The women’s qualifying draw in Melbourne this year is littered with former junior stars attempting to achieve the same level of success on the women’s circuit and former stars hoping to reclaim their spot among the game’s elite. 96 players, including 7 Aussies, will kick off the action tomorrow hoping to win 3 matches and snatch one of the 12 main draw spots on offer. Here is a list of some of the women my eyes will be on in the next few days.
19 year old Coco Vandeweghe, currently ranked #115 is the top seed in qualifying. The 6 ft 1 inch American has abundant talent – big serve and booming groundstrokes - but is still to struggling to achieve results on a consistent basis. Vandeweghe won 2 ITF titles in 2010 and reached the quarter-finals of WTA events in San Diego (beating Zvonareva and Dulko) and Tokyo (beating Rezai) but may find her hands full in her very first match against Aiko Nakamura. The 27 year old Japanese has been in the top 50 in 2007 and reached the 3rd round in Melbourne in 2006 & 2007 but is on her way back from injury which saw her sit out 14 months between August 2009 to October 2010.
Two more players to look out for in Vandeweghe’s section are 15 year old Russian Irina Khromacheva, a wild card recipient and 21 year old Sesil Karatantcheva, born in Bulgaria but now playing for Kazakhstan. Tennis fans will remember Karatantcheva from a few years ago when she beat Venus Williams on her way to the quarter-finals of the French Open in 2005 and reached her career-best ranking of #35. In January, 2006, the ITF issued a two-year ban on her after two positive drug tests for nandrolone. While Karatantcheva has claimed she was pregnant at the time of one of the tests, another laboratory carried out a pregnancy test on her urine sample, and it tested negative. Karatantcheva returned in 2008 but has been unable to break back into the big time.
Two former top 30 stars will play each other in a marquee first round match. Germany’s Sabine Lisicki, still only 21 years old, has been to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2009 as she reached #22 in the rankings but an ankle injury last year means she is now down to #156 and will have to win 3 matches just to enter the main draw. Her opponent in round one is 22 year old Michaella Krajicek, once ranked as high as #30 and also a former Wimbledon quarter-finalist but now struggling at #143 after suffering wrist & knee injuries in 2008.
In that same section is 18 year old Kristyna Pliskova, the 2010 Wimbledon junior champion. Pliskova won her first ITF title in May 2010 in Kurume, beating her twin sister Karolina 5–7, 6–2, 6–0 in the final. She won’t have to worry about playing her sister again in qualifying as Karolina, also 18 and the 2010 Australian Open junior champion, is in another section of the draw. One major hurdle in Karolina’s path could be Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld, a former top 15 player and quarterfinalist at the French Open in 2006 but now ranked in the 150’s after dealing with well-documented issues caused by her former coach Font de Mora and the ensuing weight gain.
One billion eyes will firmly be on Sania Mirza. The 24 year old Indian has a 7-6 record in the main draw at Melbourne and is coming back from a career-threatening wrist injury. The Indian, seeded 24th, won the Dubai ITF Challenger in December beating 3 top 100 players including world #40 Julia Georges and will be hoping to continue her good start to the new season.
Two former world #14’s will also battle it out in round one. Russian Elena Bovina has been a quarterfinalist at the US Open in 2002; reached the 4th round in Melbourne and Paris in 2003 and 2005 respectively; and has also scored wins over champions like Henin, Capriati, Davenport, Myskina, Petrova, and Venus Williams. But the 27 year old has struggled since suffering a right shoulder injury in 2005 and a right foot injury in 2007 and has been unable to capture her earlier form. Her opponent in round one is Greece’s Eleni Daniilidou, ranked in the 160’s now following a knee injury in 2008. Daniilidou has been as far as the 4th round in Melbourne (2003), Wimbledon (2002) and the US Open (2004).
The winner of that match could face another veteran – 35 year old Luxembourg native Anne Kremer. The former world #18 is currently ranked #198 and is also a member of the Democratic and Liberal Youth in Luxembourg. She ran for the Democratic Party in the 2009 election to the Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg but finished 15th on the DP list and was thus not elected. Kremer has been to the second round of the tournament proper in Melbourne six times, the last being in 2008 and has moved back up nearly 400 places in 2010 rankings.
Several other talented juniors who are expected to be among the sports headliners are also in the draw. 17 year old Croatian Ajla Tomljanovic has moved nearly 800 places in the last 2 years to her current ranking of #168. 20 year old Dutch girl Arantxa Rus is a former world #1 junior and winner of the 2008 Australian Open junior title but stuck at #139 in the WTA rankings. And both will be hoping to make some nosie Down Under.
Sloane Stephens and Noppawan Lertcheewakarn are in the same section which means only one of them can possibly qualify for the main draw. Stephens, a 17 year old African American is ranked #201 (also up 800 spots in the last 24 months), has won the last 3 Grand Slam Girls doubles titles. She also qualified for Indian Wells in March 2010, where she defeated Lucie Hradecká in the first round and then lost a closely contested match against the defending champion Vera Zvonareva. Lertcheewakarn is 19 years old and amongst Asia’s brightest hopes, being a former world #1 junior and winner of the Wimbledon junior title in 2009. She also qualified for the WTA event in Auckland last week.
Urszula Radwanska, sister of current world #14 Agnieska, is also a former top-ranked junior and winner of the 2007 Wimbledon girls' singles title. Now at the age of 20, Radwanska is ranked #193, down from #62 in August 2009 after undergoing a spine surgery in early 2010. She returned to action in August and won an ITF title in October and reached another ITF final in November. In the same section is 18 year old Brit, Heather Watson. Currently ranked a career high #142, Watson is now the youngest member of the top 150 after reaching her first WTA quarterfinal in Auckland last week. The Brit has won one major title at the 2009 US Open Juniors. Her game is often likened to Martina Hingis and she has been praised by Nick Bollettieri for her "Amazing footwork.” According to Nigel Sears, head of women's coaching at the Lawn Tennis Association, Watson possesses "a complete game", with a massive amount of variety including the consistent use of a one-handed backhand slice, volleys and angles.
So there you have it. The action gets underway tomorrow in Melbourne. For 12 of the 96 women, this could be the start of something big. The rest will have to wait another year for their moment in the scorching Melbourne sun.
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Hi Haresh, I found the link to your blog in your post on WTA World. It's always great to read analyses by people who are actually familiar with players outside the top 100... Also, it seems you are from my city (Bombay), and it's rare to find people here who follow challenger-level tennis! My own interest in following tennis at all levels stems from the dearth of Indian players on the ATP and WTA circuits.
ReplyDeleteComing to your post, as someone else has already commented on WTA World, I would add Zarina Diyas to the list. I think 2011 will be the little Kazakh's year :)
Thanks for the good read!
Daniel