US Open Series

As the US Open Series draws to a close, I'd like to congratulate Mardy Fish and Serena Williams for winning the US Open Series. If either of them wins the US Open, he or she will receive an extra million dollars in prize money. (Total prize money will be 2.8 million US dollars)

Cincy F: Andy Murray def Novak Djokovic 6-4 3-0 Ret.

Sadly, Novak Djokovic had to retire from this match. It wasn't really a surprise though. He had been showing signs of fatigue since his match with Berdych (who should have won but also retired), so it wasn't an actual loss. Djokovic seemed really flat during the match, and he was serving first serves under 100 mph and second serves under 80 mph. It was as if he had hired the 2004 Dementieva to serve for him. Hopefully he'll be fine for the US Open.

New Haven Preview

New Haven is the final event of the US Open Series. The defending champion is Caroline Wozniacki who defeated Nadia Petrova in the finals. The field has been considerably strengthened in the past couple days with the addition of Li Na, Jelena Jankovic and Marion Bartoli. Read on for my preview of the event.

Dallas Preview

The week before the US Open, there will be two tournaments, a premier event in New Haven and an international event in Dallas. The event in Dallas isn't part of the US Open Series. However, it still has a very strong field - especially for an international event. Read on for my predictions.

Kim Clijsters Withdraws from US Open

Kim Clijsters has withdrawn from the US Open.

New Haven Field

It looks like a lot of players are going to New Haven after all. Although Venus Williams declined the Wild Card invite, Li Na, Jelena Jankovic and Marion Bartoli all accepted Wild Cards.

What Serena's doing with her week off.

For those of you who don't know, Serena Williams withdrew from Cincy today citing a toe injury. Before heading over to Kim Kardashian's wedding, she decided to have some fun in Ohio. Here she is at Cedar Point.

Yet another withdrawal...

Victoria Azarenka has withdrawn from Cincy because of a hand injury she got in Toronto. She is awaiting MRI results. Lucky Loser Pauline Parmentier will replace Azarenka and will play Shahar Peer tonight. She is currently ranked 59 in the world. The winner of this match will play Peng Shuai.

Serena Williams Withdraws From Cincy

Serena withdrew just a bit ago citing toe pain. She has enough match practice to get her through the US Open though. I think she also wants to go to Kim Kardashian's wedding.

Andrea Petkovic def Jarmila Gajdosova 5-7 7-6 (5) 6-2

Cincinnati First Round:
Andrea Petkovic def Jarmila Gajdosova 5-7 7-6 (5) 6-2

This was one of the worst matches I've seen. Luckily, it was comedically bad, so I wasn't un-entertained.

Welcome Back to the Top 2!

Because Kim Clijsters retired from Rogers Cup, Vera Zvonareva is back at number 2 in the world!

Congratulations!!!

Because Clijsters withdrew from Cincinnati, Zvonareva has a good chance at being the number 2 seed at the US Open as well. In order to do this, she will need to get to the round of 16. Basically, she needs to win one match to keep ahead of Clijsters. That doesn't seem very hard. She'll face Ekaterina Makarova in her first match.

Shahar Peer def Sabine Lisicki 6-4 7-6 (4)

Cincy First Round Shocker:
Shahar Peer def Sabine Lisicki 6-4 7-6 (4)

It seems like Shahar Peer is getting back to the form that almost took her into the top 10. Peer will face Victoria Azarenka in the second round. Read on for my analysis of the match.

Announcement:

Because of my lack of blogging time, I have decided that a lot of the stuff I write will be shorter. That way, I'll be able to write more frequently.

Cincy Withdrawals

Short News Tidbit:

Three top players have withdrawn from Cincinnati so far: Venus Williams, Kim Clijsters and Agniezska Radwanska.

Serena Williams wins her second WTA title in a row!

Earlier today, Serena Williams defeated Sam Stosur 6-4 6-2 to claim the Rogers Cup title. This win will almost guarantee that she will be seeded that the US Open. She also leads the US Open Series standings by 40 points. Read on for my match analysis.

Rogers Cup Wednesday Preview

Wednesday at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, Canada brings us some great second round action. We'll be seeing most of the top seeds, and we'll be seeing certain players for the first time since Wimbledon. Read on for the Wednesday preview!

Kim Clijsters Retires

I've been really busy as of late, so I'll mainly be posting small tidbits when I have an ounce of spare time.

Kim Clijsters was leading Zheng Jie 6-3 1-2 when she retired from her first match since her loss at the UNICEF Open to Romina Oprandi in June. Clijsters cited pain in her abdominal muscle as the reason for her retirement. Sadly, this means that 899 points will drop off her ranking. (She won Cincinnati last year which happened during the same week.) Vera Zvonareva will have a good shot at taking the number 2 ranking back. It also means that we will not be seeing the much anticipated Clijsters-Serena third round match up that we were all anticipating.

However, Serena Williams may not even make it to the next round. She will be facing Julia Goerges who snapped her four match losing streak and defeating Jelena Jankovic in two easy sets, 6-1 6-3.

Other top players have faltered at the Rogers Cup as well. Svetlana Kuznetsova lost to Simona Halep yesterday in three sets, and Marion Bartoli was beaten in two sets by Galina Voskoboeva. Dominika Cibulkova was forced to retire from her match earlier today. Although there hasn't been any information on why she retired, my guess is that it has to do with her injury that caused her to pull out of Stanford.

A Guide to WTA Tournament Categories

The WTA used to have a seemingly comprehensive tournament system. There were five tiers of tournaments, and each of those tiers was given a corresponding numeral from one to five. Total prize money determined the tier. Tier I tournaments gave out the most prize money while Tier V tournaments gave out the least. Sounds easy right? In fact, it was pretty complicated. There were multiple categories of each tier, and each was based on two things- total prize money and number of entrants. The WTA decided to change this system, and in 2009, it started to use a new system. The new system is quite confusing for many people, but if you read on, you'll find that it isn't hard to understand at all. It's actually quite like the old tier system.