Casey's Angel27
18-01-07, 05:23 PM
Stars and strife?
by Luke Buttigieg
Wednesday, 17 January, 2007
American women have dominated tennis throughout the Open era but, by virtue of injury and loss of form recently, a quirk of Australian Open 2007 sees no seeded ladies in the singles draw hailing from the USA.
In the 1970s, 80s and 90s it was the likes of Chris Evert, Czechoslovakian-born Martina Navratilova, Tracy Austin, Billy-Jean King and Pam Shriver who were among the world's best.
Navratilova won 16 Grand Slams including three Australian Opens, while Evert won the Australian Open in 1982 and 1984 and also made the final in her three other appearances at Kooyong and then Melbourne Park as she claimed eight career Grand Slam titles.
Then from the late 90s and beyond the turn of the century it has been the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati who have been regulars among the world's top 10, keeping the American flag flying prominently.
But Davenport looks set to retire after recently becoming pregnant, Capriati is battling injury problems that have kept her off the court since 2004 and the Williams girls are either also battling injury or on the comeback trail following form or injury woes.
The fiercely proud and patriotic nation will be hoping the Williams duo can return to their best, but tennis fans in the land of the stars and stripes will now also be looking to the future, and the view on the horizon looks promising.
Davenport is still the top-ranked American woman at No.25, with Meghann Shaughnessy (No.39), Shenay Perry (No.44), Venus Williams (No.47) and Jamea Jackson (No.49) also inside the top 50.
Others in the top 100 are No.58 Vania King, Jill Craybas (No.64), Laura Granville (No.72), Serena Williams (No.81), Ashley Harkleroad (No.88) and Meilen Tu (No.90).
And while Shaughnessy (27 years old), Craybas (32), Granville (25) and Tu (28) have all been on the WTA Tour for many years, it is the progress of players like King, Harkleroad, 16-year-old Madison Brengle, Perry and Jackson providing the excitement.
Now 21, Harkleroad is looking to improve on or at least match her career rankings high of No.39 back in June 2003, having decided to try and use her 'athleticism' to her advantage rather than continuing to 'grind' out results.
Harkleroad, who beat Meng Yuan of China in her opening round match on Day Three, dismissed any notions that the lack of a seeded American woman is anything more than a temporary blip while King, a month short of her 18th birthday, is more concerned with her own game.
"To be honest, sometimes you really have countries, for instance, who don't have very many players for a little bit and then next thing you know they have a lot of players, it just comes and goes," Harkleroad said dismissively of the seeds situation.
"I really don't think anybody should look at that more, we have Serena (Williams) coming back and surely she can do pretty well anyway. We have a lot of girls that are in the main draw here that are top 100, it's not easy to be top 100 in the world in anything you do."
"I think sometimes you just have to look at the positives and say we have some girls and they keep getting better, you never know, you honestly never know what can happen."
"I always just try to think, just to give myself the best chance, just to go out there and try my best and that's all I can do," said King, who was ousted on Day Two, beaten by the more experienced Ana Ivanovic 6-2 6-0.
"I'm obviously very honoured to be compared to such elite greats but I usually try to keep it simple, going out there and fighting the best I can, trying to improve and not thinking about my ranking and winning."
King has made an exciting leap in the WTA Tour rankings, improving from No.825 to No.202 to No.50 at the end of each of the past three seasons, and Harkleroad is one who expects big things from her.
"She's actually pretty good at getting into the net a lot," Harkleroad said. "Size-wise she's little, she doesn't have a very big shot and she's not super-fast but I think that she knows that she probably needs to use what she has."
"She can volley extremely well and she can get in to the net and she just has to be smart doing stuff like that, mixing it up. I think she'll be fine."
King wants to reach the top 40 by midway through the season and the top 30 by year's end as she continues to find her way, and the well-spoken youngster makes no secret of what she thinks it will take her to reach those goals, identifying the areas that were raised by Harkleroad.
"I think I still need to work a lot on my fitness, I'm still young so I can't quite hit the ball as hard as some of the older girls out here," King said.
"I think the game is leaning towards more of an all-court game which is something that I've been trying to improve a lot, like working on my volleys and my serves, and serve-and-volley and slicing it, mixing it up and putting a variety in."
Brengle was another who showed glimpses of why she could be a star of the future in her straight-sets loss to Swiss No.8 seed Patty Schnyder on Day Three, even though she squandered a point that could have given her a double break in the second set.
American fans may have to wait a little bit longer before they see Harkleroad, King and co consistently matching it with the world's best, with the likelihood one of the Williams sisters could deliver another Grand Slam before any of their younger countrywomen.
And even though Serena Williams is the only one of the 10 American women who made it into the singles draw at Melbourne Park already through to the round of 32 - with Harkleroad and Granville the only other two who can join her - the next generation's future prospects look limitless.
from www.australianopen.com
by Luke Buttigieg
Wednesday, 17 January, 2007
American women have dominated tennis throughout the Open era but, by virtue of injury and loss of form recently, a quirk of Australian Open 2007 sees no seeded ladies in the singles draw hailing from the USA.
In the 1970s, 80s and 90s it was the likes of Chris Evert, Czechoslovakian-born Martina Navratilova, Tracy Austin, Billy-Jean King and Pam Shriver who were among the world's best.
Navratilova won 16 Grand Slams including three Australian Opens, while Evert won the Australian Open in 1982 and 1984 and also made the final in her three other appearances at Kooyong and then Melbourne Park as she claimed eight career Grand Slam titles.
Then from the late 90s and beyond the turn of the century it has been the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati who have been regulars among the world's top 10, keeping the American flag flying prominently.
But Davenport looks set to retire after recently becoming pregnant, Capriati is battling injury problems that have kept her off the court since 2004 and the Williams girls are either also battling injury or on the comeback trail following form or injury woes.
The fiercely proud and patriotic nation will be hoping the Williams duo can return to their best, but tennis fans in the land of the stars and stripes will now also be looking to the future, and the view on the horizon looks promising.
Davenport is still the top-ranked American woman at No.25, with Meghann Shaughnessy (No.39), Shenay Perry (No.44), Venus Williams (No.47) and Jamea Jackson (No.49) also inside the top 50.
Others in the top 100 are No.58 Vania King, Jill Craybas (No.64), Laura Granville (No.72), Serena Williams (No.81), Ashley Harkleroad (No.88) and Meilen Tu (No.90).
And while Shaughnessy (27 years old), Craybas (32), Granville (25) and Tu (28) have all been on the WTA Tour for many years, it is the progress of players like King, Harkleroad, 16-year-old Madison Brengle, Perry and Jackson providing the excitement.
Now 21, Harkleroad is looking to improve on or at least match her career rankings high of No.39 back in June 2003, having decided to try and use her 'athleticism' to her advantage rather than continuing to 'grind' out results.
Harkleroad, who beat Meng Yuan of China in her opening round match on Day Three, dismissed any notions that the lack of a seeded American woman is anything more than a temporary blip while King, a month short of her 18th birthday, is more concerned with her own game.
"To be honest, sometimes you really have countries, for instance, who don't have very many players for a little bit and then next thing you know they have a lot of players, it just comes and goes," Harkleroad said dismissively of the seeds situation.
"I really don't think anybody should look at that more, we have Serena (Williams) coming back and surely she can do pretty well anyway. We have a lot of girls that are in the main draw here that are top 100, it's not easy to be top 100 in the world in anything you do."
"I think sometimes you just have to look at the positives and say we have some girls and they keep getting better, you never know, you honestly never know what can happen."
"I always just try to think, just to give myself the best chance, just to go out there and try my best and that's all I can do," said King, who was ousted on Day Two, beaten by the more experienced Ana Ivanovic 6-2 6-0.
"I'm obviously very honoured to be compared to such elite greats but I usually try to keep it simple, going out there and fighting the best I can, trying to improve and not thinking about my ranking and winning."
King has made an exciting leap in the WTA Tour rankings, improving from No.825 to No.202 to No.50 at the end of each of the past three seasons, and Harkleroad is one who expects big things from her.
"She's actually pretty good at getting into the net a lot," Harkleroad said. "Size-wise she's little, she doesn't have a very big shot and she's not super-fast but I think that she knows that she probably needs to use what she has."
"She can volley extremely well and she can get in to the net and she just has to be smart doing stuff like that, mixing it up. I think she'll be fine."
King wants to reach the top 40 by midway through the season and the top 30 by year's end as she continues to find her way, and the well-spoken youngster makes no secret of what she thinks it will take her to reach those goals, identifying the areas that were raised by Harkleroad.
"I think I still need to work a lot on my fitness, I'm still young so I can't quite hit the ball as hard as some of the older girls out here," King said.
"I think the game is leaning towards more of an all-court game which is something that I've been trying to improve a lot, like working on my volleys and my serves, and serve-and-volley and slicing it, mixing it up and putting a variety in."
Brengle was another who showed glimpses of why she could be a star of the future in her straight-sets loss to Swiss No.8 seed Patty Schnyder on Day Three, even though she squandered a point that could have given her a double break in the second set.
American fans may have to wait a little bit longer before they see Harkleroad, King and co consistently matching it with the world's best, with the likelihood one of the Williams sisters could deliver another Grand Slam before any of their younger countrywomen.
And even though Serena Williams is the only one of the 10 American women who made it into the singles draw at Melbourne Park already through to the round of 32 - with Harkleroad and Granville the only other two who can join her - the next generation's future prospects look limitless.
from www.australianopen.com