As the Tennis Ball Spins...

...tournaments are won and lost. Though Slam season is over, that isn't the case for the rest of the tennis year. Just last week, there was a combined event for the men and women in Japan, an ATP event in Germany, and WTA tournaments in Uzbekistan and Germany. The champions at these tournaments each marked career milestones with their wins.

1. Wesley Moodie of South Africa made his first appearance in an ATP singles final last week, facing off against Mario Ancic of Croatia at the Japan Open. After losing the first set, Moodie recovered and and scrapped out a second-set tiebreaker. He then broke Ancic's serve at 4-all in the third set, setting himself up to serve out the match. The final score was 1-6,7-6(7),6-4 Moodie.
   
   With this as his first ATP title, the 26-year-old Moodie will now be able to drop the "journeyman" title.



2. Also at the Japan Open, Nicole Vaidisova won her fourth career title and her second this year. After defeating Maria Kirilenko in the semifinal, Vaidisova met Tatiana Golovin in the final. Golovin had beaten Sania Mirza in the other semifinal. Anticlimactically, the title was decided 7-6(4),3-2 when Golovin retired in the second set due to an Achilles tendon injury.
   
   Vaidisova now climbs to #18 in the world rankings, a career high for her. (EDIT: Thanks to English Professor for pointing out that it is a "high" and not a "first.")



3. Michaella Krajicek won the Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan, besting local wildcard Akgul Amanmuradova. Krajicek, the half-sister of Richard Krajicek, showed some promise at the Australian Open in January and would have played mixed doubles with him at Wimbledon. However, an injury to her right knee in June sidelined her until last week, when she passed through qualifying in order to play in Luxembourg.
   
   Vaidisova won her first tour title in Tashkent last year; this year was Krajicek's turn at claiming a maiden title at this event.



4. After losing three finals to Roger Federer and one final to Joachim Johansson earlier this year, Ivan Ljubicic was able to claim one for himself at Metz, Germany. He defeated Gael Monfils, who was making his second career final appearance and was bidding for a second career title. Too bad for Monfils; this was Ljubicic's turn to gain a second career title.



5. With all this talk of first and second titles, how about another milestone title number? Say, 50? At Filderstadt, Germany, Lindsay Davenport overpowered Amelie Mauresmo in order to claim her 50th tour title. This was a rematch of the final last year, where Mauresmo retired due to a thigh muscle injury.
   
   Davenport is only the ninth woman in WTA Tour history to have won 50 titles, but she still has a long way to go to equal Martina Navratilova's record of 167 career singles titles.

DOPING DRAMA, CONTINUED: Also on this episode of "As the Tennis Ball Spins," Mariano Puerta denies the doping allegations L'Equipe published last week, fellow Argentinian Mariano Hood admits to testing positive for a prohibited substance used to treat baldness, and retired player Magnus Norman of Sweden co-writes a book that raises serious cover-up questions for the ATP Tour. Meanwhile, the ATP and the International Tennis Federation have yet to come out with statements addressing the L'Equipe allegations.

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 12:40 AM