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VENUS WILLIAMS WINS BNP PARIBAS SHOWDOWN AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN

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NEW YORK – Venus Williams won the title at the BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup exhibition tennis series Monday at Madison Square Garden, defeating Kim Cljisters 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in the final.

Williams won $400,000 for winning the one-night, four-player event that featured players who won the previous year’s major titles or ranked No. 1 in the world.

Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters
Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters

Williams, the former world No. 1 and the five-time Wimbledon champion, defeated French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4 in the one-set, no-ad scoring semifinal match earlier in the evening. Clijsters, the 2009 US Open champion, saved a match point in defeating former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic 7-6 (7-2) in the other semifinal. Ivanovic substituted for defending champion Serena Williams, the 2009 Australian Open and Wimbledon champion, who withdrew due to a leg injury.

Cljisters earned $300,000 for the runner-up showing. Losing semifinalists Ivanovic and Kuznetsova earned $250,000 each.

A healthy crowd of approximately 10,000 fans attended the event, but attendance waned at the later stages of the night, that concluded at approximately 11:30 am.

The event is in its second year after Serena Williams defeated Venus in last year’s final, with Jelena Jankovic and Ivanovic being the other two participants in the 2009 debut year.

Jerry Solomon of StarGames, Inc., organizers of the events, said that he hopes the event can be transformed into a two-day event featuring all four winners of the major titles for men and women, with two men’s and two women’s semifinals being played on one day and the finals being played on a second day. John McEnroe, during the ESPN2 telecast of the final, also promoted that a multi-day event featuring the four men’s and women’s winners of all four majors would be a great stage for tennis. McEnroe noted a similar event for men that he played in the late 1970s, early 1980s called the Pepsi Grand Slam. The International Tennis Federation ran an event called the Grand Slam Cup from 1990 to 1999 that featured the 16 men who fared the best over the Grand Slam tournaments over a calendar year. A women’s Grand Slam Cup was held in 1998 and 1999.

IVAN LENDL TO PLAY FIRST EXHIBITION IN 16 YEARS IN ATLANTIC CITY: THIS WEEK IN TENNIS BUSINESS

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By Justin Cohen

  • After an absence of nearly 16 years, Ivan Lendl is returning to competitive tennis. The three-time U.S. Open champion will face one of the biggest rivals from the 1980s, Mats Wilander, in the inaugural Caesars Tennis Classic on April 10 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. The event will also feature Andy Roddick and Marat Safin. “We’re happy to have a great group of guys,” said Jerry Solomon, President of StarGames, the sports marketing company putting on the event. “To have four guys coming in who have all won the U.S. Open is a unique situation for the event. There is a lot of great tradition and history coming together here.”Said Lendl, “It’s obvious as you get older a new generation has not seen you play. I don’t think anyone should hold any illusions that Marat Safin and Andy Roddick will play like us. But make no mistake, neither one of us wants to lose.” Lendl has not played competitive tennis since losing to Bernd Karbacher 6-4, 7-6 (4), 1-0, ret., in the second round of the 1994 U.S. Open. The winner of three U.S. Opens, three French Open and two Australian titles was forced to retire due to a back injury that also prevented him from playing even recreational tennis for many years following his departure from the ATP circuit.
  • A record 653,860 fans attended the 2010 Australian Open, passing the previous record Down Under from 2008 by nearly 50,000 fans. The highest ever day/night session occurred on Saturday, January 23, which attracted 77,043 fans. The first major of the year still trails the U.S. Open in total attendance. The U.S. Tennis Association announced last September that it set a new attendance record with 721,059 total spectators. The most fans on site during one day at the U.S. Open was 61,554 for the combined day and night sessions on the first Friday.
  • More than half a million dollars were raised during the “Hit for Haiti” charity match, held the day before the start of the 2010 Australian Open on Rod Laver Arena. Overall donations from the fundraiser reached nearly $700,000 and included contributions from the ATP World Tour, Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, International Tennis Federation and the Grand Slam Committee.
  • Prior to the 2010 Australian Open men’s final, 9.38 million unique visitors viewed the official tournament website – www.AustralianOpen.org. The most popular players on the website were Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Serena Williams, Justine Henin and Maria Kirilenko.
  • USTA Serves, which is the philanthropic and charitable entity of the USTA, announced that under its “Ace for Kids” program, 24 year-end grants have been awarded for a total of $297,325. USTA Serves annually awards grants to programs that successfully combine tennis and education, while helping children pursue their goals and dreams of succeeding in the classroom and as model citizens. “These programs are impacting the future of thousands of children, helping them to develop a healthy mentality and vital life skills that they will carry into adulthood,” said Karen Martin-Eliezer, the Chief Executive of USTA Serves. “We are grateful for the generous support of the many corporations and individual donors that empower USTA Serves to distribute these life-changing funds.”
  • Defending champion Sam Querrey has signed on to participate in the 2010 LA Tennis Open presented by Farmers Insurance Group, which will be held July 26 to August 1 on the campus of UCLA. Querrey, who will look to be the first player to defend his title in Los Angeles since Andre Agassi, will be joined in the field by Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro.
  • Via Twitter, Kim Clijsters announced that she will participate in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event in Montreal this summer.
  • Former SAP Open champion Lleyton Hewitt has pulled out of the upcoming tournament after recently undergoing hip surgery. Hewitt had the surgery last Thursday following his fourth round loss to Roger Federer at the Australian Open. The former World No. 1 is hoping to be back on tour by the start of the French Open in May. The SAP Open starts next Monday, February 8 with Andy Roddick heading the field.
  • Former World No. 1 and five-time Grand Slam singles champion Martina Hingis has committed to a full-season of this summer’s World Team Tennis. Hingis will learn which team she will play for during the upcoming WTT draft.
  • Svetlana Kuznetsova has put aside her past conflicts with Russian Fed Cup Captain Shamil Tarpishchev and will participate in this weekend’s Fed Cup tie against Serbia. Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic is still in doubt for the tie due to a back injury she suffered while practicing a new service motion.  “I haven’t come to Belgrade yet, and I’m still in Florida, where I’m fighting with back injury received in Melbourne,” said Jankovic. “I didn’t want to make a fuss about the injury, which I thought would go away after all those therapies I had in Australia and here in the States.”
  • According to reports, Justine Henin’s next tournament will be at Indian Wells in early March. “I just need a few more days to take my decisions and really make a plan and talk with [coach] Carlos [Rodriguez] about that. But that should be the most appropriate option,” Henin said after the Australian Open final.
  • David Nalbandian will return to action in two weeks in Buenos Aires. The former Wimbledon runner-up pulled out of the Australian Open with an abdominal injury.
  • Rafael Nadal’s management team announced that following medical tests after his quarterfinal loss to Andy Murray at the Australian Open, a small tendon tear was found in Nadal’s knee. Nadal will be out of competition for four weeks but can start practicing again in two weeks.
  • Tennis Channel has appointed Lee Schlazer as the Vice President of Distribution, effectively immediately. Schlazer comes to the Tennis Channel from Lifetime Entertainment Services, where he was Vice President of National Accounts and Field Sales for the Western Region. The Calabasas, Calif., resident is a graduate of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.