Monday, April 21
Last updated at Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:15:00 GMT
If the players are happy, the ATP and the USTA should be happy. If the fans are happy, too — and they seemed to be, with the way they gobbled up tickets as the week wore on — the conversation should be over. But it's known that the USTA would like to see improvement in one area: getting more of the club members into the stands early, or having a backup plan to fill their empty seats.
"I don't have bad memories of playing against him. I just have bad memories of hurting my wrist," he said.
Above them, on the club's terrace, the clink of cutlery and the rising buzz of table talk signified that lunch was well under way and there was little in the second set to persuade anybody of the violent need to break off from knives and forks. Lopez slid into despond, while Murray went about his business with the quiet efficiency of the waiters in the dining area. This was only his fifth win on clay since he turned professional in 2005, although his junior days at the Sánchez-Casal academy in Barcelona gave him a secure grounding on the surface. I
After winning the tie-break 7-5 Murray quickly took charge of the second set. Breaks in the first and seventh games gave him the chance to serve out at 5-2, only for the Scot to drop his serve with his only loose game of the match. He made no mistake two games later, securing victory when Lopez put a forehand in the net.
...When the last ball sailed long, Granollers-Pujol screamed, then jogged to the baseline and hugged his coach Alberto Banus. "It feels very, very good," Granollers-Pujol said. "I am happy for this. It is the best day of my life."
Asked how he felt when he went out to serve for the match a second time, he smiled and said: "I was thinking about nothing," conceding he was thinking too much when presented with the first opportunity.
At a crucial juncture in that game, he had netted a volley off a sitter and then followed suit with a terrible drop shot. Most folks assumed Blake was home free after such a self-inflicted one-two gut punch. But he wasn't. "Second time this year I've made a young player's day," Blake said. "I'm sure he's feeling excited right now. I remember winning my first title. He competed well all week, and with good sportsmanship. I'm happy for him. But it's tough being on the receiving end again."
...“From all I have seen, Andy is willing to do what needs to be done. And he learns so fast, he gets it right away. I don't know if it is that easy for him, but that is the way it seems. There is so much more to his game than most have, even Spanish clay-court players. But he needs to prove to himself that he can play on the surface.["] ...“Being sent home left me with a very raw feeling,” he recalls. “I feared I might have ruined everything. Going to play a Grand Slam on the other side of the world was something I had worked for and I thought I’d never get another chance. In those first weeks after I got home I was in a mess.
“But it served to be the wake-up call I needed.["]... Hutchins made him sign a six-point pledge about his behaviour, with his parents and coach Victor Roubanov as witnesses. “There were a lot of emotional meetings leading up to that signing,” says Hutchins. “I don’t want to stifle any form of personality, but we could not allow things to continue as they were. Now we hope the lesson has been learned.”
"Sometimes the Spanish guys or the South Americans, they just play a regular game; they don't show anything apart from playing topspin and running."
Of course, elegance is not enough and Murray must also be prepared, Corretja said, to scuffle and hustle. "You have to suffer on clay," said Corretja, who has told Murray, a perfectionist, that you do not have to play perfect tennis to win on clay.
...Not enough for Murray the perfectionist, perhaps, although Corretja and the rest of the team are attempting to persuade him that perfection is not a prerequisite on clay. " You need to suffer," said the Spaniard. "You may need to win a point like 20 times, hit 20 winners, and even then your opponent may reach the ball again. That's the main strength with Rafa [Nadal]. It's not a matter of hitting the ball well with every shot. It's a matter of being focused and solid. Andy needs to be patient, and to play without stress because with stress you get nerves."
ATP corporate communications director Kris Dent told The Globe and Mail "the Sony Ericsson is our biggest event outside the Grand Slams and they made a very coherent argument why they needed television [coverage]."
...But just the thought of anticipating an extended run of success for her makes one feel naïve, even gullible, given her record of unpredictable form over the past three or four years. When the ruling was upheld, Williams responded with a 120-mph ace down the center line that rocketed past Zvonareva before she raised her racket.
“It’s definitely not at will, but when I’m angry or upset, I can do it,” Williams said. “Maybe I need to be angry and upset every time.”
Once was enough: She won 10 of the next 13 points to end the match.
...But the 23-year-old Russian, ranked 17th in the world, came achingly close to what would have been the biggest win of her career. When she broke Serena's serve in the third game of the third set to go up 2-1, she had Williams in real trouble.
...Zvonareva's serve, shaky throughout the match, let her down mightily at the end. Consecutive double faults, her seventh and eighth, gave Williams three break points in the eighth game. Zvonareva's forehand into the net on the second break point gave Williams a 5-3 lead, and she served out the match uneventfully from there.
The tournament's No. 2 seeds needed just 61 minutes to defeat unseeded Edina Gallovits of Romania and Olga Govortsova of Belarus, 6-2, 6-2, two weeks after winning the doubles title at Miami. "Unfortunately, I have to leave," Sugiyama said. "But it was a beautiful golf course."
"I came back and made my first final right away. It just feels great. But you know, there are many more tournaments to come and I'm going to try to do my best in those as well." Zvonareva made a Tier I final in Doha, losing to Maria Sharapova in three sets, and made the quarters at Indian Wells and the semifinals in Miami. She's won $563,354 so far this year, and should move up to No. 14 in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings.
...Serena worked hard for her $196,900 this week. She played three three-set matches and spent nine hours and 15 minutes on court, an average of 1:51 per match. Of course, that's about $21,877 per hour on court.
...The crowd for Sunday's championship match was 8,607 at Stadium Court, the fourth-largest since the Family Circle Cup moved to Daniel Island in 2001. That put the total for the week at 90,437, ranking fifth in the eight years the tournament has been in Charleston. The 9,336 on hand for Friday's quarterfinal match between superstars Williams and Sharapova was the largest single-session crowd for the Family Circle Cup on Daniel Island.
...McEnroe, mobbed by fans wherever he goes, was just as popular in Cayman as everywhere else, partly because British ex–pats adore him so much. “There are a lot of ex–patri[a]ts from England and because of my long history from there and Americans coming down, perhaps from the New York area who know me, I pretty much knew what to expect. They’re going to be enjoying themselves and voicing their opinion.”
"Believe me, I don't for a minute think this is a clay-court inspired relationship," Martin said. "I think this is a tennis-inspired relationship."
"The ATP are always doing what they want. They have to inform the players on what is going on."
"I think we have to try to change everything because right now we have no influence on the ATP."
While it's sad to see another US event leave, what the nation really needs is another men's clay-court event in the spring, not another hard-court event during that past of the season.
...Just think how ridiculous it is that the athletic Blake, eliminated 31-year-old Agustin Calleri in Houston in the quarters on Friday (that's as a good of an Argentine that the US gets these days), has never, ever, had a decent French Open... You cannot tell me that if Igor Andreev can reach the Roland Garros quarters that Blake shouldn't be able to do the same. His conditioning is decent, he can dictate with his forehand, protect his backhand and finish off key points at the net. His failures there have been entirely mental. But, if he could grab two titles over decent clay-courters in the US prior to heading to Europe, maybe he could make a mini-push.
I'm not throwing Roddick into Blake's category because he does not have the horizontal speed or a powerful enough backhand to do major damage against a good clay-courter.
..."I've been of the thought of Roger needing some input for a little while now,'' said Martin. "He's, in my opinion, exhibited some anxiety on the court, not behavioral. I think he's just pulled the trigger on some points earlier than he has been over the years.
"You would think with Jose's playing background, if anybody had any anxiety in their game, he could quell that because of the way he played -- bide your time, bide your time, bide your time. At the same time, from my conversations with Jose and my own opinions of Roger's game, Jose is going to encourage him to be more aggressive than in the past, but understand when and how to pick his spots, and how to impose himself with margin as opposed to risk.''
..."He's tough. I know that," Hernandez said. "But I didn't play well (Saturday), and I do not expect that he return like that. Four winners on my first serve in the game in the first set that he broke me. ... "
He shook his head. Although sometimes the approach gets Blake in trouble, only Hernandez paid a price this day. He did break for a 3-0 lead in the second set, but Blake cruised home from there. He forced an error with a sizzling forehand to score the mini-break that got him to match point in the tiebreaker, then ripped a forehand winner off a good Hernandez backhand service return to close out the match in one hour, 34 minutes.
"I haven't dropped a set yet," Blake said. "I feel like I've adapted to the clay very well. Hopefully I'll get a little revenge (today)."
Navratilova objected to the required footwear. 'High heels? Hello,' she said. 'Can you see me in those high heels? No frigging way.'
...But Martina said she is going to appear on a reality show called 'Beat the Star' in Germany. 'It's sort of an athletic and brainy competition with an athlete and a ‘normal person,' so to speak,' she said.
Zvonareva broke Dementieva again to go ahead 6-5 and was serving for the match, only to find herself down love 40.
She battled back to deuce, but never earned a match point and Dementieva finally won on her seventh break point of the game to even the match at 6-6 and force the tiebreaker.
Dementieva dominated the tiebreaker, but it turned out to be her last gasp.
Far from it.
Cornet betrayed few nerves at the start, jumping out to a 4-1 lead and causing a stir among the Stadium Court patrons.
There is an obvious communications disconnect between the ATP management and players — even top 20 players. "We have to check the newsletter every week because sometimes they change rules and we need to see if something is changing," Davydenko said. "If you forget to read newsletter, you don't know about rules change.And not everyone speak perfect English. Why they not have rule book in Russian? Then I know everything. Or French or German. Only in Spanish and English. So we have petition. We go now to the street to be against ATP."
...The girls wake up at 4 a.m. and train from 5 to 6, 9 to 10, and noon to 1 p.m. They play practice matches from 4:30 to 6 p.m. In between, they are home-schooled through the Internet.
The hard work is already paying off. Vickery, of Miramar, last Saturday won the 14-and-under Easter Bowl title in Rancho Mirage, Calif., after knocking off top seed Kyle McPhillips of Ohio. Vickery and Duval, both still 12, were the youngest girls in the draw. Duval, of Delray Beach, reached the round of 16 before losing to McPhillips.
"Now I'm at the period where I want to show again and prove that whatever I did back then wasn't apparently because I took something," she said. "It was because I put a lot of hard work in it, and I was very competitive."
..."I was actually the one that had the longest penalty in women's tennis," she said, smiling. "Martina also had two years, but I was the first one. I hold the record. You know, it's good to hold records. No matter what. It's a record. There's nothing to be sad about, really." "It was kind of emotional, playing my dad in the finals,'' he says. "I had never beaten him before, and so I didn't really honestly expect myself to win the match. I was out there having fun and it was a great experience. I lost 6-3, 6-1. He killed me." "I didn't follow the game plan," Harrison said after Blake beat him 6-3, 6-2. "I was OK off the baseline and at the net, but I didn't get a high enough percentage of my first serves in. I played pretty nervous out there."
...His good-guy reputation is the only thing that keeps him from being labeled a bully this week. He had rolled Japan's Kei Nishikori, 18, in the first round and then pummeled Harrison, also administering a welcome to the ATP moment by firing a screaming forehand at him at the net, what Blake called "a little souvenir to see what the pace can be like."
"We've played numerous times and never on clay," Sharapova said. "I'm really looking forward to it.["] "I'll see how I feel (today), seeing that I fell," said Williams, who is seeking her first Family Circle Cup title. "You know, when you're playing and with the adrenaline, you can't really assess yourself until the next day."
Why did you decide to compete in the triathlon?
``The most important reason I did this was for St. Jude Children's Hospital.
With it here in Miami, it was a no-brainer. I had never done one of these,
so it was also a new experience and challenge for me. I would absolutely do
it again.''
Did you do any kind of special training or did you just get up and go?
'It was more like `I will just get up in the morning and do it.' And
whatever happens afterward, who cares? I work out regularly, so I did not
change one thing. I do my usual 30- to 45-minute weights and then I walk for
like an hour or so -- I don't run -- four times a week. But actually I was
sick like a week ago, so I haven't exercised in 10 days.''
Fish, Isner Join Field For Legg Mason Classic
- Liz Clarke, Washington Post
Washington's Legg Mason Tennis Classic, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this summer, has received commitments from Americans Mardy Fish and John Isner. They'll join a field led by the country's top-ranked player, Andy Roddick, who announced earlier this year that he'll skip the 2008 Beijing Olympics in order to defend his title in Washington's hard-court tournament and fine-tune his game for the U.S. Open.
Danica vs. Billie Jean: Who had bigger win?
- USA Today blog
River Oaks aces Men's Clay Court Championships test
- Dale Robertson, Houston Chronicle
Regarding the courts, which were often an issue at Westside, the tournament's previous home, Blake said he didn't experience a bad bounce, adding: "Rivers Oaks probably has the best-maintained courts in the country."
Tennis on the Edge
- Steve Tignor, Tennis.com
At the top, Federer has work ahead with either Ramirez-Hidalgo or Simon, who can both play on clay, and Nalbandian in the distance. In the second quarter, I’d like to see Djokovic vs. Murray, and I can’t believe I’m looking at Sam Querrey’s name in the second round. On the other side, the man who may stand in the way of yet another Rafael Nadal title run is his countryman and two-time conqueror last year, David Ferrer. But Nadal likes nothing more than to settle his scores on dirt.
Andy Murray breaks Monte Carlo duck with victory over Feliciano Lopez
- Neil Harman, The Times
Andy Murray beats Feliciano Lopez
- Mark Hodgkinson, The Telegraph
Murray was pulverising Volandri on the Hamburg clay in May last year, leading 5-1, when he mistimed a forehand, damaged his wrist tendons, and was out for three months, including missing the French Open and Wimbledon. But Murray said that the sight of Volandri isn't going to send him into a hyper-ventilating panic.
Murray on red alert to win a game of patience
- Steve Bierley, The Guardian
The Spaniard's fiery serve and big forehand, as well as lack of any fear at the net, has seen him perform far better at Wimbledon than the French Open and, as the first set moved steadily towards the tie-break, the feeling increased that it would be Lopez who might crack first. And so it happened, save for an initial Murray drop shot that fell softly into the net, and caused him to throw back his head in anguish. But if this had been a present for Lopez, the Spaniard was about to shower Murray with gifts.
Murray warms to his task to claim rare success on clay
- Paul Newman, The Independent
bleak weather forecast proved pleasingly inaccurate as Murray warmed to his task after saving the only break point against him in the first set with a service winner. Lopez, a serve-and-volley specialist who prefers faster courts, won the first point of the tie-break, courtesy of Murray's failed drop shot, but the 26-year-old Spaniard then lost three of the first four points on his own serve.
Blake lets one get away
- Dale Robertson, Houston Chronicle
There was a déjà vu aspect to Sunday's match. In February, Blake had Kei Nishikori down a set in the Delray Beach, Fla., final, only to see the 18-year-old from Japan roar back to claim his first ATP title. Now Granollers-Pujol owns one courtesy of Blake.
Andy Murray impresses his new coach Alex Corretja
- Neil Harman, The Times
Three years ago, in his final match as a professional, Alex Corretja lost to Feliciano Lopez, his fellow Spaniard. Today, in his first match as Andy Murray's clay-court mentor, the opponent will again be Feliciano Lopez. And, if the result should be the same, Corretja insists that it will not be the end of anyone's world.
Marcus Willis has cleaned up his act
- Barry Flatman, Sunday Times
“I was just so wrong in Australia,” admits Willis, who just a week before had been issued a written final warning by the LTA’s head of men’s tennis, Paul Hutchins, that such behaviour would no longer be tolerated. “I can’t say I don’t know why it happened because I did and it was all down to me. There is no excuse. I was intent on having a bit too much fun. I needed to become more mature. You can have a social life but it’s important to know the limits. I made mistakes but I’m not going to make them again. I apologise to everyone I let down. I would know if I had to be somewhere at 9am or 10am but I’d think, ‘Oh, five more minutes in bed’, rather than thinking about getting myself there five minutes early.”
Andy Murray heads for clay revival
- Mark Hodgkinson, The Telegraph
Has a British sportsman ever worn a more romantic baseball cap? Andy Murray's choice of headgear at a soggy Monte Carlo Country Club yesterday was a cap with the initials 'A' and 'K' on the front, for him and girlfriend Kim.
Corretja giving Murray gritty lessons on dirt
- Steve Bierley, the Guardian
Murray practised with Feliciano Lopez last week, and as fate would have it he has drawn the Spanish left-hander in the first round here today. "Feliciano is one of my best friends. When I saw the draw I said 'That's a joke', but we are professionals and have to separate tennis from friendship," said Corretja.
Corretja hopeful Murray will finally flourish on clay
- Paul Newman, The Independent
Corretja said that he had turned down other coaching offers but took the chance to work with Murray because of the Scot's potential. "He can easily play on clay because he can play from the baseline," Corretja said. "He has some good things that the others don't. He has a very big serve. He can go to the net. He can mix it up very well, He can play aggressively and defensively. He can move well. He can play drop shots. It's difficult to improve things in a few days, but you tell him something and he gets it straight away."
King of clay Nadal bemoans ‘crazy' schedule
- Tom Tebbutt, The Globe and Mail
"The calendar is completely crazy," Nadal said yesterday in Monte Carlo. "I think it's not fair to the European players and the clay-court players, too. Three Masters in four weeks, it is too much. They [the ATP] say this is an Olympic year, that is very nice, but the truth is they put Indian Wells and Miami back [actually forward] because of the college [basketball]."
Serena Williams returning to old form
- Tom Tebbutt, The Globe and Mail blog
When Serena Williams plays well, it seems as if all the other players in a tournament are competing for second place. That applies to pretty well everyone on the women's tour with the possible exception of four-time French Open champion Justine Henin, when she is playing on clay.
Williams earns 3rd title of ’08
- South Carolina State
The signature moment: With the third set tied at 3, Zvonareva complained when a Williams serve was judged good. As Zvonareva’s argument dragged out, Williams became visibly incensed.
Serena captures her third singles crown of the year
- Charleston Post and Courier
Williams, seeded fifth at the Family Circle and ranked ninth in the world, gutted out her third three-set match of the week, wearing down ninth-seeded Vera Zvonareva to win 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 before a pro-Serena crowd of 8,607 at Stadium Court. "I'm feeling really good, like I'm just happy to be able to win a tournament again," said Serena, who in fact has won three titles this year and 31 in her career. "I feel like, yeah, I have some momentum behind me and I want to keep going."
Srebotnik, Sugiyama win doubles
- Charleston Post and Courier
Ai Sugiyama likes to play golf, even while playing tennis on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and she got a round in Wednesday at the Daniel Island Club. Sugiyama and partner Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia made such quick work of the Family Circle Cup doubles final on Sunday, the 32-year-old from Japan had plenty of time to ponder 18 more holes before dinner.
Save this recipe for future Family Circle Cup success
- Charleston Post and Courier
An energy boost from hard-working and gregarious defending champion Jelena Jankovic, so stung by her Friday night semifinal loss to Zvonareva that she went through two-a-day workouts on Family Circle Tennis Center practice courts Saturday.
This was one of the best on Daniel Island
- XCharleston Post and Courier
Cup was good news for runner-up Zvonareva
- Charelston Post and Courier
"It's been a great start of the year for me," Zvonareva said. "Especially since I got injured before my first final of the year and I wasn't able to play for one month.
Mac’s fury has not waned
- Caymanian Compass
He actually made some quips and even found time to admonish a tipsy woman who kept yelling: “New balls!”
Nick’s hopes for tennis
- Caymanian Compass
Despite Shaky Play, Federer Finally Takes a Title
- Tom Perrotta, New York Sun
"I have the feeling if you only play two or three Masters Series and you don't play well in one, you come into the French Open maybe with not enough tennis," Federer told a small group of reporters after his victory at the Masters Cup. "I like also going to smaller events and being the superstar. Even though I'm that everywhere I go, in small tournaments like Estoril I can enjoy it much more because it's a smaller crowd, a smaller atmosphere; it's nice to be able to share that."
Sampras taking it all in the second time around
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Higueras has guided the likes of Todd Martin, and French Open winners Courier, Michael Chang, Carlos Moya and Sergi Bruguera.
Nadal slams ATP over crazy calendar
- Reuters
"I think the board, everything has to change. A lot of things have to change at the ATP because right now the players no longer have confidence in the ATP," he said.
Creating titlelists out of clay
- Matthew Cronin, tennisreporters.net
With the former Tennis Channel Open waving goodbye to Las Vegas and almost surely headed for South Africa next year, yet another tournament will venture out of US waters for a nation that surely deserves an event. The country has not produced a load of great champions, although it did produce some very good players like Cliff Drysdale, Bob Hewitt, Frew McMillan, Wayne Ferreira, Amanda Coetzer and Liezel Huber.
Federer confident he can halt season-long drought during clay season
- ESPN
Given Federer's later disclosure he was suffering from mono at the time (he told reporters in Estoril he was "sick like a dog'' early in the year), it didn't appear to be a bad result and explained why his movement was off.
How Davis Cup became king
- Justin Gimelstob, SI.com
I appreciate and respect the efforts of these women and have no doubt they will compete admirably, but if this is the best the Fed Cup can produce, maybe it's time to re-evaluate the interest and solvency of Fed Cup in America and reallocate the USTA's funds.
Blake thwarts all-Spanish final
- Dale Robertson, Houston Chronicle
It had buoyed his spirits, especially because he and Granollers-Pujol have become close friends despite an eight-year age difference. "I am so happy for Marcel. We see the draw before the tournament and we were speaking that maybe we can play together the final," Hernandez said wistfully, reflecting on what might have been ... if only Blake had been willing to cooperate.
The year of the underdog or superwoman
- Chalreston Post and Courier
If you don't think Serena and Sharapova were that important to this tournament, consider that each of the five sessions in which one or both participated set Charleston tournament records for that particular session. And yet the tournament appears destined to finish with a lower total attendance than any of the last three Family Circles.
No dancing with these tennis stars
- Charleston Post and Courier
Evert said she and Martina have been invited 'every year' to put on their dancing shoes. 'I'm not a good dancer, period,' Evert said. 'So why would I want to do that?'
Zvonareva earns another upset
- Charleston Post and Courier
But the second set was a battle from start to finish. Zvonareva came back after trailing 3-0, down a break and evened it at 4-all by winning two straight games at love.
Serena hits stride after slow start
- Charleston Post and Courier
"I hope not to be ridiculous," Cornet said on Friday as she pondered a matchup with Serena, who is ranked ninth in the world and owns eight Grand Slam titles.
Young no longer flying solo on tour
- Charles Bricker, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Why are ATP pros petitioning for more power? "Because normally, Player Council is more support ATP, not ATP players," said Nikolay Davydenko. "We cannot change anything."
Preteens catch guru's eye, train for tennis fame
- Michelle Kaufman, Miami Herald
So, when he laid eyes on South Florida 12-year-olds Sachia Vickery and Victoria Duval a few months ago, he knew right away that he wanted to tuck them under his wing and try to develop them while they are still young. Both come from financially strapped homes (Vickery's mom took a second job bartending at a North Miami strip club to fund her daughter's dream), so Bollettieri offered them scholarships. They have been training in Bradenton since February.
After two-year suspension, tennis player starts over
- Charles Elmore, Palm Beach Post
"Basically this is what I'm trying to do: Just kind of clean my name, and make people like me again," Karatancheva said Thursday at the BallenIsles USTA $25,000 Women's Challenger in Palm Beach Gardens. She spoke courtside after winning her second-round match against Story Tweedie-Yates 6-0, 6-2.
Champion Makers? Part 1
- Peter Bodo, TennisWorld
. In this post and one tomorrow, I'll look at the coaching history of the very best players of the pasts few decades, in an attempt to gauge how much - or little - coaching has meant to the very best of players:
The Hit List: Who is Richard afraid of now?
- Matthew Cronin, tennisreporters.net
A source tells TennisReporters.net that on Saturday Gasquet walked out to the practice court while Roddick and Blake were hitting. Roddick began ripping the ball and after he was done, he went up to Gasquet and said, "I'm looking forward to playing you tomorrow."
15-year-old Texan is tennis' latest surprise
- USA Today blog
Harrison has been playing since he was 2. His father Pat was a pro for a
couple of years, and now teaches at the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch, in New Braunfels, Texas. When the family still lived in Louisiana, Harrison once played against his father for the Shreveport city championship, when he was
11.
Henin's versatility and clay-court prowess should bode well again
- Sandra Harwitt, ESPN
Blake ends surge by Harrison
- Dale Robertson, Houston Chronicle
You're 15 years old and taking on the No. 8 player in the world, an American Davis Cup hero, and you fall into the trap of thinking every serve has to be a bazooka.
'Experts' weigh in on Serena vs. Maria
- Charleston Post and Courier
Sharapova holds on after 'sloppy' first set
- Charleston Post and Courier
She is 2-4 in her career against Williams.
Serena struggles in three-set victory
- Charleston Post and Courier
Williams did her part — barely — to set up today's quarterfinal showdown with fourth-ranked Maria Sharapova. But Serena also sprained her right ankle when she took a first-set tumble on the green clay, leaving in doubt her fitness for today's match with Sharapova, a series that Williams leads, 4-2.
Berdych facing injury layoff
- AFP
"One ligament is slightly strained but the others are okay, so it does not
have to be in plaster. I will start rehabilitation in a week," Berdych told
the CTK agency on Tuesday.
Anna Kournikova sweats it out
- Miami Herald
Miami Beach resident, tennis bombshell and K-Swiss fashionista Anna
Kournikova changed up her regular routine a bit last weekend to run the
four-mile leg of the Nautica South Beach Triathlon as part of a celebrity
relay team with Olympian Dana Torres (swimming) and model/triathlete Katya
Myers (biking).
Sharapova driven by winning, not celebrity
- Beaufort Gazette
Cruise Control
- Charleston Post and Courier
"I think I've gotten better every single year," said Sharapova who turns 21 on Saturday. "I feel like I'm growing into my body and I'm becoming stronger. I'm not slipping around on the court as much as I used to. I'm finally being able to play more matches on the clay. Last year I only played a couple weeks before the French. This year I'm really happy that I can start the preparation early and I'm in a much better place than I was last year. That gives me extra confidence that I'll be able to come into the French confident."
Magazines this Month
April issue - Tennis (table of contents + web extras)
April issue - Australian Tennis (table of contents)
First Serve: The Bucket List - Bill Simons, Inside Tennis
The Buzz - Inside Tennis
Funny Folks
- Inside Tennis
Tennis' Top Ten Funniest - Inside Tennis
Who's Hot, Who's Not - Matthew Cronin, Inside Tennis
Serbian Wells - Inside Tennis
U.S. vs. France: No Fear of Les Blues - Inside Tennis
Tennis’ Political Endorsements - Inside Tennis
Inside Line - Tennis Week
Serbia's Tennis Mania - Tennis Week
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