Tennis Acumen

Goldwater Women's Tennis Classic Alumnae Thrive in 2011

PETE ZIEBRON

The 2011 Goldwater Women's Tennis Classic, NOV 6-13 at the Phoenix Country Club  Pete Ziebron Images

The 3rd Annual Goldwater Women's Tennis Classic is scheduled to get underway on November 6 at the Phoenix Country Club.  The $75,000 ITF tournament is the last opportunity in the United States for players to gain valuable points for automatic entry into the 2012 Australian Open.  

Several participants from the 2010 Goldwater field have enjoyed significant success in 2011, including Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa, Christina McHale of the United States and Canadian Rebecca Marino.

World #38 Chanelle Scheepers in 1st round action at the 2010 Goldwater Classic.  Pete Ziebron Images

Scheepers, who was ranked #107 in the world entering last year's Goldwater Classic, won her first WTA title last month in Guangzhou, China.  As a result of this result as well as a solid 2011, Scheepers is currently ranked #38.

Chanelle Scheepers notable accomplishments in 2011:

• Champion in Guangzhou 
• 3rd Round appearance at the Australian Open
• 3rd Round appearance at the US Open
• Defeated #26 Maria Kirilenko in Dubai
• Defeated #28 Maria Kirilenko in Guangzhou

Christina McHale, rising in the rankings in 2011                   Pete Ziebron Images

American Christina McHale also enjoyed remarkable victories throughout 2011.  This March, McHale defeated 2-time Grand Slam Champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the 2nd round at Indian Wells.  Following the clay court and grass court seasons, McHale once again played the role of giant killer, stunning world #1 Caroline Wozniacki in the 2nd round in Cincinnati.  McHale was able to parlay that result into an upset over #9 Marion Bartoli at the US Open.

Christina McHale entered the 2010 Goldwater Classic at #115 and is currently ranked #42 as a result of these accomplishments in 2011:

• 3rd round appearance at the US Open
• Defeated #13 Svetlana Kuznetsova in Indian Wells
• Defeated #1 Caroline Wozniacki in Cincinnati
• Defeated #9 Marion Bartoli at the US Open

Canadian #1 Rebecca Marino at the 2010 Goldwater Classic.  Pete Ziebron Images

Rebecca Marino of Canada is a prime example of a player who was able to gain direct entry at the 2011 Australian Open as a result of participating in the 2010 Goldwater Classic.  Her one victory in Phoenix guaranteed that she would be included in the main draw in Melbourne.

Marino continued to enjoy success on the WTA Tour in 2011, advancing to the Final in Memphis in February.  Meanwhile, Marino showed that her game also translates well on clay as she advanced to the 3rd round at Roland Garros.  After struggling for much of the summer, Marino was able to rebound and upset #15 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Luxembourg earlier this month.

Rebecca Marino was ranked #101 last November at the Goldwater Classic.  She is currently  #60 primarily due to these accomplishments this year:

• Finalist in Memphis
• 3rd round appearance at Roland Garros
• Defeated #15 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Luxembourg

Several additional players who participated in the 2010 Goldwater Women's Tennis Classic and have committed to play this year also enjoyed a meteoric rise in the rankings in 2011, including:

• Irina Falconi - United States from #217 to #76
• Heather Watson - Great Britain from #209 to #87
• Anna Tatishvili - Georgia from #134 to #88
• Caroline Garcia - France from #280 to #139
  
• Monica Puig - Puerto Rico from #695 to #262

 

Andy Murray Sweeps Asian Hard Court Swing With Shanghai Masters Crown

PETE ZIEBRON

New World #3 Andy Murray     Pete Ziebron Images

 

Andy Murray defeated David Ferrer 7-5 6-4 to win the Shanghai Rolex Masters 1000 and claim his 21st career title.  The victory was the second over Ferrer in 8 days as the two also battled in the semifinals in Tokyo last week.

Appearing in his 9th Masters 1000 Final, Murray earned his 8th Masters title with today's win, surpassing Michael Chang and tying Tomas Muster for 6th all-time on the ATP Tour.  More importantly, Murray moved up to #3 in the world and concurrently dropped Roger Federer to #4 and outside of the top 3 for the first time since the week before he won his first Major at Wimbledon in 2003.

Murray has gone 25-1 since losing to Kevin Anderson in his first match at the Montreal Masters 1000 tournament in August.  Since then, Murray beat Novak Djokovic to win the Cincinnati Masters 1000, advanced to the US Open semifinals (losing to Rafael Nadal) won 2 Davis Cup matches and also won all 3 Asian tournaments in Bangkok, Tokyo and today in Shanghai.

Although dropping the first set to Nadal in the Tokyo Final, Murray lost only 2 games in the 2nd set and Nadal only managed to win 4 points in the 3rd set!  After his victory today over world #5 David Ferrer, Murray took a moment to reflect on his success: "It's been one of the best runs of my life.  I've played very, very well the last few weeks."

Andy Murray will be back in action in early November at the BNP Paribas Masters 1000 at Paris Bercy, followed by the Barclays World Tour Finals a few weeks later in London.

 

Pete Sampras Bests Jim Courier to Win the Surprise Champions Series Event

PETE ZIEBRON in SURPRISE, AZ

14-time Grand Slam Champion Pete Sampras warming up in Surprise, AZ        Pete Ziebron Images

Pete Sampras defeated countryman Michael Chang 6-3 then immediately returned to the court to beat yet another American, Jim Courier 8-7(4) to win the Cancer Treatment Centers of America Tennis Championships in Surprise, AZ last night.

Earlier in the day, Sampras teamed with 7-time Grand Slam Champion Mats Wilander of Sweden and Courier joined Chang to conduct Player Clinics with tennis players both young and old.  Throughout the Clinic, Courier offered words of encouragement to the participants and sometimes even playfully taunted them during the points.  Courier's verbal jousting spilled over into his match with Wilander as the two traded barbs after critical points were played.

In the seventh game, with the match tied at 3-3, Courier hit an untouchable serve in the corner, causing Wilander to remark "I hate that serve out wide."  Courier replied  "Did you feel that altitude on my kicker?"

4-time Grand Slam Champion Jim Courier in Surprise, AZ   Pete Ziebron Images

With Wilander serving the next game down 4-3 with new balls, he double faulted on the first point, causing Courier to say "I like these new balls a lot."  A few points later, Courier hit an overhead smash into the net and said "Well, I hear the eyes go after 40."  Wilander immediately shot back with "Yes, the eyes, legs, and then soon thereafter woooooooo."  After 3 deuces, Courier broke Wilander and then served out the match to advance to the Final.

In the second match, Pete Sampras broke Michael Chang in the sixth game of the set and coasted to a 6-3 win.  Uncharacteristically, Chang hit 3 aces while serving at 1-2 causing him to remark "I did that?  You gotta love this new technology."

The stage was now set for the Sampras-Courier Final and Courier would continue with his entertaining running commentary throughout the match.  When Sampras questioned a call at the back of the court in the third game of the set, Courier shot back with "Andre told me a long time ago that's what they put the lines there for."  Sampras would break in the next game to take a 3-1 lead and extend the lead to 4-1.  In Courier's next service game, he reaced to a 30-0 lead and then hit a sreve that Sampras was not able to reach,  Courier quipped "That was 119 but effective.  This will be 127 and probably not effective."  Sure enough, he clipped the tape but then hit a 2nd serve ace to get back to 2-4.  The banter seemed to loosen Courier up a bit as he broke Sampras in the next game and then held serve to square the match at 4-4.  During the 8th game, Sampras hit a screaming forehand for a winner causing Courier to remark "Is that as easy as it looks?  Because it's really annoying if it is."

Sampras would win the first two points in the next service game and Courier sent a ball boy out to play the next point for him.  Sampras grinned and asked the ball boy if he would like to receive the serve on his forehand or backhand.  After a few shots, the ball boy netted a forehand and Courier returned to the court.  Sampras casually looked to the chair, wondering if the umpire would count the point or not and the umpire informed the players and crowd that the point would be replayed.  Later in the game, Sampras uncharacteristically hit a forehand well out, causing Courier to remark "If you had done that a few more times in 1993, in our tiebreaks, I would have won Wimbledon."

The match continued on serve and Sampras earned 2 break points with Courier serving at 5-6 but Courier was able to serve his way out of trouble and tie the match.  Both players won their next respective service games to level the set at 7-7 and the Championship match would go to a tiebreak to decide the title.  

Courier would get an immediate mini break, Sampras would win 4 of the next 5 points, causing Courier to shout "Stop putting so much pressure on me!"  Again, the playful venting allowed Courier to focus and win the next 2 points, levelling the breaker at 4-4.  Pete Sampras would win the next 3 points to win the tiebreaker and the Surprise Tennis Championships.

Following the match, Sampras joked that they played 20 times on tour and that he held an 18-2 advantage over Courier.  Courier then corrected Sampras saying that he actually won 4 of their 20 matches and that Pete also didn't count the two times that Courier beat him in the juniors and that Pete would probably want to count this one as well.

In the clubhouse, I asked Courier why he was only able to beat Sampras 4 of 20 times while he beat Andre Agassi 7 of the 12 times they met.  Courier replied "It's all about matchups.  Pete really didn't give me much to work with on his serve, while with Andre, I was able to get into the points more."  

Jim Courier does have something on Pete Sampras in Arizona however, as he won the former ATP tour event in Scottsdale in 1995.  Sampras played in Scottsdale 4 times and was not able to advance past the 2nd round.