Clijsters Returns; Beats Bartoli, Schnyder & Sveta

Former World #1 Kim Clijsters of Belgium returned to the WTA Tour in Cincinnati Open and has dispatched 2007 Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli (6-3 6-2), crafty lefty Patty Schnyder (6-2 7-5) and 2009 French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova (6-4 4-6 6-2 ) in consecutive matches. Clijsters plays World #1 Dinara Safina in the quarters on Friday.


The day did not go as well for the Williams Sisters, who less than 5 weeks after meeting each other in the Wimbledon final forthe second consecutive year played their worst tennis in years to lose hours apart. Venus Williams lost to Flavia Penneta (who has turned into something of a bete noire for the 7-time major champion) 7-6 (2) 6-4 while Serena Williams lost 7-5 6-4 to Sybille Bammer.

Serena Loses To Schnyder Day After Boasting To Be #1

Pride goeth before a fall. Playing her first clay court match of 2009, the 2002 French Open champion and reigning U.S. and Australian Open champion Serena Williams lost 6-2 2-6 6-1 to crafty lefty veteran Patty Schnyder at nearly 1am local time in Rome late Tuesday night.

On Monday, Serena said this:

"We all know who the real number one is. Quite frankly, I'm the best in the world."

As Craig Hickman says, "Serena, next time keep your tongue tied."

US OPEN 2008: Women's Quarterfinals Preview

The 2008 US Women's Quarterfinals are now set. After correctly predicting all four of the 2008 French Open Women's quarterfinals but only two of the four 2008 Wimbledon Ladies quarterfinals here are my predictions for the last major women's quarterfinals of the year.

Amelie Mauresmo FRA (32) Flavia Pennetta ITA (16) vs. Dinara Safina RUS (6). This should have been an opportunity for former #1 Frenchwomanto show that she could still be a force to be reckoned with at a major but instead she committed 40 unforced errors (including 14 double faults) as she lost 6-3 6-0 to the Italian player who clinched her first major quarterfinal. Safina, who has made it to the final in six of the last seven events that she entered, has been the hottest player on the WTA Tour all summer long but has recently been complaining of extreme exhaustion.Pennetta is playing the best tennis of her long career but so is Safina. There's nothing that the Italian does that the Russian does better and that should be enough to get "Marat's little sister" to her second major semifinal of the year. PREDICTION: Safina in 2 sets.

Serena Williams USA (4) vs.Venus Williams USA (7). This should be the best match of the tournament. Even though I predicted before the tournament that it was unlikely to occur, I'm thrilled that it has. Hopefully, the match will be a reprise of their intense Wimbledon Ladies' final this summer won by Venus(or the still unseen third-set tiebreak thriller in the Banagalore semis never shown on American won by Serena). However, it should be remembered that their first several matches were very ugly affairs. It should also be remembered that the sisters are currently tied 8-8 in their career head-to-head, although Serena beat Venus in 5 consecutive meetings at Grand Slams, she has not been able to do so since. I'm not sure if these statistics are known by either of the players but it does give us insight into how closely matched the two sisters are. Regardless, I do think that Venus will have a slight mental edge, although Serena is probably playing slightly better. In the end I think that tennis is at least fifty percent mental, and tennis between siblings must be even more so. I'm just happy to see a Williams in a major semifinal for more than a single time in a calendar year. PREDICTION: (Venus) Williams in 3 sets.

Elena Dementieva RUS (5) vs. Patty Schnyder SUI (15). This will probably be the ugliest quarterfinal of the four. Patty Schnyder has the game to drive anyone crazy, but Dementieva is coming off winning the Gold Medal in Singles at the Beijing Olympics and has already beaten the Swiss player twice already in 2008. Unless someone tells her that Jankovic has already lost and that she has an open path to her second US Open final in five years, Dementieva should be able to advance to her fourth career US Open semifinal surprisingly easily. PREDICTION: Dementieva in 2 sets.

Jelena Jankovic SRB (2) vs. Sybille Bammer AUT (29). Despite having the #1 ranking almost within her grasp thanks to the disturbing collapse of her countrywoman Ana Ivanovic, Jankovic barely got past the hard-hitting young Dane Caroline Wozniacki in the fourth round, advancing 3-6 6-2 6-1. Sybille Bammer is one of the few mothers on the tour and has a rare serve and volley game. However, Jankovic has only lost to Bammer in 7 matches, including a tough 3-set match at last year's US Open in the 4th round. This year, Jankovic will be prepared to get the job done in two. PREDICTION: Jankovic in 2 sets.

FRENCH OPEN 2008: Women's Quarterfinals

The 2008 Roland Garros Quarterfinals are almost set. The second Grand Slam of the year is reaching its second week without either of the Williams sisters, who lost within hours of each other in the 3rd round.

Dinara Safina RUS (13) Maria Sharapova RUS (1) vs. Elena Dementieva RUS (7). For the second time in three years "Marat's little sister" has defeated the WTA's "It Girl" at the toughest Grand Slam in the fourth round. But not only did Dinara Safina beat Sharapova at the French Open, she came back from an almost impossibly lost position to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Again. In 2006, Safina was down 1-5 in the 3rd set against her Russian compatriot and ended up winning the match 7-5 by losing only 3 of the last 31 points. This year Sharapova held a match point on her serve at 5-3 in the second set but lost that point and the set in a tiebreak. The third set was pretty close, but Safina prevailed 6-2 to end Sharapova's chances of a career or calendar Grand Slam. Safina goes on to face Elena Dementieva, who had a surprisingly difficult time defeating Vera Zvonareva in 3-sets. This quarterfinal should be the humdinger of the four. PREDICTION: Safina in 3 sets.

Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS (4) vs. Kaia Kanepi EST or Petra Kvitova CZE. Every two years Svetlana Kuznetsova seems to be breakthrough at the French. In 2006 Kuznetsova reached the French Open final before losing to Justine Henin in a match in which only one player (Henin) competed. However, Kuznetsova has been playing well since that final and although her ranking has fallen to #4 recently (from her high of #2) it is theoretically possible for her to reach the #1 position her friend Justine vacated a ew weeks before the tournament, and who has also said she would like Kuznetsova to replace the Belgian as the French Open titleist. PREDICTION: Kuznetsova in 2 sets.



Carla Suarez Navarro ESP vs. Jelena Jankovic SRB (3). With the retirement of the 4-time and defending French Open champion Justine Henin alll eyes turned to Serbian Jelena Jankovic (and Ana Ivanovic) as the two highest ranked players yet to win a major title (Jankovic hasn't even reached a major final, while her Serbian "sister" has been in 2 in the last year). However, at this tournament Jankovic has been struggling to win against lower ranked players and complaining about the heavy conditions ausing injury while playing with large portions of her bidy wrapped. Regardless, she should have more than enough game against a surprise quarterfinalist Mad Professah had never even heard of to make her second consecutive Grand Slam final, where she lost to the eventual champion, Maria Sharapova. However, she will be facing Ivanovic who has looked the sharpest of all the top players, and who has beaten her Serb compatriot 5 times of the 6 matches they have played.
PREDICTION: Jankovic in 2 sets.


Patty Schnyder SUI (10) vs. Ana Ivanovic SRB (2). Ana Ivanovic is playing the 2008 Roland Garros tournament like a woman on a mission after being embarassed by Justine Henin in the 2007 Roland Garros final. Her fourth round match was a 6-0, 6-0 rout of Petra Cetkovska.
Patty Schnyder is a crafty lefty player who took Sharapova to a 3-set match last year (which she should have won) and is always a difficult opponent on any surface. With the departure of Henin and Sharapova, Ivanovic is the player to beat in order to win the title, and I'm doubtful anyone left in the draw will be able to do that.
PREDICTION: Ivanovic in 3 sets.

Serena Wins 29th WTA Title in Bangalore

Serena Williams ended her 11-month title drought by defeating Patty Schnyder 7-5, 6-3 in a hard fought, error-strewn final at the Bangalore Open. It followed her gutsy 3rd set tiebreak win over sister Venus Williams in a 2 hour, 10 minute semi-final that was not broadcast in the United States.

The Pacific Life Open starts in Indian Wells, California on Monday with both men and women competing. Neither Williams Sister will play that tournament due to an ugly incident from years ago. Following that, Serena will be defending her title Sony Ericsson Open starting March 24th.

Also on Monday, Roger Federer and Pete Sampras are playing a sold-out exhibition match at Madison Square Garden at 430pm PDT (730pm EDT) that will be broadcast on The Tennis Channel.

Serena beats Venus to face Schnyder in Bangalore final

Venus	Serena

Serena Williams beat her older sister Venus in a tough, tight match 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(4) to make the final of the Bangalore Open against Swiss veteran Patty Schnyder. Serena now leads her head-to-head with her sister 8-7.

WTA Acura Classic: Sharapova Wins 1st Title in 10 Months

Defending champion and #1 seed Maria Sharapova defeated Patty Schnyder for the 6th time in 7 career meetings 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 to win the final Acura Classic to be held at the La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California. It was Sharapova's first title of 2007, although last year when she won this tournament a few weeks later she went on to win the 2006 U.S. Open, her second major title after the 2004 Wimbledon Ladies' Championship.

WTA ACURA CLASSIC: Quarterfinals Preview

The WTA Acura Classic is a hop skip and a jump from Mad Professah's stomping grounds in Southern California so I will be driving down with a bunch of other tennis fans this weekend to see Friday's last quarterfinal as well as both semi-finals on Saturday.

Patty SCHNYDER (SUI) vs Nadia PETROVA (RUS). The crafty lefty finally beat her more famous Swiss compatriot Martina Hingis for the first time in nearly nine years despite losing the second set in a tie-break to reach this quarterfinal against one of five Russians in the Final Eight at this important Tier 1 warm-up to the U.S. Open, the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. Petrova is the "most mentally challenged" of the top Russian players (well, except for Dinara Safina!) and Schnyder is one of the most skillful players onthe tour at getting into someone's head. Despite the fact Schnyder leads their head-to-head 5-4 they haven't played each other in more than a year and the Russian's power game should be enough to blow Schnyder off the court. Prediction: Petrova in 2 sets.

Elena DEMENTIEVA (RUS) vs Maria KIRILENKO (RUS). After she serves, Elena Dementieva has some of the prettiest strokes in the women's game, but they often are not enough to make up for her laughably atrocious serve. Kirilenko has just had the biggest win of her young but not so distinguished career, defeating the indefatigable Jelena Jankovic, currently the #3 player in the world, in three tough sets the round before. Matches between Russians are ugly at the best of times, and this one will be even uglier than usual as these two blonde beauties slug it out. Prediction: Toss-up!

Maria SHARAPOVA (RUS) vs Sania MIRZA (IND). It looks like the Muslim Miracle a.k.a. the Invincible Indian has finally started to live up to her hype and started to win matches. She made the final of Stanford last weekend and easily dispatched former Top 10 player Dinara Safina pretty easily to get to this quarterfinal match-up with the reigning U.S. Open champion. Mirza is a big match player, but the jury is still out on whether she has the weapons to match her will. Sharapova has been looking sharp this week, and her serve seems to be returning to it's former strength and consistency. Prediction: Sharapova in 2 sets.

Anna CHAKVETADZE (RUS) vs Venus WILLIAMS (USA). Chakvetadze is the hottest player on the tour right now, having won the last two tournaments she played in, at Cincinatti and Stanford. However, she hasn't really played anyone of the caliber of the reigning Wimbledon champion in her recent victories. Venus is clearly swinging freely and dispatched hard-hitting Daniela Hantuchova in the previous round in straight sets (including a bagel!), limiting the Slovak to a mere 3 games. (Venus has never lost to Hantuchova in 9 matches.) Happily, the organizers decided to schedule this quarterfinal as the evening match so MadProfessah will be able to watch it live in the stands. I suspect Anna will not go down as quietly as Daniela did, but Venus would love to set up another grudge match with Sharapova in the semis Saturday night. Whoever wins that match should easily defeat the winner of the early semifinal on the other half of the draw. Prediction: Williams in 3 sets.