The number one women’s tennis player, Ana Ivanovic, took a little tighter grip on her ranking with a win at the Montreal Cup. Ivanovic nearly lost her crown achievement to fellow Serbian Jelena Jankovic but, with her second-round victory, she lives to enjoy another day at the top. Third-ranked Maria Sharapova withdrew from the tournament with a shoulder injury and therefore won’t be making any strides towards another stint at number one. On the men’s side – well – Roger Federer lost. Somehow that seems like a very commonplace thing to say. Maybe it’s because I’ve been saying it rather too often in the past weeks. Ivan Karlovic came out on top in two tiebreakers on the first and third sets after dropping... [Read more]

The WTA is cracking the whip over in women’s tennis. A new regime that was slated to begin in 2010 has been bumped up a year and will be taking affect next season. For some it’ll be a good thing. For others – well – it might cramp their style a little bit. Pushing all the legal and financial mumbo-jumbo aside, the basic premise is this. The future WTA schedule will have 20 “premiere tournaments” instead of the Tier One and Tier Two events of today’s WTA. And, while the paycheck is going up 40% ($63.6 million in prize money up to $84.4 million), so are the fines. Should a player withdraw late, back out of a committed tournament date or *gasp* have an injury, zero ranking points and no bonus money. Oh,... [Read more]

You know, everyone is talking about Rafael Nadal and his cat-like stalking of the number one spot. He’s been waiting a long time for it. Nadal and Roger Federer have been the one-two punch for a looooooong time – it seems so odd to think it’s on the verge of getting shook up. Nadal is just – wow. I think sports fans are some of the most fickle on this planet. I know what’s going to happen when R-Fed is finally removed from the position he’s held for nigh on forever. But just because I love Roger – and I would never turn my back on him or denounce the things he’s done – doesn’t mean I can’t have a healthy appreciation and admiration for his biggest opponent. Goodness knows Roger... [Read more]

Jelena Jankovic is an interesting player. She’s a consistent, scrappy, defensive player who just gets it done on the court. Gets it done up to the quarters and semis of just about every tournament she is in anyway. Jankovic is number two in the world and, had she won the East West Bank Classic, she would have become the newly minted number one player in women’s tennis. Obviously that didn’t happen as Dinara Safina ousted the Serbian in the semifinals of the Classic 7-6, 6-1 to move into the final against Flavia Pennetta. (She is not to be confused with any person having a connection to Flava Flav…at least not to my knowledge.) Despite the loss, Jankovic is still on the verge of becoming the world’s top-ranked woman... [Read more]

This is a bit of old news, but it’s still news nonetheless and I feel I must talk about it. Roger Federer. Yep, you see where this is going already, don’t ya? What’s happening to the big kahuna? I’m theorizing here, but I’m going to guess in about a week, R-Fed isn’t going to be numbah one any more. Federer got dumped out of Toronto in the first round by Gilles Simon. The first round! By Simon! It’s been real. It’s been fun. But I think the cruise control is about to get the brakes slammed hard core on it. Rafael Nadal is playing phenomenally well – still. He just knocked off Richard Gasquet and will face Andy Murray who is coming off a huge mental win with a victory over Novak Djokovic. But... [Read more]