Archives for 2013
Bartoli’s stunning retirement, Sharapova and Connors split, & Federer’s racquet
August 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
What will happen to Bartoli when the attention dies down?
It has been an entirely unpredictable week in tennis, beginning with Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli’s shocking announcement of her retirement on Tuesday, Roger Federer’s decision around the same time that he ditched his prototype racquet and gone back to his old Wilson Pro Staff, the USTA’s grand announcement of a roof to be built over Arthur Ashe Stadium, and on Friday the revelation that Maria Sharapova had parted with coach Jimmy Connors after just one month (and only one match).
Bartoli said that she knew she was done after her opening round loss to Simona Halep in Cincinnati. She has put her body through the ringer over the past 13 years and just could not face another day of having to spend a half hour just getting herself to walk regularly. Here is a news story I wrote on her comments to a small group on us on Thursday morning.
The Frenchwoman says that there will be no comeback as she approaches everything in her life full on, and she isn’t washy washy about her decision. I, like many others who have covered her over the years, was very surprised at the decision, because I spoke to her on three occasions during the Rogers Cup in Toronto and she gave absolutely no indication that she was ready to retire. She did admit that she was exhausted, but she spoke with bright eyes and enthusiasm about an assault on this year’s US Open and given that she has been a very good hard court player, it was not out of the realm of possibility that she could make a charge to the semis, or even the final, or even win it if her draw broke right again.
But that doesn’t matter as she had lost her motivation and will to compete. She is only 28 years old, and she joins an all-star list of women players who has retired prematurely over the past decade: Anna Kournikova, Martina Hingis, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, Dinara Safina and Elena Dementieva. All of them had different reasons for doing so. Most cited injuries, other mentioned a bit of burnout. Three came back while the three Russians have stayed on the sidelines.
As Bartoli said, every player path is different and hers has been radically so. What will likely be forgotten post her wonderful Wimbledon run is what chaotic year she has leading up to London: her split with her father, hiring and firing coaches, reuniting with him, splitting again. She had some very tough moments this season, but those all seemingly were washed away when she was finally able to raise the big trophy at her cherished locale. But maybe she could not imagine continuing on the tennis treadmill without her dad around anymore? Do not dismiss that possibility as she had some very difficult and at times lonely periods without him this season.
But what did Bartoli see the future hold for her after that? She isn’t sure other than attending tournaments to watch her new set of friends (other French players on the Fed Cup team), going to some art galleries and maybe taking up ballet again. She has been the center of attention since she won Wimbledon. Even today she was exchanging tweets with other players. She will head to New York for the US Open and is sure to get some more attention there.
But what then after the lights go down, people stop calling her as much, the thrill of competition is no longer there and she has no tangible goals? That’s when the full weight of her decision will fall on her. The tennis world is hoping she makes an easy transition, but the thought here is that it won’t be anything close to that.
The Sharapova-Connors split
No one who has spent a fair amount of time around Sharapova and Connors were surprised that they split after just a month. In fact, folks close to both were surprised that they were going to try out a full time coaching pupil relationships to begin with. Neither is easy going, they are both Type-A personalities with a lot to say about everything and have very definitive ways of seeing how the sport should be played. The only tangible thing that Connors could have given to Sharapova was enough self-belief to really know she has enough game to beat Serena. He couldn’t help her with two areas of her game where she really needs help – her second serve and her volley. She thought that he could teach her his wise ways, but she is not that trusting of a person, or that patient, so the impression he made in the first couple of weeks of their partnership could not have been a good one.
The last time they worked together, for to weeks back in 2007, she had a couple of buffers around her in her traveling coach Michael Joyce and her dad Yuri. This time around it was one on one and I cannot imagine how she took to some of his very direct comments when – and this is very important to realize – he has rarely followed her career closely or women’s tennis at all so she probably didn’t think he was offering anything of real value in the context of her (not his) career.
So Sharapova pulled the rip cord quickly and now will head to the US Open without a full time coach, but likely with someone in tow, possibly one of her hitting partners, maybe even her dad or possibly one of her boyfriend, Grigor Dimitrov’s Swedish coaches. For more info, here is the news story I wrote on it this morning.
Federer and his racquet
Roger Federer is scheduled to play Rafael Nadal on Friday night in Cincinnati in a match where he will be a serious underdog in. Even getting a set in that match given how shaky he’s been over the past few months and how good Nadal has been in the past week and a half will give him a psychological boost. But his decision to test a prototype racket for more than a month and then bail on it in Cincy is not a good sign. Sure, his smaller head Wilson Pro Staff worked well for him for much of his career, but it hasn’t this year. However, if he was feeling uncomfortable with the prototype, he really had no choice if he was going to be comfortable in matches but to chuck it back into his racquet bag for the time being. But that does little more than put him back at square one. A win over Nadal would put him in US Open final four contention. A quick loss would mean he’s in danger of a first week exit.
The USTA has received a lot of flack (especially from some overseas reporters) about the lack of a roof on Arthur Ashe stadium. But on Thursday the organization announced plans for not only a roof on Ashe, but one of the new Armstrong stadium, and a new Grandstand court, and for an entire redesign of the site. It looks very impressive to me (see the Picture of the day on the home page) and eventually will put the USO ahead of the rest of the majors facility wise. Well done. Read here.
Shocker! Wimbledon champ Bartoli retires out of the blue
August 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli shockingly retired after a first round loss to Simona Halep in Cincinnati. The 28-year-old Frenchwoman had said just last week in Toronto that she was emotionally and physically exhausted after her maiden Grand Slam run, which is why she pulled out of tournaments at Stanford and Carlsbad. She retired in her second match in Toronto last week and said that doctors told her she might be suffering from “an excess of tiredness and exhaustion on my body ..Everything that happened for me since a month, it’s not without any tiredness, and obviously it took me so much energy to win my first Grand Slam that at some point I will have a kind of low, and it’s normal. I’m human. At the end of the day I can’t be winning after winning after winning without feeling at some point a kind of exhaustion.”
On Wednesday in Cincinnati, Bartoli said that she does not want to deal with the physical pain of competing further.
“My body just can’t do it anymore,’” she said. “ I’ve been already through a lot of injuries since the beginning of the year. I’ve been on the tour for so long, and I really push through and leave it all during that Wimbledon. I really felt I gave all the energy I have left inside my body. I made my dream a reality and it will stay forever with me, but now my body just can’t cope with everything. I have pain everywhere after 45 minutes or an hour of play. I’ve been doing this for so long. And, yeah, it’s just body‑wise I just can’t do it anymore.”
Bartoli said that she has been thinking about whether she wanted to continue since Wimbledon
‘When you dreamed about something for so long and you have been on the tour for many, many, many years and you have been through up and downs and high and lows and already a lot of injuries since the beginning of the year, my body was really starting to fall apart, and I was able to keep it together, go through the pain with a lot of pain throughout this Wimbledon, and make it happen. That was probably the last little bit of something that was left inside me. It’s fine. I mean, I have the right to do something else as well. I’ve been playing for a long, long time, and it’s time for me now. It is.”
Bartoli said that she informed her father Walter of her decision. He had coached her for the vast majority of her career up until the start of 2013.
“He kind of felt it,” she said. “ It’s something that you live and you feel. I called him after the match and said, ‘You know what, dad, I think it’s my last one. And he said, ‘I kind of felt it. I kind of knew it somehow. I can see it in your eyes and see your body and see ‑‑ and know all the work you have done to make it happen. I’m so proud of you. I will support you in anything you’re doing.’ So of course it’s a hard decision to take, but I don’t think there should be a time or should be a match or should be something when you can say you have the right to retire and not the right to retire. I mean, at the end of the day, I’m the only one who has been doing what I did for 22 years.
Bartoli added that she is excited to have the chance to eventually start a family.
“There is a lot of excitement as a woman. There is a lot of excitement as a wife. There is a lot of excitement as a mother. There is a lot of excitement to come up.”
Serena crushes Cirstea and wins 3rd Rogers Cup
August 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Serena has won eight titles this year.
FROM THE ROGERS CUP TORONTO –She keeps winning, that irrepressible Serena Williams, and outside of her two somewhat stunning losses to Sloane Stephens at the Australian Open and to Sabine Lisicki at Wimbledon, as well as her respectable loss to her biggest rival, Victoria Azarenka in the final of Doha, she has been pretty much untouchable the rest of the season.
In fact, since she lost to Angelique Kerber at 2012 Cincinnati (a full calendar year), she has compiled a 68-3 record and won 11 titles. Poor Sorana Cirstea didn’t stand much of chance in the final as Williams started strong and raced to the finish in a 6-2 6-0 victory to take her third Rogers Cup crown. Serena served bigger, she returned more accurately, beat her off the backhand side and for the most part off the forehand side.
Yes, as Cirstea said. the match was a bit closer than the scores indicated, but it really was not that close overall and after Williams broke Cirstea to 5-2 in the first when the Romanian parked a backhand, the contest was all but done. Serena coolly controlled the action, didn’t stress and was keenly focused. She asked Cirstea to try and play at her level and there was no way that the Romanian would be able to on a day when Serena was feeling better after a bout with sickness on Saturday night in her win over Aga Radwanska. She knew that her foe does not have the weaponry to play with her yet.
Yes, Cirstea had a terrific week and has reach a career high No. 21 ranking, but she has only won seven games in six sets against Williams. The gap is clear and very wide.
“She knows when to raise her level,” the 23-year-old Cirstea said. “She knows when it’s enough to play and when she has to step it up.”
Serena goes out of her way to praise her opponents now – she is even over the top at times . The 31-year-old is almost like a mother hen, guiding her little chicks, telling them that the future is bright and there are better days ahead. That is what she did with Cirstea when the Romanian broke down in tears during the presentation ceremony. That is also what she did with Radwanska on Saturday night.
Of course it’s much easier to do when she’s winning, but she is a whole lot more comfortable in her own skin than she was say five years ago, and one can tell that she is becoming somewhat attracted to taking on a leadership role. Yes, she still hates to lose and cannot be easy to deal with inside the locker room after a defeat, but all the players respect her on court and a number of the players are growing to like her off court.
WTA attendance woes
The WTA could really use Serena to be a real leader, sort of like Roger Federer is with the men. The tour could use some help and fresh ideas because the reality is that after attending 21 straight days of matches, which means 42 different sessions (day and night) at women’s only events, it is crystal clear to me that attendance is problematic.
Of the 42 sessions at Stanford, Carlsbad and Toronto, I would say that seven were successful, meaning nearly sold out or sold out. That’s seven out of 42 for the women’s world’s leading sport, which is a troubling number indeed. Yes, Maria Sharapova did not play those three weeks so pretending that she did and went deep at two tournaments, you could generously say that another six sessions would have successful (and really, four is a more realistic number). Everyone else of note played at least one of those events.
Perhaps fans are too into their high-def TVs and computers now and would rather watch the WTA on a screen at home than attend in person, but anyone who has attended an tournament knows that watching the players up close and live is far more impressive and a much more well rounded experience than seeing them on a screen. At this point I would be seriously rethinking marketing strategies when it comes to ticket sales, such as two for one deal with a parent and kid, or something like that.
I’m not throwing this burden entirely on the WTA, because they have some smart and creative people on their staff. But the tournaments surely have to step up and rethink their strategies, too, because my up close and personal look when the stands were 20 % full did not yield a “Wow these marketing strategies are brilliant” all too often. Some kind of world conference on the future of pro tennis is long overdue.
I wonder who will step up and host one. Maybe Serena in her expansive Bel Air haunts?
Serena & Cirstea produce in the clutch
August 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Williams ran gamely with Aga.
FROM THE ROGERS CUP IN TORONTO – Agnieszka Radwanska came somewhat close to finally defeating Serena Williams, but she was unable to do so, not because she didn’t believe she could do it, but because the American played more accurate and courageous tennis at the end of both sets of her 7-6 (3) 6-4 victory.
Williams was not at the very top of her game, so it was perhaps the Pole’s best chance ever to defeat her, but she could not get across the finish line because Serena either came up with some mind -boggling winners at key moments, or Radwanska made the wrong play.
The world number four played more aggressively than usual, which sometimes played in her favor and sometimes did not. She is more comfortable in longer, well constructed rallies, but she felt the only way to get into those was to get Serena off balance. She did a fair amount of times, but not enough at critical junctures.
“It was really close and I had my chances but wasn’t really taking them,” Radwanska said. “It’s always turning against me, especially when you play a top player. I was really trying to play aggressive and going forward, but she’s really playing deep and strong balls. It’s really hard to do anything.”
The match was very fun to watch, perhaps even more entertaining than their 2012 three-set Wimbledon final because there were more lengthy rallies as the slower court at Toronto allowed both players to dig out tough balls. But when push came to shove in the tiebreaker, it was all about Serena.
Radwanska couldn’t pull off a running backhand pass and went down 4-2 and then couldn’t handle a Williams slice serve out wide to 5-2. Serena then missed a lob on the run, but then won a wild point when she misplayed a lob and was forced to short-arm an overhead and eventually took a Radwanska ball out of the air and nailed a forehand swing volley winner. In vintage Serena fashion, she then cracked a big ace down the T to win the tiebreak 7-3.
Williams called for the trainer in between sets and took a pill for what she later said was a stomach problem. She has been irritable most of the week and screamed toward her box on a number of occasions, but said she wasn’t yelling at her coach.
Radwanska broke Williams to 2-1 in the second set but she could not maintain her edge, as she was broken back to 3-3 with a two hot shots to the corners and a ear-splitting overhead.
At 4-4, Williams fought off a break point with a forehand crosscourt winner and then she held with a forehand down the line.
Serving at 4-5, Radwanska knew her back was against the wall and couldn’t come up with a single winner while Williams ended the contest with an gorgeous inside out backhand winner and a forehand crosscourt side.
“She was moving very well and running a lot of good rallies that I think we didn’t have before<’ Radwanska noted. “I think she was really playing great match today.
Williams added that she knew what to do come crunch time.
“I really tried to be more aggressive towards the end,” she said. “Those were obviously really key times of the match. I don’t think I played my best, and I always knew that, worst‑case scenario, I could do a little better.”
Serena will face Sorana Cirstea, whose amazing run continued when she shocked Li Na 6-1, 7-6 (5). Once again 23-year-old Cirstea was the better player in the clutch. She has now beaten Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic, Petra Kvitova and Li in succession. It’s by far the best run of her career. Her first serve has become a weapon, she’s much steadier than she once was, she is more fit and constructs points more intelligently. And she does not lose her head.
One of her coaches. Darren Cahill, told her to take charge and that she did in, blowing out Li in the first set and coming back from 1-4 down in the second set to win the match. In fact she also came from 1-4 down in the tiebreak. She stayed strong while Li imploded.
“Even if I was down 4‑1, I still had the belief and still tried to focus on each point,” she said. “I think this kind of mentality is really helping me to take the pressure a bit off and to be able to be aggressive and take charge. Because I know, for example, a player like Li Na, she’s not going to give it to me. If I want to win this, I have to step it up. This is one of the things that Darren said. She’s not going to give it to you. She’s a top 5 player and that’s why she’s there, because she’s doing the right things. So if you want to win this, you have to earn it. I had to win it on my terms. I’m glad I finished in two.”
She had to end it now: Radwanksa beats Errani, to face Serena
August 10, 2013 by
Aga says that if Serena is clicking it might be impossible to stop her
FROM THE ROGER’S CUP IN TORONTO – Before an examination of Petra Kvitova’s ills, let’s start with some positives from the semifinalists: Agnieszka Radwanska played courageously and disposed of Sara Errani 7-6 (1) 7-5; Li Na played smart, made her own mid-match adjustment and fought off Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 7-6 6-2; Sorana Cirstea is having her best tournament ever and smacked Petra Kvitova 4-6 7-5 6-2; and Serena Williams has been untouchable, period.
Recall that the last time that Radwanska and Errani had played, at the 2012 WTA Championships, they nearly killed each other going side to side and back and forth. The contest lasted more than three hours, which ended up being a three-set victory for the fourth-ranked Pole.
The Toronto match had a bit of a similar feel, except it was outdoors in the sunshine rather than indoors at night. Both women are so fast and so resourceful that it is very tough to get a ball past them unless a foe has a wide-open court and substantial power. When they face other, they have to work the points forever, because neither of them can rake winners with the force of say, a Serena or Maria Sharapova.
Consequently, when they walk on court they know that it’s more than likely that they will walk off extremely tired and given that it was a quarterfinal, somewhere back in their heads they must be thinking that if this contest does go three hours again, there woudl be no realistic chance to win the tournament.
Radwanska clearly had that on her mind because she pushed herself further inside the court late in the first set (especially in the breaker), early in the second and then at the very end of the third. The first set featured 11 straight breaks of serve (“For both of us the serves is never the key,” Radwanska said) and in the second set five more.
The final game of the match told the tale, as Radwanska was determined to hit through her foe. That she did, nailing four winners to take it, beginning with a backhand crosscourt. Then she sliced an ace wide into the deuce court, then she took a sky lob out of the air and nailed a forehand crosscourt swing volley winner, and then she ended the contest with forehand crosscourt winner.
Job well done by the former Wimbledon finalist.
“I was trying to focus really hard in the last few points because I knew it could really turn around for her,” Radwanska told me later. “I was looking at the clock and saw two hours already and I said ‘enough I have to end this now.’ I was really pushing myself to stay aggressive because everything is coming back.”
Radwanska will face Serena, who destroyed Magdalena Rybarikova 6-1, 6-1. Williams has only lost 10 games in three matches, which shows how well she’s been playing, but it’s doubtful that she will be able to match her low games lost total in Rome in May, when she won the tournament dropping only 14 games in five matches.
But Radwanska knows she could be in for hell.
Williams is the only super elite player she hasn’t scored a win over and after the Pole pushed her to three sets in the 2012 Wimbledon final, Serena destroyed her at the year-end WTA Championships in Istanbul and in the semis of 2013 Miami.
“It’s always a great challenge,” Radwanska said. “She’s dictating everything and when she’s at her best, it’s bad luck.”
This could be fantastic match if Radwanska can manage to get into points and weave her blonde-tinted magic, but she hasn’t been able to in the last two occasions. So she’s not sure what strategy she’ll employ.
“It’s hard to tell,” the Pole said. “I’ll see after a few games because you never know what to do because sometimes she’s serving and returning unbelievable and I can’t even touch the ball.”
Absolutely nothing should be taken away from Cirstea for her week here. She’s beaten two former No. 1s in Caroline Wozniacki and Jelena Jankovic, as well as a former Wimbledon champion in Kvitova.
She stood up tall when she had too and after a heart-warming talk by coach Darren Cahill when she felt the second set slipping a way, she settled down and her confidence returned and she played the big points much better – when she had to.
But she did not have to play a great match to win as Kvitova doubled faulted on break points in six different games and ended the contest with just 12 winners and 55 unforced errors. Cirstea finished with only 18 winners and committed 47 unforced errors.
While Kvitova is criticized for going on mental walkabouts, is not as if she has been playing brilliantly here and there as of late and forgetting she’s on a tennis court. In the past two weeks, she has left her “A game back at the hotel. She’s simply not dictating enough with her forehand, her serve is much weaker than it should be and she’s not coming to net as often as she should. In short, the tall lefty is not playing authoritative tennis.
She actually she said she was tired and lost her energy as she didn’t sleep well the night before. She said she was exhausted after playing just two matches in Canada, which is stunning given she’s only 24, even if she pulled an all-nighter. She was all but done by the second set.
“The serve was really bad after this, and I didn’t find energy from my legs,” she said. “So that’s why it looks that bad.”
And her 10 double faults overall?
“I think that it was starting because of physically, and then it’s going to my mind it was the mental problem, too. It’s always connected.”
Li and Cirstea have faced off five times, with Li winning a 4-1 edge, including a win at the 2013 Aussie Open.
Happiness is no tennis at the dinner table
August 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
‘Li Na, Li Na, do this Li Na.’
FROM THE ROGER’S CUP IN TORONTO – Li Na and her husband Dennis don’t talk tennis at the dinner table. Or at least away from tennis sites. That’s likely why every time she talks about him she does so with a smile on her face. “Out of the tennis court we never talk about tennis, so that’s why we can keep a long marriage.”
LI had another reason to smile on Thursday after she edged Ana Ivanovic 3-6 6-1 7-6 (5) in a match that for little while appeared to be in the Serbian’s hands, but once again she could not find a way to best a top player and went down. She was up 5-2, served for the contest at 5-3, but then Li began to deliver hammer shots with her devastating backhand crosscourt and down the line, with slice and body serves and some deep and impossible to touch forehands. Ivanovic did not choke the match, but she could not seem to bring her ‘A’ game when it mattered most. At 5-5 in the tiebreaker, Li nailed a forehand crosscourt winner. On match point with the ball into her favored forehand side, Ivanovic flew one long.
Li’s coach of one year now, Carlos Rodriguez is not with her on tis trip, but they are communicating via email. He will be in Cincinnati with her next week. Having Rodriguez around has even helped her marriage and how Dennis deals with her on court when Carlos isn’t around.
“Every time [Carlos] was like say, Relax. I say, I already relaxed. He say, No, you should even more. I was like, Okay. But it’s very tough, because my husband also is my ex‑coach. Sometimes he also has some idea, but if he say something I didn’t want listening all the time. So now I think he got a little bit smart. If he want to do something he talk to Carlos, and then Carlos talk to me. I was like, Okay, I have to do that because Carlos say I have to do. Because if like two coaches say the different thing, it was a little bit of a fight because I didn’t know which one I listen. Now I think they do pretty good job. They make together first and then say, Li Na, you have to do this. Li Na, you have to do that. Same like here, because Carlos is not here, but my husband always say, Oh, Carlos say you should… So I was like, Okay.”
Li one of the WTA’s most endearing characters. She has a terrific sense of humor and enjoys a good laugh even at her own expense. She will have another tough contest in the next round when she faces Bank of the West Classic Classic champion Dominika Cibulkova who took down Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-3 7-6. Domi has her grove back and she will be more than pleased to play powerball with Li.
Two other women who can smack the ball moved ahead and will face off. Defending champ Petra Kvitova muscled up and took a 6-3, 6-3 victory over SoCal Open victor Sam Stosur, who looked a little fried. Kvitova knew that so she made sure to hang tough in long rallies. But she does not feel she can take that kind of risk against Sorana Cirstea who had perhaps had the best 18 hours periods of her life when she fought off two match points against Caro Wozniacki in a three hour match that ended at almost midnight and then came back on Thursday afternoon and took out Jelena Jankovic 6-3 6-4.
“I think I made a huge step forward today by backing up the win from yesterday, because I think this was one of the issues in the past,” Cirstea said. “I would have a good win but then I couldn’t really back it up.
Now I feel I’m more solid, and I’m taking every match the same and not focusing so much, ‘Oh, I just had a big win.’ I’m like, ‘Today is a new day, new match.’ I just have to do the same things I’m doing every single day. This kind of mentality, it’s helping me.”
Marion Bartoli retired down 7-6 1-0 to Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia and either has an abdominal injury or she just exhausted from Wimbledon. Read here.
Serena Williams smoked Kirsten Flipkens 6-0 6-3 and showed the Belgium just how hard it is to best two sisters in one event: Flipkens was the one who beat Venus Williams in round one.
Agnieszka Radwanska played the big points better than Sloane Stephens in a 6-1 7-6 win and said the young American just needs more experience.
Sara Errani is less than thrilled with Alize Cornet but beat her anyway France 7-5 7-6. Read about their ‘Vamos v Allez’ tiff here.
Venus’ long & winding road back to respectability
August 7, 2013 by
Venus still cannot crank up her serve.
FROM THE ROGERS CUP IN TORONTO – It is never easy to see a formerly great player decline. Roger Federer fans are experiencing that this year, and Pete Sampras fans experienced that at the beginning of this century. Those fans that love Martina Hingis got a whiff of that around 2003 and again in 2007 and even in her return in doubles in the past week or so, it’s pretty obvious to anyone who is watching her that she would be hard pressed to even crack the top 20 in singles if she chooses to go that route, even though a return to the top spot in doubles in quite possible.
The fans of Venus Williams are dealing with something altogether different though, as they are watching one of the most significant players of the Open Era struggle with an auto-immune disease and a series of injuries, this time a serious one to her back, which isn’t allowing her to play anywhere close to her prime. If one watched a tape of her stirring and ethereal victory over Lindsay Davenport in the 2005 Wimbledon final – perhaps the most well played women’s final in the past decade or even further — and then watched her go down to Kirsten Flipkens 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of the Rogers Cup on Tuesday, a marked difference that is as glaring as her new partially red hair color. Her play in the last set and half of that loss was a good 70% below her 2005 level: she was wild and often weak off the ground, her return had little pop, she was a bit slow to the ball and once again, she could not crank up the serve that had struck fear into the heart of the rest of the tour when she first appeared on the WTA back in November of 1994.
Right now, Venus is shadow of her former great self and unless something radically changes in the next two weeks or so, it’s hard to see the 33-year-old even reaching the second week of the US Open. She hasn’t won the tournament since she went back to back in 2000-2001, but she remained very competitive there through 2010. In 2011, she began to be affected by Sjorden’s Syndrome and came out in public at the US Open and told the world of her troubles. Since then, she has had a couple of decent shorts spurts of play, but she has been unable to sustain that level, which is very understandable give that it has been hard enough for her just to find away to get her energy level up to live a decent day, then to practice, and then to play a handful of matches. But to able consistently sustain a top-10 level of play? No, she has not been there since last spring and yesterday it appeared like she might not even be able to pull off a top 50 level of play.
Perhaps she will in the future, but it is so hard to see a player –regardless of how great she once was — who has played only one good tournament this season (Charleston where she scored wins over Monica Puig, Varvara Lepchenko and Madison Keys before Serena belted her in the semis) rise up and start playing A-Level ball against when her back injury isn’t fully healed.
And it is not, because if it was she could have been able to go out on court against Flipkens and smoke serves, not go for 3/4s speed and have very little spin of any significance when she tried to slice or kick it.
“ I just really started serving a lot more in the last week, so I’m not really, 100% on the serve yet,” she said. “So it was better not to take too many risks and just do something I felt more comfortable with. This week I will definitely be practicing my serve a lot more and getting more confident in it. So definitely today my service games I didn’t feel like myself, because usually I step up to the line, I go for it a lot, but I didn’t really feel like I could do that today.”
Venus’ traveling coach/hitting partner David Witt told ESPN.com that her back is fine. He knows better than most, but if it really is fine, then why didn’t she just go all out on her serve, or decide to play doubles this week to get more matches in, or singles and doubles next week in Cincinnati, or singles in New Haven or singles and doubles at the US Open?
Because she feels that it is not and it’s very vulnerable.
“I have to be really easy on my back now,” she said. “I can’t force it. Doubles would be awesome, but it’s not an option right now. Hopefully I will just be able to obviously play at the Open.”
Venus is in a tricky position. She badly wants to be a contender again, and the most of the important of the season – Roland Garros through the US Open — will conclude in five weeks. If she can’t get on court, her season will essentially be a wash. She needs matches, but as we saw on Tuesday against Flipkens and in May in her losses to Laura Robson (Rome) and Ula Radwanska (Roland Garros), she also cannot win them at a 50% level. She realizes that she’s in a Catch -22.
“Coming back from injury, you have to build the confidence to just realize that you can come back and play without pain,” she said. “So I feel like I’m in that threshold of building confidence, and I really want to be able to play matches before the US Open. That’s a lot of what happened to me at the French, too. I played an intense and a really fun, exciting match, but I hadn’t played any matches. So it was like just a tough situation to be in. Do you play or you don’t play? So I feel like kind of in that situation now going into the US Open. Do you play or don’t play?”
She will play on, but until she feels confident enough to go for her shots and has enough court time to keep the yellow pill in the court, she won’t have the degree of success that she’d like too. She will be a sentimental favorite everywhere she goes (she received a lot of crowd support in Toronto) so that will make her feel good to a degree, but she’s a proud competitor and will not be able to easily accept losing to players whom she used to be able dust in matter of minutes.
That will be another one of her many tests mocking forward. She says her goal is to play the 2016 Rio Olympics – which is long three years away – and most of the tennis industry and her fan base hopes that she accomplishes that goal, but as of this week it looks like a reach – about as lengthy as one of her vintage 2005 stretch volleys that won her third Wimbledon crown.
Kleybanova’s return: she wants W’s
Speaking of warriors, former top 20 player Alisa Kleybanova took the court on Wednesday night against Canada’s beloved Genie Bouchard. It was Kleybanova’s first WTA level match since March of 2012, and only her second since she was diagnosed with cancer in the early summer of 2011. She began her comeback in May playing ITFs and then World Team Tennis, but that is not the same as a WTA level match against a promising up and comer who responded very well to playing at home.
Kleybanova’s ball striking was very decent, but not at her pre-cancer levels. That should not be expected. Like Venus, she needs matches, practice, and improved fitness — pretty much everything.
“I haven’t been getting tired recently at all. I have been playing and training every day,” she said.
“I’m back to normal, back to regular basics. Now it’s all about playing matches. It’s all about the competing thing an, all the points and playing the tournament, the atmosphere, handling the stress out there, getting used to it more because I have been out for a while. Now it’s everything a little bit new for me again. It takes time to get used to it.”
She is only 24, so age is not a factor in her comeback but clearly she went through a harrowing experience and although she feels healthy again, mentally it took her a lot of work just to be able to declare herself ready to give the sport a go again. She tried in March of 2012, but it was too soon and she grew disappointed. She didn’t give up, but it was not the right decision.
“I couldn’t deal with all the stress in my body and obviously felt I wasn’t ready yet, she said. “I took some time off. I was trying to get back on tour through [2012], but I always felt like I’m not there yet. So the middle of summer I decided just to take it easy and, you know, wait till the next year, because it’s very hard to every couple weeks set a goal and you feel like I’m not ready and move it again and then you’re not ready. So it’s just too much stress, trying to get ready for a certain event and then not participate. Basically it was pretty stressful mentally not to play for such a long time and like train and try to take time off because seeing I’m not ready. So it took me a lot of patience. I had to like really, you know, try to take it easy, not rush things. It was very, very difficult mentally, even more mental than physical.”
Here’s the thing about Kleybanova though: she’s just not happy to be back in court. Of course she’s happy that she has her health back, but results still matter to her. She was not thrilled that she was rarely chosen to play singles in World TeamTennis given that she was the most accomplished player on her team, but perhaps her coach saw that she wasn’t quite ready yet (she did lose to Hingis in singles in the WTT final) for prime time.
She might be in a few months time, but she does not appear to be just yet. She’s a smart person and terrific character who adds a lot of flavor to the tour. Let’s just hope she takes it easy on herself because at last of last night, grabbing some W’s seemed very important to her.
“I think no matter what I have been through, wins and losses are still important, because as an athlete I go on the court and with all my heart I want to win every match,” she said with tear welling up in her eyes.
So of course when you lose it’s very tough. So obviously you go out there to win. It’s always going to be tough. It’s never going to be like I go on the court, Okay, I lost, doesn’t matter. You always try to think like that, but it’s not always like that. But I know that right now I need to be even stronger than before, because to come back it’s going to take a while, it’s going to take maybe some not great matches as was today, but I need to go through this, I need to get this experience, and sometimes it’s not going to be very positive experience. I just have to get ready for that, because I know that my way won’t be easy and I need to go for it and believe that I can do it.”
Also of note
Stanford champ Dominica Cibulkova has done a nice job coming off her loss to Ana Ivanovic in Carlsbad, Beating Jana Cepalova in the first round and then taking out Angelique Kerber 6‑7 (0), 6‑2, 7‑5 in a marathon…Bouchard will get a much more severe test when she has to go up against defending champ Petra Kvitova on Wednesday night. BTW Kvitova says that she & her ‘friend’ Radek Stepanek will split fitness trainer Marek Vseticek’s time. They haven’t negotiated who gets him when tournaments are not combined…Caroline Wozniacki returns the same day and will play her friend Sorana Cirstea. ..Lauren Davis continues to be a tough out and bested Svetlana Kuznetsova both in qualifying and the first round, which earned her a match up against Marion Bartoli, who is also playing for the first time since Wimbledon. Here are a few of Bartoli’s most recent thoughts…Sania Mirza, who as gone gluten free, will play doubles with Zheng Jie through the US Open. Her former partner, Bethanie Mattek-Sands will not play doubles for the rest of the summer as she’s focusing on singles…Abigail Spears and Raquel-Kops-Jones, who defeated Hingis and Hantuchova last week in Carlsbad en route the title, also won Stanford the week prior, the first time the long time US duo has won back to back premiers. If I’m US Fed captain Mary Joe Fernandez, I’m going them a strong look for Fed Cup duty next season. Spears could play back-up singles if needed.
Stosur leaps another hurdle in defeating Azarenka to win Southern California Open
August 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
By Matt Cronin
FROM THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA OPEN IN CARLSBAD- Before she toppled a slow and erratic Victoria Azarenka 6-3 6-2 to win her first title at the Southern California Open on Sunday, Samantha Stosur’s last title had been her most important one, the 2011 US Open title, which somewhat remarkably was her last.
She won her maiden title in Osaka in 2009, and about six months later grabbed 2010. Charleston. But it would be another year and half before she raised the US Open trophy with her shocking victory over Serena Williams in the final. That was 23 months ago, nearly two years gone.
So few expended her to win Carlsbad, not when she looked out of sorts in losing to Olga Govortsova in her opening match at Stanford. After that defeat she put in a call to Octagon tournament director Alastair Garland and requested a wild card. It was not an easy decision, because as she noted after her win over Azarenka, she didn’t want to jinx herself.
In 2011, after another lousy Wimbledon, she traveled to Stanford and took an early loss to Sabine Lisicki at Stanford. But instead of playing Carlsbad, she decided to train for week. That paid off in Toronto where she reached the final, where she fell to Serena Williams. A few weeks later, she took down the might Serena in the final of the US Open.
So one could imagine her thought process after she went down to the free swinging Olga Govortsova at a week and a half ago at Stanford. She had not reached a semifinal in 2013, but players are creatures of routine and she thought for more than a few moments about 2011 and how that path to Grand Slam glory worked out for her. But she also knew she needed matches so she went with her head rather than her gut.
Clearly that was the right call as the 29 year old won her first title in nearly two years. “I knew that that was the past,” Stosur said. “My coach David Taylor and I] spoke about all the pros and cons. You can practice all you want, but at some point you got to put it into play in matches. That’s why I came, and obviously now very, very pleased with that decision.”
Azarenka came into the final with an 8-0 record again her, but Stosur had noted after her semifinal win over Virginie Razzano that she believed she could finally get over the Belarussian. She had played her very close at the 2012 US Open and at 2013 Rome. If she could get in position to win, then it would be a matter of closing, which in her case, would be to find way to break and then serve massively.
That is exactly what Stosur did very well, although it should be said that Azarenka was way off her game as she only struck 11 winners, committed 32 unforced errors and only converted 1 of 12 break points opportunities.
“I think I was taking too many wrong kind of decisions or too risky decisions when there was no need to be risky,” Azarenka said. “I didn’t try to sometimes stay in the rally. I just wanted to make what sometimes I can make with eyes closed. Today I didn’t do it with open eyes. It’s just a little bit of stubbornness that worked a little bit against me today.”
Azarenka did give credit to Stosur and well she should have. Time and time again while facing break points she came up with massive serves, many of the into the Belarussian’s body. Only a couple of returns were put back into pay, which is incredible given how well Azarenka usually returns.
“I think that was a really big part of the match,” Stosur said. “That first set she did have lots of opportunities. I think nearly all of them except one I hit a really good first serve in and she didn’t make the ball into play.
So that’s something I have to be very happy with, to be able to step up to the line under that pressure and hit the serve where I want to, how I want to time and time again. I know what it feels like not to be able to break serve when you have opportunities, and it gets pretty frustrating.”
Stosur also did something else extremely well — she broke serve in every game she had the opportunity to do so. That’s the very definition of being advantageous
“That’s great. I guess it’s kind of the opposite of what she had,” she said. “Maybe the fact that I was able to hold that serve, that kind of gives that you little bit of extra lift when you get the opportunity. Having not beaten her before, I know how important every single opportunity is. I think in Rome I was up a break a couple of times in a set and let that go. I knew even though you’re up a break you can’t relax and just rely on always trying to hold serve. You got to break as soon as you get a chance.
It is way to early to begin picking top drawer US Open contenders as there are two huge events still to be played at the Rogers Cup in Toronto and Cincinnati. Before her loss to Stosur, Azarenka had a 28 match winning streak going on outdoor hard courts, so if the sore back that caused her to pull out of Toronto heals (and the knee and hip injuries that suffered at Wimbledon also stop effecting her) she will be one of the main contenders, regardless if she plays a match before the doors open in New York.
But at the very least, the Australian showed that if she is kicking up big serves and controlling the court with her high hopping, nuclear forehand, that she cannot be ignored this week in Toronto, or in a few weeks in New York. She may not be consistent enough to rack up one title after the next, but she does have the capacity to put together a fantastic six weeks of play. She’s done it before and has the possibility of doing it again.
“Obviously this is the lead‑up to the US Open and that’s where everyone want to peak,” she said. “I think this is a huge boost for me. I haven’t had great results for really all year, so to be able to bounce back especially from last week’s first‑round loss and play better and better each day and come away with this is, really exciting and a good boost going into the last Slam of the year.”