Foot Fault!

Yesterday Nadia Lalami became the first Moroccan female player to ever reach the quarterfinals of a tour event when she fought past top-seeded and 24th-ranked Aravane Rezai 2-6 7-5(5) 6-4.

I’ve been following this girl since Fes last year, and she looks like Ana, plays like her and managed to choke like her too – collapsing from *5-1 up in set two and *5-2 in set three. However, her resilience was so impressive. Most players would have given up both sets from that point, but she dug in so deep and was the deserved winner.

Regardless of what happens from now, it will be really interesting to see how she fares in her next tournaments. With her big forehand, strong serve and good movement, I’m sure this won’t be a one-off fluke result.

But for now, she is probably the happiest woman in the world. And she deserves it.

Before, during and after the epic Fed Cup World Group I tie between Serbia and Slovakia, it has been exasperating looking at the number of people who are so determined to pit Ana and Jelena against each other for no reason. Clearly, Jelena fells the same way and here she is talking to the media a couple of days ago;

“We cannot achieve anything for Serbia without each other. This victory is very much Ana’s, just like all the other girls. Because of my condition I could not sit on the bench all the time and cheer for her the first day, but I was watching on Sunday when she played against Cibulkova” – says Jelena.

“It is ridiculous to say that I have something against her and that I do not care that she wins and is happy. I was overjoyed when she won against Hantuchova, this victory meant a lot to us. I’m sorry that she got injured, it was a real setback for her, but I want her to recover as soon as possible and start winning again.”

Yeah. You tell ‘em.

Tuesday was Germany Day down in Stuttgart, with the three German Muskerteers, Sabine Lisicki, Julia Goerges and Andrea Petkovic all taking to the court to play their first rounders in front of full crowds. All three won through.

First up was Julia Goerges. After going fown a break early in her match against Michaella Krajicek, she quickly broke back and went on to record an easy 6-3 6-1 win. I have so much love for Miss Gorgeous and her game. When she’s on, everything about her game just seems so effortless – her blistering serves, groundstokes and she’s also competent at the net to top it all off.

Sabine Lisicki was up next, and she too put on an impressive display to see off newly-crowned Queen of Class Dominika Cibulkova in straights. I think it’s safe to say the serve has returned, as she fired fown 14 aces en route, with only 2 DFs – the best Ace/DF ratio all year. However, what most impressed me was her fighting spirit in the match. Since her comeback, she has lost so many tight matches, dropping substantial leads and looking extremely fragile. It looked like it was all about to go horribly wrong again as she messed up on match point at *5-3 and promptly lost three games in a row, giving Cibulkova the chance to serve for the set. But instead of panicking, she composed herself, broke back and then served out the tiebreak without a care in the world.

Now can someone please get this woman a clothing sponsor please?

With all that said, the queen of German tennis, both on and off-court is still Andrea Petkovic. on court, the German number one was taken all the way to a third by a resurgent Tamira Paszek in an extremely high-quality match. For a set and a bit, Paszek dominated proceedings – her backhand pummeling ball after ball like nobody’s business, but the inevitable dip eventually came in set two and Petkovic lost control, never relinquishing it. From being a set and a break down, Petko lost a measly two games to close out the match, and everyone went home happy.

The presser afterwards was just like any other Petko presser. Even speaking in German and with the fact that I spent more time chatting up girls and what not in my six years of German lessons as opposed to actually, you know, learning the language, she just draws you in and forces you to listen and laugh. The questions eventually concluded, and as everyone was getting up to leave, I literally had to jump up and wave my arms in the air like a crazy person, shouting “English questions!!” to get attention. Petko replied “oooh, English” and to cut a long story short, our short exchange went something like this;

Me: You’ve obviously had a great 2011 so far. How different does it feel to be back in Germany, compared with 2010?

Petko: I felt the pressure, the expectations rising from the audience, from the media. But I think I handled it well in Fed Cup and now the only new problem was, you know, to redo it in a normal tournament situation only two days later. But I think I managed it quite well, and I’m happy that I won

Me: Do you feel like a superstar?

Petko: Like a superstar? (giggling) No. (laughter) I don’t feel like a superstar. In my town Darmstadt, when I walk through the city nobody ever talks to me – only one guy and he always tells me ‘you parked wrong’ (laughter).

Me: If you go back there now, it would be different though

Petko: “Yeah, maybe but.. No I’m still normal. I’m not Paris Hilton.(laughter)”

And that’s why so many people love this woman. She sure ain’t Paris Hilton – she’s just a down to earth, nice woman trying to make it in tennis. Lets hope that never changes.

(Pic via AP photo)

Me: Pavlyuchenkova obviously came out playing really well. How do you adjust your game? Is it more instinct or do you kind of think about what shots are troubling her?

Vera Zvonareva: Yeah, I was thinking ‘you know, I think it’s too early to get instincts on the clay yet’, so I was always finding myself, you know, thinking about ‘ok, from this position I better go for this kind of shot’. Sometimes I felt like I was making wrong decisions, but I was just trying to adjust. I kept telling myself ‘ok, if you’re in this position next time, just play deeper – put more rotation on the ball. Don’t go for a winner because it’s impossible on a clay court. So I just, you know, kept talking to myself like this. And at the end, I think I was able to manage to play like I should play on the clay, a little better in that third set. Of course still it wasn’t perfect but overall, I was able to change the momentum of the match, and I’m really happy about that’.

Yep, crazy indeed.

After over six months out with injury, Juan Carlos Ferrero made his ATP comeback this week in Barcelona and owned it, brushing aside Xavier Malisse 6-4 6-2. I don’t know about you, but I’m impressed.

One of the most prominent memories I have from Sam Stosur’s 2010 claycourt run has actually nothing to do with her actual tennis. It was the way she rhythmically marched around the courts between points as if she owned every court, every stadium and every person in them. And she played accordingly, smashing past her opponents with brute force and embarking on the best run of tournaments in her career.

But this year? Not so much. Both the form and march of old are long gone, and so far in 2011 her walk has been complimented accordingly by ever-slouching and shrugging shoulders as she has fallen to a slew of lesser opponents. It was a similar story in her first round match today against MJMS – after powering to a first set 4-1 lead, that lack of confidence quickly caught up with her after a couple of loose shots. Soon she was spraying errors and quickly lost four out of five games to find herself locked in a bitter first set struggle.

However, unlike so many times this year, she did manage to find a way through. At 5-5 deuce, out of nowhere came two blistering winners to secure the break, and then she served out the set with ease. From that point onwards, she radiated with the confidence as she bludgeoned forehand winners from everywhere and anywhere in the court, closing out the second set and match 7-6 6-2 with apparent ease.

Up next for her is Daniela Hantuchova. If she values her place in the top 10, she damn well better win that one.

Ryan Sweeting pulled off quite a shock victory in the final of the Houston ATP 250 event to capture the first ATP title of his career with a 6-4 7-6 (7/3) win over Japan’s Kei Nishikori.

After being a former junior #2 and top college player, it must be so satisfying for Ryan to finally be realising his potential and playing some great tennis. Just last year, Ryan was a perennial Challenger player who always seemed to just miss the boat when he stepped up to play ATP events. But not any more. Today he stands tall at a career high of 67, and the only way is up.

So yesterday, during the Charleston final, news broke that in addition to her wrist/shoulder injury picked up in Miami and Indian Wells, Kim recently fell while dancing in heels at a wedding, twisting her ankle and leaving her a huge doubt for the French Open.

Usually, the idea of Kim jivin’ around at someone’s wedding, possibly drunk, and then embarassing herself by falling down would be at least semi-funny, but at this point it’s just depressing. Everything looked so exciting eighteen months ago with what we thought would be the resurgence of one of the greatest four-way rivalries in either tour’s history. But now just look at them.

Six months into her comeback, Justine was essentially finished as a tennis player after slipping on the Wimbledon grass and injuring her elbow beyond repair. Then Serena quickly followed, stepping on glass at a restaurant which would leave her injured for the next 8 months. Then pretty much as soon as she was finally out of the medical boot and prepping for a comeback, bloodclots formed in that inactive foot and threatened her life by flying all the way up into her lungs and causing a heamatoma in her stomach. Then we watched as Venus, live at the Australian Open, let out a blood-cudling, heartwrenching scream as she injured a body part that no one even knew existed. And then this week Kim rounded it off appropriately by picking up her own freak injury.

(6:12)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EShZWxFfPb0

Surely this is unprecedented in any sport? Not just the fact that four women who have combined to win 31 singles slams and well over $100m in prize money alone are all out cold with injuries, but also the nature of those injuries and the magnitude of them.

Can you imagine if Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin Del Potro (that’s 28 slams) were all simultaneously wiped out with freak injuries on the men’s side? It would be complete mayhem, and that’s how it is right now on the WTA. Sure, there are a load of other great personalities and players on the tour, but as much as I want to say that they’ve all siezed the opportunity with the generation’s greats out of the picture, most just seem to be unable to find form even close to the previous highs they reached when the ‘big 4′ were constantly forcing them to better themselves.

It’s really a sign that things are bad when it’s gotten to the point where most commentators are seemingly spending more time hypothetically discussing how Venus, Serena and Kim would fare if they weren’t injured, as opposed to talking about the actual matches they’ve been paid to talk about. But at this point, can you really blame them?

I can’t, and so get well soon, you three. You’re needed.

Before this week, I’m sure most of you had never even heard of Irina-Camela Begu. And I don’t blame you one bit. She has always been talented, but the last three years have seen her superglued to the #175-250 rankings vaccum, completely unable to break free and realise that potential.

But there has been a change in 2011. First she qualified and powered through to the title in the Cali $100k ITF event – by far the biggest title of her career, and now she’s doing it again in Marbella, qualifying and winning two rounds before yesterday taking out 34-ranked Klara Zakopalova to record the biggest victory of her career.

On the ITF site, she lists Martina Hingis as her idol, and armed with a strong defense, court sense and impressive tennis IQ, it’s not hard to see why she does look up to the game’s ultimate tactician.

Awaiting her in the semi-finals is Svetlana Kuznetsova. The Kuz hasn’t exactly been in the most scintillating form this week, so it will be interesting to see if Begu can hold her own against the two-time slam champ and top 15 player. My guess is that she’ll do just that.

A recurring neck injury that forced him to withdraw last week in the quarters of Miami, an infant kid back home, and already two tournament at ATP 250 level on his ranking (meaning he can’t gain any points), and yet Gilles Simon flew all the way to Morocco to play in the Casablanca 250 event ahead of the packed clay season?

Seeded third, he ended up losing 6-4 3-6 6-4 in the quarters to Potito Starace after leading 4-2* 0-40 in the third set.

Don’t expect any sympathy from me, mate.