Only a few weeks ago I randomly decided re-read Monica Seles’ first auto-biography for the first time since I was barely able to comprehend the contents. So often we criticize athletes and celebrities who toss out books at a young age without actually living life. It was far from the case with Seles, who had been attacked at 19 on a tennis court, suffered depression, an eating disorder, a dreadful court injustice, the wrath of sponsors and the media that eventually turned on her, and then came back from it all in remarkable style.

Rather than posting a video of the attack or a long-ass post, above is simply her speech after her first tournament back at the Canadian Open in 1995. A tournament she won, defeating Po (133) 6-0 6-3, Tauziat (17) 6-2 6-2, Huber (10) 6-3 6-2, Sabatini (8) 6-1 6-0 and Coetzer (27) 6-0 6-1 en-route to the title. Before the stabbing, she was easily on her way to becoming one of the greatest of greats and received universal acclaim for her mental strength, but it goes without saying that her resilience and mental strength in overcoming far worse than some 1-4 third set deficit catapulted her to heights far greater than she could have ever achieved. A legend.

It was 2007 when near-mute whispers of the rising new generation fast transformed into ear-splittingly loud warning sirens. First came Agnieszka Radwanska, who immediately found success – and daft comparisons to Martina Hingis – as she broke the elite glass ceiling, scaling her first Grand Sam quarterfinal and securing a myriad of notable scalps. Caroline Wozniacki’s slow but seamless rise up the rankings followed, her consistency complimented with a never-faltering transition from junior to senior success.

Following slowly in the footsteps of both was a Belarusian by the name of Victoria Azarenka. Though Azarenka navigated a junior career as successful as her peers, capturing two Grand Slams and occupying the top ranking, her profile remained far smaller and little was known about this young champion. Still, the buzz surrounding her told of a fiery Belarusian who had recently relocated to Scottsdale, Arisona and struck the ball with an authority that rivalled the likes of Sania Mirza and Mary Pierce, with intensity, mental strength and – of course – noise reminiscent of Maria Sharapova.

As Azarenka slowly rose to prominence during the latter half of that year, if one thing that became clear, it was that she clearly believed that hype. When competing, her sole aim was to attack relentlessly, punishing opponents with brute force and capturing matches with her sheer weaponry. She attempted, like so many before her, to steal the initiative immediately and tackle matches at her own pace.

In short, it was pure delusion.

Here was a player who struggled to breach the 90 miles-per-hour mark on serve and couldn’t tackle a low forehand without comically scooping the ball up. She lacked natural power and many of her losses were a simple case of her being overpowered and hit off the court. Moreover, the grunting and her angry, aggressive attitude were simply a facade for the actual pace of her shots, which would have left the aforementioned Pierce chuckling at such inane comparisons.

Though she unarguably found success, finishing 2007 in the top 30 and then breaking the top 10 within two years of her rise to senior prominence, the early years of Azarenka’s career would see the Belarusian attempting a style of play that was not her own. Consequently, she was often forced to watch on hopelessly as her peers – whether it was Wozniacki whose smooth rise up the rankings continued until, at number one, she met an impenetrable ceiling; or Petra Kvitova who easily caught up with the Belarusian’s headstart before breezing past, rising from relative obscurity to a Grand Slam title within a year – outshined her on the biggest stages.

In 2011, four years after her breakthrough year, everything changed.

Many, including Azarenka herself, credit a change in her attitude for her ultimate breakthrough between 2012 and 2013. After her second Miami triumph in 2011, she spoke about the frustration that built up as the career she envisioned for herself had, at that moment, failed to materialize and left her incoherently discussing quitting the game altogether. A chat with her grandmother changed everything.

“I said I didn’t want to do something that I’m not enjoying. She said: ‘Then don’t do it. You have to be happy’. She was telling me these stories, about how hard she was working. She was actually working in a kindergarten with kids. She’s been doing a lot of work, having two, three jobs at one time. It was like: ‘Well, you just have to shut up and stop complaining because you have a pretty damn good life. Just work out there.

My Mum asked me: ‘What are you going to do?’ I said: ‘I’m going to study.’ She laughed out loud. She knows that I like to study, but I’m not going to be fulfilling that for a long time. I’m just going to get bored, because tennis is what I really love. I just had to take a step back and realise that is true. My mother’s a very wise woman. She said: ‘Just come back home, enjoy some time, and you decide’.”

From then onwards, she seemingly assumed a new identity. Previously, after perilously tight points and frustrating misses, she would systematically implode and/or explode – either mentally collapsing, combusting with pure anger or somehow both simultaneously. Azarenka’s waltz through the Miami draw showcased a new side to her, however, as such tight moments were met with clarity and she thought through frustration rather than allowing it to consume her. Many volatile and mentally weak players have been able to gradually improve with time and effort, but it is almost unprecedented for a player – a top player no less – to make such a career-altering and dramatic improvement seemingly overnight.

In tennis, the mental side is so undeniably important, but the result is that the technical side often goes unnoticed. Equally pivotal to Azarenka’s rise to the top was her enlisting of Sam Sumyk in a quite bizarre coach swap between Azarenka and her sporadic doubles partner, Vera Zvonareva. In addition to the Frenchman aiding in her newfound calmness and crucially transforming her forehand from the previous comical scoop into a formidably solid stroke, he also clearly understood Azarenka’s game and what she needed to change to break the glass ceiling. It was during a press conference at the Istanbul WTA Championships, I in attendance, that Azarenka unintentionally disclosed just how much had transformed in her approach.

VICTORIA AZARENKA: [...] I just really glad I could keep the consistency and put a lot of pressure on Vera so she wouldn’t make so many winners.
I really tried to hang in there, and that was important to be consistent and aggressive, you know, find that balance.

[...]

VICTORIA AZARENKA: Just have to be, you know, consistent and aggressive. Tomorrow is gonna be different day. I don’t really want to look back into our last previous matches. I mean, both times she won a tournament she was in her best form.
Now she’s playing good, as well as I am. It’s gonna be really tough battle, for sure. I just have to be consistent and aggressive, the same that she’s gonna try to do.

The quote doesn’t really do justice the manner in which she so pointedly and continually stressed the importance of being consistent and forcing her opponent into mistakes. I was taken aback, and have vividly remembered it ever since. Previously, the aggression had always been of utmost importance to her, to the point where everything else was irrelevant. But that point confirmed that the transformation Azarenka had undertaken was far more than mental. Of course, the evidence on-court was clear for a considerable period before Istanbul, but it was far easier during this adjustment period to assume that she was simply under-powered. However, the revelation that she was aware of exactly how to win matches, now that…that was of crucial importance.

Though many still laughably equate Azarenka’s game purely with power and aggression – most recently her own sponsor Wilson in this embarrassing ad – it is an ignorant and inaccurate portrait of the former number one. Sure, she still attempts to play aggressive tennis, but she also understands that defense is of equal importance. And when she does attack, it has nothing to do with power. She achieves it through brilliantly constructed points rather than trying and failing to hit through opponents. She prods and pokes, pressing the opponent with depth and smart shot placement – sometimes she doggedly refuses to relinquish her grip on her opponent’s weak spot until it breaks down, other times she irreverently changes direction at will and forces the opponent to scatter around the court at full speed. And the second an opportunity – any opportunity – to finish the point presents itself, she is the first to take advantage.

This new approach means that even when her game is suffering, Azarenka still possesses enough to tackle the majority of opponents. When she makes too many errors or her timing is failing, she is quick to rein her game in and rely on her defence. Moreover, the clarity that has graced her game allows her to properly focus on other aspects of her game. For example, she now compliments her stellar footwork with much-improved movement. She has also become impressively capable when on the run, under pressure from her opponent, when the ball is put in difficult positions or all at once. Finally, she now truly understands the importance of keeping her opponent guessing with well-timed drop shots, confident net forays and slick angles.

Quite simply, Victora Azarenka finally found that balance.

Since the dawn of the Open Era, the greatest of greats have filtered into the world of tennis in a steady and unbroken flow. The likes of Laver, Newcombe, Ashe were quickly replaced by names like Borg, Connors, McEnroe and more. Then came Wilander, Becker, Lendl and Edberg who were eventually usurped by the supreme dominance of Sampras and Agassi. The year of Agassi’s final slam doubled as the season of Federer’s first as the Swiss began his unrivalled dominance, before he was slowly joined by the final three pieces of the jigsaw.

The exact same can be said of the women. The years of King, Court and Goolagong were quickly annexed by the legendary rivalry that was Evert and Navratilova. Graf would then rise and dominated until a woman by the name of Monica Seles strolled in as her equal. Eventually, a 16 year-old called Martina rose to prominence and ushered in an era which included the likes of the Williamses, the Belgians and even the Russians as they stamped their names indelibly into the history books.

What made these different eras special was that, as the technology accelerated and the game was irreversibly transformed, each new group of players remained one step ahead of the rapid change surrounding them. With every generation came a new focal point in tennis – greater athleticism, more destructive serving, increasingly breathtaking returns or simply the baseline. Even during the numerous transitional lulls, there was always the heart-pumping anticipation and expectation of a bright, new supernova to save the day.

Not anymore.

Presently, professional tennis paints a whole different picture. Whether or not today is truly the “golden era” remains a hotly-contested point, but undeniable is the fact that – with the combined athleticism, ability and talent they possess – Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray have pushed tennis to levels unseen. It’s difficult to imagine any other player as perfectly complete, naturally talented and efficient as Federer, as supremely athletic as Nadal or as scarily machine-like as Djokovic, or anything even remotely close.

But that’s the least of our worries. More concerning is that the drop-off between the level of this generation and the next appears to be the equivalent of tumbling off Mount Everest. The current rising generation spearheaded by Tomic, Raonic and Dimitrov are hardly the most convincing bunch themselves, but beyond them is a damning dark pit of nothingness. For the first time in history, not a single teenager inhabits the top 240. Unless the youngsters of the next few years make the transition onto the main tour, and complete it with haste, the ATP’s future appears woefully bleak.

The WTA’s so-called golden days can be traced back to around decade ago, between the end of the 90s and perhaps 2007 or 2008. These times were also characterized largely by hybrid-type elite players who possessed a combination of incredible athleticism, weaponry, variety and ability in all areas of the court. There was something for everyone. The Williams Sisters with their unrivalled athleticism, power and ability in the forecourt; Hingis and her perfectly-timed early ballstriking, unmatched intelligence and variety or the modern-day dynamic variety utilized by Henin and Mauresmo.

In contrast to the ATP’s startling drop, the women’s tour has been on a slow but steady demise for half a decade. As most players from the previous generation have bowed out, they have slowly been replaced by more one dimensional players. Some are capable of attacking, others specialize in defence, the rest can execute both to a limited extent, but how many are truly great? The rising stars have been the hot topic so far in 2013, spearheaded by Sloane Stephens’ Australian Open semifinal and 16 year-old Donna Vekic comfortably establishing herself in the top 100, but so far the young players too appear to fall straight into the same mould.

It just appears tennis has collided into a brick wall and is slowly moving in reverse. The sport remains enthralling and the players impressive, but ultimately almost every up-and-coming player appears to lack the quality required to make them truly memorable. When this and similar topics are brought up, many are quick to toss around phrases like “age eligibility rule” and “increased physicality”, but the issues are likely far more complicated and inherent. For example, the talent pool is probably smaller than ever before, as the best athletes make a bee-line for easier, cheaper and more popular sports.

So, as the new generations rise and we scan the derelict and broken landscape for a bright spark to guide us thorough the scarily imminent post-Williams and post-Federer eras, at least for now, I won’t be holding my breath.

As the moon likely turned a curious shade of blue and hell surely froze over, yesterday Marion Bartoli dropped a bombshell the size of faraway planets by announcing that she would be splitting from her father immediately and finally working alongside the FFT, with the hope of finally taking that step from the bottom echelons of the top ten into the top five and beyond.

“My dad will not be with me in Doha. Much has been discussed together. It is a joint decision, there is no argument, it is just the result of long reflection. It happened little by little, my father has always wanted the best for me and he told me that it might be better if I try something else to get what I want, a Grand Slam victory.

“I (speak to him) every day on the phone, there is no problem, I tell him what I do, we are always connected.

“For me the ideal would be to be with someone to help me win a Grand Slam and I think Amelie can. But it is to her you must ask the question, I cannot answer for her.

It will be fascinating to see how Marion reacts to this new, unfamiliar situation. Some of the scalps she has snatched in her career are victories all but the two most successful players above her could only dream about, and at her most dangerous she can stand to toe with any player. Despite that, there has always appeared to be a glass ceiling on her career, one that has evaded the likes of Stosur, Li and other players who have risen from below her to the top of the pecking order.

The question on most lips has forever been whether the success she has achieved in her career is because of her father’s…eccentric methods or in spite of them. As she endeavours to assemble a team complete with (yes) a fitness trainer, coach and others all working together for her benefit, we will soon find out.

During interviews yesterday ahead of Russia’s Fed Cup meeting with Japan, Elena Vesnina revealed that in Melbourne, Andy Murray approached her to congratulate her on finally capturing her maiden title the week earlier in Hobart.

I have had so many congratulations! For example, Andy Murray came up and congratulated me (in Melbourne). He said that “at last I won a title.” It was very nice. I remember up until the match against Victoria Azarenka many congratulated me on the victory in Hobart. It was very cool and partly helped me to perform well on the Australian Open [...] but I said: “Guys, all thanks, I am very happy, but now it is the Australian Open and should be prepared for the next match.”

In the past, Murray’s quotes on WTA players and the tour in general have suggested that he is actually pretty knowledgeable on the women’s side, but the thought of him keeping tabs on Vesnina’s epic search for her first tile is quite hilarious. Also, whilst so many players continue to complain about equal prize money and the like, it’s simply nice to see that there are but a few good eggs who allow their female counterparts the respect they deserve.

Yesterday saw the much-awaited return of Rafael Nadal in Vina Del Mar after seven months out, as he and Juan Monaco took to court for their doubles match and brushed aside second seeds Frantisek Cermak and Lukas Dlouhy 6-3 6-2 with consummate ease. In what will come as the least surprising piece of information ever written, Nadal afterwards fielded questions on the condition of his knee.

“It was a great feeling to play again and I’m very happy for doing it with a friend like Monaco in a great atmosphere that we had on the court. I’m very grateful for everything that has happened since I arrived.”

“I said the first day in the press conference when I arrived and I’ll say it again. Doctors say (the knee) is okay, in terms of image the tendon is fine, no risk of breaking. Some days it still hurts, and I said that for me the fact of playing is a joy and progression to the right path, towards being one hundred percent” he added.

“I need weeks of tennis in the circuit, the knee is stronger, more comfortable playing at the highest level. I will not talk more about the knee.”

More interestingly, however, the tournament had apparently initially scheduled Nadal’s matches during prime-time in order satisfy the sponsors and, of course, earn back the obscene appearance fee he undoubtedly received. His match was to be played at 22:30, but Nadal refused due to the colder conditions possibly affecting his knee or else leading to other injuries. The two camps allegedly entered into intense meetings until the tournament finally succumbed and were forced to schedule his matches for 6 PM.

It’s understandable in this instance that Rafa would want to ensure that the conditions are perfect for his singles return, but this is also a regular occurrence for him and other players in tennis. It immediately took me back to Lindsay Davenport’s comments during her Sports Illustrated podcast last month. She spoke about how terrible it is, as a former player who too benefited from preferential treatment, that the top players hold such power in the scheduling of their matches. Not only would such a thing never happen in other sports (see: MCILROY, Rory), it’s a completely unfair advantage the top players – or rather the top players with influence and power – hold over the rest of the field, amongst countless others.

“The Fed Cup this week is actually dominated by the disappointment of the tennis federation, but also my personal disappointment. Last year Tamira promised help us [...] so Austria can leave the second division. She has denied this with a rather embarrassing excuse again this year – and at the end of the day I have to conclude from this that there is not a great deal of patriotic well-meaning.”

Their anger is understandable, particularly considering it was Leitgeb and Fed Cup captain Jürgen Waber who apparently intervened and sent the ITF a written statement which allowed Paszek to compete at the Olympics despite her patchy Fed Cup record, but still. Ouch.

It’s strange to think that just a few months ago, about the only real coverage or mere mention of doping in tennis came via the long-standing website Tennis Has A Steroid Problem. Though I certainly didn’t agree with everything in it, the site was a must-read because it asked the questions that desperately needed to be asked and discussed what needed to be discussed.

Suddenly, in this unfamiliar post-Armstrong and post-Fuentes world, such questions and discussion on doping have conversely become difficult to avoid. Most recently in the form of an interesting article which touches on an unnamed female Croatian player or resident banned from the tour:

Doctor Luis Garcia del Moral is best known for setting up the doping system for the US Postal cycling team, he also had more than a decade of guiding tennis players at the Spanish TenisVal Academy. A tennis player my former company managed went to train at TenisVal some years ago – breaking her contract to do so. She returned to Croatia leaner, stronger and with notable skin irritations. It came as no surprise that a random drugs test found her to have taken anabolic steroids, amongst other banned drugs. She received a 6 month ban and went back on tour. The governing body of tennis, the ITF, were informed fully of what had happened, yet in the 6 years that have passed nothing has happened.

Naturally, I automatically put on my imaginary detective hat and began perusing t’Internet for Croatian players absent from the tour somewhere around mid-2006 or 2007. The only 2006 year-end top 500 player to fall into this category was actually the one whose name immediately sprung to mind due to the 10 month (initially estimated 6 months) injury break she took in April 2007; everyone’s favourite ball-pummeler (and Marcos Baghdatis’ wife), Karolina Sprem. Still, there is no available information that links Sprem to the TennisVal academy or Moore’s old company, so the player in question could possibly be a non-Croatian national.

Of course, the identity of the player in question is largely irrelevant. What is interesting is that this article touches on a female professional player failing a drugs test, being banned for six months and the ITF being aware of the case. Despite that fact, no Croatian player or resident has been publicly banned in or around this period. It certainly doesn’t appear on their anti-doping page. Who is this player and why hasn’t the ITF released this information?

After nearly five years of chronic back issues, it appears the sad career of 24 year-old Agnes Szavay will likely be coming to an end as she makes the final decision between risky surgery or retirement. So says the Hungarian media:

According to the news Szavay will decide within days: she’ll choose to either continue her career (despite) the risks associated with surgery or a more relaxed and pain-free life. True, for the time being she cannot even imagine what to do with his life without the sport (she has played) since the age of five.

The timeline of Szavay’s career – if her brief cameo on the WTA can even be called such a thing – is borderline depressing. It was 2007 that she broke through on the WTA as a bright 18 year old with huge talent and even huger, flowing swings with a penchant for delicate variety. She announced herself as even a possible slam champion after that meteoric rise from outside of the top 200 in January 2007 to number 20 by year’s end, reaching a slam quarterfinal and capturing one-and-a-half (the half being her retirement to Kuznetsova whilst a set up in the New Haven final) Tier II titles plus a further lower WTA title in the process.

Already by 2008 she was forced to re-work and shorten her service motion due to the emergence of these back issues, robbing her of one of her prime weapons. After continued back pain in the years that followed, it was in 2011 that she broke down in tears whilst explaining to reporters that the vertebral stress fractures in her back had been discovered too late. Since then, her only presence on the WTA has been only a couple of failed comeback attempts – most recently last year between the London Olympics and US Open. The option of surgery has been on the table since 2011 but she was rightfully hesitant and has since attempted just about every other possible avenue of recovery.

Now it seems surgery is the only option. Despite the great loss her presence and beautiful style of tennis is to the WTA, I personally hope she decides to hang up her racket if there is any possibility that the surgery could worsen her back and have repercussions in her regular life. But, hey, my name isn’t Agnes Szavay. We’ll soon see which decision she comes to.

Everyone’s favourite future greatest player of all time-slash-adrenaline junkie has once again been caught up with the law, this time losing his license after speeding whilst on probation. Not sure which is funnier – that it took him barely over a month after being placed on probation to land himself back in trouble; the fact that he made such a big deal over selling his obnoxiously orange BMW, only to replace it with an even more obnoxious yellow Ferrari with a ‘Sincity’ number plate; or else his tear-stained pleas to a reporter upon the arrival of the media: “I represent you guys. I play for this country. Yet you pick on me.” Keep on keepin’ on, Bernie T.