U.S. Women's TennisVibes

Friday, July 10, 2009

2009-07-10T06:41:00.011-05:00

WIMBLEDON OVER BUT TENNIS MUST GO ON!

Although Wimbledon was just completed this past week, you can still look forward to following some great tennis action. In fact a couple of my favortie players on the women's side are playing on clay in Europe.

Caroline Wozniacki and Gisela Dulko are both still in the $220k clay tournament being held in Sweden. Patty Schnyder received a wild card and is seeded number one in this week's $220k clay tournament in Hungary. Schnyder is having a difficult year but is into this week's Quarterfinals.

USA TAKES ON CROATIA IN THE DAVIS CUP

U.S. Davis Cup action starts today. James Blake and Marty Fish as well as the Bryan Brothers will be defending the Davis Cup versus Croatia. You can catch the action on The Tennis Channel starting at 10 AM Eastern time today.

ATP TENNIS HALL OF FAME TOURNAMENT

Yes folks it's that time of the year again when the Tennis Hall Of Fame in
Newport, Rhode Island inducts another tennis star. This year one of the most beloved women's tennis players, Monica Seles, will be inducted. Congrats Monica!

There is some action going on the Hall Of Fame grass courts of the original U.S. Open which was orignaly held in Newport. Several Americans are into the Quarterfinals, including Taylor Dent who takes on former champ Fabrice Santoro of France . Other Americans advancing to the Quarters are.....

Sam Querrey
Jesse Levine
Kevin Kim
Robby Ginepri
Brendan Evans
Alex Bogomolov Jr.

TENNIS ON INTERNET RADIO

Hey, did you know that you can listen to live tennis on the radio? That's right. If you're interested in tuning in, go to http://www.radiotennis.com/ and listen to today's Quarterfinal of the $50K Women's USTA Challenger being held in Grapevine, Texas. Ken Thomas has been running this site for several years now and does a great job.

MidWeek Report 8/7/08

2008-08-07T07:55:00.019-05:00

Cream Of The Crop Remain In USTA's Girl's 18's Tourny

Alexa Gurachi
They are now down to 16 players in this week's USTA Girl's tournament. The prestigious junior tournament is being played in Berkeley, California.

Considering the enormous field at this tournament, there have only been a few upsets. The round of 64 produced these when Connecticut's Rachel Kahan took Allie Will to three sets and won 6-4,3-6, 6-4. Florida's Alexa Guarachi pictured above easily upset Mallory Burdette 6-3,6-2 and New York's Manuela Velasquez took care of Beatrice Capra 2-6,6-3,6-2 in the round of 64.
Unfortunately, Kahan and Velasquez would be defeated the following round but Alexa Guarachi, ranked as the 8th American in the ITF Junior rankings continued her winning ways. She will compete against fellow Floridian, Irina Falconi in the round of 16. Here are the other round of 16 matchups.......

Gail Brodsky Vs. Sloane Stephens
Krista Damico Vs. Kristie Ahn
Christina McHale Vs. Nicole Gibbs
Laura McHale Vs. Mallory Cecil
Brooke Bolender Vs. Coco Vandeweghe
Julia Boserup Vs. Jamie Hampton
Olivia Janowicz Vs. Asia Muhammad

The winner of this tournament gets a Wild Card into the main draw of the U.S. Open. Remember that you can listen to this weekend's semifinals and finals by going to http://www.radiotennis.com/.
Above picture provided by http://www.collegeandjuniortennis.com/

Jill Craybas Added To U.S. Olympic Team

Jill Craybas
Veteran, Jill Craybas has been added to this upcoming week's Olympic singles tournament. The 34-year-old was added to the draw after Austria's Tamira Paszek dropped out. Craybas must be thrilled considering her age. This was likely her last chance to make the Olympic squad.

The other Americans involved in the women's singles and doubles draw will be Serena Williams and her sister Venus. Liezel Huber and Lindsay Davenport round out the U.S. Women's team. Huber will partner with Davenport in doubles. Venus and Serena will also team up in doubles.

Singles....

Jill Craybas Vs. Patty Schnyder
Serna Williams Vs. Olga Govortsova
Venus Williams Vs. Timea Bacsinszky
Lindsay Davenport Vs. Alicia Molik

Doubles.....

Williams Sisters Vs. Iveta Benesova/Nicole Vaidisova
Davenport/Huber Vs. Jans/Rosolska Poland

You can watch the olympic tennis matches on your computer by going to http://www.nbcolympics.com/

This Week's Challenger Circuit

Audra Cohen
There are still four Americans remaining in this week's $100,000 Monterrey,Mexico Challenger. Ninth ranked American, Ahsha Rolle was the only U.S. player knocked out of the tournament after she suffered an injury and retired in the 2nd set.

Former college standouts, Anne Yelsey and Audra Cohen advanced to the 2nd round as well as Vania King and Angela Haynes.

USTA Buys Majority Stake In Cincinnati Tournament And Indian Wells Loses Sponsor

The USTA has decided to buy a majority stake in the 2nd highest attended summer tournament, The Western and Southern Financial Group Masters. The USTA is also discussing with Tennis Cincinnati, the addition of a top women's tournament that will see a combined women's and men's to be played by 2011. The WTA has already planned to make the current Tier III tournament played in Cincy into a Tier I tournament as part of it's new Road Map plan.

Midwest fans can expect the 2009 WTA tournament to significantly increase it's prize money.

In other tournament news, Indian Wells has lost it's main sponsor, Pacific Life. This comes at a critical time due to the fact the total prize money for next year's tournament will be increased to $9 Million.

Pacific Life had been title sponsor since 2002. It doesn't seem that the tournament organizers are worried about picking up a new sponsor. The tournament has broken attendance records for the past 2 years. This year's tournament drew 331,860 fans. An average of 16,564 per day.

Weekly Report 8/5/08

2008-08-05T12:14:00.011-05:00

USTA Girl's 18 Juniors This Week

Most of the top junior American girls will be in Berkeley, California this week. They will be participating in the 256 main draw tournament looking to receive an automatic wild card into the main draw of this year's U.S. Open. Of course the winner of this week's tournament will pick up that wild card.

Unfortunately, the number one American junior, Melanie Oudin will not be playing this week but the rest of the field looks very strong. Here are some of the players who are in Berkeley this week......

Gail Brodsky
Sloane Stephens
Allie Will
Kristie Ahn
Irina Falconi
Lauren Embree
Mallory Burdette
Christina McHale
Nicole Gibbs
Mallory Cecil
Coco Vandeweghe
Julia Boserup
Jamie Hampton
Beatrice Capra
Asia Muhammad

For those of you who are die hard tennis fans, you can listen to some of the matches this upcoming Saturday and Sunday starting at 1pm Eastern time by going to
http://www.radiotennis.com/.

Melanie Oudin Still Number 1 American Junior

Not much movement in terms of the top 10 American juniors on the ITF Tennis List this week.....

1) Melanie Oudin
2) Mallory Burdette
3) Lauren McHale
4) Nicole Bartnik
5) Ester Goldfield
6) Mallory Cecil
7) Sloane Stephens
8) Alexa Guarachi
9) Brooke Bolender
10) Lauren Embree

Americans Continue To Struggle On The WTA Tour

Six Americans were in the main draw of this past week's Roger's Tournament and by the end of the 2nd round there were none.

Veteran Jill Craybas was the only American who won a main draw match after she overtook wild card entrant Sharon Fichman 6-4,6-3 in the first round. The 34-year-old former Rhode Islander was then ousted by the sixth seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze in the 2nd round, 6-2,7-5.

The top three Americans, Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport did not play in the event due to the fact that they were nursing injuries and are preparing for next week's Olympics in China.

Williams Sisters Dominating U.S. Women's Tennis

Although they don't play very much but when they do, they make it happen. The Williams sisters continue to sit atop the rankings for American women's tennis. Here are this week's top 10....

1) Serena Williams
2) Venus Williams
3) Lindsay Davenport
4) Bethanie Mattek
5) Jill Craybas
6) Ashley Harkeleroad
7) Vania King
8) Julie Ditty
9) Ahsha Rolle
10) Varvara Lepchenko

Top 10 American Women's Tennis Money Makers

Yes, you guessed it. The Williams sisters sit atop this list as well. Might as well call U.S. Women's Tennis....Williams Tennis Nation.....

1) Serena Williams 2,165,612
2) Venus Williams 2,114,697
3) Liezel Huber 423,438
4) Bethanie Mattek 309,808
5) Lindsay Davenport 235,551
6) Jill Craybas 178,784
7) Lisa Raymond 175,080
8) Ashley Harkleroad 160,818
9) Vania King 147,567
10) Julie Ditty 120,199

Americans In Mexican Challenger This Week

Due to the upcoming Olympics, there are no WTA tournaments this week but there is still professional tennis being played all over the world on the ITF tennis circuit. Thank God! There is one down in Monterrey, Mexico that is worth $100,0000. Americans in the tournament include......

Vania King
Ahsha Rolle
Angela Haynes
Audra Cohen

MidWeek Report 3/8/07

2007-03-08T05:56:00.000-05:00

Craybas,Tu And Perry Advance To Second Round Of Pacific Life Open

Veteran Jill Craybas was the first American to advance into the second round of the Pacific Life Open as she took out Maria Elena Camerin 6-1, 7-5. Craybas will next take on the number 15 seed in the tournament, Russia's Vera Zvonareva.

Meilen Tu continued to have a good year. She too advanced into the 2nd round as she easily defeated qualifier Tatiana Poutchek 6-3,6-2. Meilen will be facing the 28th seed in the tournament, Martin Mueller of Germany.

Shenay Perry also faced a qualifier in her first round match. Perry advanced into the 2nd round with a 6-3,6-2 victory over Galina Voskoboeva. Perry has her work cut out for her in the 2nd round when she faces the number 7 seed, Jelena Jankovic

The only American ousted in the first round of the main draw was USC's, Lindsey Nelson. The Junior was the only American who advanced through the qualifying rounds. Lindsey Nelson battled it out with Croatia's Marijana Lucic. Yes, that Marijana Lucic! Lucic came away with the win 6-4,7-6.

Here are today's Americans in action.......

Ashley Harkleroad vs. Vasilisa Bardina
Vania King vs. Katerya Bondarenko
Laura Granville vs. Camille Pin
Bethanie Mattek vs. Brenda Schultz-McCarthy
Ahsha Rolle vs. Anastasiya Yakimova
Lilia Osterloh vs. Romina Oprandi

Remember that those of you who are lucky enough to have The Tennis Channel, you can see this tournament starting on Saturday. The Tennis Channel will have at least 12 hours of coverage each day over the weekend. Enjoy!

Dramatic Changes At The Top Of Women's College Tennis

There was some dramatic changes in this week's Fila Collegiate Rankings. The University of Florida Gators have become the number 1 ranked team in the nation. The Gators are undefeated and have been the most consistent team in the top 10 this spring. This is the first time that they have been ranked number 1 since 2004.

In a sport that is usually dominated by the Stanford Cardinal, women's college tennis has already seen three different number one teams this spring.

The University of Georgia made the most dramatic jump in this week's rankings as they climbed 11 spots and are now the number 3 ranked team in the nation. The Clemson Tigers are also a new team in the top 10. After defeating both UNC and Georgia Tech, they deserve to be in the top 10.

Teams that were demoted from the top 10 were USC and the University of Miami. The 9 and 1 Stanford Cardinal dropped from number 1 to the number 4 spot in the nation. Here are this week's top 10........

1) Florida
2) Notre Dame
3) Georgia
4) Stanford
5) Northwestern
6) Cal
7) Georgia Tech
8) Clemson
9) William&Mary
10) UNC

Here are a couple of key matches this weekend...

Florida vs. Tennessee
Florida vs. Georgia

Miami's Cohen Still Number One

Although here school has dropped from the top 10 rankings, Audra Cohen continues to be the number 1 ranked player in the nation. The senior Hurricane has yet to drop a set this spring.

Freshman, Megan Falcon continues to do well at LSU and is now ranked number 2 in the nation. Americans hold 8 of the top 10 spots in the nation. Here is this week's top 10.....

1) Audra Cohen Miami
2) Megan Falcon LSU
3) Melanie Gloria Fresno State
4) Susie Babos Cal
5) Megan Moulton-Levy William&Mary
6) Jenna Long UNC
7) Kristi Miller Georgia Tech
8) Celia Durkin Stanford
9) Jessica Nguyen Stanford
10) Natalie Frazier Georgia

William&Mary's Coach Shares View Of American Women's Tennis

2007-03-06T17:40:00.000-05:00

I had a chance this week to speak to one of the more successful college coaches in the nation, Kevin Epley of William&Mary.

Epley's squad are undefeated this year and cracked the top 10 after shocking Georgia Tech several week's ago.

One of the reasons why I decided to create this blog was due to the fact that I was concerned about the state of American women's tennis.

Coach Epley had been the assistant coach to legendary Billie Jean King during the 2000 Summer Olympics and was an assistant coach for the U.S. Fed cup from 1996-2002.

Epley suggested that since the 70's the state of American tennis has been diminishing. "During the 1970's American tennis was peaking. Tennis is just not as popular as it was back in the 70's. There is too much competition from other women's sports and kids are just less active."

Coach Epley also does not agree with the big academy coaching which became more popular duing the 80's.

"I don't think academy coaching is the best thing for the individual player. Academy coaching is great for the business of tennis but not for the individual player."

When I asked Epley about the new USTA strategy of putting the top American juniors in one academy, Epley was not too thrilled about the idea.

"I'm not too happy with taking the best 10 or so juniors and putting them all in one academy. We should have more local roots. Local coaches have to do more and they should be compensated for it."

Since I'm a big college fan, I asked him if college tennis could ever become like college basketball, where it would become a feeding ground to the pros.

"I don't think that can happen right now. The level of competition between pro tennis and college tennis is too far off. I found that out when I was working at the 2000 Olympics."

According to Epley, one of the main reasons why college women players are not successful when they head into the pro tour is the fact that at 17 or 18 a woman is at her peak physical condition. When they come out of college they have already gone through that key period of time and find themselves trying to catch up.

One area where college players can and have accelerated in is doubles. This could very well be due to the fact that in college you have to play doubles.

I later learned that Epley at one time had been a personal coach for Lindsay Davenport and Patty Schnyder. I had to ask him if he would consider going back on tour.

"There is no way that I would go back. I love team sports and I'm enjoying myself here at William&Mary."

U.S. Women's TennisVibes Weekly Report 3/5

2007-03-05T05:33:00.000-05:00

$2.1 Million Dollar Pacific Life Open Preview

Today marks the beginning of the qualifying rounds of one of the biggest tournaments on the WTA schedule. The Pacific Life Open is played in the hot Palm Desert sun of southern California. The women have been involved in this tournament since the mid 1990's.

This tournament has a similar format to the Sony Ericsson Open played in Miami, Florida. There is 96 player main draw and qualifying rounds consist of 48 players.

American players in this year's qualifying rounds include....

Jessica Kirkland
Lindsey Nelson of USC
Kimberly Couts who is the number 5 American junior
Anne Yelsey of Stanford
Coco Vandeweighe

Other Americans in the qualifying rounds of this two week tournament are Abigail Spears and Lindsay Lee-Waters.

The main draw of the Pacific Life Open begins on Wednesday. All of the American players ranked in the top 100 will be participating with the exception of the Williams sisters and of course Lindsay Davenport. Americans receiving wildcards into the main draw were....

Bethanie Matek
Lilia Osterloh
Ahsha Rolle
Lauren Albanese

Pacific Life Open On TV This Week

For those of you lucky enough to have The Tennis Channel....here is when you can catch this week's Pacific Life Open....

Saturday, March 10th 1pm-Midnight Eastern
Sunday, March 11th 2pm-1:30 AM Eastern

Qatar Receives Tier I Tournament From WTA

It seems that the country of Qatar has unlimited funds for their professional tennis tournaments. This past week the Total Qatar Open was played and the purse for the women was a cool $1.34 Million. That figure is a 100 percent increase from last year's purse and guaranteed them several of the top women players in the world but Qatar is not content.

Next year's Qatar Telegram German Open will no longer take place in Germany. The Qatar Telegram Open will now move to Qatar and will become a $2.5 Million dollar event.

That purse will make The Qatar Telegram Open the third largest tournament behind only the WTA Tour Championships and The Sony Ericsson Open. Yes, it will put them ahead of this week's Pacific Life Open.

The Middle East has become a tennis hotbed. The Dubai Open already offers well over a million dollars in prize money and is attracting several of the top players in the world.

Americans Disappointed At Las Vegas Challenger

For the first time in five weeks, no Americans were able to advance past the round of 16 in a challenger event.

The $75,000 Las Vegas Challenger had seven Americans in the main draw and by the time the 2nd round was finished, no Americans remained standing.

In the 2nd round Akiko Morigami easily defeated Angela Haynes 6-4,6-1. American Ahsha Rolle had a difficult time with Jarmila Gajdosova during the 2nd round. Gajdosova came away with a 6-0,6-2 victory.

American Lilia Osterloh was unable to compete in the 2nd round which gave Vavara Lepchenko a walkover victory into the Quarterfinals.

No USTA challenger tournaments are scheduled for this week.

UNC AND Georgia Tech Faced Upsets This Weekend

The University of North Carolina women's tennis team had a very difficult weekend. The Tar Heels lost both of their scheduled matches.

Wake Forest squeaked past UNC 4-3. The upset minded Sun Devils of Arizona State had an easier time with the top 10 Tar Heels, winning 5-2.

Georgia Tech also had another difficult weekend. The Yellow Jackets were upset by the number 12 team in the country, the University of Georgia 5-2. The Yellow Jackets woes continued the following day when the 13th ranked Clemson Tigers also defeated Georgia Tech 4-3. The Yellow Jackets have now lost four matches since upsetting the Stanford Cardinal earlier this year.

Speaking of Stanford, this past weekend proved to be the first time that they looked like the number one school in the nation. The Cardinal easily defeated both the number 18 team in the country, Pepperdine and top 10 Cal, 6 matches to 1.

It will be interesting to see what the top 10 list will look like this upcoming week.

*Junior Player Spotlight*

American, Nicole Bartnik was the surprising winner of The Copa HSBC El Salvador Junior Open. The tournament is a Grade 4 international junior event.

The 15-year-old Bartnik struggled through her Quarterfinal and Semifinal matches en route to the championship round. In the Quarterfinal round she came back to defeat the number 4 seed Francesca Segarelli 6-7,6-3,6-3. She struggled again in the Semifinals before overtaking Columbia's Andrea Yacaman 6-3,5-7,6-1.

Nicole, who was only ranked 754 in the junior world rankings, had an easier time in the Finals. She easily defeated Emi Mataguchi and took the championship 6-0,6-4. Nicole Bartnik is a student from the Nick Bollettieri Academy.

MidWeek Report 3/1/07

2007-03-01T05:50:00.000-05:00

Americans Struggle This Week On WTA Tour

Not many Americans were scheduled to play this week on the WTA Tour due to the fact that they are resting for the upcoming Pacific Life Open and The Sony Ericsson Open being played in the United States.

The third ranked American, Meghann Shaughnessy did enter into this week's $1.34 Million Qatar Open. Shaughnessy was unable to get past the first round as she was upset by Spain's Annabel Medina Garrigues 3-6,6-3,6-2.

Jill Craybas and Ashley Harkleroad decided to go south to Acapulco,Mexico to compete in a $180,000 Clay court tournament. It looks like they will be able to enjoy the beautiful beaches due to the fact that both of them proved that Americans are not ready to be successful on clay.

Harkleroad was ousted by Roberta Vinci 6-3,6-3 in the first round and Craybas was taken to cleaners by the tournament's number three seeded player, Martina Muller 6-4,6-3.

Mixed Results For Americans In Vegas Challenger

Americans are having mixed results in this week's $75,000 Las Vegas challenger. After the first round of the main draw, it looks as if Angela Haynes is having the most success at this tournament. Haynes made it through three rounds in the qualies and after losing the first set in her first round, she came back strongly to defeat fellow American Alexandra Stevenson
6-7,6-1,6-1.

Vegas has not been very good to America's number 1 ranked junior player, Julia Cohen. She was crushed by Bettina Jozami 6-0,6-1 in the 2nd round of the qualies.

American veteran Lindsay Lee-Waters continues to have a difficult time coming back on the tennis circuit. She only managed to win two games in her first round match against Viktoria Azarenka, losing 6-0,6-2.

Abigail Spears was trying to continue her stretch to hit the top 100 players in the world and it looked as if she was well on her way during her first round match. She had taken the first set
6-3 but collapsed during the rest of the match against Edina Gallovits. Gallovits took the match 3-6,6-1,6-1.

American Ahsha Rolle struggled in her first round match but managed to eek out win
3-6,6-1,7-5 over Antonella Seeera Zanetti.

Veteran Lilia Osterloh easily moved into the 2nd round of the main draw topping France's Stephanie Foretz 6-3,6-1.

Georgia Tech Slips To Number 6 In The Nation

The Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech are feeling the pressure of formerly being the number one team in the country. They have slipped an additional three notches this week after being upset for the second week in a row. This past week they were victimized by Vanderbilt.

University of Florida continues to inch their way to the number one spot in the nation as they are now the number three ranked team in the nation.

Some very competitive matches will be played this upcoming weekend. Yours truly will be enjoying my pick of the weekend, William&Mary versus NorthWestern. This is the last time that the Tribe will be facing a top 10 school this year. They were the first school to upset the then number 1 team in the country, Georgia Tech. The Tribe look to upset NorthWestern this weekend.

Stanford will be battling it out with the much improved Cal team. Stanford for the first time in a long time, looks vulnerable this Spring. Georgia Tech have their hands full this weekend as they take on Clemson.

Lastly, Arizona State is looking to continue to improve. They came close to upsetting Stanford and Cal last weekend. This weekend they battle it out with USC. Look for an upset there. Here are this week's top 10.......

1) Stanford
2) Notre Dame
3) Florida
4) UNC
5) NorthWestern
6) Georgia Tech
7) Cal
8) USC
9) Miami
10) William&Mary

*JUNIOR PLAYER SPOTLIGHT*

Alexa Guarachi, who is currently the 18th ranked American Junior performed well in this past week's Argentina Cup. The event is played on clay and a Grade 2 ITF event.

The 16-year-old Floridian upset the sixth seed in the round of 16 on her way to the semifinals. Her run was stopped in the semifinals by Japan's Nara Kurumi 6-3,7-5. With this performance, Guarachi has reached her career high junior ranking of 206 in the world.

U.S. Women's TennisVibes Weekly 2/26

2007-02-26T05:45:00.000-05:00

Venus Williams Dominates Memphis Final

Like her younger sister Serena, Venus Williams dominated her opponent during her first final of the year.

Williams' powerful ground strokes were just too much for Israel's Shahar Peer. She easily defeated the number one seed of the tournament 6-1,6-1 in the final round of the $175,000 Regions Morgan WTA tournament.

After putting away American Laura Granville 7-6,6-4 in the Quarterfinals, the 26-year-old American breezed through the rest of the tournament.

Both Venus and Serena will likely not play until the Sony Ericsson tournament in Miami, Florida which is coming up in three weeks. It is unlikely that they will participate in next month's Pacific Life Open due to the fact that fans booed them during their last finals match there. Fans speculated that their dad Richard had fixed the match.

Other American players who did well in Memphis, Tennessee this past week were Meilen Tu who made it to the semifinals before being stopped by Shahar Peer. Tu should move up in the rankings this week.

Laura Granville upset the number 3 seed in the tournament before being stopped by eventual champion, Venus Williams and American youngster, Bethanie Mattek reached the Quarterfinals.

Williams Sisters Are Now The Top Two Ranked American Players

Well, Venus Williams made me eat my own words this weekend. I had predicted that Meghann Shaughnessy would be the 2nd ranked American this week but with her championship performance in Memphis, Tennessee, Venus Williams is now the 2nd ranked American. Here are this week's top 10 Americans......

1) Serena Williams
2) Venus Williams
3) Meghann Shaughnessy
4) Lindsay Davenport
5) Shenay Perry
6) Meilen Tu
7) Jill Craybas
8) Laura Granville
9) Jamea Jackson
10) Vania King

This Week's WTA Tournaments

The major tournament of this week stays in the Middle East. This week the WTA Tour moves to Doha,Qatar. The tournament is worth $1.34 Million. Must be nice to have oil! American, Meghann Shaughnessy is again hoping to gain some valuable points. She is in the main draw and is scheduled to play Annabel Medina Garrigues in the first round.

The other WTA Tournament this week will be played on clay in Acapulco, Mexico and is worth $185,000. Several top ranked Americans will be competing this week including Jill Craybas, Meilen Tu and Ashley Harkleroad.

Madison Brengle Reaches Final Of Florida Challenger

It was the battle of two qualifiers fighting for the $25,000 Clearwater, Florida title. On one side of the net was rising American star, Madison Brengle and on the other side was Slovakian veteran Stanislava Hrozenska.

The experience of the Slovakian proved to be too much for Madison Brengle and denied Brengle her 2nd ITF title. Hrozenska came away with a 6-4,6-3 victory.

The 16-year-old American should not feel dejected. Brengle has come away with a Quarterfinal showing in the $50,000 Challenger in Minnesota and with a Final appearence in Florida the past two weeks.

Other Americans who did well in this week's challenger were Racquel Kops-Jones who made it to the Semifinals and another young American Jessica Kirkland, who reached the Quarterfinals.

This Week's Challenger

This week's challenger moves to Vegas where The Tennis Channel's $75,000 Challenger takes place. These Americans should be hoping to accumulate enough points to make the qualifying rounds of the Pacific Life Tournament. Here are this week's American players.....

Lindsay Lee-Waters
Lilia Osterloh
Ahsha Rolle
Abigail Spears
Raquel Kops-Jones
Angela Haynes
Julia Cohen

Vanderbilt Upsets Number 3 Georgia Tech

After pulling off one of the biggest upsets in women's college tennis history, the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech have experienced two critical upsets against them within the last two weeks. First it was William&Mary and this past week, Vanderbilt upset the Yellow Jackets 5-2.

Continuing on the upset trail, Arizona State gained some respect this weekend from two top 10 schools including number 1 ranked Stanford. The Wildcats almost pulled out an upset against the Cardinal before losing 4-3. They then came back the following day to take on Cal. Once again the Wildcats pushed another top 10 team to the brink but were denied a victory when they lost 4-3.

With this weekend's performance, it is likely that Arizona State will crack the top 20 for the first time this year.

Another top 10 team in action this weekend was the University of Florida who dominated the number 11 ranked Duke Bluedevils 6-1. University of Florida seems to be the most consistent school so far this year. It would not surprise me if the Gators become the number ranked team in the nation soon.

French Open Next On Equal Pay Agenda

This week we were thrilled to find out that England's Wimbledon committee has agreed to pay the men and women equally. I would like to find out how a conservative country such as England and an organization such as Wimbledon to boot is giving equal pay while a liberal country such as France is not. Come on France, get with the program already!

MidWeek Report 2/22/07

2007-02-22T06:14:00.000-05:00

Venus Williams Reaches Quarterfinals In Memphis

Venus Williams is hoping that she can have the same success that her younger sister had when she came back from a long lay off.

It took Venus three sets in her first round match to win as she had a hiccup against Japan's Akiko Morigami but she took the match 6-1,2-6,6-4. The 26-year-old American had to come back the next day and play the youngster from Denmark, Caroline Wozniacki. Williams once again found herself in trouble. She went down 4-2 in the first set but she came roaring back and ended up winning the match 6-4,6-4.

Williams will next take on another fellow American in the quarterfinals, Laura Granville. The former NCAA Singles champion upset the 3rd seed Marion Bartoli 7-5,4-6,6-0 in the first round.

After beating Laura Granville in the $75,000 Dow Corning Challenger, Jill Craybas was hoping to continue her winning ways in Memphis but she was stopped by another improving American, Meilen Tu. The veteran American Tu, has also made it to this week's quarterfinals after cruising past Craybas 6-3,6-1 in the 2nd round.

American youngster, Bethanie Mattek also advanced to the quarterfinals when Shenay Perry had to retire during their 2nd round match with a knee injury. Mattek was up 6-2,0-1 before Perry suffered the injury.

Meghann Shaughnessy Will Be Second Ranked American

With here first round victory in this week's Dubai Open, it is very likely that Meghann Shaughnessy will surpass the legendary, Lindsay Davenport to become the 2nd ranked American in this upcoming week's WTA rankings.

Meghann was stopped by Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1,7-6 in the 2nd round but her 40 points gained in the first round will be enough to put her past Davenport.

American Youngsters Shine In Florida Challenger

Four American youngsters under the age of twenty have advanced into the 2nd round of the $25,000 Clearwater,Florida Challenger.

Delaware's Madison Brengle just keeps steamrolling past her opponents. After once again qualifying into the main draw, she trounced Mervana Jugic-Salkic 6-0,6-3 in the first round of the main draw.

Other American youngsters who advanced to the 2nd round are Allie Will, Jessica Kirkland and Mary Gambale. Kirkland took out fellow American, Tiffany Dabek in the first round 6-3,6-3.

Two former college standouts will be facing each other in the tournament's 2nd round. Racquel Kops-Jones will be battling it out against former Stanford Cardinal, Amber Liu.

William&Mary Cracks The Top 10 Rankings

William&Mary was rewarded for their 8-0 season this week with a number 10 ranking by the NCAA. The Tribe had upset the then number 1 ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets a couple of weekends ago. Baylor also helped the Tribe's cause as they dropped out of the top 10 by being shutout 7-0 by Northwestern this past weekend.

Cal moved up a couple of spots after upsetting USC this weekend 5-2. Here are this week's top 10.........

1) Stanford
2) Notre Dame
3) Georgia Tech
4) Florida
5) UNC
6) Northwestern
7) Cal
8) USC
9) Miami
10) William&Mary

Singles

1) Audra Cohen Miami
2) Melanie Gloria Fresno State
3) Susie Babos Cal
4) Jenna Long UNC
5) Jessica Nguyen Stanford
6) Megan Moulton-Levy William&Mary
7) Megan Falcon LSU
8) Celia Durkin Stanford
9) Zsuzanna Fodor Cal
10) Kristi Miller Georgia Tech

Tennis On TV

Friday 5-7AM WTA Dubai Open Tennis Channel
Friday 10-Noon WTA Dubai Open Tennis Channel

Saturday 10-Noon WTA Dubai Open Tennis Channel
Saturday 8-10 PM Memphis Tourny Tennis Channel

U.S. Women's TennisVibes Weekly 2/19

2007-02-19T05:48:00.000-05:00

Venus Williams Returns In Memphis, Tennessee

The former number 1 ranked player in the world returns to the WTA Tour this week. Venus Williams hoping to obtain the same success that her younger sister had at the Australian Open this week.

Williams has been suffering from a sore wrist and has not been able to play this year. She is currently ranked 53rd in the world and is the 5th ranked American. She is seeded 7th at this week's $175,000 Rogers Morgan Keegan Championships which will be played in Tennessee. Her first round opponent will be Akiko Morigami from Japan.

This Week's WTA Tournament Schedule

Players will be busy this week on the WTA Tour. Three tournaments are scheduled to be played this week all around the world. The largest tournament will be in Dubai. The tournament is worth $1.5 million dollars. Serena Williams was scheduled to be in action but she dropped out earlier last week. Serena is suffering from the flu. The number 3 ranked American, Meghann Shaughnessy will be in the Main Draw and will be playing a qualifier in her first round match.

The WTA Tour will also be in South America this week. That is the site for the $175,000 Copa Colsanitas tournament in Bogota, Columbia which is the first clay court tournament of the year.

The last tournament of the week will be played in Memphis, Tennessee. The $175,000 Regions Morgan Keegan Championships is chuck full of Americans. The main draw has 11 American players competing. Most of the top Americans with the exception of Serena Williams, Meghann Shaughnessy and of course Lindsay Davenport will be in Memphis. Most of the Americans will be jockeying for ranking position. Here are this week's American WTA rankings......

1) Serena Williams
2) Lindsay Davenport
3) Meghann Shaughnessy
4) Shenay Perry
5) Venus Williams
6) Jill Craybas
7) Laura Granville
8) Jamea Jackson
9) Meilen Tu
10) Vania King

Lilia Osterloh Only American Player In Belgium

Lilia Osterloh was the only American to qualify into the main draw of this past week's $600,000 Proximus Diamond Games Beligium WTA Tournament. Despite a dismal effort in the tournament's first round where she lost 6-1,6-0 to Russia's Vera Zvonareva, she did win 3 qualifying rounds and picked up 16 valuable WTA points.

Madison Brengle Continues Winning Ways In Minnesota

The number 2 American junior is proving to the tennis world that she is ready to take on some of the top WTA Tour players. The 16-year-old from Delaware made it through the qualifying rounds of this past week's $50,000 Minnesota challenger.

She then won two rounds in the main draw before losing to the number 3 seeded player Anne Keothavong of Great Britain 6-2,7-6 in the Quarterfinal rounds. Brengle picked up 15 valuable WTA points and is now ranked 401 in the world.

American Angela Haynes also had a good showing at the tournament. Haynes made it to the Quarterfinal round before being stopped by the number 2 seed in the tournament, Sofia Arvidsson 6-4,7-5.

A couple of Americans who are trying to come back had a more difficult time.
Lindsay Lee-Waters was unable to pull an upset in her first round. She dominated the first set against Antonella Serra Zanett 6-1 but eventually lost to the veteran 1-6,6-2,6-3. Alexandra Stevenson is also on the come back trail. She was stopped in the 2nd round by fellow Californian, Angela Haynes 6-3,6-2.

This Week's Challenger

The USTA's Challenger circuit goes South this week. Clearwater,Florida is the location for this week's $25,000 challenger. Here are some of the Americans competing......

Raquel Kops-Jones
Jessica Kirkland
Tiffany Dabek
Mary Gambale
Ashley Weinhold
Madison Brengle
Alexa Glatch

American Juniors Doing Well In Challenger Circuit

Madison Brengle was not the only top American junior who did well this week. Kimberly Couts made it all the way through the qualifying rounds into the main draw of last week's $50,000 Saguenay, Canada Challenger.

Couts was stopped by Canada's Marie-Eve Pelletier in the first round but not before she took away a set from the 233rd ranked player in the world. Pelletier eventually did take the match 6-2,4-6,6-2. Kimberly came away with 4 WTA ranking points and will move up 200 points in the WTA computer. She will be amongst the top 850 players in the world.

Stanford Regains Number 1 Ranking

The dominance of Stanford women's tennis continues. The Cardinal regained the number 1 ranking after Georgia Tech had been upset by William&Mary last weekend. It looks as if Stanford will once again be ranked number one in this week's poll as well. They easily beat the number 5 ranked USC 5-2 and squeaked past UCLA 4-3 this weekend.

The number 2 ranked team in the country, Norte Dame had a test against UNC but took the match 5-2. The battle of Florida tennis took place on Sunday when number 4 Florida battled it out with the University of Miami. Florida came away with the victory with a tough 4-3 win.

Number 9 Cal pulled the biggest upset this week when they overtook USC 5-2. Cal is looking to move up this week's poll. Here are last week's rankings......

1) Stanford
2) Notre Dame
3) Georgia Tech
4) Florida
5) USC
6) NorthWestern
7) UNC
8) Miami
9) Cal
10) Baylor

U.S. Women's TennisVibes Weekly 2/12

2007-02-12T06:45:00.000-05:00

Jill Craybas Wins Second Dow Corning Title

It was the battle of two former NCAA Singles champions and the former University of Florida standout came away with her second Dow Corning title. Her opponent, Laura Granville did not make it easy for the veteran American. The former Stanford number one took the first set easily 6-2. Granville had been steamrolling past her opponents this week.

The number one seed Craybas was determined to win the match. She also had been steamrolling through her previous rounds on the road to the final. Craybas did not drop a set en route to this week's $75,000 Midland, Michigan Challenger. She shocked Granville in the last two sets winning the title 2-6,6-3,6-3.

Laura Granville did not go home empty handed. She teamed up with fellow American, Abigail Spears and took home the doubles title.

This Week's Challenger

The USTA Challenger circuit stays in the upper Midwest this week. The $50,000 Boston Scientific Challenger in St. Paul, Minnesota will be played this week. Once again, former top 20 American Alexander Stevenson is participating. She lost in the first round of the qualifying round this past week. Another veteran trying to make a comeback is also scheduled to play, Lindsay Lee-Waters. Here are some of the other Americans in action this week....

Angela Haynes
Diana Ospina

Williams Sisters Pull Out Of This Week's WTA Tournaments

The Williams sisters are up to their old ways. Both of the Williams sisters decided to pull out of this week's WTA events just a couple of days before the tournaments were set to begin.

Australian Open champion, Serena Williams pulled out of the Sony Ericsson International Open being held in India. The Grand Slam champion stated that she was suffering from the flu. Venus Williams also pulled out of another WTA Event. She did not take advantage of the wild card awarded to her by the Diamond Games tournament being held in Belgium. She was forced out of the tournament with a sore wrist.

Both sisters are scheduled to compete in next week's events. Serena is scheduled to be in the Dubai Open and Venus will be in Memphis, Tennessee. I'm crossing my fingers.

This Week's WTA Events

I was looking forward to the Williams sisters playing in this week events but with their injuries that leaves just one American participating this week. Lilia Osterloh is playing in the Diamond Games tournament. At Press time, she has only one round away from making the Main Draw.

Vania King's Dominance In Thailand Comes To An End

Thailand had been very good to 18-year-old American Vania King. The last time that the young American had competed in this country, she had captured the Bangkok tournament.

Earlier in the week King easily defeated her first round opponent at the Pattaya Open. She actually received some help from her second round opponent Nicole Pratt who took out the tournament's second seed Maria Kirilenko. The feisty Aussie Nicole Pratt had just eliminated another top American at the Toray Pan Pacific tournament in Tokyo, Japan, Meghann Shaughnessy. Pratt continued her dominance over American players as she disposed of Vania King 6-2,6-4.

Despite the loss, King is still the 7th ranked American and 61 in the world. Here are this week's top 10 Americans........

1) Serena Williams
2) Lindsay Davenport
3) Meghann Shaughnessy
4) Shenay Perry
5) Venus Williams
6) Jill Craybas
7) Vania King
8) Laura Granville
9) Jamea Jackson
10) Meilen Tu

Number 1 Georgia Tech Upset By William&Mary

This might be the shortest lived number 1 ranking of all-time. It is very likely that Georgia Tech University will lose their number 1 ranking status this week.

The YellowJackets were upset this past weekend by number 25 ranked William&Mary 4-3. The number 68 ranked singles player Katarina Zoricic clinched the victory for William&Mary when she came back to defeat the YellowJackets Kristin Flower 7-5,5-7,6-2 at the number 2 singles spot.

Georgia Tech did come back with a vengeance the following day as they destroyed the University of Illinois 7-0. They will take on Northwestern on Monday.

Number 4, University of Florida had no problem with Florida International this past weekend. They easily beat the 30th ranked team 7-0.

Two Top Ranked American Juniors In $50,000 Challengers

Australian Open Junior finalist Madison Brengle will be in St. Paul, Minnesota this week trying to improve her WTA Rankings. She is currently ranked 464. Brengle who is the number 2 American ranked junior, proved herself in the main draw of the Aussie Open. She took on Patty Schnyder in the first round and won 7 games from the other Swiss Miss. She respectively lost 6-3,6-4 in the first round.

American Kimberly Couts is also in action this week. She is up in Canada participating at the $50,000 Saguenay, Canada Challenger. Couts is the fifth ranked American junior and is the number ranked 1071 in the latest WTA rankings computer.

U.S. Women's TennisVibes MidWeek Report

2007-02-08T06:09:00.000-05:00

Georgia Tech Overtakes Stanford As Number One Team In Nation

With last weekend's ITA/USTA Indoor team championship, the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech have overtaken Stanford as the number one team in the nation. The Yellow Jackets defeated three top ten teams en route to their first ITA/USTA Indoor team championship including UNC, Stanford and the University of Miami.

Things don't get any easier this weekend for the new number one team in the nation. They will be taking on William and Mary, Illinois and another top ten 10 team, Northwestern. Other key top ten teams in action this weekend will be the University of Florida. The Gators take on Florida International.

Here are this week's top ten teams......

1) Georgia Tech
2) Stanford
3) University of Notre Dame
4) University of Florida
5) USC
6) Northwestern
7) UNC
8) University of Miami
9) Cal
10) Baylor

American Vania King Continues To Shine In Thailand

The 18-year-old Vania King probably wishes that all of her tournaments were being held in Thailand. The number 65 player in the world has advanced to the second round of the Pattaya Open this week. Back in October of this past year, King won the $200,000 Bankonk tournament when she defeated Tamarine Tanasugarin of Thailand 2-6,6-4,6-4.

King easily took out Croatian Jelena Kostanic Tosic in the first round 6-1,6-3 and received help from Aussie, Nicole Pratt who took out the tournament's number two seed Maria Kirilenko
7-6,2-6,7-5 in her first round match.

The American will next take on Pratt later on today and hopes to continue her unbeaten streak in Thailand.

Many Americans Still In Dow Corning Challenger

Five of the six Americans in the main draw of the Midland, Michigan Challenger this week are still alive. The number one and number two seeds of the tournament breezed through their first round opponents.

Jill Craybas was just too much for Anda Periau. She disposed her 6-2,6-0. Second seed, Laura Granville defeated Lucie Hradelka 6-1,6-1 in the first round as well.

American Angela Haynes had a more difficult time in her first round match. It took her three sets to win. She had to come back after losing the first set 5-7. She came back furiously, taking the final two sets 6-2,6-1.

Three Americans received wild cards and two of them took advantage of them. Lauren Albanese overtook Japan's Seiko Okamoto 6-1,6-4 and former collegiate, Abigail Spears defeated Kelly Liggan 6-1,6-3.

The NCAA's current number one player could not take advantage of her wild card. The University of Miami's standout, Audra Cohen went down to Leanne Baker 6-3,6-2 in the first round.

U.S. Women's TennisVibes Weekly 2/5

2007-02-05T06:45:00.000-05:00

Julie Ditty Cruises To Victory

Former Vanderbelt standout Julie Ditty won her sixth singles ITF title this weekend. Ditty cruised past Germany's Angelique Kerber 6-1,6-0 to capture the $25,000 Palm Desert, California challenger.

The 28-year-old American has been steadily improving her WTA ranking. She has moved up more than 45 spots within the last couple of weeks. She became the first American to get past the Quarterfinals of a challenger this year.

This Week's Challenger

The USTA Challenger circuit moves up to Midland, Michigan this week. The $75,000 Dow Corning Challenger will be filled with several top ranked Americans. Jill Craybas is the number one seeded player in the tournament. The steady veteran is ranked 64 in the world. She is followed by another American, Laura Granville. The 25-year-old is coming back from the Toray Pan Pacific tournament where she did not make it past the 2nd round in the qualifying rounds.

Former top 20 Alexandra Stevenson is continuing her comeback and will be in the qualifying round. Last week's challenger winner, Julie Ditty is also scheduled to compete this week. Here are some of the other Americans competing....

Angela Haynes
Diana Ospina
Lauren Albanese

Dismal American Effort In Tokyo

There were four Americans in the main draw of this week's $1.3 million Toray Pan Pacific tournament. None of them could get past the first round.

Shenay Perry had the unfortunate task of drawing eventual finalist, Ana Ivanovic in the first round. The young American did well in the first set before Ivanovic was just too much for. Ivanovic took the match 6-4,6-2.

Meghann Shaughnessy who is the third ranked American, drew the fiesty Aussie, Nicole Pratt. Shaughnessy gritted out a first set win and won it 7-6 but the experienced Pratt came back with a vengence. She won the match 6-7,6-1,6-4.

There were some bright spots for American players. Bethanie Mattek gained some valuable ranking points when she made it all the way through the qualifying rounds. She took on China's Jie Zheng in the first round of the main draw. Zheng proved too much for the youngster and took the match 6-2,6-2.

Lilia Osterloh also made it through the qualifying rounds but was again ousted by another woman from China. Na Li took out Osterloh in the first round of the main draw with a
6-3,6-2 victory.

There wasn't much movement in the rankings this week. Here are the current top 10 Americans.......

1) Serena Williams
2) Lindsay Davenport
3) Meghann Shaughnessy
4) Shenay Perry
5) Venus Williams
6) Jamea Jackson
7) Vania King
8) Jill Craybas
9) Meilen Tu
10) Laura Granville

This Week's WTA Tournaments

The carnival type WTA tour moves onto Paris, France and Thailand this week. No Americans will be participating in Paris but Vania King is actually in the main draw of this week's $170,000
Pattay Women's Open.

King is slated to take on the tournament's 2nd seeded player, Maria Kirilenko in the event's second round.

Georgia Tech Captures USTA/ITA National Indoor Women's Title

For the first time in the school's history, Georgia Tech's women's tennis program took home the USTA/ITA National Women's Indoor Championships. The Yellowjackets took this championship in style. They stopped Stanford in the semifinals 4-3. That loss for the Cardinals was the first time that Stanford has lost since 2003. Stanford had won 89 straight matches before Georgia Tech shocked them on Saturday night.

The victory versus the Cardinal was not enough as Georgia Tech upset another school ranked above them in the finals. Number 6 singles player Amanda Craddock claimed the title for Georgia Tech when she came back after losing the first set to Notre Dame's Brook Buck 6-2. Craddock took the title home with a 2-6,7-5,6-2 victory.

Julia Cohen Still Number One American Junior

Despite Julia Cohen losing in the 2nd round of this past Australian Open Junior Tournament, the Floridian is still the number one American junior. Here are this week's top ten American juniors......

1) Julia Cohen
2) Madison Brengle
3) Reka Zsilinskia
4) Ruo-Qi Li
5) Kimberly Couts
6) Chelsey Gullickson
7) Courtney Clayton
8) Melanie Oudin
9) Chloe Jones
10) Gail Brodsky

Tennis Channel And ESPN Sharing Coverage Of The French Open

Last week it was announced that this year's French Open will be covered by both ESPN2 and The Tennis Channel. Early morning coverage will be handled by The Tennis Channel and afternoon coverage will be taken over by ESPN2.

I have to say that it's getting more and more difficult to catch tennis on TV. The Tennis Channel only has 10 million viewers. I don't know about you but I don't get The Tennis Channel from my local cable provider. Although, I was not happy with the coverage that ESPN2 coverage of the Australian Open, I'm not happy to know that before I start my day job, I will not be able to atleast get to watch a couple of hours of tennis.

I know that you are saying "just get the dish!" Well, we have a bundled up plan with my cable provider, which means we get cable,internet and phone all in one. Makes it really convenient which is exactly the opposite of what this affiliation gives most of us die hard tennis fans.

According to the article on the Tennis Week website, The Tennis Channel and ESPN2 are thinking of doing the same thing with the U.S. Open when the contract with The USA Network expires. Please, leave me Grand Slams alone!

U.S. Women's TennisVibes Weekly 1/29

2007-01-29T08:59:00.000-05:00

THE SERENA SLAM!

Many of her critics said that she could not pull another one of those miracle slams as she did back in 2005. The critics said that Serena Williams was coming into this tournament way out of shape. They said that she was 30 pounds over weight.

Serena Williams proved to her critics that all of them were dead wrong. She came into the Australian Open unseeded. That did not matter. With the way that she played, she could have come through the qualifying rounds and she would still have the same result.

The eight time Grand Slam champion steam rolled past three seeded players including Nadia Petrova, Jelena Jankovic and Shehar Peer before meeting the number one player in the world, Maria Sharapova.

Sharapova had been the beginning of the end for Serena Williams' dominance in the women's tennis world when the teenage Russian sensation defeated Williams in Wimbledon several years ago.

With their roles reversed, Serena Williams paid back the youngster during this past weekend's Grand Slam final. Williams' determination was evident right from the beginning of the match as she clobbered the number one player in the world 6-1,6-2.

I wonder what Serena's critics are saying now? Oh, I'm sure they will think of something!

American Women's Tennis On The Upswing

The Australian Open gave American women's tennis a very good start to this upcoming year. The Serena Williams story was not the only positive story for American women's tennis. Junior Madison Brengle from Delaware was a finalist in this year's Junior Tournament. She was narrowly defeated by the number one Junior player in the world, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
7-6,7-6.

Although Brengle is being pursued by many tennis agencies, Brengle still remains an amateur. The 16-year-old is both home schooled and coached by her mom. Her mom is very proud of the fact that Madison has never trained at a major tennis academy unlike many of the top players in the world.

Several other juniors feared well in this year's Junior Draw. Unseeded Julia Boserup made it all the way to the round of 16 before being dropped by Nikola Hofmanova 6-1,6-2. Number 14 seeded American Reka Zsilinszka also made it to the round of 16 where she was beaten by Ksenia Milevskaya 6-0,6-2. Another unseeded American, Chelsey Gullickson made it all the way to the Quarterfinals where she was stopped by Alize Cornet of France 6-0,6-3.

Hopefully all of these young and exciting juniors will continue to do well throughout the 2007 campaign. We wish them the best and please stay healthy!

UPCOMING WTA TOURNAMENT

The world's top players are at the Toray Pan Pacific Open of Japan this week. The tournament is played on carpet. Go figure. It is worth 1.3 million dollars. Here are some of the top Americans competing this week.....

Shenay Perry
Meghann Shaughnessy
Laura Granville
Vania King

SERENA WILLIAMS OVERTAKES DAVENPORT AS THIS WEEK'S NUMBER ONE AMERICAN

1) Serena Williams
2) Lindsay Davenport
3) Meghann Shaughnessy
4) Shenay Perry
5) Venus Williams
6) Jamea Jackson
7) Jill Craybas
8) Vania King
9) Meilen Tu
10) Laura Granville

THIS WEEK'S USTA CHALLENGER

The USTA Challenger calendar moves out west this week. The $25,000 Palm Desert, California tournament will be played this week. Hopefully, the American players do better than their previous couple of weeks. No American woman has gone beyond the Quarterfinals in this year's Challengers. Ouch. Here are some of our top players in this week's Challengers.....

Jessica Kirkland
Raquel Kops-Jones
Sunitha Rao
Julie Ditty
Tiffany Dabek

DIVISION I WOMEN'S INDOOR TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS

The USTA/ITA Women's Team Indoor Championships take place this week starting on Thursday. The event will take place at the University of Wisconsin.

Seven of the top ten teams in the country will be competing including Stanford, Miami and UNC. Stanford will once again be defending their title. They blanked Texas 4-0 in last year's final. The Cardinal have won this event three years in a row.

Key singles players in this year's tourney will be number one Audra Cohen and her teammate Laura Vallverdu of the University Of Miami. Number 7 Jenna Long of UNC as well as Jessica Nguyen and Celia Durkin of Stanford will also be in Wisconsin.

Australian Open Week 1 Review

2007-01-22T17:02:00.000-05:00

Serena Williams is back! That has to be the main headline of this week's Aussie Open. Williams has never looked so sharp with her forehand. She actually looks like she has fluid strokes now. The number 81 player in the world is playing as if she once again is one of the top players on the WTA tour.

Serena has already knocked out the number 6 and 11 seeded players in the tournament. Both Nadia Petrova and Jelena Jankovic did not know what they were in for when they had the former number 1 player in the world in their bracket.

The 25-year-old American's chances of reaching the finals were helped this week as Svetlana Kuznetsova and last year's winner, Amelie Mauresmo were both knocked out of the tournament. Could this be Serena's year AGAIN?

Ashley Harkleroad seems to be over her recent divorce. She made it all the way to the fourth round and very nearly scratched her way through to the Quarterfinals. Unfortunately for Harkleroad, she lost in 3 sets to Daniela Hantuchova. With this week's performance, Ashley should easily move into the top 75 in the world. The 21-year-old American has stated that if she does not stay in the top 50, she will consider retiring. Many consider that being int the top 50 is the only way to actually make money on the tour.

Other Americans who won a round were Meilen Tu and Laura Granville. Tu will move up with that finish as she was unable to beyond the first round last year. Despite making it to the 2nd round, Granville will actually move down due to the fact that she made it all the way to the 3rd round last year.

ESPN2's Dismal Coverage Of Aussie Open

2007-01-21T13:38:00.000-05:00

Is ESPN2 really covering a Grand Slam tournament? I really enjoy watching the early rounds of a Grand Slam. It's the only chance that I get to see the up and coming stars of both the ATP and WTA tours on TV.

Enjoy immensely when they normally go back and forth from one court to the next. TV's coverage of a Grand Slam makes me feel a bit as if I'm actually at the site.

ESPN's first week of coverage made me feel as if I was just watching another one of those mundane weekly tournaments. They always stayed with the same match. We hardly ever switched from the 2 main stadiums.

Their coverage of the women's early rounds were pathetic or none at all. Of course we did get the Maria Sharapova coverage but what about Serena Williams. The former number one player of the world has been one of the hottest players to watch on TV but we have had to settle for taped coverage of her matches!

It's bad enough that we in the East Coast have to stay up until 1AM to watch these matches, at least try to make it exciting for us.

I hope that another network picks up the Australian Open next year. I'll even settle for the new and exciting network of Versus!

Week Of 1/22 Upcoming Tournament

2007-01-21T13:28:00.000-05:00

Yes there is another tournament besides the Australian Open this week. Several up and coming American players will be in Hawaii playing in the USTA's $50,000 Challenger.

Ashley Harkleroad had been scheduled to be the top seed at this tournament but due to her success at this week's Aussie Open she opted out of this week's tournament.

Here are some of this week's American Women participating in Hawaii.....

Jessica Kirkland
Racquel Kops-Jones
Sunitha Rao
Julie Ditty
Tiffany Dabek

Miami's Audra Cohen Is Number 1 Player In Nation

2007-01-20T11:39:00.000-05:00

Senior Audra Cohen of the University Of Miami has slowly worked herself to become the number one ranked player in the nation.

The Floridian native became the number one despite losing in the Quarterfinals to Fresno State's Melanie Gloria 6-3,6-2 at the Rivera/ITA Women's All-American Championship this past October.

Cohen redeemed herself after she played a great tournament at the ITA Intercollegiate Indoor Championship Final in November. She showed lots of character by coming back to defeat another Fresno State standout, Jelena Pandzic 5-7,6-4,6-2.

Here are the current top 10 American college players.....

1) Audra Cohen Miami
2) Megan Falcon LSU
3) Megan Moulton-Levy William & Mary
4) Jenna Long UNC
5) Jessica Nguyen Stanford
6) Shadisha Robinson University South Florida
7) Diana Srebrovic Florida
8) Blakely Griffith Tennessee
9) Celia Durkin Stanford
10) Kristi Miller Georgia Tech

Stanford Women's Tennis Number 1 Again!

2007-01-20T11:28:00.000-05:00

Although the Stanford Cardinal lost two top 10 players to graduation this year, the are still sitting at the top of women's collegiate tennis. The Cardinal are shooting for their fourth consecutive title this year.

With the graduation of Alice Barnes and Amber Liu, sophomore Jessican Nguyen and Junior Celia Durkin will be looked upon to lead the Cardinal to yet another NCAA Division One title. The Cardinal are hoping that their Freshman, Lindsay Burdette will be able to pick up the slack left behind by Liu and Barnes' graduation.

Here are the current top 10 teams in the nation.....

1)Stanford
2)Florida
3)USC
4)Notre Dame
5)Miami
6)Baylor
7)Georgia Tech
8)UNC
9)NorthWestern
10)Duke

Williams, Granville and Harkleroad Still Alive

2007-01-17T18:03:00.000-05:00

Serena Williams stated before the year began that she would be committed to tennis. Although she will only be participating in a dozen tournaments this year, she is making her mark at the Australian Open. The former number one player in the world has advanced to the 2007 Australian Open's third round after overpowering veteran Anne Kremer 7-6,6-2. Serena will now have to battle it out against Russia's Nadia Petrova. I think that the 25-year-old American is the most dangerous player left in the draw.

The former NCAA singles champion, Laura Granville is also alive in well in Melbourne. This coming despite suffering from dehydration during her first round match. Laura has her work cut out for her though. She will next meet with another one of those rising Russian stars, Anna Chakvetadze. The young Russian is riding high after winning one of the tune up tournaments leading to the Australian Open. We wish the veteran American the best of luck!

Before she injured herself a couple of years ago, Ashley Harkleroad was in the same category as Maria Sharapova. She was ranked in the top 40 before she became injured. These days she struggles to keep herself in the top 100. After steamrolling past here first round opponent, Ashley will be faced against the number one player of Germany, Anna-Lena Groenefeld. The German is seeded 17th in this year's Australian Open. Good Luck Ashley!

Australian Open

2007-01-14T09:11:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are a half day away from the start of the Australian Open and we have no one to look forward to on the women's U.S. side. Our highest ranked player in this year's tourny is in the 40's. We will be lucky to have someone get past the first round.

How pathetic is that? What happend to the Chrissie Evert's? The beloved Billie Jean King's? What about those Williams sisters? Jennifer will never return. She has already completed a historical return to tennis. Our only chance for a successful run at the Aussie would have been Lindsay Davenport but "god bless her soul" she is now pregnant with her first child.

Who to blame? I definitely think the USTA. These people don't care about American tennis. All they care about is the Almighty $$$$. Your $$$$'s. Mind you that other countries who have Grand Slams, with the exception of France, have not had a winner in DECADES! That's the road that we are going down.

Too much control out there by the wrong people. Example: Chrissie Evert is the publisher of that Mag that we are forced to receive when we get a USTA membership and now our top juniors will be shipped to HER camp. What the heck! Are we still living in a Democracy?

Oh yeah and now IMG owns the only other free press tennis magazine "Tennis Week". So much for the 4th Estate. Crap! Speaking of IMG, when is their client "Maria Sharapova " going to realize that she is more American then I am!

Take Care everyone and if you can stay up for it, Enjoy the Aussie Open!