Dear readers,
Women’s Tennis Blog won’t be updated until Monday because I’m leaving for a little trip to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
I've already been there in 2007, but for two days only, and now I'm going to revise this beautiful city. Haha, maybe I'll meet Vaidisova and Stepanek. 
Don’t worry, when I come back you will get the summary of all the most important things that will have happened in the tennis world.
Love,
Marija
The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour has announced that Larry Scott will step down as its Chairman and CEO to become Commissioner of the NCAA's (National Collegiate Athletic Association) PAC-10 Conference, effective July 1, 2009. Scott will work with the Tour Board on the selection process for the next Chairman and CEO.
"With women's professional tennis more popular than ever, the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in the strongest business position in its history and with a fantastic senior management team in place, now is the right time for me to embrace a new challenge consistent with my family and personal goals, and leave room for the next generation of Tour leadership to take on new responsibilities," Scott said.
Recapitulation of Scott’s post important moves:
Bethanie Mattek has launched her first official website. It seems more and more players are finally starting to realize the importance and benefits of a personal website.
Bethanie’s site reflects her style, so you can imagine it doesn't look plain. As for the functionality, I don’t find it practical when you need two clicks to reach the homepage. Other than that, I consider the site quite user-friendly. It’s easy to navigate and there’s enough useful information: press releases, Bethanie’s blog, biography, pictures, etc.
Visit www.bmattek.com to see the site yourself. What are your impressions?
Seventh-seeded Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez defeated third-seeded Gisela Dulko in the Copa Sony Ericsson Colsanitas final to capture her first WTA singles title.
Spain’s world No.66 Martinez Sanchez won the first career meeting with the Argentinean, ranked 46th in the world, 6-2 6-3. Dulko’s wayward serve cost her a fourth career singles title. She committed 13 double-faults and was broken four times.
The Bogota title match was Martinez Sanchez’ second finals appearance. Last year she was a runner-up in Barcelona, falling to Maria Kirilenko 6-0 6-2. (photo via Yahoo)
Hi dear readers,
I’ll be taking just a few days off, four I think, to recuperate in one mountain in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I’m parting in minutes, literally. All your e-mails and comments will certainly be answered when I come back.
I hope you were enjoying my coverage of the 2009 Australian Open. I'm sorry I probably won't be able to write about the singles final, but you can certainly discuss it in the comments. However, I'll enjoy watching it in some idyllic cottage covered with snow. Yay!
See you in a few days!
Marija
British world No.1 Anne Keothavong has launched her official website AnneKeothavong.co.uk.
The website features news, results, blog, profile information, on and off-court photos, video, Twitter, details of Anne’s schedule and gives users the chance to quiz the Londoner on every aspect of life as a pro tennis player in the Ask Anne section.
AnneKeothavong.co.uk has been produced and will be managed by the team behind tennishead, the new brand in British tennis.
I browsed through the website a little bit, and it looks neat. From what I’ve noticed so far, they did a great job, having made a very informative and easy to use website with many kinds of content.
World No.60 Keothavong, who hit the headlines in 2008 when she became the first British woman to enter the world top 100 for nine years, is currently in Auckland, playing ASB Classic. (photo: AMN Images)
The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour has introduced huge changes to the ranking system. Points have doubled in value, which will cause a significant increase to the numbers accumulated by players in 2008.
The new ranking system will go into effective on Monday, January 5. So, don’t be surprised if your favorite player has two times more points tomorrow.
The new system will count 16 of a player’s best tournaments, compared to the 17 counted in 2008.
New Top Ten Rankings for 2009
1. Jelena Jankovic
Old Ranking Points: 4710
January 5 Ranking Points: 9200 Read more »
Paula Vergara simplified the 2009 WTA Roadmap calendar in her guest post for On the Baseline, and she did an excellent job. It will be useful to remind yourselves once again of the historic changes to women’s tennis with this easy-to-understand guide.
Paula’s work, which I adapted a little bit, will help you understand the changes better and help you follow women’s tennis with more knowledge about its structure from this season on.
CALENDAR BASICS
The 2009 calendar features 54 tournaments across 31 countries (including all four Grand Slams) compared to last year’s 60 tournaments in 34 countries. There will be 25 tournaments in Europe, 15 in the Americas and 14 in the Asia-Pacific region.
NO MORE TIER I, II, III, IV
The WTA Tour is replacing a four-tier system with "Premier" and "International" tournaments. The differences between Premier and International events are based on prize money, ranking points, and player fields.
ABOUT PREMIER AND INTERNATIONAL EVENTS
Premier tournaments are the marquee events of the WTA tour – designed for top-level players, and offer the largest paychecks. Formerly Tier I/II events, there are 20 Premier tournaments in all. Read more »
As you probably know, Women’s Tennis Blog was nominated for the Best Tennis Blog award at the 2008 Baseline Awards. The winners have been announced, and for the second year in a row, the award went to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Player Blogs.
It is no surprise that player blogs won, as they are the most well-known, but thanks to all of you who voted, Women’s Tennis Blog also did very well, taking 23.42% of the votes cast.
I was pleasantly surprised by how many people sent me messages telling me how much they enjoy reading Women’s Tennis Blog and how they want it to win the award. All those beautiful messages mean a lot to me, and I want to thank the Baseline Awards for mediating between me and the readers of my blog who took the opportunity to tell me how much they appreciate my work.
Once again, thank you a lot for voting for Women’s Tennis Blog and encouraging its existence.
The 2008 is behind us, and I’m using this opportunity to thank all of you for being with Women’s Tennis Blog throughout the past year. I’m wishing you lots of love, happiness, success, health, joy, and just enough money in 2009. Also, I’m wishing all of us a thrilling tennis season.
Thank you for your support!
Marija
(photo: Daniel Voyager)
Read about current tennis events and matches, interesting stories about female tennis players, watch players' interviews and amusing tennis videos. Read more »
