Serena Williams Now #1 for 100 Weeks

Serena Williams has become the 7th player to spend 100 weeks at #1, following in the footsteps of other players such as Steffi Graf (377), Martina Navratilova (332), Chris Evert (260), Martina Hingis (209), Monica Seles (178) and Justine Henin (117).

There have been 19 players to ever hold the World #1 ranking since 1975. Serena's sister, currently ranked at #4 has spent 11 weeks at #1.

AUSSIE OPEN 2010: Women's Final Preview

Justine Henin BEL v. Serena Williams USA (1)

One of the most exciting major tournaments in recent tennis history, and the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the new decade, is hurtling to a conclusion with a mouthwatering final where the competitors have a combined 18 Grand Slam titles between them, which is far more than we have seen since the legendary Steffi Graf was still competing in finals more than a decade ago.

Craig Hickman has done his typically excellent job of summarizing the background as well as the liabilities and strengths of both Serena Williams and Justine Henin coming into tonight's final (which will be on at 12:30am PST, 3:30am EST Saturday).

Briefly, Serena leads their overall head-to-head 7-6, (4-1 on hard courts) but trails 2-4 in major tournaments, the majority of which came in a string of 3 losses to the Belgian in 3 consecutive grand slam quarterfinals in 2007. Their last meeting was a devastating 6-2 6-0 demolition of Henin by Serena in Miami in March the following year; 6 weeks later Henin announced her retirement from competitive tennis.

Despite winning the doubles title with her sister for the second consecutive year, Serena's physical frailty is apparent. In her tense semi-final win over Li Na, Serena at times was barely moving. Her serve has kept her in the tournament and has been impeccable. Henin has been serving atrociously but her overall game is still as impressive as it was before her hiatus; she possesses every shot in tennis, combined with surprising power and superior movement. She has displayed mental frailty like in her Brisbane loss to Clijsters and in her win against Elena Dementieva, but she has the support of her coach Carlos Rodriguez to draw upon.

Serena has the sharpest competitive spirit of any player on tour, and particularly in Australia Serena has often played some of her best tennis on her way to winning four Australian Open titles (in 2003 over Venus in what some commentators call the most competitive match between the sisters; in 2005 over Lindsay Davenport after trailing a set and a break she won 9 games in a row to win the title--this after saving two match points against Maria Sharapova the round before; and in 2007 over Sharapova she displayed her most impressive level of play, ever only allowing her opponent a mere 3 games).

Although I have correctly predicted the outcomes of 3 of the last 6 matches in the tournament, I want to change my method for prognostication and try and use probabilities (I am a math professor after all!) There are four possible ocurrences: Serena in 2 sets, Serena in 3 sets, Henin in 3 sets and Henin in 2 sets). I evaluate the probabilities of these events at 54%, 40%, 60% and46% respectively. (Of course these numbers are simply estimates, with the 2-set probability coming directly from their overall head-to-head record and the 3-set probability coming from my assessment of Serena's stamina). Crunching the numbers that gives Henin an overall 53% chance of winning, which is significantly better than a coin toss.

MadProfessah's pick: Henin (Williams in 2 sets, Henin in 3 sets).

AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2009: Women's Final Preview

Dinara Safina RUS (3)	Dinara Safina RUS (3)

For the fourth time in her career Serena Williams is in the final of the Australian Open, the first major tournament of the year. She has previously won the title in 2003 (over Venus Williams), 2005 (over Lindsay Davenport) and 2007 (over Maria Sharapova). Sharapova won the title over Ana Ivanovic last year, somewhat making up for the shellacking Serena had dealt her the year before. However, the defending champion is not here this year and with the mathematical inevitability indicated by the curious pattern of winning in every odd year this decade, the 9-time champion has been the overwhelming favorite to win her second consecutive Grand Slam title for the first time since she won all four in a row in 2003.

This time her opponent will be another Russian, although she's not "another 'ova" as the Americans once dismissed the large group of Russian and eastern European players years ago, she is Dinara ("no longer just Marat's little sister!") Safina. Whoever wins the match on Sunday will also receive the bonus of being crowned the World #1. Head-to-head, Serena has only lost to Safina once (last year) during the Russian's "dream tournament" in Berlin whens she beat (in successive rounds) Justine Henin, Serena Williams and Elene Dementieva to win her first Tier 1 title. Safina's brother won this title four years ago and she has been playing excellent tennis ever since her Berlin breakthrough. She did quite well to fend off a surprisingly stiff challenge from Vera Zvonareva in the Women's semis, winning 6-3 7-6(4).

In the other semifinal Serena was able to obain revenge for three consecutive losses against Dementieva by handing the vastly improved Russian her first loss of 2009 in three tournaments 6-3 6-4 relatively easily. She similarly dispatched Safina in the semifinals of the U.S. Open just over 4 months ago (how time flies!) and Saturday's final is very unlikely to have a different result.

Mad Professah's pick: Williams in 2 sets.

Serena, Venus and Lindsay Withdraw From L.A. Tourney

Awful news for the East West Bank Classic in Carson, CA: American tennis stars Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams and Serena Williams have withdrawn from the WTA Tier II tournament that starts tomorrow.

Venus and Lindsay withdrew on Friday with knee injuries. Serena retired from her semifinal match against Aleksandra Wozniak on Saturday at the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford with an aggravation of her left knee injury. She was not moving at all and was down 2-6, 1-3, 40-15 when she stopped playing.

All three Americans are scheduled to represent their country at the Olympics which start on Friday August 8.

More Tennis News: Davenport AND Venus Ailing

Lindsay Davenport withdrew due to illness from her semifinal match again Maria Sharapova at the Bausch & Lomb Clay Court Championships in Amelia Island, Florida on Saturday. Sharapova will face either Dominika Cibulkova (who took out Amelia Mauresmo in straight sets) or Alize Corney in her first clay court final on Sunday.

In addition, there are now more details about Venus Williams "hiatus" from tennis announced earlier in the week. Her agent Carlos Fleming gave a phone interview where she said that Venus will return to the tour at the Italian Open in Rome on May 12.

Venus has assured me that there’s no serious medical problem,” Fleming said. “But she did see this timing as a good opportunity to have these evaluations to make sure that her health is in order.”

[...]

Fleming said Williams expects to be back on the court practicing sometime by the end of next week and fully intends to compete in the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open—as well as the Beijing Olympics, where she aims to play in singles and in doubles with her younger sister Serena.

But Fleming said that an “ambitious” travel schedule so far in 2008, including stops in Doha, Qatar; Bangalore, India; and Melbourne, Australia, made the 27-year-old Williams want to “make sure that her health was 100 percent on track.”

Mrs. Leach Embarasses Ivanovic Then Loses To Crazy Russian

At the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Lindsay Davenport (also known as Mrs. Jon Leach) beat World #2 Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-2 in a match that was not as competitive as the one-sided score indicates.

Even though she gave birth to her first child a scant 10-months ago in June 2007, the American has always had some of the most powerful and accurate groundstrokes on the WTA Tour.

Craig Hickman has more details.

UPDATE: The day after embarassing the World #2, Lindsay lost (for the first time) to Russian Dinara Safina 6-3, 6-4.

Serena Williams will meet World #1 Justine Henin in a quarterfinal match (in a replay of last year's amazing title match, one of the best matches of the year), while her sister Venus Williams will meet World #3 Svetlana Kuznetsova in another quarterfinal.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2008: Women's Final Preview

Maria Sharapova RUS (5) versus Ana Ivanovic SRB (4).

After being humiliated by Serena Williams at the 2007 Australian Open women's final and failing to win more than a single title all year (Acura Classic) Maria Sharapova clearly showed up in Melbourne with a mission to win her first Australian Open title. Despite having a relatively difficult draw (dangerous floater Lindsay Davenport in round 2, #11 seed Elena Dementieva, #3 seed Jelena Jankovic and World #1 and #1 seed Justine Henin) Sharapova has reached the final for the second consecutive year without losing a set. Ana Ivanovic confirmed her status as the (higher ranked and) superior of the "Serbian sisters" by achieving her second Grand Slam final before her compatriot Jankovic has been in a single one. Even in their interesting quarterfinal match-ups of the Williams sisters versus Serbia, Ivanovic won her match more convincingly over much stiffer resistance. And then came Ivanovic's disastrous start of her semifinal match against Daniela Hantuchova where she lost the first 8 games in 45 minutes but somehow managed to reverse the momentum and win the match 0-6 6-3 6-4.

However, Ivanovic will need to not only be better than Jankovic, she will need to be playing at the level to beat a Williams sister in order to deny Maria Sharapova's her 3rd major title. It's unlikely, but not unthinkable that this coulld happen, but at least it would make for some delightful tennis to watch, which is what I really expect to see happen.

PREDICTION: Sharapova, in 3 sets.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2008: Day 1

The 2008 Australian Open has started. Check out the men's and women's previews over at Craig Hickman's blog.

Round 2 is starting tomorrow and will feature Lindsay Davenport vs Maria Sharapova(!)

Defending champion Serena has already won her first round match, and Venus plays hers tomorrow. Hapily they are both in the opposite half of the draw, and Serena can not meet Justine Henin until the semifinals.

Defending champion Roger Federer has been ill with a stomach virus but should get through his first round match tomorrow, where he may then face the winner of 6'10" John Isner or Fabrice "The agician" Santoro. I bet he wants Isner to win, who he took out easily at the 2007 US Open.

Davenport Wins Bali Title After 1 Year Off Tour

Lindsay Davenport with Bali trophy

and son Jagger Jonathan

Lindsay Davenport, former World #1 and 3-time Slam champion won her 53rd carrer title by defeating Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. Welcome back, Lindsay! Craig Hickman has more details.

Davenport Punctuates Her Return By Beating Top Seed Jankovic

Former World #1 and current #234 Lindsay Davenport beat World #3 and Top Seed Jelena Jankovic 6-4 2-6 6-2 at her first singles tournament back after having a child on June 10, 2007. With her win, the American 3-time Grand Slam champion made the semifinals of the Bali WTA tournament. Go, Lindsay!

Lindsay Davenport YouTube Tribute Available

Craig Hickman has put up Part 1 of his tribute to Lindsay Davenport, who is pregnant and will most likely not be playing tennis again. Go check it out. Interestingly, Part 1 of the tribute highlights some of the classic matches Davenport had versus fellow American Venus Williams, particularly the instant classic 2005 Wimbledon Final, probably the best Women's Tennis match of the last decade.

Lindsay Davenport is pregnant and is unlikely to play again

Craig Hickman's Tennis Blog was the first place I saw the news that former American #1 and 3-time Grand Slam champion Lindsay Davenport is pregnant! The news is also appearing on On The Baseline and many other websites now.

The first reports were that she would just miss the start of the 2007
WTA season but soon there was a quote releases from Lindsay saying that she "can't imagine playing again."

Lindsay Davenport won the 1998 U.S. Open over Martina Hingis 63 75, the 1999 Wimbledon final over Steffi Graf 64 75, and the 2000Australian Open over Hingis 61, 75. She finished #1 on the WTA Tour four times, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2005. She finished 2006 ranked #25.