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.
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 [...]
When you think of stylish Swiss tennis, you think of Roger Federer, but before the “Basel Dazzle” became the greatest Grand Slam champion in the Open Era, a Swiss Miss made her own mark on the world of Major tournament tennis. Martina Hingis is not yet 30 years old, and yet she’s in many ways [...]
The first thing that needs to be said about Marat Safin is that 99.5 percent of human beings would love to have this enigmatic Russian’s problems. This magnetic Muscovite with movie-star looks, a body tailor-made for tennis success, and a full assortment of formidable skills won over $14 million, traveled the world, won two Major [...]
Nadia Petrova is many things to many people. She is one of those players on the tour that other players dread to see across the net.
Don’t let that calm, mature demeanor fool you. Venus Williams comes to play.
