Pierre's Tennisrulz Blog (get your own blog here)

Friday, October 31, 2008

Federer out of Paris Masters

Roger Federer has announced what was feared by many, he has dropped out of the Paris Masters just before playing his quarterfinal match today against American James Blake putting a big shadow on the last event of the European schedule that has been suffering of important withdrawls in recent years.

There had been rumors a few weeks ago about Roger possibly not playing the last weeks of the season but the main reason that had came out was that he was exhausted, especially after enduring a mononucleosis earlier in the year that took a lot out of him.

There will be a press conference shortly that should give more information about for example if Roger expects to be able to play in Shanghai in less than 2 weeks, in the Tennis Masters Cup. But no doubt, this will once more bring up the debate about the length of the tennis season. "I was tired after Davis Cup and it has been a tough season for all the players." It is even more true following a season that featured the Olympics as a bonus.

Even, archrival Rafael Nadal has been complaining, and in a more vocal way. "I am a little bit at the limit, I am a bit short of strength," Nadal told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "We are in a very bad state," Uncle and coach Toni Nadal told dpa. "It is the last effort, I hope to be able to get to the rest of it better prepared," the tennis player said.

# posted by Pierre : 7:45 AM  0 comments

Monday, October 20, 2008

A first big day for Laura

It is no secret in the world of tennis that Britain has been looking to get some decent quality tennis for a long time. After many years where Tim Henman was pretty much the only top player in action, Britain has increased its already very large budget for development.

While Andy Murray has been quickly moving up the world rankings, he has been acclaimed by the public but not given much more credibility to the British development program as Andy Murray did much of his work in Spain and is probably not what the LTA could consider a major success.

On the WTA side, after being considered ridiculous for a while to even give 8 wild cards for Wimbledon (they would almost always end up losing their first round rather easily), they finally had Anne Keothavong to cheer for. Sure, she isn’t really top 20 material, but she has at least been making quick progress through the rankings and giving the LTA something to show.

But forward time to 2008, and 14 year-old Laura Robson caused quite a stir by winning the Junior Wimbledon event this summer. Before even playing a pro event, Laura is already being called the next star, the next British hope for Wimbledon on the WTA side, etc. Too much pressure? Maybe!

Laura made her pro debut in a 75K event in the UK in in September reaching the semifinals before losing to Maret Ani. And now, she has been given a wild card to play in her first WTA event, as she will be playing in the Fortis Championships in Luxembourg! You can see the main draw here. Laura’s 1st round opponent will be Czeck Iveta Benesova. Go Laura!

# posted by Pierre : 7:05 PM  0 comments

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Ramblings

Hello everyone!! A few things to discuss!

-As we had discussed for the past few weeks, Jelena Jankovic has gone back to #1 in the world but did it in style as she won last week's event in Tokyo thus reaching the highest ranking in the world.

-Mathematically it's not quite certain, but in reality it is, Rafael Nadal will break Roger Federer's tremendous strike as he will end the 2008 season as the world #1, congrats.

-Very interesting that with only a few weeks to go, the races for the year-end championships are still pretty open. On the ATP side, Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Murray have qualified while Davydenko, Roddick, Ferrer, Blake, Del Potro and Wawrinka are fighting for the final 4 spots. It's very interesting to see how much these players will play in order to qualify...

On the WTA side, there is less of a battle with only 2 free spots left. the top player left Maria Sharapova, has confirmed she would not be playing. So Svetlana Kuznetsova and Venus Williams are the top picks right now with Vera Zvonareva trying to make a late run.

Unfortunately, Agnieszka Radwanska saw her shot pretty much taken out as she was unable to get a visa for this week's Kremlin Cup, the important Tier 1 event...

# posted by Pierre : 5:28 PM  0 comments