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.

To Retire, or not to retire?

Global warming, summer in Australia, fact is, the heat was overbearing this year. We watched the players struggle, and we were sad to see the several retirements amidst really great tennis. Jie Zheng retired against Kuznetsova after hurting her wrist on a fall. Victoria Azarenka retired due to dizziness and sickness in her match against Serena. And Novak Djokovic retired against Roddick. Notice, all three were visibly unwell.

Kids retire for the wrong reasons sometimes. Some hate to lose so much they convince themselves they are unable to go on and retire. Others are really unwell and hate to lose so much, the more positive ones, walk side to side in hope of a miracle until they lose 6-0 in 15 minutes. Retirement should be monitored in kids. Pros would never retire because there is so much on the line for them, but they also care enough about their health and their full year jobs, to retire if they really can’t go on. Kids need to find that balance. Got an injury mid match? Playing on it will only make it worse? Retire! You don’t want to develop problems when you have years ahead of beating up your body. Feeling sick, be rational, no one needs a hero, but sometimes it is better to play through it. Don’t feel sorry for yourself, and you will see a clearer picture. Losing badly? All of a sudden an old injury is seemingly aching when you keep missing those forehands long? Try to slow down and figure out why you are playing the way you are and how to win more of the points that you win. Don’t give up. Its only going to break your character and your mental training and you will never be able to play up to your potential.

Check out Djokovic's defensive remarks against players that accuse him of gamesmanship:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/7853238.stm

Check out Federer's comments on Novak's retirement:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/7853693.stm

Check out Azarenka's retirement and what her opponent had to say:
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=3860412