Top Tennis Stars

Friday, June 24, 2011

Nicole Vaidisova 2003–2004: Instant success

Nicole Vaidišová Czech pronunciation: born 23 April 1989 is a Czech female tennis player who is currently retired.
Vaidišová is an Australian Open and French Open semifinalist and also reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. Vaidišová started playing tennis when she was six years old, enrolling to train at Nick Bollettieri's tennis academy in Bradenton, Florida. Her serve was considered her biggest weapon. 9 August 2006, at the age of 17 years, three months, and two weeks, she became the 12th-youngest player in WTA Tour history to be ranked in the top 10. She achieved a career-high ranking of World No. 7 on 14 May 2007. Her form dipped shortly after, and at the time her retirement was announced in 2010, she was ranked at No. 177.
From March 2009, she was coached by her stepfather, Ales Kodat, who replaced David Felgate. By the end of 2009, she had hired top coach Eric van Harpen. Her stepfather announced that she had retired in March 2010, citing "lack of interest in tennis" as the primary reason.
Contents
* 1 Career
o 1.1 2003–2004: Instant success
o 1.2 2005–2007: Consistency and top 10 debut
o 1.3 2008–2010: Struggles and retirement
* 2 Personal
* 3 Endorsements
* 4 Interests
* 5 WTA Tour titles (6)
o 5.1 Singles (6)
o 5.2 Singles runner-up (1)
* 6 ITF titles (2)
o 6.1 Singles (2)
* 7 Singles performance timeline
* 8 WTA Tour career earnings
* 9 Head-to-head record against other players
* 10 References
* 11 External links
Career
2003–2004: Instant success
Vaidišová debuted in 2003 by reaching three consecutive finals: won $10K ITF/Plzeň-CZE, her only event in 2003, without dropping a set.
In 2004, her first full year as a professional, Vaidišová finished the year as a top 100 player. As a qualifier at only her third WTA Tour main draw at inaugural Vancouver, Vaidišová became the sixth-youngest singles champion in tour history at an age of 15 years, three months, and 23 days. She also became the lowest-ranked player (World No. 180) and second qualifier (of three) to win a title in 2004. Vaidišová won her second title of the year at Tashkent, defeating Virginie Razzano in the final. On 18 October, she made her top 100 debut at World No. 74, becoming the youngest player in the top 100 at the time.
Later in the year, Vaidišová reached the quarterfinals at the Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo. Vaidišová made her Grand Slam debut at the US Open, losing to defending champion and World No. 1 Justine Henin in the first round.
Vaidišová finished the year with two WTA titles and a win-loss record of 31–8.

Nicole Vaidisova

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

maria sharapova outside tennis

Outside tennis
Sharapova with children in Gomel, an area affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.
Sharapova has lived in the United States since moving there at the age of seven. She has a home in Manhattan Beach, California. Sharapova lists fashion, movies, music and reading the Sherlock Holmes and Pippi Longstocking series as among her off-court interests while she has also talked in the past about how she takes hip-hop dance classes.Sharapova has a Pomeranian named Dolce, which means "sweet" in Italian.
At the 2004 US Open, Sharapova, along with several other Russian female tennis players, wore a black ribbon in observance of the tragedy after the Beslan school hostage crisis, which took place only days before. In 2005, she donated around US$50,000 to those affected by the crisis. On February 14, 2007, Sharapova was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and donated US$210,000 to UNDP Chernobyl-recovery projects. She stated at the time that she was planning to travel back to the area after Wimbledon in 2008, though it didn't happen as she had to travel back to the US because of shoulder injury. She fulfilled the trip in late June – early July 2010. With Haynes, Kirilenko, Vaidišová, Stubbs, Governor Bush and Capriati, Sharapova participated in an exhibition in Tampa in December 2004, raising money for the Florida Hurricane Relief Fund.
Sharapova helped to promote the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
In July 2008, Sharapova sent a message on DVD to the memorial service of Emily Bailes, who had performed the coin toss ahead of the 2004 Wimbledon final that Sharapova had gone on to win.
Sharapova has often implied that she desires an early retirement. Following the retirement of 25-year-old Justine Henin, Sharapova said, "If I was 25 and I'd won so many Grand Slams, I'd quit too. In an interview after the 2008 Australian Open, she balked at the idea of playing for another ten years, saying that she hoped to have a "nice husband and a few kids" by then.
Sharapova is engaged to Slovenian professional basketball player Sasha Vujačić (Saša Vujaćić, Саша Вујачић), who plays for the New Jersey Nets. The two have been dating since 2009.
Sharapova is a stamp collector and has a "huge collection" compiled since she was a child.

maria sharapova

Li Na French Open triumph is a good place to start

If China wants to use sport to boost its soft power, Li Na's French Open triumph is a good place to start. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images
When Li Na steps on to court at Wimbledon, few will be rooting for her harder than the 13-year-old Song Nanxi. Li's victory at the French Open – where she became the first Chinese player to win a grand slam singles title – has made her a heroine to compatriots. "I was hugely inspired … Li Na is my model and there is so much to learn from her," said Song, of the Jiujiang Tennis Club, who won Jiangxi province's junior doubles title last year. "Before, my friends did not really know about tennis, but now they do and many want to learn to play."
The sport is counting on the 29-year-old Li to accelerate its development in China, where a growing middle-class is learning to love watching and playing tennis. "Sometimes this kind of experience will influence a whole generation," said David Jiang of China's Sports Illustrated, noting the surge of excitement and patriotic pride.
The state broadcaster, CCTV, said 116m Chinese viewers watched the final of the French Open, almost doubling the previous high, for the Australian Open final when Li Na lost to Belgium's Kim Clijsters. Li was even plastered across the front of the staid official Communist newspaper, People's Daily, a privilege almost always reserved for the most senior leaders.

Terry Rhoads, of the Shanghai-based sports consultants Zou Marketing, who first met Li when she was in her teens, believes her win has captured the interest of people who normally have no interest in sport. "Chinese fans absolutely adore world champions. You can be a national champion and people won't pay that much attention but, if you can be the best in the world, it breaks right through," he said.

Tom McCarthy, whose Beijing International Group promotes grass-roots and elite tennis, points out that her success follows other important landmarks such as China's first Olympic tennis gold medal in 2004 and its first grand slam title in 2006, when Zheng Jie and Yan Zi took the women's doubles at the Australian Open.

They are among the reasons that the number of what he calls "real" players – who pick up their rackets more than once a week – has risen from one million in 2005 to 8m today. The Women's Tennis Association notes that there are 90,000 courts, with the number increasing by 15% a year. But good equipment and coaching are still expensive – and beyond the reach of most Chinese families – and Maggie Rauch, editor of the China Sports Today, suggests cultural factors hold back sport in general. "[Given] the focus on culture and testing and the hours you have to put in with tennis, you have to have unusual parents who see the value of that," she said.

Li Na

fernando verdasco career Early years

Fernando Verdasco Carmona born 15 November 1983 in Madrid, Spain is a professional tennis player. He is currently ranked number 17 in the world. Verdasco started playing tennis at four years of age and had a full-time coach when he was eight. As of 2009, Verdasco has been working in Las Vegas with Andre Agassi and his team including Darren Cahill (Agassi's former coach) and Gil Reyes (Agassi's fitness coach).[1] Verdasco has aided Spain in winning two Davis Cup titles, winning the deciding match in both 2008 and 2009. His best performance in a Grand Slam was making the semi-finals of the 2009 Australian Open where he lost to compatriot and eventual champion Rafael Nadal in five sets, in what was the longest match in Australian Open history.
Contents
* 1 Career
o 1.1 Early years
o 1.2 2003
o 1.3 2004
o 1.4 2005
o 1.5 2006
o 1.6 2007
o 1.7 2008
o 1.8 2009
o 1.9 2010
o 1.10 2011
* 2 Playing style and equipment
* 3 Personal life
* 4 Major finals
o 4.1 ATP Masters Series finals
+ 4.1.1 Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)
* 5 Career finals
o 5.1 Singles: 15 (5–10)
o 5.2 Non ATP Singles: 1 (1–0)
o 5.3 Doubles: 3 (1–2)
* 6 Singles Performance timeline
* 7 ATP Tour career earnings
* 8 References
* 9 External links
Career
Early years
He turned professional in 2001, finishing as world number 464. 2002 was a good year for him, as he won his first Futures category title in Spain F1 and was runner-up in Spain F3. He played his second career challenger in Segovia, where he reached the final after beating Belarusian Vladimir Voltchkov in the semifinals. He then reached two additional Challenger semifinals in Kiev and in Eckental, finishing the year in the top 200, at 173.
2003
In 2003, Verdasco played his first Masters Series tournament (Miami Masters). He joined the main draw as a qualifier, and after defeating Karol Kučera and Max Mirnyi, he lost to countryman Carlos Moyà in the third round. After this good performance, he had a poor season on clay, and then he lost in the first round of Wimbledon against Finn Jarkko Nieminen in five sets. Then Verdasco played in Cincinnati, where he lost to Andy Roddick in straight sets. He reached the third round at the U.S. Open, where he lost to Thai Paradorn Srichaphan after defeating countryman Tommy Robredo in the first round and Italian Davide Sanguinetti in the second round.

fernando verdasco

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Pironkova Early life and Junior career

Tsvetana Kirilova Pironkova (Bulgarian: Цветана Кирилова Пиронкова) born 13 September 1987 is a female Bulgarian tennis player. She was born and lives in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Pironkova is right-handed and plays with a two-handed backhand. She achieved her career high of world no. 31 on September 13, 2010. She is currently the Bulgarian No. 1 and has won six ITF titles in her career.
She is best known for reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon 2010, defeating 5-time champion and former World No. 1 Venus Williams in the quarterfinals.
Contents
* 1 Early life and Junior career
* 2 Professional career
o 2.1 ITF
o 2.2 WTA
+ 2.2.1 2005–06
+ 2.2.2 2007
+ 2.2.3 2008
+ 2.2.4 2009
+ 2.2.5 2010
+ 2.2.6 2011
* 3 Career ITF finals
o 3.1 Singles: 6
* 4 Singles performance timeline
* 5 Head-to-head vs. top 20
* 6 References
* 7 External links
Early life and Junior career
Pironkova was born in 1987 to Kiril Enchev Pironkov, a former canoeing champion and Radosveta Chinkova Nikolova, a former swimming champion. She started playing tennis at the age of 4, when her father Kiril introduced her to the game. At the age of six, she started playing in junior tournaments in Bulgaria.[citation needed] Kiril later became her coach.
In 2001, Pironkova won the Atlantic Cup International Junior Tournament held in Bulgaria,and her career high in juniors was world no. 227 on March 25, 2002.
Professional career
ITF
In August 2002 at the age of 14, Pironkova played her first professional tournament at the $10,000 International Tennis Federation Tournament in Bucharest, Romania. Pironkova won 3 qualifying matches before reaching the final in the main draw, where she lost to Monica Niculescu of Romania, 6–1, 7–6(1).
In September 2002, Pironkova played in the $10,000 ITF event in Volos, Greece, where she lost only one set playing through the qualifying and main draw. She defeated Tina Schmassmann of Switzerland 7–6(3), 7–5[7] to win her first professional ITF event.
In 2003, she won three ITF singles titles: one in Orestiada, Greece and two in Istanbul.
WTA