|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Tournament Preview
Well, Maria
yesterday got her first win since the final
round of qualifying in the Australian Open,
so to celebrate..... 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! 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!!! Visit the Maria Sharapova page here
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
