Q. How difficult was it to play someone that played a lot of grass court tennis lately?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: She's a quality opponent. She has been ranked a lot higher than what she is. For whatever reason, she slipped back. She's definitely played a lot of matches recently as well. She qualified at the French as well as here and been playing well.
So, you know, it wasn't an easy first round by any means.
Q. If someone came to you before the clay season started and said, Here is the deal, you'll get to the Roland Garros final but out first round of Wimbledon, what would you say?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Uhm, well, I guess you'd kind of be happy, but also you'd hope to do better here. Yeah, that is what happened. I guess looking at it, the whole picture, I've got to be very happy with what I have achieved over the last few months.
I would have loved to have done better here, but it wasn't to be. But I'm definitely going to look at the last few weeks and go home pretty happy.
Q. Francesca also lost. Is it kind of hard going from this huge moment of high pressure, the great run, to crank it up all again a couple weeks later?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yeah, for sure it's difficult. But, uhm, you know, that's the way it is. The champions of the game can do it back to back. And I guess that's the kind of pedestal that you want to try to look up to and try to get to yourself.
Yeah, neither of us had made it that far at the French and then had to turn it around in such a quick time frame.
You know, that's the way it is. You have to deal with that, try and cope as best you can....
Q. Can you talk us through your outfit today.
SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, we dubbed it Strawberries and Cream. Strawberries, is that the correct enunciation of it? I don't have a good British accent. The red is strawberries and the white is cream. It's not like a pure white; it's more of a cream. Also the red kind of symbolizes a lot of things I do in Africa, along with a lot of the work, like the red laces. Everybody that buys a pair can pretty much save a life in Africa.
I really kind of wanted to tie that all together with this championship. Since it means so much to me, I thought it could work well. The tournament means so much to me as well as the things I do in Africa. I thought it could also work well together.
Q. Your nails look good today.
SERENA WILLIAMS: They have strawberries on them, too. If I would have thought about it, I would have put a strawberry instead of a heart. They're hearts. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. I could have had a strawberry....
Q. What are your thoughts about Thursday with the Queen's visit and how are your curtsy practices going?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I was going to curtsy today on the court afterwards, but I think I flubbed it. So I'm definitely going to work on it a little more. I'm trying to tone down my wrist action (laughter).
But my curtsy is really fun. It's something that she'll definitely never forget, if I ever even get a chance to meet her.
No, we really don't do that so much in the United States, so I'm really working hard on it....
Q. Going back to the Queen, quite a lot made of a suggestion you might not bow to her on Thursday. Can you tell us about how you're feeling meeting her, if you will bow, and what you might say if you meet her?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know what I'll say exactly. I'll probably be a little bit nervous, understandably. I guess I don't want to mess up at all.
But, yeah, the plan was to bow to the Queen, as everybody would. It's just you wanted to get the right etiquette for what we were doing on the court. A few years back it definitely changed. Both players, when you went on Centre Court bowed, and they went out together. When they left the court, they left together, bowed again. Obviously, it's changed.
What I was trying to say, which I think was unfairly reported, was I wanted to make sure what the etiquette was before we went out on the court....
Q. I wanted to ask you a question about the tour. You've had a great early career, reaching No. 2, great run in New York. You're not going to be a teenager much longer. There really hasn't been a big breakthrough by a teenager on the WTA Tour since Maria here. Why do you think that is?
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Well, I think I'm an exception to that. And I think that reaching No. 2, it's not easy. Not everyone can do that.
I think the tour has just become very tough. A lot of players are playing well. Just look at the clay court results that have been, you know, Martina Sanchez winning Rome, Rezai winning Madrid, Schiavone winning French Open.
I mean, there's a lot of good players out there. It's not easy to be in the top of the rankings. I'm happy about my own progression, the way I've been playing.
Tennis is an individual sport. So I think about myself. I really think that age doesn't matter. I think you can be 30 and be on the top of the ranking, and you can be 17. It really doesn't matter. It's just about going out there, doing your best, and you can see how far you can go, how far your own limits are....
Q. Have you gotten to talk to Sasha much about his championship and did you get to watch any of the parade online or anything?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: No. But I got a lot of pictures from it. It seemed really crazy. Yeah, I'm very happy for him and the team.Q. Couldn't have been much easier, could it?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Uhm, it always could (laughter).
But What Does It Meeeeeeaaaaannnnn????
"The Economist, once a year, heads out on this mission to see the
future. They try to predict the coming year... I am a fan of The
Economist-- that said, I think this project where they try to predict
the coming year is totally ridiculous. You have these great reporters
who have to write about, for instance, what's going to happen in
China in the year 2010 and they bring so much knowledge to this
question, but in the end, because no one can know the future, they
end up making these kind of equivocal 'on the one hand, on the other
hand' kinds of predictions... who cares?? ... 'Here's a bunch of random
things that may or may not happen, believe whatever you want.'"
-- Ira Glass, This American Life ("2010")
That right there is pretty much my personal opinion of predictions in sports like tennis. Who cares? Mostly, nothing means anything. The business of predictions, proclamations, assertions made on the basis of a single match (or one good week) is misleading and serves no purpose in an objective sport like tennis. This year especially, when there are so many comebacks (from both retirement and injury) and a string of Very Good Players who had Very Bad Years last year, proclaiming the future seems particularly futile. Trust me, I've been in sports where predictions and what certain people say and who won which events actually matters. You don't want any part of it.
I don't even get why people like to do it (is it so you can say later that you were right? Usually I could get into that). All you can do in tennis is watch and see what happens. To me, that's part of the beauty of it. I hate trying to guess what's going to happen. I'd much rather take stock as I go along.
So.
Things That--Really Guys-- Seem Completely Meaningless Right Now
Sorana Cirstea d Sam Stosur (Hopman Cup)
Melanie Oudin's "Sub-Par" Performance at Hopman Cup
Melanie's always down in small events and then up in Slams and Fed Cup (or, at least, that's the pattern she established last year). Her performances at Hopman Cup indicate nothing other than that-- so far-- that trend looks to continue.
"Comeback" Wins By Daniela Hantuchova, Alize Cornet, and Dominika Cibulkova
All of these women are former top-20 (or even top-5) players with immense amounts of talent, loads of past results, and a not-so-hot 2009. All of them had pretty stellar early matches this week that looked like their peak selves, prompting some to call them contenders for the second week of the Australian Open. All of them immediately had their asses handed to them by higher-ranked, more consistent players. Ahem. (Not that they couldn't be, mind you, it's just silly to declare that based on two good matches that follow 6 months--or more-- of nothing.)
Laura's new on the pro scene and has her youth and lack of record working against her in the "where might this be going" game. She also, should her mind turn out to tend towards these kinds of things, has a huge disadvantage in all the pressure that is being, and will continue to be piled on her by the British media. But it's been a lot of fun to watch her grow in confidence at Hopman Cup this week. In her first match, she looked terrified, but through playing mixed doubles with Andy Murray, she seems to be growing in her belief that she can keep up with the big kids. She played Sabine Lisicki very well, looking at all times like she belonged on the same court. It'll be interesting to see if that continues to develop for her.
On paper, Sam should have won all her matches at Hopman Cup. In the real world, she lost two out of three. Her ability is undeniable, but she isn't exactly projecting the kind of mental strength that's going to sustain her at the top of the game. Is this particularly dismal performance just a sign that, like Amelie Mauresmo in France, she doesn't cope well with the hometown pressure? Is it something bigger than that? Or did she just have a really bad week?
Ana Ivanovic (Brisbane)
Justine Henin (Brisbane)
She's back, and she's winning, but winning how? Her matches have all been close, and with the exception of Nadia Petrova, they've not been against people ranked anywhere near what is popularly thought of as Justine's caliber. We all know what Justine's capable of, her record is clear evidence of that. But it shouldn't be forgotten, either, how dismal the last few months of her "first" career were, or that she has yet to play-- let alone beat-- a top 10 player on her comeback.
Flavia Pennetta (Auckland)
Flavia's usual modus operandi is to have a pretty dismal winter, pick up at Acapulco, have a couple of good clay events, and then really come alive on the US Open Series in the summer. But this year in Auckland she's come roaring out of the gates, kicking ass and taking names. Hmmm.
Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka (Twitter)
Whaddya know. Some shit is completely predictable after all.
Posted by Carrie on January 07, 2010 in Alize Cornet, Ana Ivanovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Commentary, Daniela Hantuchova, Dominika Cibulkova, Elena Dementieva, Flavia Pennetta, Guest Blogger, Justine Henin, Nadia Petrova, Sabine Lisicki, Sam Stosur, Sorana Cirstea, Vera Zvonereva, Victoria Azarenka, WTA | Permalink | Comments (19) | TrackBack (0)
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