Encouraged by her mother, Vera Zvonareva began playing tennis for fun at age six. Her mother, Natalya Bykova, a Russian field hockey player who earned a bronze medal in the 1980 Olympics, enrolled the future star in the famed Russian State Academy of Physical Fitness.
When Samantha Stosur plays tennis, it is poetry in motion. There’s a beautiful, confident competitor with all the snappy trimmings, an up and down storyline with an ending that is inconclusive but on the horizon.
Rezai reached her highest ranking of sixteen prior to the French Open and on the heels of her impressive win at the Madrid Open.
Nikolay Davydenko and Andy Murray share the distinction of being the two best players on the professional circuit without a Grand Slam Championship to their credit. That is no easy cross to bear. While the flashy Murray gets loads of criticism, Davydenko’s resume shortcoming goes relatively unnoticed. But, time is running out for the talented Russian.
There is no need to worry about 20-year old Victoria Azarenka, who grunts for release. Do not bother that in her four years on the tour, she has not won a Grand Slam Event. Not to fear. The pretty, queen-to-be has succeeded at every level since joining the IT Tour in 2003.
Fellow tour players did not have enough time to see how Kim Clijsters would return to the tour late last season. After three summer tune-ups, the 36 time tour winner and two-time Grand Slam Champion stole the show in New York at the U.S Open. A sentimental favorite, Clijsters had taken more than two years off to be with her newborn child. With her September victory, she became the first mother, since Yvonne Goolagang (1980) to win a major title.
In Melbourne, one of the most dominant signs read Just In Time, a tribute to Justine Henin’s return to the tour. The popular 5’ 5 1/2” Belgian dynamo returned to the tour after a nearly an 18 month leave of absence and immediately stormed to the forefront. In her very first event, the unseeded Henin put away Nadia Petrova, the two seed, in the first round at Brisbane and then marched to the finals. She succumbed to Kim Clijsters, another Belgian comeback player, in the finals but clearly staked her claim to the elite level of women’s tennis.
Elena Dementieva has had to endure the label so many tennis players and golfers dread: the best player never to win a major. Spain’s Sergio Garcia is widely regarded as the male golfer who ought to have won a prestigious championship by now, but hasn’t. In men’s tennis, Andy Murray and Nikolay Davydenko are battling for that double-edged distinction, which carries with it both a compliment and a deficiency.
Margaret Smith Court won more Grand Slam singles titles than Martina Navratilova. So did Steffi Graf. Chris Evert won just as many Major singles championships as her good friend managed to do. If you wanted to say that Navratilova is not the greatest singles player in the history of women’s tennis, you could make a [...]
Sixteen long years after having her career derailed, a renewed Monica Seles found reason to celebrate once again. The best ballstriker in the past 25 years of women’s tennis – for reasons beyond her control –could not become the single most accomplished champion in the history of her sport, but the nine-time Major champion was [...]
