A Preview of the 2015 WTA season

We’ve come to the end of the first week in 2015 and already the tennis season is in full swing and the first tournaments decided!  It is the perfect opportunity to preview the upcoming season on the WTA tour and predict the players who will be the contenders for the majors and premier tournaments.

Serena Williams

Serena Williams didn’t have as good a season as she did in 2012 and 2013 when she was winning virtually every tournament she entered from May 2012 onwards.  Serena was still the undisputed world number 1 and won eight tournaments but suffered unusual losses throughout the course of the season at the Australian Open against Ana Ivanovic, the 2nd round of the French Open to Garbine Muguruza and Wimbledon to Alize Cornet in the 3rd round. 

However, Serena won her 18th major at the US Open easily defeating Caroline Wozniacki and received a special presentation by Chris Evert and |Martina Navratilova.  Serena also won Miami for the seventh time defended her titles in Rome and the WTA championships where she beat Simona Halep in straight sets 6:3 6:0

Serena’s serve is still devastating but I don’t think her movement is quite as good as it was in 2012 and 2013 when her return of serve was incredible.  Her number 1 ranking is under threat if she were to go out early in upcoming tournaments and either Halep, Sharapova or Kvitova take advantage.  However, other than age catching up with her, I don’t see any player having the skill or power to take the number 1 position just yet.

Maria Sharapova

It is fair to say Maria had an up and down season in 2014.  Maria regained the French open title but only reached the fourth round of the other three grand slam tournaments.  Maria also battled again with injury problems, so you can describe her season as a bit of a roller coaster. 

Besides the French Open, Maria also had big wins in Stuttgart, Madrid and Beijing but was unable to get out of the group stages of the WTA championships in Singapore after the most bizarre match against Agnieszka Radwanska. 

As for 2015, Maria is such a fighter she has to be a contender for every tournament she enters.  No one would have thought a few years ago that Maria would become a much bigger factor on clay than she is on grass.  I can safely say I have never seen this type of mid-career transition by any player since I have been watching tennis. 

If Maria can avoid Serena Williams, she has every chance to win big tournaments and a major in 2015.  Although, it should be said that the public would prefer Maria to win a big tournament by beating Serena.  It would do her confidence the world of good and it will also be good for womens tennis. 

Simona Halep

Simona Halep had a very solid season in 2014 closing out the year at number 3 in the rankings. 

Simona closed out 2013 strongly winning titles in Moscow at the Kremlin cup and then the tour of champions in Sofia defeating Sam Stosur in three sets.  And then started 2014 equally strongly, winning the Qatar Open in Doha and subsequently getting to the finals of Madrid and the French Open in the spring running Maria Sharapova extremely close in both matches.  Simona also got to the semifinal of Wimbledon and won the Bucharest Open in July beating Roberta Vinci then fell away in the summer and autumn but recovered to reach the final of the WTA championships losing to Serena Williams. 

A coaching change has been made in her camp after dismissing Belgian Wim Fissette in November and it appears Thomas Hogstedt is helping her through the Australian season.

For me it is difficult to predict how Simona will fare throughout 2015.  She could go on to claim her first major but will need a bit of luck and up her risk taking.    Speaking of which, I find Simona’s comments about referring to herself as an aggressive baseliner as curious.  And could be symptomatic of how tennis has changed in the last five to seven years.  Simona claims to model herself on Justine Henin and Henin has made complimentary remarks about Simona.  However, I have seen Justine play many times over the years at both the French Open, Wimbledon and WTA championships in Madrid and I really don’t see many similarities at all. 

I recall an interview before the 2006 Wimbledon final against Amelie Mauresmo, Henin stated she doesn’t want to play long rallies and keep points fairly short.  Henin went for a lot in her matches; always played an aggressive return game including the occasional chip and charge, went for winners off both wings and had a great net game with variation.  Henin was also a great defender and employed the slice backhand as well as topspin.  A key difference here as well is that Henin was willing to make quite a few unforced errors in matches to create pressure, as long she hit more winners than unforced errors she would win. 

So frankly I do not see Simona playing anything like this type of tennis.  I’ve noticed Simona is not a player who ventures to the net; I think this is one of the areas that could prevent her from being a major winner or even a multiple major winner unless she is prepared to add more to her game in terms of tactics and taking risks. 

Petra Kvitova

Petra Kvitova has so far proved to be the great enigma of womens tennis.  I say that because she continues to experience incredible highs and pretty bad lows, in other words not consistent.  Petra’s highs included her second Wimbledon title where she destroyed Eugenie Bouchard and defended the Federation cup title against Germany after a pulsating final in Prague. 

However, other than Wimbledon, Petra lost in the 1st round of the Australian Open, and the 3rd round at both the French and US Open.  Towards the end of the season, Petra won the inaugural tournament in Wuhan again beating Bouchard but failed to get out of the group stages of the WTA championships.

I first saw Petra play in the final of the Eastbourne championships against Marion Bartoli in 2011.  Even though she lost the final that day, I went away convinced she would win Wimbledon.  Sadly (or happily) I am not a betting man so didn’t put any money on it.  Petra is now leaner and fitter and has worked hard on her movement since 2011 and has stated publicly she wants to become the number 1 player in the world.  I see no reason why that goal cannot be achieved in future or indeed in 2015.  However, to get to number 1 and more importantly stay there, Petra has to start performing much better in the premier tournaments such as Indian Wells, Miami, Rome and Cincinnati etc. and of course pick up quality points during the clay season. 

Tough ask but let’s see how she gets on in 2015.

Eugenie Bouchard

Eugenie Bouchard had a breakout season in 2014, getting to the semifinals of the Australian and French Open and then reaching the final of Wimbledon.  Therefore, a really good first half of 2014.

However, the final of Wimbledon proved a step too far at this stage of Eugenie’s career and she lost heavily to one of Petra Kvitova’s best ever performances in a final of a grand slam tournament.  Not surprisingly Eugenie’s hardcourt season sort of unravelled after that episode and suffered bad losses in Canada and Cincinnati against Svetlana Kuznetsova before losing to Ekaterina Makarova at the US Open.  Eugenie did recover to get to the final of the Wuhan Open but got “hammered” once again by Petra Kvitova who has certainly taken a liking to Eugenie’s game.  In her first appearance at the WTA championships in Singapore, Eugenie failed to get out of the group stages of the event but faced a tough group in Serena, Halep and Ana Ivanovic.  Eugenie parted ways with coach Nick Saviano at the end of the season and is assessing her options for a new coach in 2015.

The Wimbledon final and subsequent performances I felt showed up a few things Eugenie needs to work on for the upcoming season.  I was very surprised that the media over here in England seemed to make her the favourite for the Wimbledon final despite having no previous experience.  That’s fair enough, but having an army of fans doesn’t make a player a good bet for the win.  What Petra exposed was Eugenie’s lack of mobility and her habit of getting stuck in one position to hit the ball, her footwork is not very crisp which affects her timing badly when she is under pressure.  I am told she was carrying injuries during the second half of the season which could explain this but I will keep an eye on that in 2015.  Eugenie also needs to work on her serve which is adequate but not good enough yet to win major tournaments.

In her second season in the top 10 it will be interesting to see how Eugenie copes with pressure and expectation. 

A brief look at the other players who make up the top 10.

Ana Ivanovic

Ana had her best year since 2008 and made it to the end of year championships in Singapore.  Ana won four titles in Auckland, Monterrey, Birmingham and Tokyo and runner ups in Stuttgart and Cincinnati.  Ana is yet to make a real impression at the majors again and her game still has a lot of technical holes including a relatively poor ball toss which affects serve consistency.  Ana can also rush and play too fast which is slightly surprising at this stage of her career.  I am not convinced she is a legitimate major contender in 2015.

Agnieszka Radwanska

Aga is fast becoming the forgotten woman of the top 5, she is kind of there without grabbing the public’s attention.  Her solid game with good variety if somewhat unspectacular has not proved a winning formula at the majors.  Aga’s sole victory in 2014 came in Canada at the Rogers cup where she defeated Venus Williams.  I first saw Aga play live in 2008 in the Eastbourne final when she defeated Nadia Petrova and she has actually lost weight since then which makes no sense to me.  Aga is now working with a “super coach” in Martina Navratilova, I look on with interest to see how Martina is going to make the difference.

Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline came out of nowhere in 2014 to re-establish herself in the top 10 when it looked as though her career was going south rather quickly.  In fact, after the very public split with Rory McIlroy, it seemed to do both of them good as both had strong career revivals.  Rory won the majors and Caroline got to the final of the US Open but didn’t provide strong resistance for Serena Williams.

In fact, Caroline’s defeat at the Open summed up the state of womens tennis in many ways; too many players who play the same, no real weapons, no variety and no plan B, making it rather easy for Serena when she is 100% focused.  Caroline won a title in Turkey but for 2015 will need to play a more aggressive game to have any chance of being successful.

Angelique Kerber

Angelique had another solid season but her problem is finals, she gets to finals but keeps losing them!  She lost in Dubai to Simona Halep then in Eastbourne to Madison Keys, a final I attended.  In fact, it is the second great final she played there but came up short.  Angelique reached four finals in 2014 but lost all of them. 

 

Not sure what 2015 holds but I am convinced if Angelique had a stronger serve she is capable of being a major winner.  I have interviewed her twice and I like her game; improving her serve and her 2nd serve in particular in my opinion has to be her top priority.

Ekaterina Makarova

Definitely a surprise package, I don’t think too many fans saw her as a top 10 player a few years ago.  I did see Ekaterina defeat Azarenka in 2010 Eastbourne to win her first title and her lefty serve will always give opponents problems.  Ekaterina became known more as a doubles specialist wining US Open doubles in 2014 and French Open in 2013 with Elena Vesnina.  However, in 2014 Ekaterina won Pattaya in Thailand and reached the quarterfinal of Wimbledon and the semfinal of the US Open.

Perhaps Ekaterina could transition from being a successful doubles player to a successful singles player in the way Sam Stosur has.

Other players

Victoria Azarenka

Former world number 1 Victoria is the forgotten player of the womens game.  Sadly injuries have wrecked Victoria’s progress in 2014. Victoria plays such a grinding game that this scenario was always a possibility.  We’ve seen this in the mens game a lot where the grinders suffer the worst and most long term injuries.  Victoria may have to find another way of playing tennis if she wants to have a long career.  In other words, find ways to shorten the points consistently.

Madison Keys

Winner of Eastbourne 2014 for her first title, the Americans have high hopes for Madison Keys.  Having seen the match live I was very impressed with her serve and ability to go for big shots under pressure.  Both are good signs of a potential major champion.  In fact, Madison hit aces on the line when break point down, you don’t see that often in womens tennis!  Madison just needs to concentrate on her movement and consistency of shot.  Madison is working with Lindsay Davenport which to me appears an excellent choice given their similarities of game style. 

Participation, participation, participation! By John Cavill

Tennis Works

We now have a new focus for British Tennis…Participation! Although I laugh when making that statement as it seems obvious that this is something a governing body should be doing but it is a serious direction that I believe should be the number one on the tennis agenda.

Over the 14 years that I have been developing the coaching element of Tennis Works, my focus has been on getting as many people as possible to try the game and give them opportunities to continue playing. I established a Charity called MK Ace, which allowed us to get funding to help cover the large costs of hiring public facilities, staff, marketing etc and make tennis very affordable for all. The network I created in and around my town in Milton Keynes, Bucks, was huge and the operation had over 18 venues, 12 coaches, 20 schools and 1000 people a week playing tennis.

Then…we hit a recession! Funding dried up, the Schools Sports Partnership network lost its budget to provide coaches into schools during curriculum time and the whole operation shrank as the increase in costs to the customers prohibit them from playing and companies were not dishing out the sponsorship money due to tough times.

I live and learn that you can’t build a house on sand and when your model is funding / sponsorship reliant, then at any point the wind can change and you have to act accordingly. I also felt a passion to take tennis to the masses and not only offer it to wealthier people who could afford the high prices. I hope this article can highlight the importance of solid exit routes to retain players, which is where I believe that Tennis Clubs are the jewels of British Tennis.

A Tennis Club should be more than just a place to play tennis but a welcoming hub of activity that has something for everyone. A good coach / coaching team and forward thinking committee are essential. While working in public access facilities, my operation was relatively simple as I would pay for the court or hall usage and get the numbers in. In a club there is a lot of politics, committee meetings, demands from members and other duties which if you cost out the time, is very expensive. The important thing about being at a club is what you can offer people that they can’t get at a public facility and these things are essential to keeping people playing. I have listed a few below:

• ·         Good court surfaces (no broken nets, hedges growing through the fences, glass on the courts etc)
• ·         Floodlights – More courts available under lights
• ·         Facilities – Changing, toilets, kitchen, lounge area all near the courts
• ·         Court access – as a member you can use the courts whenever you wish, where as in a public facility you have to hire the courts on an hourly basis or share the facility with other sports which is more expensive when you play regularly
• ·         Community – Clubs have a community of players for socialising and getting different people together e.g. club nights etc
• ·         Coaching – Usually more flexible when a coach can teach people within a club especially if a public facility is shared with a school so it can’t be accessed during the day

With participation falling over the years and tennis clubs recording lower memberships, there is a lot of support that the governing body should be giving the clubs…after all, they pay the governing body every year for affiliation fees, so they should be getting support for this. 

So what could the governing body do to help support clubs? Here are three elements that would definitely help my business which is now ran at a club:

• ·         Representatives to support
• ·         Resources
• ·         Funding

Like I mentioned, my business started and flourished from using Public facilities but in order to keep people playing the game, people need to filter from these facilities into a club. More work is needed on setting up Public facility programmes, supporting the costs of delivery and making sure every person is given the opportunity to play in the local club. I know of public programmes in my area that have no club links and there is only so far someone can go in a public facility, so I feel strongly that all the hard work getting these people playing will be wasted long term. Also, in order for the clubs to thrive and continue to support the affiliation fees, they need new members coming in. 

You are not allowed to charge the children directly for coaching in curriculum time and school budgets are sometimes restricted, it would be great if there was a bursary that coaches could apply for to send them into schools during the day. From my experience, this will increase participation massively.

As clubs and coaches we shouldn’t rely on the governing body but be able to stand on our own two feet. The governing body should be the centre pin between all the clubs and initiatives, ensuring that clubs are regularly communicated to and offered support. I haven’t my development officer for well over a year and that may be because they don’t think we need the help, but to ensure that everything in an area is coordinated well, these officers should be in regular contact.

In recent years, with the focus on Performance Tennis, I feel has done tennis no favours. It’s simple…more people playing, more chance of people going on to play to a higher level. Hopefully the new era in British Tennis will be one that will save our sport and bring many people enjoyment.

John Cavill runs Tennis Works, a tennis developmental and resource company.  For more information check out http://www.tennisworks.net/

Flashback to 2005 WTA Championships

Amelie Mauresmo and Mary Pierce

Laurie’s Tennis Articles continues to look at previous championships of the new millennium and this week looks at the 2005 edition in Staples centre Los Angeles.

The 2005 WTA championships was the final edition to be held at the Staples centre after a four year stint.  Unlike Madison Square Garden which was seen as a successful period for the championships; the problem with the Staples centre was not only was the stadium extremely vast, the court appeared at best medium slow.  In today’s tennis a slow indoor court is not an issue but in the early 2000s it seemed strange to hold such a prestigious event on a court where the ball was not really coming through quickly.  However, with the Americans dominating the WTA tour at the majors, it was sensible to hold the event where big crowds would be guaranteed.  Even so, Venus Williams missed three of the four editions; Serena Williams didn’t qualify in 2003 and was injured in 2005.  Lindsay Davenport failed to win there and Jennifer Capriati made the semifinal in 2003 but lost to Clijsters.  In fact, in the early 2000s it was very much the Europeans vs the Americans, with Hingis, Henin, Clijsters, Mauresmo, Dementieva in one corner and Venus, Serena, Capriati, Davenport and Seles in the other. 

By 2005, the Europeans were starting to take over.  In 2004 Russian players won three of the four majors on offer; Henin had four major championships to her name and won the 2005 French Open. Clijsters won her first US Open and dominated the hardcourts in North America winning Indian Wells, Miami, Stanford, Los Angeles and Canada.  Meanwhile Mary Pierce was the comeback player of the year making two major finals and won tier 1 titles in San Diego and Moscow.  Amelie Mauresmo was getting closer and closer at Wimbledon; the 2005 WTA championships would be the turning point in Mauresmo’s career and prove the catalyst for major success in 2006. 

The format of the championships had also changed since 2000.  There were now two groups of four in an eight women field with a round robin format, following the ATP Masters event.  The Black group saw Kim Clijsters, Mary Pierce, Amelie Mauresmo and Elena Dementieva.  While the green group contained Lindsay Davenport, Maria Sharapova, Nadia Petrova and Patty Schnyder.  Henin pulled out with a hamstring injury before the event. Venus Williams was an unused alternate and Serena Williams finished the year ranked number 11.

In the black group, Mary Pierce came out like a train against Kim Clijsters, who was clearly taken aback by the constant attack and promptly lost the first set 6:1.  Clijsters re-asserted herself in the second set and was probably seen as the favourite to take the match but Pierce was having none of it and claimed the victory in a third set tiebreak.  Pierce then defeated Dementieva in one of the grudge matches of the year; Dementieva still feeling aggrieved Pierce took a lengthy time out during their US Open semifinal which halted her momentum, even though Dementieva got some revenge in the Fed cup victory in Paris two weeks later.  Mauresmo would also lose to Pierce but got the better of Dementieva and Clijsters in straight sets to finish second in the group behind Pierce.   

In the green group, Davenport and Sharapova were the two big favourites although Petrova and Schnyder gave good accounts of themselves.  Ultimately, neither were going to dislodge Davenport and Sharapova from the semifinal places.  Petrova did beat Sharapova but Sharapova beat Davenport (in three sets) and Schnyder so both Davenport and Sharapova won two out of three matches with Sharapova topping the group thanks to her win over Davenport.

On semifinals day, we had two great match ups on paper in Davenport vs Pierce and Mauresmo vs Sharapova.  Davenport and Pierce played a similar game, a mixture of old school and new school.  New school in the power game and old school in having a strong serve where they didn’t get broken often, trying to cut down on errors and moving forward when the opportunity arose.

Not surprisingly, the match was very close with two tiebreaks and two breaks of serve where Pierce broke early but failed to serve out the first set.  It was a high quality match with quite a few aces from both players (14 from Pierce); Pierce took the match to reach her second WTA final after losing in straight sets to Jana Novotna in 1997; best of five back then!

The second semifinal saw Amelie Mauresmo take on Maria Sharapova.  Their games matched up well.  To this day, I am not sure how to describe Amelie Mauresmo’s game, an interesting mixture of counterpuncher and puncher. A player who was capable of playing the best serve and volley on tour but would spend so much time scurrying around the baseline being sent left and right by her opponents.  Mauresmo seemed to enjoy defence and soaking up pressure.  Sharapova had the groundstrokes but was troubled by Mauresmo’s slices and all court play.

Mauresmo won the match after taking the first set on a tiebreak and racing to a 5:1 lead in the second set, almost blew it but sneaked through 6:4 in the end. 

The final on Sunday afternoon was a special occasion between two French players.  Mary Pierce had beaten Amelie Mauresmo three straight times including in the quarterfinal of the US Open and round robin stage of the championships; but Mauresmo would get revenge in the final.  The beauty of the round robin format is that a player can be beaten in the round robin stage and gain revenge in the final.  In 1994 Becker beat Sampras in the round robin stage and then lost to Sampras in the final.  The same thing happened to Becker in 1996 when Sampras beat him in one of the greatest indoor finals.  In 1999 Agassi beat Sampras easily in the round robin and then was soundly beaten in the final.  Just a few weeks ago, Halep gave Serena a hiding in the round robin only to get a taste of her own medicine by Serena in the final.

Mauresmo was never going to give Pierce a hiding especially as Mary went into the match as the favourite.  It was a high quality and tensioned filled final; Pierce took a close first set 7:5 after getting a break late on.  The second set saw Mauresmo rush to a quick lead but couldn’t see it through, Pierce broke back and the set went to a tiebreak which Mauresmo took.  The interesting thing was that Pierce who was so in control of her forehand was starting to make strange mistakes, Mauresmo’s hustling and defending seemed to have an effect on Pierce while Mauresmo herself was really going for her shots and backhand in particular. Mauresmo played a strong tiebreak and deserved the set.

In the final set, Mauresmo again got an early break but was pegged back to 3:3 but broke late on at 4:4 to serve for the match.  With it about to the biggest win of her career, we knew it wouldn’t be easy and Mauresmo promptly went 0:40 down.  However, Mauresmo found new grit and won the match winning five points in a row. 

We knew Mauresmo had the talent and she finally won a major event.  I recall writing back in December 2005 that with Mauresmo winning the tour championships, it will be the platform to win a major tournament the next season, of course she went on to win two.  I based that view on Jana Novotna who won the Masters in 1997 and went on to win Wimbledon in 1998.  The victim in 1997 was also Mary Pierce.  You have to feel for Mary who took defeat with amazing grace but 2005 saw her lose the French Open, US Open and tour finals. 

The final capped another great year for womens tennis; with Venus’ amazing win at Wimbledon and Clijsters’ dominance on hardcourts, the WTA final capped it off nicely.