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The Scoop: MONday, OCTOBER 4
Clijsters injures a different
wrist tendon
Andy's right elbow slows him down
in Thailand
By Matthew Cronin, TennisReporters.net
 Siggi
Bucher |
| Will injured Kim Clijsters
get back to a another Slam final and No. 1 ranking? |
Kim Clijsters may have seen every specialist
known to wrist surgery in Belgium before taking the court again
last week, but she and her doctors obviously made the wrong
call in telling her she was fine to play again.
After re-injuring her left wrist in
the semis of Hasselt, the Belgian is back in a brace and out
of competition for the rest of the year. She injured a different
tendon this time and won't have to undergo surgery again, but
her long-term prospects are now in doubt.
Her surgically-repaired tendon apparently held up okay through
two-and-a-half matches, but the now-injured tendons couldn't
handle Elena Bovina's high kids serves or gunning crosscourt
backhands in the semis. Apparently, after a while, Clijsters
resorted to slicing, which to anyone who has followed her career,
is an ominous sign. The Belgian largely reached No. 1 due to
the strength of her two-handed backhand, not her sometimes-erratic
forehand. Without her two-handler, she's Silvia Farina-Elia
with a slightly bigger serve and foot speed.
Clijsters waited three-and-a-half months after surgery to get
back into competition, but was training beforehand. Here's what
she said on Sept. 20: "In the last few days I have been
training fairly hard. Maybe still a bit more calculated than
before, more in control. My backhand isn't completely what it
should be, but I guess that won't take long now. Every time
I hit the ball I still feel some pain, which should be due to
the scar tissue only. Nothing to worry about, the doctors told
me."
Apparently, there was a lot to worry about. If I'm Clijsters,
I'm headed to another doctor. BTW, one of her Clijsters' friends
told TennisReporters.net that the Belgian was
"shocked and disappointed" after being injured again.
Andy's right elbow slows him down
in Thailand
Andy Roddick says a tendon in his right elbow is bothering him,
which partly explains the reason why he was embarrassed 6-4, 6-0
in the final of the Thailand Open by Roger Federer. The other
two reason are that he won a marathon over Marat Safin 7-6(1),
6-7(0), 7-6(2) in the semis and that Federer is clearly better
than he is.
The top American player is set to play in an exo next Monday night
against Andre Agassi in the Smash Hits/Elton John AIDS benefit
in Irvine, Calif. After that, he should take the rest of the month
before going to Houston for the year-end Masters Cup.
Andy has pretty good chance to finish No. 2 in the rankings unless
Lleyton Hewitt does something extraordinary and has said that
winning the Davis Cup title is his main goal for the rest of the
year. He'll have no chance in Sevilla if he isn't 100 percent.
That means some serious R&R is needed for a man who has already
played 84 matches this year. He's had one week off since mid-July
and that brutal schedule has obviously taken its toll.
Roddick said, "I gave it a go out there today, but yesterday's
match [against Safin] took it out of me and I had less than 24
hours from my arrival to my first-round match. I was tired. I
was playing with a bad record card against him and I couldn't
find a way to beat him. At the beginning of the week, if you told
me I'd be in the final, I would have said you're crazy. …
I need to get home and rest my body."
Federer won his 10th title of the season and now has won his last
18 matches against Top 10 opponents. The Swiss has also won his
last 12 consecutive ATP finals. Only two players – Bjorn
Borg (1979-80) and John McEnroe (1984-85) – have won 12
consecutive finals in the past 25 years.
How good has Fed been this year? He's won more crowns than the
entire talented nation of Argentina combined, which won its ninth
crown when Guillermo Cañas torched Lars Burgsmuller 6-1,
6-0 in the final of the Heineken Open in Shanghai. Credit the
26-year-old Cañas for leading the modern group of Argentines
into the spotlight a few years back. Before he busted his wrist,
he was the main hombre. He's won 18 of his last 19 matches, with
the only loss coming to Roddick in the third round of the US Open.
– Czech teen Tomas Berdych claimed his first career ATP
title by defeating Italian Filippo Volandri 6-3, 6-3 in Palermo.
The 19-year-old is the second teenager to win an ATP title in
'04 . Rafael Nadal, 18, won Sopot.
Here's your dose of doubles for the week: in Bangkok, Americans
Justin Gimelstob and Graydon Oliver upset Federer/Yves 5-7, 6-4,
6-4 to claim their second title in three weeks after winning in
Beijing. "This is my 12th doubles title, which is now more
than my girlfriend [Corina Morariu]," Gimelstob said. Here'
two dark horses to grab the final spot in Houston: David Nalbandian
or Joachim Johansson.
 Ron
Cioffi/TR.net |
| Elena Dementieva shows new
grit in winning Hasselt final. |
DETERMINED DEMENTIEVA
Elena Dementieva is turning out to be much grittier than was at
first look some five years ago. Coming into Hasselt, she had lost
three straight-setters in finals this year. But even after she
was bageled in the first set of the final by Elena Bovina, she
kept swinging away, hanging revenge bagel on Bovina in the second
set and then coming back from a 1-4 deficit in the third set to
pull off a 0-6, 6-0, 6-4 victory. "I'm very happy to win
my first title of the season after being so close in the other
finals," Dementieva said. "The score may seem strange,
but we both played very well, but maybe not at the same time.
It's a very special memory for me, I remember all my finals clearly
and this is a great moment. Just wish I had longer to enjoy it."
Maria Sharapova dominated the weak field at the Tier IV Korea
Open, crushing Poland's Marta Domachowska 6-1, 6-1. Sharapova
improved to 5-0 lifetime in WTA Tour singles finals. "This
is the first time playing three tournaments in a row, but I feel
really good," said Sharapova, who is playing Tier III Tokyo
this week. "As I get older, I'll have to learn to make the
adjustments to different tournaments, different conditions. To
compete with the Top 10 players, there are a lot of things I have
to improve on."
The Tokyo field isn't as weak as Korea, but is substantially less
potent than even the qualifying draw in Filderstadt. Sharapova
is the top seed, followed by Tatiana Golovin, Shinobu Asagoe and
Kristina Brandi. Yikes. The qualifying in Tier II Filderstadt
contained Fabiola Zuluaga, Eleni Daniilidou and Lisa Raymond.
By winning Korea, Sharapova moved into the eight and final spot
for the Race to WTA Championships.
Filderstadt headliners include top seed Amelie Mauresmo, making
her first appearance as the No. 1 player, No. 2 Lindsay Davenport,
No. 3 Anastasia Myskina, No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova, Dementieva,
Vera Zvonareva and No. 7 Nadia Petrova. Neither of the Williamses
is competing, nor is Jennifer Capriati, nor is the sick Justine
Henin-Hardenne.
Zvonareva has a good chance to pass Venus as No. 10 in the Race
to Championships and an outside chance of passing Capriati at
No. 9. Moscow, Zurich, Linz and Philly loom large for everyone
from No. 7 Serena on down. Venus is planning on playing Moscow,
but Serena isn't and Capriati is up in the air. Serena is debating
Zurich, while Venus is planning on playing. Capriati is said to
be unsure of whether she wants to play the rest of the year. The
folks organizing the Championships in LA will love to hear that.
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