STARS
Kim Clijsters beat Caroline Wozniacki 6-3 5-7 6-3 to win the WTA Championships in Doha, Qatar
Gael Monfils beat Ivan Ljubicic 6-2 5-7 6-1 to win the Open Sud de France in Montpellier, France
Jurgen Melzer beat Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-7 (10) 7-6 (4) 6-4 to win the Bank Austria Tennis Trophy in Vienna, Austria
Mikhail Kukushkin beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-3 7-6 (2) to win the St. Petersburg Open in St. Petersburg, Russia
Sofia Arvidsson beat Pauline Parmentier 6-2 7-6 (4) to win the Internationaux Feminins de la Vienne in Poitiers, France
SAYINGS
“At the moment I’m kind of relieved it’s over. It seemed like it would never end. It was a tough battle. We showed some great tennis and some great fitness. I think we showed the crowd some great women’s tennis tonight.” – Kim Clijsters, after winning her third season-ending WTA Championships.
“I had to step it up, and I did and I had the momentum. I just couldn’t keep it all the way through. You know, you cannot win every match. I’ve made the finals of the Championships and I lost one match today. I’ve had a fantastic week, a fantastic year. I won six tournaments, I’ve beaten so many good players.” – Carolina Wozniacki, who lost to Kim Clijsters in the WTA Championships final.
“I’m happy with the first final, but I was up 7-6 5-3, I served for the match. I had big chances to win this title, but it’s the first time. I was a little bit nervous. Jurgen played good in this moment and I lost.” – Andreas Haider-Maurer, after losing to Jurgen Melzer in Vienna, Austria.
“I am so happy about this title, and it’s even more special because it is in France and in front of my crowd.” – Frenchman Gael Monfils, following his victory in Montpellier, France.
“Four hundred (wins) is special. It’s a lot of matches, a lot of history, but I hope I’m not going to stop here.” – Ivan Ljubicic, who won his 400th career match victory in Montpellier, France.
“It wasn’t a goal I set for myself to hit more than 1,000 aces, but I knew coming into these last three tournaments that I was close and that I was very likely to reach it. It’s pretty neat being the company of these four really good players.” – John Isner, who became the fifth player to hit 1,000 or more aces in a single season.
“It was unbelievable walking out to a standing ovation on a national holiday. It was just a great atmosphere. It’s all been worthwhile, all the practice, and it was a good start. … The main thing is that there’s no pain. I’m fit and I know I can go long matches. … It’s awesome to be back playing.” – Thomas Muster, playing his first ATP Tour-level match since 1999 and losing to fellow Austrian Andreas Haider-Mauer in Vienna, Austria
“To have the opportunity to play Pete at Madison Square Garden is thrilling. Playing in front of the New York fans has always been exciting and I’m sure Pete and I will give them something to cheer about.” – Andre Agassi, on an upcoming exhibition he will play against Pete Sampras in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
SOARING
Kim Clijsters crowned one of her best seasons by winning her third WTA Championships singles title, defeating top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki 6-3 5-7 6-3 in the final. With her 40th career tournament title, Clijsters becomes only the fifth player in WTA history to win the season-ending event three of more times. Martina Navratilova won the tournament eight times, Steffi Graf five, Chris Evert four and Monica Seles three. In 2010, Clijsters won five tournaments, including her third US Open. Against Wozniacki, the Belgian mother jumped out to a 6-3 4-1 lead before her Danish opponent won seven of the next eight games, including breaking serve to begin the third set. After that, it was all Clijsters. “This may be disappointing for Caroline, but she has a great future,” said Clijsters, who during the week became the eighth player to surpass the USD $20 million career prize money mark.
It wasn’t all fun and games for Clijsters during his stay in Doha, Qatar. She escaped injury when the official car taking her to her WTA Championships semifinal match was hit by a truck that “came out of nowhere,” she said. “There was a lot of glass.” Despite the accident, Clijsters went on to defeat Samantha Stosur.
Clijsters, who left the women’s tennis tour to get married and have a daughter, said she plans on retiring from tennis again following the London Olympics in 2012 and having a second child. She told the Guardian newspaper of London that she owns a tennis club in Belgium. “We’re going through the process of rebuilding it, so when I retire from tennis that’s something that will interest me very much,” she said.
STANDING ON TOP
Despite losing in the WTA Championships final, Caroline Wozniacki finishes the year as the WTA’s top-ranked player. The 20-year-old Dane sealed the year-end number one ranking by beating Italian Francesca Schiavone in the season-ending tournament. “I’m only the 10th one to finish the year as number one, so I’m really proud of what I’ve achieved,” she said. Wozniacki won six titles this season and took over the number one ranking in October after reaching the quarterfinals of the China Open.
SET TO LEAD
Four-time Grand Slam tournament champion Jim Courier has taken over as captain of the United States Davis Cup team, replacing Patrick McEnroe. “I’ve always known, once I got a taste of playing Davis Cup, if I were given an opportunity to be the captain I would certainly want to take it,” Courier said. McEnroe served as captain for 10 years and led the US to the Davis Cup title in 2007.
STARRING
Gisela Dulko of Argentina and Flavia Pennetta of Italy finished the season as the number one-ranked doubles team in the world for the first time. The duo captured six titles this season, including the season-ending WTA Championships. During the season the two won 17 consecutive matches, the WTA’s longest streak since March 2007. They reached the semifinals at Wimbledon and the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and the US Open.
SURPRISE
Mikhail Kukushkin was the surprise winner when he captured his first career title by upsetting top-seeded Mikhail Youzhny 6-3 7-6 (2) at the St. Petersburg Open in St. Petersburg, Russia. The winner’s previous best result came in Moscow last year when he reached the semifinals. Ranked 88th in the world, Kukushkin grabbed a 6-2 lead in the second-set tie-break, and then won the title on his first match point. “I won because I was running for every ball and played solid tennis,” Kukushkin said.
SAYONARA
Elena Dementieva announced her retirement after 13 years on the WTA tour. The Russian won the Beijing Olympics singles gold medal in 2008 and 16 WTA singles titles. Twice she reached the final of a Grand Slam tournament, only to lose to a fellow Russians – Anastasia Myskina at the 2004 Roland Garros and Svetlana Kuznetsova at the 2004 US Open. She won two tournaments this year, the Medibank International in Sydney, Australia, and the Open GDF Suez in Paris, France. Dementieva has been ranked inside the Top 20 for almost eight consecutive seasons and reached a career-high singles ranking of number three in the world. She also was ranked in the top five in doubles. She won a silver medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and represented Russia in 18 Fed Cup ties, leading the team to the title over France in 2005.
SWISH
John Isner has joined an illustrious group. The American slammed 12 aces in his three-set loss to Frenchman Gael Monfils in Montpellier, France, bringing his total number of aces for the season to 1,011. Isner joins Goran Ivanisevic, Ivo Karlovic, Pete Sampras and Andy Roddick as the only players to hit 1,000 or more aces in a single season. The record is 1,477 aces hit by Ivanisevic in 1996. Isner slammed more than 100 of his aces in his record-breaking match at Wimbledon against Nicholas Mahut.
SUPER SUPPORT
Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian will pay former pro tennis player Lisa Bonder more than USD $10 million in back child support plus USD $100,000 a month for a child Bonder has admitted was not Kerkorian’s biological daughter. Bonder was married briefly to the casino mogul after a long relationship. She acknowledged during a child support battle that she had faked a DNA paternity test by using saliva she obtained from Kerkorian’s adult daughter. She said the biological father actually was Hollywood movie producer Stephen Bing. Kerkorian, 93, has had joint custody of the girl, who lives with her mother. Bonder, 45, was married to Kerkorian for 28 days in 1999. Once the majority shareholder of what is now MGM Resorts International, Kerkorian is the legal father of the child because the couple married.
SAYS PAY UP
India’s Supreme Court has ruled that Mahesh Bhupathi must pay taxes on money the player claims he gave his father for tennis tips before turning pro in 1995. Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar took less than five minutes to toss out Bhupathi’s appeal against an earlier verdict. The justices also refused to remove the stinging observation made by the Karnataka High Court that the agreement for payment by the son to the father was a sham transaction.
SECOND PLACE
Vera Zvonareva is the fifth Russian to be ranked in the top two in women’s tennis as she supplanted Serena Williams behind top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki. The 26-year-old Zvonareva joins Anastasia Myskina, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina as the Russian players who have been ranked in the top two spots on the WTA Tour. Sharapova and Safina are the only Russians to be ranked number one.
SAYS NOT FOR PROFIT
Australian tennis star Lleyton Hewitt says he wasn’t trying to profit from his newborn baby when he encouraged fans to pay for a text service revealing the child’s name. The 29-year-old Hewitt instead blamed the media for putting a “spin on reality” by criticizing his use of the Text A Star service to announce the name. “Some sections of the media have, as usual, found it opportune to place some spin on reality by suggesting we have taken this approach just to make money,” Hewitt wrote on his website. “Certain media people believe that (they) are the only ones who should have an exclusive. In this instance, we made a decision that my fans deserve to know first and the general public second.” Text A Star charges subscribers $2 (Australian) per text to receive two messages a week from their favorite sports stars. It is not known how much Hewitt would make from the venture.
STOSUR HONORED
Samantha Stosur has won the Diamond ACES Award for the 2010 season. The ACES Award is given to the player who consistently goes above and beyond to promote the sport of women’s tennis to fans, media, and local communities by performing off-court promotional and charitable activities. “Sam is not only one of the world’s best athletes, she is extremely aware of the opportunity of giving back to women’s tennis and connecting the sport with media and sponsors,” WTA CEO Stacey Allaster said. The ACES award was first introduced in 1995 in memory of former Tour CEO Jerry Diamond. Since then, 10 players have won the award: Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Gabriela Sabatini, Amanda Coetzer, Lindsay Davenport, Martina Hingis, Anastasia Myskina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic, Elena Dementieva and Stosur.
SHARED PERFORMANCES
Doha: Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta beat Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik 7-5 6-4
Montpellier: Stephen Huss and Ross Hutchins beat Marc Lopez and Eduardo Schwank 6-2 4-6 10-7 (match tiebreak)
Poitiers: Lucie Hradecka and Renata Voracova beat Akgul Amanmuradova and Kristina Barrois 6-7 (5) 6-2 10-5 (match tiebreak)
St. Petersburg: Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace beat Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 7-6 (6) 7-6 (5)
Vienna: Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic beat Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 7-5 3-6 10-5 (match tiebreak)
SITES TO SURF
Valencia: www.valenciaopen500.com/
Basel: www.davidoffswissindoors.ch/
Bali: www.commbanktennis.com/
Taipei: www.taipeiarena.com.tw/
Paris: www.fft.fr/bnpparibasmasters/2010/
Ortisei: www.itfvalgardena.com
Phoenix: www.goldwaterwomensclassic.org/
Sydney: www.thechampionsdownunder.com.au/
TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK
(All money in USD)
ATP
$1,900,000 Valencia Open 500, Valencia, Spain, hard
$1,707,000 Swiss Indoors, Basel, Switzerland, hard
$125,000 Challenger Astana President’s Cup, Astana, Kazakhstan, hard
WTA
$600,000 Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions, Bali, Indonesia
$100,000 Taipei Ladies Open, Taipei, Taiwan, carpet
SENIOR
The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman Legends Championships, Grand Cayman
TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK
MEN
$3,075,000 BNP Paribas Masters, Paris, France, hard
$88,000 Val Gardena – Sudtirol, Ortisei, Italy, hard
WOMEN
$75,000 Goldwater Tennis Classic, Phoenix, Arizona, USA, hard
SENIOR
The Champions Downunder, Sydney, Australia, hard