Maybe it's just me, but I don't see what being a classical buff has to do with knowing what our Social Director is up to.

Doha
Serena Williams defeated Venus Williams 6-2,7-6(4)
Cara Black and Liezel Huber vs Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez should be starting shortly - Live on Tennis Channel

ATP
St. Petersburg - Sergiy Stakhovsky defeated Horacio Zeballos 2-6,7-6(8),7-6(7)
Vienna - Jurgen Melzer defeated Marin Cilic 6-4,6-3
Lyon - Ivan Ljubicic defeated Michael Llodra 7-5,6-3

Ace WTA rankings

Titles (Finalist appearance if best result)

(1) Serena Williams (50-12): Australian Open, Wimbledon, and Doha
(2) Dinara Safina(55-16): Madrid, Rome, and Portoroz
(3) Svetlana Kuznetsova(43-16): French Open, Beijing and Stuttgart
(4)Caroline Wozniacki (67-24): Eastbourne, New Haven and Ponte Vedra Beach
(5) Elena Dementieva(55-18): Toronto, Sydney and Auckland
(6) Venus Williams (38-16): Dubai and Acapulco
(7) Victoria Azarenka(45-15): Key Biscayne, Brisbane and Memphis
(8) Jelena Jankovic (46-19): Cincinnati and Marbella
(9) Vera Zvonareva(33-14): Indian Wells and Pattaya City
(10) Kim Clijsters (13-3): United States Open

Reposting from the other thread:

Here's the TV schedule for next weeks ATP tourneys-
Valencia:

http://www.atpworldtour.atponline.net/1/en/tv/valencia09.htm

Big names playing: Murray, Davydenko, Tsonga, Verdasco, Simon, Monfils, Robredo, Ferrer

and Basel:

http://www.atpworldtour.atponline.net/1/en/tv/basel09.htm

Big names playing: Federer, Djokovic, Gonzalez, Stepanek, Wawrinka, Kohlshreiber,Blake, Karlovic

Basel Draw: http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2009/328/mds.pdf

Valencia Draw: http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2009/573/mds.pdf

Hey, everyone. :)

Congrats to Serena and fans, and commiserations to Venus and fans - wish I had seen it. Also congrats to Ljubicic (yay!), Melzer and Stakhovsky. :) Particularly glad for Ivan ending the year with a title...good year for him.

and since probably very few people will notice this - YAY for Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski (sorry, Reeshie and Chardy fans) for winning another doubles title. Perhaps the UK won't lose to Monaco and Egypt in Davis Cup next year after all...and perhaps I'm just being stupidly optimistic - no doubt we'll find a way.

So Re got her 1st non-Slam title of the year. And it happened to be the 5th biggest after the Slams for her to finish the year as the undisputed no. 1. Congrats. This should shut up the WTA-ranking-system-is-corrupt crowd for a while.

Basel Order of Play with Roger playing at 12:30 PM:

http://tinyurl.com/y9q2de3

oh...and a proper Happy Birthday to Aussiemarg, too...Hope it's a good one, AM. :)

That means novak will probably play on Tuesday.

Mike DC - if you are still around.. I have also been abruptly 're-directed' when on TW..off TW and onto an ad page. Usually a local ad. Just as you describe. Its as if 'it' closes TW and opens a new page. It doesn't happen very often, but it happens. And my security is all up to date and in place as well.

I remember Pete mentioning something a week or so ago about how the TW site was going to be updated and upgraded soon. I hope this is not part of the new package.

BTW - hi everyone...;-)) Interesting results today, especially Meltzer marinating Marin.

congrats to ljuby and melzer! and to serena!

I noticed :) Yay for Flemski!

I noticed :) Yay for Flemski!

Oops. Sorry.

NP: The chance that today's win will shut up that crowd isabout as slim as the chance that it'll shutt up the "I think it's terrible that Serena only wins the major events" crowd! LOL

(Long post forthcoming, stretching scroll finger before exertion is recommended :) )

I'm a little concerned about Justine's comeback.

When Kim came back, observers noted that it was with the aim of getting back within the top 5 and being a slam contender. But it seemed for the most part to be fairly low key, and that success came so soon (in the form of the USO) was a surprise probably to herself as well as to everyone else.

With Justine, it's been made extremely clear that her comeback is heavily based on her completing a grand slam by winning Wimbledon. And rather than being able to slip under the radar as Kim did, there is now more expectation that Justine should be able to perform as soon as she get's back on the tour. After all, Kim did it.

She's somehow become involved in conversations about the AO. But we haven't even seen her form (I haven't heard anything about the exo she was supposed to be involved in, is that still to come?). And there is very little opportunity for her to warm up before the AO. If she doesn't perform well at the AO, and I think we're talking at least QFs, then the talk will begin.

She'll be expected to match that, (and probably exceed it, considering her record) at RG and by the time Wimbledon comes around, the pressure will be well and truly on. And not just that put on her by the media and public, but by the stated goals she has set herself. If she has performed well preceeding it, then expectations will escalate. If she has not then it will appear like the whole venture was for nought.

Justine wants that final slam, but how committed is she to pursuing it? What if it doesn't happen next year, or the year after that? At 27 age is not on her side. She is not returning to the tour as a regular competitor, with titles and ranking points to be racked up. How long will she be able to sustain herself, when it is clear that and that nothing but Wimbledon will do?

Go, Liezl and Cara!!!!

Congrats to Serena on her win (ranking and Doha), hopefully next year Safina will be able to compete without the weight of the ranking on her shoulders. Although that may be the least of her worries atm. That back injury can't be any good....

Spanish lasses have break a second time, with Martinez Sanchez actually managing not to stone a sitter volley.

Let's see if the Spaniards can serve it out.

I've been thinking along very similar lines, Nic.

I mean, I didn't expect Clijsters' comeback to go anywhere near as well as it did, so perhaps I'm underestimating Justine. But just because everything fell into place for Kim doesn't necessarily mean anything where Justine is concerned.

Good post, Nic. :)

Out for the evening, bye all. :)

Martinez Sanchez screws up the first two points on Huber's serve. Instead of having three break points, Spanish lasses are down 40-15 on Huber's serve.

Ruth, at least they can't point to Dinara or any1 else as the unworthy no. 1 as of this moment. That's good enough for me.

For the record I don't think they have no legit complaint per se. It's just that all they (or the majority of 'em anyway) do is to whine endlessly without offering a sensible solution. If you think the current system needs to be changed, offer an alternative which you can argue will work better. And explain how the newly weighted system will not diminish the non-Slam events so much as to render them virtually useless and unprofitable. And address the counterpoint that the WTA may be simply going thru cycles. And so on. Most of the critics fail in this regard.

Nic, excellent post and you ask some really telling questions. The problem I think that Justine will face is that she is coming on the Tour when the players have had some amount of rest, albeit a short off season. They will have had time to deal with their various injuries and get some relaxation and work on certain parts of their game. Kim, on the other hand had the luxury of coming into the season 3/4 of the way through when most of the players were very much banged up and suffering all sorts of crisis of confidence with their games. No one had played her for almost 2.5 years and she had added a little bit more oomph to her over all game. She moved better, her forehand was much better and her serve was also much better. She took players off guard and was able to work her way through tournaments and come away with a major. Kudos to her. Justine on the other hand, I have no idea. Her serve has always been a bit of a liability as she was never really able to win points off it. She defended well, but now you have girls on the Tour that even though they may not have the variety, hit the heck out of the ball and are no longer intimidated by big name players. It will be interesting to see how she fares in her comeback. Perhaps if she still goes ahead with the exo we will have a chance to see just how well she has prepared herself to reenter the hot house. Good luck to her.

Nic have to agree with everything you wrote. As much as i would love to see Kim/Justine/Maria/Serena and Vee battling it out at the top next year, it may not live up to our expectations. Kim will have a lot of pressure to make at least semis after winning the USO and after a long season will she be able to put in the kind of performance again (winning US with no pressure and after 3 tourneys is very different to winning it after a long year).

Same with Justine, the grind of the tour got to her and she suffered humilaiting defeats by Serena and Maria before she retired will she want to (possibly) go through that again? I wonder that of Wimbledon doesn't happen (and it will be tough with Venus/Maria and Serena, all great grass court players) and her form isn't good if she would retire for good at the end of next year. I hope not though becacuse all those multi slams winner at the top could make next year really exciting.

Excellent post, Nic.
Also Kim's successful comeback would be used as the yardstick for Henin, and there is going to be additional pressure.

If Henin can approach her previous form, she should be a threat to win Wimbledon, especially if the Williams' Sisters' game is somewhat in decline.

I have my doubts that Henin is going to come up with a "magic serve" at this stage in her career, however.

Just doesn't happen.

L-V's turn to hits two lousy volleys on putaways.

What should be 40-0ith three set points is now deuce.

And they get broken on a net cord.

What a couple of chokers.

Spaniards break for a third time.

Let's see if they can get to the finish line on this set without choking.

NP: I can't see how anyone would think that a ranking that gives the Slams double the points of the next-in-line Tier 1's (now Premier Mandatories?) is somehow unbalanced or unfair especially when, as you indicated, they fail to suggest an alternative that is fairer or more balanced.

I was just sitting here with TW open, not posting, and suddenly I was on a site called areaconnect.com which seemed to be both white and yellow pages. The most annoying aspect was that I couldn't backspace out of the site and eventually had to close and start over.

NP and Ruth -- I agree. And I think double points for slams is plenty.

Once again, Martinez Sanchez has a putaway volley at 30-30 and DOESN'T put it away.

Spaniards get broken again serving for the set.

Watching these two choke is disgusting.

Now we're in a tiebreak.

Spaniards up 6-0 with three minibreaks.

Losing this set from that position would be a monumental achievement.

sensational TB by the spaniards, especially MJMS.

Also, Vives generates formidable topspin on her FH during the baseline exchange. I *might* have under-estimated that pint sized powerhouse earlier.

this has been a good match.

Ruth @ 1:37....you know I'm always with you on this.

Ruth, that's the thing. A Slam as it currently stands is worth 2 mandatory Premier events combined, or almost 2 Premier 5 and 1 Premier events. And the critics also fail to consider the players outside the top 10 or 20. These players need the smaller events to survive, and weighting the Slams more heavily won't make them more attractive to the public, which means less points and $$$.

Does anyone know who is Bluber's coach?

Karen - I was thinking the same thing about the timing of of Kim's comeback. Also even though it was a rumour based on a joke about a Wimbledon WC, Kim did make the choice not to come back for Wimbledon, even though the plans to return would have been well underway by then. She mentioned that she didn't want to return until she was truly ready.

Also think you're right MSF. If the 'reworked' serves on the women's side of late are anything to go by, it's not promising.

Yeah, adicecream. Maybe they have a magic formula that can somehow assign more points to the Slams without the repurcussions, but I've yet to see it.

2 horrible smash attempts.

MikeDC:

Like many others, I have experienced very sluggish behavior by Typepad.

I generally use Firefox on this site. I noticed, a few days ago, using Internet Explorer 8, that my security software detected numerous incidents, which haven't been replicated in Firefox.

Don't know if these incidents were "false positives."

Security software and OS: Kaspersky Internet Security on Windows Vista.

Type of incidents:

Trojan.Script.Iframer

Again, I don't know if these are "false positives."

Arun: according to Huber's blog, they have separate coaches. Apparently they have one practice session together and another separate to work on individual issues.

Thank you, Mr and Mrs D. :)
I'll have to read her blog later today.

I just got sent to a site called Local Pages. And again I was just scrolling thru comments.

Corina Commentator pretty much alludes to the fact that L-V's overhead from behind the baseline is laughably bad.

Spiking such an overhead behind your own service line does not inspire fear or respect in your opponents.

Huber-Black up 2-1 and a break in the second.

I've been having the same TypePad problem as many of you, but no annoying tics so far today.

adicecream: If you're using FF, try using this addon
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

After restarting the FF, you'd be prompted to make some choices. select only 'Easy List' during that step.
This should work.

As TypePad's favoritism isn't being favorable to my posts right now, think I'd better go find something more favorable to do. Later, folks.

Thanks Jewell again and Ruth

I am having trouble with getting through on type pad again

Cara Black gifts a break to the Spaniards from 40-15 up on her serve.

L-V, with lousy serving (including a DF) and crappy volleying by Martinez Sanchez, and Black Huber are up a break, 3-2.

Corina Commentator asking why Spaniards chose to have L-V serve first in the second set.

So far L-V has held serve just once in the entire match, if that many times.

Karen,Nic,& Kchowcrazy..+1,2,and 3;) Lets see how Kim does when everyone is fresh,and see how Henin will do at AO,and i dont see Henin winning Wimbledon.

Spaniards break back.

3-3 and LV serving.

My mistake. Martinez Sanchez held serve to 4-3.

Opportunity to try to break Black.

Yes I agree Kim came into the tour fresh and raring to go

Lets see how she handles and Justine for that matter a whole year of touring.Being a mother also and a tenis player is a juggling act in it self.Of course Davenport did it too with success.

Thanks, Arun. I am using IE8.

hello AM!
Wish you many more happy returns. :)

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. AM, you just survived another yr. Consider yourself lucky.

Really off.

test ....AND Happy Birthday to AM!

Many thanks guys

NP I consider myself very lucky to survive as well.

Both Black and LV, the weakest servers, hold serve comfortably.

Huber to serve at 4-5.

londons world famous wta awards to come soon!!

At 5-5, Martinez Sanchez serves.

She has been holding serve comfortably all match.

So:

On first point, LV decides to let putaway go by. Martinez Sanchez is handcuffed.

Second point, good return by Huber or Black.

MS gets to 15-30.

LV decides not to put away overhead. 15-40.

MS doublefaults.

Here's the break.

Black serving at 6-5.

Chair Ump decides to be an idiot.

How the hell do you not allow the Spaniards to challenge that serve?

They challenge immediately after returning the serve.

Spaniards rightfully call the supervisor.

This is robbery.

It was a good serve anyway.

But the chair ump is an idiot.

Nic - Well said.

I'on know. I kinda like that JH came right out and said that she was motivated by the pursuit of a career slam. That strikes me as such a bold thing to do, and I can't help but appreciate it (even as I fervently hope that my girls Vee and ReRe mercilessly crush these hopes).

I do agree about Clijsters' comeback setting the bar unrealistically high. One problem with any Kim/JH comparison is that the time away from the game seems to have helped Kim better deal with her problems (burnout, nerves, choking, etc.); hard to point to anything in Justine's game that will have benefited from the time off for Manhunt '08/'09 and the UNICEF work.

Hmmm... this Niners/Colts game is shaping up to be a good one. My ZIP code aside, I still struggle w/ the concept of rooting for the Niners, so -- Go Peyton Manning and his supporting cast! :)

Ten-point supertiebreak coming up after Black holds serve to 7-5.

Look forward to your take on Agassi. I see from your piece on ESPN that you have the advantage of having read the whole book whereas now we're in a media frenzy about brief extracts provided/leaked without any other context which makes it hard to assess, and I suspect is allowing for a lot of misleading discussion.

I think his PR team dropped the ball in allowing these particular excerpts to circulate ten days before the book is out because it allows for a TON of unfounded speculation as we see. And criticism. Which may or may not be founded (beyond the obvious that he shouldn't have taken the drugs or told the lie and I presume in the books he dos make it perfectly clear that those were both serious mistakes made at a point when he was apparently demonstrating bad judgment on many different fronts).

After the Williams Sisters, Black-Huber the best women's doubles team, cuz the rankings say so.

LV-Martinez Sanchez obviously match up very well against Black-Huber.

But LV-Martinez Sanchez have a major problem.

They don't play the important points well against Black-Huber, until proven otherwise.

3-3 in the Supertiebreak.

Manuel I agree Henin's new serve? well we Gotta see No?

Even with the reports I have been reading that they have had 3 months to get this new magical serve working.

All eyes will be on Justine in Brisbane.

Superb doublefault, L-V.

Thanks for driving that backhand into the net, LV.

LV, thanks for the weak volley that led to the topspin lob going over your head.

Down the line return by LV, Spaniards up 8-6.

Martinez Sanchez goes with idiotic lob which Huber smashes back for winner.

ive just downloaded firefox because i feel like maybe i wont have all the problems when i get on here. the last straw was when i was randomly sent to some internet security thing and it said that i had trojan viruses and all my files were infected. silly me, i believed it and ran a full norton security check and it found nothing. i then realized it was bs and i closed out of all the things it was telling me to. besides i heard firefox is more secure anyway so....

Martinez Sanchez overhead to get Spaniards to 9-7.

the small one comes up with a gr8 serve when her team needed it.
MJMS takes care of the rest, as usual.

2 Match points.

Hi AM. happy birthday! hope it's great. :)

Surprised bout Melzer taking care of Marin. Aww. wish Marin could have won that one. Better luck next time, i guess. (preferably not against my faves :)

Welcome back Pete, my brother and mother live in Bozeman, MT, big sky country. Hope to be there over Christmas. Beautiful!

Other than the French Open, it's hard to see anybody challenging the William's sisters. I can see a healthy Caroline W going far in the slams.

I can't see Kim C making the same type of run she made at the Open. That was a one of a kind run, and she doesn't have the committment. Not to mention Justine Henin's in her head.

Henin will have a hard time with her size to stand up to the power girls, she is in for a big surprise. Sharapova and Serena will bat her around like a ping pong ball.

Finally, I was just tickled that my home team, the Steelers stopped the unbeaten record of Brett F last Sunday, and the Steelers will take down Denver too on Monday night football on the 9th, can't wait!

they have done it.
A good match.

Congrats/Comms and such.

Thanks Lolipop. I too was surprised with Melzer win over Marin

Doha
Serena Williams defeated Venus Williams 6-2,7-6(4)
Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez defeated Cara Black and Liezel Huber 7-6(0),5-7,10-7

ATP
St. Petersburg - Sergiy Stakhovsky defeated Horacio Zeballos 2-6,7-6(8),7-6(7)
Vienna - Jurgen Melzer defeated Marin Cilic 6-4,6-3
Lyon - Ivan Ljubicic defeated Michael Llodra 7-5,6-3

Despite themselves, LV-Sanchez hold on for the victory, beating Huber-Black for the first time. Career record now 6-1 in favor of Black-Huber.

Hopefully, this victory will give the Spaniards the confidence they need to go further in the majors.

Spaniards fall to ground and engage in light petting.

Very heartwarming to some, no doubt.

Piano, not violin, Pete. ;)

Concert went really well ... now off to catch my flight back to Chi-town! Talk to y'all soon!

Vamos Girls!!! great win.

Bad luck to huber/black.

Regardless of her size, Henin is a "power girl," always has been.

Well, Black and Huber have to be content with ending the year as #1. Their loss today does not make them any less than the best doubles team in tennis today.

Serena and Sharapova are going to bat Henin around like a ping pong ball?

You mean like before Henin retired as No. 1?

If Henin is healthy and truly motivated, she will be a force.

LV-Martinez Sanchez become honorary Tuneros.

I think we have all seen regardless of size and weight

Henin could handle with ease the other girls on the tour before she retired

cute on-court interview by NLV.
hope they can win much more next year.

Really fine doubles matches this weekend. All went to match tiebreaks with results 10-8, 10-8 and 10-7.

Thanks to TC for showing doubles.

Manuelsantanafan,
Thanks for the commentary on the doubles.

Nuria and Maria Jose completed a career year capping it off by winning the Sony Ericsson Championships(7th title overall) defeating the top 2 seeds(best team in the world in the SF, IMO, and the current number 1 in the F) in deciding supertiebreaks. More later...

*reading through msf's matchcalls with utter glee*

(And yay for Jerusalem hotel rooms with Eurosport! Caught the last game + tiebreak of Williams vs. Williams, as well as some of the weird trophy-trapeze schtick afterwards.)

CL and adicecream - if you are still around, thanks for the feedback. I got the "yellow pages" too. In addition some ad sometimes starts playing in the background (no window - just volume) and it sounds like an adult personal ad! Hoping it clears up!

And to add something substantive to the conversation... as a rankings nerd, I think the debate often boils down to how much the slams are weighted, which is NOT the problem in my humble opinion. To me, the issue is how little credit is given to those that win slams vs. runner ups. Currently the runner up in a slam gets 1400 points, while the winner gets 2000. So the cutback is s only 30%. I'd rather see bigger points not awarded to the slams overall, but just some sort of bonus to the winner. Say 3000 points rather than the current 2000. With everything else the same.

See below for points totals for the first three slams:

Serena: AO Win (2000) + FO QF(500) + W Win (2000) = 4500
Safina: AO RU (1400) + FO RU (1400) + W SF (900) = 3700

That 800 point diffence might seem big, but does anyone think that Safina's performances in the first three slams of the year were 82% as good as Serena's? That 800 point difference was simply made up by Safina's win in Rome (not to mention Madrid). Good on her for winning Rome, but that championship should not have been enough to make up for the glaring disparity in performance in the slams to date.

Giving an "extra" 1000 to each slam winner would better reflect the reality that there are FOUR huge matches each year: GS finals. Winning any one of those four matches should mean more than winning a premier 1 or whatever. At the same time, it wouldn't really dilute the importance of the tour events (since the slam / tour ratio for RU's/SF/QF etc. would not be impacted). It would only push slam WINNERS up the rankings as I think everyone feels they should be.

Just my two cents.

The only thing that I'm waiting to see from Justine is if, during her time off to find herself as woman :), she managed to drop the annoying little-girl habit of looking at her coach after almost every point.

This is a big thing with me: the one thing that all of my "5 faves" over the years have had in common is that they almost NEVER look up at their boxes during a match and never with an I-need-your-approval/help look.

Before Henin left the tour,she was being beaten,how quickly people forget;)

Ruth,I doubt it,she'll be looking up at him after every point..Help Me!hehe

I think the major upset was at the AO when Maria Sharapova reaaly crushed her.

Maria played a wonderful tournament and was the worthy winner of the AO

Oh, and a belated happy birthday to TW's #1 Chanel connoisseur. :-)

*knits brows at St. Petersburg results*
*cheers Benneteau and his second doubles trophy within a month*

Pete, would like to have your thoughts on the allegations made by Pat Cash over here (regarding Agassi's withdrawal from AO 2002):http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article6898034.ece Does Agassi talk about this from his book? What was your "inside" view into the sudden withdrawal?