Serve's up: Sharapova changes motion

Mal Taam/MALTphoto Patty Schnyder has re-discovered her game in San Diego.

She broke Sharapova to 5-4 and had three opportunities to serve it out. She failed three times and was broken at love twice. At that point, neither woman had speed or location on her serve.

Sharapova lost her way and with no game plan but to go for openings, and fought on. Her crosscourt game was deadly, but she weak down the line. But Patty couldn't find a way to close. On both her match points, one at 5-4 and the other at 7-6, Schnyder pushed the ball around and committed two horrid backhand errors.

The crowd chanted her name, but she didn't' engage with them. Finally, on her first match point, Sharapova crushed an inside out forehand return of serve that Schnyder couldn't handle. "She was the big champion. I'm the little one who could not win," Schnyder said after the loss.

While the Acura Classic is nowhere near the same level of tournament, a title round win would put some of those memories in the closet. She called Sharapova a great attacking player and one whom she's had to serve extremely well against or she'll get stretched out and never be able to dictate.

“The last two day I can hardly play any better,” Schnyder said. “I like the speed of the courts, I’m moving really well and I feel in great shape. Unlike some other players, at least I feel like I have a shot against her. On clay, I feel like I’m the favorite and there’s more pressure on me. If I win a Tier I title over her on hard courts, I’ll feel much better.”

WHY IT'S THE LAST YEAR FOR THE ACURA CLASSIC
From what I've heard, not much has mentioned on television about how it's the tournament's last year. But despite consistent sell-out crowds, pro tennis in San Diego will be dead as of Monday. It's not coming back next year and it's extremely doubtful that it will return in 2009, unless the players force the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour into reconsidering its roadmap.

If, for example, the tour allowed an organizer to bring another Tier II level tournament here the week before Stanford, there would sufficient interest, as Acura and the La Costa Resort were willing to make another three-year commitment (although not to a Tier I tournament like this one). They were not willing to make a five-year commitment like Stanford sponsor Bank of the West has, which, along with the cooperation of Stanford University, is why that tournament wasn't moved to La Costa.

Here's the rub though … the tour does not want another so called A-level tournament during the US Open Series and is content with the 2009 calendar, which begins at Stanford, goes to LA, then to Cincinnati, then to Canada, then to New Haven and then to the US Open. They are willing to allow a B-level tournament to come in, but no one in these parts - not IMG or Acura - are interested in promoting a tournament in a big city without any members of the Top 20.

The tour won't allow an exception, because they feel like if they do that, they will begin to backslide on their roadmap and then many other events will ask for a similar status.

While this point may have some validity, it doesn't hold water with me, because the point of designing a roadmap should have had more to do increasing the health of tennis than it had to do with risking its popularity.

Buying San Diego's Tier I sanction from the tournament owners and selling it to Beijing does nothing but put the put the popularity of women's tennis at risk. Yes, it conceivable that Beijing fans will flock to a new Tier I tournament next year, but here's a fact that we all know very well: Longtime fans in San Diego are much more apt to keep coming back and are also much wealthier than fans in China, which also means that they can afford sponsor products - cheap Sony Ericsson phones aside.

We also know this: If you asked all of the members of the Top 10 plus Venus where they would rather play, San Diego would win hands down. I'm also going to put out a well-educated guess that if they are a little hurt, California residents Sharapova and Serena, and sometimes Cali resident Venus, would be much more likely to play San Diego in July or August than go to China in October.

Here's a veil that has been thrown over some fans eyes that everyone should throw off immediately: There is no measurable difference between the current Tier II's and the so-called seven-day A-nationals, which will be new term in 2009. So please, don't think in 2009 that Tier IIs like Stanford or LA will have much better player fields unless many entrants are healthy. If Serena and Ana Ivanovic are hurt post Wimbledon, they won't be playing, period. Here's something else … LA, which has an excellent non-Williams field this year, could get hurt, because Sharapova won't play three weeks straight and Cincy and Canada will be mandatory. Lock her in for Stanford and, if they are still around, at least either Venus or Serena.

San Diego and the future of women's pro tennis in the US is almost a dead issue, because the tour is moving headstrong along with its plan. The only chance that San Diego really has now is for the USTA to step in, flex a little muscle, get support of a few of the top players (Sharapova and the Williams sisters have already indicated that they would commit) and ask the tour very nicely to allow another Tier II on the 2009 summer schedule. There's already a sponsor out there willing to commit $3 million a year. The big problem is La Costa, which has been inflexible with expansion plans over the past few years. Moreover, there's no other site in San Diego that can host a large outdoor event. But it's certainly worth a try. Who will step up to the plate?

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