Category: General

Seventh-seeded Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez defeated third-seeded Gisela Dulko in the Copa Sony Ericsson Colsanitas final to capture her first WTA singles title.

Spain’s world No.66 Martinez Sanchez won the first career meeting with the Argentinean, ranked 46th in the world, 6-2 6-3. Dulko’s wayward serve cost her a fourth career singles title. She committed 13 double-faults and was broken four times.

The Bogota title match was Martinez Sanchez’ second finals appearance. Last year she was a runner-up in Barcelona, falling to Maria Kirilenko 6-0 6-2.

Dutch tennis star Michaella Krajicek, who was ranked as high as No.30 in the February of 2008, scored her first WTA main draw victory since June, beating seventh seed Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1 6-4 in the first round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships & the Cellular South Cup.

You must remember Kudryavtseva, she upset Maria Sharapova in the second round of Wimbledon 2008.

Krajicek, who missed most of last year with an injury, is currently ranked 201st. She was offered a wild card for the Memphis qualifications at the last minute, arrived at 1 am, and played her first qualification match that morning.

Krajicek has recently moved to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy and is training full-time with her coach Allistair McCaw, while also taking advantage of the services of Nick Bollettieri, the IMG Performance Institute, and Bollettieri Sports Medicine.

The 20-year-old Krajicek will face Kristina Barrois of Germany in the second round of Memphis.

The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour has introduced huge changes to the ranking system. Points have doubled in value, which will cause a significant increase to the numbers accumulated by players in 2008.

The new ranking system will go into effective on Monday, January 5. So, don’t be surprised if your favorite player has two times more points tomorrow.

The new system will count 16 of a player’s best tournaments, compared to the 17 counted in 2008.

New Top Ten Rankings for 2009

1. Jelena Jankovic
Old Ranking Points: 4710
January 5 Ranking Points: 9200

2. Serena Williams
Old Ranking Points: 3866
January 5 Ranking Points: 7732

3. Dinara Safina
Old Ranking Points: 3817
January 5 Ranking Points: 7554

4. Elena Dementieva
Old Ranking Points: 3663
January 5 Ranking Points: 7196

5. Ana Ivanovic
Old Ranking Points: 3457
January 5 Ranking Points: 6912

6. Venus Williams
Old Ranking Points: 3272
January 5 Ranking Points: 6544

7. Vera Zvonareva
Old Ranking Points: 2952
January 5 Ranking Points: 5754

8. Svetlana Kuznetsova
Old Ranking Points: 2726
January 5 Ranking Points: 5450

9. Maria Sharapova
Old Ranking Points: 2515
January 5 Ranking Points: 5030

10. Agnieszka Radwanska
Old Ranking Points: 2286
January 5 Ranking Points: 4472

Paula Vergara simplified the 2009 WTA Roadmap calendar in her guest post for On the Baseline, and she did an excellent job. It will be useful to remind yourselves once again of the historic changes to women’s tennis with this easy-to-understand guide.

Paula’s work, which I adapted a little bit, will help you understand the changes better and help you follow women’s tennis with more knowledge about its structure from this season on.

CALENDAR BASICS

The 2009 calendar features 54 tournaments across 31 countries (including all four Grand Slams) compared to last year’s 60 tournaments in 34 countries. There will be 25 tournaments in Europe, 15 in the Americas and 14 in the Asia-Pacific region.

NO MORE TIER I, II, III, IV

The WTA Tour is replacing a four-tier system with “Premier” and “International” tournaments. The differences between Premier and International events are based on prize money, ranking points, and player fields.

ABOUT PREMIER AND INTERNATIONAL EVENTS

Premier tournaments are the marquee events of the WTA tour – designed for top-level players, and offer the largest paychecks. Formerly Tier I/II events, there are 20 Premier tournaments in all.

Disappointed with the 2008 tennis season, Israel’s Shahar Peer is training with her new coach Pablo Giacopelli, hoping for better results in 2009.

“If I am not mistaken, this is the first year in my life from the perspective of tennis (and ranking) that I did not advance and I even went backwards, even though I do not have a doubt that it will only motivate me,” said the 21-year-old Peer in her blog.

She spent one month training in South Africa, and is now back in her home country where she is participating in the Israel Championship.

“I don’t feel that number 38 in the world is my true position. I won’t remain there for long. I feel that I’m playing much better than that,” said the Israeli world No.1.

“I don’t think I want to erase and forget all about 2008. You can’t always be on top and win every match. I think there’s much to learn from this year. I matured in 2008 and learned a lot about myself. I learned how to deal with difficulties and how to recover from them.”

Peer had been in Top 20 every week between first cracking it on November 13, 2006 until after this year’s Roland Garros.

The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour has launched its brand new Mandarin website — the Tour’s first ever non-English language website.

It will feature all of the news of their English language website as well as a variety of original content.

Chinese tennis players have been prominently successful in the last few years, and it seems they have just begun their rise. In addition, the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour recently opened its Asia-Pacific Headquarters in Beijing and from 2009 on, the Tour will have major presence and expansion into China market. The new website is just a justification of the increasing presence of tennis in China.

The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour launched one more element of their “Looking for a Hero?” global marketing campaign worth $15 million — “Challenge Your Hero” video platform.

ChallengeYourHero.com is a website where you can compare your tennis skills with those of women’s tennis stars such as Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina.

The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour announced its landmark 2009 Roadmap calendar, featuring the most sweeping reforms in history to the circuit structure. The aim of the reforms is to create a more fan friendly and healthier system to more consistently deliver stars to top events and reduce withdrawals.

Cornerstones of the 2009 Roadmap calendar:

Longer Off-Season
• 30% increase in off-season (7 to 9 weeks, with season to end in October)

Alicia Molik officially announced her retirement after a long run of injuries, including a debilitating inner-ear virus.

When she reached the Australian Open quarterfinals in 2005 Molik achieved her career-high of No.8, but spent most of the rest of the season off the circuit because of the virus.

“Injuries and niggles are part of being an athlete, and you accept it, but every time you suffer a setback it’s not just difficult physically but it’s very emotionally draining as well,” Molik said.

“It’s difficult getting back on the horse every single time and trying to attain the same level.”

Molik is planning to commit herself to new interests: “I think I’m still young enough to focus my energies on something that I feel is again challenging.”

The 27-year-old Australian won five singles and seven doubles titles in her twelve year professional career, as well as the bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Agnes Szavay, seeded second at the Nordea Nordic Light Open in Stockholm, was defeated 6-4 7-6 by last-year’s finalist Vera Dushevina in the second round of the Tier IV tournament.

Szavay broke early in both sets, but couldn’t capitalize. In the first set she was leading 5-4 and was serving for the set, but made two double-faults and two forehand misses. Eventually, Dushevina entered the quarterfinals by winning a close tiebreaker against Szavay.

World No.14 Szavay made it big last year, but this season hasn’t been so bright for the Hungarian. We’re waiting for her to rise again and reach the very top.