The Chance of a Lifetime

It's been over a year since any of the four ladies playing championship matches tomorrow have won a trophy, and boy must they all be hungry. And with just one win standing between them and the opportunity to put themselves back on the map, you can bet we're going to see some fierce fighting on Sunday.

Surprisingly it's the ladies in Japan who have gone the least time without a tournament win. Forty year old Kimiko Date Krumm, a titleist in Seoul last year, will meet thirty-three year old fellow veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn, the 2009 victor in 's-Hertogenbosch will contest the oldest final in Tour history Sunday, proving that age really isn't an issue on the tennis court.

Both have had magnificent runs in Osaka -- the sixth-seeded Date Krumm, ranked #4 in the world nearly fifteen years ago, knocked off French Open finalist Sam Stosur and top-fifteen player Shahar Peer in consecutive matches, while the Thai star survived two three-set matches before dismissing second seeded Marion Bartoli in under two hours. They've played twice before, both times on carpet, and each time took all three sets to decide the outcome -- they've split the wins, but Tanasugarn won the only final they played together.

But something tells me this time might be different.

As the hometown favorite, Kimiko has already used the crowd to her advantage all week, but wins over teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and former #1's Maria Sharapova and Dinara Safina all this year alone, she's more than shown she can still hit with the youngsters. With an impressive 8-6 career record in finals compared to Tamarine's 3-7, she continues to prove she can handle the pressure. And if making history one time this weekend wasn't enough, she has the chance to become the oldest Tour champion ever, trumping Billie Jean King who has held the record since 1983.

On the other side of the world are two women who are going on two-years without that once common championship trophy. In Linz Austria, where Serena Williams had been planning to make her comeback, 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic took her place as a wildcard and stormed through her early rounds, beating Sorana Cirstea and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in just over two hours combined. Meanwhile, thirty-one year old Patty Schnyder took out three seeds -- Klara Zakopalova, Andrea Petkovic and top-seeded Daniela Hantuchova to make her second final of the year.



The pair have split their last eight meetings, but Ivanovic has won the last four, including a straight set win on her way to the '08 French Open trophy. But since then, she's had quite a hard time of things since then, and it's hard to count out Schnyder who, a veteran herself, still wins more matches than she loses on Tour. And making the finals here after that heart-breaking third-round loss at the U.S. Open, it's nice to see her on this side of things. I really don't know who's going to win this match, but the trophy would certainly put a well-deserved end to two very long droughts.

And at this point in all of their careers, they couldn't have asked for a better chance to make an impact.

What I've Learned From the World Cup

A friend suggested a couple weeks ago that I start writing about soccer, as it's easy enough to follow and it shouldn't take long to get up to speed on the players. And with the rest of the world focused on the action in South Africa this month, it would obviously be hard to ignore the headlines.

Now I know the learning curve is much steeper than he assumes, and I don't even pretend to understand all that's happening on the field. But in the short time I've spent watching these athletes pour their hearts out in these stadiums, I have come away with a few lessons.

#1: I'm so happy I play on a small court

Think it's hard to come back from a swing in momentum after losing serve? Try doing the same when a ball is suddenly launched a hundred-plus yards in the opposite direction. My lungs hurt just thinking about it.

#2: Home field advantage may give you an early boost, but that might be all

The South African team may have scored the first goal of the tournament, but they ended their game tied with Mexico.

Similarly at the AEGON International in Eastbourne, teenager Heather Watson of Great Britain harnessed the crowd's support to beat Aleksandra Wozniak in the first round, but dropped quickly to Victoria Azarenka in the second. And in the Netherlands, world #159 Igor Sijsling rallied past countryman Thiemo De Bakker to win only the second Tour match of his career. Unfortunately Sergiy Stakhovsky took care of him in the subsequent match.

#3: The grass may be soft, but winning is hard

With the first group of round robin matches in the books, six of the sixteen soccer games played so far have resulted in ties. Can you imagine? Two teams go after each other nonstop for more than ninety minutes and no resolution is reached. I've never been more thankful for tiebreaks.

But even though we're guaranteed a winner, that doesn't mean the advancing player didn't expend more than his or her fair share of energy getting there. Svetlana Kuznetsova has already spent nearly five hours on court in her first two matches at the UNICEF Open while fifth-seeded Alexandra Dulgheru has survived six sets herself to make the Eastbourne quarters. For the men, Alexandr Dolgopolov battled through two tight opening sets before closing out his opponents decisively in the third and wildcard Gilles Simon squandered two one-set leads before rallying to avoid elimination.

#4: Past performance is not an indication of future results

Sure, perennial powerhouses like Brazil and Germany got off to quick leads this year, but both defending Cup champion Italy and runner-up France drew in their first games, and the French didn't even score a goal. That's not to say they won't rebound, of course, but they're both starting out at a deficit.

A couple women find themselves in similar positions on the courts. Tamarine Tanasugarn and Caroline Wozniacki were the champions at 's-Hertogenbosch and Eastbourne last year -- both fell in the first round this year, which doesn't lay the best groundwork heading into Wimbledon. Then again, both ladies can take comfort in knowing the lesson works in the opposite direction too. Caroline translated her win into a fourth round appearance at the All England Club in 2009, while the vet got ousted early -- there's no reason they can't better those results this year.

#5: Everyone needs Uncle Toni!

Spain lost to Switzerland. Spain lost to Switzerland. In soccer!

Apparently there's only one man in sports who knows how to consistently beat the Swiss, and that man should be coaching the Spanish team -- that is, while he's not busy coaching his nephew.

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I'm not sure I'll ever really understand fútbol entirely -- after all, it seems like a lot of work which ultimately results in very little scoring. But I certainly appreciate the passion it brings out of its fans, and watching the games over the past few days I can't help but wish to be part of the excitement.

But we're only a few days away from our world cup, and I have no doubt our athletes will do everything they can to recreate that atmosphere on their turf.

The Last Leg

Now that we've all had time to digest the Big News from yesterday, it's time to look past our supreme disappointment that we won't see a repeat of last year's greatest game and remember that there are some people who actually had a thing of two to celebrate this week.

In only the second week of grass court warm-ups before Wimbledon kicks off on Monday, a slew of players turned up at the AEGON International and Ordina Open. While a ton of seeds were eliminated early, a couple did manage to fight their way into the latter part of the week, joined by a couple of newcomers looking to make their names known.

In Eastbourne the Canadian qualifier who took out top-seeded Igor Andreev in the first round, backed up his strong start by making it all the way to the finals. Frank Dancevic made his second career final by beating Fabrice Santoro in the semis on Friday. There he faced the second seed, twenty-seventh ranked Dmitry Tursunov, who'd put together back-to-back wins for only the second time this season. Though the younger Dancevic held his own, he wasn't able to earn himself even one break point on the Russian's serve, and allowed Dmitry his first grass court title.

The women's draw was upset even more, as neither Elena Dementieva nor French Open champ Svetlana Kuznetsova made it out of the second round. Dementieva's vanquisher, Virginie Razzano, continued her success by subsequently taking out Aggie Radwanska and Marion Bartoli, while Aleksandra Wozniak, who'd defeated Svets, succumbed to sort-of namesake Caroline Wozniacki. The Danish teenager, who's already won one title and made three finals this year, continued her very successful run and took home championship #4, despite dropping her serve three times.

A little further west in the Netherlands, it looked like last year's winner David Ferrer might have had an easy road to repeat when both Fernando Verdasco and Tommy Robredo lost in the first few rounds. But when he lost in the quarters, it seemed the title was up for grabs. Eventually qualifier Benjamin Becker and wildcard Raemon Sluiter made it to the finals, neither of whom had ever won a tournament. Becker, who originally made a name for himself and distinguished himself from the more-famous Boris when he ousted Andre Agassi from the 2006 U.S. Open, hadn't been able to capitalize on his early success -- until today, when he won his first trophy in straight sets over Sluiter.

The women's final at the Ordina Open was also populated by some surprising names. Though world #1 Dinara Safina advanced easily in her first two rounds, she was shocked by Tamarine Tanasugarn in the semis -- incidentally the same woman who'd beaten her in the finals last year. On the bottom half Estoril champion Yanina Wickmayer, who's had a great two-month run, defeated Roland Garros stand-out Sorana Cirstea and former top-twenty player Francesca Schiavone on her way to the finals. But the more experienced Tanasugarn was too much for Yanina, and she claimed her third career title in straight sets.

All this week's winners will have a tough road at Wimbledon, Rafa or no Rafa. But their break-through wins on grass certainly could give them a lot of encouragement. These days, it doesn't seem anyone's really a favorite -- and anything really can happen.

Congrats to all, and good luck!