Francesca Schiavone is the ultimate proof that tennis is not necessarily a young person’s game. She won her maiden slam at Roland Garros last year, two weeks before she turned 30 and is undoubtedly playing the best tennis of her career at an age when most peers are considering retirement.
Before the 2010 French Open Schiavone had played 38 slams and reached three quarter finals. This record suggests not only that she was a surprise winner, but also that longevity is a worthy trait – those 38 appearances were consecutive, so injuries have never been an issue for this well-prepared athlete. Those looking at the in-play betting should remember this. Francesca Schiavone of Italy celebrates winning the first set during the women's singles final match between Francesca Schiavone of Italy and Samantha Stosur of Australia on day fourteen of the French Open at Roland Garros on June 5, 2010 in Paris, France. The Italian clay-court specialist will be hoping to defend the French Open title she won in surprising fashion last year.
Schiavone saw off Samantha Stosur in the 2010 final after a memorable run which saw her catapult from relative obscurity into the world's top six.
She has failed to recreate that form since, not winning a single WTA title in the last 11 months, although she ran Caroline Wozniacki close in the last eight of the Australian Open.
Her performances on clay so far have not been overly impressive, with exits at the last 16 stage in both Madrid and Stuttgart not what most were expecting. But the 30-year-old should not be discounted as she is clearly at home on the clay and her single-handed backhand remains one of the most stylish weapons in the women's game. chiavone made the most of her forehands and kick serves. The Italian surprised Dokic with her low lying slices and massive forehands. The Italian lost the second set in a breeze but then re-grouped herself nicely to work her strokes fluently in the final set. The Italian easily earned two breaks in the final set to win the match, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. The Italian took 2 hours and 5 minutes to win the match, as she hammered 20 winners and got benefitted from Dokic’s 28 unforced errors.
Birthdate March 30, 1984 (27 years old) Birthplace Brisbane, Australia Residence Gold Coast, Australia Height 5'8'' (172 cm) Weight 143 lbs (65 kg) Plays Right-handed Turned Pro 2000 (12 yrs on tour) Career matches won: 186 Year to date matches won: 2 Career matches lost: 142 Year to date matches lost: 2 Current 52 week rank for singles: 6 Current 52 week rank for doubles: 34 1 on the WTA Tour in doubles with Lisa Raymond from the United States. In singles, Stosur has wins against former No. 1s Ana Ivanović, Jelena Janković, Serena Williams, Dinara Safina, Lindsay Davenport, Amélie Mauresmo, Justine Henin and Caroline Wozniacki. she was six the family house and business on the Gold Coast was destroyed by a flood, and the family decided to move to Adelaide.[3] There she started playing tennis, when she was given a racket for Christmas at the age of eight. While her parents worked long hours at the cafe they had started, Stosur played at local courts with older brother Daniel, who later encouraged their parents to take her to tennis lessons. in the mixed doubles 7–5 6–1. The next tie was against the USA, where Stosur beat Melanie Oudin in straight sets, 6–2 6–4. Hewitt also won his singles match against John Isner sealing the tie. In the mixed doubles, Hewitt-Stosur lost 2–6 6–1 10–5. To advance to the final, Australia needed to win their tie against Spain 3–0. With her success, she reached a career high ranking of no. 10 making her only the third Australian woman to achieve this feat in 10 years after Jelena Dokić reached #4 in 2002 and Alicia Molik reached #8 in 2005. In the doubles, Stosur was 3rd seed with Nadia Petrova. They had a comfortable route to the final, dropping only one set, where they lost 6–4 2–6 10–5 to Květa Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik. Stosur's next tournament was the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami where she was seeded 9th. Due to her seeding, Stosur received a bye in the first round. She battled from a 6–4 5–3 deficit and was one game away from defeat before coming back to record a 4–6 7–5 6–2 victory against Carla Suárez Navarro. Her third round was also tough, winning in a similar scoreline 4–6 7–5 6–1 against Virginie Razzano. Samantha Stosur is the daughter of Tony and Diane and has two brothers, Dominic and Daniel. At the age of six her house in Gold Coast was destroyed by a flood, causing her family to move to Adelaide. There she started playing tennis, when she was given a racquet for Christmas at the age of eight. While her parents worked long hours at the cafe they had started up, Stosur played at local courts with older brother Daniel, who later encouraged their parents to take her to tennis lessons
1 on the WTA Tour in doubles with Lisa Raymond from the United States. In singles, Stosur has wins against former No. 1s Ana Ivanović, Jelena Janković, Serena Williams, Dinara Safina, Lindsay Davenport, Amélie Mauresmo, Justine Henin and Caroline Wozniacki. she was six the family house and business on the Gold Coast was destroyed by a flood, and the family decided to move to Adelaide.[3] There she started playing tennis, when she was given a racket for Christmas at the age of eight. While her parents worked long hours at the cafe they had started, Stosur played at local courts with older brother Daniel, who later encouraged their parents to take her to tennis lessons. in the mixed doubles 7–5 6–1. The next tie was against the USA, where Stosur beat Melanie Oudin in straight sets, 6–2 6–4. Hewitt also won his singles match against John Isner sealing the tie. In the mixed doubles, Hewitt-Stosur lost 2–6 6–1 10–5. To advance to the final, Australia needed to win their tie against Spain 3–0. With her success, she reached a career high ranking of no. 10 making her only the third Australian woman to achieve this feat in 10 years after Jelena Dokić reached #4 in 2002 and Alicia Molik reached #8 in 2005. In the doubles, Stosur was 3rd seed with Nadia Petrova. They had a comfortable route to the final, dropping only one set, where they lost 6–4 2–6 10–5 to Květa Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik. Stosur's next tournament was the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami where she was seeded 9th. Due to her seeding, Stosur received a bye in the first round. She battled from a 6–4 5–3 deficit and was one game away from defeat before coming back to record a 4–6 7–5 6–2 victory against Carla Suárez Navarro. Her third round was also tough, winning in a similar scoreline 4–6 7–5 6–1 against Virginie Razzano.
Kvitova is not new to the tennis arena; but she had never been beyond quarterfinals in any Grand Slam before 2011 Wimbledon, although she has won five WTA singles titles.
The 21-year-old Petra Kvitová (Czech pronunciation: pɛtra ˈkvɪtova) was born on March 8, 1990. She is a powerful tennis player on WTA tennis arena with her killing left-hand serve. At the 2011 Wimbledon Championships, Kvitova had the third-most aces of any women, creating 36.
Petra Kvitova is not only a powerful tennis player with her 6-feet height and killing serve; but she got nice and sexy figure that can kill anybody off the tennis court.
Petra Kvitova won her maiden Grand Slam title yesterday (Saturday/July 2) when she outplayed veteran Russian opponent Maria Sharapova in straight sets. She will climb up a step in WTA ranking and will be placed at No. 7 in WTA ranking to be issued on Monday (July 4).
Kvitova is not new to the tennis arena; but she had never been beyond quarterfinals in any Grand Slam before 2011 Wimbledon, although she has won five WTA singles titles..
Anna Ivanovic of Serbia celebrates after beating Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic during the Brisbane International 2009 day two at the State Tennis Centre on January 5, 2009 in Brisbane, Australia. Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic celebrates after match point against Dinara Safina of Russia during day six of the 2009 U.S. Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 5, 2009 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. Tennis players from the Czech Republic, Petra Kvitova, managed to make a surprise at the Paris Open. He managed to beat world number one Kim Clijsters in the final round.
Kvitova won through the struggle of two sets 6-4 and 6-3 on Sunday, February 13, 2011. Paris Open title was his third career 20-year-old Kvitova it. The 21-year-old Petra Kvitová (Czech pronunciation: pɛtra ˈkvɪtova) was born on March 8, 1990. She is a powerful tennis player on WTA tennis arena with her killing left-hand serve. At the 2011 Wimbledon Championships, Kvitova had the third-most aces of any women, creating 36. Petra Kvitova won her maiden Grand Slam title yesterday (Saturday/July 2) when she outplayed veteran Russian opponent Maria Sharapova in straight sets. She will climb up a step in WTA ranking and will be placed at No. 7 in WTA ranking to be issued on Monday (July 4).
The heatwave affecting America’s East Coast claimed its first casualty at the US Open on Wednesday when 10th seed Victoria Azarenka departed the tournament in a wheelchair after collapsing on court.
The 21-year-old from Belarus, one of many credible outside bets for the women’s title, keeled over when trailing Argentina’s Gisela Dulko 5-1 in their first round match as temperatures again came close to three figures. Eighth-seeded wildcard Victoria Azarenka registered a convincing 6-4, 6-1 win over fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova on Sunday afternoon to capture the singles title at the 2010 Bank of the West Classic.
Azarenka claimed her fourth career singles title- all on hard court- while becoming the fifth different Bank of the West Classic singles champion in the last five years. With the win, she improves to 4-6 in 10 career finals. Azarenka, who celebrated her 21st birthday yesterday, is projected to rise to No. 12 in the Monday’s new Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles rankings after winning the title. A quarter-final appearance at the Australian Open suggested she meant business, but since then only a final appearance in Dubai is worth mentioning.
The 20-year-old split with long-time coach Antonio Van Grichen and her game has unravelled several times this year, revealing her fiery temper. Possessing one of the best two-handed backhands in the game, as well as one of the loudest grunts, the American-based star has the ability to go deep in a major, but a first-round exit in Paris has summed up her current slump.
A good draw is imperative to her chances of reaching the second week at Wimbledon and current form suggests Azarenka is a long shot for the title.
MOSCOW: World number three Vera Zvonareva will lead Russia in this month’s Fed Cup semi-final against Italy, the Russian tennis federation (RTF) said on Tuesday. Zvonareva will be joined by 14th-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (21) and Ekaterina Makarova (39) for the April 16-17 tie in Moscow, the RTF said on its website (www.tennis-russia.ru).
Zvonareva replaces former world number one Maria Sharapova, who looked sluggish in Russia’s 3-2 quarter-final home win over France in February when she lost her first singles match and was replaced for the reverse rubber the following day. Russian Vera Zvonareva overcame a whipping desert wind on Sunday to dethrone Ana Ivanovic at the Indian Wells Masters, overcoming the frustrated holder 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 for the title The match was played in desert gusts which sent sand through the air and made holding serve a challenge. A total of 19 break points were up for grabs in the unpredictable conditions. There was only one ace served in the two-hour battle. The Moscow semi-final will be played at a specially-built indoor court laid on top of an ice rink at the 14,000-seat Khodynka arena.
The 50-year-old Dokic was arrested in May after reportedly saying he would blow up Australian ambassador Claire Birgin’s car over the negative articles in the Australian press in which Jelena Dokic accused him of beating her. Upon his arrest, police also found large quantities of weapons in Dokic’s home.
Dokic was then charged with “endangering the security” of the Australian ambassador and unlawful possession of weapons. His 15-month sentence was confirmed in a retrial that was held after an appeal.
The official Tanjug news agency reported that Dokic was angered by a six-month suspended sentence handed this week in a similar case against a nationalist who had threatened a liberal politician and a journalist.
Dokic had threatened to fire a rocket at Birgin’s car, but later said the statements were made in anger. He has also admitted having beaten his daughter.
That’s right, Damir Dokic, currently ranked number one on the WTA’s Overall Crazy Father Rankings, isn’t too pleased that he was ordered to serve a 15-month prison sentence for threatening to fire a rocket at the Australian Ambassador to Serbia’s automobile.
In fact, he feels so wronged that he has begun a hunger strike to protest the unfortunate situation of being sentenced to prison for making terroristic threats – crazy, huh?
Papa Dokic initiated the alleged plot after an article in an Australian newspaper reported that Jelena accused him of repeatedly beating her. Damir Dokic’s attorney is now concerned about his client’s"She hopes for wildcards in Australia. She wants to be in the Australian Open. She will try to qualify if she has to.
"She has been injured but she is not giving up and she is not going to be a wife. She wants to be successful again in her tennis and she will be."
Jelena, the Belgrade-born product of the Australian tennis system who reached the world No.4 ranking before fleeing the country after a supposedly rigged Australian Open draw in 2001, qualified for the 2006 event in Melbourne through the wildcard play-off system.
I hear they're getting ready to film "Mission: Impossible 3" with Tom Cruise (one of Jelena Dokic's favorite actors, according to her WTA bio). Thing is, the truly "impossible" task might be locating Jelena's career.
Check that... simply finding Jelena at all might be just as difficult a task. On the heels of some of the oddest circumstances of her career (and that's saying something) -- being a literal no-show at three Challenger events over the past few weeks -- it's quite reasonable to ask, "Where in the world is Jelena Dokic?" Is she injured? Is she kicking up her feet on a beach somewhere, blocking out the world while applying an extra coat of sunblock? Is she still interested at all? Heck, is she even visible to the human eye? She's been absent from the WTA tour since May (at a Tier IV in Prague), and has seemingly been going incognito on the entire continent of Europe this summer and early fall.
Seriously, what happened to the Fair One? Remember when Jelena could be referred to as that with either a straight face, or without a wistful recollection of what used to be (but, unfortunately, may never be again)? You know, back when Jelena Corner was a weekly feature on JD.com and the Fair One herself had an actual presence on tour. 2005 began as the last few seasons had, with the general consensus being that the upcoming year HAD to be better than the previous one. How could it NOT be, after 2004 ended with nine consecutive losses?
Ha! What did we all know? It appears as if the continuing demise of the player formerly known as Jelena Dokic is nowhere near it's end... unless the end is ALREADY here. And, yes, I'm talking about THE END. Of course, we won't know for sure until Jelena actually returns... IF she ever does, that is.
DAMIR Dokic has huffed, puffed and blown down rumours that his tennis-playing daughter Jelena is getting married or has been been left "desperate and penniless" by her Croatian boyfriend Tin Bikic.
The maddest tennis dad of them all says the world No.615 is training at a camp in Germany before her likely return to Australia to compete this summer. He's also still keen to appear on Dancing With The Stars. "No, no marriage, I know this," Damir told The Sun-Herald from his home in Serbia.
"She is not getting married. She is playing tennis in Germany and wants to go back to Australia to play.
Brisbane, Jan 5 : Ana Ivanovic won her first match since mid-August as the Serb defeated Australian Jelena Dokic 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 Monday to start with a welcome victory at the Brisbane International.
Ivanovic, a former French Open champion who briefly stood number one in the world after that 2008 triumph on clay, thwarted the hopes of the host nation and 2009 Australian Open quarter-finalist Dokic.
Like Ivanovic, the Serb-born Dokic had suffered through a poor 2009, fighting off injury and illness for much of the year.
Jelena Dokić is an Australian female professional tennis player.
During the height of her career, she played for Serbia and Montenegro (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia prior to February 2003) and reached a career-high ranking of World No. 4 on 19 August 2002. After several family-related difficulties (mostly involving her father), she slowly slipped down the rankings in 2006. She made a serious return to tennis in 2008, and after winning three ITF tournaments that year, rose to World No. 187 going into the 2009 Australian Open. She finished 2009 in the top 100, where she remains today. The highlights of Dokić's career include reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon and the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and reaching the quarterfinals at the French Open in 2002 and the Australian Open in 2009. Other highlights include beating several former World No. 1 players: Martina Hingis in the first round of Wimbledon in 1999, Kim Clijsters at the 2003 Zürich Open, and Venus Williams at the 2000 Italian Open. Other high-calibre players whom Dokić has defeated include Jelena Janković, Monica Seles, Justine Henin, Amélie Mauresmo, Mary Pierce, and Jennifer Capriati
Francesca Schiavone of Italy celebrates winning the first set during the women's singles final match between Francesca Schiavone of Italy and Samantha Stosur of Australia on day fourteen of the French Open at Roland Garros on June 5, 2010 in Paris, France.
The Italian clay-court specialist will be hoping to defend the French Open title she won in surprising fashion last year.
But the 30-year-old should not be discounted as she is clearly at home on the clay and her single-handed backhand remains one of the most stylish weapons in the women's game.
chiavone made the most of her forehands and kick serves. The Italian surprised Dokic with her low lying slices and massive forehands. The Italian lost the second set in a breeze but then re-grouped herself nicely to work her strokes fluently in the final set. The Italian easily earned two breaks in the final set to win the match, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. The Italian took 2 hours and 5 minutes to win the match, as she hammered 20 winners and got benefitted from Dokic’s 28 unforced errors.
