Category Archives: Tennis

Safina : Number One Entertainer and Top Favourite For US Open

Posted on by
Reply

There’s little doubt that the women’s draw has attracted most of the attention at the US Open in its first week.

On Thursday, both Elena Dementieva and Jelena Jankovic, the winners of the two big warm-up events in Toronto and Cincinnati, both fell by the wayside in the first big shocks of the tournament.

But the real media glare has fallen squarely on world number one

Dinara Safina is on action

Dinara Safina is on action

, who has twice only narrowly avoided joining her fellow seeds through the exit door.

She’s almost certainly feeling the heat generated by the debate over her status as world number one, the fires of which were lit at Wimbledon – not least by closest rival Serena Williams – and are still burning two months on.

Whether she is the rightful number one is an issue I’ve touched upon previously but if you’ve been on the moon of late, Safina has still not won a Grand Slam yet remains top of the WTA rankings.

Certainly something is affecting her game.

As everyone is pointing out in New York right now, Safina looks a million miles from the best player on the planet.

Her problems are perhaps best summed up by her double-fault statistics. In her last three matches, Safina has produced no less than 43 – including three in one tie-break in her second-round match.

Things have been so bad that British Davis Cup captain John Lloyd was even left suggesting Safina end her season early to re-model her serve in time for the 2010 campaign.

I’d put forward another suggestion – consider whether coach Zeljko Krajan is helping rather than hindering.

The Croatian’s body language has been even more negative than his client’s in New York, Krajan unable to contain his disgust at Safina’s diabolical serving.

You don’t have to be a sports psychologist to work out it’s not the most productive behaviour – especially when your player is the volatile, emotional type Safina is.

I have to admit, there’s been something sadistically satisfying about watching Safina’s struggles this week.

Like it or not, this is the world number one, yet at times she’s looked little better than the players at my local club.

The service problems seems to have unravelled much of the rest of her game and surely better or more experienced players than Olga Rogowska or Kristina Barrois would have made her pay.

However, Safina should be given some credit for her fighting attitude.

In both contests she found herself a set down and in both she was also a break of serve behind in the final set.

Yet the determined Russian still found a way to win and she’s certainly provided entertainment for the fans both at Flushing Meadows and on television around the world.

She should also be applauded for her dealings with the media. Having been subjected the same questions over and over again for months now, she’s still fronting up – even with her game crumbling around her – with a smile on her face.

I saw one emailer to Sky Sports’ coverage label Safina the WTA’s “worst ever number one”.

That may or may not be true, but there’s no doubt she’s providing entertainment – I’d rather watch these struggles than the love-and-one wins she was reeling out for much of the French Open earlier this season.

For those wanting that, head to Serena Williams’ matches.

Her progress has been smooth and with her title rivals falling or struggling, her position as favourite is hardening – she’s now odds on in places.

Everything seems to be in place for another chapter to be written in the Safina/ranking argument in the coming weeks. It will certainly be interesting to hear Williams on the subject should she win a third Slam of the season here.

Even if she does, the Russian will stay at number one regardless of the results in New York.

Problem on Sharapova serving

Posted on by
Reply
Sharapova is on action

Sharapova is on action

Former no one ranked women tennis player and Russian beauty Maria Sharapova looks the same, shrieks the same, and still has the trademark tenacity that is so sorely lacking among many of the women on the WTA Tour. Unfortunately, Sharapova no longer has the deadly serve that helped her win three major titles.

Robert Lansdorp, the esteemed coach who helped to develop Sharapova’s killer strokes, was more blunt after watching Sharapova double fault 16 times as she lost to Flavia Pennetta in the Los Angeles semifinals two weeks ago. (She also double-faulted 17 times in Toronto Wednesday, but won in straight sets.)

It’s still early in her comeback from October 2008 arthroscopic surgery on her right shoulder, but there are concerns that her new abbreviated service motion—a style made popular by Andy Roddick—might cause her more damage in the future, rather than less. As one observer close to Sharapova (who declined to be identified) put it, “If anything, the adjustments they’ve made are heading in the wrong direction.”

“It’s atrocious, plain atrocious,” Lansdorp said. “Instead of keeping it simple, they make it so complicated for her. She bends down way too much. Her elbow drops. She falls down with her face to the left. It’s so atrocious. I used to tell her, throw a football. If she threw a football with that motion, it would hit her right smack in the face. She’s going to get injured more because she is using way too much body. She doesn’t really rotate [her shoulders] that much, she just bends a lot.”

A member of Sharapova’s camp, who also asked not to be identified, urged patience. Indeed, considering the extent of her injury, the months she spent away from the game, and the relatively little time she has had to work on the new motion, Sharapova has performed quite well this summer, reaching the quarterfinals of the French Open and collecting three victories over Top 10 players. In Los Angeles, she played four night matches in five days and in the fourth led Pennetta 3-1 in the third set before tiring. Sharapova aims to be at full strength for next season’s Australian Open and will play on two tournaments after the U.S. Open, in Tokyo and Beijing.

Nick Bollettieri, whose academy took on Sharapova when she was 8 years old, has not worked with her on the motion, but he too has concerns with what he’s seen so far in her return to competitive tennis.

“Not knowing the whole story, I’m very reluctant to criticize,” Bollettieri said. “But what I would do is what Andre Agassi and Boris Becker told me many times—listen to your student. Start with what’s comfortable, and then maybe do a little tinkering.”

Even without a first-rate serve, Sharapova has the talent to return to the Top 10. But Bollettieri, for one, isn’t convinced that she can be as good as she was in early 2008, when she won the Australian Open without losing a set, unless she finds comfort with her new serve soon.
“If you begin to doubt one of your big weapons, that’s tough, especially in today’s game,” he said. “We all know how competitive she is, but competitiveness can only take you to a certain point.”