Tournament Preview

Well, Maria yesterday got her first win since the final round of qualifying in the Australian Open, so to celebrate.....

Family Circle Cup, Charleston
More experience or a chance for a shock?

For the mercenaries out there, this tournament offer a return to big money. After last weeks smaller tournaments, including my mocking of the brunch at Sarasota on the Bedanova site, a much bigger purse of $1.3 million is available this week. Of course, we dont watch these tournaments to see these girls get rich, but im sure that its a nice bonus for those playing.

Obviously with that sort of money, theres going to be some interest for the big names, and more importantly, more points for the rankings. And with these names, there is obviously some excellent facilities on show. The centre offers 17 championship courts, including the main stadium, offering over 10,000 seats available. Its facilities were confirmed as top quality when they were awarded the 2001 Public Facility of the year by the USTA. These facilities are obviously going to attract some bag name sponsers as well as big name players. Such is the demand, that the tournament has its own official acid reducer in the form of Pepcid Complete, and its own beauty sponsor with L'oreal adding their name to the tournament. However, of less importance, other sponsors, disregarding the obvious Family Circle, which is some sort of magazine, include State Farm Insurance, Bauer International, Wachovia Securities as well as the more recognisable Porsche, Penn and Diadora.

Yet again, a majority of us in the UK and many other countries around the world will have to enjoy the entertainment that is the live score board, as TV coverage is exclusive to ESPN. However, if you do have access to the channel, you can see the viewing times at http://www.familycirclecup.com/defaulttournament.asp?name=Tournament%20Site&catID=1468&parentID=

. If not, us mere mortals without the wonders of cable can watch the live updates at http://www.familycirclecup.com/defaulttournament.asp?name=Tournament%20Site&catID=1466&parentID=

. And if you cant get there, ill do my best to stick some score news on the board, although i cant make any promises, as i go home from uni tomorrow and i get my first decently cooked meal for 4 months!
The tournament should offer some excellent tennis with the names appearing and the organisation is such that is distributed widely, although if you do have any direct queries, contact executive Director Frankie Whelan at fwhelan@familycircle.com, or associate tournament director Mike Finley at mfinley@gjusa.com. However, i cant promise a response. I contacted both of them, and the information address and got nothing back. And if you dont have flash the website is pretty poor too, whcih is a serious fault on behalf of the organisers. But hey, thats just my opinion, and that must be why im not a tournament director!!!!!

Qualifying Draw
Maria has got no points to defend this week, so its a good opportunity for her to push back into the top 150. I have to admit, as i have before, i have been a bit disappointed this year with Maria's performances, but ive come to accept that this year is an experience year, and so although a run of victories would be nice and get her up the rankings, simply playing against seasoned professionals week in week out will do her just as much good and the second half of the year will be when i expect her to push out some results. Her management and coaching im sure will keep her on the straight and narrow, and whereas i was suggesting she could well be finishing this year in top 50, i think top 100 is now a more realistic target, offering her the platform for next year for some serious spanking, and even stealing the holy grail of the most attractive player off the likes of Dokic and Anna (you know its the truth Glyn, Nikola etc, so face the facts and join the future wave!!).

So this week has started well with Saturdays victory over world number 117 Akiko Morigami, and her pasage will have been eased a little by the withdrawal of Marlene Weingartner, so she will face Julia Vakulenko on Sunday, who is currenly number 125 in the world. Maria has never faced Julia in a match, but should have a little confidence after finally picking up another victory after three months. I believe that a victory tomorrow should put Maria into the full draw, but im not entirely sure, what with the organisation on the website, but in last years tournament there was only two rounds of qualifying. Hopefully a victory tomorrow should offer Maria a more rewarding tie on a personal level, after two wildcards in the two previous tournaments. After my previous rant on the wildcard subject, my views have mellowed somewhat. I was concerned that being offered wildcards on her reputation, Maria was in danger of developing more into the Kournikova mould within which she has so often been described. The fact is though that at this stage of her career, it is good for her to gain experience of Tier I events.

All going weel, i shall have another article to write tomorrow evening, previewing the whole tournament, and the possibility of Maria pulling off a shock result against a top player, or writing about a nice draw where its possible for her to hit the quarters!!! Ah, still in that dream world!!!
Any general enquiries or whatever, give us an e-mail at mattydonaldson@maria-sharapova.net

Visit the Maria Sharapova page here

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