WTA Tour/Non-India Fed Cup

[Atithee]

PKB, to be fair, you did not say GS, but you did say top-10 and a slam contender. The use of GS came later by others responding to the argument. Accordingly, my original response was indeed targeted at only your conjecture. I know you are very precise about what you post and I like that.

[kujo]

Hey atithee,

what happened to R.I.P?

[Atithee]

It became RRIP -- Really Rest in Peace

I wasn't discussing the topic further -- I just wanted to respond to PKB (and compliment him for his carefully constructed posts).

[prasen9]

I didn't say Grand Slam, of course! I think (given my reputation as the resident optimist here) people tend to take my nuanced sentences and assume I am saying more than I am...

Happy to let this topic die here.

Which means I should do my best to revive it

Why do people say Grand Slam event anyway? Grand Slam means all four tournaments. So, each tournament is a Slam. So, we should say <if-statement> THEN Sania would have slammed.

Btw, how did the phrase "Grand Slam" jump from bridge to tennis, baseball, etc.?

I hope in my lifetime some Indian player slams it though. Which sort of is about 35 years under expected circumstances ...

[arjun2761]

I think colloquially many refer to winning a slam (as a short for a Grand Slam event) as winning one of the 4 tournaments that make up a grand slam. Technically, agree that a grand slam refers to winning all 4 events in 1 year.

[vishalg]

Former British no. 1 Elena Baltacha passed away at the age of 30. Quite shocking, came to know about it by sania's tweet

[PKBasu]

Absolutely sublime tennis in the singles semifinal at the WTA year-end championships in Singapore today between Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki. Serena was very gracious in saying afterwards that Caroline deserved to win -- given that she was the only unbeaten player in the tournament until today.

Wozniacki completely dominated the first set -- so much so that Serena smashed her racquet in frustration after the seventh game. But as I was saying to my wife, Serena needs only a chink (one break of her opponent's serve) and she will drive right through. Which is what happened, as soon as Caroline was down 0-15 in one of her service games, Serena rammed through, broke and the momentum shifted her way. But Wozniacki continued to play some stupendous tennis -- making this the best ladies' singles match I have ever seen. (Although, on TV, one of the Wimbledon finals between the Williams sisters was better).

I will still maintain that Sania's groundstrokes were the best I saw today! But playing singles requires a lot more lateral movement (at pace), which is where Sania wasn't ever in the league of these two women. And of course Serena's serve gives her a huge edge over everybody else: Wozniacki's average serve was only 15-25kph slower than Serena (while Bouchard was 30-50kph slower), but Sania's good service day today put her serve speeds about halfway between the Wozniacki and Bouchard speeds.

[fabshab]

Plzz anyone cud explain me about ranking points addition in women tennis
Means to say which level of prize money tournaments r added the week after n more importantly which r d tournament whose points r added a week after d tournament( like futures in men pro circuit)

[sameerph]

ITF tournaments upto US$25K are updated a week late. All higher level prize money tournaments are updated at the end of same week.

[PKBasu]

I thought Flavia Panetta had retired from the tour immediately after winning the US Open this year (just as Marion Bartoli did after winning Wimbledon a few years ago). But clearly not: she is playing this week in the China Open. Apparently she later clarified that she intends to retire at the end of this season, not bring an abrupt stop to her career immediately after the US Open.

[prasen9]

Sharapova tested positive for a banned substance and is banned provisionally. NYT Article

[prasen9]

We did this on the men's side. What about the women's?

Serena (34) is #1 and Kerber (28) #2. Both slam winners. Then, we have Radwanska (27) at #3, Wimbledon finalist. Maybe she can win one? At #4 is Muguruza (22).

Who are the next greats? Or with potential to be great?

Belinda Bencic is #10 at 18 years. Another 18 year old is Jelena Ostapenko, #37. Also 18 is Ana Konjuh of Croatia is #77.

Catherine Bellis, USA, is 16 and is at #228. Marketa Vondrousova another 16 year old is 394. Jaimee Fourlis of Australia is 16 and at #443.

Any thoughts from those of you who follow closely?

[MaxGlayn]

What happens to tennis superstar after positive Meldonium test?

SINCE Maria Sharapova announced her positive test for the banned substance meldonium, a failure she says was accidental, the fallout has been quick and toxic.

[MaxGlayn]

World number one Serena Williams applauded Maria Sharapova for the way she revealed news of her failed dope test, while playing down fears the doping bombshell would damage tennis.

Williams, speaking in New York where she is due to play Caroline Wozniacki in an exhibition match, admitted she was stunned by news that Sharapova had tested positive for banned substance meldonium at this year's Australian Open.

Russian star Sharapova announced the news at a press conference in Los Angeles yesterday, claiming she had simply made a mistake by continuing to take the anti-ischemic drug Mildronate — also known as meldonium — without checking to see if it was banned.

Meldonium was added to the list of banned performance-enhancing drugs in January.

"I think most people were surprised and shocked by Maria but at the same time most people were happy that she was just upfront and very honest and showed a lot of courage to admit to what she had done and what she had neglected to look at," Williams said.

Williams, a long-time rival of Sharapova, described the Russian star's announcement as brave.

"She's always showed courage in everything that she's done. And this is no different," Williams said.

Williams meanwhile played down suggestions that the scandal and a looming ban for one of the sport's most high-profile stars would be damaging for tennis.

"I'm not concerned, I think there's a lot of great stars," Williams said.

"There's a lot people that play tennis. I think that there's a lot of personalities."

Sharapova has already paid a financial cost for her doping violation, with German car manufacturer Porsche, sportswear giant Nike and Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer distancing themselves from sponsorship deals with the tennis star.

Nike and Porsche suspended their sponsorship of the Russian, while TAG Heuer announced it would not renew its marketing contract, which expired at the end of 2015.

[prasen9]

MaxGlayn, as policy, we do not like large articles cut and pasted in a post. Maybe a moderator can edit the post and post a link to the original article: Article.