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Mats Wilander has quit as captain of Sweden’s Davis Cup team. Wilander, who was briefly ranked No. 1 in the 1980s, led Sweden to the Davis Cup semifinals in 2007. The Swedes also reached the quarterfinals three times under Wilander and assistant coach Joakim Nystrom. Swedish Tennis Federation chief Henrik Kallen on Tuesday thanked them both and said a search will begin for their replacements. Kim Clijsters won her first match since capturing the U.S. Open, defeating Meghann Shaughnessy 6-2, 6-2 Tuesday to reach the second round of the Luxembourg Open.Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who lost to Clijsters in the final in New York, retired when leading Anne Kremer of Luxembourg 7-5, 5-0. She received treatment for her left leg and back. Kremer was a late replacement for teenager Melanie Oudin, who withdrew hours before her first match because of illness. Clijsters is a five-time champion of the tournament. Two men, identified only as foreign citizens, were detained as they entered a hotel in Stockholm early Sunday with their escorts. Both players were set to compete in the tournament, which started Monday. Organizers said in a brief statement that it would be inappropriate to comment because the investigation was ongoing. Tournament spokesman Pelle Hjertquist said that the investigation wouldn’t stop anyone from competing in the tournament, which has a 32-player singles draw and prize money of $600,000. A prosecutor in the case had issued a so-called summary punishment, which allows someone suspected of a minor offense to avoid a trial by signing a confession. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the players had signed the document. Sweden’s prostitution law is highly unusual because it punishes those who pay for sex but not the prostitutes. Rafael Nadal advanced to the Shanghai Masters final on Saturday after Feliciano Lopez became the ninth player to retire from the tournament. The unseeded Lopez said he woke up with a right foot infection, and then twisted his right ankle on the last point of the first set. He was trailing 6-1, 3-0 when he retired. The top-seeded Nadal will play in Sunday’s final against sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, who outlasted second-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1). “He’s playing very well today,” said Nadal, who holds a 4-2 advantage over Davydenko in their previous meetings. “He has a lot of rhythm, and he’s playing with a lot of intensity. It’s going to be a really tough match.” Nadal only lost four points in the five service games he played against Lopez in the semifinal, which he gained when Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia retired with a left hip injury. The Spaniard is looking for his sixth title of the year, and the first since returning from an injury layoff to recover from knee tendinitis, which prevented him from defending his Wimbledon title. He also struggled with a stomach muscle injury at the U.S. Open. “I’m in a final and that’s very important,” Nadal said. “It’s my first final since I’ve been back and that’s a good result for me.” Davydenko reached his fourth final of the year after a hard-fought match that lasted more than three hours. The Russian dominated the final tiebreaker, racing out to a 5-0 lead before sealing the win. Djokovic had saved all three break points he faced in the first set, before breaking Davydenko with his second set point when the Russian smacked a crosscourt backhand wide. Davydenko then took control of the second by breaking for a 4-3 lead when Djokovic’s forehand sailed long at 15-40. The Russian had two set points on Djokovic’s serve in the ninth game but couldn’t convert either. Instead, he served it out in the next game with two aces. Davydenko has won all three finals he has played this year, in Hamburg, Umag and the Kuala Lumpur tournament two weeks ago. Novak Djokovic won the China Open with a 6-2, 7-6 (4) victory over Marin Cilic, and Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia defeated Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-2, 6-4 in the women’s final on Sunday. The second-seeded Serb broke Cilic’s serve in the sixth game and again in the eighth to take the first set. The second set was much tighter, with each breaking the other’s serve three times to force the tiebreak. But Cilic then struggled, and his return at 6-4 went wide, handing Djokovic the win. The sixth-seeded Kuznetsova needed just 1 hour, 20 minutes to complete her victory. The third-ranked Djokovic’s path to the title was eased by Cilic’s upset of top-seeded Rafael Nadal in Saturday’s semifinal. The rain delay also appeared to have been a factor, allowing Djokovic time to regroup. Kuznetsova has already qualified for the season-ending WTA Tour Championship in Doha at the end of the month, and will spend some time in Moscow practicing before arriving in the Persian Gulf a to acclimatize to the conditions. Maria Sharapova was eliminated from the China Open on Wednesday, losing to Peng Shuai of China 6-2, 6-4, and Svetlana Kuznetsova moved into the quarterfinals by beating Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-3, 4-6, 6-0. Peng broke Sharapova twice in the first set, and then again in the sixth game of the second as the former top-ranked Russian appeared to show the strain of her three-set comeback victory over Victoria Azarenka of Belarus the night before. Sharapova did save two match points at 5-4 before losing. The sixth-seeded Kuznetsova outplayed Bondarenko for much of the match and next faces Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, who defeated Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada 6-4, 6-4. In addition, fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia beat Li Na of China 6-2, 6-0. Nikolay Davydenko of Russia advanced in the men’s field, beating Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-1, 6-0. Davydenko will face Marin Cilic of Croatia, who beat Julien Benneteau of France 6-2, 2-6, 6-0. Second-seeded Novak Djokovic trounced Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-0, while Fernando Verdasco defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 6-4. Serena Williams is going back to the top of the WTA rankings. Williams needed to win her second-round match at the China Open to reclaim the No. 1 ranking, because the nuumber 1 player, Dinara Safina, couldn’t get past that early round at the tournament. Williams won with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Ekaterina Makarova of Russia. Safina’s loss made No. 226 Zhang the lowest-ranked woman to defeat a No. 1. Julie Coin of France was ranked 188th when she beat then-No. 1 Ana Ivanovic at the 2008 U.S. Open. In other action, Maria Sharapova rallied for a 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-5 win over Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, and Peng Shuai of China upset defending champion Jelena Jankovic 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. Fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia beat Melinda Czink of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-3. Williams has spent a total of 72 weeks as No. 1. The American said her focus for the rest of the year would be the WTA Tour Championships in Doha at the end of October. Sharapova, who last week won the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo for her first tournament victory since returning from a 10-month injury layoff, recovered from a 5-2 deficit in the final set, winning five games in a row as ninth-ranked Azarenka struggled. Jankovic, who retired in last week’s Tokyo final, said her arm and wrist still bother her. She said it was especially apparent in the third set. Top-seededed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia defeated Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-4, 7-5 to win the Malaysia Open on Sunday. Davydenko extended his record to 6-1 over Verdasco and gave him a third title this year. He also won the German Open in Hamburg and Croatia Open in Umag. In Bangkok, Gilles Simon of France won the Thailand Open, defeating Viktor Troicki 7-5, 6-3 for his first ATP title of the year and sixth overall. Troicki, seeded fourth, and Simon traded breaks late in the first set before the Frenchman broke when leading 6-5. Simon broke an error-prone Troicki to make it 4-2 in the second set. Simon won on his second match point when the Serbian hit a forehand return wide. Tennis coaches have to be one of the biggest farces in all of sports. It seems to be more prominant in the women’t game. For example, out on the practice courts, you will often see women ‘practicing’ by hitting the ball down the middle to each other. What does that improve, their ability to give their opponent a chance to change direction and take control of the point? Instead they should rally ad to ad or duece to duece court. This is a more realistic game situation. Another time I took the front seats in a near empty stadium and the guy behind me asked me to move because his player couldn’t see him. His player was a top 10 Russian who shall remain nameless. He spent the whole match coaching her. She looked up to him before every point. His “coaching” amounted to berating her for every error. Here is a good one, another coach had his player facing the back fence then tossed a ball and had her turn around and hit it back. Did he expect her to spend most of her match with her back to the court? How could this have possibly helped her? I have heard coaches tell players to hit their slice backhands in a U shape. This keeps the ball up and after the bounce. Don’t they know the fundamentals of the stroke? Why don’t they have them work on a service toss? Why don’t they practice target hitting on their serves? Have you ever wondered what their qualifications are? Look at the William’s father? He’s a great athlete but never even played college tennis. Does that qualify him to coach possibly two best players in the world? So who do I like as a coach? Darren Cahill, Brad Gilbert, Larry Stephanky, Paul Annacone. A coach needs to be able to click with the player and develop a plan to improve their strokes, their footwork, and work out a game plan; not do stupid drills because they don’t know what they are doing. |
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Novak Now World #3, Don’t Tell Him Though
It is a good thing that nobody told Novak Djokovic that if he beat Robin Soderling that he would have moved up to world #3, he would have choked given his history. He should win the China Open after Rafael Nadal lost meekly to Marin Cilic. The long season has taken its toll on the players as all of them lost prematurely in matches they should have won and Federer elected to pull out.