Agi is Out Radwanska Flames, While Safin Dumps Davydenko
By Matthew Cronin
-Jankovic,
shown her settting a chewing gum record for Wrigley's, is battling Zvonareva
for the last Doha spot.
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 21- So much for a late run by an ambitious teenager. In
a thoroughly disappointing performance, Agnieszka Radwanska suffered
a first-round 6-3, 6-3 to Maria Kirilenko in Moscow, ending her hopes of
qualifying for the season-ending championships in Doha. The young Pole would
had to have won the tournament to qualify, but appeared to have run out
of gas before the tournament, began. Now the final spot is sure to got to
Vera Zvonareva or Jelena Jankovic.
"It was a tough match today, I was feeling a bit tired and exhausted,"
said Radwanska, who also fell to Kirilenko at the US Open. “I was
trying because I was still in with a chance for Doha, but the surface is
so slow here, you need to run a lot to win the point. Maybe if it was a
faster surface, like grass, it would have been better for me but it wasn't
my day today." Kirilenko, who remarkably scored her first win in Moscow
in five attempts, added: "I actually like to play her because she is
not very aggressive and I always have enough time to hit winners."
In the marquee match on the men’s side, the soon-to-retire Marat
Safin finally found a bit of motivation and upset Nikolay Davydenko
4-6, 6-4, 6-2. The crowd was solidly behind the two-time Slam champ and
former Davis Cup hero.
"At this stage any match could be my last," said Safin. "Actually
I was a bit nervous facing Nikolay because he's been in such a great form
lately but I served and returned well and capitalized on his mistakes."
The injury toll continued to mount, when Flavia Pennetta retired
with a knee injury midway through the second set of her match against Agnes
Szavay. Alona Bondarenko upset Nadia Petrova 7-6(3), 6-3,
Young Russian Evgeniya Rodina upset Elena Vesnina 6-1,
3-6, 6-2, Evgeny Korolev knocked out Igor Kunitsyn 7-6,
6-3, Teimuraz Gabashvili overcame Pablo Cuevas 3-6, 6-1,
6-4, Mikhail Youzhny blasted Potito Starace 6-1, 6-1, and
Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky stomped Fabrice Santoro
7-5, 6-1.
In Stockholm, the ultimate tattle tale, Joachim Johansson
beat Juan Monaco, who claims he was not the ‘other’ guy who
was fined for soliciting sex, 6-4, 6-4. But the man who Pim-Pim tagged for
being the one who was fined, Ernests Gulbis, fell to Feliciano
Lopez 6-2, 6-4. Robin Soderling, Marcos Baghdatis and Tommy Haas also won.
In Luxembourg, the notable winners were Kirsten Flipkens, Sabine Lisicki,
Daniela Hantuchova and Yanina Wickmayer…. Taylor Dent
impressed the enthusiastic crowd with his reviving serve and volley game,
scoring a 6-3, 6-4 win over Italy’s Riccardo Ghedin in the first round
of USTA Men’s Pro Tennis Championship of Calabasas,
CA. Cecil Mamiit, Donald Young, Kevin Kim, Michael Russell and Prakash Amritraj
also won... On October 31st, Justine Henin will hold her
comeback celebration with long-time coach Carlos Rodriguez
at their U.S. based 6th Sense Tennis Academy at Mission Inn Resort &
Club in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida at 9:30 a.m.
Mulling Over Moscow's Relevance
TUESDAY, OCT 20 - The WTA is just six days from the Sony Ericsson Championships
in Doha while the ATP Tour is amazingly another 27 days away from its
finale in London, but in what should be a critical tournament is tennis-crazy
Moscow has been made nearly insignificant.
Consider this – the women’s premier level tournament only
features one top-10 Russian, Vera Zvonareva, while Dinara Safina, Sveta
Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva are all resting for Doha. All those devoted
WTA fans in Russia who wait the entire year to see their stable of excellent
players are left with a B-level field in what should be an A-level event,
precisely because the tournament is scheduled the week before the year-end
Championships when no player who has already qualified for Doha -- and
seven of the eight spots are taken – wants to compete.
So the tournament is forced to headline with Nadia Petrova, a good but
not great player who has had a sporadic year, Zvonareva, who has had a
fine year but who is no headline grabber, and Jelena Jankovic, whom I
doubt is very popular in Russia. Yes, there is some excitement with Zvonareva,
Jankovic and Agnieszka Radwanska battling the last spot in Doha, but does
anyone expect them to make a major impact after what should be a draining
week in Moscow? I don’t. Here's the real kicker: in recent years,
if you asked any of the Russian women who actually spend a lot of time
at home what's the most important tournament to them outside of the Slams
and most will say Moscow, as it 's their home nation championship. Who
knows what they will say after this week.
It’s even worse on the guys side, where the top seed, Nikolay Davydenko,
has nothing to play for in Moscow, because he's already won two ATP 250
tournaments this year and can’t better his point total even if he
wins his home country tournament. Essentially, it’s a glorified
exo for Koyla. The very conception of the ATP 250s is very much in question,
because in effect, the tour is telling the fans that there’s no
reason to pay attention to the results at the 250s, because they really
don’t count in the rankings of the players that matter anyway. The
Slams, the Masters Series and the 500s are now over rewarded at the expense
of their poor cousins, the 250s, which are tournaments that have incredible
value because they allow fans in many parts of the planet to actually
watch the sport live and continue to follow it. The ranking system must
again be re-fashioned to keep every event relevant, regardless if its
played in January, when all the men are seeking points, or October, when
the vast majority of the notable guy have achieved just about all that
they can playing at that level.
MORE MOSCOW: Jelena Jankovic avenged one of her US Open loss to Kazakhstan's
Yaroslava Shvedova in a 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 win. "At the U.S. Open she
played a match of her life while I was at my lowest level -- my grandmother
died on that day,” Jankovic said. “I knew she could serve
well and hit the ball well but today I played better," Jankovic will
face the talented Czech Lucie Safarova for a place in the quarters, while
Zvonareva bested Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-2, 6-2. Radwanska meets Maria Kirilenko
in a must win contest. There were two retirements on the women’s
side, when Sara Errani and Sorana Cirstea shut it down.
On the men’s side, Wayne Odesnik upset Victor Hanescu 5-7, 7-5,
6-4, while Andrey Golubev took out Martin Vassallo Arguello 7-5m 6-3 and
Robby Ginepri beat Igor Andreev. Nicolas Kiefer was forced to retire with
back spasms and Marc Gicquel gave up with a sore throat. Every one is
ill this fall, no? Nikolay Davydenko will take on Marat Safin on Wednesday.
Stayed tuned for some fabulous quotes. In Stockholm, where Joachim Johansson
blogged that it was allegedly Ernests Gulbis who was fined for soliciting
prostitutes, winners were Andreas Seppi, Jarkko Nieminen, Robert Kendrick,
Olivier Rochus and Arnaud Clement.
How about this: Caroline Wozniacki retired AHEAD 7-5, 5-0 with a left
hamstring strain against Anne Kremer in Luxembourg. The Dane must have
known she wouldn’t be able to contest her second round match and
gave home country woman Kremer the pass, as well as fans something to
watch instead of a walkover. Good for Caro. Other winners were Kim Clijsters,
Shahar Peer, Alize Cornet, Patty Schnyder and Kirsten Flipkens…With
the constant requests for a longer off season, it might seems inappropriate
to say that the women’s season is ending way too fast, but it sure
seems that way. Guess I'll be one of the few folks outside of Indonesia
and Italy checking in on the Commonwealth (B-level) Championships and
the Fed Cup final. I’d still rather see more periodic breaks than
the tour ending the regular season earlier and earlier. It will be a long
two months until Brisbane…The Cellular South Cup in Memphis announced
that Maria Sharapova has entered the field. The event is played side to
side with the men February 14-20, 2010.
Taking Dead Aim at Doha
MONDAY, OCT. 19 - Tuesday’s play in Moscow could very well determine
the fate of two Doha contenders when Jelena Jankovic
faces the rising Yaroslava Shvedova in a US Open rematch and Agi
Radwanska plays the capable Maria Kirilenko, who has been battling
injuries. Radwanska has to win the tournament to qualify and if Jankovic
reaches the final, Agi is done for.
Jankovic is just five points ahead of the tournament’s top seed
Vera Zvonareva, who is the other major Doha contender.
The formulation for who of these two is tricky, as the tour counts a player's
best 16 results from the season and going into Moscow, Jankovic 16th-best
tournament in ‘09 gave her 120 points, so she needs to reach the
semis this week to add to her total. Zvonareva's 16th-best tournament
this year gave her 60 points, so she can add to her total by reaching
the quarters (worth 120 points). Essentially, Zvonareva has to reach at
least the quarters to have a shot at Doha and if she gets there, JJ must
respond and reach the semis. If they both lose in the same round from
the quarterfinals and on, Zvonareva will have more points for Doha.
None of these three have impossible draws, with Radwanska and Zvonareva
slated to meet in the semis, which will be a must win for Radwanska and
possibly a must win for the Russian. JJ may have to go up against Lucie
Safarova in round two, and possibly Russians Alisa Kleybanova or Elena
Vesnina in the quarters. Nadia Petrova, who won on Monday,
lurks for Zvonareva in the quarters, with Radwanska’s biggest threats
being Francesca Schiavone (likely tired after flying in from Japan), the
up and down Aleksandra Wozniak and the now sputtering Sorana Cirstea.
The world will get a good look at how much desire Radwanska really has
this week, as the title is there for the snatching.
Anna Chakvetadze fell to Alona Bondarenko in Moscow on
Monday, ending a disappointing season for the former top-fiver. She has
a lot of thinking to do in the off-season…. What exactly are tournament
directors promoting this week in Luxembourg, where there are no Doha contenders,
no Slams ahead and very little meaningful to grasp on to. We are guessing
just good tennis, and just a tiny bit of a celebration of the revived
career of Kim Clijsters. There are some decent young
players in the field too, with Sabine Lisicki and Carla Suarez winning
on Monday….On the men’s side in Moscow, winners were Mikhail
Youzhny, Potito Starace and Pablo Cuevas. Here’s
what likely is the last Russian male blockbuster of the decade set to
go on Tuesday: Nikolay Davydenko against Marat Safin…Fabrice
Santoro is un-retiring. Snooze…Here’s Flavia
Pennetta on the Kremlin Cup web site on Italy’s upcoming
Fed Cup tie v. the US: ”We tried to choose the best conditions for
us and the worst for our opponents, so we’re going to play outdoors
on a slow clay court. I hope it will make a difference and will help us
win the trophy.”…Now for the sorry news: the SBJ reported
that the ATP has been denied $17.9 million in legal fees from the German
and Qatari federations over the failed Hamburg Masters lawsuit. That’s
a lot of padding of legal pockets….One, if not two ATP players competing
in Stockholm were fined by the police for attempted sex solicitation.
No names have been released. According to some rich tennis lore, they
aren’t the first players to engage in such an activity in Stockholm.
