It was a day of upsets among the female tennis players at the 2009 Tokyo Open .  All kinds of top-seeded players were eliminated opening the way for up-and-comers to steal the spotlight.
While Maria Sharapova, who went into the event unseeded, managed to make it to the next round, big names like top-seeded defending champion Dinara Safina, second-seeded Venus Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova were sent packing.

Safina lost her match against qualifier Kai-Chen Chang (pictured celebrating above) 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 7-5 which lasted 2 hours and 44 minutes.  Wow!
Meanwhile, Williams couldn’t get past yet another qualifier, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and lost 7-6 …read more

American teen, Melanie Oudin, shocked former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic by eliminating her 6-7 (8), 7-5, 6-2 to pull off what might be the biggest upset at the 2009 Wimbledon championships so far.  I’m not sure if the 82F/28C degree heat played a factor, though, since the pair took a 12 minute break after Jankovic called for a medical timeout.  The sixth seeded Serbian star had to lay on the court for a little while with a blood pressure cuff on her arm.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, she called another timeout later for her left foot.  Basically, it …read more

Svetlana Kuznetsova was many things as she went into the 2009 French Open finals this morning but, most importantly, she was calm and determined.  Having only won a single Grand Slam title before, I’m sure she was nervous but she never let it show.
Instead, she beat a shaky-looking Dinara Safina 6-4, 6-2 Saturday and won the French Open.  You would have thought that Safina was the underdog by the way she played – she double-faulted seven times and seemed to struggle through the match.
While Safina faltered (and eventually slammed her racket down on the court), Kuznetsova soared and played …read more

The women’s semifinals are over and, on Saturday, top-ranked Dinara Safina will face off against seventh-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in the 2009 French Open final which will take place on Saturday at Roland Garros.

Safina defeated 20th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova yesterday 6-3, 6-3.  This is the second consecutive time that she has made it to the French Open final but, if she is victorious on Saturday, it would be her first Grand Slam title since she lost last year to Ana Ivanovic in last year’s tournament.
Meanwhile, Kuznetsova had to really fight for her win, beating 30th-seeded Samantha Stosur 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 .  …read more

Oh the carnage! Opening day at Wimbledon has come and gone, and half of those who took the court today are disappointed. The other half are not. (Deep – I know…)
I got home from work today and flipped through the draw to see who was still alive and kickin’. This morning I mentioned that Lleyton Hewitt and Svetlana Kuznetsova both dropped their first sets in tiebreakers. Kuznetsova bounced back with a 7-5 second set and 6-3 third set to move on to the second round.
Hewitt had to go five rounds with Robin Haase before finally getting the go-ahead into the …read more

And it’s here! The countdown is over, the waiting is past – now it’s time to just kick back and watch the drama unfold.
Roger Federer sailed through the first round in straight sets (6-3, 6-2, 6-2) over Dominik Hrbaty and will be squaring off against Robin Soderling in the second round. The experts say that’s a potential upset, but Soderling took four sets to win his first match – including a bagel performance in the second set against Kevin Kim of the United States before ripping off the third and fourth sets for the victory.
Good news for Roger – and …read more

The drama of the previous two matches wasn’t there for Dinara Safina in her semifinal match against fourth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova. Safina toppled the highly-ranked Russian in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2.
Safina was playing in her first Grand Slam semifinal, and the big story is the possibility of a brother-sister combo Grand Slam winners. Marat Safin won the 2000 U.S. Open and the 2005 Australian Open.
Should Safina win her first Grand Slam title, it’d be the first time for brother and sister to win a Grand Slam.

(Image: Newscom)
Dinara Safina wins her way into the French Open finals against Svetlana Kuznetsova.

I think rankings can really get in the way sometimes. As a player, if you get too caught up in where you sit in the top 10 – or the fact that you’re sitting outside the top 10 – it can take your focus off of where it really needs to be.
After the Australian Open, the men’s tennis rankings aren’t too shook up except for Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s 20-place move to No. 18 in the world. Roger Federer still owns the top spot with 6630 points and Rafael Nadal still sits in second with 5980. Novak Djokovic solidified his hold on …read more

Effortless.
That is the only way to describe Roger Federer’s 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 win over Fabrice Santoro. Santoro had his charm, especially on the last two points of the match, but Federer – wow. The man is just liquid motion on the end of a racket.
Someone who was in motion but not very great motion was Venus Williams. The No. 8 seed made it through but she didn’t look good in the 7-5, 6-4 victory over Camille Pin. In fact, she was really sluggish and lacked her characteristic vocalness.
And someone who looks like she doesn’t have any kind of motion besides awkwardness …read more

With play for the Australian Open title set to kick off next week, every tennis fan worth his or her weight in garbanzo beans has looked over the draws for the tournament and drawn conclusions. Here’s mine for the women.
To get to the quarters, Justine Henin has to get through No. 5 Maria Sharapova. Also in the mix along is a host of other players who can step up and hit the ball (Lindsay Davenport, Tatiana Golovin, Elena Dementieva, Shahar Peer and Nicole Vaidisova should all put up a battle) but I like Henin’s chances. If she rolls Sharapova, you know one …read more