The tennis season has just begun and the men are currently playing in Doha, Chennai & Brisbane while the women are playing in Auckland & Brisbane this week. This season has got to be THE season to watch because we'll see if Rafael Nadal is going to keep the pole position for the second year running and can Jelena Jankovic resist the rest of the girls who are also vying for that coveted no.1 spot or otherwise.
And here are my five predictions for this season, see if i'm correct or not:
1) That Jelena Jankovic will win her first Grand Slam title.
2) The Russian girls are going to dominate again, period. (Safina, Dementieva, Zvonareva.. and the rest of the ...evas.)
3) Novak Djokovic & Andy Murray will do better this season. Both Nadal & Federer have to watch out.
4) More younger tennis players will get noticed.
5) ....Nadal will win Roland Garros again, period. He got no flaws on clay.
Before I round things up here are my own 5 female tennis players to watch out this season:
5. Sorana Cirstea (Romania)
She won her first title last year in Tashkent and currently the top Romanian female tennis player & she's definitely one player to watch this season. She will start the season at 36th.
4. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia)
What a name. She was the youngest player to play in Wimbledon last season and managed to get to the 3rd round, which is something that she can be proud of. In the beginning of the last season she was at 281st and worked her way up, finally finishing at 45th. She will turn 18 this year and the experiences she gained in the last season will definitely make her a stronger player this season. She will start the season at 43rd.
3. Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland)
Lat season, she was the first Polish to earn more than $1 million & had really good results in all the 4 Grand Slams she competed in. She already won 4 single titles and has the game to beat higher-ranked players. She will start the season at 10th. Poland is proud to have this girl making headlines in tennis :)
2. Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark)
2008 turned out to be a brilliant year for Caroline. She won not 1, 2 but 3 single titles at Stockholm, New Haven & Tokyo. Like Radwanska, she had good results in all the 4 Grand Slams she competed in. She almost won 4 titles (in Luxembourg, where she lost to Elena Dementieva in the final) last season & I believe she will become a stronger, sharper player this season. She's only 18, but has got nothing to lose. She will start the season at 12th. Almost there!
Surprised? This girl's only 15 years old and already did quite well last season. She would have competed in the junior circuits and won so many junior titles but opted to play in the professional tour instead. She reached QF in Tashkent (a tremendous achievement for a 15-year-old girl) and defeated Radwanska & Flavia Pennetta, her first and second career Top 20 win. She pushed Serena Williams to three sets (at Stanford) and eventually lost to her. Although she was not in the top 100, this girl still has so many things to learn and if everything comes out right she will do well this season, at least get into the top 100. She's still young, c'mon! Probably the next Martina Hingis. She will start the season at 129th.
The next post I'll be talking about the opposite sex so watch out you tennis fans :)
No comments:
Post a Comment