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by Ken Kamlet As one of the WTA Tour’s most unpredictable seasons draws to a close, the top 8 women still standing on reasonably healthy legs began their quest for a season ending Championship in Los Angeles’ STAPLES Center on Wednesday night. The draw is notable both in terms of who is there and those who aren’t. 2003 defending champion Kim Clijsters continues an extended leave from the game due to persistent wrist problems while Justine Henin Hardenne, mostly recently ranked #1 in the world after beginning the 2004 season by winning the Australian Open continues to be sidelined by an energy-sapping virus that has plagued her since May. In addition, American stars Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati both failed to qualify by finishing outside of the top 8 in the standings. 2004 has seen a remarkable emergence and dominance of Russian tennis players … 3 different Russian women won grand slam titles, 7 will finish in the world top 20 rankings for 2004 while 4 have qualified among the top 8 for this championship event. Much to the delight of the WTA Tour organizers, the tournament, which has struggled to find an audience since leaving New York City’s Madison Square Garden in 2000 opened with 8,127 spectators in attendance, a record for an opening session for tennis in this arena. Match 1: Svetlana Kuznetsova def. Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-4. The 2004 WTA Tour Championships began with a snoozer of a match as the rapidly improving Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia outclassed her compatriot opponent, Vera Zvonareva. Zvonareva has much to be happy about; her game and ranking have improved substantially in the past year and in recent weeks she managed to squeak by the much higher profile players Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati to gain a spot in this prestigious event, yet Zvonareva presents herself as one angry young lady. Seemingly coached on nearly every point of the match, Zvonareva invested a lot of energy in inexplicable anger-filled outbursts, ball slams and racquet tosses. Until late in the match, Kuznetsova competed with routine efficiency as she took decided control of the points. However, an impatient crowd anxious for the next match-up (American icon Serena Williams vs. Russian #1 Anastasia Myskina) became increasingly noisy as this spectacularly unspectacular match dragged to its finish. Rattled by loud conversations and distracted fans wandering around in the upper deck of the STAPLES Center, Kuznetsova had trouble closing things out as she made a series of nervous mistakes. Nearly out of the picture, Zvonareva finally put together a few decent rallies, but ultimately didn’t manage to prolong the inevitable very long as Kuznetsova closed things out in straight sets. Kuznetsova remarked that she was not at all surprised to see her opponent stomp off the court in anger as her emotional outbursts have become expected. "I’ve played her since we were fourteen or fifteen years old," she explained, "I know that’s the way she is. I once lost to her because she started crying right in the middle of the match and talking to herself during changeovers. I was up 4-1 in the third set, playing unbelievable. And suddenly Vera starts crying. And I got so distracted that I stopped [playing my best] and I lost 9-7 in the tie-breaker." Later, I spoke with Kuznetsova on behalf of On The Line Tennis Magazine about all of the injuries plaguing the upper ranks of women’s tennis. When I asked the 2004 U.S. Open champion why it is that so many of the top Russian women play more singles and doubles than the rest of the field, yet manage to remain free of major injuries she responded emphatically, "We want to win more. We have more strength and we’re more fit. We practice more and we have stronger minds," adding, "When you pass through all the hard things as we did and make it on the tour without sponsors and little support, you want it more. We had to find different ways to the top. Everybody [all the Russian players] had tough problems to face. Everything was hard. So when you pass through all of this, you get much tougher in your mentality." Kuznetsova also credited previous Russian players, especially Anna Kournikova, for inspiring the current crop of players that they too could be successful on the WTA Tour. Match 2: Serena Williams d. Anastasia Myskina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. While Serena Williams’ dedication to professional tennis has been questioned all season long with her frequent layoffs and increasing time devoted to outside interests (acting, modeling, fashion design, celebrity television appearances, etc.), her commitment to tonight’s encounter with the 2004 French Open champion was indisputable. After a practice session earlier in the afternoon in which Williams looked tense and unsettled, she began tonight’s match unfocused and unable to strike the ball cleanly. While Myskina played well-constructed, technically sound points, Williams’ defensive posture and increasing unforced errors seemed to be leading to yet another in a string of disappointing losses in her abbreviated 2004 season. But down 4-6 and 0-3, Williams dug deep and gave the crowd reason to cheer as she found the resolve to rally 8 consecutive games filled with spectacular winners, mighty overheads and solid serving combined with excellent court coverage as she finally prevailed in a hard fought third set. If Myskina’s level dropped just a bit in the third set, it had as much to do with her consistent troubles in closing out tough matches as it did Serena Williams’ steely nerves under pressure. In post match interviews, Serena Williams was alternatively surly and pleasant, depending on the question and who asked it. She was clearly pleased, however, to have escaped this match and to be finally in excellent physical condition after having had so many injuries in the 2003 and 2004 seasons (included knee surgery that forced her to miss some 8 months of competition). "It’s good because I am not worried about running for some balls and being a little scared and nervous to run," she exuded, "I think it [the injuries] made me slow down a little bit. And now I am picking up my speed." Match 3: Lindsay Davenport d. Elena Dementieva 6-0, 6-1. In the final match of the evening, world #1 Lindsay Davenport seemed to have it all her own way as she raced to a 6-0, 4-1 lead in less than 40 minutes. But a contested call on game point for Dementieva in the fifth game of the 2nd set rattled Davenport and she struggled through an extraordinary service game, playing out an astounding 43 points (including 17 deuces) before finally winning the game. With one more break, she closed the door on a deflated Elena Dementieva, the only player of 2004 to reach 2 grand slam finals (Paris and New York). |