During her opening round match against Ana Ivanovic in Stanford, Sabine Lisicki served a 131 mph bomb that the WTA tour certified as the fastest recorded woman's serve in history. The former record was 129 mph held Venus Williams.
These photos crack me. I never have high expectations for the lady ballers' attempts at fashion because it's not their focus - that would be tennis. But I can't help but giggle when I see what they come up with. Well, most of them anyway.
How amazing does Petra Kvitova look here? 'Effortless' would be the word that comes to mind for her in the photo - and 'natural.' Maria Sharapova looks good (and she's got that pose down pat). The girl does love a camera lens. And, no, your eyes aren't buggin' out. That's not Victoria Azarenka or her mom in the middle with the black dress - it's WTA CEO Stacey Allaster. The Belarussian was busy winning Luxembourg this weekend.
Um, I think I'll stop here. It's the end of the year, the last hurrah, the "Final Countdown...da-na-ne-na, da-na-nun-dun-dun" so let the others dress up as awkwardly as they want. Out of all the competitors fighting for the 8 coveted spots at the WTA Championships all year long, these girls made it to Istanbul (and not that other year-end thing going on - what is the point of it anyway?) and deserve to put on their highest heels, weirdest dresses, cakey makeup and celebrate their asses off. So let 'em.
P.S. Why does Sam Stosur look like she's photo bombing this shit? Ok, now I'll stop.
As you guys can tell I'm a bit of a tennis vacay after the long spring/summer European swing. But I felt compelled to post after hearing about Alisa Kleybanova's recent revelation that she has Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph tissue. She made the announcement on her 22nd birthday via the WTA tour site which you can read here.
All the best to her as she goes through this most difficult time.
Let's be honest. I know I've been a little bit tough on Bethanie Mattek-Sands and her ideas of fashion over the years (Exhibits A, B, C, D, E, F). Fine, a lot a bit.
But I'm being completely genuine when I say I cannot wait to see what over-the-top insanity she'll be wearing after Alex Noble, a fashion designer who has worked with Lady Gaga, gets through with her. Apparently, this dress will involve tennis balls and strings. Does that mean she'll be carried out for her first round match at Roland Garros inside a tennis store? Hey, if Gaga can arrive in an egg for the Grammys then anything is possible.
(This post was also removed during BLOGGER'S major fail this week. Apologies again.)
The WTA announced the launch of a new global ad campaign entitled "Strong is Beautiful" which features some of the biggest names on the tour. It will roll out over the next two years covering 80 markets and incorporating TV, print and digital ads along with a strong social media component. The WTA hopes to engage fans from around the world and bring along new fans by showcasing 38 of the current and future stars of the tour.
Photog Dewey Nicks, who shot a select group of lady ballers for a brilliant slide show and video last year for The New York Times Magazine right before the US Open, was brought on board to helm the creative and shoot the ads.
The first spot to be released is called 'Sugar & Spice' and focuses on the qualities needed to be successful in the competitive world of tennis:
The second spot, called 'Countries', is narrated by Caroline Wozniacki and focuses on the global nature of women's tennis:
The remaining spots are individual ads featuring Victoria Azarenka, Li Na, Ana Ivanovic, Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters all discussing a quality or challenge that has made them unique. I adore these ads in particular because Vika, Li + NaturAna get to narrate in their native tongue. Now there's some global for you. You can check out these videos after the jump (click the head).
Kudos to the WTA for this awesome campaign. It's visually stunning, modern, elegant, and even haunting. The ads, at their core, really transcend the sport and have the potential to connect with fans, new and old, in all different kinds of ways. And isn't that just the recipe for growing the sport? Genius. Oh, and thanks for not hiring this guy to take the reigns. Yeah, going the Maxim route probably isn't a plan for success. Just a thought.
Visit the WTA Facebookpage to view all the upcoming ads as well as their dedicated YouTubepage for more videos.
Compared to the entries by Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray's official induction into the ATP Art School for clinching the fourth spot at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals is like video Ambien. Where's the slap-stick humor, the physical comedy, the punched-in-your-gut-rolling-on-the-floor lulz?? Oh right. That's not your bag (poor Kim.) Moving on...
Here are Caroline Wozniacki, Agnieszka Radwanska, Jelena Jankovic, Sam Stosur and few others discussing their 2010 seasons. This video was obviously shot before Wozzi, who describes here year at that point as "really good," moved into the WTA Penthouse. I mean, I'd at least expect a "really, really good" for that accomplishment.
BONUS: This young baller won the junior French Open + Wimbledon titles in 1978 and then went on to rule the pros, reaching World No. 1 and collecting 8 majors. He retired in 1994. Can you guess who he is (before watching the video y'all?)
Forty years ago today nine women - Billie Jean King, Rosie Casals, Nancy Richey, Judy Dalton, Kerry Melville Reid, Julie Heldman, Kristy Pigeon, Peaches Bartkowicz and Valerie Ziegenfuss - named the 'Original Nine' signed week long $1 million contracts with World Tennis magazine for the inaugural Virginia Slims Houston Invitation, the first ever women-only tournament.
The following year Virginia Slims upped its sponsorship to $250,000 across 24 tourneys and by 1973 the rival circuits merged to create what we now know as the WTA tour. The women, led by BJK, bucked the establishment and proved that women's tennis was marketable and profitable, and never more so than in today's game where the highest-paid female athlete in the world is a lady baller, Maria Sharapova.
So from this blogger to you I say 'THANK YOU.' Thank you for being visionary and brave. And thank you for making it possible for me and fans around the world to share the experiences and memories of some of the greatest moments in sports history. This blog owes you. Big time.
Here's another tribute to the Original Nine by the one of the beneficiary's of their magnificent efforts and the tour's current video vixen, Andrea Petkovic.
The New York Times Magazine has taken an innovative approach to its in-depth look into the state of modern women's tennis timed appropriately for the start of the US Open next week utilizing various forms of media to bring their words to life. It's a study in multi-media storytelling using different forms to draw the same picture, in this case the power of women's tennis.
The print piece is an article by Michael Kimmelman entitled "How Power Has Transformed Women's Tennis" which begins with Justine Henin practicing and apparently out-gassing her male hitting partner at Wimbledon back in June and ends at the ladies' Wimbledon final. But in between these bookends is an examination of the power inside women's tennis including the expansive reach of the WTA into China, the increase in prize money (and equal pay at Slams), the growing global marketing prowess of the tour and some of the ballers and, of course, the lady ballers themselves including the quintessential power merchants and game-changers, Venus and Serena Williams.
Accompanying the print article are two visual forms: a slideshow and slow motion video shot by Dewey Nicks featuring ReRe, Jelena Jankovic, Kim Clijsters, Elena Dementieva, Victoria Azarenka, Sam Stosur and Vera Zvonareva doing what they do best in a smokey bare room outfitted not in their usual tennis wear but in mostly high, frilly fashion. He creates a fascinating balance between the intensity of who they are as ballers - complete with sweat, messy hair, and protruding musculature - and the fact they they are women who happen to be athletes.
His use of slow motion and delicate soundtrack offers a sense of restraint and control juxtaposed against the untamed nature of their racquet's impact, dark lighting, exploding powder and glitter and wild, unkempt hair. A history of tennis, if you will. The brilliance in the visual, however, is neither side takes precedence; they are one and the same. Powerful and equal.
Wimbledon winners Serena Williams, working a gold, sparkly Burberry number, and Rafael Nadal gave full-on glam while showing off their new hardware at the annual Champions' Ball held at the Intercontinental Park Lane Hotel in London last night.
While the World. No. 1's still maintain large point leads in the rankings and are solidly in the top spot, there were some other notable moves today.
Of course the most discussed change in the rankings is Roger Federer's slip outside of the Top 2 for the first time since 2003 to land at No. 3 right behind Novak Djokovic after his quarterfinal loss to Tomas Berdych. The Czech baller, who reached his first ever Grand Slam final, is now at a career-high No. 8.
Robin Soderling makes his debut in the Top 5 on the heels of his quarterfinal appearance at the All England Club, while Andy Roddick fell two spots to land at No. 9 after his fourth round loss to Yen-Hsun Lu. The Taiwanese baller made the biggest gain this week skyrocketing 40 spots to land at No. 42.
And what about John Isner, who played and won the longest match in tennis history? He moved one whole spot to No. 18. I'm pretty sure it was still worth it, though.
See the full ATP World Tour singles rankings here.
On the WTA side of things, Venus Williams has fallen two spots to land at No. 4 behind No. 2 Jelena Jankovic and No. 3 Caroline Wozniacki after getting stunned by Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarterfinals. The Bulgarian made a huge leap from No. 82 to land at No. 35 after reaching her first major semifinal. Her conqueror, finalist Vera Zvonareva, re-entered the Top 10 and now sits at No. 9 right in front of LiNa who moved up two spots to No. 10. And, first-time semifinalist Petra Kvitova jumped 33 spots to the 29th spot this week.
The complete WTA tour singles rankings can be found here.
The annual pre-Wimbledon party was held at The Roof Gardens in West London's Kensington last night and the lady ballers of the WTA came out to play.
Check out the photos and fashion from the night. There are also a couple of videos at the end: an inside look at the evening's action and Maria Sharapova answering fans Facebook questions with some cute Brit (who IS that?)
So my overall thought on the evening's fashion is the usual: the WTA needs to hire me as their resident stylist. Oh and they need to hire a make-up artist. No one, I mean NO ONE, should have to deal with sock/strap lines or, worse, putting their face on while traveling in a car to the event. Get it together. (Sorry to be so brief but I'm on deadline with another piece - feel free to leave your thoughts on the night's stylings in the DtL Peanut Gallery.)
The ATP World Tour rankings were released today with Rafael Nadal officially replacing Roger Federer as the world's top baller after winning his fifth Roland Garros championship this weekend. Fed falls back to the second spot.
Robin Soderling moved up one spot to No. 6 after reaching the RG final for the second consecutive year, as did Andy Roddick who now sits at No. 7. Reigning U.S. Open champ Juan Martin del Potro, who is recovering from wrist surgery, fell two spots to No. 8. He made the semifinals of Roland Garros last year.
The WTA saw some big moves today with the Roland Garros ladies' champFrancesca Schiavone making her debut in the Top 10 after leaping 11 big spots to land at No. 6. Her compatriot Flavia Pennetta matched her best result in Paris by reaching the fourth round and jumped five spots in the rankings to the 10th position.
This weekend's finalist, Sam Stosur, remained at No. 7 while Kim Clijsters moved up one spot to the ninth position. The Belgian pulled out of RG to recover from a foot injury she sustained at FED CUP. Her compatriot, four-time champ Justine Henin, moved up five spots to re-enter the Top 20 at No. 18 after her fourth-round appearance.
Svetlana Kuznetsova + Dinara Safina took big hits after their campaigns failed miserably in the City of Lights falling out of the Top 10. The 2009 RG champ went out in the third round and fell 13 nasty spots to land at No. 19 while last year's finalist tumbled from No. 9 down to No. 20 with her first round loss in Paris. Elena Dementieva is now the only Russian lady baller left in the Top 10 - astounding.
In honor of her imminent return to thetour next week in Madrid (she's even practicing now - see above photo!) I bring you a new video Q & A with Maria Sharapova brought to you by your friends at the WTA. It's an absolutely frivolous interview that focuses mostly on her on- and off-court beauty regiments and fave foods - a PERFECT piece for you guys.
Speaking of choice words, Caroline Wozniacki had some of her own for the WTA and tourney director of Beijing.
The US Open finalist caught a virus while in Tokyo and had to retire from her opening round match against Aleksandra Wozniak on Tuesday, September 29th. However, she was scheduled to play her first round match in Beijing on the following Sunday, October 4th, but requested a Monday start with hopes getting more rest.
In Beijing, I still was not feeling close to 100%, so I asked the tournament director and WTA for a Monday start (instead of playing my first round on Sunday), but it was very frustrating to learn on Saturday that I was scheduled to play my first match on Sunday. I really needed every hour of rest to get over this virus and ready for my first match, but the WTA or tournament director did not seem to care at all and take this into consideration. The WTA Tour is supposed to be a players union, but I certainly don’t think they represented my best interest this week in Beijing and it was very disappointing. In my first round, I ended up playing Maria Jose Martinez-Sanchez, and I played a good first set which I won close 7-5. In the second set, it was really close again but I lost it in a tiebreaker and then in the third set I just completely ran out of energy and ended up losing the match.
Losing my first round in is Beijing was exactly what I was worried about since I have not practiced for more than one hour in the past week. I was hopeful that if th WTA were to give me a first round start on Monday that I could’ve had a much better chance of winning and feeling better as I were to advance through the tournament. I am never one to make excuses because Martinez-Sanchez did play a good match, but I really feel the WTA and tournament director could’ve helped me and they chose not to.
I'm actually very surprised the WTA and the tourney directors didn't give her an extra day considering she's a Top Tenner and just reached the US Open final. Plus, Wozzi doesn't consistently abuse rules (like some lady ballers we know.)
I understand there are matches to be played and scheduling to be completed but it seems they were being too rigid in this situation.
VERDICT: I find the WTA/Beijing "guilty" of being lame. I mean, HELLO, Wozzi rocks.
A big congrats to Kimiko Date-Krumm who became the oldest lady baller to win a WTA tour title since Billie Jean King in 1983 when she captured the Korea Open in Seoul this weekend. She won the title, her first since 1996, a day before turning 39. Her embarrassed victims this week included Alisa Kleybanova, Daniela Hantuchova, Maria Kirilenko, and Anabel Medina Garrigues in the final.
And, to throw more salt in the WTA's wounds, the tour's mental midgets are continuing their fine form in Tokyo already this week including opening round losers Ana Ivanovic, who lost her third straight match and second consecutive to Lucie Safarova; Svetlana Kuznetsova who crashed out to Andrea Petkovic; and top lady baller and defending champ Dinara Safina who fell to 132nd ranked 18-year old Chang Kai-Chen, her second straight loss since her third round exit at the US Open.
Okay, I think it's time for me to dust off (one of my) wigs, don my best Nike day dress and hit hit the WTA tour. There's money and ranking points up for grabs and no one's interested in playing - so why the hell not?
We'll see who's laughing their way to the bank (hint: it won't be an -ova but an -ich.)
UPDATE: And Venus goes down. Now where is that afro puff wig of mine? *scratches head*
The USTA has offered an apology for the handling of Dinara Safina's third round match which saw the top lady baller ousted by Petra Kvitova.
The Russian, whose match was first up that evening, was none too pleased about being moved to Louis Armstrong so James Blake's match could be started.
According to WTA tour CEO Stacy Allaster,
The U.S.T.A. has acknowledged they should have notified Dinara and the players much earlier in the process of what was going to happen. I think they’ve apologized for that and I think that what’s most important now is we move forward. They’re going to look at their procedures and try to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Serena Williams was asked about the incident in her post-match presser and came to D's defense:
Q. Safina, because the day session ran long, her match was supposed to be the first on at night on Ashe got moved to Louis Armstrong. She was disappointed in that. She thought it was disrespectful that the women's match got moved. Any opinion on that? If placed in a situation like that, would you be upset? SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, why didn't they move the men's match again? They were second on.
Q. She said they told her they wanted to give fans the chance to see a best of five set match and they moved her to Armstrong. SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think that was just a good thing to tell her to silence her at that moment. But I have to take her side on this. I think that she was first on. She should've played at 7:00.They should have moved the men's match. Simple as that, that's how it should be done. If you're supposed to play a match, you're supposed to play it, and then you move the next match.
Firstly, nice to see the ladies' stick up for each other here even amongst all the smack talk that's been going around.
It was a total slap in the face to the top seed Dinara and I'm glad the USTA acknowledged their unfortunate mistake.
Some of the lady ballers from the WTA Tour got all glammed up last night for the annual Ralph Lauren Sony Ericsson Pre-Wimbledon Party hosted by Richard Branson at The Roof Gardens.
Vera Zvonareva, Venus + Serena Williams, Anne Keothavong, Ana Ivanovic, and Elena Dementieva put on their best model face for a beautiful shot taken during a photo session at the event.
Apparently, the big theme of the night was bright + shiny fabrics and accessories. With the exception of MAYBE Svetlana Kuznetsova who looks like a gift box with (thick) legs, the ladies look drop dead. Even Serena Williams' "genie-in-a-bottle" moment works - go figure.
You know, more often than not, I cringe at what they choose to wear at these events because it always looks like they got dressed in the dark. Could it be Ralph Lauren provided the wardrobe this time around? If so, then nice moves RL. Nice moves.
Could a commissioner or an umbrella organization overseeing both the ATP + WTA Tours come to fruition in the very near future?
Douglas Robson's article for USA Today investigates the possibilities of the two tours moving closer together as more events, particularly when the 2009 season rolls around, see the men and women playing in the same tourney or in back-to-back weeks including Madrid, Cincinnati, and Beijing.
Robson highlights a number of areas where the tours are already leveraging each other:
•Some 35% of the ATP's 63 events and 40% of WTA 50 tournaments will be combined or played in consecutive weeks in 2009, among them events at Madrid, Cincinnati and Beijing.
•Staffs have been consolidating in London in recent years, and both human resources and IT functions are now shared. A number of media functions, such as the production of the annual media guide and the two tour websites, also are shared.
•This year the ATP and WTA teamed up in conjunction with the International Tennis Federation and the four majors to form a so-called integrity unit to combat gambling. That followed the formation of a joint anti-doping program overseen by the ITF in 2006.
•Next year the tours will embark on their first commercial joint venture by pooling digital rights for video streaming of content though a single portal called tennistv.com. They will split revenues evenly.
WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott has been talked about as someone who could potentially oversee both tours and has publicly expressed interest in the role. He already sees an evolution towards the two tours working in tandem possibly in five years:
We have done some things together already. It is happening organically.
The challenges to this idea include legal issues such as TV rights, title sponsorships (the ATP has no interest in a Sony Ericsson-type sponsorship for the tour), and the always thorny issue of the Grand Slams which aren't controlled by either tour.
From a business and branding perspective, having the two tours live under one organization seems a like a no brainer and would encourage consistency across the board. It becomes confusing for the casual fan when one tour experiments with, say, on-court coaching while the other doesn't. However, the umbrella organization would need to ensure the unique identity, characteristics, and marketing of each tour remained intact.
As I mentioned previously, leveraging the star power off both tours would give the executives more weight to sell sponsorships and tickets, not to mention buying TV time (another area where consistency in scheduling is crucial for the growth of tennis.) Moreover, it would seem organizing the tours would get easier from a logistical standpoint - where the top ballers go the rest follow.
