Safina reaches US Open semi-finals for the first time
Russian sixth seed Dinara Safina, the sister of 2000 U.S. Open men’s champion Marat Safin, reached her first semifinal at Flushing Meadows, overpowering Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-2 6-3.
The 22-year-old, runner-up at the French Open and the Beijing Olympics, continued her domination over Pennetta, raising her career record over the Italian to 5-0. Safina raced through the first set and then came from a break down in the second to clinch her place in the last four.
“It’s great,” Safina said. “I’m getting closer to reaching the same thing as my brother (Marat Safin, the 2000 champion), so I hope that one day we can have the same titles.”
Pennetta, seeded 16th, had beaten former world number one Amelie Mauresmo to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final but she looked nervous early on. The Italian won two singles titles this year in Vina del Mar and Acapulco, Mexico.
Dinara Safina, who won 37 of her past 41 matches and made it to the finals at six of her previous seven events, next meets fourth seeded American Serena Williams, who beat Wimbledon champion and seventh seeded sister Venus Williams 7-6 7-6.
“I’m getting closer to reaching the same thing as my brother,” Safina said.
Safina is 1-3 against Serena.
Having reached the last eight for the first time, though, Pennetta said she was developing a taste for the latter stages of Grand Slam events.
“I think it’s a good result, but I would like to make more,” she said.
“It’s just one. I make already three or four fourth rounds. A quarter-final, it’s unbelievable. But I hope next year to make more.”
Serena Williams keen on playing through left knee injury
Once again, Serena Williams proves to be a determined player who never gives up. She is not a quitter as she plans to keep playing through a left knee injury despite advice from a doctor and her father that she rest with less than three weeks before the Beijing Olympics.
Actually, she believes her injured knee “will be old news” by the time the Olympic tennis tournament in Beijing begins on Aug. 10.
Williams withdrew from Saturdays’ semifinals of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford after injuring her knee. According to her statements, a MRI exam afterward revealed an inflamed joint.
“I’ve been playing a lot of tennis, that’s basically what it is, a lot of use,” she said yesterday. “I haven’t had enough time to train the way I normally do off-court because I’m playing a lot.”
Serena’s older sister, Venus, and Lindsay Davenport also withdrew from Carson because of right knee injuries. Thus, the US Olympic team is hit by a rash of knee injuries before the Beijing Olympics.
Despite her knee injury, Venus has said she plans to play next week’s WTA tournament in Canada before going to Beijing, while Davenport has not revealed her immediate plans.
A doctor and her father, Richard, recommended Serena that she skip this week’s tournament near her hometown of Compton.
“He’s always passive and I’m more aggressive,” she said about her father. “I’ve been doing really well all year and I’ve been playing a lot. What I want to do is play tennis and play tournaments for this year and several years. I just feel like that’s all I want to do.”
Williams has played nine tournaments this year and won three consecutive titles. She has a 33-5 match record, including a loss to Venus in the Wimbledon final.
Serena could not attend the 2004 Athens Games due to her ailing left knee, but she and her sister, Venus, won the gold medal in doubles at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and Serena called it “my favorite trophy.”
“When I first had an opportunity to compete, I was excited and I really wanted to do it, but I didn’t understand it until I was there and until I actually won,” she said. “Then it kind of all set in, what a great feat it was.”
Williams said she is not concerned about playing outdoors in Beijing’s polluted air, where she has competed twice before in a WTA tournament.
“I also play in New York and L.A. and let’s face it, we’re no saints here,” she added.
China’s Zheng Jie makes tennis history
Born in Sichuan, the earthquake-ravaged province in China, Zheng Jie is the first Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam semifinal, and the most successful wild card competitor in Wimbledon’s history.
Zheng Jie’s first memory of tennis was watching a match between Graf and Seles. Her older sister started playing first, which influenced Jie to take up the game at 10. Zheng Jie graduated from St. Chuan Sports Academy in June 2000 and made her WTA rankings debut in the same year. She turned professional in 2003 and ended the year for the first time in the top 100.
Zheng has won three career WTA singles titles: Hobart 2005, Estoril 2006 and Nordea Nordic Light 2006. She has reached one Grand Slam semifinal (The Championships, Wimbledon, 2008) which is her best performance. In addition, she has won eleven WTA doubles titles, all with Yan Zi, including two Grand Slams: Australian Open, and Wimbledon, both in 2006.
Her height is 164 cm; she weights 57 kg and is a right-handed player. Her favorite shot is backhand. Her favorite color is blue, favorite flowers are roses and favorite cuisine is Chinese.
Singles Career
In May 2002, she won two successive $25,000 ITF singles tournaments, at Shanghai and Tianjin, right after reaching her first $50,000 tournament quarterfinal, at Fukuoka, Japan. That September, she gained direct entry into a WTA tournament at Shanghai, and reached Round Two before losing to Anna Kournikova. She ended the year as World No. 183.
Wimbledon 2006
At Wimbledon, Zheng and Max Mirnyi, seeded two, reached the semifinals of the Mixed Doubles, where they were beaten by Bob Bryan and Venus Williams 7-5, 7-5. She triumphed in women’s doubles with Yan Zi over Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez 6-3 3-6 6-2, capturing China’s first Wimbledon title. With her win, she became the first Chinese tennis player to amass over 1 million dollars in career earnings.
Wimbledon 2008
Despite being ranked as low as number 133 in the world, preventing her from directly qualifying for the Wimbledon Ladies’ singles main draw, Zheng was given a wild card into the main draw, where she defeated seeded Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova in the first round, then Great Britain’s Elena Baltacha in the second. She then went on to defeat the first seed and World no. 1 Ana Ivanovic in the third round, dominating the match relentlessly and winning 6?1 6?4. This was her first victory against a top 10 player. Zheng beat Agnes Szavay of Hungary, the number 15 seed, 6?3, 6?4 in the fourth round, and defeated number 18 seed Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic 6?2, 5?7, 6?1 in the quarterfinals. This was Zheng’s best singles result in a grand slam tournament and made her the first Chinese women’s tennis player ever to reach the semi-finals of a grand slam, surpassing the previous record of a quarter-final finish set by her compatriot Li Na at the same event in 2006. She also became the first wild card to reach the semi-finals of the ladies’ singles at The Championships, Wimbledon. In the semi-finals, Zheng lost to two-time Wimbledon champion and former No. 1, Serena Williams 6-2, 7-6. Zheng could not effectively counter Serena’s extremely strong serves, but tended towards having the upper hand in rallies in the second set, and earned a set point on Serena’s service at 5-6 30-40 in Zheng’s favour, only to strike a risky drop shot into the top of the net following an unexceptional second serve by Serena, thus forfeiting her only chance to level the match.
She will donate her prize money from the tournament to and spend time helping the victims and post-reconstruction effort of the May 12 earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 people and left 5 to 10 million homeless in her home province Sichuan. She did the same with her French Open prize money earlier in the year.
In August 2008, Zheng Jie is expected to compete for China in both singles and doubles in the Beijing Olympics.
The 3rd Grand Slam has started
The oldest tennis championship in the world WIMBLEDON has started today (June 23, 2008) and will ends in July 6, 2008.
Wimbledon is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments and it is the only one where tennis players played on grass courts.
Wimbledon is the third Grand Slam tournament played each year:
- 1st Australian Open (Melbourne) - hard tennis courts
- 2nd French Open (Roland Garros) - clay tennis courts
- 3rd England Open (Wimbledon) - grass tennis courts
- 4th US Open (Flushing)) - hard tennis courts
The first major tennis event at Wimbledon was held in 1877 with men single players.
Wimbledon includes five main events, four junior events and four invitation events.
Among these events the most popular are men’s singles (128 player draw)
and womens’ singles (128 draw).
The Wimbledon dress code requires that sport players to wear “almost entirely white” clothing during matches.
For the spectators, strawberries and cream is the traditional snack at Wimbledon. Approximately 28 tons of strawberries and 7 tons of cream are sold each year during the event.
At the beginning of the tournament (23 June, 2008) the following 5 gentlemen are favorites in singles:
- Roger Federer (SUI)
- Rafael Nadal (ESP)
- Novak Djokovic (SRB)
- Andy Roddick (USA)
- Andy Murray (GRB)
At the beginning of the tournament (23 June, 2008) the following 5 ladies are favorites in singles:
- Maria Sharapova (RUS)
- Ana Ivanovic (SRB)
- Williams Serena (USA)
- illiams Venus (USA)
- Jelena Jancovic (SRB)
At Wimbledon the singles’ winners will earn approximative US$ 1.5 millions each (man/woman) at the end of the tournament.
Is Justine Henin play again tennis as a PRO?
Justine Henin (BEL) has surprised the tennis community with her retirement announce (May 14, 2008) from WTA. In June 1, 2008 she will celebrate 26 years old which is not a retirement age in this sport.
“A new future is ahead and I won’t go back on this decision.” said Justine.
But we know a lot of women tennis player which came back after the similar announcements. Only think about to the former #1 Martina Navratilova (RUS) which played tennis even in 2004 – 2005 at 48-49 years old. An earlier example is the former #1 Lindsay Davenport (USA) which will be 32 (in June 8, 2008) and she is in competition even she gave birth to a baby boy (June 2007). “Playing tennis makes me happy, which in turn helps me be a better mother and wife” said Lindsay.
Maybe we are many of us who are expected to hear something like that from Henin. I have to admit that her decision is as strong as she was on the field. “It’s the end of a wonderful adventure but it’s something I have been thinking about for a long time … I have experienced everything I could have … I have lived completely for tennis … I am relieved and proud of what I achieved”
Yes it is true. She achieved the world recognition for being #1 in WTA (she is currently 117-th week as world #1 which represents the 6th place on all time week-streak list #1WTA), with 496-107 win-loss record in singles and receive almost US$ 20 millions in prize money. Right now has an advance more than 1700 points in WTA comparing to #2 WTA Maria Sharapova (the #15 WTA has about 1700 total points-Agnes Szavay).
For many of us these statistics means nothing comparing to her ethic work, incredible athleticism and spectacular back-hand.Anyway she is the first woman in the history of professional tennis to retire from the sport while ranked No.1 in the world.
After many years it will be great to remember her as being the #1. Although she announced her retirement, we are many of us who are strongly believe that she will be back in the tennis courts and we watch her like a great tennis champion as she is.
( picture copyright Neal Trousdale )
Lindsay Davenport, a great tennis warrior
The former #1 WTA tennis player Lindsay Davenport (31 years) has come back on the tennis courts with a lot of confidence and helps the
Her tennis career is fantastic:
She was born on
When she was 14 years old (1991) she had her first professional-level match. After 2 years (in 1993) she officially became a professional tennis player.
Davenport is #7 in holding record of being the #1 WTA tennis player (97 weeks).
After 4 years of marriage, she gave birth to a baby boy, Jagger Jonathan, on
In her first tournament (August 2007) she partnered with Lisa Raymond in the doubles competition at
On
Na Li beat Patty Schnyder to reach the Gold Coast final
Sania Mirza took India to a 2-1 victory over Australia
Sania Mirza inspired
“We are really happy that we are back in the running,” Mirza said. “I think we played really well, especially Rohan in the first set and a half, he was all over the place. I think they were a bit surprised by him.”
World #31 Mirza came out firing on all cylinders, smashing winners on both sides to take the opening set in 30 minutes. Molik picked up her game, especially her serve, in the second set and as Mirza’s concentration dipped, the Australian leveled the match. Mirza then stormed to a 5-1 lead in the decider, only to falter as Molik saved three match points in the seventh game before hitting back to 5-4. But the Indian held her nerve to serve out at the second time of asking for victory.
Samantha Stosur will not play in Australian 2008 open
Canberra (Australia), December 24, 2007
Australian tennis player Samantha Stosur said on Monday she will not play in the next month’s Australian Open after failing to recover from a lingering illness.
S. Stosur, ranked #1 in Australia and #46 in the world, struggled with illness for the last half of the year and said she was not fit enough to compete on home court.
“I am very disappointed I won’t be able to compete during the Australian summer,” the 23-year-old Stosur said.
WTA #6 Anna Chakvetadze has been robbed in her house
“Five to six unknown people wearing masks climbed over the fence of the country house at about 4 a.m., then broke into the house and tied her parents up. They took money and valuables worth 200.000 $US).” a police spokesman said.”Her father Jamal appeared on Russian television, showing scabbed-over bruises on his scalp, cheek and forehead.“They started to beat me up, I resisted, then they hit me either with their hands or a pistol. It was dark, told me I had a child there, reminded me about it, so that I gave them everything. So I did,” – said Jamal Chakvetadze the Anna’s father on Russian television.Police later said they were looking for suspects but gave no details.World number six Chakvetadze has won four singles titles this year (Hobart, Australia – Hard, Cincinnati, United States – Hard, Stanford, United States – Hard, ‘s Hertogenbosch, Holland - Grass) earning about -1 million £ - in prize money.