Russians Nadia Petrova and Anna Chakvetadze overcame the cold and wind and reached the second round of the J&S Cup. "The conditions were I think the worst," Petrova said. "It was cold, it was windy — before we went on it was a little bit drizzling."

Fifth seed Petrova downed Katarzyna Piter of Poland 6-3, 7-5. The 24-year-old Petrova, who won three clay-court titles last season, had little trouble overpowering her 17-year-old opponent. Still, she wasn't completely satisfied with her play — "I really had a difficult time because last week I didn't do much practising." In the second round, Petrova meets Mara Santangelo of Italy, who beat Severine Bremond of France 6-2, 6-3.

Sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze was better than her American opponent Jill Craybas. The Russian won in straight sets, 7-6 (8-6), 7-5. Anna's next opponent will be the winner of the match Tathiana Garbin vs. Laura Granville.

(sources: ESPN, BBC Sport)

Share This

How often do injured players retire when closer to victory, and how often when they are losing? Which players are more likely to retire, and which stay in match even though they are losing?

Tennis Magazine, who did this research, took into account the top 20 players and calculated the proportion of times they retired when close to losing a match. The aim of their work was to determine which players retire when they see that defeat is near, which, as they believe, tells a lot about a person's attitude. So, matches where a player retired before the completion of the opening set, as well as those when a player withdrew while less than two games behind, were not included.

Some players are more prone to injuries, but you can see that some of them withdraw when they see that they can't win. It's evident that player's retirement affects the opponent as well as spectators. The opponent can't enjoy the victory as much, because things were left unfinished.

One of favorite WTA players, Kim Clijsters, had lots of injuries in her career, but retired while losing only once. Ana Ivanovic, Shahar Peer, Nicole Vaidisova and Martina Hingis have never left the match when behind.

On the other hand, an unbelieveable 11.4 % of Jelena Jankovic's defeats are retirements while losing, which is more than one in every nine losses. Players following Jankovic are Serena Williams and Anna Chakvetadze.

A spokesperson for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, who saw the results of the research, said: "There is no evidence that WTA Tour players do anything other than compete their very best." However, John Lloyd, British Davis Cup captain and former Australian Open finalist, claims that "really good champions don't feel they're going to lose until the last point, so they never throw in the towel."

I don't really agree with the view that players who are prone to retiring while losing are players with worse attitude and not real champions. It shows a certain part of their character, but it doesn't make them worse people, or worse players. They are simply like that (it's normal to lose interest when you see you have no chance to win), and after all, it's not forbidden to withdraw while behind.

(more at Tennis Magazine website)

Share This

Only three women from the top ten will take part in the first round of the Fed Cup — Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Anna Chakvetadze; they are all representatives of Russia.

Why won't the other highly ranked players compete in the Fed Cup?

• Top-ranked Justine Henin of Belgium wants to have enough time to prepare for the clay-season, as well as to treat her breathing problems. Her next tournament will be Warsaw, starting April 30.
• Maria Sharapova, Russia's highest-ranked player, won't make her Fed Cup debut because of injured shoulder and hamstring.
• France's Amelie Mauresmo is recovering from her appendectomy.
• Kim Clijsters, another Belgian top player, decided to skip the Fed Cup because of her busy schedule.
• Countries of Martina Hingis (Switzerland), Nicole Vaidisova (the Czech Republic) and Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) are not in the World Group.

Share This

Svetlana Kuznetsova's poor play in Miami cost her to go down two spots in WTA Tour Singles Rankings (from 3rd to 5th). Two players own her a favor for their higher ranking – Amelie Mauresmo returns to the top three, while Kim Clijsters jumps to the 4th place. Russia still has a representative in the 10th place, but this time a different one – Anna Chakvetadze replaced Elena Dementieva. There's one person who seems to have an enormous determination to return to the prestigious top ten and that is Serena Williams. This week she has jumped from number 18 to number 11.

Share This