Advantage Tennis Yearbook 2012

INSIDE:

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Roger Fede

GRAND SLAM YEARBOOK 2012

Vol. 16, 2012

Rs. 50

Editorial

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Leander Paes: Going Strong

38

AT Quiz

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India’s Talented Youngsters

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Aircel Chennai Open 2012

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Player of the Year Novak Djokovic: The Djoker Takes Centre Stage How Samantha Stosur Achieved Her Dream An interview with Paul Fein

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Aircel Chennai Open 2011 Main Draw Singles Main Draw Doubles

Rafael Nadal: The Second Coming

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Going for Gold: London 2012

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Temper Tantrums

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India at London 2012

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ATP / WTA Tour Calendar 2012

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Tennis Tournament Success: The Secrets to Match Practice

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ATP Rankings

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The Importance of Footwork in Tennis

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WTA Rankings

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Poster: Roger Federer

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2011 WTA Tour Final Results

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Li Na: The Rise of the Asian Tigress

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2011 ATP Tour Final Results

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AITA Rankings

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Asian Rankings

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Welcome to the sixteenth issue of Advantage Tennis. I hope that you enjoy reading this issue as much as you have enjoyed reading our earlier issues. As always, we have tried to improve with every issue to satisfy our readers expectations. The 2004 issue was our first all colour issue and all our issues thereafter have been in colour. Our aim is to improve and upgrade the quality and the content of the magazine with each new issue.

Photo: AT Bureau

Dear Readers,

Wimbledon and the US Open. Choosing the women’s Player of the Year was little more of a challenge as no player dominated the game. However, we chose Petra Kvitova as our Player of the Year as she won Wimbledon and six other WTA events. She currently holds the No.3 ranking in the world.

Those of you who are interested in receiving coaching tips from former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash should follow his advise in the article ‘Tennis Tournament Success: The Secrets to Match Practice’. There is also an article by Juan Carlos Ferrero, former No.1 and French Open champion who has written a wonderful coaching article titled ‘The Importance of Footwork in Tennis’.

Advantage Tennis is devoted to the cause of promoting and encouraging tennis as a sport in India by providing a high quality magazine at an affordable price. We hope that we have been able to provide you with a magazine worth its cause.

This issue includes an excellent interview with the winner of the 2011 US Open, Samantha Stosur of Australia. The interview gives us an insight into her career from being one of the many dedicated players on the circuit to joining the elite club of Grand Slam winners.

We have an article highlighting Novak Djokovic’s rise in becoming the most dominating player of 2011 ‘The Djoker Takes Centre Stage’. Another excellent article looks at the second coming of Rafael Nadal. Apart from his French Open win last year, he was unable to stop the dominance of Novak Djokovic. Yet another thought provoking article titled ‘Temper Tantrums’ discusses the leniency of tennis as a game compared to other sports and how some of the leading tennis players get away with their behaviour because of low fines and laxed norms.

Indian tennis continues to flourish with the achievements of Leander Paes who won three titles in 2011 and another three so far in 2012 including the Australian Open doubles title. As Leander says ‘if you are fit to train, you are young to play’.

The article titled ‘India’s Talented Youngsters’ emphasizes on the upcoming young talents of India. This article also features an interview with recently appointed National Coach, Henrik

At the 2011 French Open Photo: AT Bureau

We look forward to your continued readership and association with Advantage Tennis in the years to come.

The Aircel Chennai Open 2012 has also been covered in this issue. The only ATP event in India, it has provided a huge boost to the cause of promoting tennis in our country and has not only given the Indian tennis enthusiasts the opportunity of seeing world class tennis on their home turf, but have also given Indian players the chance to compete. With India currently hosting such an event, we have firmly placed ourselves on the map of world tennis.

The 2012 domestic and international tournament calendars and Top 50 Singles and Doubles Rankings of the ATP, WTA, Asian and AITA have been provided for the avid tennis followers. AT Quiz comes yet again for all our readers who are interested in testing their knowledge of tennis. With 2012 being the year of the Olympic Games, we have chosen the Olympics as the subject for the AT quiz.

With 1994 Wimbledon champion, Conchita Martínez of Spain Ekersund, who talks about his goals for Indian tennis.

The year 2012 will give an opportunity to many aspiring players to win medals in London. We have featured an article on the hopes and aspirations of Indian players at London 2012 as well as the top players of the world who are competing for Gold.

Novak Dojokovic, without a doubt is our choice for the men’s Player of the Year. It was the year in which he won three of the four Grand Slams including Australian Open,

My letter would not be complete without mentioning the following people for their support and belief in Advantage Tennis. I would like to thank Kamesh Srinivasan, Janella Rachel, Shreya Chakravertty, Vijay Parthasarathy, Deepti Patwardhan, Ruhi Batra, Smriti Sinha, Harinder Singh, Rajinder Arora, Aman Jaswal, my parents, my husband Amit Sood and my sons Jaisal & Arman.

Priya Nanki Singh Sood Editor-in-Chief

Cover photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc. Poster photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc. Official photographer for Advantage Tennis – Janella Rachal, USA

Vol. 16, 2012 Price Rs. 50

advantagetennis@rediffmail.com

Advantage Tennis is edited and published by Priya Nanki Singh Sood from Room No.305, Prakashdeep Building, Tolstoy Marg, New Delhi 110 001 India, Tel: 4312 0500. All rights reserved. Reproduction without written permission of the author/editor is strictly prohibited. Advantage Tennis invites tennis related articles, interviews, news items and photographs for publication, which can be sent to our above given address.

Designed and printed by ISHTIHAAR, New Delhi. Ph: 2373 3100 2

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Li Na holding the flag of the People’s Republic of China

Quiz AT

2012

Your favourite tennis magazine brings you yet another chance to test your knowledge of tennis. 2012 being the year of the London Olympic Games, we have chosen the Olympics as the subject for our quiz. Write the answers to the following questions on a sheet of paper and also write an attractive slogan (not more than seven words), fill in the coupon given below (no photocopies please) and attach it with your answer sheet. Your answers should reach us by 30th September 2012.

Advantage Tennis is my favourite tennis magazine because: Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Address:

Profession:

Which year did Leander Paes win the Bronze medal at the Olympics?

2.

Which country has won the most number of medals in Olympic history in tennis?

3.

Who won the first Gold medal in the history of Olympic tennis in 1896?

4.

When tennis returned as a medal sport in 1988, who won the men’s singles title?

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Which year did Steffi Graf win her Golden Grand Slam which included her Gold medal win at the Olympics?

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Who is the defending champion of the Men’s Gold medal in London 2012?

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In London 2012, a mixed doubles event will be officially included for the first time since which year?

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Who is the best all time performing player at the Olympic Games (not including 2012)?

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Which country won the most number of medals in Beijing 2008?

10. How many players competed in the tennis event in Beijing 2008?

11. Which two sisters have won an Olympic Gold in doubles?

Name:

Tel:

1.

12. In which event has Roger Federer won an Olympic Gold?

E-mail: The first five all correct entries will get a chance to win an Advantage Tennis T-shirt

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

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Player of the year

Petra Kvitová

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Player of the year

Novak Djokovic

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Novak Djokovic Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

The Djoker Takes Centre Stage Shreya Chakravertty

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iffering rhythms of tennis balls being thwacked about can be heard all around the courts at the All England Club, an intoxicating symphony mingling with the scent of rained-on grass. The buzz, for the moment, though, isn’t fixated on any particular tennis match. A particular bunch of autograph seekers is gazing expectantly at the terrace of the VIP area, where the unmistakable blond scruff of Boris Becker can be seen, seemingly oblivious to the adoring masses below. He sips on a beverage as he continues to be watched by the fans – some of them old enough to have watched him as a 17-year-old winning Wimbledon in 1985 and others who wouldn’t even have been embryos at that time. Their attention is soon interrupted by an elaborate operation at ground level — that of escorting Novak Djokovic to a practice court without letting anyone get too close for comfort.

The security guards cordon him off on each side while the Serbian walks, towel and kit in hand, his eyes on the ground while he walks at a quick pace, as cameras are whipped out and squeals emerge from the youngest of the lot. They didn’t know it then, but in just over a week, Djokovic’s name would join Becker’s on the list of those who held up the trophy at the most venerated Slam of all. The boy from Belgrade, who, along with his tennis shots, used to practice being the Wimbledon winner, posing with an imaginary trophy as a child, had been a name to reckon with on the tour since his early playing days, but the 6

lukewarm potential turned into a blazing spark only in 2011. Before that, derision was one of the common sentiments reserved for the Djoker, if not for his frequent ailments during matches then for his liking to become the protagonist of post-match entertainment. But while swishing imaginary tresses about in the manner of Maria Sharapova or picking at the seat of his pants as is the habit of Rafael Nadal made for a few good laughs, the ‘serious’ champions belonged to a level many notches above his own. In 2011, though, the master of the side show took centre stage.

Djokovic took apart records and opponents with equal ruthlessness, a term that cannot be applied to his personality — his penchant for mimicry and belting out songs hasn’t changed because of his champion status, but the difference is, it isn’t all that he’s known for now.

No imitations were needed, this one was the Real Deal. The winner of the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in 2011 dominated the ATP tour in a way no one would have thought possible the previous year, when every Slam seemed to have Roger Federer’s or Rafael Nadal’s name plastered all over. Those very men paid their tributes in admiration of a man who had their measure for

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

the most part of the season. The stunning crosscourt forehand to save matchpoint against Federer in their 2011 US Open semifinal had even the once-unbeatable Swiss at a loss for words. “For me, this is very hard to understand. How can you play a shot like that on match point? Maybe he’s been doing it for 20 years, so for him it was very normal. You’ve got to ask him,” he said, unable to understand just how that moment of magic had been conjured. Nadal, the fighter, raced around the court in all their seven meetings (all of them in tournament finals, including Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open), but it was Djokovic who walked away with victory each time. In Rafa’s words: “Probably the highest level of tennis that I ever saw.” That same assessment applied to the 2012 Australian Open final, where the two competitors strove to outdo each other in a 5 hour 53 minute battle of proportions truly epic – a word diluted by its much too frequent usage these days, but in this case, surely even Homer would agree. The momentum swung just as often as the tennis ball as each player fought back from a deficit and giving up was simply not one of the options. ‘The fighter’ is an epithet routinely applied to Nadal, but on January 29, the defending champion outlasted even that amazing level of tenacity, letting out a roar after victory was confirmed. Forced to revise his earlier declaration of “the best match I ever played” from the semifinal versus Murray to this battle for the ages, Djokovic later said it was indeed a pity the trophy couldn’t be shared.

Who would have thought that a tiny tennis dream with its beginnings in a mountain range in Serbia would reach such heights? Yugoslav tennis legend Jelena Gancic did, and she told young Novak’s parents the magic in his hands reminded her of a famous student of hers — Monica Seles.

Srdan and Dijana, running a fast food joint at the time, couldn’t quite fathom the extent of Gancic’s Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

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Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

impression of their son’s talent but ensured he would have the best training in tennis, crunching their finances together to send him to Nikola Pilic’s academy in Munich, Germany. They began dreaming his dreams too, and the story goes that when Djokovic was a 10-year-old, his father would declare to visitors to his pizzeria: “My Novak is going to be No. 1 in the world.”

At 19 years of age, the Djokovic family were in the process of hiring Marian Vajda to coach their son and when the trainer heard of the proud father’s ambition, he asked if that was a joke. That was 2006, and by the end of the year, Novak had cracked the top 20 from struggling in the bottomless ocean of top-100 players.

The next four years — 2007 to 2010 — saw consistent finishes as world No. 3 and while the talent was undeniable, the top-two territory was still a distance away. Towards the end of that period, though, everything had started to come together. The Davis Cup final victory in the Belgrade 8

Arena in December 2010 had Djokovic playing the part of athlete and motivator, urging the crowd, “Go and have a snack and a beer and come back in 15 minutes. You have to make noise to silence the French, we are at home and we have to make it count.”

Make it count they did as Victor Troicki defeated Michel Llodra in the final rubber, but as his team brought out razors and proceeded to shave their heads in an unusual show of post-victory merriment, perhaps even Djokovic didn’t realise that his celebrations had only just begun. The injection of self-belief and confidence would stay even after the high of team triumph in an individual sport wore off, a starting point for the ‘new Djokovic’ and, as he went about his work in the off-season in the routine way, following his dietician’s orders after it was discovered he was allergic to gluten-based foods, the vastly improved physical aspect was another vital component of his new avatar.

Beginning the new year with a thorough demolition of the perpetual

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

nearly-there-man Andy Murray in the final of the Australian Open, Djokovic went on an unbeaten streak of 43 matches, ended by Roger Federer in the semifinals of the French Open. The doubters expecting a downslide from there on would be proved wrong, though, as he went on to win the Big W, after which he took over as the world No. 1, and the US Open, finishing the year with a 70-6 record.

Tired and weary at the end of the season, being forced to retire in tears from Serbia’s Davis Cup semifinal against Argentina, a look back at that season should still cause a broad smile to break out on his face. The man whose 1984 season win-loss record he almost broke, John McEnroe (82-3), says the one of the most telling stats can be measured in his displays against Nadal, the Serb defeating his Spanish rival on every surface, even clay — Nadal’s fiefdom. “I’ve never seen Nadal look as if he doesn’t know what to do – and even on clay in Rome Djokovic made him look like that.

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Wimbledon was where he separated himself and took himself to a whole new level. He beat Nadal six times in one year and, considering the year Nadal had in 2010, that’s pretty hard to do,” says the American legend.

Even Pete Sampras, the veteran of 14 Slam wins, was forced to admit Djokovic washed away his skepticism with his near-unbeatable gameplan in the season. “I always thought Novak was a bit temperamental and would go through these lapses that would prevent him from winning majors,” Sampras said in an interview to the Palm Beach Post. “And now you look - he lost the first two sets against Roger and boom! He recovered within a couple of minutes. He’s got a short memory now. He’s progressed into this great champion. At least in my lifetime, the best [season] ever.”

McEnroe adds that, in his opinion, Djokovic has surpassed Agassi.

“Djokovic can do amazing things with the return,” he says. “He has been working so hard for years on his

flexibility and I remember thinking once years ago that it would really pay off in the future, but I couldn’t have imagined it would be such a huge advantage.”

With the 2012 Norman Brookes trophy clutched securely in his clasp, the new year began like the good times of 2011 never ended. In his gracious post-match speech after the Australian Open final, Nadal commended not just his infallible opponent on the day, but also the team that helped mould the Serb into the champion he is today. Igor Cetojevic wasn’t in the player box in Melbourne during the tournament, but it was his discovery of Djokovic’s gluten allergy that set him on his glittering path. Cetojevic, who is now working with Serbian football club Spartak Subotica, said in an interview that the search for a universal formula for success is a flawed concept. “Every one of us is a special case, whether we our top athletes or not. We all have our special weaknesses or winning attributes and

if this is the way you approach each athlete then there is a chance of creating the conditions that can get the best out of him or her,” said the doctor.

“Statistics have killed common sense really. I succeeded in seeing all pieces of the mosaic that needed to be put together to make Djokovic a winner.”

Asked in his post-match press conference whether he had any sympathy for Nadal, to be on the losing side of a match separated by the thinnest of strands, and Djokovic replied that he was well-versed with that situation: “I was in that position a couple of years ago, losing in semifinals and finals against him and Roger, so I know how it feels.” Not anymore he doesn’t, though. He’s dreaming big — of a career Slam, Olympic gold and the sustenance of his unbeatable aura.

And like that forehand he hammered past Rafa on match point at Melbourne Park, it’s all within reach. <

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Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

How Samantha Stosur Achieved Her Dream [ Interview © 2012, Paul Fein ] “We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving. And we all have some power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.”

— Louisa May Alcott After Samantha Stosur scored a shocking 6-2, 6-3 upset over the great Serena Williams in the 2011 US Open final, she confided, “My goal and dream since I started was to win a Grand Slam. Now to actually do it, it’s unbelievable.... I’m sure I’ll wake up tomorrow and say, ‘Did I actually win the US Open?’ I’ve wanted this moment my whole life.”

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

The unassuming, 27-year-old Australian recalled her long, tough road to the top, saying, “I’ve slept in train stations and stayed in dodgy hotels” early in her pro career. After her brilliant run to the 2010 French Open final where she was beaten by inspired underdog Francesca Schiavone, Stosur wondered if she would ever get another chance to win a major. After all, she had captured only two WTA Tour singles titles, and even she questioned her fighting spirit at times.

But the former doubles star, aided and encouraged by her coach, psychologist, manager, physiotherapist, strength and conditioning trainer and even a performance statistician analyst, kept believing. And that self-belief carried her to character-revealing three-set triumphs over Nadia Petrova and Maria Kirilenko, as well as overwhelming routs of No. 2 Vera Zvonareva and 13-time major champion Williams at Flushing Meadows.

In this candid interview, No. 6-ranked Stosur talks about how she finally achieved the dream of her life and hints at what the future may hold.

Stosur: With the 2011 US Open trophy

PF: After you won the US Open title for your first Grand Slam title, you talked about the adversity you faced early in your pro career, saying, “I’ve slept in train stations and stayed in dodgy hotels.” What do you remember about surviving those tough times?

SS: I think all players have to struggle through the early years of competing in smaller events, having no money, staying in bad hotels and eating at the cheapest restaurant you can find. It wasn’t like I was making a habit of sleeping in train stations, but there was one night in Japan where we had a long time to wait and rather than spend money on a hotel we slept on our bags. There were times when I questioned how good I could become. But I was lucky enough to have good coaches and a family who continued to support me. Tennis is not easy—nearly every week of the year we lose, and then have to get back out on the training courts to try to play better the following week.

PF: Please tell me about the members of Team Stosur and exactly how they’ve helped you.

SS: My coach David Taylor has been an incredible help and support for the past few years. David has given me a great understanding of my game, what makes me effective, and a better understanding of how opponents can exploit my weaknesses.

David is highly driven and has a knowledge of the women’s game that few have. Three years ago David and I started putting together a team of people we believed could make me realize my potential. I have a unique arrangement with a team of people who all work for Tennis Australia, including my fitness trainer, Narelle Sibte, who has helped me become stronger and quicker, for longer periods of time. My manager Paul Kilderry has supported me for the last few years and makes sure all I have to think about is playing tennis. My sports psychologist, Ruth Anderson in Australia, has been a huge help, as well as my physiotherapist Anne Marie Montgomery. Darren McMurtrie watches countless hours of matches to help in all areas of performance analysis.

Everybody does their little bit, and it’s great to share in my success with people who’ve been there through the highs and lows. Through this process we have all become friends, and it was very exciting to celebrate at the US Open together.

PF: How has your sports psychologist helped you?

SS: Ruth has been fantastic in providing me

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with tools and techniques to help me think more clearly under pressure. It’s also nice to have somebody whom I can call and chat with when I’m away. I came into this year with high hopes of playing well and the first six months didn’t go as planned. [Stosur didn’t get past the third round at the Australian and French Opens and Wimbledon.] Ruth was instrumental in helping me get my confidence back at this time.

PF: In Australian Tennis Magazine in 2009, Patrick Rafter wrote, “Sam is already a great role model to the younger players, and I think they will continue to be spurred on by her future successes.” In what ways are you a great role model?

SS: That was nice of Pat to say, as growing up in Queensland he was one of my idols. I still have great memories of Pat winning the US Open [in 1997 and 1998] and my parents allowing me to stay home from school to watch. It's a little hard for me to say why I’m a great role model to kids, but I would like to think that I’m very dedicated to becoming the best player I can be and pride myself on working hard to achieve this. If I am able to inspire young girls in Australia to take up tennis and chase their dreams, then I will be very happy.

PF: When you were seven years old, your house was destroyed in a flood, so your family moved from Australia’s Gold Coast to Adelaide. How did that family tragedy affect you?

SS: It was a very tough time for my mother and father as they had three young children and having to move us all across the country and start again was not easy. I do not remember it all so well. But this year [in January] when we had such devastating floods in Australia, I did have an appreciation for what people were going through.

PF: You had three highly memorable matches at the 2011 US Open that revealed your evolution as a tennis player. In the third round, you pulled out a 7-6, 6-7, 7-5 victory over Nadia Petrova in the longest women’s match (3 hours, 16 minutes) in US Open history. What sticks in your mind most about that close-as-can-be marathon match?

SS: That was one of the toughest matches of my career. We were both playing some great tennis, and there was never much difference between us in the match. As the match went on, the crowd built up and got louder and louder, and it was one of those great New

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

York City atmospheres. To get through that match was a great mental win for me as I was not able to finish it in the second set after having chances to. Then to come back from 4-2 down in the deciding set was a big mental lift for me. I knew that I was fit, so I just had to keep reminding myself of that and keep believing I could get through.

PF: In the fourth round you played a thrilling, record-setting 17-15 tiebreaker in which you had five match points and Maria Kirilenko had six set points during your eventual 6-2, 6-7, 6-3 victory.

Afterward, you confided, “I haven’t always been known for my competitiveness out there, to really fight hard. It’s definitely very rewarding.

I know now I can do it.” Would you please elaborate.

SS: Playing another tough match after Petrova was not ideal, but certainly within those 48 hours I had two of the most memorable matches of my career. Those two matches proved a lot to me about fighting and doing whatever it takes to win. Both matches provided incredible mental challenges for me, and to come through gave me great confidence. Tennis is a tough sport, and sometimes I have had to battle myself on court to stay focused and keep believing in myself. I think all players battle themselves at times. It can be tough out there with things going against you. The thing I was most proud of in those matches was rebounding from all the adversity of not finishing them off and still being able to find a way to win.

PF: It was a shame Serena’s disgraceful tirades took the focus away somewhat from your spectacular play in your 6-2, 63 US Open final triumph. Now that you have had some time to put it all in perspective, what are your various thoughts about your decisive upset over the greatest player of the century?

SS: The two weeks in New York were so much fun! And to share the victory with my team who have always believed in me made it all the more special. If I had written the script myself, I could not have dreamed of beating such a great champion in the final on such a big occasion in New York City. I’ve been able to watch the match point a few times on TV, and it still brings a smile to my face. I knew going into the match that I had a chance to win, but to be able to play my best tennis on the biggest stage was incredibly rewarding. I was very eager to finish the last Grand Slam of the year well because the previous Slams [majors] had not gone well at

PF: When I asked an Aussie tennis authority about you, she said, “Sam loves her family, her dog, football and would spend more time in Australia if she could.” Would you please tell me what and who you love most.

SS: I love being an Australian and am very proud of that. Being away from family and friends is not easy, but I feel incredibly fortunate to play the sport I love and make it my job. I love being fit and living a healthy lifestyle. In Australia we’re very lucky we can have a healthy outdoors lifestyle. I really enjoy going to the beach and having a nice coffee at a café, and I always enjoy a nice Japanese meal.

PF: You have one of the most sculpted and fit physiques on the women’s tour.

Specifically, what do you do off the court to achieve that?

SS: When I was sick with Lyme disease, it made me realize how much I wanted to become as fit as possible and make sure I get the absolute most out of my ability. I love getting into the gym, and my trainer always creates programs that mix in various types of training which makes it fun and interesting. I sometimes do things like boxing, stair running, paddle boarding, as well as weights and core stability exercises. The past couple of years I’ve been working on becoming more powerful and explosive. I’m now starting to see the rewards for the past few years of consistent hard work off the court.

PF: Let’s talk technique. Two years ago Patrick Rafter wrote: “Although she has great success in doubles, it doesn’t mean she can volley…. She doesn’t have the skills to finish off the point and makes too many errors.” Interestingly, in your US Open semifinal victory over Angelique Kerber you won 27 of 29 net approach points. This year Tennis Channel analyst Corina Morariu commented: “One glaring weakness is her backhand return of serve.” Do you agree with these analyses?

SS: I don’t completely disagree with either comment and am continually working with my coach on my volleys and return of serves.

When my game is on, I can execute both areas very well, but at times my volleys and return have let me down. Over the last couple of years I’ve become a much more consistent player and the highs and lows in my game have flattened out. I know I have

Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

all. I started to get my confidence up during the summer [when she reached the Toronto final], and then it all culminated on September 11th.

the ability to volley well, and with better movement I’ve been able to make improvements in this area. My backhand has also improved a great deal in the last two years, so hopefully I can continue to get better in these areas and become a more complete player.

PF: Although you’ve won only three tournaments in your career, you have many assets: a terrific serve, powerful forehand, athleticism, superb fitness, experience, and the great confidence coming from being a Grand Slam champion. How do you predict you will fare in 2012, a year that has five prestigious titles, including the Olympics?

SS: I feel I’m well-placed to have an exciting year in 2012. I’ve had a nice break and am training hard now in preparation for the Aussie summer. I’m excited to play in Australia and would love to play some great tennis in Melbourne during the Australian Open. Next year will be exciting with a lot to look forward to. I have learned so much about myself in 2011, and I can draw on those experiences and hopefully continue to push up the rankings.

PF: Since there were four different Grand Slam singles champions in 2011, and there is no longer one dominant player and you have excelled on all surfaces, can you — will you — take over the top spot, No. 1, in 2012?

SS: I believe I can become No. 1 in the world, but so much has to happen between now and then that it’s not worth dwelling on too much. I’ve shown at my best I can compete with everybody in the world, but to become No. 1 will take an extremely consistent year.

Next year has many challenges, and with the Olympics as well, there is so much to play for.

To become the No. 1 player in the world, even for one day, would be a lifelong dream.

Paul Fein has received more than 30 writing awards and authored three books, Tennis Confidential: Today’s Greatest Players, Matches, and Controversies; You Can Quote Me on That: Greatest Tennis Quips, Insights, and Zingers; and Tennis Confidential II: More of Today’s Greatest Players, Matches, and Controversies. Fein is also a USPTA-certified teaching pro and coach with a Pro-1 rating, former director of the Springfield (Mass.) Satellite Tournament, a former top 10ranked men’s open New England tournament player and No. 1-ranked Super Senior player in New England. <

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Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Rafael Nadal The Second Coming Vijay Parthasarathy

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round this time last year Rafael Nadal was still regarded as Roger Federer’s heir in the greatness stakes but over the past twelve months or so his position as his generation’s finest has been threatened unexpectedly by Novak Djokovic – a man who must, by sport’s increasingly absurd standards, be regarded as something of a late bloomer.

Nadal, six-time French Open champion and still a little short of 26, has been around for so long that it feels like he was a contemporary of Federer’s although the latter is really over four years older, which counts in these matters as a generation gap. So used have we grown to the notion of prodigies – first there was Bjorn Borg, then John McEnroe, and then the forever underachieving Marat Safin – that Nadal’s rise to fame as a teenager (on the back of a win in the decisive match of a Davis Cup final against the United States no less) didn’t seem as much of an aberration. And then the Spaniard kept winning: match after match, tournament after tournament.

Federer, his magnificent rival, is often hailed as the greatest player of all time.

But how is it that if he was just another exquisitely gifted kid in a cohort full of high achievers, Nadal came to have a decisive edge in their match-ups? 18-10 in all matches across a variety of surfaces, and 13-6 in finals, 8-2 in Grand Slam matches including 6-2 in finals is not merely convincing; some would holds those truths to be self-evident.

We have taken his mastery of clay for granted, and for so long that it is only now, when he faces his first serious challenge in Djokovic, that we can c o m p re h e n d t h e s c o p e o f h i s

achievements. The youngest man to complete a career Slam, the longest to serve apprentice as the world number two to one man, Nadal has cut enough notches to merit entry to the ‘greatest of all’ debate on his own steam.

Which is why it is ironic that at the time of writing this essay, he arrives in Paris this time expecting more questions than answers. Having lost exactly one match at Roland Garros since he made his debut there in 2005, Nadal must be accorded the respect due him and anointed favorite to nip a seventh in eight years.

But these days the Spaniard must wake up feeling cheated of his crown, one he held for barely two years. Had he belonged to another generation – and this is of course severely moot – he might have clung to the throne for a decade.

Since early 2004, only three men, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have held the top ranking: an astonishing state of affairs in these unstable times. Now, sandwiched between Djokovic – a player on a red hot streak that has carried on long enough to qualify as dominant, if not invincible – and Federer – tennis’ second-longest reigning monarch of all time – Nadal no doubt feels the pressure to remain relevant, all the while having to buttress his claims to all-time greatness.

Even as Federer slowly fades from our immediate consciousness and passed into the role of the tour’s elder statesman, Nadal’s main rival for the title this year, Djokovic, has sounded his bugle with a title in Australia. The then-two time Serbian Slam winner truly hit his stride last year with victories over Nadal in consecutive Master’s Series finals. He attributed his astonishing success over

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Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

the rest of the season to an improved diet; whatever the reason, in the grand scheme of things those performances were portents for the future. It must cause Nadal considerable alarm that he has failed to exploit any gaps in the Serbian’s improved game. It would be an

subsequently be emulated by Djokovic in 2011 – and rounded off the career Slam. Nadal is where Federer was a few seasons ago: having done more than enough to rank highly among the greatest of all-time, his standing as the preeminent tennis player of his generation is already under threat.

But he is not one to whine. Nadal’s game is extraordinarily physical and takes a heavy toll on his body but his mental toughness and his ability to grind out victories from behind in the big matches are legendary.

Given that he is naturally right-handed, it is astonishing to see how much he has improved his lefty serve in recent times. Over the years his second serve especially, once an easy target even on his favorite clay courts, has grown into something more cunning; he backs it up with outstanding anticipation and great reaction shots. The reluctance to approach the net early on in his career has been replaced by a reassuring feel for t h e v o l l e y. T h i s confidence, first gained on the increasingly slower courts of Wimbledon, has translated onto other surfaces. Over the years, Nadal has erased weaknesses one by one and willed himself to become an allcourt player, which distinguishes him from the great Spanish clay-courters of the past.

As any serious tennis follower would know, his long-term gameplan against Federer has proved remarkably successful: whip loopy forehands to Federer’s backhand, force Federer to aim closer and closer to the tramlines. When

The youngest man to complete a career Slam, Nadal has cut enough notches to merit entry to the ‘greatest of all’ debate on his own steam. understatement to say that Nadal has tried everything, including throwing in a few moonballs, and yet, is finding the situation tough.

If anything, he has every reason to feel aggrieved. He has had to work exceptionally hard to earn his position.

He has overcome everything from banged-up knees to his parents’ divorce.

Just two years ago he won three of the four Majors – a performance that would 16

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you compare Federer and Nadal at their peak (which is all that matters), it appears Nadal’s bloody-mindedness ultimately settles the issue. Nadal has always been more threatening in Wimbledon finals against Federer than Federer ever was in French Open finals against Nadal. He has overcome everything from banged-up knees to his parents’ divorce. This is a man who sticks to a singular purpose. If indeed Federer were the greatest, how is it that he is only second-best at the art of mental disintegration in his own era?

The healthy competition between Borg and McEnroe, full of mutual respect, may come closest to teaching us something about how the FedererNadal debate might turn out. McEnroe, an old style serve-and-volleyer, relied on his skill and deftness of touch much in the manner of Federer (whose volleying, it must be noted, while exquisite is still not as deft as McEnroe’s). And, like Borg, Nadal has triumphed over the limitations of a primarily baseline game to enjoy significant success at Wimbledon while holding a tight rein on Paris.

In his autobiography, Serious, McEnroe writes that he gradually lost some of his own motivation after Borg retired prematurely in 1982, having won 11 Slams by the age of 25. It is hard to estimate if Federer’s own dipping levels have impacted Nadal; there are so many factors and complications to that subject that it deserves its own essay. Suffice to say it may just be that as is the convention with these things, one champion has been overtaken by a younger, fitter horse. Djokovic at any rate appears to have Nadal’s measure for the moment.

Nadal probably has enough in the tank to win a few more biggies: he still needs six Major trophies to overhaul Federer’s 16, and ambition is a potent drug for champions. On the other hand, just as he finally caught up with Federer, others are catching up with him.

As has proven the case these past couple of seasons, Djokovic has transcended his previous incarnation and emerged as Nadal’s new nemesis.

Once frail in body and spirit, today he stands among the tour’s fittest. As a five-

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

time Grand Slam winner Djokovic is experienced; he lost to Federer last year in a riveting semifinal that ultimately prevented him from collecting all four majors in the same year. Think about it: this is a feat that has now eluded three amazing players these past eight years by a rat’s whisker. It says something about the standards of contemporary men’s tennis that Andy Murray has not even entered this conversation.

In Nadal’s favor, the slow clay surface that regularly wears out the best will test Djokovic’s once-suspect fitness levels to the limit. Winning all those matches since late last year has given him enormous confidence but like all good things, the confidence must ebb eventually, just as Nadal finally lost in 2009 to the relatively unheralded Robin Soderling.

If Djokovic does go on to dethrone Nadal in Paris, we may witness another change of the guard. Nadal may derive consolation from knowing it is oddly fitting. Just as Nadal announced his arrival on the scene by defeating Roddick in the 2005 Davis Cup final, Djokovic proclaimed his resurgence by carrying Serbia to victory in the same competition in December 2010.

But it’s too early for Nadal to be thinking of his legacy. While Nadal has lost seven consecutive times to Djokovic at the time of writing, he has seemed incredibly assured against Federer. And on clay very few top players pose a threat to his muscling dominance even if he has stumbled occasionally against lesser players on other surfaces.

There is cause for concern but all is not lost. Nadal has much going for him; now it is merely a matter of peaking at the right time. Another win at Roland Garros and perhaps that 16-14 advantage he currently holds over Djokovic will start looking even healthier. A seventh title in Paris will also put him over Bjorn Borg there and on par with him in the all-time Slam stakes. As these things go, that’s not bad company to keep.

Nadal would however appreciate the chance to break away from the competition and reassert himself. It is hard to say if his knees will hold on for much longer; the old problems are rearing their head again and it hardly

Extraordinary mental toughness

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Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

seems likely, given Nadal’s attrition rate, that his career should enjoy the longevity that marked those of Andre Agassi or McEnroe. A proposal he made – that the tour ought to switch to a two-year ranking points system, with a view to reducing stress on top players and keeping them fitter over longer periods – was met with cynicism and the criticism that it would keep younger talent from rising up the ranks swiftly.

Sport is one of those modern absurdities that ages people before their time. Given their ginger physical condition top athletes must sometimes wake up feeling sore as a sixty-year-old. But who knows: another title in Paris and we might see the resurgence, the second coming, of arguably the greatest tennis-playing lefthander of any period. And what a welcome sight that would be, for if there is anyone who deserves the luxury of an Indian summer, it is this man. <

With the 2011 French Open trophy

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Temper Tantrums

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Smriti Sinha

John McEnroe

S

ome 25 seconds are left for the third quarter to end in a close NBA game between the Jazz and Mavericks when promising youngster Derrick Favors hits the basketball in the stands. Right at the start of the shortened 2012 season, not only did his team, Utah, lose the game with an agonisingly close 94-91 margin, Favors left Dallas with $25,000 less in his bank account because of the ball

offence. Some months later, despite a broken nose and concussion, the NBA slapped a $40,000 fine on Kobe Bryant for not fulfilling his media commitments. It left the Lakers star wryly remarking: “I guess you are not allowed to be sick.”

Move back in time, and across continents. Cricket. Bridgetown.

India vs West Indies second Test.

Pakistan umpire Asad Rauf raises a

reluctant finger, pulls his hand down slightly but raises it again to indicate Suresh Raina has been caught by forward short-leg fielder Adrian Barath. For shaking his head disapprovingly, letting out a scream looking skywards and swinging his bat while walking off the crease, Raina is fined 25% of his match fee for “showing dissent.”

In another sport played with a ball,

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however, throwing it out of the stadium is standard practice, one that will only invoke a warning. And if you are too unlucky, you may get a point penalty, one point and nothing more for throwing equipment around. Yes, we are talking tennis.

And somewhere, Derrick Favors would be wondering why he didn’t pick up the racquet instead of aiming for the hoop.

March 2012. Indian Wells. First round. One of the most famous nonGrand Slam tournaments. Michael Llodra is playing Ernests Gulbis. The Frenchman hears some continuous harmless cheering from the stands.

“Go Ernie,” a woman is shouting.

Llodra is inexplicably furious. He stares at the fan and calls her a “putain chinoise.” It takes some time for the woman, who is there with her husband and brother, to grasp that it means a Chinese whore in French.

Llodra went on to direct more anger at her and called her Chinese again along with some other profanities.

The Korean-American mother from California was understandably hurt because of the way an identity was forced on to her because of her looks, and despite the tournament director’s promise of a personal apology from Llodra, he never called.

The charges were proved against the 31-year-old, and the woman was told he has been given an official reprimand but it was not sufficient for invoking a sincere response from Llodra even later. “My words were not aimed at China. I love Chinese. I can totally make love to a Chinese girl…” he told a Chinese journalist before the ATP supervisor cut him off.

Only recently, Liverpool footballer Luis Suarez was handed an eightmatch ban after he was found guilty of making racist comments against Patrice Evra. Alas, tennis fans will not be able to cite such an equivalent as the ATP decided to pat Llodra’s back for his racist slur with a paltry $2,500 instead of setting an example with a tough punishment. As if avoiding bad publicity for its players is more important than making sure at least the demeaned spectator receives an 22

apology, it was reported that the ATP kept Llodra away from all Englishlanguage media at the tournament.

Everything right from audible obscenities to racquet abuse to unsportsmanlike behavior in tennis seems to be worth only players’ change money. One can get away with arguing with referees, verbal abuse, hurling balls at the chair, even comparing them to Saddam Hussein.

Consider this: At the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, while losing a fourth round match, Dmitry Tursunov slammed a ball in the direction of the umpire’s chair, who was convinced that the Russian tried to hit him. He also called Fergus Murphy, the chair, “an idiot” and compared him to Saddam Hussein: “Just because he’s been doing it for many years doesn’t mean he’s doing a good job. Saddam Hussein has been in Iraq for a while, but not too many people agree with his point of view.”

For this lesson in contemporary politics, the International Tennis Federation asked him to part with $5,000. That’s it. Shell out approximately the amount of money that you would have earned even if you were playing the qualifying draw of Wimbledon, and you could even get away by calling officials anything you fancy.

And it is not that only the fringe players in the sport, who have comparatively less LIVE cameras following their every move, get away with objectionable behavior without the disparity between their offence and its fine coming into public glare.

The Federers and the Djokovics have all done enough to invoke penalties from the ITF at majors but the governing body has made sure they were as minimal as would be required to avoid them from snowballing into a controversy. World number one Serbian Novak Djokovic has had to loosen up his wallet at four grand slams in 2010-2011. However, astonishingly, those four instances which included everything from ball abuse, racquet abuse and court-side coaching were together worth only $4,000.

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However, no big name in men’s tennis has had officials taking out the rulebook as many times as Serena Williams in recent years. In fact, in the last six years at grand slam events, Serena’s fine – $104,500 – is more than double of what the other top nine women offenders have accumulated in this period.

The buzz in women’s game whether one likes it or not, comes from the Williams. Irrespective of the fact that 2011 gave women’s tennis first-time grand slam champions, the average sports fan will not switch on his TV or set an alarm to watch Li Na or Petra Kvitova – and even fewer would know that she has a Wimbledon title to her name.

What the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena have done – with 48 majors between them – is great for the sport’s popularity, for the fans and for filling stadiums across the world. But what happened at the 2011 US Open final makes one wonder if that should exempt them from following basic codes of conduct and allow them to bully opponents and umpires alike.

At her home Slam in September, Serena took to the court in her marquee match of the season after missing almost a year on the tour with a bizarre foot injury followed by a life-threatening illness. Her opponent, Australian Samantha Stosur with more of a reputation for playing good doubles was hardly the favourite to win her first major at the US Open final. And playing her on a comeback trail, Serena Williams had promised to win the title for Americans on a day as somber as the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

However, it didn’t seem that that spirit stayed with her throughout the match.

Facing break point on her serve in the first game of the second set, Serena hit an inside-out forehand and immediately shouted ‘Come on.’ At that point the ball was still alive on Stosur’s court and she even managed to get her hand to it. Greek chair umpire Eva Asderaki gave the point against Serena, according to the ‘intentional hindrance’ rule because

week’s wages recently but the USTA found the tirade’s worth only 45 seconds of their poster girl’s court time who made $1.4 million from the US Open.

Interestingly, in this tournament Serena was still on a two-year probation period at majors due to a major offence in her last appearance at Flushing Meadows when she had verbally abused a lineswoman simply because she was incensed at a footfault call. The 2009 US Open is probably less remembered for Belgian Kim Clijsters glorious comeback and m o r e f o r Serena’s “I’m f***ing going to take this f***ing ball and shove it down your f***ing throat, you hear that? I swear to God,” rant at a lineswoman.

Red cards and match bans serve a function in football – of reminding the player that they are not above the sport or its officials. In cricket, there is no scope of discussion with the umpire leave apart swearing at them. But Serena Williams despite a hefty fine, even such an extreme offence did not incur any ban on Serena. In fact, when was the last time after John McEnroe’s era that anyone remembers any ban in tennis? She is perhaps citing the McEnroes and the Andre Agassis when she tries to justify her action with a: “people have said much worse” statement.

And it is incidents like these that irk a follower of the game. Tursunov gets $5,000 for an oblique reference to Saddam Hussein and Serena gets $2,000 for directly calling the umpire

a hater and a loser? The inconsistency of the fines then is worse than the nominal penalties itself. Here is a cue: David Nalbandian was fined $8,000 at the 2012 Australian Open for allegedly throwing water at a dopecontrol official. Here’s the catch – he denied doing it, called it an injustice and is appealing the sanction.

This is probably where the tennis organisers need to step in and decide whether fairness to everyone associated with the sport is more important than encouraging a star p l a y e r ’s t a n t r u m s . S h o u l d a Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

she had screamed before the point was legally over but she did not look like she was in a mood to comprehend what just happened.

“Aren’t you the one who screwed me last time over here? … Yeah you are. You have it out for me?” she said to the chair.

The fact that Serena obviously made an error in recognising that the umpire who booked her in her last US Open final was someone else can be overlooked but how can one fail to notice that she perhaps takes to the court with an attitude that anyone who dares displease her will warrant a mouthful – umpires included.

Her unsportsmanlike behaviour did not end there. A bit unsettled by what was going on, Stosur lost the following service game and this was Serena’s cue to show her bullying nature again. With her racquet acting like an extended finger, she threateningly directed it at the chair.

And unaware that courtside microphones were broadcasting her personal tirade at the chair to the whole world, she continued in the changeover: “If we ever walk down the same hallway, you look the other way because you are totally out of control, that’s what you are ... totally out of control ... you are a hater ... you are so unattractive inside ... such a loser ... we were in America last time I checked. Don’t look my way ... I said don’t look my way.”

Serena may be the winner of 13 grand slams singles titles but with her on-court behaviour, she made sure that even in her straight sets loss, she took the limelight away from firsttime major winner Stosur. What the United States Tennis Association did by penalising her $2000 for the berating monologue was much worse, as if they are trying to set an example that talking like that to an umpire is all right. Or as Chris Evert, fellow American with five more grand slams than Williams and far more exemplary behaviour, said: “it’s (just) dinner for Serena.”

For a disciplinary issue within the club, Manchester City fined their striker Mario Balotelli his entire

passionate fan receive an apology for a racist remark or should a Llodra hop from Indian Wells to Miami without acknowledging his mistake?

Despite getting numerous chances to apologise in the post-match conference after her loss to Stosur, Serena dodged each time with answers defying normal logic, only saying: “I guess I’ll look it up on YouTube (later).” And you will too if you haven’t already but it seems the governing bodies are looking in the other direction. <

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Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Tennis Tournament Success The Secrets to Match Practice

Petra Kvitová

Pat Cash: Wimbledon champion 1987

D

o you want to know the guaranteed fastest way to improve your tournament success?

Practice matches! It’s the simple truth. Hone your skills through serious practice matches and you will see improved tournament success.

Don’t expect to win a Grand Slam by only playing a few relaxed practice games here and there though. The key to achieving real success lies in your ability to have consistent match practice with the right mindset.

“I attribute much of my success, especially during my early years leading up to my junior Wimbledon win, to the amount of practice matches I played” Playing practice matches may seem obvious but it is often neglected – especially at tennis academies around 24

the world. Keep this in mind when looking for a tennis coach or academy. If your coach or academy is not organising practice matches at least a few times a week you need to take matters in to your own hands and find someone to play against. It’s also a sign that you may need to find a better coach or academy.

Now, if you’re thinking to yourself “Damn I haven’t been playing practice matches consistently, I’m in trouble for my next tournament!” don’t worry. Practice matches become even more important the closer you get to a tournament. So, if you have one week before your event, get out there and play at least 2 - 3 times. Use your limited time to your advantage.

Researchers have found that time constraints helps people focus on

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their work and produce better results.

The same principle applies to tennis.

So pick up the phone or go to your club and find someone to play as soon as possible.

“Ok we get it Pat, practice matches are important” I hear you say, but not all practice matches are the same.

Smacking the ball around while you have a chat between games does not get the same results as playing a serious practice match while concentrating on your game plan. All practice matches are not created equal! If you are not taking the practice match seriously you might as well be hitting against the wall.

The more authentic and realistic you can make the practice match the better.

Concentration, playing under pressure, thinking time between points, and

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Roger Federer

working to execute a game plan is what it’s all about. If you cannot do this during a practice match, I promise you won’t be able to do it consistently in a real tournament match.

“But Pat, it’s hard to take practice matches seriously when nothing is on the line.” I know it is, so here are a few tips and tricks to help you simulate a real tournament match: Place a bet with your partner. The type of bet is not important – as long as something is on the line you will trick yourself into taking it more seriously. Use psychology to your advantage.

Play someone you don’t like. This will make sure the practice match is tense and full of pressure. It will also force you to fight hard. “No way I’m loosing to that guy!”

Get someone important to you to watch. Your parents, girlfriend/ boyfriend, coach or friend. As long as it’s someone you respect, admire or want to impress. Having someone important there will make you up your game. You don’t want to waste their time right?

These are just a few ideas. If they don’t work for you, find something that does. Get creative if you have to.

The important thing is to get as close to real tournament play as possible.

Like I said earlier, practice matches become more important the closer you get to the event. Make sure you get a minimum of 3 sessions in before you play your tennis tournament.

Ok so you understand that match practice is important to your tournament success and you realise

that you need to take it seriously in order for it to be effective. Now you need to go out there and find someone to play against. This should be an easy step but for some reason many tennis players (especially juniors) find excuses to get out of it.

“I can’t find anyone to play with”, “everyone is busy or away” or “I get enough match practice during tournaments” are some of the common excuses I have heard. 99% of the time, unless you are injured, there is no excuse for not getting out on the court to play a competitive practice match between tournaments.

Now I don’t want to sound like an old man but when I was a junior I would try and play at least 2 practice matches a day. I would get up at 5 am in the morning to play once before

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2. G e t y o u r c o a c h t o organise practice matches for you. As far as I’m concerned, this is part of your academy or coaches job and should not be a problem.

3. If all else fails, go to different clubs and ask strangers if they want to play or know someone who does.

If you listen to the advice in this article your tennis game will improve through the roof as you consistently get the right type of match practice.

So what are you waiting for?

Get out there and get better!

Do you play enough practice matches before a tournament? Do you find it hard to focus during practice matches? Let me know on: facebook.com/PatCashTennis @TheRealPatCashgplus.to/ PatCash <

Victoria Azarenka

Visit the official Pat Cash website to learn: The secrets to more power and accuracy What your tennis coach doesn’t want you to know How to prevent injury Proven 3-step process to getting in to the zone How to deal with pressure Professional technique and analysis How to outsmart a stronger opponent You’ll learn the secrets of the pro’s and more for free!

Visit www.patcash.co.uk and supercharge your tennis today!

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Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

school and once after. It was my only real form of practice for years. If I hadn’t organised to hit with someone before hand, I would go the club and ask everyone there is they wanted to play. If no one did, I took the buss or my coach would take me to a different club where I would challenge complete strangers. That is how I got good at tennis. That is the dedication you need to become a champion whether it’s tennis, cricket or football.

All great players have that motivation and drive to get better.

Now I’m not saying you need to get up at 5 am before school to go practice. The point is that you need to dig deep and force yourself to find as many people to play against as possible. If you don't know how or find it difficult here are 3 things you can try: 1. Use your tennis network. Call everyone you know and tell them you need to practice. If they can’t play with you, ask if they know someone else, get their number and call them.

Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

The Importance of Footwork in Tennis

T

o begin this article I would like to emphasize that I consider myself like a player who put special attention on the footwork as the rest of my partners in the Spanish team.

Technical, fitness movement and the psychological aspects are not only the main part of this sport but the full combination of all of them.

This is something quite good considered in the place I train since I was a child and which is, since 2003, using my name: the Juan Carlos Ferrero – Equelite Sport Academy. I

Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Juan Carlos Ferrero

have been training here since I was 12 with my current coach, Antonio Martínez Cascales and, from the opening, this Academy has been focused in producing the future tennis stars. For sure you know a lot of them like Nicolás Almagro, Guillermo García-López, David Ferrer, Maria Sharapova, Justine Henin, etc. All of them have been following the Spanish method, the one which is giving us so many victories and which makes the players formed in Spain to be in the top of the ATP ranking.

What can we consider footwork?

The footwork are the movement that y our body and feet have to make in order to hit the ball in the best position possible and in the best technical position possible.

Position and movement of your feet during the hit will affect all your body.

A good footwork uses to mean a stable position to hit the ball in the best place. Players who are not focus on this part of the game, with a bad position during the stroke will not have a comfortable position and,

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Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

because of this, the stroke can be not as good as it is hoped.

In addition, this footwork is not only based on long displacements but in a good adjustment in the final steps, doing them shortly and faster than the other. As in the brain, a part of it is in charge of the big movements and other part of doing them as perfect as possible.

A good footwork, with a good performance, is an important key for the game. It makes us reach the ball before, hitting it better and coming back to the first position earlier. This is translated into a faster reaction for the next stroke of our opponent. These are some of the reasons that not only me but the rest of the Spanish players and the ones training day by day at my Academy in Spain decide to focus a lot of hours of training per day –in our case at Equelite around 7- in good footwork accompanied per the rest of the technical improvements, fitness seasons and care of our psychologist.

For good footwork, with no doubt, it is so important to have a good performance which will help you to keep the same tennis level during the whole match and not only during the first games. When you start to be tired, you can see a lot of players who can move badly, with not a good accuracy and who will not come back quickly to the first position to get ready for the next hit of the other player.

Different kinds of footwork Like it is normal, you cannot move in the same way when you are running forward to get a drop shot, forehand, stroke to the angle of the serve, coming back to the first position, etc. Because of this, these are some of the rules I use to use in my game: l When you have to run to hit a forehand or backhand, the movement to go to the ball consists in running to the ball, adjust your steps on the last meters and shorten the length of the movements. After this, you will have to come back to the first position with lateral steps. l When we have to hit a ball far of the body, running forward to get a drop shot or for getting angled balls in the service box: the beginning uses to be from the first position in the base line, in a split-step, we have to turn the body to the address of the ball and we will go to the ball starting with the foot which is nearer to the ball running with long steps and quickly. Once we are close to the ball, in order to make the best adjustments, we will use short steps to measure better the distance to the ball and make the best hit possible even in the hardest situations.

David Ferrer 28

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As I have been saying before, it is not only important to make the best placement to hit the ball but also having the best performance to come back to the initial position in order to wait for the next ball. Because of this, we can use two of the most useful recuperation movements: l With crossed steps. We can do just one when we are close to the initial position or even more if it is further.

At the moment we are close to the middle of the court,

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

it will be time to move laterally and finish the movement with a split-step before running to the next ball. In addition, we have to start the recuperation with the foot which is further to the centre of the court and crossing it ahead of the body. Doing this, we will get more space and will recover faster the position. l With lateral steps: We can use this movement when we hit the ball which is in the nearby of our initial position and we have just to adjust with small lateral steps.

Remember, if you use this movement, we cannot go jumping but as close to the floor as possible in order not to lose time in the air.

In addition, it is also important to remember that, for good footwork it is necessary to have an excellent performance on your legs and they should always be flexed and your gravity point as near to the floor as possible.

For us, the professional tennis players, as you can see, the footwork is very important but it is not the same if we have to play on clay, hard court, grass, etc. Because of this, these movements have to change depending on the surface to get the best results possible or, in case you lose in first round, not to be because of a bad footwork.

Because of this, if you are changing the tournament surface, you have to do specific accommodation work and depending on this, these are my rules: l Clay courts: on this surface, the bound of the ball is slower and higher. This is good when your footwork is fast because you have time enough to get ready to hit the ball in the best position. Anyway, points will be longer and much more demanding. This surface has one more specific movement which is going sliding to hit the ball instead of doing one more step. With this slide you have to keep always the correct body position and balance. l Hard court: the ball bounds lower and faster so we should play with our gravity point lower and going with the body forward. At the opposite that we did in clay courts, the last step should always be small and not sliding in any situation. l Grass court: it is, perhaps, the most difficult surface to play on. The bound of the ball is irregular and the ball does not use to go up after bounding. As before, we have to have the gravity point even lower and going more forward to the ball than in the hard court points.

To sum up, a tennis player can be made with a talent dose, daily work and sacrifice. Of course, specially in Spain, the good performance and an appropriate footwork are basic in our schedule. Thanks to this, we have got great results not only on clay but on the rest of surfaces.

These are some of the points I train everyday next to my team at the JC Ferrero – Equelite Sport Academy and Nicolás Almagro. < [ Juan Carlos Ferrero is the former World No.1 and 2003 French Open champion from Spain. ]

Maria Sharapova

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Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

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Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Li Na The Rise of the Asian Tigress Ruhi Batra Li Na holding the 2011 French Open trophy

L

i Na is unlike any Chinese athlete you may have come across.

She’s unpretentious, speaks her mind and does as she pleases, unlike the scores of quiet and timid ‘Made in China’ athletes who give servitude a new meaning. Li dyes her hair blonde and even got a red rose tattooed on her chest. She proposed to her then boyfriend and now husband and coach Jiang Shan with a box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day in 2005. Her tenacity and determination to live life on her terms have won her many fans, even in homeland China where she was once accused of being self-centred and unthankful. After her run to the final of the Australian Open in 2011 and her winning efforts at French Open at Roland Garros – on the 22nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests have made the rebel somewhat of an iconoclast celebrity back home.

Looking at Li’s background, her decision to be different is perhaps not as surprising. Born to Sheng-Peng, a badminton player in Wuhan, it was only natural that six-year-old Li took up the sport that her old man played.

Badminton honed her reflexes and

penchant for spraying the ball around the court to wear down heftier opponents, a quality that’s a big part of her game.

Directed by state officials to play tennis as they thought it would be a better career move for the young Li, she turned pro in 1999. Between 1999 and 2004, Li won 20 women’s singles titles: 19 ITF events and one — the first ever won by a Chinese woman — on the WTA Tour. The story of Li’s career has been all about making tennis history, both nationally and internationally. The girl from Wuhan has been a record-breaker since the early days of her career, racking up an impressive number of “firsts”.

She was the first Chinese woman to w i n a W TA t o u r n a m e n t , a t Guangzhou in 2004, the first to make the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam, at Wimbledon in 2006, and the first to make the top 30, in June 2006.

Further records would follow, as she entered the top 20 in the world in August 2006 and the top 10, in February 2010. Add to that list the first Chinese woman to win a Grand Slam, and Li’s credentials as a tennis player could very well be set in gold.

But the going hasn’t always been smooth for the 30-year-old.

When Li was 14, her father died.

Her mother, Yan-Ping, raising her alone, taught her about determination and the mental toughness that gives Li an edge over pampered younger players. “I think many young players don’t know about working, they can get whatever they want. They think ‘I need a phone, I need a computer’,” she said in an interview to CNNGo.com two years ago. “The family just gives it to them.

They don’t need to do something to get it. After my father died, my mom had to take care of everything. It was tough for her. I learned a lot from her about working hard for everything,” she added.

The work ethic that her mother instilled in her has seen her earn $7,213,281 in career earnings.

There were plenty of times when Li wanted to give it all up. Turning pro in 1999 and winning early, she dropped to 303rd in the world in 2001 and had to struggle through qualifying rounds just to enter tour events. She took a two-year hiatus from the demands of the ITF Circuit and chose to enrol in a

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Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

journalism course at the part-time at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in 2009.

In May 2004, she returned to the circuit unranked, and won 26 successive matches to notch three further $25,000 tournament wins and another $50,000 title, increasing her career singles title count to 18, only to have her winning streak finally snapped in August. A surge through the rankings saw Li reach No. 80 and train her focus solely on the WTA Tour.

Though Li reached 33 on the rankings list, the year was marred by injury and inconsistent performances.

2006 saw her being seeded at Wimbledon – a first for a Chinese -and a quarterfinal finish saw her ranking rise to 20. A similar result at the US Open cemented her reputation as a player worthy of more titles. The year did see cement her relationship with Shan who she married. Shan was someone she had met at the age of 12.

Rumour has it that her hiatus in 2002 was the result of the disapproval she met from sports officials who frowned on her relationship with Shan, himself a Chinese national player.

Even though she lost a chunk of the year to a hurtful rib injury in 2007, Li 34

managed to keep her top 30 place. She returned to the courts in 2008 not having played a single professional match for six months and won her second WTA Tour title at Gold Coast.

The rest of the year fluctuated between mediocrity and flashes of her tenacious brilliance.

More interestingly though, whereas many women in 20s are unable to keep up with the demands of the tour, Li has blossomed even though the results hadn’t been as consistent as she would’ve desired.

Her decision to fend for herself helped her build her confidence in her abilities. She left the national team in December 2008, along with three other players, under a novel deal called a “fly alone” agreement. The deal, signed with the Tennis Management Centre of the General Administration of Sport of China, allowed Li and the others to choose their own coaches and set their own competition schedules. It also reportedly slashed the percentage of winnings she had to share with the state from 65 to 12.

“It was a big decision to leave the system because many people said I would fail,” she has said earlier. “I think now there’s even more pressure [on me] because I have to pay for

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

myself. We still have to pay a little percentage back to the federation. But I wanted more challenges,” she explained.

In 2010, she cracked the top 10 rankings and even won a tournament on grass in Birmingham, even though she prefers playing on hard courts.

The other big change happened off court when her coach Thomas Hogstedt chose to leave her in order to coach Maria Sharapova. Li didn’t have to look too far and put the reins of her career in husband Shan’s caring hands.

The comfort she shares with Shan is probably one of the biggest reasons why 2011 was the year when Li finally stopped being a pretender and became a serious contender. Armed with a good serve and flat, hardhitting groundstrokes, on her day Li is capable of silencing any of the big guns. 2011 started on great note with the Chinese player winning the Medibank International at Sydney, beating Svetlana Kuznetsova and Kim Clijsters en route to her third WTA title. Seeded ninth at the Australian Open, she beat Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki before setting up another meeting with Clijsters in the final. Playing her first Grand Slam final, Li let a hobbling Clijsters win

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

yet another Grand Slam despite winning the first set. She still rose to No. 7 in the rankings.

She might’ve reached the final of the year’s first Grand Slam but fell into a slump until her semifinal appearance at Madrid on clay. That was perhaps the little fillip she needed. Roland Garros was where things magically came together for the Korean movies fan. Seeded sixth, she defeated Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová, Silvia Soler Espinosa, Sorana Cîrstea, ninth seed Petra Kvitová, fourth seed Victoria Azarenka, seventh seed Maria Sharapova, and fifth seed and defending champion Francesca Schiavone in the final. With an estimated 330 million households able to watch the final on Chinese state TV, the 2011 French Open is one of the most-viewed matches of all time. Li stayed true to her hard hitting and clinical approach and was able to negate all of Schiavone’s guile and craft. A 6-4, 7-6 win saw Li become one of the top five players and richer by $1.7 million.

But the clock struck midnight and Li’s fairytale run has since then collapsed into a big fat pumpkin.

After her Roland Garros win, Li managed to win just seven matches till the WTA Championships in Turkey in

October. Plagued by knee injury, she skipped most of the season.

Her return to the courts in 2012 saw her reach the final at Sydney where she lost to Azarenka, the eventual Australian Open champion.

Melbourne Park saw Li run into her nemesis Clijsters in the fourth round and lose despite holding four match points in the second set tiebreak. A back injury has since then kept her off the courts.

Looking at Li’s results since her French Open win does make one wonder if she can win a Slam again. At 30, she’s the 10th-eldest player in the top 100 and can’t be expected to keep running with younger opponents.

Even though her ranking is safe for the moment, unless she can defend her French Open title – unlikely given her present state and results – the pressure and points will rack up.

But more than age is it a question of drive? The French Open title was the definite focal point of her 2011 season. Li went from defeating the reigning Queen of Clay, Schiavone, in the championship match at Roland Garros to not being able to beat Daniela Hantuchova, Sabine Lisicki, Stosur, Petra Cetkovska, Simona Halep or Monica Niculescu in subsequent tournaments.

Losing the motivation to be at your best in every match isn’t an unknown phenomenon. Svetlana Kuznetsova won the 2009 French Open and then turned in pretty crummy results for four months. Those results included losses to Aleksandra Wozniak, Sabine Lisicki, Stosur when she was ranked out of the top 15, a fading Amelie Mauresmo and Andrea Petkovic when she was ranked just 58th.

Did Kuznetsova lack the talent to win any one of those matches? Most definitely not. However, a lot of tennis players lose their drive for a while after winning a Grand Slam. From being yet another player, you’re a champion everyone wants to get better off. That extra pressure can negatively affect performances in ensuing events. However, winning a Grand Slam can also lead to relaxation. It's natural to let oneself down after spending so much energy achieving a career goal.

The ambition can come back.

Confidence isn’t the problem but the question is how badly does Li Na want to win again? She’s worked hard to etch her name in history. Is she ready to give it all up? That’s a question only she can answer. In her own inimitable manner. <

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Sania Mirza

(As on 16 April 2012) UZIND CORPORATION 305, 3rd Floor, Prakashdeep Building 7 Tolstoy Marg, New Delhi 110 001 India Tel: 011 4312 0500 Email: uzindc@rediffmail.com Somdev Devvarman

MEN’S SINGLES RANK NAME 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 21 21 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 36 38 38 38 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 47 49 50 50

Somdev Devvarman (TN) Yuki Bhambri (DLI) Vishnu Vardhan (TN) Sanam Singh (CHD) Karan Rastogi (MHA) Vijayant Malik (HR) Saketh Myneni (AP) Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (TN) Jeevan Neduncherhiyan (TN) Rohan Gajjar (MAH) Vijay Sundar Prashanth (TN) Vignesh Peranamallur (AP) Karunuday Singh (DLI) Sriram Balaji Narayanaswamy (TN) Sidharth Rawat (UP) Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (TN) Kunal Anand (DLI) Abhijeet Tiwari (CG) Nitten Kirrtane (MAH) Saurav Sukul (WB) Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (CHD) Divij Sharan (DLI) Chandril Sood (UP) Ronak Manuja (MAH) Vijay Kannan (TN) Suresh Krishna A.S. (AP) Vaidik Munshaw (GUJ) Vinod Sridhar (TN) Shahbaaz Khan (MAH) Kaza Vinayak Sharma (AP) Ramkumar Ramanathan (TN) Abhishek S.V. (AP) Rajat Maheshwari (MAH) Vinod Gowda (KAR) Fariz Mohammad (TN) Yogesh Phogat (HR) Tejas Chaukulkar (MAH) Ajai Selvaraj (TN) Rupesh Roy Ashwin Vijayragavan (AP) Lakshit Sood (UP) Suraj Beniwal (HR) Saurabh Patil (MAH) Ankit Sachdeva (DLI) Elwin Antony (TN) Gurinder Singh (PB) Brahamjot Singh (DLI) Rakshay Thakkar (MAH) Saurabh Singh (DLI) Adit Jain (DLI) Arpit Sharma (RAJ)

WOMEN’S SINGLES ATP TOTAL POINTS POINTS 1265 740 600 400 385 360 210 320 295 260 125 45 170 155 25 25 10 20 0 0 10 85 5 0 5 5 0 0 0 45 55 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 40 0 0 0 5 15 0 5 0 10 0 0 0

1265 800 645 400 385 360 337 323 298 260 240 198 170 163 140 136 118 117 94 91 85 85 85 80 74 73 72 68 67 63 55 53 51 50 48 46 46 45 45 45 43.5 37 36.5 36 35 34 33 33 32 31 31

WTA TOTAL POINTS POINTS

RANK NAME 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 36 38 38 40 41 41 43 44 44 46 47 48 49 50 50

Sania Mirza (AP) Prerna Bhambri (DLI) Kyra Shroff (MAH) Nidhi Chilumula (AP) Rutuja S. Bhosale (MAH) Rishika Sunkara (DLI) Aishwarya Shrivastav (MAH) Rushmi Chakravorthi (TN) Shivika Burman (WB) Ankita Raina (GUJ) Gopika Kapoor (DLI) Pooja Shree Venkatesh (KAR) Vaishnavi Sri Peddi Reddy (AP) Natasha Palha (GOA) Sowjanya Bavisetti (AP) Sharmada Balu (KAR) Shweta C. Rana (DLI) Nehel Sahni (DLI) Isha Lakhani (MAH) Tarranum Handa (DLI) Eetee Maheta (GUJ) Ratnika Batra (DLI) Manya Nagpal (UP) Nupur Kaul (MAH) Treta Bhattacharya (WB) Vaniya Dangwal (DLI) Smriti Joon (HR) Riya Bhatia (DLI) Abhilasha Ahuja (HR) Zainab Ali Sajjad (AP) Sheethal Goutham (KAR) Carrie Kalapala Garima Vatwani (DLI) Shreya Pasricha (UP) Sagarika Phadke (MAH) Adnya Naik (MAH) Saadgi Rajani (GUJ) Arantxa Andrady (DLI) Amrita Mukherjee (WB) Sahan P. Shetty (KAR) Soniya Dayal (MAH) Prarthana Thombre (MAH) Sayali Bhilare (MAH) Namita Bal (MAH) Sansitha Nanda Kumar (TN) Victoria Chahal (NTA) Shruti Archita (MAH) Priyanka Rawat (UK) Sanya Madan (UP) Nimisha Mohan (KAR) Anushka Bhargava (AP)

1710 170 155 130 110 80 100 55 85 45 65 60 5 5 5 40 10 5 20 0 0 40 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 5 10 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0

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1710 194.5 163 141 139 118.5 100 97 96 79 66 60 56.5 50 49 47 44.5 44.5 44 41 40.5 40 39.5 37.5 34 33 32 32 30.5 29 26.5 26 25 24 21 20 20 19.5 19.5 19 18.5 18.5 18 17.5 17.5 16.5 16 14 13.5 13 13 37

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

AITA RANKINGS

GOING STRONG Paes: All smiles

H

e is no ordinary tennis player.

Leander Paes is a magician on court.

He may have lost more Grand Slam finals than what he has won, but it is no ordinary figure that Paes has won 13 of them. He has completed a career Grand Slam in men’s doubles at the Australian Open, in an overall collection of seven titles from 14 finals.

“In the most important moments, he is a genius’’, said Radek Stepanek, as he heaped praise on doubles partner Paes after winning the title in Melbourne.

It was an accomplishment of a long cherished goal for Paes as he had tried his hand at winning the Australian Open men’s doubles title four times before with three different partners.

In an important season, with the sixth Games in London beckoning him, Paes was obviously keen to get off the blocks briskly and get one of the elusive targets out of the way. He was quite candid in ditching Mahesh Bhupathi after a rather unsuccessful season in 2011, saying that both the players needed ‘’fresh and young legs’’ to forge a successful partnership.

It was important to get a good start, particularly with the added incentive of a top-ten ranking in doubles not only assuring an entry in the Games but also the chance to select a partner.

Paes won the Chennai Open with a top-10 singles player, Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, at the start of the season to warm up for the tougher challenges ahead.

At the Australian Open, Paes and Stepanek dropped only one set in the whole tournament and beat the topseeded Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, in straight sets in the final.

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He may be a professor in the art of doubles, but Paes continues to be a diligent student of the game. He was sharp in picking return of serve techniques both from Tipsarevic and Stepanek, that may stand him in good stead when he guns for that elusive doubles medal in the Olympics on the grass of Wimbledon in August.

Though Paes had won the title in Delray Beach in 2004 with Stepanek when the duo did not drop a set the whole week, it was indeed a calculated gamble for Paes to join hands with the super athlete from Czech Republic, someone ranked 112 in the world in doubles.

There was a guarantee that the Indo-Czech duo would not be seeded.

It was so, and the partnership kept improving with every match as was evident in a nice piece of statistics that said that the two beat the third, second and top seeds in that order, in the last four rounds.

“He is a super athlete, and can jump higher than me’’, Paes observed about Stepanek, who moved to 23 in the world in doubles, ensuring that the duo would have relatively easier draws ahead in the Grand Slams in the rest of the season.

Of course, Paes can write a book on, how to pick great partners, having competed with a variety of players, from a raw talent like Mahesh Bhupathi in 1994 to the most seasoned of all players, the legendary Martina Navratilova for Grand Slam mixed doubles titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2003.

“The honesty that he has with me is the single most important ingredient to greatness, to be able to achieve something’’, remarked Paes.

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

He has won three French Open, one Wimbledon and two US Open doubles titles apart from the Australian Open. His last Grand Slam men’s doubles title had come in 2009, the year in which he had won the French Open and the US Open with another Czech, Lucas Dlouhy.

Quite interestingly, after the disappointment of losing to the eventual champions, Roger Federer a n d S t a n i s l a s Wa w r i n k a o f Switzerland in the quarterfinals of doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi in Beijing Olympics, Paes has added three men’s doubles and three mixed doubles titles to his rich collection. To be honest, he was looking strong to add more on way to the London Olympics!

By his own admission, Paes has evolved over the years both as a player and a person. His secret of success has been the passion for the game. He is happy that he follows a profession that has been his passion. Like Roger Federer, he does not need any motivation to play the game. The game itself is his motivation.

Of course, another legend of the game, Pete Sampras quit when he was 31, after having won the US Open, stating that there was no fuel left in the tank. He had completely burnt himself out in a brilliant career.

Paes pointed out that he was on the verge of a similar feeling when he was merely 19, and threw the racquet away for many months.

“My tank was empty then, but now it is full’’, observed the 38-year-old Paes, who has rekindled his passion in a systematic way.

He has raised the bar continuously, and refined his style of tennis and his

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Leander Paes

Ancic, 6-7(4), 6-4, 14-16 in a heartbreaker that lasted three hours and 58 minutes. That marathon third set itself spanned two hours and 24 minutes.

Paes and Bhupathi had lost rather tamely to Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler of Germany in the semifinals, 2-6, 3-6, in just over an hour.

Getting that close to a medal had reignited the passion in Paes to keep that elusive second Olympic medal as one of his major goals, in an otherwise fulfilling career.

Otherwise, he has only the French Open mixed doubles title eluding him, to complete his career Grand Slam in mixed doubles. He also has been missing the World Doubles title for long after many attempts in the finals.

Who knows, Paes may end up with three Olympics medals, including the mixed doubles with Sania Mirza. Paes had partnered Sania for the bronze in the 2002 Asian Games in Busan before clinching the gold with her in the Doha Asian Games in 2006. Both Paes and Bhupathi skipped the last Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010 owing to their commitment in the year-end World championship.

Paes has embarked on different dreams of late, putting fresh air in his tennis. The marriage with Rhea Pillai and the birth of daughter Aiyana has also made Paes rearrange his priorities. Quite admirably, Paes has been able to channelise his energy in the last few years, as he has

Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

life. He has combined meditation, yoga apart from the Eastern and Western training methods to preserve himself and nurse the hunger for success. He has the work ethic, and loves hard work.

Quite admittedly he is not the one to rest on his laurels. He has the will, passion and the discipline to achieve any goal that he feels worthy of him.

It has been a phenomenal career as Paes left football to train in tennis at the Britannia Tennis Academy in Chennai, then known as Madras, as a precocious talent who was sure to live on his legs. He won the Wimbledon and US Open junior titles apart from making the final of the Australian Open.

He made his Davis Cup debut when he was 16 under the captaincy of N a r e s h K u m a r, w h o m h e understandably adores for having put his career on a sound pedestal, and supporting him with constant good advice.

After not having been played in the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, Paes was a class act two years later in the Barcelona Olympics as he partnered Ramesh Krishnan to reach the quarterfinals, beating the top seeds along the way.

In Atlanta in 1 9 9 6 , P a e s emulated his father, Dr. Vece Paes, a member of the bronze winning hockey team in the Munich Games in 1972, in pinning the bronze medal in the Olympics. He defied all the odds in winning the singles medal behind Andre Agassi and Sergei Bruguera.

Both in 1996 in Atlanta and 2000 in Sydney, Paes and Bhupathi lost to the Woodies in the Olympics, in the early rounds. In Athens, it was a gripping contest for the Indian fans when Paes and Bhupathi lost the match for the third place to the Croats, Ivan Ljubicic and Mario

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Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

With his daughter Aiyana 40

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

travelled around the world along with his family, for bigger success on court.

With so much success in recent times, Paes has not planned much for life after tennis, though he has got into acting in films and ventured into many business activities.

“There is no deadline on my tennis’’, Paes has said. For people who tend to think that London Games could be his last Olympics, Paes has a rejoinder, ‘’am not so sure’’.

For someone who believes in karma and destiny, Paes has been quite categorical in stating that he has nothing to prove to anyone, including himself. The tough experiences have made him stronger, and the trophies won along the way have been the added incentives.

His mantra is simple, ‘if you are fit to train, you are young to play’.

Andre Agassi may not have been kind to Paes in his book ‘Open’, but he takes it in his stride with a modest observation that he was honoured to have been written about by the legend, one of the few in the world to have achieved a career Grand Slam in singles apart from the Olympics gold.

Having heard varied comments over two decades, Paes is quite clear that ‘’history will speak the truth’’ about him.

Going by the early signs, this year could be an important chapter in the history books for Paes. <

Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Deepti Patwardhan

India’s Talented Youngsters Y

ou can see Mahesh Bhupathi getting tetchy with the media hovering around.

He reluctantly agrees to speak to the press. “Please don’t ask me who next after Bhupathi and (Leander) Paes,” he says, somewhat irritated. After a few innocuous queries about his recent form on the tour, fitness, drive to keep playing, it’s there again. The question he dreads. One of the scribes raises the hand, pops the question, “Who next after Bhupathi and Paes?”

The veteran tennis player breaks into a wry smile.

That was more than three years ago.

Bhupathi and Paes are still going strong, but Indian tennis has moved a little ahead on younger legs—that of Somdev Devvarman and Rohan Bopanna. India has been in the Davis Cup World Group and back. And you

wonder how long it will be again till that question is asked again.

Yuki Bhambri is the closest to answering it. A former junior Australian Open champion and boys’ world No. 1, the boy from Delhi has showed a serious stomach for fight on the senior tour as well. He made a dream Davis Cup debut back in 2009, when he beat South Africa’s Izak van der Merwe. In the latest Cup tie against Uzbekistan, he overcame the odds to beat their top player and world no. 43 Denis Istomin in three tie break sets.

That shows spirit of a different kind. He’s not a counter-puncher in a classical mould and is not afraid to slap winners off both flanks. Having turned to pro-circuit full-time only last year, the Indian has already climbed to 293 in the world rankings.

But at 19, he’s still filling out his frame, and every once in a while, like he did towards the tail end of his match against Karol Beck in the Chennai Open first round this year, which he eventually won in straight sets, he still looks like a boy fighting a man’s battle.

He has the strokes, but it seems there’s still lot of work to be done if he has to build the legs to last on the men’s tour. And while Yuki is the few lucky ones, who have got exposure to training abroad from a fairly early age (he still visits the Nick Bollettieri academy in Florida and worked with Andre Agassi’s former trainer Gil Reyes in the off-season in 2010), this transition stage is the most crucial and the training know-how in the country scarce. That’s a bridge he will have to cross carefully.

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Then there is Sanam Singh, who with Yuki was thrown at the deep end during the Davis Cup tie against Uzbekistan. Born and bred in Chandigarh, and sculpted at the tennis academy at the University of Virginia, Sanam has earned the nickname ‘pocket dynamo’. Small and snappy, he can be deceptive with his speed and strength.

“The future of Indian tennis, as far as the Davis Cup goes, is going to be built around guys like Somdev, Yuki and Sanam,” says for India Davis Cup player Vishal Uppal.

Uppal, himself a tennis coach, is also working with the next generation of boys looking good to come through. Later this month, he will lead the Indian contingent to the junior Davis Cup ties.

The recently concluded Asian juniors Grade I tournament at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association gave a good glimpse of some of the most promising youngsters in the country.

And it was somewhat a shame that none from the host country even entered the final—and only two, one each in boys and girls singles event, made it to the semi-final.

That’s the first wave of negativity ready to hit as one tries to scour the horizons for exciting talent. How good are our juniors? No one quite knows.

Shyamal Vallabhjee, trainer to Indian stars like Bhupathi, Bopanna and Sania Mirza, is at the DLTA to help Bhupathi’s protégé—14-year-old Sumit Nagal and is quick to observe that there is no system in Indian sport (apart from cricket) to churn out talent consistently.

“Tennis has become so physical nowadays that if the players are given the proper training there is no way they are going to survive on the tour,” he says, before pointing out the importance of grooming players on clay rather than the burgeoning trend of hard-courts across the country.

“It’s true that most tennis tournaments in the world are held on hard courts but if you see the top three players in the game, (Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger 42

Federer) they were all brought up on clay. Playing on clay means you are not going to have any easy rallies, you learn how to build points, hit five winners if need be. It is a surface that demands muscle strength and endurance. But unfortunately in India there are only hard-courts. Even our top players don’t like playing on clay.

When the European clay season begins they are busy playing hardcourt tournaments in America.”

Sumit, nevertheless, under the guidance of Bhupathi and coach Bobby Mahal, is getting a peek into the more competitive world. Born in Delhi, he now shuttles between the Indian capital and Canada, where he trains for tennis six months a year. In December last year, he won the under14 American Cup tennis championship at the Miccosukee Tennis Club in Miami, Florida.

He is already ranked 182 in the junior ITF charts and is part of a promising group also comprising of Pune players Sahil Deshmukh, Arjun Khade (currently top-ranked Indian junior) and Ronit Bisht.

“There are some players who are ready to break through on the men’s side,” adds Uppal. “But in the women’s there’s a good bunch of 1516 year olds. You never know how they are going to shape up. Apart from that the only young player who has done well recently in women’s is Kyra Shroff.”

Shroff,19, has been around for some time and is always an inspiring story. A juvenile diabetic, the youngster has taken the adversity in her stride, so much so, that the regular insulin injections are not even a major concern for her anymore. Ranked 665, she recently reached the semifinals of the 25,000 Challeneger event in Bangalore.

And should Sania Mirza be able to qualify in doubles for the London Olympics, Shroff is being talked about as her possible partner.

But the two girls, who have really got the Indian tennis circles glued in are Rutuja Bhosale and Ratnika Batra.

Ratnika created waves a few years

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

ago when she became the youngest player to win the Indian nationals in 2008. She dropped only 12 games in five matches to claim the women’s title at the age of 14. Now 17, Ratnika is ranked 53 in the world and has already made a start on the women’s circuit before she turns pro in a year’s time.

While Rutuja, who hails from Pune, failed in her bid to defend her Asian title in New Delhi last week, losing in the first round after suffering a bout of food poisoning, she is already being seen as a big prospect. The youngster was inducted into the Fed Cup team recently, and her confidence is striking.

“I don’t think Indian tennis players lag physically as opposed to the Asians or international player,” she says with the bravado and optimism of a 16-year-old. Slim-built, tall, and bespectacled, the youngster goes about her business in a quiet but assured manner.

“I remember how Sania was always that one step ahead of the rest of the girls,” says former India Fed Cup player Radhika Tulpule. “Rutuja is like that. Right now, she is one level above everyone at the moment.”

Most of the top juniors at the Asian juniors tourney last week- including Rutuja, Sahil and Arjun—are being supported by Pune-based NGO Laskhya, who provide for their kit, coaching, travel and help with scheduling. “We will also help them with training abroad,” said cofounder Sunder Iyer. “Fitness is a major concern for all Indian athletes and we are looking to bridge that gap as best as we can.”

Until the time these youngsters come through and make a mark on the pro circuit, the questions will always linger. But there were a couple of things that augur well for Indian tennis: the appointment of national coach Henrik Ekersund, the first concerted effort by the All India Tennis Association to bring the juniors under one umbrella, and the emergence of non-profit groups lending the budding tennis players a helping hand. <

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Henrik Ekersund Interview “Give the youngsters time to bloom” —Ekersund The All India Tennis Association has given the junior development programme in the country a boost by bringing in 38-year-old Swede Henrik Ekersund as the national coach. Though he hasn’t played the sport on the highest level, Ekersund brings with him almost 20 years of experience in player development and coaching.

Keeping a cool head under the searing heat in New Delhi, Ekersund shares his impressions on Indian junior circuit on the sidelines of the Asian Junior Grade I tournament.

The Asian juniors tournament must have given you a good view of some of the top juniors in the country. What do you make of them?

I’m happy with what I’ve seen so far. The players here are keen to learn, a lot more disciplined and obedient than the ones in Europe and seem to have the ambition.

Sanam Singh

You have mainly worked in countries which are smaller and probably not as culturally diverse. Is is a little overwhelming coming to India?

Yes it is. It’s a vast country. I have only been to the DLTA facility so far, and it is one of the better ones I have worked in. But in the coming days I will travel around the country and see how the different associations function. As much as we want the top juniors to work at the best facility, the emphasis will be on having more centres across the country so that players don’t have to spend too much time travelling. I will be working with other coaches as well and involve as many of them possible so that players all over the country have access to good coaches.

Most people would say that Indian athletes don’t have the attributes to sustain in a physical sport like tennis.

I don’t agree with that. I have seen a few kids here who are as big and fast as the Europeans. It is how you train and develop them. In Sweden, we made a few mistakes in grooming youngsters. We used the same training methods for some 20 years because we’d had success with them earlier. But slowly things are changing.

The training is evolving to keep in touch with the times.

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Yuki Bhambri

How would you compare the Indian youngsters to the ones in Sweden?

From what I’ve seen, I don’t think there’s too much of a difference between the kids here and in Europe. But, definitely, the infrastructure makes a difference. In Europe, the juniors would generally play on outdoor surfaces in the summer and indoors in the winters. That helps them understand the variations in pace and bounce very early. Here it’s mainly outdoor hard courts, so there are certain nuances they have to learn.

Also, Europe has a big club culture. In a country like Sweden alone there are 500 clubs, who function on a non-profit basis. So youngsters have better access to the game. Most of them also play more than one sport till they are in their late teens.

Here, if we see, there are juniors who are specialising in one sport very early, it is the job of the coaches to make sure they develop the players’ athletic side.

Arjun Khade and Ronit Bisht

What then is the biggest hurdle for Indian tennis?

The biggest challenge facing almost all countries, Sweden and India included, is that we have to persist for the results. Nowadays you see players are going to take longer to break through. Tennis has become so physical; you won’t see players who are 17 or 18 making a mark on the senior circuit nowadays.

The focus should be on encouraging more youngsters to take up the sport. Don’t think too much about taking it up as a career. One of the problems we had in Sweden, after our best period in tennis in the 1980s, is that we put too much pressure on the youngsters.

We started comparing teenagers who were showing some promise to players like (Bjorn) Borg and (Mats) Wilander. The youngsters cracked under that pressure.

That is one of the reasons countries like Spain and France are doing well. They don’t put pressure on their youngsters to win. They lift their performance by concentrating on making them better players than just looking at the wins and losses.

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44

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

Photo: S. Sukumar

Runner up Janko Tipsarevic in action at the Chennai Open 2012

Kamesh

Aircel Chennai Open 2012 M

any champion players have visited India over the years and affixed their stamp of class. The fact that Rafael Nadal, with six French Open, two Wimbledon and one Australian Open titles under his belt apart from the Olympic gold in Beijing, could only win the doubles title at the Chennai Open, despite repeated attempts, could give a fair hint of the intensity of competition in the annual event that has captured the imagination of the Indian fans for 17 years.

Ever since the ATP Tour event arrived in New Delhi in 1996, and then moved to Chennai the next year, it has been an annual treat for the fans at home, as a galaxy of stars descended to get a taste of Indian culture.

Boris Becker, Richard Krajicek and Yevgeny Kafelnikov were some of the greats who did not put their hands around the trophy in India, but others like Patrick Rafter of Australia, Carlos Moya of Spain, Mikhail

Youzhny of Russia, Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand, Mikael Tillstrom of Sweden, Marin Cilic and Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia have done their bit to enliven the proceedings, in emphasising their champion class.

There have also been players of lesser lustre like Xavier Malisse of Belgium, Guillermo Canas of Argentina, Michal Tabara of the Czech Republic, Jerome Golmard of France, Byron Black of Zimbabwe a n d S t a n i s l a s Wa w r i n k a o f Switzerland who have won the title while providing week-long entertainment on Indian turf.

Indian tennis may not have been inspired to any great heights over the years by the Tour event, but for the odd fine run by a Leander Paes and Somdev Devvarman, as far as singles performance is concerned. Of course, in doubles, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, apart from Rohan Bopanna and Prahlad Srinath to some extent have demonstrated the world class genes in the Indian system.

From being a platform for the big stars to walk the ramp, the Chennai Open has slowly turned into an ideal stage at the beginning of a season, before the first Grand Slam in Australia, for the future stars to say their first lines.

There was a small twist this year, as the 21-year-old Milos Raonic, the Serbian-born Canadian giant, standing at a towering 6’ 5’’, came to Chennai with the reputation of having reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open in 2011, as a qualifier.

Despite the presence of a top-10 player in Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, the Canadian ace whose early tennis lessons were against a ball-machine, was tipped to win the title in Chennai, thanks to his thunder-bolt serves that rarely missed the mark.

As it turned out, Raonic did not disappoint his fans as he won the tournament without once dropping his serve.

More than the title triumph, it was

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Photo: S. Sukumar

Indian hope: Yuki Bhambri

heartening to follow the manner in which Raonic handled the challenge from the bespectacled Tipsarevic for three hours and 13 minutes, for a well-deserved 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 7-6(4) victory in the final, when he fired 35 aces. He had served only 41 aces in all in his three previous matches.

Appropriately nick-named ‘Avatar’, Raonic collected $71,900 for his second singles title of his career. He had won the maiden title in San Jose in 2011, and had eventually been adjudged the ‘new comer of the year’ by ATP, as he had catapulted from 156 to 31 in the world.

Raonic needed to be at his best in the final, and he was. “Awesome feeling’’, he summed up after the heady climax.

“This is just my second year on the Tour against the big boys and I am learning a lot’’, said Raonic after the title triumph in Chennai. He became the first player since Roger Federer at the Halle event in 2008 to win a Tour 46

title without dropping serve even once in the whole tournament. Raonic had 48 service games in the tournament, in which he had enjoyed a first round bye as the fourth seed.

“Guys like Milos are special players’’, said Tipsarevic, the No.2 Serb behind the world No.1 Novak Djokovic, as he gracefully applauded Raonic after the defeat.

“It was a great game of tennis.

Nobody knew till the end who would win’’, said the 27-year-old Tipsarevic.

Of course, he may have to get a shade better to improve his win-loss record of 2-6 in the finals on the Tour.

It was the second victory over a top10 player for Raonic at the business end of the tournament as he had beaten the world No.10 Nicolas Almagro of Spain 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals.

“The title should come to me, as I have the game to win’’, Raonic had said after the semifinals.

“He played really well, and served

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

like a monster’’, said Almagro after the semifinal loss.

“Nothing went wrong for me.

Raonic is one of the best on the Tour, particularly on hard court. He created many chances for himself to win the match, particularly his first serve success’’, Almagro remarked.

Raonic had beaten top-10 players before as he accounted for Fernando Verdasco for his maiden title in San Jose. He had beaten other top players like James Blake, Radek Stepanek, Xavier Malisse and Mardy Fish.

He had stretched Andy Roddick to his wit’s end in the final in Memphis before bowing out 5-7 in the decider, provoking the American to comment, “... that serve is going to win him a lot of matches....It’s one of the bigger serves I’ve seen’’.

That coming from one of the biggest and finest servers the game has seen, should mean a lot for a young lad, who had refused to follow the Collegiate tennis path that John Isner

Photo: S. Sukumar

Raonic and Tipsarevic at the award ceremony

has so beautifully negotiated to be a top professional in the world.

In fact, Raonic’s engineer parents, Dusan and Vesna, emphasised a lot on education and had hoped that he would accept the offer from the University of Virginia. Raonic was clear that he had to be on the professional circuit straightaway, and ‘’learn on the job’’, as Roddick had put it.

Raonic may take his time to reach the top-10 in the world, but for the Chennai fans, he left an indelible impression, starting with his fluent wins over top-100 players Victor Hanescu and Dudi Sela in the early rounds.

Well, like Nadal, Tipsarevic had a doubles title to show from Chennai, as he partnered Professor Leander Paes who tutored him on the nuances of doubles play.

Paes and Bhupathi had made a great start to their doubles career with their

first Tour title in Chennai way back in 1997 and had returned a few times for more fun. They had won the title as a pair for a record five times, including in their latest re-union in 2011, but they had not won a title in Chennai with other partners.

In a season that has started on a tempestuous note with Rohan Bopanna and Mahesh Bhupathi announcing their partnership with an eye on the London Olympics, there was indeed a lot of interest in doubles this time in Chennai.

Bopanna, who had lost in the second round of the singles qualifying event to Go Soeda of Japan 6-7(2), 6-7(2), was given the pride of handling the ‘advantage’ court by 11time Grand Slam champion Mahesh Bhupathi. The top-seeded duo battled bravely in the first two rounds but lost in the semifinals to the fourth-seeded Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram of Israel 6-4, 3-6, 8-10.

That had put paid to the hopes of a dream clash of the three Indian doubles stars in the doubles final.

There was some cheer for Bopanna and Bhupathi as they had beaten Andreas Beck of Germany and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland in the quarterfinals. Wawrinka had partnered Roger Federer for the doubles gold in the Beijing Olympics and the Swiss duo had in fact stopped the Indian pair of Paes and Bhupathi in the quarterfinals.

However, Paes partnered Tipsarevic with commendable craft in beating the Israelis 6-4, 6-4 in the final. It was the 48th career title for Paes.

Come Olympics in London, Tipsarevic may be able to use some of the doubles tips from Paes with good effect, if he opts to get into the doubles draw as well.

The Indo-Serbian pair had warded off a stiff challenge from the secondseeded Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram of the US in the semifinals, 6-2, 6-7(1), 10-7.

Actually, Paes and Tipsarevic had started with a tough 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 victory over the Canadian alternates Vasek Pospisil and Milos Raonic in the first round.

There was some good news for Indian tennis apart from the doubles success as wild card Yuki Bhambri won a round in the main draw, as he beat Karol Beck of Slovakia 6-2, 6-3 in the first round before going down to the top-seeded Tipsarevic in the pre-quarterfinals.

The other wild card Vishnu Vardhan also had a great chance to bolster his confidence, but lost 6-4, 6-7(8), 1-6 to the fifth-seeded Ivan Dodig of Croatia in the first round.

Yuki went on to build himself up strongly for the season, while Paes captured the Australian Open doubles crown with Radek Stepanek.

Chennai had given the push for the aspirants, and the long season ahead would show whether one of the brightest talent in the world, Milos Raonic, manages to leap to greater heights. <

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Aircel Chennai Open 2012- Chennai, India MAIN DRAW SINGLES 2-8 January 2012 1

Janko Tipsarevic

SER

2

BYE

3

Yuki Bhambri

IND

4

Karol Beck

SLO

5

Andreas Beck

GER

6

QVasek Pospisil

CAN

7

David Goffin

BEL

8

Xavier Malisse

BEL

9

Stanislas Wawrinka

SWI

10

BYE

11

Eric Prodon

FRA

12

Edouard Roger-Vasselin

FRA

13

Frederico Gil

POR

14

Go Soeda

JAP

15

Vishnu Vardhan

IND

16

Ivan Dodig

CRO

17

Fabio Fognini

ITA

18

Dudi Sela

ISR

19

Pere Riba

SPA

20

Benoit Paire

FRA

21

Sam Querrey

USA

22

Victor Hanescu

ROM

23

BYE

24

Milos Raonic

CAN

25

Olivier Rochus

BEL

26

Yuichi Sugita

JAP

27

Thiemo De Bakker

NET

28

Yen-Hsun Lu

CHI

29

Blaz Kavcic

SLO

30

Steve Darcis

BEL

31

BYE

32

Nicolas Almagro

48

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

SPA

Tipsarevic J. 6-1, 6-3 Bhambri Y. 6-2, 6-3 Tipsarevic J. 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 Beck A. 6-3, 7-6 (8) Goffin D. 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 Goffin D. 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 TIPSAREVIC J. 6-1, 6-4 Wawrinka S. 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 Roger-Vasselin E. 6-4, 6-3 Soeda G. 6-4, 6-4 Soeda G. 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-5 Soeda G. 7-6 (6), 6-3 Dodig I. 4-6, 7-6 (8), 6-1

RAONIC M. 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4)

Sela D. 6-0, 6-1 Sela D. 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 Paire B. 6-2, 6-1 Raonic M. 7-6 (4), 6-3 Hanescu V. 6-3, 6-4

Raonic M. 6-1, 6-4

RAONIC M. 6-4, 6-4 Sugita Y. 6-3, 6-4 Sugita Y. 7-6 (5), 6-4 Lu Y. 6-3, 6-3 Almagro N. 4-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4 Darcis S. 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 Almagro N. (Ret’d)

Aircel Chennai Open 2012- Chennai, India MAIN DRAW DOUBLES 2-8 January 2012 1

Mahesh Bhupathi Rohan Bopanna

IND IND

Xavier Malisse Ken Skupski

BEL GB

Philipp Marx Adil Shamasdin

GER CAN

Andreas Beck Stanislas Wawrinka

GER SWI

Jonathan Erlich Andy Ram

ISR ISR

Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash Ramkumar Ramanathan

IND IND

Nicolas Almagro Pere Riba

SPA SPA

8

Julian Knowle Michael Kohlmann

AU GER

9

Fabio Fognini Igor Zelenay

ITA SLO

Johan Brunstrom Ivan Dodig

SWE CRO

Vasek Pospisil Milos Raonic

CAN CAN

Leander Paes Janko Tipsarevic

IND SER

Juan Sebastian Cabal Robert Farah

COL COL

Alexander Kudryavtsev Olivier Rochus

RUS BEL

N. Sriram Balaji Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan

IND IND

Scott Lipsky Rajeev Ram

USA USA

2

3

4

5

6

7

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Bhupathi M. Bopanna R. 5-7, 6-3, 10-5 Bhupathi M. Bopanna R. 6-4, 7-6 (3) Beck A. Wawrinka S. 6-1, 7-5 ERLICH J. RAM A. 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 Erlich J. Ram A. 6-2, 6-1 Erlich J. Ram A. 6-3, 6-3 Almagro N. Riba P. 6-7 (4), 6-4, 10-4

PAES L. TIPSAREVIC J. 6-4, 6-4 Fognini F. Zelenay I. 6-4, 7-5 Paes L. Tipsarevic J. 6-3, 6-4 Paes L. Tipsarevic J. 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 PAES L. TIPSAREVIC J. 6-2, 6-7 (1), 10-7 Cabal J. Farah R. 6-4, 6-4 Lipsky S. Ram R. 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 Lipsky S. Ram R. 7-5, 6-4

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49

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Going for Gold London 2012 Ruhi Batra

F

or a tennis player, the tour is often a lonely place. A different hotel room - decrepit or decadent, depending on your ranking – in a different city every week, familiar faces wearing familiar expressions. But once every four years, the loneliness erupts into a friendly frenzy. The cold hotel room is swapped for an athletes village or dormitory-style living. Room service makes way for mess hall meals. The Olympics is where individuals cease to be single entities and fight under a country’s flag and for their nation’s pride. Not often does a tennis player have a team or country backing him and to win the love and undying adulation is an unforgettable experience.

The Games of the XXX Olympiad, as the 2012 Summer Olympics are officially called, will see tennis being played at the hallowed lawns of Wimbledon.

Winning the Grand Slam earns you an engraving but winning the gold at Wimbledon will be an unforgettable and coveted experience.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic who already has the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open in his kitty, is now focussed on winning the French Open and Olympic gold. The Serb has the Golden Slam in his sights and he believes, “Why not? Everything is possible.”

While grass gives certain players an edge over others, at the Olympics

underestimate your opponent at your peril. In Beijing 2008, Andy Murray suffered a shock defeat to Taipei’s world number 77, Lu Yen-Hsun. Roger Federer had to console himself with doubles gold after he was stunned by the bald American James Blake in the quarterfinals.

But at Wimbledon, few would want to bet against Federer. Competent and phenomenal on all surfaces, grass is where he displays his virtuosity. He is currently second on the all-time list for most Wimbledon singles titles – his six to Sampras’ 7. Even though he’s 30, given his track record on grass and his desire for gold, makes world No. 3 Federer candidate numero uno.

Home-grown hero Murray is a big Olympics fan. Born in 1987, Murray is part of a generation that has grown up watching tennis at the Olympics, and the leading players’ attitudes today to the Games is markedly different from those in 1988, when the sport returned after a 64-year break. “Tennis at the Olympics has become a big deal, everyone plays it now, whereas 10, 15 years ago guys were skipping the Olympics,” he said in an interview to BBC Sport. “It’s one of the best experiences I’ve had as an athlete,” he added.

Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

will also be keen to share the spotlight.

Being held just a few weeks before the Olympics, the June 25-July 8 Grand Slam will give a clearer view on who’s ahead but injury niggles may also flare up, putting some top names out of contention.

On the women’s side, the Williams sisters are the s t r o n g e s t contenders for medals. Venus and Serena have been the most successful players at the green c o u r t s o f 2008 Doubles Gold medalists Wimbledon – Venus and Serena Williams either Williams sister has won The world No. 4 will want to make up nine times in the past 12 years. Their for the lost chances and milk the record at the Olympics hasn’t been advantage that shrieking fans will shabby either, Serena teamed with her render him. With brother Jamie Murray, sister, Venus, to win women's doubles at the Glasgow-born, Dunblane-raised, the 2000 and 2008 Olympics.

London-based international traveller As confidence-inspiring as these Andy will launch an attack for the numbers are, their recent play has been doubles gold as well and with mixed disappointing. Riddled with injuries, doubles part of the program this year, is illness – Venus only returned to the tour toying with the idea of adding a third in March after battling the fatigueevent to his list. causing Sjogren’s Syndrome – and old To disregard Djokovic or the raging age, and neither of them competing Spanish bull, Rafael Nadal would be strongly when put up against the hara-kiri. The two men sit atop the table game's top players means that the and are just as good a bet to win the sisters are a latent threat but not a shoegold. The Wimbledon-Olympic double in. has its own lure and the two are the best Whosoever wins Wimbledon, will refighters on the tour. enter the venue with most confidence. It Other top 10 players are just as good could be defending champion Petra and will make some noise. Watch out for Kvitova or even former champion Maria the always-threatening, alwaysSharapova. Or it could be world No. 1 entertaining Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and the Victoria Azarenka. insanely tall John Isner. Juan Martin Del The way women’s tennis is poised, it’s Potro, currently No. 11 in the world, difficult to choose just a few names and should never be taken out of the call them potential winners. Last year equation while up-and-coming stars saw four different Grand Slam such as Milos Raonic and Bernard Tomic champions and the No. 1 rank changed 52

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

hands. Most of the women at the top of the rankings will have a solid chance at taking home the gold medal, including those mentioned above, Na Li, and Agnieszka Radwanska.

Old and experienced hands of Kim Clijsters are also itching to grab a medal of the golden hue. Clijsters skipped the clay-court tennis season, including the French Open, to focus on getting fit for Wimbledon and the London Olympics.

“My current physical condition doesn’t allow me to get in optimal shape for Roland Garros,” Clijsters, 28, said in the statement. “I cannot wait, however, to begin a long period of preparation for the grass season, with Wimbledon and the Olympic Games my principal objectives.”

World No. 5 Samantha Stosur, reigning US Open champion, is excited to play her third Olympics and that too at Wimbledon. “It’s definitely going to be a highlight of the year no matter what happens, whether you win a medal or you go out in the first round,” the 27year-old Stosur said in an interview.

The two Olympics that I’ve been a part of already were two of the best weeks I can remember in my career ... just being part of that team and putting on your team track suit is something very special.”

She reiterated what many players feel about participating at the event. “Tennis is an individual sport but at the Olympics you’ve got your tennis team and then the bigger team of all the other athletes from your country, the medical staff and support crew all willing you on. We don’t experience that at any other time.”

A new addition to the tennis program is mixed doubles, giving players another chance to win another medal. Mixed doubles will be an official Olympic event for the first time since 1924, when Hazel Wightman and R. Norris Williams of the United States won the gold medal, and will be played for the first time since it was played as a demonstration event in 1968. Though mixed doubles have for long been a part of Grand Slam culture, their inclusion in the Olympics will go a long way in the format being given more credibility. <

Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Indian medal hopefulls: Paes and Bhupathi

India at London 2012 T

hey say problems come in twos.

Indian tennis’ problem, at the moment, is more of a problem of three.

Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna are among the top 15 doubles players in the world. That would be great news except that neither Bopanna nor Bhupathi ‘publicly’ want to play with Paes.

Bhupathi and Bopanna decided to pair up in 2012 with the intention of sealing

a spot in the doubles draw for London 2012. Paes, who won the bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, is ranked No. 7 and can choose his own partner for the London Olympics, according to the rules. Since both Paes and Bopanna are ranked higher than Bhupathi, they can ideally choose their partners.

If, and that’s a big if, Bopanna manages to maintain his ranking – he

Ruhi Batra

has a pot of points to defend before the June 11 deadline – he could choose Bhupathi.

But if Paes is the only top 10 ranked doubles player, who will the former Olympic medallist pick?

Against Uzbekistan in the last Davis Cup tie, the combined skill and expertise of Paes and Bopanna wasn’t enough to quell the challenge of Murad Inyatov

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and Denis Istomin. If India’s ‘best’ doubles players were unable to defeat players that don’t even play regularly on the tour, then what confidence can they possibly take to London 2012?

Paes’ best bet – on paper seems to be Bhupathi. The acrimonious relationship between India’s most successful doubles pair is nothing new but both would call a temporary truce every time the Olympic Games came round the corner. The question on everyone’s mind is will they meet each other halfway even now?

If Bhupathi manages to crack the top 10 before the June 11 deadline then India could possibly send two doubles teams. Till then, it’s a game of wait and watch.

And that’s exactly what the national association is doing. The All India Tennis Association, stuck in the middle of the conundrum, is, as of now, taking refuge in the fact that actual entries by name will only be finalised after the June 11 rankings are out.

“We are hopeful of getting two entries in men's doubles and a lot will depend on the rankings of the three players (Leander Paes, Mahesh and Rohan Bopanna),” AITA secretary general Anil Khanna has said.

One of Paes’ choices is of course India’a top ranked singles player, Somdev Devvarman, who’s currently recuperating from shoulder surgery.

Devvarman, who has been out of action since the start of the year, is hoping to play the French Open and Wimbledon because of a protected ranking.

Devvarman isn’t likely to qualify to play singles at the Olympics.

In the women’s section, all of India’s hopes rest solely on Sania Mirza. Ranked 184 in the world, she wouldn’t qualify for the Olympics competition but the AITA has applied for a wild card for her.

Sania, known for her forehand, has shifted focus to doubles and has found more success there. She and Elena Vesnina were one of the most victorious

doubles team in 2011 – they won two Premier Level titles, reached the Roland Garros finals and semis at Wimbledon Semis.

The mixed doubles event – introduced this year after a gap of 88 years – represents one of India’s best medal chances. Sania and Bhupathi have won the Australian Open title and are expected to team up in all probability.

The ITF rule regarding entry in mixed doubles is very clear. “The ITF will select doubles teams for direct acceptance from mixed doubles entries comprising players accepted in the singles and/or men's/women's doubles events, received from national associations no later than July 31, 2012. It will take into account the international singles and doubles rankings of June 11, 2012,” an ITF announcement reads.

The ITF also says: “A maximum of two mixed doubles teams, from any one country may compete in the mixed doubles event.” <

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Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

ATP / WTA TOUR CALENDAR 2012 Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Mar Mar Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr May May May May Jun Jun Jun Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Aug Aug Aug Aug Sep Sep Sep Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Nov Nov

01 02 08 16 30 06 13 13 20 27 08 21 06 09 15 23 30 06 13 20 27 11 17 25 09 09 16 22 23 28 30 06 12 19 27 10 17 24 01 07 15 22 29 05 16

Brisbane, Australia Aircel Chennai / Doha, Qatar Sydney, Australia / Auckland, New Zealand Melbourne, Australia France / Zagreb, Croatia / Viña del Mar, Chile Davis Cup Rotterdam, The Netherlands Sao Paulo, Brazil / San Jose, U.S.A. France / Memphis, U.S.A. / Argentina U.A.E / Delray Beach, U.S.A. / Mexico Indian Wells, U.S.A. Miami, U.S.A. Davis Cup Casablanca, Morocco / Houston, U.S.A. Monte-Carlo, Monaco Bucharest, Romania / Barcelona, Spain Germany / Belgrade, Serbia / Estoril, Portugal Madrid, Spain Rome, Italy Düsseldorf, Germany / Nice, France Paris, France Halle, Germany / London, Great Britain The Netherlands / Eastbourne, Great Britain Wimbledon, Great Britain Stuttgart, Germany U.S.A. / Båstad, Sweden / Umag, Croatia Germany / Atlanta, U.S.A. / Switzerland Kitzbühel, Austria Los Angeles, U.S.A. Olympics, London Washington D.C., U.S.A. Toronto, Canada Cincinnati, U.S.A Winston Salem, U.S.A. New York, U.S.A. Davis Cup Metz, France / St. Petersburg, Russia Bangkok, Thailand / Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Beijing, China / Tokyo, Japan Shanghai, China Austria / Stockholm, Sweden / Russia Valencia, Spain / Basel, Switzerland Paris, France London, England Davis Cup

WTA TOUR Jan Jan Jan Jan Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Mar Mar Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr May May May May Jun Jun Jun Jun Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Aug Aug Aug Aug Sep Sep Sep Sep Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct

01 02 08 16 06 13 19 20 27 07 20 02 09 09 23 23 30 05 14 21 27 11 17 18 25 09 16 23 28 29 07 13 19 27 10 17 23 29 08 15 15 23 30

Brisbane, Australia Auckland, New Zealand Sydney, Australia / Hobart, Australia Melbourne, Australia Paris, France / Pattaya City, Thailand Doha, Qatar / Bogotá, Colombia Memphis, TN-USA Dubai, UAE / Monterrey, Mexico Acapulco, Mexico / Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Indian Wells, CA-USA Miami, FL-USA Charleston, SC-USA Barcelona, Spain Copenhagen, Denmark Stuttgart, Germany Fès, Morocco Estoril, Portugal / Budapest, Hungary Madrid, Spain Rome, Italy Brussels, Belgium / Strasbourg, France Paris, France Great Britain / Bad Gastein, Austria 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands Eastbourne, Great Britain London, Great Britain Stanford, CA-USA / Palermo, Italy Carlsbad, CA-USA / Bastad, Sweden Baku, Azerbaijan London, Great Britain Washington, DC-USA Montréal, Canada Cincinnati, OH-USA New Haven, CT-USA / Dallas, TX-USA Flushing Meadows, Tashkent, Uzbekistan / Quebec City, Canada Seoul, South Korea / Guangzhou, China Tokyo, Japan Beijing, China Linz, Austria / Osaka, Japan Moscow, Russia Luxembourg, Luxembourg Istanbul, Turkey Sofia, Bulgaria

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

55

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

ATP TOUR

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

ATP RANKINGS (As on 30 April 2012)

Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner

Novak Djokovic

RANK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 56

SINGLES NAME/COUNTRY

POINTS

RANK

Djokovic, Novak (SRB) Nadal, Rafael (ESP) Federer, Roger (SUI) Murray, Andy (GBR) Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried (FRA) Ferrer, David (ESP) Berdych, Tomas (CZE) Tipsarevic, Janko (SRB) Fish, Mardy (USA) Isner, John (USA) Simon, Gilles (FRA) Del Potro, Juan Martin (ARG) Almagro, Nicolas (ESP) Monfils, Gael (FRA) Monaco, Juan (ARG) Lopez, Feliciano (ESP) Nishikori, Kei (JPN) Gasquet, Richard (FRA) Verdasco, Fernando (ESP) Dolgopolov, Alexandr (UKR) Mayer, Florian (GER) Mayer, Florian (GER) Wawrinka, Stanislas (SUI) Raonic, Milos (CAN) Cilic, Marin (CRO) Stepanek, Radek (CZE) Benneteau, Julien (FRA) Granollers, Marcel (ESP) Roddick, Andy (USA) Troicki, Viktor (SRB) Chela, Juan Ignacio (ARG) Anderson, Kevin (RSA) Soderling, Robin (SWE) Tomic, Bernard (AUS) Kohlschreiber, Philipp (GER) Melzer, Jurgen (AUT) Youzhny, Mikhail (RUS) Berlocq, Carlos (ARG) Andujar, Pablo (ESP) Baghdatis, Marcos (CYP) Bellucci, Thomaz (BRA) Bogomolov Jr., Alex (RUS) Ramos, Albert (ESP) Haase, Robin (NED) Nieminen, Jarkko (FIN) Istomin, Denis (UZB) Seppi, Andreas (ITA) Llodra, Michael (FRA) Fognini, Fabio (ITA) Nalbandian, David (ARG) Kubot, Lukasz (POL)

13,020 10,170 8,880 7,860 4,830 4,280 4,080 2,820 2,725 2,620 2,525 2,495 2,175 2,075 2,015 1,795 1,735 1,595 1,595 1,565 1,435 1,435 1,425 1,425 1,400 1,340 1,250 1,250 1,245 1,185 1,175 1,170 1,165 1,165 1,155 1,147 1,140 1,076 1,070 1,025 1,020 1,011 1,003 1,001 993 982 980 965 930 905 901

1 1 3 3 5 6 7 8 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

DOUBLES NAME/COUNTRY Bryan, Bob (USA) Bryan, Mike (USA) Mirnyi, Max (BLR) Nestor, Daniel (CAN) Llodra, Michael (FRA) Zimonjic, Nenad (SRB) Paes, Leander (IND) Fyrstenberg, Mariusz (POL) Matkowski, Marcin (POL) Lindstedt, Robert (SWE) Tecau, Horia (ROU) Bopanna, Rohan (IND) Stepanek, Radek (CZE) Qureshi, Aisam-Ul-Haq (PAK) Bhupathi, Mahesh (IND) Petzschner, Philipp (GER) Melzer, Jurgen (AUT) Peya, Alexander (AUT) Lopez, Marc (ESP) Cabal, Juan Sebastian (COL) Kas, Christopher (GER) Cermak, Frantisek (CZE) Polasek, Filip (SVK) Querrey, Sam (USA) Fleming, Colin (GBR) Marrero, David (ESP) Granollers, Marcel (ESP) Hutchins, Ross (GBR) Bracciali, Daniele (ITA) Schwank, Eduardo (ARG) Isner, John (USA) Soares, Bruno (BRA) Marach, Oliver (AUT) Melo, Marcelo (BRA) Butorac, Eric (USA) Fognini, Fabio (ITA) Gonzalez, Santiago (MEX) Rojer, Jean-Julien (NED) Murray, Jamie (GBR) Hanley, Paul (AUS) Bolelli, Simone (ITA) Lipsky, Scott (USA) Mahut, Nicolas (FRA) Huey, Treat Conrad (PHI) Malisse, Xavier (BEL) Brown, Dustin (GER) Sa, Andre (BRA) Erlich, Jonathan (ISR) Norman, Dick (BEL) Ram, Andy (ISR)

POINTS 9,430 9,430 9,090 9,090 7,720 7,700 6,195 4,905 4,905 4,690 4,690 4,475 4,175 3,955 3,850 3,524 3,455 3,220 3,190 2,863 2,850 2,740 2,640 2,543 2,535 2,435 2,430 2,420 2,405 2,403 2,390 2,380 2,315 2,220 2,130 2,030 2,013 1,880 1,800 1,700 1,655 1,630 1,535 1,513 1,510 1,500 1,455 1,370 1,340 1,325

Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

WTA RANKINGS (As on 30 April 2012)

Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond

Petra Kvitová

RANK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

SINGLES NAME/COUNTRY Azarenka, Victoria (BLR) Sharapova, Maria (RUS) Kvitova, Petra (CZE) Radwanska, Agnieszka (POL) Stosur, Samantha (AUS) Wozniacki, Caroline (DEN) Bartoli, Marion (FRA) Li, Na (CHN) Williams, Serena (USA) Zvonareva, Vera (RUS) Schiavone, Francesca (ITA) Petkovic, Andrea (GER) Lisicki, Sabine (GER) Kerber, Angelique (GER ) Ivanovic, Ana (SRB) Cibulkova, Dominika (SVK) Jankovic, Jelena (SRB) Hantuchova, Daniela (SVK) Kirilenko, Maria (RUS) Goerges, Julia (GER) Safarova, Lucie (CZE) Pavlyuchenkova, Anastasia (RUS) Vinci, Roberta (ITA) Pennetta, Flavia (ITA) Peng, Shuai (CHN) Kuznetsova, Svetlana (RUS) Errani, Sara (ITA) Cetkovska, Petra (CZE) Wickmayer, Yanina (BEL) Niculescu, Monica (ROU) Barthel, Mona (GER) Medina Garrigues, Anabel (ESP) Zheng, Jie (CHN) Kanepi, Kaia (EST) Petrova, Nadia (RUS) McHale, Christina (USA) Hercog, Polona (SLO) Pervak, Ksenia (KAZ) Makarova, Ekaterina (RUS) Cirstea, Sorana (ROU) Clijsters, Kim (BEL) Scheepers, Chanelle (RSA) Pironkova, Tsvetana (BUL) Benesova, Iveta (CZE) Erakovic, Marina (NZL) Zakopalova, Klara (CZE) Halep, Simona (ROU) Martinez Sanchez, Maria Jose (ESP) Voskoboeva, Galina (KAZ) Paszek, Tamira (AUT)

POINTS

RANK

9020 8280 7170 6710 5825 5330 5020 4940 4300 3775 3380 3350 3201 3125 2785 2715 2500 2450 2410 2335 2255 2246 2230 2155 2050 1931 1840 1820 1745 1740 1732 1730 1720 1720 1706 1621 1547 1430 1387 1351 1311 1310 1282 1265 1243 1240 1230 1229 1228 1173

1 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 25 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

DOUBLES NAME/COUNTRY Huber, Liezel (USA) Raymond, Lisa (USA) Peschke, Kveta (CZE) Srebotnik, Katarina (SLO) King, Vania (USA) Shvedova, Yaroslava (KAZ) Kirilenko, Maria (RUS) Mirza, Sania (IND) Hlavackova, Andrea (CZE) Hradecka, Lucie (CZE) Vesnina, Elena (RUS) Errani, Sara (ITA) Vinci, Roberta (ITA) Dulko, Gisela (ARG) Pennetta, Flavia (ITA) Petrova, Nadia (RUS) Zheng, Jie (CHN) Zahlavova Strycova, Barbora (CZE) Azarenka, Victoria (BLR) Rodionova, Anastasia (AUS) Llagostera Vives, Nuria (ESP) Benesova, Iveta (CZE) Uhlirova, Vladimira (CZE) Grandin, Natalie (RSA) Kops-Jones, Raquel (USA) Spears, Abigail (USA) Zvonareva, Vera (RUS) Parra Santonja, Arantxa (ESP) Kuznetsova, Svetlana (RUS) Medina Garrigues, Anabel (ESP) Niculescu, Monica (ROU) Voskoboeva, Galina (KAZ) Peng, Shuai (CHN) Goerges, Julia (GER) Gajdosova, Jarmila (AUS) Groenefeld, Anna-LenavGER) Kudryavtseva, Alla (RUS) Begu, Irina-Camelia (ROU) Dushevina, Vera (RUS) Rosolska, Alicja (POL) Stosur, Samantha (AUS) Makarova, Ekaterina (RUS) Martinez Sanchez, Maria Jose (ESP) Mattek-Sands, Bethanie (USA) Hantuchova, Daniela (SVK) Radwanska, Agnieszka (POL) Dellacqua, Casey (AUS) Erakovic, Marina (NZL) Date-Krumm, Kimiko (JPN) Jans-Ignacik, Klaudia (POL)

POINTS 10040 10040 7950 7950 7225 7095 5815 5560 5465 5455 5400 4850 4850 4640 4415 4240 3370 3160 3153 3075 2980 2860 2790 2790 2755 2755 2728 2665 2571 2545 2535 2455 2355 2310 2255 2245 2200 2125 2105 2105 2058 2041 2035 2006 1988 1987 1935 1923 1895 1865

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

57

2011 WTA TOUR FINAL RESULTS DATE NAME/LOCATION WINNER

58

DATE NAME/LOCATION WINNER Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

03-01-2011 Brisbane Australia SINGLES: Petra Kvitová DOUBLES: Alisa Kleybanova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 03-01-2011 Auckland New Zealand SINGLES: Gréta Arn DOUBLES: Květa Peschke, Katarina Srebotnik 03-01-2011 Sydney Australia SINGLES: Li Na DOUBLES: Iveta Benešová, Barbora ZáhlavováStrýcová 10-01-2011 Hobart Australia SINGLES: Jarmila Groth DOUBLES: Sara Errani, Roberta Vinci 17-01-2011 to 24-01-2011 Melbourne Australia SINGLES: Kim Clijsters DOUBLES: Gisela Dulko, Flavia Pennetta 07-02-2011 Paris France SINGLES: Petra Kvitová DOUBLES: Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Meghann Shaughnessy 07-02-2011 Pattaya City Thailand SINGLES: Daniela Hantuchová DOUBLES: Sara Errani, Roberta Vinci 14-02-2011 Dubai UAE SINGLES: Caroline Wozniacki DOUBLES: Liezel Huber, María José Martínez Sánchez 14-02-2011 Memphis United States SINGLES: Magdaléna Rybáriková DOUBLES: Olga Govortsova, Alla Kudryavtseva 14 -02-2011 Bogotá Colombia SINGLES: Lourdes Domínguez Lino DOUBLES: Edina Gallovits-Hall, Anabel Medina Garrigues 21-02-2011 Doha Qatar SINGLES: Vera Zvonareva DOUBLES: Kvêta Peschke, Katarina Srebotnik 21-02-2011 Acapulco Mexico SINGLES: Gisela Dulko DOUBLES: Mariya Koryttseva, Ioana Raluca Olaru 28-02-2011 Monterrey Mexico SINGLES: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova DOUBLES: Iveta Benešová, Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová 28-02-2011 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia SINGLES: Jelena Dokić DOUBLES: Dinara Safina, Galina Voskoboeva 07-03-2011 to 14-03-2011 Indian Wells United States SINGLES: Caroline Wozniacki DOUBLES: Sania Mirza, Elena Vesnina 21-03-2011 to 28-03-2011 Miami USA SINGLES: Victoria Azarenka DOUBLES: Daniela Hantuchová, Agnieszka Radwańska 04-04-2011 Charleston United States SINGLES: Caroline Wozniacki DOUBLES: Sania Mirza, Elena Vesnina 04-04-2011 Marbella Spain SINGLES: Victoria Azarenka DOUBLES: Nuria Llagostera Vives, Arantxa Parra Santonja 18-04-2011 Stuttgart Germany SINGLES: Julia Görges DOUBLES: Sabine Lisicki, Samantha Stosur 18-04-2011 Fes Morocco SINGLES: Alberta Brianti DOUBLES: Andrea Hlaváčková, Renata Voráčová 25-04-2011 Barcelona Spain SINGLES: Roberta Vinci DOUBLES: Iveta Benešová, Barbora ZáhlavováStrýcová

DATE NAME/LOCATION WINNER

Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova 25-04-2011 Estoril Portugal SINGLES: Anabel Medina Garrigues DOUBLES: Alisa Kleybanova, Galina Voskoboeva 02-05-2011 Madrid Spain SINGLES: Petra Kvitová DOUBLES: Victoria Azarenka, Maria Kirilenko 09-05-2011 Rome Italy SINGLES: Maria Sharapova DOUBLES: Peng Shuai, Zheng Jie 16-05-2011 Brussels Belgium SINGLES: Caroline Wozniacki DOUBLES: Andrea Hlaváčková, Galina Voskoboeva 16-05-2011 Strasbourg France SINGLES: Andrea Petkovic DOUBLES: Akgul Amanmuradova, Chuang Chia-jung 23-05-2011 to 30-05-2011 Paris France SINGLES: Li Na DOUBLES: Andrea Hlaváčková, Lucie Hradecká 06-06-2011 Birmingham United Kingdom SINGLES: Sabine Lisicki DOUBLES: Olga Govortsova, Alla Kudryavtseva 06-06-2011 Copenhagen Denmark SINGLES: Caroline Wozniacki DOUBLES: Johanna Larsson, Jasmin Wöhr 13-06-2011 Eastbourne United Kingdom SINGLES: Marion Bartoli DOUBLES: Květa Peschke, Katarina Srebotnik 13-06-2011 's-Hertogenbosch Netherlands SINGLES: Roberta Vinci DOUBLES: Barbora ZáhlavováStrýcová, Klára Zakopalová 20-06-2011 to 27-06-2011 London United Kingdom SINGLES: Petra Kvitová DOUBLES: Květa Peschke, Katarina Srebotnik 04-07-2011 Budapest Hungary SINGLES: Roberta Vinci DOUBLES: Anabel Medina Garrigues, Alicja Rosolska 04-07-2011 Båstad Sweden SINGLES: Polona Hercog DOUBLES: Lourdes Domínguez Lino, María José Martínez Sánchez 11-07-2011 Palermo, Italy SINGLES: Anabel Medina Garrigues DOUBLES: Sara Errani, Roberta Vinci 11-07-2011 Bad Gastein Austria SINGLES: María

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

José Martínez Sánchez DOUBLES: Eva Birnerová, Lucie Hradecká 18-07-2011 Baku Azerbaijan SINGLES: Vera Zvonareva DOUBLES: Mariya Koryttseva, Tatiana Poutchek 25-07-2011 Stanford United States SINGLES: Serena Williams DOUBLES: Victoria Azarenka, Maria Kirilenko July 25 Washington D.C. United States SINGLES: Nadia Petrova DOUBLES: Sania Mirza, Yaroslava Shvedova 01-08-2011 San Diego United States SINGLES: Agnieszka Radwańska DOUBLES: Květa Peschke, Katarina Srebotnik 08-8-2011 Toronto Canada SINGLES: Serena Williams DOUBLES: Liezel Huber, Lisa Raymond 15-08-2011 Cincinnati United States SINGLES: Maria Sharapova DOUBLES: Vania King, Yaroslava Shvedova 22-08-2011 New Haven United States SINGLES: Caroline Wozniacki DOUBLES: Chuang Chia-jung, Olga Govortsova 22-08-2011 Dallas United States SINGLES: Sabine Lisicki DOUBLES: Alberta Brianti, Sorana Cîrstea 29-08-2011 to 05-09-2011 New York City USA SINGLES: Samantha Stosur DOUBLES: Liezel Huber, Lisa Raymond 12-09-2011 Tashkent Uzbekistan SINGLES: Ksenia Pervak DOUBLES: Eleni Daniilidou, Vitalia Diatchenko 12-09-2011 Quebec City Canada SINGLES: Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová DOUBLES: Raquel Kops-Jones, Abigail Spears 19-09-2011 Seoul South Korea SINGLES: María José Martínez Sánchez DOUBLES: Natalie Grandin, Vladimíra Uhlířová 19-09-2011 Guangzhou China SINGLES: Chanelle Scheepers DOUBLES: Hsieh Su-wei, Zheng Saisai 26-09-2011 Tokyo Japan SINGLES: Agnieszka Radwańska DOUBLES: Liezel Huber, Lisa Raymond 03-10-2011 Beijing China SINGLES: Agnieszka Radwańska DOUBLES: Květa Peschke, Katarina Srebotnik 10-10-2011 Linz Austria SINGLES: Petra Kvitová DOUBLES: Marina Erakovic, Elena Vesnina 10-10-2011 Osaka Japan SINGLES: Marion Bartoli DOUBLES: Kimiko Date-Krumm, Zhang Shuai 17-10-2011 Moscow Russia SINGLES: Dominika Cibulková DOUBLES: Vania King, Yaroslava Shvedova 17-10-2011 Luxembourg City Luxembourg SINGLES: Victoria Azarenka DOUBLES: Iveta Benešová, Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová 24-10-2011 Istanbul Turkey SINGLES: Petra Kvitová DOUBLES: Liezel Huber, Lisa Raymond 31-10-2011 Bali Indonesia SINGLES: Ana Ivanović

2011 ATP TOUR FINAL RESULTS DATE NAME/LOCATION WINNER

DATE NAME/LOCATION WINNER

DATE NAME/LOCATION WINNER Photo: Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

02.01.2011 Brisbane Australia SINGLES: Robin Soderling DOUBLES: Paul Hanley, Lukas Dlouhy 03.01.2011 Chennai India SINGLES: Stanislas Wawrinka DOUBLES: Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi 03.01.2011 Doha Qatar SINGLES: Roger Federer DOUBLES: Rafael Nadal, Marc Lopez 10.01.2011 Auckland New Zealand SINGLES: David Ferrer DOUBLES: Tommy Robredo, Marcel Granollers 10.01.2011 Sydney Australia SINGLES: Gilles Simon DOUBLES: Paul Hanley, Lukas Dlouhy

07.02.2011 Rotterdam The Netherlands SINGLES: Robin Soderling DOUBLES: Philipp

Petzschner, Jurgen Melzer 07.02.2011 San Jose CA, U.S.A. SINGLES: Milos Raonic DOUBLES: Rajeev Ram, Scott Lipsky 14.02.2011 Buenos Aires Argentina SINGLES: Nicolas Almagro DOUBLES: Leonardo Mayer, Oliver Marach 14.02.2011 Marseille France SINGLES: Robin Soderling DOUBLES: Ken Skupski, Robin Haase

21.08.2011 Winston-Salem NC, U.S.A. SINGLES: John Isner DOUBLES: Andy Ram, Jonathan Erlich Davydenko DOUBLES: Horacio Zeballos, Simone Bolelli

19.09.2011 Bucharest Romania SINGLES: Florian Mayer DOUBLES: Potito Starace, Daniele Bracciali

25.04.2011 Belgrade Serbia SINGLES: Novak Djokovic DOUBLES: Filip Polasek, Frantisek Cermak

19.09.2011 Metz France SINGLES: Jo Wilfried Tsonga DOUBLES: Andre Sa, Jamie Murray

25.04.2011 Estoril Portugal SINGLES: Juan Martin Del Potro DOUBLES: Jean Julien Rojer, Eric Butorac

26.09.2011 Bangkok Thailand SINGLES: Andy Murray DOUBLES: Aisam Ul Haq Qureshi, Oliver Marach

01.05.2011 Madrid Spain SINGLES: Novak Djokovic DOUBLES: Mike Bryan, Bob Bryan 08.05.2011 Rome Italy SINGLES: Novak Djokovic DOUBLES: Sam Querrey, John Isner 15.05.2011 Nice France SINGLES: Nicolas Almagro DOUBLES: Jean Julien Rojer, Eric Butorac 15.05.2011 Düsseldorf TEAM: Germany

21.02.2011 Acapulco Mexico SINGLES: David Ferrer DOUBLES: Horia Tecau, Victor Hanescu

06.06.2011 Halle Germany SINGLES: Philipp Kohlschreiber DOUBLES: Aisam Ul Haq Qureshi, Rohan Bopanna

21.02.2011 Dubai U.A.E. SINGLES: Novak Djokovic DOUBLES: Mikhail Youzhny, Sergiy Stakhovsky 10.03.2011 Indian Wells CA, U.S.A. SINGLES: Novak Djokovic DOUBLES: Xavier Malisse, Alexandr Dolgopolov

31.07.2011 Kitzbühel Austria SINGLES: Robin Haase DOUBLES: Santiago Gonzalez, Daniele Bracciali

14.08.2011 Cincinnati OH, U.S.A. SINGLES: Andy Murray DOUBLES: Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi

Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray

14.02.2011 Memphis TN, U.S.A. SINGLES: Andy Roddick DOUBLES: Daniel Nestor, Max Mirnyi

21.02.2011 Delray Beach FL, U.S.A. SINGLES: Juan Martin Del Potro DOUBLES: Rajeev Ram, Scott Lipsky

25.07.2011 Umag Croatia SINGLES: Alexandr Dolgopolov DOUBLES: Fabio Fognini, Simone Bolelli

08.08.2011 Montreal Canada SINGLES: Novak Djokovic DOUBLES: Nenad Zimonjic, Michael Llodra

31.01.2011 Santiago Chile SINGLES: Tommy Robredo DOUBLES: Bruno Soares, Marcelo Melo

07.02.2011 Costa Do Sauipe Brazil SINGLES: Nicolas Almagro DOUBLES: Bruno Soares, Marcelo Melo

25.07.2011 Los Angeles CA, U.S.A. SINGLES: Ernests Gulbis DOUBLES: Xavier Malisse, Mark Knowles

31.07.2011 Washington DC, USA SINGLES: Radek Stepanek DOUBLES: Nenad Zimonjic, Michael Llodra

31.01.2011 Johannesburg South Africa SINGLES: Kevin Anderson DOUBLES: Adil Shamasdin, James Cerretani

31.01.2011 Zagreb Croatia SINGLES: Ivan Dodig DOUBLES: Horia Tecau, Dick Norman

Simon DOUBLES: Alexander Peya, Oliver Marach 25.07.2011 Gstaad Switzerland SINGLES: Marcel Granollers DOUBLES: Filip Polasek, Frantisek Cermak

26.09.2011 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia SINGLES: Janko Tipsarevic DOUBLES: Jean Julien Rojer, Eric Butorac 03.10.2011 Beijing China SINGLES: Tomas Berdych DOUBLES: Nenad Zimonjic, Michael Llodra 03.10.2011 Tokyo Japan SINGLES: Andy Murray DOUBLES: Jamie Murray, Andy Murray 09.10.2011 Shanghai China SINGLES: Andy Murray DOUBLES: Daniel Nestor, Max Mirnyi

06.06.2011 London / Queen's Club Great Britain SINGLES: Andy Murray DOUBLES: Mike Bryan, Bob Bryan 12.06.2011 Eastbourne Great Britain SINGLES: Andreas Seppi DOUBLES: Andy Ram, Jonathan Erlich

17.10.2011 Moscow Russia SINGLES: Janko Tipsarevic DOUBLES: Filip Polasek, Frantisek Cermak 17.10.2011 Stockholm Sweden SINGLES: Gael Monfils DOUBLES: Aisam Ul Haq Qureshi, Rohan Bopanna 24.10.2011 St. Petersburg Russia SINGLES: Marin Cilic DOUBLES: Ross Hutchins, Colin Fleming

12.06.2011 s-Hertogenbosch The Netherlands SINGLES: Dmitry Tursunov DOUBLES: Frantisek Cermak, Daniele Bracciali

24.10.2011 Vienna Austria SINGLES: Jo Wilfried Tsonga DOUBLES: Mike Bryan, Bob Bryan

04.07.2011 Newport RI, U.S.A. SINGLES: John Isner DOUBLES: Ryan Harrison, Matthew Ebden

31.10.2011 Basel Switzerland SINGLES: Roger Federer DOUBLES: Nenad Zimonjic, Michael Llodra

11.07.2011 Båstad Sweden SINGLES: Robin Soderling DOUBLES: Horia Tecau, Robert Lindstedt

31.10.2011 Valencia Spain SINGLES: Marcel Granollers DOUBLES: Mike Bryan, Bob Bryan

10.04.2011 Monte Carlo Monaco SINGLES: Rafael Nadal DOUBLES: Mike Bryan, Bob Bryan

11.07.2011 Stuttgart Germany SINGLES: Juan Carlos Ferrero DOUBLES: Philipp Petzschner, Jurgen Melzer

07.11.2011 Paris France SINGLES: Roger Federer DOUBLES: Aisam Ul Haq Qureshi, Rohan Bopanna

18.04.2011 Barcelona Spain SINGLES: Rafael Nadal DOUBLES: Scott Lipsky, Santiago Gonzalez

18.07.2011 Atlanta GA, USA SINGLES: Mardy Fish DOUBLES: Matthew Ebden, Alex Bogomolov Jr

24.04.2011 Munich Germany SINGLES: Nikolay

18.07.2011 Hamburg Germany SINGLES: Gilles

23.03.2011 Miami FL, U.S.A. SINGLES: Novak Djokovic DOUBLES: Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi 04.04.2011 Casablanca Morocco SINGLES: Pablo Andujar DOUBLES: Horia Tecau, Robert Lindstedt 04.04.2011 Houston TX, U.S.A. SINGLES: Ryan Sweeting DOUBLES: Mike Bryan, Bob Bryan

20.11.2011 Great Britain SINGLES: Roger Federer DOUBLES: Daniel Nestor, Max Mirnyi

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

59

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

ASIAN RANKINGS (16 March 2012)

Kei Nishikori

Li, Na

MEN’S SINGLES RANK

60

POINTS

WORLD RANKING

RANK

Nishikori, Kei (JPN) 1685 Istomin, Denis (UZB) 917 Lu, Yen-Hsun (TPE) 820 Kukushkin, Mikhail (KAZ) 738 Soeda, Go (JPN) 685 Ito, Tatsuma (JPN) 532 Devvarman, Somdev (IND) 424 Golubev, Andrey (KAZ) 372 Udomchoke, Danai (THA) 314 Sugita, Yuichi (JPN) 298 Yang, Tsung-Hua (TPE) 273 Wang, Jimmy (TPE) 238 Schukin, Yuri (KAZ) 230 Zhang, Ze (CHN) 192 Dustov, Farrukh (UZB) 175 Moriya, Hiroki (JPN) 172 Korolev, Evgeny (KAZ) 171 Chen, Ti (TPE) 170 Bhambri, Yuki (IND) 164 Lim, Yong-Kyu (KOR) 157 Vardhan, Vishnu (IND) 131 Mitsuhashi, Junn (JPN) 112 Li, Zhe (CHN) 108 Rungkat, Christopher (INA) 96 Uchiyama, Yasutaka (JPN) 86 Daniel, Taro (JPN) 79 Malik, Vijayant (IND) 74 Kim, Young-Jun (KOR) 72 Rastogi, Karan (IND) 71 Gong, Mao-Xin (CHN) 68 Im, Kyu Tae (KOR) 66 Kondo, Hiroki (JPN) 64 Matsui, Toshihide (JPN) 63 Wu, Di (CHN) 62 Onozawa, Arata (JPN) 61 Gajjar, Rohan (IND) 60 Takeuchi, Kento (JPN) 60 Virali-Murugesan, Ranjeet (IND) 59 Beidas, Bassam (LIB) 58 Inoyatov, Murad (UZB) 57 Yoo, Daniel (KOR) 56 An, Jae-Sung (KOR) 54 Ehara, Hiroyasu (JPN) 52 Wachiramanowong, Kittipong (THA)52 Niki, Takuto (JPN) 49 Nedunchezhiyan, Jeevan (IND) 48 Jun, Woong-Sun (KOR) 45 Huang, Liang-Chi (TPE) 44 Suzuki, Takao (JPN) 39 Singh, Sanam (IND) 35

17 51 56 65 77 105 135 145 167 172 184 209 217 248 269 271 272 275 280 289 337 368 376 398 423 451 468 474 477 491 498 502 506 510 513 515 516 521 522 527 531 536 546 547 553 556 571 578 591 612

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

NAME/COUNTRY

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

WOMEN’S SINGLES

Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2012

POINTS

WORLD RANKING

Li, Na (CHN) 4635 Peng, Shuai (CHN) 2240 Zheng, Jie (CHN) 1710 Pervak, Ksenia (KAZ) 3940 Voskoboeva, Galina (KAZ) 1228 Morita, Ayumi (JPN) 860 Date-krumm, Kimiko (JPN) 825 Hsieh, Su-wei (TPE) 800 Tanasugarn, Tamarine (THA) 762 Chang, Kai-chen (TPE) 659 Amanmuradova, Akgul (UZB) 576 Mirza, Sania (IND) 533 Doi, Misaki (JPN) 528 Karatantcheva, Sesil (KAZ) 504 Chan, Yung-jan (TPE) 507 Sema, Erika (JPN) 490 Nara, Kurumi (JPN) 463 Shvedova, Yaroslava (KAZ) 450 Zhang, Shuai (CHN) 371 Sema, Yurika (JPN) 358 Lertcheewakarn, Noppawan (THA) 329 Fujiwara, Rika (JPN) 312 Eguchi, Misa (JPN) 278 Wongteanchai, Varatchaya (THA) 278 Damayanti, Ayu Fani 274 Zhang, Ling (HKG) 269 Nakamura, Aiko (JPN) 265 Omae, Akiko (JPN) 233 Wang, Qiang (CHN) 232 Ishizu, Sachie (JPN) 224 Namigata, Junri (JPN) 221 Zhao, Yijing (CHN) 209 Diyas, Zarina (KAZ) 202 Kumkhum, Luksika (THA) 195 Takao, Erika (JPN) 189 Hu, Yue-yue (CHN) 184 Duan, Ying-ying (CHN) 181 Xu, Yi-fan (CHN) 181 Luangnam, Nudnida (THA) 176 Lu, Jing-jing (CHN) 165 Kim, So-jung (KOR) 165 Hsu, Wen-hsin (TPE) 155 Han, Sung-hee (KOR) 153 Zheng, Saisai (CHN) 142 Fuda, Ryoko (JPN) 137 Akita, Shiho (JPN) 137 Lertpitaksinchai, Nicha (THA) 123 Hamamura, Natsumi (JPN) 116 Abduraimova, Nigina (UZB) 111 Aoyama, Shuko (JPN) 106

8 23 31 39 51 73 78 78 87 102 116 127 128 133 135 136 146 148 171 176 189 195 216 217 218 219 222 238 240 251 254 262 273 279 284 290 291 294 297 308 310 316 316 334 343 345 362 369 379 388

NAME/COUNTRY

RNI Regn. No. DELENG 10225