Tournament and News Recaps

Sony Ericsson Open:
Men's Champion:
Andy Murray defeated Djockovic 6-2, 7-5 in the finals and Verdasco 6-2, 6-2 in the semis. En route to the finals, Djockovic defeated Federer in the semis 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 and the top seed Nadal was upset by Del Potro in the quarters 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3).
Women's Champion:
19 year old Viktoria Azarenka defeated an injured Serena Williams 6-3, 6-1 for her third title. Serena beat Venus in the semi's 6-3 in the third. Jankovic lost 2cnd rd to Gisela Dulko after a bye and Safina lost 3rd to Stosur after one win. Azarenka beat Kuznetsova to get into the finals against Serena 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.


Safina became World #1 Arpil 20th. With Serena's injury and first rd lost at the Andalucian Experience, Safina was able to overtake her points. Here is what she had to say about it:
"It's a great honor to reach the number one ranking and it is a dream that every girl who has ever wanted to play professional tennis shares. It is even extra special for me since my brother Marat was able to reach the number one ranking (in 2000) and I am happy to share this achievement with him. There's no question that while I am very proud of my results over the past year, I would have liked to reach this achievement in a different manner. I hope to prove to everyone over the coming months that I merit the honor of being world number one."

Andalucia Tennis Experience WTA Tournament:
Jelena Jankovic was able to regroup after her last two tournament 1st rd losses and beat fifth seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3 3-6 6-3 for her first title of the season.

MPS Group Championships:
A promising teenager, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark defeated Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak 6-1 6-2 to win this event, making it her fourth Sony Ericsson WTA Tour career title

Family Circle Cup:
Another promising teenager captured this prestigious title as an underdog. Germany’s Sabine Lisicki beat fifth seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-4 in the final as well as Bartoli and Venus Williams en route, to claim her first career WTA title and jump from the 60s to the 40s in the rankings.

Monte Carlo Masters Series:
Nadal beat Djockovic in the final 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 but didn't play his best according to his team.

Barcelona Ladies Open:
Unseeded Italian Roberta Vinci beat defending champion Maria Kirilenko 6-0 6-4 to win her second Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title.

Married!
Both Roddick and Federer tied the knot this past week. Federer married his long time girlfriend and expectant mother Mirka Vavrinec in a small ceremony in Switzerland. Andy Roddick married his swimsuit model girlfriend Brooklyn Decker in Texas.
http://tennis-atp.blogspot.com/2009/04/photos-andy-roddick-brooklyn-decker-on.html
http://tennis-atp.blogspot.com/2009/04/photos-roger-federer-and-mirka-wedding.html

Burn out victims inspired:
Kim Clijsters is back in training after she refound the "desire" as well as Gaston Gaudio, a former French Open Champion. Gaston Gaudio, who is ranked 966th after nearly retiring for 2 years, won his first ATP match in two years at the Barcelona Open. Gaudio said earlier this year that he had rediscovered his enthusiasm for the game.

Marketing and Advertising:
Aside from Jankovic signing with a Chinese company for 5.1 millions dollars, Sharapova sketching dresses for the French Open she may or may not play and promoting Unilever's dandruff shampoo called Clear and Cole Haan sports attire...here is a video worth watching
http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/multimedia/default_video.asp?videoid=1151 and this one too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9G2iIYkPSg

Television News:
Reality TV, we can't live without it. Martina Hingis will now be joining Martina Navratilova and Monica Seles as a reality tv star. Hingis has been in London filming ITV’s Beat the Star, a show that pits a star against a member of the public in physical and mental challenges. Maybe it will pop on the internet for those of us that don't have ITV.

The Australian Open 2009

Our new year is in progress, as well as our very first Grand Slam. Don't forget to watch the coverage on Espn2 throughout most of the morning, evening and night, as well as visit the official website for up to date scoring, draws and interviews.

Any guesses? It is a race to the number 1 spot for several players on both sides of the draw. Plenty of inspiration to give it their best as well as a hefty monetary reward and an eternal engraving on a trophy. Hopefully a beautiful semi final of Murray/Djokovic, Murray/Federer or Nadal/Djokovic, Nadal/Federer. On the women's side, my bet is with a Serena Williams/Jankovic final as I am pretty sure they want to add this to their resume pretty badly.

In with the new, out with the old: good and bad news week 1

All tennis fans know the rules of tennis but few tennis fans know how their role models make up their schedules, earn their points and keep their rankings. The rules, the paychecks and the technology keep changing and this year is no exception. Let’s take a look at the WTA tournament changes for the New Year. If you want to see the official break down, check out http://www.onthebaseline.com/2009/01/02/the-2009-sony-ericsson-wta-tour-roadmap-guide/, or download the 2009 calendar, http://onthebaseline.com/uploads/files2009_WTA_Calendar.pdf.

It is also important to note that the Sony Ericsson Tour has doubled the women’s points in value. This has been in effect since January 5^th, 2009. The new system will count one less tournament towards the player’s ranking (from 17 to 16). Check out the top 10 women’s rankings from the source.


"I couldn’t believe that I have got my own star in the sky. That is something unbelievable and I am so happy," said Jelena Jankovic as she really was awarded her own star bought for her by her sponsor Knjaz Milos and its brand of Aqua Viva water. For Astrology buffs, it is located in the SC2 Hercules constellation of North polar region and it is called JJ. Jankovic seems to be at the top of world with an Olympic athlete water polo player boyfriend, a world number one ranking and now a star to call her own in space.


Marat Safin was seeing stars last week. He arrived in Perth for the Mixed Team Hopman Cup, asked to reschedule the match and went to see a doctor. He then further stunned fans, when he showed up to play an Italian team with his sister Dinara, with two black eyes. In his statement he hesitated to give details about a brawl he had gotten into in Moscow, but didn’t hesitate to say the he had won the fight. He and Dinara also won their match.

Kim Clijsters is the opposite of celebration as she lost her 52 year old father, Leo Clijsters, to a year long battle with lung cancer. He was a former Belgian International soccer player and managed Kim in her tennis career until she retired in 2007. =(

Sven Groenveld is also at a loss this week as Ana Ivanovic has decided to drop her coach. Currently at No. 5 in the world, Ivanovic will likely be coach-less before the Australian Open.

Jelena Dokic, the former No. 4 in the world, had made her big advance for a comeback at the end of 2008 and she is now steadily climbing the rankings in preparation for 2009. Currently ranked at 179, she faced Mauresmo at a warm up tournament in Brisbane this week and lost in two tie-break sets. "If I got blown away maybe it wouldn't hurt so much,” said Dokic about her match. It will be interesting to follow her results this month.

Lindsay Davenport is definitely out with the old and in with the new. She will be making another halt to her career as she is expecting her second child. “Of course this unexpected but exciting surprise now means I will be putting tennis on hold for the foreseeable future,” Davenport said in a statement.

Andy Murray just beat Rafael Nadal 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in the final of the Abhu Dabi exhibition match. He also defeated Roger Federer in the semis. That’s $183, 000 there. Looks like an exciting start and some possible majors on the way for Murray. Roddick and Monfils are cruising through the draws in Doha right now.

If you have any questions regarding the charity, or how to donate tennis racquets, visit TennisRacquetsforKids.org