbuckling tennis style, which was most evident in the second set. At one stage, Vinci led 4-1 and had a ball for 5-1 before being pushed to a tiebreak. It was a sequence of events which was to rob her of much-needed energy for the third set.

Andrea Petkovic and Julia Goerges both scored straight sets victories to put Germany in charge against USA in their Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group play-off tie in Stuttgart. Petkovic gave Germany a great start to their promotion campaign with a 63 64 win over 18-year-old Christina McHale. The German No. 1 broke serve on four occasions, and only conceded her own delivery twice, to seal victory in 1 hour 35 minutes. Goerges then avenged a recent defeat by Melanie Oudin in Miami by coming back from a break down in the second set to win 62 76(5).

The Americans are missing their top three players through injury – Serena and Venus Williams, and Bethanie Mattek-Sands – leaving added pressure on the young shoulders of McHale and Oudin.

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