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Friday, 23 March, 2012
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teen titan thompson seeks another LPga win CARLSBAD AfP
KEY BISCAYNE: Kim Clijsters returns the ball to Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia during the Sony Ericsson Open at Crandon Park Tennis Center. AFP
Kleybanova makes moving comeback after cancer fight MIAMI
Williams, Clijsters make triumphant returns MIAMI
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Russia's Alisa Kleybanova, a former top20 player who missed the past 10 months battling Hodgkin's lymphoma, is making an inspirational return to the WTA Tour this week at Miami. Kleybanova defeated 64th-ranked Johanna Larsson of Sweden 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Tuesday to reach a second-round matchup on Friday against compatriot Maria Kirilenko, the 22nd seed who lost her only career meeting with Kleybanova. "I still feel like I'm building my game, and it'll take time before I reach my highest level," Kleybanova said. "I'm just going to try to get better with every match. I hope the good results will come, but I'm not going onto the court just thinking of winning. Who knows what will happen in the next one?" Kleybanova's comeback on and off the court at the $9.6 million hardcourt event played alongside an ATP event captured the attention of her fellow players, including World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. "Highlight of my day yesterday was seeing Alisa Kleybanova being on the tennis court back winning! so happy for her!" Azarenka said in a message on her Twitter website. Surrendering two service breaks in the first set Kleybanova battled back to advance, breaking in the fourth game of the second set and holding into the third, where she jumped ahead 4-0 to seize command. "For everyone else it's just the first round but for me it was very emotional," she said. "I'll always remember it. It will always be the first match of my comeback. "I felt I was playing better the more I was on the court. It's not just about the win though, it's that I'm back on court. "If I didn't win, it's not like I would have been mad. I was just happy to be playing points, feeling all the emotions again... it's something I missed a lot."
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ORMER world number ones Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters made triumphant returns to the WTA after long layoffs with victories on Wednesday at the WTA and ATP Miami hardcourt tournament. Seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams, who has not played a WTA event since pulling out of last year's US Open, defeated Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-0, 6-3 in 77 minutes. "It was great to be back out there," Williams said. "It was definitely a bit nerve-wracking... but I was able to get a great start and settle in and play well against a really difficult opponent. It was definitely an ideal start." Williams announced at last year's US Open she had been diagnosed with the auto-immune disorder Sjogren syndrome, an illness that saps her energy and causes pain in her joints. "Just to be in this tournament is a huge win for me," Williams said. "That's what I told myself going in, that this is a win. I have nothing to lose. I just tried to get in the tournament. There were a lot of tournaments I didn't make." Williams, who did play doubles for the US Fed Cup team last month, pulled out of last year's US Open after a first-round victory. "At this point in time it's important for me to play smart," Williams said. "I'm an attacker. That's what I do best and that's what I tried to do today. I don't have the time to give any points away. I have to stay really focused on my game plan. "The good thing is I'm playing well. I know how to play, so I haven't lost any steam in that, the fact that I can play tennis. That's comforting for me." Belgium's Clijsters, playing for the first time since her Australian Open semi-final loss to World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, rallied to eliminate Australia's Jarmila Gajdosova 4-6, 6-1, 6-0. "It's al-
Lexi Thompson, the 17-year-old US prodigy who became the youngest winner in LPGA history last September, takes aim at another title starting Thursday at the $1.7 million LPGA Kia Classic. Thompson won the LPGA Navistar Classic by five strokes and was given a tour membership after becoming the youngest tour champion at 16 years, eight months and eight days. Now she gets to enjoy an official rookie season. "I'm just going to focus on my goals and what I want to improve on my game," Thompson said. "I'm really happy with where my game is at. To get that win gave me a lot more confidence. "I've been working on a lot of short game, putting a lot, doing my putting drills. But the specific thing I'm working on my ball striking is just posture, keeping my posture good and a good set-up." Scott Thompson, Lexi's father, served as her caddie last season, but he now carries the clubs for older son Nicholas on the US PGA's developmental tour, with Lexi's clubs in the hands of veteran bagman Greg Johnston. "Greg knows pretty much every golf course and knows it really well," said Thompson. "He has a lot of experience so hopefully it will help me out in the long run, and hopefully he'll be on my bag for a while." Thompson will challenge a field at LaCosta that includes World No. 1 Yani Tseng of Taiwan, who won her second title in four starts this year at last week's LPGA Founders Cup. Tseng has 14 career LPGA victories and became the fastest LPGA player to win $8 million, doing so in 99 events over four years, one month and two days. Retired Mexican star Lorena Ochoa held the old mark of 115 events over four years, four months and 16 days. Sandra Gal of Germany is the defending champion of the event, the final tuneup for next week's first major championship of the season, the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Rancho Mirage. "This week is all about trying to prepare yourself as good as possible so can you go into next week with lots of energy and kind of stress-free," said World No. 3 Suzann Pettersen of Norway. World No. 2 Na Yeon Choi of South Korea, Japan's Ai Miyazato and reigning US Women's Open champion So Yeon Ryu of South Korea are also in the field.
ishikawa vows not to abandon Japan ORLAnDO AfP
KeY BiscaYNe: venus williams in action against Kimiko Date Krumm during the sony ericsson open at crandon Park tennis center. AfP ways tough to get that first match rhythm under your belt," Clijsters said. "When it comes down to my game I felt I wasn't quite going through my shots as I should have. "I was just trying to find that rhythm, but on the other hand maybe forgetting to still play aggressive tennis. But as I started to feel more comfortable with the conditions and being in
a match situation again I was hitting better, and that definitely showed in the second and third sets." Clijsters, who won at Miami in 2005 and 2010, skipped last week's Indian Wells tournament to rest her injured ankle, the latest in a list of ailments in the past year that has also included a bad shoulder, wrist and abdomen worries.
New US PGA Tour special temporary member Ryo Ishikawa plans on spending plenty of time at events in Japan even as he works towards being able to play a full schedule in America one day. The 20year-old Japanese sensation, speaking on the eve of his Thursday start at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, Florida, said he will not abandon playing in home events, at least in the near future. But in Tokyo, the Japanese daily Nikkan Sports reported that Ishikawa's camp had started "research" on a house where he would base himself in preparation for his "fullscale participation in the US tour next year." "Long term, yes, it's my dream to be playing the majority of events over here," Ishikawa said in Orlando. "But it wouldn't happen in the near future because the Japanese Tour helped me reach where I am. I'm really grateful for what I have in Japan. "For physical reasons, the time difference and geological differences, distance-wise, for my physical state, I think it's better to stay over here (in the US) and play. That would be the ideal situation. But in the near future, no."