Victoria Azarenka of Belarus defeated Marion Bartoli of France in the women’s final of the Brisbane International on January 10, 2009. Azarenka won the match 6-3, 6-1.

This was Azarenka’s first tournament win on the WTA tour. The 19-year old has finished runner-up in her last four finals. Pictures from her winning match are below.

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Victoria Azarenka of Belarus Wins Brisbane International

He defeated Fernando Verdasco of Spain 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in this tournament, which is used by some of the top tennis players of the world for an Australian Open warm-up.

Stepanek, who is 30, is known as an unconventional player. He’s definitely comfortable at the net and has no problem with speed, some tricky angle shots and being a tad bit annoying to his rivals, as well as the crowd.

In regards to his match against Verdasco, he said, "He had great rhythm today and he was not able to miss a point, it seemed to me at some stages, so definitely I would like to destroy his rhythm. I always like to play against lefties since my coach Petr Korda is a lefty, so I’m hitting a lot with lefties, but his ball strokes are very heavy, he’s using very hard top-spin so he can hit winners nearly from everywhere, as we saw today."

Although he won the Brisbane International tournament, Stepanek noted that he could still use some improvement.

"I started to play on the highest level when I was 24, 25, so I’m not that tired yet. My body feels good, so if I’m going to stay healthy I know what I can achieve, because I made in 2006 No. 8 in the world, then my injury stopped me for six months and I had to start again, but I know what I’m capable to do and I’m working on it every single day to get back to those positions."

Stepanek is ranked number 26 in the world.

Source: The Age

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Czech Player Radek Stepanek Wins Brisbane International

Amelie Mauresmo thought that her injury issues were over, but unfortunately that was not the case for her in Brisbane. She was injured in the second game against Marion Bartoli and lasted 3 more before calling her trainer over and eventually defaulting.

On Friday, January 9th, Mauresmo commented about the injury.

“I kept going [initially] but I couldn’t really push off the serve like I really wanted. Even though it’s frustrating and it’s not how you want to end a tournament, I guess it’s more reasonable to make sure I’m 100 per cent for Melbourne.”

She still is holding out hope that all will be okay for her to compete at the Australian Open.

“I just hope it’s not too bad and I can be good for Melbourne. At worst I’d hope that nine days … would be enough to make it feel much better.”

Source: Brisbane International

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Amelie Mauresmo Exits Brisbane Due to Injury

Latvian Ernests Gulbis defeated Novak Djokovic at the Brisbane International tournament 6-4, 6-4. Despite this loss, Djokovic says he is still on track for his title defense. Those who were watching this match will agree that he never looked quite comfortable and Djokovic said there were a number of reasons why he didn’t play well.

"I didn’t play at all good today and I knew that the first match was going to be a very difficult one, especially if I played against a player who doesn’t give me a lot of rhythm," he said.

"I changed a lot of things so there’s still some things I’m not used to and unfortunately I got this result."

Djokovic also said that he didn’t get a lot of practice time in on the court because he arrived to Australia late. So does that mean he will go straight to Melbourne to prepare for Australian Open, which begins on January 19th? He doesn’t know yet.

"I’m not panicking, I’m not seriously in big doubt really — the Australian Open is my highest goal at this time of the year and I really want to play well there," he said.

"It’s all right because I have a lot of time to prepare for the Australian Open. It’s not the end of the world. It’s the first match (of the year) so I’m still trying not to be very pessimistic."

Here are the results for the Brisbane International men’s singles for January 5th and 6th:

Second round
7-Richard Gasquet (France) beat Taylor Dent (U.S.) 7-5 6-4 
4-Robin Soderling (Sweden) beat Julien Benneteau (France) 6-3
6-3

First round
2-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) beat Agustin Calleri
(Argentina) 6-2 7-5 
Michael Llodra (France) beat Joseph Sirianni (Australia) 5-7
7-6(3) 6-2
Kei Nishikori (Japan) beat Bobby Reynolds (U.S.) 6-3 6-2
Mario Ancic (Croatia) beat Amer Delic (U.S.) 7-6(2) 6-7(4)
7-6(6)
Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) beat Teimuraz Gabashvili (Russia)
6-3 6-3
Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) beat 1-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) 6-4 6-4
Florent Serra (France) beat Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) 6-3 7-6
5-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) beat Brydan Klein (Australia)
6-0 6-4

Source: Reuters and Google News

Image Credit: Bauer Griffin

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Brisbane International Update #1 – Men’s Tennis

Ivanovic told reporters "It is always tough, the first match. It was just a matter of hanging in and waiting for opportunities. I’m very happy to get this victory."

Here are the results for the first round of singles play on January 5th:

1) Ana Ivanovic (SRB) d. Petra Kvitova (CZE) 64 62
Sara Errani (ITA) d. (4) Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) 67(1) 64 60
(5) Amélie Mauresmo (FRA) d. (WC) Jelena Dokic (AUS) 76(9) 76(5)
Olga Govortsova (BLR) d. (8) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 75 62
Samantha Stosur (AUS) d. (9) Ai Sugiyama (JPN) 62 63
Tathiana Garbin (ITA) d. Sofia Arvidsson (SWE) 62 63
Lucie Safarova (CZE) d. (WC) Isabella Holland (AUS) 64 63
(Q) Roberta Vinci (ITA) d. (Q) Anna-Lena Groenefeld (GER) 06 63 61
(Q) Melinda Czink (HUN) d. Alona Bondarenko (UKR) 76(3) 61
(Q) Sesil Karatantcheva (BUL) d. Iveta Benesova (CZE) 16 64 62
(LL) Julie Coin (FRA) d. Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) 75 67(5) 76(3)

Here are the doubles results:

Jugic-Salkic/Peng (BIH/CHN) d. Amanmuradova/Fedak (UZB/UKR) 61 64

Stay tuned for the January 6th results.

Source: Google News and On the Baseline

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Brisbane International Update #1- Women’s Tennis