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Venus, CAPRIATI End Troubling Seasons
US women skidding to worst year since
1997
Safin ready to challenge Federer
By Matthew Cronin, TennisReporters.net
Ron Cioffi/TR.net |
| Venus Williams' second serve
is among the strokes which have let
her down in 2004. |
After six fanciful and dominant years,
US women's tennis hit the skids on Friday with former No. 1 players
Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati flaming out in the Philly
quarters and failing to qualify for the WTA Championships.
Not since 1997 when Martina Hingis won three Slams and Iva Majoli
took the other (Roland Garros) have the US women had such an ignominious
year. From 1998-2003, US women won 16 Slams. This year: the big
zero.
Had either Venus and Capriati managed to get past Amelie Mauresmo
and Vera Zvonareva and reached the Philly semis, one of them would
have qualified for the WTA Championships and would have had an opportunity
to put a shine on her year. Instead, Capriati's decision not to
play any European tournaments after the US Open turned out to be
a lousy one, as she was as rusty a Ft. Lauderdale buoy after four
straight hurricanes. There's no other way to explain her 6-0, 6-1
wipeout at the hands of Vera Zvonareva, who hadn't won a big contest
all fall.
JENNIFER: GEARING UP FOR THE SLAMS
For
Capriati, it will be the first time since 1999 she will be absent
from the Championships' eight-player field. "I have not been
playing for a while," she said. "It was tough to be
able to do what I wanted with the ball today. I still consider
this a great year. I've been pretty consistent this whole year,
especially at the Grand Slams. Now I will take some time off and
regroup mentally."
At this point in her career, the 28-year-old Capriati has made
it perfectly clear that she is only really gearing up for the
Slams. Yes, she had fine runs to the '04 Roland Garros and US
Open semis, but she certainly wasn't pleased with her mental no-show
against Anastasia Myskina in Paris or her failure to slug with
Elena Dementieva deep in the third set in NY. She cannot afford
to play such a light schedule next year, because it's quite apparent
that's she's a far more lethal player when she's match tough.
Few players can't take two months off, come into a tournament
and knock off a very good player who's on.
In Philly against Zvonareva, Capriati
found that out quickly. She shouldn't spend a lot of time regrouping.
It's pretty clear what she needs to do in the off-season: Get
in great shape, start taking balls from further inside the baseline,
improve her net game a touch and her willingness to go to the
net a ton, and work on improving her second serve. Next year will
be the three-time Slam champ's last real shot at a Slam title.
VENUS: ERRATIC SECOND SERVE,
FOREHAND
Venus is in far worse shape in than Capriati. Give her credit
for making a strident effort to qualify for the Championships
by playing three post-US Open tournaments, but scold her for not
taking the necessary steps to improve. She's been diligent of
late about taking care of her injury-riddled body and has been
relatively healthy since mid-August. But her technical problems
are spreading faster than the Kournikova computer virus. Her forehand
and second serves are still wrecks and consequently, she's pulling
back on her first serve and over-hitting her backhand. Give credit
to Amelie Mauresmo for constantly tweaking her high variety game
and sensing that Venus' confidence is somewhere deep in the lagoon
in front of her Florida mansion.
But the Venus Williams of even last year
doesn't go down 7-5, 5-7, 6-1 to Mauresmo."I was playing
some of my best tennis in the third set," said Mauresmo,
who has now won the last two meetings against Williams after having
lost the first five. "The role changed in the last year and
it's the continuation of what I'm improving in my game."
As always, Venus said it was her own fault. "It was a story
of my errors," said the four-time Grand Slam champion. "She
definitely can't hit me off the court, but I'm always putting
play forward which is my style of play. But I made too many errors.
I think next time I'll be ready."
Actually, Venus isn't always playing aggressive and shouldn't
be. In her prime, she was a tremendous defensive player from the
baseline until she got a short ball, which she would usually put
away. Not any more. You can't play standout defense when one side
is super vulnerable to errors. As Fed Cup coach Billie Jean King
and Captain Zina Garrison have said time and time again, Venus
needs to task advantage of her long wingspan and charge the net
much more often. But she can't get there often enough if she can't
hit a proper approach shot with her forehand.
Venus needs to hire an additional coach during the off-season
to iron out the near permanent wrinkles in her game. If she doesn't,
she'll end 2005 the same way she did 2004: out of the top eight
and a non-factor during the second weeks of the Slams. Two mid-sized
titles in 2004 (and none since April) is nothing to write home
about for an all-time great.
Now Mauresmo has a terrific shot at No. 1, but really needs to
win Philly to give herself a great shot at Davenport's top spot
in LA. She'll be seriously pushed on Saturday by Wimbledon champ
Maria Sharapova, who got revenge on Alicia Molik in a 3-6, 6-1,
6-3 victory, the same woman who beat her two weeks ago in the
Zurich final. Sharapova has to be considered on of the three top
favorites in LA.
Zvonareva will take on countrywoman Nadia Petrova in the semis,
a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 winner over French Open champion Anastasia Myskina.
As unofficially reported by TennisReporters.net
yesterday, it's now been officially confirmed: With the loss,
the third-ranked Myskina lost a chance at the year-end No. 1 spot.
All credit to Zvonareva for clocking
Capriati, but the main reason she slipped into the eight spot
in Porsche Race is because she's now playing her 25th tournament
of the year, compared to 16 for Venus and 12 for Capriati.
"This win is really important to me, not only because I get
into the Championships, but also I beat a Top-10 player,"
Zvonareva said. The 11th-ranked Russian will likely end the year
ranked behind No. 9 Capriati, but could still pass Venus for No.
10.
Fred Mullane/
Camerawork USA |
| Marat Safin |
© Tennis Angels |
| Alina Jidkova |
Safin ready to challenge Federer
Someone needed to step up this fall and become the man most likely
to scare Roger Federer at TMC Houston. That man is a giant: Russian
Marat Safin.
On Friday at TMS Paris, Safin hit through
third-ranked Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 7-6 and on Saturday, he took
out Guillermo Cañas 6-2, 7-6(5) in the semis. He'll play
the winner of Radek Stepanek-Max Mirnyi semi in his attempt to
win his third title there and become the first man since Boris
Becker to do so.
"I feel like I'm playing really my best tennis here, every
time I come here. In 1999 I was in the final against Agassi,"
Safin said. "In 2000 I was playing great tennis during the
whole week, won the tournament. In 2002 I beat Lleyton in the
final in three straight sets. For some reason I feel really great
on the court, really confident, really comfortable. I cannot explain
why." It could be new coach Peter Lungren, Federer's ex-tutor
who might get a shot at Rog in Houston.
You just can't keep the Russians down. In Quebec, Tennis Angel
Alina Jidkova upended top seed Mary Pierce 6-4, 7-6(8). San Diego's
Abigail Spears, Slovak Martina Sucha and Argentine Maria-Emilia
Salerni also posted wins.
Rumors have spread that AEG, which owns
the Staples Center (where the WTA Championships is played) and
a part of the women's summer tour stop in Carson, is looking to
buy a men's tournament to play concurrently with the women in
August. It won't happened next year, but don't discount 2006.
An AEG official told TR.net
that they are still actively looking for a men's tournament and
are hoping that the USTA Southern California Section – which
owns the men's Mercedes-Benz Cup played two weeks before Carson
– will agree with them that a combined tournament is the
way to go. The section has steadfastly refused to sell the tournament
in the past and move it from its more cozy and traditional confines
at UCLA. But the official also said that the USTA recently bought
into the women's tournament, which certainly opens the door to
further discussion.
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