Left field
The Reuters global sports blog
No longer No. 1, Wozniacki can start taking risks
Finally, the most worn-out debate in women’s tennis can stop after Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki’s defeat in the Australian Open quarter-finals by Kim Clijsters means she will no longer be No.1 in the rankings.
Ever since she first topped the rankings in October 2010, Wozniacki’s lack of a grand slam title has prompted questions about her suitability for the lofty position. Even this week former great Martina Navratilova said Wozniacki’s status was more to do with the limitations of the ranking system which rewards her grinding consistency rather than results at grand slams.
It is hardly Wozniacki’s fault that she found herself as No.1 for virtually all of the past year, after all she does not make the rules, but falling off her perch might just be a blessing in disguise for the Dane as the focus shifts elsewhere.
Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, Maria Sharapova or Victoria Azarenka, still seeking a first major, could all begin next week as the new No.1 and while Wozniacki confidently predicts that she will regain it soon, she can now concentrate on filling in the glaring gap in her CV without the weekly round of questions over her status.
Wozniacki’s game is naturally defensive and while her level rarely drops, she has so far been unable to add the kind of firepower to her game that can make the difference in the latter stages of the slams when she invariably crosses paths with the big hitters.
Still largely coached by her father Piotr, Wozniacki’s game has stagnated despite her No.1 ranking and wins against top-10 players over the past year have been few and far between. In that time Kvitova and Azarenka, who contested the WTA Tour Finals last October, have both made significant improvements.
Belrussian Azarenka has been in dominant form in Australia, roaring into the semi-finals where she will play four-times major winner Clijsters while world number two Kvitova is being tipped as favourite for the title after reaching the quarter-finals where she will face Italy’s Sara Errani on Wednesday.
From the baseline: Tricky shot
Trick shots are nothing new for five-time U.S. Open champ Roger Federer.
With five former champs seeing action on day one, it was a spectacular between the legs shot during the second set of his victory over Argentine baseliner Brian Dabul that will dominate talk around the water cooler this morning.
Among the other notable players joining Federer in the second round were birthday boy Andy Roddick, Venus Williams and super mom Kim Clijsters. The only former champ to lose on day one was Australian Lleyton Hewitt.
Although the 2001 champ has only advanced past the fourth round of a Grand Slam once in the last four years, he still plans on playing.
“I still believe I can improve as a player,” said the former world number one, who was seeded 32nd.
Henin poised for comeback too, but will she do a Clijsters?
Former world number one Justine Henin is poised to announce her comeback to professional tennis 16 months after she retired, Belgian media reported on Tuesday.
Henin, 27, will make the announcement on the evening news shows of French-language stations RTBF and RTL in Belgium, a number of newspapers reported.
The Belgian, who retired in May 2008 at the age of 25 saying she no longer had any passion for the game, had been scheduled to play exhibitions in Dubai and Belgium in November and December.
The seven-time Grand Slam winner has witnessed the return of compatriot Kim Clijsters, who won the U.S. Open a week ago after just a month back on the professional circuit after starting a family.
Can Henin repeat Clijsters’ stunning success to add another famous Belgian to the list?
PHOTO: Justine Henin of Belgium eyes the ball during her match against Serena Williams of U.S. at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Florida April 1, 2008. REUTERS/Robert Sullivan
It’s all official btw. “I think it is a good choice, a big decision in my life. The past 15 months I have been able to recharge my physical batteries, mental batteries (and) emotional batteries.
“The aim is to return (to the tour) in January in Australia. In any case it will be during the 2010 season.”
Think Clijsters is world’s most famous Belgian? Not so fast…
I was very disappointed to log on to FamousBelgians.net this morning and see nary a mention of Kim Clijsters. How much more famous can a Belgian get?
According to the interweb’s leading authority on all things Flanders and Walloon, the world’s most famous Belgian is, currently, Eddy Merckx, who last raced professionally about 20 years ago.
How Clijsters isn’t top is beyond me given her astonishing return to grand slam tennis at the U.S. Open. She’s even been overlooked by the Belgian Tourist Office. Ho hum. Here’s their full list anyway:
1. Eddy Merckx, five times winner of the Tour de France
2. Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone
3. Herge (Georges Remi) , the creator of TinTin
4. Audrey Hepburn, actress
for all your audrey hepburn check out this site HollywoodSouvenirs.com and be sure to use this promo! – hollymega
Triumphant Clijsters even surprises herself
It was not part of Kim Clijsters’s grand plan, and that made her U.S. Open victory feel surreal to the Belgian.
“I can’t believe this happened,” the 26-year-old Clijsters told reporters following her grand slam triumph on Sunday after taking more than two years off to start a family.
“It still seems so surreal that in my third tournament back I won my second grand slam, because it wasn’t in the plan.
“I just wanted to come here and get a feel for it all over again, play a grand slam so starting the next year I didn’t have to go through all the new experiences over again.”
Instead, she experienced winning the Open all over again with her 7-5 6-3 triumph over 19-year-old Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.
PHOTO: Kim Clijsters of Belgium carries her daughter Jada while holding the trophy after defeating Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the women’s singles final at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, September 13, 2009. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
I can’t believe Serena but Congratulations to Kim, she did amazing for just coming out of retirement.
Serena outburst: was there any excuse?
OK, don’t shoot me down for saying this, but can anyone see Saturday’s double-fault storm at the US Open from Serena Williams’s point of view?
With a place in the U.S. Open final at stake — and with many believing the winner of the Williams-Kim Clijsters showdown would go on to win the title — how frustrating is it to get foot-faulted on a second serve at 4-6 5-6 15-30 down?
Can anyone remember when someone was foot-faulted at such an important moment of a key match like a grand slam semi-final before?
Should a line-judge go by the book if she sees a foot-fault or would it have been better to have just let it go at such a crucial point in the contest?
With the adrenaline already pumping through her, and the thought of going match point down, Serena lost control.
Astounded by the verdict, she flipped out and marched to the official, shouting, waving her racket and shaking a ball in her clenched fist.
“I swear to God I’m… going to take this… ball and shove it down your… throat, you hear that? I swear to God. You better be glad — you better be glad that I’m not, I swear.” Williams told the line-judge in her expletive-laden rant.
Can’t she challenge a foot fault and use the chase review cameras for a review? Was she out of challenges? According to the announcer Kim Clijsters stands 6 inches behind the baseline and did not even come close to foot faulting the entire match. Regarding comparing her to McEnroe, McEnroe never physically threatened anyone. If she would have called the judge names and not threatened her then that would have been like Mac. But she threatened her with physical violence which deserves a lost point and fine for her or anyone else regardless of their race.
Clijsters reminds us what we’ve been missing
Venus Williams must wish Kim Clijsters had stayed retired and enjoyed a relaxing life as a millionaire mum.
The Belgian returned to grand slam action for the first time in 31 months and has left each and every one of her opponents at the U.S. Open embarrassed.
Williams’s status as the world number three looked a bit of a joke when she dropped the opening set to love against a woman who now stashes her suitcase with more toys than rackets.
With her 18-month daughter Jada being looked after at the tournament crèche, Clijsters completed a 6-0 0-6 6-4 fourth-round win over the seven-times grand slam champion.
While her victory was embraced by the hollering fans on Arthur Ashe Stadium, it is a double-edged sword for the WTA tour.
What does it say about the state of women’s tennis when a player who has been out of the game for more than two years can beat rivals who are supposed to be the standard bearers for the sport?
The rankings are intact and I do not see any problems, when she returned to the tour after her child was born, she was more focused and combined her previous skills with the new focus and surprized people. However after this tour she will be reranked, not problem.
A tale of two draws at Flushing Meadows
It has been a tale of two draws at the U.S. Open, with the men’s seeds advancing full steam ahead and the women’s field in disarray.
Eight of the top 16 women’s seeds have been given the boot at Flushing Meadows, while all 16 men have strolled forward — the first time men’s seeds have marched in lock step into the third round of a grand slam.
Even more of the top-rated women could be getting the dickens beaten out of them going deeper into the tournament, especially considering the dangers that returning champions Maria Sharapova and Kim Clijsters pose after layoffs that pushed them down the rankings list.
Was a time that the early rounds of the women’s tournament was a yawner until the second week. Not so in 2009.
Meanwhile, the top 10 in the often volatile men’s draw have barely felt a ripple of opposition. Going into Friday’s fifth day of play at Flushing Meadows not one had lost a set.
“That’s shocking,” fifth-seeded American Andy Roddick said after his second-round victory Thursday. “Not to lose one set, not even a set? Not a quick little break at 11:00 (a.m.) out on grandstand? That’s pretty surprising.”
Andy Murray of Briton gained the unexpected distinction of becoming the first man among the top 10 to drop a set when he took one misstep Friday in a 6-2 3-6 6-0 6-2 second-round victory over 87th-ranked Paul Capdeville of Chile.
Wimbledon roof is great, but pity those left out in the cold…
As Wimbledon closed its new retractable roof over Centre Court for the first time in a drizzly southwest London on Sunday, the gap between the haves and have-nots grew wider.
Spectators and organisers hailed the new innovation, which will ensure Centre Court ticket holders will never again go away without seeing a match, but the rest of the soggy Wimbledon grounds provided a stark reminder of what it will be like for the majority of players and fans who walk through the All England Club gates next month.
Until this year, there was not much a player such as world number 100 Sergio Roitman would have in common with the likes of Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon. Except when it rained that is. No matter who you were, if it rained you were stuck in the locker room.
Not anymore. The chosen few lucky enough to be scheduled on 15,000 capacity-Centre Court will never again have to wonder exactly when the rain gods will let up. But since Wimbledon has another 18-odd courts that are used during the two-week long championships, the majority of players who make up the 128-strong singles draw will be left high and dry — or in this case soaking wet — when the heavens open.
Andre Agassi, who was given the honour of being one of the first players to test the conditions under the new multi-million dollar structure, dismissed suggestions that the roof would create a class divide.
“From a players perspective you could argue that those scheduled on centre court have a distinct advantage but you could also argue that those who have been scheduled on Centre Court have earned the right to have that opportunity,” the American told reporters.
Mum’s the word as Clijsters bids to match Goolagong
Kim Clijsters’s return to the WTA Tour during the U.S. hardcourt season later this year will inject more excitement into the unpredictable world of women’s tennis.
Since the retirement of her Belgian compatriot Justine Henin last May, the world number one ranking has changed hands so many times that most fans must be thinking they are suffering from blurred vision.
Serena Williams won the latest round of musical chairs with her victory at the Australian Open, the seventh change at the top of the rankings since last May, but her decision to boycott last week’s event in Indian Wells meant she came close to being toppled by Russia’s Dinara Safina.
While Williams, her sister Venus, Safina, Jelena Jankovic, French Open champion Ana Ivanovic and Olympic gold medallist Elena Dementieva will want to keep their rivals at bay, chances are that Clijsters could soon invade their territory.
The popular Belgian is still only 25 and after taking a two-year hiatus to get married and have a baby, she is eager to make a mark when she returns in August.
Although she has only pencilled in the Cincinnati Open, Toronto Cup and the U.S. Open into her 2009 diary, they are three of the biggest events and she must be confident of doing well if she has chosen such a high-profile comeback.
Recent records have shown that she could do well since Lindsay Davenport remarkably came back just three months after giving birth to her first son in 2007 and won three of her first four tournaments on the WTA Tour.
