A normal day in the office

Alarm at 5:20am to go down to Devon for a tennis tournament, of course it's the day of the biggest storm of the year.

I check trains to see if they are running and I see they go, all of them but one. The first of my awfully long series.

F*ck.

My garden after the storm

Think fast, easy to say, but it's damn 5am...ok, if I take a bus, then the tube I can make it to the station I need. Run.

A quick look outside and I see that there is a tree where yesterday I had my clothes drying in the wind...oh well, ain't no time for that.

Everyone is waiting for news

I make it to the station, on time, but of course everything is getting cancelled or delayed...thankfully my train is not cancelled, but it will run or, better, walk slowly through the storm.

I reach my last coincidence city 45 minutes late only to find out that the railway it's flooded, so they are trying to organize a bus. Don't ask me why but I found it hilarious.

During the travel I get to know an Italian tennis player, Giulia Gatto Monticone, she's very cool and she as well agrees to have an interview tomorrow.

Quite a little water

The green valleys of Devon are flooded and at times it's almost scary to look out of the window, but eventually I reach Barnstaple.

It's almost 1pm. Time for my job to start, on court, taking pics and contacting players for interviews.

A normal day in the office.

Ligety makes it three in a row in Soelden

American Ted Ligety has won his third consecutive race in Soelden earlier this afternoon, proving once again his dominance in the discipline.
Ligety showed immediately his amazing condition when in the first run he collected a gap over the rest of the field of nine tenth of a second.
Youngsters Pinturault (second) and Hirscher (third) were the immediate followers and then the gap rapidly widened, especially due to the difficult conditions caused by the strong wind and the mild temperatures.
As proof of that it is enough to notice how, for the second run, only two racers in the top 30 did not qualify and one of them can blame a crash for that.
Surely one of the most interesting and surprising runs was given by one man starting out of the elite group: bib 32, Bode Miller.
The American star was starting a World Cup race after more than a year of absence and there was a lot of interest about this comeback.
The excitement of seeing his return immediately raised eyebrows as his known-to-be crazy technique appeared to be as effective as prior his injury. No-one around his starting number had done anything alike, but he attacked the slope and bumps with the usual brave attitude and it paid off as he finished 13th (19th after the second run).
The second run appeared to follow the pattern given by the yesterday’s Women’s race, as the worsening of the snow conditions favoured the comebacks from behind, like Defago who rose from 27th to 14th place as he ended up with the second best time of the second run.
The best time was scored by French Steve Missilier, 13th after the first run, and with this amazing second leg he could challenge the podium as he finished 4th, tied with Norwegian Aksel-Lund Svindal.
The French assault was not big enough to move any of the first-round best three names and nothing changed on top, with Ligety once more showing his class even under pressure.
The podium was then sealed by the same drivers who finished at the top of last year’s Giant Slalom cup, a clear statement that they will be once again the ones to beat.

Simply too Gut!

Lara Gut wins the first race of the season in Soelden and conquers her first world cup win in Giant Slalom.

The Swiss was already in the lead of the race after the first run with a margin of over Eight tenths of a second on Viktoria Rebensburg and Anna Fenninger.

The biggest surprise of the day came from Tina Maze, though. The Slovene, winner of last year’s overall and Giant Slalom globes, was surely one of the favourites for the win today. Nonetheless she looked quite slow and her preparation may have changed from last year, when she was unstoppable in the early races.  She seemed to be in far from her best form and finished sixth after the first run, before plummeting down to 18th position at the end of the race.

In the second run the rise in the temperature caused a big change in snow conditions and the course deteriorated constantly. That situation helped the comeback of athletes like Nadia Fanchini, second at the start in the final run, who scored the best partial time finishing 14th.

Right before the disastrous second run of Maze, another Tina, Weirather, scored an amazing run to secure a place into the top ten. Liechtensteiner Weirather qualified for the second run despite her high bib -37- and in the second run she tamed the bumps and waves on the course like no one else could within the top ten.

Her run let her gain two more positions and she scored her career best result in the discipline, a great accomplishment after the long series of injuries she has suffered in recent years.

The fight for the podium was a contest of four skiers, with Kathrine Zettel the only one close to the best three girls of the first run.

The Austrian skied a terrific second leg, painting great lines down the steep middle section of the Rettenbach glacier. Neither compatriot Fenniger, nor German Rebensburg could finish ahead of her.

In contrast to this, Lara Gut went down with the sole idea of winning and her performance did not fail her expectations. Despite a couple of mistakes in the middle section, the Swiss never stopped trying to accelerate after every turn and in the end this paid off with a terrific win. Her first in Giant Slalom.

As usual, women’s skiing goes break and will come back in three weeks time with the Arctic race of Levi’s slalom, Finland.

Video Preview of WTA Finals

Wozniacki Ends Her Season With A Triumph

Caroline Wozniacki defeated German rising star Annika Beck 6-2 6-2 in the WTA Luxembourg final to grab her 21st career title - her first of the year.

 The Dane came to the final as the heavy favourite because of her top-seeded ranking and experience, while Annika Beck, at the age of 19, was at her first final on the tour. Moreover, the quality showed by the former world number one in the previous rounds enforced her status as favourite, having defeated tricky opponents en route to the final.

Wozniacki looked pretty gloomy and unfocused in the first two rounds despite the wins in straight sets over local Wild Card Mandy Minella and last year’s finalist Monica Niculescu.

In her quarter-final match, Wozniacki was challenged by Serbian Bojana Jovanovski, who had defeated the Dane twice this year already. The Serb pushed Wozniacki to a third set, but there, Wozniacki was too solid and in the end she could seize the win showing a different and more focused attitude on court.

In the previous round, Annika Beck conquered her best career win by defeating fifth seed and world number 28 Lucie Safarova in a tight three-set match, where she had to come back from a break down in the decider. The German’s run needed another massive effort to continue when in the quarter-final she had to face Polish qualifier Katarzyna Piter in a three-hour match, ending in a heart- breaking tie-break.

Beck could then take advantage of the retirement of her semi-final opponent, Stefanie Voegele, who had defeated the second seed, Sloane Stephens, in the round before.
Wozniacki had a tougher semi-final to face, as her opponent, Sabine Lisicki, was the Wimbledon runner-up and her game is particularly suitable for the fast conditions of the indoor courts of Luxembourg.

The match was close in the first set, but in the end Wozniacki nailed it down by being aggressive whenever she had the chance of clinching the key points. Lisicki seemed to suffer from losing the first set as she quickly fell behind in the second, and her reaction came too late as Wozniacki closed the match in straight sets.

The final match was expected to be one-sided, but Beck put up a fight, showing probably the best tennis of her repertoire in the early games of the match, forcing Wozniacki to go for her shorts more and in the end it was the experience of the Dane that decided the first set.

Despite the situation, Beck kept fighting and Wozniacki needed great resolve to win most of the long and intense rallies of the match.



Once again it was the lack of experience that betrayed the young German, who in the end had to surrender to a very focused Wozniacki 6-2 6-2. This title is the 21st in Wozniacki’s career and allows her streak to continue as this is her sixth consecutive year in which she has won at least one title.

With this title, Wozniacki has qualified for the Sofia Tournament of Champions, but her dad and coach Piotr said she won’t be involved.

Originally written for the Sports Gazette

Kerber wins Linz and qualifies for Istanbul

Angelique Kerber defeated the former world n°1 Ana Ivanovic in just two sets to conquer her first title of the year.

Her run to the title has been impressive; after the first set lost to Monica Niculescu in her opening match, ‘Angie’ didn't drop a single set all the way through to the title.

 

©Jimmie48

The world n°9 showed great attitude throughout the week, ignoring the major media attention gathered by her last-minute entry, to the detriment of Austrian WC Lisa-Maria Moser (for more on this story click here).

In addition to that, there was much pressure on her shoulders, since any result better than a Quarter Final would have meant the mathematical assurance to be qualified for the year-ending masters in Istanbul.

As a result, her QF match against local WC Patricia Mayr-Achleitner was tougher than the score line would suggest. Furthermore, the Austrian was playing some brilliant tennis heading to the match and had her chances in the first set, but Kerber reacted well and finished the match in total control.

The semi-final was a complete dominance by the German, who gave only two games to the world number 18, Spaniard Carla Suarez-Navarro.

This result and the great show of form and consistency in the past weeks set Kerber as the favourite in the final as well, despite trailing 3-1 in the head to head with Ivanovic.

The final resulted in a rollercoaster. Kerber started with the right mindset, taking the initiative whenever possible and exploiting her terrific defence to neutralise Ivanovic’s initial shots, especially off her forehand.

Suddenly the Serb’s shot increased in speed and accuracy, so in a blink of an eye, she won three games in a row to tie at 4-all.

It was then another big reaction from the German who broke Ivanovic for the third time of the set and went on serving the set out 6-4.

The second set witnessed a bit of everything, with the Serb starting with a ten-point-in-a-row streak, before surrendering to the massive comeback of Kerber, which led to a 5-4 40-0 lead on her serve. Swiftly, Ivanovic noticed the more passive attitude of her opponent and took advantage of it, saved all the match points, and broke back.

On 6-5 for the Serb, Kerber suffered a bad call that helped Ivanovic gain two set points, but instead of arguing, the German decided to fix the situation with a massive serve and a huge forehand down-the-line winner, to clear the set points and go to the tiebreak.

Once again Ana Ivanovic started strongly and went up 6-4, but similarly to the previous game, Kerber could find her best focus on the important points, while the Serb melted fast once those two more set points were gone. The fourth match point, the first in the tiebreak, was the final one, gifted by the Serb with a backhand error, which cost her the match and gave to Kerber the first title of year.

Originally posted on the sports gazette

Jaziri forced to withdraw for political reasons, Tunisians can't play against Israeli

Malek Jaziri, world number 169, couldn't step on court this morning to play his quarter-final match in Tashkent's Challenger against Israeli Amir Weintraub.

The Tunisian tennis player was forced to give a walkover to his opponent as a consequence of the pressure done from the Tunisian Tennis Federation and especially by the Minister of Sport, Tarak Dhiab.

The reason behind this lies in the political stance of Tunis, which doesn't sustain any diplomatic relation with Israel. Hence, Minister Dhiab prohibited any match between Tunisian and Israeli athletes in every sport.
Furthermore, Malek had no way out because the Tunisian federation is also one of his biggest sponsors, and so he had to surrender to their decision.
On Tunisian radio station Shems FM later on during the day, Amir Jaziri, Malek's brother, stated that his sibling tried to make the federation aware of the possible sanctions that would follow his withdrawal, but the Tunisian Federation didn't give up. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) might indeed take serious measures on the matter in the future.

“Malek received an email from the Federation telling him they’ve met with people from the Ministry of Sport and they ordered Malek not to play this match." He said, “Now we are hoping that this will not affect his future. We hope the ministry can give us assurance that nothing will harm Malek but I guess they can’t."

The possible sanctions Malek might suffer include radiation from the upcoming tournaments and the loss of the ranking points gained in this one.

Originally written for the sports gazette

Moser controversial withdrawal gives Kerber new chances for Master

Austrian Wild Card Lisa-Maria Moser withdrew today from Linz main draw, leaving space for a last minute entry of German Angelique Kerber, world n°9.

Nothing strange, one might think, such changes happen very often, especially at the end of the season. But this time the situation is very different and this last minute change looks far more complicated and not as clear as it should be.
The young Austrian had her breakthrough earlier this summer, when in another WTA International in Bad Gastein reached the Quarter Finals by defeating en route world number 30 and top seed German Mona Barthel. Ever since her ranking kept rising, but as the cut off for Linz was out, it still wasn't enough to make it to the Qualifying draw.
Once Petra Kvitova withdrew from the entry list, because of her deep run in Beijing, the Austrian federation gave a WC to Moser, who moved to Linz and no longer than yesterday was drawn to face Swiss Stephanie Voegele in the first round.

Overnight something happened though, it's not very clear when exactly, but the team of German Angelique Kerber requested a WC for the tournament, as the withdrawal of Kvitova left a spot for another top 10 in the draw -we shall remind that International events are allowed to have only one top tenner. This WC appeared as very needed for Kerber, who needs to score as many points possible in the next weeks, as she's fighting with Jelena Jankovic and Caroline Wozniacki for a spot in the year ending Master, soon happening in Istanbul.
Apparently the request of WC for the German came too late as the draw was already out, but then, unexpectedly, this morning Lisa-Maria handed in her request of withdrawal from the singles maindraw for "personal reasons" and immediately afterwards she appeared on the entry list for doubles partnering with another Austrian WC, Nicole Rottmann. At this point it won't surprise anyone to find out that her WC went straight to the German and all the seeding of the draw changed.

Another interesting detail about this unusual situation is added by the fact that rules allow the players who finished the previous year within the top 10 to play only two international events and Kerber this year played Monterrey and Washington already.
A quibble though gave Kerber another shot to an additional international event, because Washington was played during the same week of Carlsbad, a premier tournament that Kerber couldn't play because it had reached the limit of top 10 players allowed there. This situation, according to the rules of WTA, allows the "damaged" player to enter an additional international event and so Kerber had her right to get it.

Nonetheless, it still seems questionable that a player -like Moser this time- can be "suggested" to withdraw and let another player compete on her place simply because of a bigger fame and better ranking.

Originally posted on the new project I am working on, the Sports Gazette