We’ve been treated to some riveting tennis so far at the WTA’s year ending championships in Doha.
Was today’s meeting between Vera Zvonareva and Caroline Wozniacki a tennis match or medieval torture porn? The blood poured (literally) in the second set, when Vera Zvonareva took a 5 minute medical timeout to treat a bloody nose. The [...]

Photo via www.sonyericsson-championships.com
The best thing about the year ending championships is the format – from the very first day you have the best players playing against each other and the promise of seeing them again soon, win or lose.
The first match was an interesting one. YEC rookie, Victoria Azarenka, trounced former world number one Jelena [...]

Serena and Venus Williams, Dinara Safina and the rest of the WTA’s top eight gathered at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar on Sunday to take part in the Sony Ericsson Year End Championships draw ceremony. Here’s the lowdown on the draw via tennis.com:
WHITE GROUP:

Dinara Safina
Caroline Wozniacki
Victoria Azarenka
Jelena Jankovic

MAROON [...]

Practice makes perfect and the ladies were looking pretty dang good at the official US Open Practice Day on Sunday. Kuznetsova, Dementieva, Jankovic, Sharapova, Safina, Azarenka and Mauresmo were all sweating up the courts. Based on the effort level out there, it looks like each and every one of them expects to make it to [...]

The ESPN network, which is showing 100 hours of live US Open tennis on ESPN2 (and 400 online at ESPN360.com), hosted a conference call recently with two familiar voices from the commentary booth: Cliff Drysdale and Pam Shriver. Both had some interesting things to say on the biggest, fattest and meatiest stories going into the [...]

Yes, Venus and Serena Williams are on the same side of the draw. And Safina is still the Slamless No. 1 player in the world. But these old stories don’t interest me anymore. Like a late-summer blockbuster, the US Open women’s draw is packed with plot twists, crazy characters (many with eastern European accents and [...]

Elena Dementieva beat Maria Sharapova in the finals of the Rogers Cup Toronto on Sunday: 6-4, 6-3. It’s her 14th career WTA tour title and her third this year. She took out Ai Sugiyama, Shahar Peer, Sam Stosur, and Serena Williams (in straights!) along the way.
The 27 year-old Russian has enjoyed an accomplished career – [...]

To celebrate the start of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open in Cincinnati this week, Elena Dementieva and Kim “call it a comeback” Clijsters were marooned in the middle of an amusement park’s fountain. Good times!

I love the WTA’s breathless description:
“Rising high above the ground, a special tennis court was placed on a [...]

That would be the Dementieva vs. Williams match, wouldn’t it? My goodness, that was fun.
Serena and Elena battled it out in a riveting semifinal match today, with Serena eventually coming back from match point down in the third: 6-7 (4), 7-5, 8-6.
Elena enjoyed the experience, even though she squandered that match point opportunity:

Q. Do you [...]

I’m still catching up on today’s fantastic ladies’ Wimbledon semi-finals (you know there’s a good match waiting on the DVR when non-tennis fans are leaving “Wow!” emails in your inbox.) Elena Dementieva has always had great ground strokes and a solid return game, but suddenly the gal’s got serve. She was averaging a higher second [...]

I dived into predictions for the ladies quarterfinals. My theories about Lisicki continuing her winning streak and Schiavone being the Russian’s krytonite were bunk. The only thing I got right was “don’t bet against a Williams.” Which is hardly an inside tennis prediction.

Random comparison: Safina hit 15 double faults in the Wimbledon quarterfinals and still [...]

Tuesday is ladies’ day at the All England Club, with all four singles quarterfinal matches in contention.
WIMBLEDON: LADIES’ QUARTERFINALS SCHEDULE
times BST (Seedings in brackets)

Centre Court (1pm):
(1) Dinara Safina v Sabine Lisicki
(8) Victoria Azarenka v (2) Serena Williams
No. 1 Court (1pm):
(3) Venus Williams  v (11) Agnieszka Radwanska
Francesca Schiavone v (4) Elena Dementieva
(Click here [...]