And She's Off!

Dinara Safina took the courts at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany this week for the first time since she wrested the #1 ranking from Serena Williams, and from the start she was out to show that she'd earned the position. She only lost one game against thirty-seventh ranked Sara Errani in the first round, not even spending an hour on the court.



But that didn't mean everything went as planned.

With so many of the best players entered in the event, the draws were terribly stacked, and there were bound to be some sparks. Former #1 Jelena Jankovic faced current #17 Dominika Cibulkova in the first round, and Flavia Pennetta took on fellow top twenty-fiver Anna Chakvetadze in her first match.

Neither had much trouble with the lower-ranked player, though three-time titlist Victoria Azarenka was upset by a strong Gisela Dulko. And Sabine Lisicki, who shocked the world earlier this month with a victory over Venus Williams on the way to her first career championship in Charleston, took out top-twenty veteran Patty Schnyder in straight sets.



There's still plenty of time for even more fireworks in Stuttgart today. Agnes Szavay, who struggled early in the year but beat Ana Ivanovic in Miami, could prove to be difficult for Elena Dementieva. And Marion Bartoli, who seems to be resurging this year, will provide a good matchup for Caroline Wozniacki.

But we know that the race to the finish isn't a sprint -- hopefully these strong starts in Stuttgart won't fade out before the semis.

It'll be nice to see a show.

If It's Not One Thing...

...Then it's certainly another.

Just as one trend becomes the norm, something happens to turn everything around.

Take for example early-round action at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia -- the ATP World Tour 1000 event being held in Rome this week -- where some recently struggling players pulled through and other stars faltered.

It's almost May and Roger Federer still hasn't won his first title of the year. Do you remember the last time that's happened? Since he won his first singles title in 2001, Federer has never taken so long to capture a championship. He came close last year, when he won Estoril in mid-April, but at nearly the half-way mark the former #1 seems to be in tough shape.

After his loss in the Australian Open final, Roger has suffered defeats not only to top players like Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, but also to the likes of Stanislas Wawrinka, who pulled out a straight-set upset in Monte Carlo last week. I'm sure he was nervous to face twenty-fourth ranked Ivo Karlovic in his first match in Rome.

But it took just over an hour for Roger to prevail, hopefully giving him the confidence he needs to advance in this tournament and finally break through in 2009.



Andy Murray, on the other hand, was not so lucky.

The man who's won three tournaments already this year and is just over a hundred points from a top three ranking took on qualifier Juan Monaco in the second round. Though he sailed through the first set, his struggled on serve in the second. He went from a first-serve percentage of 77% to 42% while Monaco upped his game. In the final set the Brit managed to break his opponent twice -- but apparently that wasn't enough, and Juan came away with his first career victory over Murray.



But while these two have seemed to -- at least temporarily -- reversed course, someone else continued on the road he's traveled all year.

On Monday my dear James Blake, seeded fourteenth in this tournament, lost to Romania's Victor Crivoi, who is ranked #112 in the world -- his fifth early-round loss of the year. Though he fought his way back from a 1-5 deficit in the first set, he squandered a 2-0 lead in the second and handed Crivoi his first tour win of the season.



It was another frustrating loss for Blake, but maybe more so for me as a die-hard fan. It's been over eighteen months since James won his last title in New Haven, and as much as I hate to say it, his best days might be behind him. Just a few months short of thirty, he's six years past the average age of the top ten players.

Sure, plenty of older players have won championships -- Pete Sampras was thirty-one when he won his last U.S. Open and Andre Agassi took home the Los Angeles title at thirty-five. But, I grudgingly fear, Blake might not ever be in the same category as these legends -- though I invite him to prove me wrong!

Talk About a Shocker

I feel terrible for ignoring the women all this week, but with the Fed Cup semifinals taking place over the weekend, there really wasn't a lot of action to speak of until Saturday.

But when they started, did they ever make up for an otherwise quiet week.

Defending champion Russia was the heavy favorite against the Italians. They claim five of the top ten rankings and have won four tournaments this year.

Unfortunately none of the titlists are playing on the country's Fed Cup team -- they could have used them. Instead of relying on Elena Dementieva or Vera Zvonareva, the Russians' hopes rested on Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova. And these stars proved to be no match for the likes of Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone.

While Kuznetsova did manage to win one of her singles matches, the Italians capitalized on their homecourt advantage and Schiavone rolled through her matches, clinching the victory and advancing her team to just their second-ever Fed Cup final.



There they'll face another upstart team. Even though the U.S. hold two of the top five ranking positions, neither Serena nor Venus Williams are playing on the team. With up-and-comer Bethanie Mattek-Sands leading the American charge against the Czech Republic, it wouldn't be a huge surprise if the U.S. went home early.

But teenager Alexa Glatch pulled together two upsets of Iveta Benesova and Petra Kvitova and Bethanie rebounded from her singles losses to seal a victory in her doubles match, sending her team to their first final since 2003.



That sets up quite an interesting final for November, and I'm not sure who the favorite will be. It'll definitely be an intense summer season as the girls gear up for the title match. It may be a challenge, but I'm rooting for my compatriots to win another title -- crazier things have happened!

Congrats to all!

Rafa Rolls (Or Slides...)

It was a longer match than you might expect -- more than an hour and forty-five minutes -- but Rafael Nadal continued his dominance on clay in Barcelona with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over David Ferrer, bringing home his fifth consecutive title there.



It was his second championship in as many weeks and his twenty-fourth on the surface. With such strong performances, there's no reason to believe Nadal won't win his fifth trophy at Roland Garros next month. There are only a few tournaments left, and it certainly wouldn't surprise me if he swept the season.

So on the heels of his victory, I'm feeling inspired to get out on the clay myself! It's the first beautiful weekend of spring in New York, and I've got a date on the Central Park courts!

Hope to see you out there!

Don't Call It a Comeback...

...David Ferrer's been here for years.

In fact less than twelve months ago he was ranked fourth in the world. He'd hit a career high after reaching the semifinals at the 2007 U.S. Open and the finals at the Tennis Masters Cup. He followed it up with championship trophies in Valencia and the Netherlands.

But then a series of early round exits in Paris, Madrid and Beijing -- among others -- brought him down to #12 by year-end. A few months ago I would have argued he was on the way out -- I was livid that he held onto a top-ten ranking even as he faltered through the summer, losing matches to players barely ranked in the double-digits.

This year, however, we're beginning to see signs of the old Ferrer. Though he hasn't yet triumphed over a higher-ranked player, he has made it to the semis in Johannesburg and the finals in Dubai. So far in Barcelona, he's come within two matches of the championship -- he ended Potito Starace's best tournament run in two years and took out fellow Spaniard Tommy Robredo, who's already taken home trophies in Brazil and Argentina this year.



In the semis David will face Chile's Fernando Gonzalez, who impressively took out the second-seeded Fernando Verdasco after more than two hours of play. With just forty ranking points separating them, it's sure to be a tough match -- Gonzalez holds a 4-2 margin over Ferrer, but you know both are going to be fighting on Saturday.

Whatever the results, it's going to make for a great battle on the clay!

Hot Potito

Half of the top eight seeds at this week's Barcelona Open were playing in their home country. Another two hail from South America -- clearly the Latin contingent fully intended to show their stuff on clay.

And two rounds into the tournament, it seems that they're well on their way.

World #1 Rafael Nadal sailed past Frederico Gil, winning his twenty-second straight match on the surface while Fernando Verdasco, followed through with his career-high #7 ranking with a win over veteran qualifier Nicolas Lapentti. David Ferrer and Tommy Robredo also advanced.

But perhaps the most impressive performance so far has come from a little-known Italian. Twenty-eight year old Potito Starace has been pro for over eight years and has played in an astonishing twelve tournaments already this year. Unfortunately for him, he's only gotten past the first round in four of them. He's been ranked in the top thirty as recently as 2007 when he won two teeny tiny titles in San Marino and Napoli.

In Barcelona though, he's poised for his best showing in years. He beat a plucky Ernests Gublis, the man who ousted Novak Djokovic in the first round at Brisbane, and fourteenth seed Robin Soderling, who won a challenger event in Sunrise, Florida last month.



In the next round Starace faces a resurgent Ferrer, who's made it to the finals in Dubai after a frustrating 2008. He hasn't beaten David in their two previous meetings, but Ferrer has been upset by lower-ranked players than Potito -- Kei Nishikori was ranked #126 when he beat the Spaniard at last year's U.S. Open.

It's going to be tough for Starace to take home the crown in Barcelona -- especially when he faces a bracket with such seasoned clay-courters. But a trip to the semis is not out of the question.

And with the world of tennis so clearly dominated by the likes of Nadal and Andy Murray this year, we will certainly appreciate some new faces in the mix.

Good luck!

Breaking the Seal

Now I've never won a professional tennis championship, but I like to believe that your first title is probably the hardest to bring home. Once you gather some momentum and establish yourself as someone to be reckoned with, numbers two, three and four should be much easier to come by.

Case(s) in point: Victoria Azarenka, who claimed her first WTA title in January and hasn't looked back, winning in both Memphis and Miami after that. And Caroline Wozniacki who broke through in Stockholm last year and has since won three more championships. And of course, on a grander scale, Rafael Nadal hasn't ceded the French Open crown since 2005, when he rose his first Grand Slam trophy over his head as the #5 seed.

Sabine Lisicki made her case to join that elite bunch this week in Charleston at the Family Circle Cup.

The nineteen-year-old German is currently ranked #63 in the world, just a hair off her career high of #49. She's had some success in the past, defeating Dinara Safina at last year's Australian Open and winning an ITF title in Jersey in 2007, where she notched victories over the six, three and one seeds.

But her career-high had to have come in her third round match in South Carolina this week, where she stunned world #5 Venus Williams in straight sets. More impressively, she didn't let the wind out of her sails and followed up with wins over Elena Vesnina and Marion Bartoli for her space in the finals. There she met Wozniacki, who was also running on the momentum from her win in Ponte Vedra Beach last week and a second consecutive win over top seed Elena Dementieva in the semis here.

But luck, strength and just a little persistance were with Sabine on Sunday. She let five match points slip by her in the second set, but eventually regrouped to bring home her first Tour title, 6-2, 6-4.



I'm hoping this is just the start of many good things to come for Sabine.

Across the ocean another group of women were battling in Barcelona where top seeds Alize Cornet, Flavia Pennetta and Kaia Kanepi all lost early. On the top half of the draw, Maria Kirilenko advanced to the finals only dropping sets to Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Carla Suárrez Navarro. On the bottom Roberta Vinci followed up her upset of Pennetta with a win over former #11 Francesca Schiavone to make her second WTA final match.

Kirilenko, ranked thirty-seventh in the world to Vinci's #61 and holding the sixth seed in Spain, should have been the favorite. But Roberta steamrolled through the first set, 6-0, and outserved her opponent to take the second 6-4. In just over an hour she'd won her second title, putting her in a good position as the French Open draws closer.



Incidentally Nadal took home his third title of the year, and his fifth straight championship in Monte Carlo, by defeating Novak Djokovic in the finals. But what did you expect? We're on clay -- it would be a surprise if he didn't hold the trophy at the end of the week.

Congrats to all!