Samantha Stosur won’t play at the next week’s Acura Classic, in order to fully recover from the virus she has been suffering (which also forced her to withdraw from Fed Cup earlier this month). The Australian No. 1 will return to the tour on August 6, at the Tier II event in Los Angeles. (via Stosur's website)
Tatiana Golovin is glad that seven-times grand slam champion Mats Wilander will be her coach from the beginning of the East West Bank Classic presented by Herbalife tournament until the US Open. The Frenchwoman had a good start to the season, winning her first career title at Amelia Island in April before re-injuring her right ankle, which forced her off the tour for two months.
Golovin is hoping that the experienced Swede can teach her some new tricks:
"He doesn't like the part of women's tennis where we hit as hard as we can and not really think out there,
"He's going to make me think more, see the court better and play more like a guy, which could be better." (via Reuters)
Having thumb injury and therefore not being able to play tennis, Serena Williams has focused on getting media attention, and visiting the major Hollywood events. Here’s what she’s been doing lately:
- Got her clothes off for the Jane magazine wearing only silver heels and having flowers as a cover. In the caption Serena says: "I’ll take off my shirt in a second - locker room girls don’t have much shame. Once I was getting ready to go out and my hitting partner, who is my best friend and, like, Greek god - handsome, walked into my hotel room, it wasn’t awkward for me, but he freaked out."
- Hit the ESPY Awards red carpet
- Showed up at Louis Vuitton & Details magazine event
- Came to Europe's Soccer Stars Chelsea Football Club exclusive Hollywood party
- Attended the exclusive Beckham Welcome to LA Party, hosted by Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes and Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith
Serena must be spending whole days at beauty salons. Notice just how many times she's changed her hairstyle lately! (via Down the Line)
After a one-sided French Open final when Justine Henin demolished Ana Ivanovic, and after Venus Williams earned Wimbledon crown without using too much power to defeat Marion Bartoli, I vote for the introduction of best-of-five-set Grand Slam finals.
However, it seems that it won’t happen any time soon. Chairman and chief executive of the WTA Tour Larry Scott said: "My own view is that it's probably counter to the direction we've been heading in from player-health and well-being standpoints.” What he refers to is that it collides with the idea to give the players a longer off-season and reduce tournament commitments because of numerous injuries and hence too many withdrawals. (via SeattlePI) Read more »
On Sunday, Anna Chakvetadze won the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati, Ohio, with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Akiko Morigami. The Russian needed less than an hour to beat Morigami, the finalist in Cincinnati for the second time (in 2005 she lost to Patty Schnyder).
After winning the third title this year, previous two being Hobart and 's-Hertogenbosch, Chakvetadze improved to 5-0 lifetime in finals and raised to career-high ranking of No.7.
Next tournament for the 20-year-old Russian is the Bank of the West Classic, a Tier II event in Stanford, where she’s seeded at the top. Like all of the top four seeds, Chakvetadze will receive an opening-round bye, before facing the victor in the match between American wildcard, Amber Liu and Greek No.1 Eleni Daniilidou.
Read about current tennis events and matches, interesting stories about female tennis players, watch players' interviews and amusing tennis videos. Read more »
