Junior Player's Reviews. Installment #3 - Arantxa Rus

Part 3 of my junior reviews:

Arantxa Rus (NED) Junior Career High Ranking No. 1

WTA Career High Ranking No. 149

She played in one of the better junior matches I had seen in the Wimbledon Junior event last year, against Tamaryn Hendler in the quarter-finals. She's relatively tall, with a slim build. Her build however, does offer a few co-ordination problems. Her lefty game is nowhere near as smooth as say Laura Robson's, for example, yet it can be quite effective. Big plus is, she's not as useless as Hercog.

She is something of a clean ball striker. Her forehand is very unorthodox. Yes, she has the trademark wide, lefty swing, but her technique on it verges on awkward. It isin't particularly smooth and is certainly the heavier of her two sides. Her forehand down-the-line is her deadliest shot. When she times is properly, which is only about half the time, is zings down the court, deep and is either a winner, or gives her a short, easy mid-court ball begging to be put-away. Her cross-court forehand looked better than it actually is due to Hendler's poor reactions and lack of an explosive first step. The follow through on her technique is often non-existent; merely a flick of the wrist alot of the time. Flat, cross-court, deep drives almost always draw a wild unforced errors out of her forehand.

Her forehand makes her game look gawky and un-coordinated, yet she does have some quite steady aspects to her game

The backhand is arguably her better shot in comparison with the forehand. It's more reliable, at least. It's a cleaner hit more often than not, the back swing is much more compact and gets much better depth consistently in compared to her forehand. All of this is relative however, since it's only when she's in the right position that any of this matters. Usually her rudimentary footwork and fair defensive skills make her court position in high pace baseline exchanges terrible. She's helpless when balls comes deep to her feet on either forehand or backhand, usually shanks them into the net or offers up a puffball, leaving her a sitting duck against any competent sort of ball striker.

She's not particularly agile. Defense is OK when she's in left-right-left-right baseline exchanges, but any sudden sharp angles and the point's over; same with acute changes in direction. Due to her large swings and below average footwork, she usually needs to play well behind the baseline to accommodate this, negating the effectiveness of her shots to a certain extent. Yes, Nicole Vaidisova made the top 10 with a similar approach, but Rus' quality of grounstroke just isin't as accurate nor as consistently aggressive to have the same success with such a tactic.

Her return-of-serve is better than both Kerkhove and Hercog, but still leaves a little to be desired. It usually consists on her taking big cuts at everything, making her return-of-serve game wholly unpredictable and inconsistent. Even against a mid-paced server like Hendler, she had to stand well behind the baseline on both 1st, and 2nd serves to accommodate, both her large swings and aggressive game plan. Alot of her returns went straight down the middle of the court back at the server, however. They weren't quite as conservatively placed a say Kerkhove's for example, but still predictable and conservative.

It's clear from watching Rus v Hendler, and other Robson matches, that junior girls don't return lefty serves well. Rus's service pattern are what you'd expect for a lefty. She hits the slider out wide in the advantage court, and down-the-line in the Deuce court about 80% of the time. Even though Hendler knew it was going there, she could do little with it. Occasionally comes up with some flat one's on both sides, usually aces because the returner is always looking for the out-wide one. She couldn't hit a 2nd serve to a right-hander's forehand to save her life. She doesn't take advantage of her lefty 1st serve nearly as much as she should. Slider out-wide in the advantage court pretty much always comes back cross-court and fairly short, yet she rarely goes for the space, often hitting it hard back to her opponent and in turn, neutralising the rally. It never appeared as though she had any discernible game plan behind her serve either.

Bottom line on Rus:

She has enough in her game for the top 100. Much work to be done if she's looking for more. Undoubtedly, she can develop her game around the lefty serve. Right now, she doesn't capitalise on nearly as much as she should. Maybe she could hone in on the development of her net game, go for the advantage court slider serve out-wide, back it up with a inside-out forehand into the corner to knock off a volley. That's really where I see her doing the most damage. Her ground game just isin't big enough, or consistent enough to rely on her ball bashing skills from the back of the court. Simply doesn't have enough raw firepower to win matches alone on that merit on the main tour. Alot of things to be improved from Rus, but I don't think she's certainly got potential. Future top tenner, no. Possible top 50 player, sure. With work, of course.

Acapulco Draw.

Main draw for the Abierto Mexicano TELCEL (International Tier i.e Mickey Mouse) event in Acapulco, Mexico:

(1) Venus Williams vs. Nuria Llagostera Vives
Greta Arn(Q) vs. Edina Gallovits
Agnes Szavay(LL) def. (WC) Anna Orlik 7-5 7-5
Roberta Vinci def. (6) Lucie Safarova 6-4 6-4

(3) Carla Suarez Navarro vs. Viktoriya Kutuzova
Barbora Zahlavova Strycova def. Andreja Klepac 2-6 6-1 6-4
Maret Ani vs. Patricia Mayr
Ioana Raluca Olaru(Q) vs. (5) Gisela Dulko

(7)Tathiana Garbin vs. Jill Craybas
Mathilde Johansson(WC) def. Rossana De Los Rios 6-4 6-1
Klara Zakopalova def. Emilie Loit 4-6 6-4 7-5
(4) Iveta Benesova def. Olga Savchuk

(8)Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez vs. Arantxa Parra Santonja
Petra Cetkovska def. Lourdes Dominguez Lino 6-2 6-2
Pauline Parmentier def. (WC) Melissa Torres Sandoval 6-2 6-3
Mariya Koryttseva vs. (2) Flavia Pennetta

* (Q) = Qualifier
* (LL) = Lucky Loser

Key Points about the draw:

This would be just another lower tier clay court event if Venus Williams wasn't in the draw. It will be interesting to see how Venus transitions from a mid-paced hard court in Dubai, to a clay court almost on the other side of the world, having just a two day break. Her first round will be telling against something of a clay court specialist in Llagostera Vives. If she wins the match, I predict she will win the whole event.

Flavia Pennetta is the defending champion in Acapulco. She has had a stuttering start to the year so far. She lost handily to Medina Garrigues(ESP) in the 3rd round of the Australian Open, and despite beating both Mauresmo and Cornet in the Italy v France Fed Cup tie, she suffered a shock defeat in Bogota last week to little known Masa Zec Peskiric. Her form is too scratchy right now to back her to win the event. Winning the last three out of four matches played against Venus means that she is Williams' biggest threat.

Carla Suarez Navarro, who beat Venus in Australia this year and ended up reaching the quarter-finals, seems back to her "normal" level. It was the same story last year. Makes the quarter-finals at the French Open, seemingly out of nowhere, then for the rest of the year, does absolutely nothing of significance. Suarez Navarro playing aggressive, accurate, heavy topspin, flairsome tennis is the exception, rather than the rule.

6th seeded Safarova lost yesterday to Vinci. This opens up Venus' draw even more.

Kutuzova has no qualified for her second tournament in succession. Is she finally living up to some of her potential? In her last two matches in qualifying, Kutuzova saved at least 11 match points. Quite a feat.

Link to Venus' blog from Acapulco - http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/1/newsroom/stories/?ContentID=3024

Junior Player Reviews. Installment #2 - Polona Hercog

Part 2 of my junior player reviews. Next up:



Polona Hercog (Slo) Junior Career Ranking High of No. 8
WTA Career High Ranking of No. 204

Just one match seen of Hercog, against Romana Tabakova in the Quarter Finals of the Wimbledon Junior event in 2008. Did see one or two doubles match of her too, though. I was thoroughly underwhelmed, however. There had been a small amount of hype surrounding Hercog on forums around the net, but she definitely failed to live up to expectations.


The positives to start with. She's certainly the most varied junior I watched at this years Championship. She has something resembling a mid-court/transition game; can play a biting backhand slice and has a textbook technique on serve. That's where my praise ends.


Her overall groundstroke game is pretty much useless. So much so, that Tabakova was put under little pressure from the back of the court and Hercog could barely exploit the obvious weaknesses in her game. She can't control baseline exchanges and isin't quite pugnacious enough in defence to be an effective counter puncher.


She's another Euro youngster bogged down by a loopy, ineffective topspin forehand. Struggles immensely to hit outright winners from the baseline, meaning she usually has to hit about 4 or 5 extra shots to finally end a point, even against an average defender like Tabakova. Her tactical play on the forehand, is usually to hit three quarter length depth cross-court continually until she gets a short ball, which she can attack or move into the net on, for an easy put-away. Problem for her is, she'll probably get overpowered before she has any chance of executing anything of the sort. She completely shanked a heap forehands due to her mildly extreme grip.


Avoids hitting a drive backhand like the plague. She'll run around it as much a possible, and often ends up playing the slice, mainly because her backhand, which ironically is probably a cleaner hit that her forehand, just isin't up to scratch for tour level. The game plan off the backhand is usually to hit a short angled slice cross-court, in the hope of getting a short easy put-away forehand in the service box. It is probably her best play.


Her return-of-serve is poor(yet again). Tabakova's serve, despite it's ugliness/technical flaws is a very good serve for junior level, but it's nowhere near as good as it appeared in this match. Hercog didn't even get a sniff of a break point. She has terrible reaction times, even worse than Kerkhove and more often than not, her reluctance to hit a backhand gets her in deep trouble, as her footwork just isin't good enough to let her play forehands, time after time on return. Shanked (horribly) dozens of Tabakova's flat 1st serves in the deuce court. Even her block return is a total shambles.


Her serve is textbook, but is somewhat predictable. Her most used serve is a out-wide semi-slider to the deuce court. Even though you know it's going there however, it's tough to do anything about it as it's supremely well placed. Flattens her 1st serve out alot more in the Ad court, again predominantly out-wide. 2nd serve kicker is so-so. Most often goes into the backhand of a right-hander and doesn't get it particularly deep, meaning it can be something of a sitting duck occasionally, meaning when she starts getting punished off it, she starts taking more risks = double faults.


She has a nice transition game, with decent technique on her volleys. She possesses terrible passing shots though; rarely made Tabakova play a volley in her guerrilla warfare attacks on the net.


Bottom line on Hercog;


Maybe one could argue that it was just a bad day at the office for Hercog but that doesn't explain her useless, loopy topspin forehand, or the fact that she has no real backhand drive. Certainly her potential is limited. I'm unsure of what kind of player she will develop herself to be. Seems destined for clay court lower Tiers, where she can probably hack it out with other loopy forehand scrubs. I'm guessing the top 100 is somewhat attainable with more work, but I doubt much else.

Junior Player Reviews. Installment #1 - Lesley Kerkhove

A series of installments about a handful of juniors that I watched from Junior Wimbledon last year. First up:



Lesley Kerkhove(NED) Junior Ranking High of No. 12.
WTA Ranking High of No. 1025

I watched just one match of hers, which was against Laura Robson in the third round. First thing to notice about Kerkhove is her build. Looks like a slightly bigger version of Tamira Paszek i.e, not very suited to tennis.


She's a clean ball striker. The forehand is her main weapon. Can hit some pretty flashy winners off that side, and can change the direction of the ball pretty smoothly and effectively despite some notable shortcomings. Her timing on it is excellent and can keep it decent depth with it, making up for her extremely laboured footwork. She hits a delicious running forehand down-the-line. Any time she got a short ball on the forehand she was quick to dictate play and go for the space. The fact that Robson for the most part, didn't realise that Kerkhove's forehand was a hell of a lot better than her backhand, made her look alot more dangerous than she probably is. Her lackadaisical footwork however, means she makes way more unforced errors on the forehand side than she really should. Several times she got caught completely flat footed on the baseline, and slapped a forehand wide into the trams or into the middle of the net. Little steps are something of a foreign concept to her.


Her backhand is mediocre at best. It's a relatively clean hit when she's in position to hit it (which isin't alot of the time, considering her pedestrian footwork.), but it rarely clears the service line. She managed to hit a couple of decent cross-court short angled winners off it when she pushed her body weight into the shot, but overall, her weaker side. The technique on it was a little suspect.


Her return-of -serve, like many other young guns, is poor. Reactions off it are about as good as Michaela Krajicek (i.e slow as a snail). The backhand return-of-serve is dreadful. Didn't read Robsons serve well at all, although Robson does have an excellent and tricky lefty serve. Most return-of-serves which she got on her racquet were either shanked/hacked back into court/dumped into the net, or when she actually connected with one, it was always extremely conservatively placed, up the middle of court and rarely past the T, already putting her in a bad position in the rally, and her defensive skills are nowhere near good enough to get away with it.


Movement, as you would expect for someone of her size, is dire. To her credit, she actually read Robson's ground-stroke plays pretty well, and as already mentioned some of her running forehand down-the lines were magnificent. Movement to her backhand is again, dire. Can't deal with deep balls to her feet, because of the lack of footwork.


Her serve isin't a bomb, but it's flat, consistent, well-placed and not very predictable. 2nd serve is deep, and doesn't sit up, yet appears to be pretty safe. Action is no-frills, yet isin't readable. Only service/tactical game plan I noticed from her was, acute slider out-wide on the deuce court to Robson's backhand, which always came back to the middle of the court or cross-court to her forehand, which she would duly slot away for a winner either down-the-line or inside out. Hard to tell how good her serve really was though, considering how badly Robson was returning it. In her 1st five service games, she was dropping about one or two points a game, due to wild return-of-serve errors.


Mid-court game is non-existent. Came to the net once of her own accord, resulting in a diabolical smash.



Bottom-line on Kerkhove;


Her terrible footwork prevents her from effectively being a consistent 1-2 strike player. She can't look for a forehand nearly as much as she would like, with such laziness at the baseline. Isin't a big enough hitter to cover up these gaping holes in her game, and her movement adds another problem to the equation. Has a pretty steady and solid mentality, but would be surprised if she ever made the top 100, to be frank. I havn't heard anything about her outside this match since.

Venus Claims Victory in Dubai

Venus celebrates after defeating France's Virginie Razzano in yesterday's Barclay's Dubai Tennis Championship final.

Venus Williams won the 40th title of her career yesterday evening in Dubai, with a 6-4 6-2 win over surprise finalist and world number Virginie Razzano.

In the first set, Razzano was out-hitting Venus in baseline rallies. This is no shock, however. Over the past 12 months or so, Venus has cleaned up her ground-game to a certain extent. She realised that her serve alone would be enough to beat hapless mid-ranked players time and time again, and that her rudimentary technique meant that she was always going to have off days with boatloads of errors at random stages in matches, so there was no need to take unnecessary risks in such matches. Gone are the days so, when she lost matches with an 80+ unforced error count, however, it leaves her more than vulnerable against practically any decent power player when her serve isin't working.

At the Season Ending Championships in Doha last year, it seemed Venus had struck the perfect balance between being aggressive and keeping a reasonable amount of safety built into her game. Then at the Australian Open this year, she was utterly incapable of hitting out-right winners from the baseline against Suarez Navarro, who for most of the match dictated proceedings from the baseline in their second round match and duly went on to win.

The casual tennis fan would still think Venus has arguably the biggest groundstrokes in the game. This is something of a misconception however. Having the biggest serve in the game along with a kamikaze style return-of-serve goes some way in hiding this, but Venus no longer looks to completely overpower her opponents from the baseline in rallies. Now she looks to out-manoeuvre and move the ball around to get her opponent out of position so she can work her way into the net and finish the point off from there. No longer is it the case that she can blast winners from the baseline at ease. She works alot harder from the back of the court than she ever did at her peak.

Venus' serve in the first set of the final against Razzano was on form. Razzano failed to take the three break points which she had at 2-2, and Venus made the decisive breakthrough in the set at 5-4 on Razzano's serve.

Venus raced out to a 5-0 lead in the second set, but the match was still closer than the score suggested. At 2-0 in the 2nd set, Razzano threw away the double break to Venus, with a couple of loose double faults. Razzano's second serve has little margin built into it, and is usually almost as big as her first serve. It's surprising therefore, that she doesn't hit more double faults than she normally does. Venus' serve went off the boil at the end of the 2nd set, but by that time it was already much too late and Venus closed out the match 6-4 6-2. Venus was definately much more aggressive from the baseline in the second set, and wasn't pushed around the court nearly as much as in the first set.

Venus' victories throughout the week included a straight sets win over world number four, Elena Dementieva and on Friday evening against her younger sister and world number one, Serena Williams 7-6(3) in the third set.

Razzano plays a very high risk game. She hits flat and low over the net with little margin for error built into her game. She is prone to having wildly fluctuating form throughout the year, so it wouldn't be surprising if she completely disappeared off the main radar for a couple of months after this week. With wins over Dinara Safina and Vera Zvonareva however, it shows she's a threat to any top player when in-form.

The final two games of the match.

Any Hope for Vaidisova?

At the age of just 19, former teenage supernova, Nicole Vaidisova, has seen her ranking in the past 12 months drop from just outside the top 10, to just inside the top 70. Having only won one match this year thus far, and having gained a reputation as a serial tanker of matches, Vaidisova's career looks all but over, but where did it all go wrong?

At 15, Vaidisova won her first WTA tournament in Vancouver as a qualifier, winning eight matches in a row. Two years later at just 17, she reached the semi-finals of Roland Garros in Paris beating the then number one Amelie Mauresmo and Venus Williams back-to-back before losing in three-sets to Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova. Just months later she cracked the top 10 for the first time and looked destined for the top.

Vaidisova grew up training at the Nick Bollettieri Tenns Acadamy, in Florida alongside the likes of Jelena Jankovic and Maria Sharapova. From the very start of her career, she was dubbed Sharapova 2.0. Much of her early results infact did resemble those of Sharapova's with such notable Grand Slam success as a teenager, however Nicole just couldn't win that first "big" title. She couldn't get to that first "big" final even.

Both Nicole and current French Open Champion Ana Ivanovic were early rivals when they first burst onto the main tour. It was Vaidisova who looked set for greater things, achieving more Grand Slam success earlier than Ivanovic, however in 2007, after being diagnosed with glandular fever, Vaidisova's scheduling became much more sparse and Ivanovic had her breakthrough. With a final at Roland Garros, added to a semi-final appearance at Wimbledon (where she beat Vaidisova 7-5 in the 3rd set, saving 3 match points in the process), Ivanovic had surely eclipsed her fellow teen.

Now, Following a series of setbacks and disappointments, Vaidisova has seemingly given up on her tennis career. Was the pressure too much to handle after seeing Ivanovic reach such heady highs, and her own failure of living up to similar expectations too much to bear? Or was it the failure of living up to the Sharapova comparison the catalyst for such dramatic meltdown. A meltdown which has seen her win only three matches since Wimbledon last year.

If she really doesn't care about tennis anymore, then why is she still playing and throwing in the towel at any given moment? While staring into the abyss, she can't quite will herself into jumping down. She either never wanted this for herself from the beginning, or found out she didn't have the stomach to endure any more setbacks. she had already thrown away her own career, but was still reluctant to "burn the boats" so to speak, as she was afraid she might still regret it, and thus this protracted public suicide continued until she finally brought herself to make an irrevocable decision and move on with her life.


Another reason which goes some way in explaining the slump is that, Nicole has/had a flawed game. Her large ground stroke swings combined with mediocre footwork constantly provided her timing problems off both her backhand and forehand sides. This meant that even at her best, she needed to play a foot or two behind the baseline in order to accommodate this mix of footwork woes and large swings, leaving the effectiveness of her shots diminished to certain extend; she couldn't take the ball early and was constantly exposed to short cross-court angled shots which would often just whizz by her.

Her return of serve is dismal for a player with such stellar results. She could rarely thrash average, mid-ranked players because she'd often throw away too many cheap points with lazy return of serve errors. Added to this, her foot speed and lack of agility meant she was prone to being wrong-footed in baseline exchanges. In order to keep herself in control of rallies and to keep herself on the offensive in points as much as possible, she had to take alot of risks in her shot making.

Arguably, all these flaws finally frustrated her to the point of no return, having put in so much work yet wasn't seeing enough rewards for it. She wasn't willing to put the required amount of work in to try and smooth or her games kinks, so just gave up.

So, what next for Vaidisova? After pulling out of her last tournament in Dubai, reports have surfaced that Nicole is back working with her former coach and stepfather Alex Kodat with whom she had her best results with. At this point, she either makes a stirring comeback into the elite of the game, finally winning her "big breakthrough" event and living up to her early promise, or she continues on with this horrific slump, turning up at events for merely paychecks, eventually fading into retirement, never to be heard from again. Right now, the latter seems a much likelier outcome, however one feels that Vaidisova back to where she was two years ago would be a big boost for a game which seems to be in decline.


Final games of Nicole beating Venus Williams in the Quarter Finals of the French Open 2006, as a 17 year old. Will this forever remain her career highlight?

Current WTA Singles Rankings

The WTA ranking system is a 52-week, cumulative system in which the number of tournament results comprising a player’s SonyEricsson WTA Tour Ranking is capped at 16 Tournaments for singles and 11 Tournaments for doubles.The results used to determine a player’s Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Ranking shall be those yielding the highest ranking pointsduring a rolling, 52-week period, and must include a player’s ranking points from the Grand Slams, Premier MandatoryTournaments and the Sony Ericsson Championships plus the best two (2) Premier 5 Tournament results for Top 10 Players.

WTA Rankings as of 16/02/2009:

Key:

Current Ranking - Last Weeks Ranking - Player's name - Player's Nationality - Total Ranking Points amassed over the past 52 weeks - Number of Events Played in the past 52 weeks

1 (1) WILLIAMS, SERENA USA 9632.00 15

Following Williams' recent grand slam triumph at the Australian Open, she has regained the number one ranking position. Her position may be in jeopardy in the coming month as she defends the titles she won last year in Bangalore, Miami and Charleston. She has advanced to the quarter-finals of the Premier 5 event, Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship this week.

2 (2) SAFINA, DINARA RUS 9150.00 20

The Australian Open finalist looks set to reach the summit of the rankings in the next two months as she has little ranking points to defend until early May. An early loss this week in Dubai to France's Virginie Razzano has given Safina something of a setback.

3 (3) JANKOVIC, JELENA SRB 8580.00 22

Jankovic finished 2008 as the world number 1, however a surprise loss to Marion Bartoli in the fourth-round of the Australian Open put paid to any hopes of her holding onto the top spot, and recent losses to Amelie Mauresmo in Paris and Estonia's Kaia Kanepi in Dubai are not good signs for the Serb.

4 (4) DEMENTIEVA, ELENA RUS 8286.00 20

Dementieva is currently enjoying her best ranking of number four in the world. The Olympic Gold medalist from last year has won 21of her 23 matches so far this season, yet she still seems incapable of beating the very best on the biggest stages. Having improved her serve, now her rigid game plan combined with limited tactical options are her biggest problems.

5 (5) ZVONAREVA, VERA RUS 6770.00 24

Zvonareva is also currently enjoying her best ranking of number 5. Having reached the final of the Season Ending Championships at the end of 2008, and the Australian Open semi-finals at the start of 2009, Zvonareva is guaranteed consistent results with her textbook smooth game, but does she have the weapons to ever win a grand slam or move even further up the rankings? Doubtful.

6 (6) WILLIAMS, VENUS USA 6144.00 14

After an extremely disappointing second round defeat in Australia this year at the hands of Spanish teenager Carla Suarez Navarro, the elder Williams has plateaued in the rankings at number 6. Her ground game has arguably become too passive, and she is relying too heavily on her serve to win matches.

Venus won't have too much to lose until Wimbledon this year, so a return to the top five for the current Wimbledon and Season Ending Champion isin't completely inconceivable.

7 (7) KUZNETSOVA, SVETLANA RUS 5510.00 19

The former US Open champion of 2004 has firmly hit a wall in her career's progress. The past 12 months will have been considered a disappointment. Hasn't won a title in over 18 months, nor has she beaten a top-10 played since Miami almost 12 months ago.

She posses enough firepower to beat mid-ranked journey women even when playing terribly, but sloppy, error-strewn performances havn't been cutting it against the elite. She served for the match against Serena Williams in the Australian Open quarter-finals before capitulating and losing 6-1 in the 3rd st.

With new coach Olga Morozova, she may way well turn it around though.

(8) IVANOVIC, ANA SRB 5492.00 18

The current French Open champion has posted a series of disappointing losses since Wimbledon last year. After a three-set loss to Russia's Alisa Kleybanova in Australia however, Ivanovic's form seems to be on the up.

She has recently started working with a new coach, Craig Cardon who formerly worked with legnd Martina Navratilova, and her results this week in Dubai have shown a marked improvement as she setted up a quarter-final clash with Serena Williams tomorrow.

Other notable ranking positions in the top 50 this week:

11 (13) CORNET, ALIZE FRA 3242.00 24

Cornet is on the brink of breaking the top 10 for the first time in her career. Cornet has only ever beaten two top 10 players, and already this year has choked away matches against both Jankovic (Paris OGDF quater-final), and Safina (Australian Open fourth-round) where she led 5-2 in the 3rd set, holding two match points before eventually losing 7-5 in the 3rd.

It's questionable how someone with such average results off a clay can make the top 10. This undoubtedly questions the current depth of the game.

16 (17) SHARAPOVA, MARIA RUS 3030.00 11

Sharapova has been out of action since August last year with a shoulder injury. After missing the chance to defend her Australian Open title, Sharapova fell outside the top 15. Now with points from her victory in Doha last year set to come off next week, she is set to slide further down the rankings.Reports suggest that Sharapova plans to return in Indian Wells in March, but how long will it take for her to get back to the elite level? Will she ever?

The coming months will be interesting to watch how Sharapova bounces back on the WTA tour.

19 (24) MAURESMO, AMELIE FRA 2530.00 19

With a stunning run of form last week at the Paris Indoors event, beating Radwanska, Jankovic and Dementieva in succession, Mauresmo is experiencing something of a career renaissance. Since mid-2007, Mauresmo's career had fallen into the doldrums, and retirement talks were floating around throughout last year amidst a flurry of poor losses.Will she build on this form and return to the top 10?

Unlikely that she will be able to keep her form from last week up over an extended period of time, and fast indoor surfaces which suits her game perfectly are now becoming a rarity on the WTA calender. Slower hard court surfaces expose her weaknesses much more in comparison. With the current state of the WTA though, Mauresmo may well stand a chance of making an assault back into the big time.

TENNIS!

I'm a 1st year journalism and Irish student in D.I.T, and I am writing this blog for my Explorations in Journalism class. I topic I have chosen as my blog subject is WTA tennis, and I plan to give regular analysis' and reports from the current tournaments happening on the WTA tour, over the next couple of months in my blog entries

At the start of every week I will give a run-down of the newly released draws for upcoming tournaments. I will discuss interesting prospective match-ups which could take place in the event, analyse the tournament favourites and give some predictions on tournament winners and darkhorses.

During each tournament, I will update the blog regularly with breaking results and in-depth reports from each match which I have seen.