Elena Dementieva, widely regarded as the best women’s tennis player never to have won a Grand Slam singles tournament, will have to wait until Wimbledon to claim her first major title. The No. 4 seed at Roland Garros was ushered out of Paris by an Australian, in a fascinating tale of both triumph and heartbreak. [...]
One has to admit this much: If you’re going to act like a diva, you might as well do so in a city like Paris. The members of the WTA Tour at least have a sense of drama, if not proper decorum. In the first week of the 2009 French Open, many of the headlines [...]
Through the first two rounds of the French Open, Venus Williams–who is as comfortable on red clay as a snowman in the Sahara Desert–possessed enough guile and grit to fight past opponents who lacked the chops to take her down. But as a Grand Slam event progresses and a field of 128 shrinks to 32, [...]
In horse racing, “winning by a head” represents a very small margin between the winner and the runner-up. In tennis, the same phrase could accurately characterize the way in which champions so frequently fend off talented challengers in the early rounds of Grand Slam tournaments. After surviving a scare from amped-up Argentine Jose Acasuso in the second round [...]
American female tennis players have a way of winning on native soil. Australian and British girls don’t get many chances to wow the home crowd in Melbourne or suburban London. As for the females of France, the comforts of home just aren’t comfortable enough, and never seem to be sufficient on any day, in any time or [...]
The women’s portion of the 2009 French Open is developing a clear narrative through the first five days of action at Roland Garros: Champions rise under pressure, while pretenders fall by the wayside. In the lastest example of an elite player coming through under fire, Venus Williams–the No. 3 seed in Paris–turned back a bold [...]
After ten months away from the WTA Tour, Maria Sharapova might be in the midst of re-learning the finer points of tennis technique, but while her groundstrokes still need polishing, there’s one thing the Russian superstar never forgot how to do: fight like hell. Displaying the mental toughness and combative spirit that made her a [...]
Much of the drama in the first week of a Grand Slam event concerns the middle-tier players fighting for added respect, bigger paychecks, and the momentum that can re-invigorate a career. In light of these tensions unique to the world of major championship tennis, it can be said that on Wednesday at Roland Garros, Nicolas [...]
As Day 4 of the French Open unfolded in Paris, Andy Murray provided a performance that generated more chatter than it silenced. Still alive in the year’s claycourt major, but hardly in first-rate form, the third-seeded Scot had to grind out a 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over Italy’s Potito Starace in 2 hours and [...]
Klara Zakopalova has never gone past the third round in any Grand Slam tournament she’s entered. Yet, the 27-year-old from the Czech Republic is someone Serena Williams won’t want to see in any future claycourt event. Zakopalova–whose third-round showing at the 2003 Australian Open is her best result in 20 slam appearances–played far beyond her No. [...]
