Anne Marie Stark
JJ took the 8th spot.

THURSDAY, OCT. 22- Say a quick 2009 goodbye to Vera Zvonareva, who put an awful performance and was clobbered 6-0, 6-2 by Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova in Moscow, eliminating the Russian’s chances of qualifying for Doha. With Zvonareva’s loss, Jelena Jankovic automatically qualified and final spot for the Sony Ericsson Championships, which begins next week.

"I'm happy my season is over," said Zvonareva, who has been struggling with an ankle injury since April. "Now I'll have enough time to recover and get ready for a new season." The tour must be thrilled to hear that a player that they over-promoted all year (recall the Vera is a true global ambassador push) said she had little interest in competing in its crown jewel event.

Defending champ Jankovic stood up strong and took a hearty 7-6, 6-3 victory over Czech Lucie Safarova to reach the quarters, where she will meet Alisa Kleybanova. “I came here to compete and I want to get as many points as possible and get closer to the girls who are (ranked) higher than me," said Jankovic. “ It was very important for me to qualify for the Championships because the tournament is only for the top eight players and I want to have a chance to compete against the best."

Pironkova will face Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko. Vera Dushevina took out Agnes Szavay 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, while Maria Kirilenko ended Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak’s season in a 6-4, 6-3 win. Francesca Schiavone also won, while on the guy’s side, younger Russian Evgeny Korolev took out Marat Safin 6-4, 7-6(4) in the two-time Slam champ’s champ last singles appearance at home. Illya Marchenko, Janko Tipsarevic and Mikhail Kukushkin advanced, as did Robby Ginepri in a 7-6(5), 6-0 win over Marcel Granollers.

Robin Soderling led the winners in Stockholm by besting Andreas Seppi 6-1, 6-3. Tommy Haas pulled out before his match with Jarkko Nieminen. Arnaud Clement, Marcos Baghdatis and Olivier Rochus advanced. Yanina Wickmayer led the winners in Luxembourg by beating Alize Cornet 7-5, 7-6(6), while Daniela Hantuchova and Shahar Peer also won… Thomas Enqvist was named as Sweden's Davis Cup captain, replacing the intelligent Mats Wilander who announced his retirement from the job earlier this week. The big hitter played Davis Cup from 1995 to 2004 and helped win the trophy in 1997 and 1998.

Mal Tamm
Maria wants to be quicker.

Maria Sharapova did a conference call on Thursday morning to promote her appearance in The Cellular South Cup in Memphis, February 14-20, 2010. The three-times Grand Slam champ, who won her sole 2009 title in Tokyo just a few weeks back, is pleased overall with her comeback from shoulder surgery, but realizes there is much work ahead.
“I can take a few good things away from this year,” she said. “I think the fact that I wasn't able to serve for so long, I worked on my return quite a bit. I felt like towards the end of the year that really improved and that was really strong and it pulled me out of many matches without serving great. There are other little things that I had worked on, minor details, but I feel like in the time that I had, they were pretty specific and I had time to work on them. As far as what I can improve, I mean, I can definitely get stronger, I can get quicker. That's something that I'd like to work on. Overall, I feel like you can add a little percentage here, a little percentage there. In today's game that's pretty huge. That's what you strive for. That's what we go out on the court for.”

Sharapova touched on a number of issues, from the Roadmap (playing big events back to back is difficult and the players will look into it, but overall she thinks it’s great), to random drug testing (she’s fine with it, but doesn’t like the in-tournament testing late at night when a player has to get up to compete early the next day) , to Justine Henin’s return (she was more surprised by her retirement than she is by her comeback).

At the age off 22, Sharapova is still young, but she’s a veteran now, having competed more or less full time since 2003. Of the up comers (Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka, Agnieszka Radwanska, Yanina Wickmayer, Sorana Cirstea et al) , the one who has impressed her is the Belarussian Azarenka, who took her to three sets both in LA and in a marathon in Beijing earlier this month.

“I thought Azarenka is probably one of the best out of the pack,” said Sharapova, who won both those matches. “I think she has a really great fighting spirit. She has a great all around game. I felt like from the time I played her in L.A., to the time I played her in Beijing, you could see she lost the match against me, and there's that game plan going into the next match. She definitely improved how she played. I thought as a player, that's always pretty impressive because you always try to learn from your losses. I think she's probably up there.”

The LA resident, who will be playing as series of South American exos with Gisela Dulko in December, also commented on the discussion as to whether there should be tour provision for a mental health break, like the ones that Henin and Martina Hingis took. Upon hearing the question, Sharapova “just about spit my oatmeal out of my mouth.”

“That was really funny,” she said with a laugh.

“With so many things on our plates right now, the Roadmap, everything else, I don't see that being something that we're going to be talking about too much in the near future. I think it's a personal choice. It's about how you feel, and every individual is different. One can be coming up, is 17, is hungry, has all the energy in the world. Somebody might be playing for years and years and is tired. Everyone is different. I think it's about listening to yourself and realizing what you need and what you feel. If you need a break, you need a break, and you take a break. I mean, it's your choice.”

© TennisReporters.net 2009