TENNIS in DEPTH.

Jelena Dokic, the No.1 seed in the qualies, rallied from 63 30 down to beat American Christina McHale, 36 76(3) 62. Dokic is coming off her first WTA title in almost nine years, winning Kuala Lumpur a few weeks ago. The Australian’s best results here were quarterfinal showings in 2001 (losing to Venus Williams) and 2003 (losing to Kim Clijsters). In the most interesting match of today, Dokic will be tested against Dinara Safina who entered this tournament as a wildcard.

Melanie Oudin, beat Germany’s Julia Goerges, 75 63. Oudin let a 5-2 lead slip away early in the match but wound up closing the first set out anyway, 7-5, then held off the German to put it away in straight sets on Grandstand court, 75 63. ”Julia was missing a lot of balls at the beginning and I was just getting balls back; she started playing better and I got a little tight,” Oudin said of the first set. “It was up and down a lot. She’d make errors then hit winners. I was pretty steady most of the match – I think we both could have played better.” Oudin will next take on No.29 seed Daniela Hantuchova, against whom she is 0-2 lifetime (although she won the first set in both of those meetings).

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The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour this week announced its calendar for the 2010 season. There will be a total of 53 tournaments (in addition to the four Grand Slam events) in 32 countries with total prize money of over $83 million.

There will be three new tournaments, with the San Diego Open replacing the Los Angeles Open in August and the and the Malaysia Classic in Kuala Lumpur and e-Boks Danish Open in Copenhagen taking place in February and August 2, respectively.

“With three new tournaments investing in our sport in each of the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions, the Tour’s 2010 calendar continues to showcase the global commercial strength of women’s tennis,” said Stacey Allaster, Chairman and CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

“I am very proud of the fact that despite a worldwide recession, we have been able to achieve modest growth. The key to this growth and investment is consistently delivering a premium sports and entertainment product to fans and sponsors around the world.”

The international breadth of tournaments includes 24 events in Europe, 15 events in the Americas and 18 events in the Asia-Pacific region. Seventeen combined events include Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Beijing, Sydney, Moscow, Eastbourne, New Haven, Brisbane, s’Hertogenbosch, Estoril, Memphis and Acapulco, along with the four Grand Slams. Seven back-to-back men/women events include Dubai, Tokyo, Rome, Cincinnati, Canada, Auckland, and Bastad. Additionally, in 2011 Rome, Cincinnati and Canada will all be combined men/women events.

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Elevated to #8 in the new rankings 19 year old Victria Azarenka humiliated #1 Serena Williams 6-3, 6-1 to win the 2009 Sony Ericsson Championship.

At the age of 19 years, eight months, Azarenka becomes only the sixth teenage champion in tournament history, joining the distinguished list of Monica Seles (16 years, four months in 1990), Martina Hingis (16 years, six months in 1997), Steffi Graf (17 years, eight months in 1987), Venus Williams (17 years, nine months in 1998) and Gabriela Sabatini (18 years, 10 months in 1989).

Azarenka’s success at the Sony Ericsson Open will see her rise from No. 10 to a career-high No. 8 in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings on Monday. The Belarusian began the season ranked No. 16, but after winning her first two WTA Tour singles titles at Brisbane (d. Bartoli) and Memphis (d. Wozniacki) and reaching the semifinals at the Premier-level event in Indian Wells (l. to Zvonareva) two weeks ago, her ranking improved to No. 10 coming into the Sony Ericsson Open.

Azarenka won $700,000, more than the men

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Andy Roddick

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Of the sixteen players remaining in the Women’s draw at the Sony Ericsson in Miami, only five are in the top ten. They are Serena Williams, Elena Dementieva, Venus Williams, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Victoria Azarenka. The Williams sisters are both in the top half of the draw and are on course to determine which one goes on to the final. Who will make it from the bottom half is unpredictable. Yesterday Safina, Zvonareva, Petrova, and Ivanovic joined Jankovic in the losers column, and it makes one wonder about the status of the women’s game. On the one hand it is a much more interesting set of circumstances when the outcome of a match is in the balance, when every match is wide open, and the winner not necessarily the highest ranked player. But it is also a reflection on the robotic nature of the game, where many of the players have become clones of each other and where it is often difficult to determine whether one player exerts any superior quality over their opponent. Except for the glamorous clothes it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish one from the other.

With just a couple of exceptions there is little to choose between any of the top 25 players, and unless a particular player brings her A game, she is vulnerable to defeat. Consistency and athleticism are the two qualities that have become the most important, and not the quality of the shot making or the construction of the points, as all the players are in the same groove and quite capable of hitting the ball from corner to corner. The unforced error count has become more significant in determining the winner than the number of winning shots she produces. The winner of most matches is decided by the one who makes the least number of errors, and this is not a healthy formula for improving the sport.

Thank God for the Williams sisters! They add colour (pun intended) to the game, they bring a combination of power and court sense to their matches, and a degree of individuality that is missing with most other players. It is small wonder that Kim Clijsters is coming back, I’m sure as she watches from home she has convinced herself that she can beat most of the current crop of players. I doubt that she can!

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While Caroline Wozniacki was serving 12 aces, Jelena Dokic was serving 10 double faults, hardly the formula for winning for Dokic. But she fought hard after losing the first set 6-3, and forced the match into a 3rd set by winning 7-5 in the second. But the double faults were her undoing as she lost 6-2 in the third set.

Marion Bartoli(12) had the distinction of being the first seeded player to lose as she went down 6-2, 6-4 to Anastasiya Yakimova. But she was not alone as #19 Almagro lost to Taylor Dent 2-6, 6-2, 7-6, followed by Rod Soderling(23) who lost to US qualifier Kendrick. Marcos Baghdatis also lost, going down 3-6, 6-2, 2-6 to Paul Henri Mathieu.

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