It was only fitting that Serena Williams walked away with her 40th career today on Sunday at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston. Playing her best tennis in quite some time, perhaps some of her best tennis ever, Williams steamrolled her opponents this week. She lost just fifteen games in five matches, and played the likes of Sabine Lisicki and Samantha Stosur before facing off against Lucie Safarova in the final.
With Billie Jean King in attendance, celebrating the 40th year since the Original 9 helped to found the WTA as well as the 40th anniversary of the first Family Circle Cup, Serena Williams raced to a 6-0 6-1 victory over Lucie Safarova of the Czech Repbulic. After losing to Williams in the semifinals, Samantha Stosur was asked whether anyone could stop Williams the way she was playing this week, to which Stosur responded, “I think if Serena plays her very best tennis, I think anyone would find it pretty hard to stop her.” Stosur may have been right, the final seemed like a forgone conclusion after Serena opened the match with a quick love hold and Safarova opened her first service game with a double fault. Things started to look up a little when Safarova had a break point on Williams’ serve in the third game of the match, which would have put the two back on serve. But Williams would have none of it. She evened things up to deuce and won the next two points.
When Safarova finally managed to get just one hold in the second set, the crowd went wild and Safarova broke into a huge smile. Even though the crowd was pro-Williams, it was clear that the Czech had won a lot of fans in Charleston this week, and it was easy to see why, the way she handled herself in defeat. When it was all said and done, Safarova came to net, still all smiles, and graciously shook Serena’s hand. In her runner-up speech, she very convincingly congratulated Williams and thanks the fans and the sponsors for such a great tournament, saying that the Family Circle Cup was true to its name, making her feel like family. Sunday wasn’t a complete loss for the Lucie. She’ll move up to 23 in the world on Monday, just one spot away from her career high ranking, and she won the doubles final with partner Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Safarova considers clay her favorite surface and with early exits last year in Rome and at the French Open, there is ample room to pick up points this Spring. She will also continue to play doubles with Pavlyuchenkova after their success in Miami and Charleston.
What’s next for Serena Williams? Even though she’s feeling good, she will continue to play a selective schedule, not playing another tournament until Madrid. It’s really too early to start making predictions about the French Open, but it’s high up on Williams’ list of goals. Having only won the tournament once, Serena said, “that’s my goal every year is to win the French Open, so hopefully this will be another goal, another year. If not, believe me, I’ll be there the next year and the year after, so I’m going to keep trying and fighting and doing the best I can do.”
Family Circle Cup
Serena Williams and Lucie Safarova Roll into the Family Circle Cup Final
A former champion at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, Samantha Stosur is usually pretty comfortable on the tournament’s green clay. She was in fine form on Friday, winning two three set singles matches to set up an exciting semifinal against Serena Williams. Adamant that physical fatigue did not play a role in Saturday’s match, the 2011 US Open champion won just two games against the American, who won the match 6-1 6-1.
Serena Williams seemed to do no wrong in this match. Every serve, every shot just seemed perfect, far too good for Stosur to overcome. Clearly in the zone, Williams seemed emotionless for the better part of the match, just going through the motions, winning point after point. When she won the first set 6-1, there was no fist pump, just a determined walk back to her chair. When she broke early in the second set, she did a sort of spin, but that was more a force of momentum rather than an actual celebration. Asked about Serena’s level of play in post match press, Stosur said, “it didn’t really seem to matter what I did. She came out with the goods every time.” Even Williams was a little shocked at how well she’s been playing this week, given that she only practiced for one day on the clay prior to the beginning of the tournament. In fact, she considered Saturday’s match, “probably the best match I’ve played in my career either in a long time or it’s up there in the Top 5.”
This version of Serena is basically unstoppable. Stosur is an excellent clay court player, a Grand Slam Champion, and in the Top 5 in the world. Williams made her look like an amateur, happy just to have gotten those two games.
Polona Hercog would have likely been equally as happy to win two games in her semifinal against Lucie Safarova. The Czech has been having an excellent week in Charleston, beating Vera Zvonareva in the quarterfinals before dropping a double bagel on Hercog in the semis. Hercog is no Stosur, and Safarova is no Williams, but it was a pretty impressive beat down nonetheless. Coming back a little over an hour later, Safarova teamed up with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to beat Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber and land a spot in the doubles final. Safarova described the feeling of being in both finals as, “just the dream of the player to be.” Reluctant to call this the best week of her career quite yet, she did put it up there with making the finals in Paris and the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.
Safarova is aware Sunday’s final will be difficult, having played Williams four times, all of which she lost. Their most recent encounter was last year in Toronto. Asked about the challenge, Safarova responded, “I’m really looking forward to it, and we had some tough matches in the past, so I never beat her so far, but as I said, I played good here. I feel good, and I’ll try to win tomorrow.” There’s nothing like a 6-0 6-0 victory to boost a player’s confidence, so Lucie Safarova should be going into the final in the best position she could. In all honesty, the key to the match for Safarova will be capitalizing in the event that Serena has an off day or lets her guard down. If Williams plays the way she did against Stosur, there will be little Safarova can do to combat her.
Family Circle Cup: Bad Luck for Lisicki, Two Wins for Stosur, and More
Lisicki Goes Down Once Again
The first quarterfinal match of the day was unfortunately cut short when Sabine Lisicki was forced to retire in the fifth game of her match against Serena Williams. It looked like a tight match after a very long second game, where Lisicki finally managed to hold serve. In a twist we’ve seen far too many times from Sabine, she ended up wrong footed on the green clay and tumbled over on her left ankle. At first, things didn’t look so grim. Lisicki called the trainer and had her foot retaped. She took the court again a little shaken but with no sign of a limp, and then suddenly it was over. The sight of a tearful Sabine shaking her opponents hand is becoming all too common. In a true show of sportsmanship, Williams walked over to comfort the young German. Asked what she told Sabine, Serena responded, “I just told her it would be alright. I’m really in an emotional time in my life, so I told her don’t cry because you’re going to make me cry and I was like my eyes are getting watery.
Obviously not the way either player wanted the match to end, Williams nonetheless moves into the semifinals at the Family Circle Cup for the third time. In a rematch of the 2011 US Open final, Williams will play Samantha Stosur, who defeated Serena’s sister Venus later in the day.
Stosur Wins a Double Header and Prevents an All Williams Semifinal
After rain forced the tournament to stop play during the Thursday night session, Samantha Stosur was first up on Friday morning to finish her match against Galina Voskoboeva, which ended going another two sets, basically a full match. Scheduled to play again in the third match of the day, there was little rest for the weary as Stosur had to go one again to play Venus Williams just after Sabine Lisicki retired in the second match of the day. Looking fresh, Stosur captured the first set against Venus. The next two sets weren’t quite as easily, but the US Open champion eventually managed to pull out her second victory of the day. Ever amiable, the Aussie seemed unfazed by the scheduling, “nobody can pick or choose or predict when the rain is going to come. So unfortunately for me I probably got the rough end of it, but that’s the way it goes.” Playing both matches so early in the day could have been a blessing in disguise. Considering she’s due to play Serena Williams at 1pm on Saturday, she will need as much rest as possible, and she had the better part of Friday to prepare.
Stosur’s victory denied fans the anticipated opportunity to see the Williams sisters face off for the 24th time, but something that hasn’t happened since 2009. Easily the biggest draw at the tournament, fans seemed excited by the prospect of watching Venus and Serena play each other. However, if it couldn’t be an all Williams semifinal, this US Open final rematch is a great consolation prize and should be an excellent match, provided Stosur recovers from her busy day.
Safarova Overcomes Zvonareva While Petrova Falters Against Hercog
The top half of the draw has yielded two quasi-surprise semifinalists, Lucie Safarova and Polona Hercog. Safarova easily conquered the No. 4 seed, Vera Zvonareva, 6-3 6-3. At No. 26 in the world, Safarova is just four spots away from her career high. This is her first semifinal of the year, and an excellent opportunity for her to pick up some extra points. She will face Polona Hercog of Slovenia in the semifinals, who easily defeated the 13th seed Nadia Petrova 6-1 6-2. Overall, Safarova has had a good start to the 2012 season, but she has had some bad losses as well, as recently as Miami. Hercog won her first title last season in Bastad and has been on the rise ever since. While Stosur/Williams will obviously be the more anticipated matchup for Saturday’s semifinals, Safarova/Hercog has the potential to be a very interesting match as well.
Quick Recap: Williams' Sisters on Collision Course at Family Circle Cup
By Rick Limpert, Special for Tennis Grandstand
When the top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska pulled out of this week’s Family Circle Cup on Monday because of a back injury, Bob Moran and his team at the Charleston WTA event appeared a little nervous.
It also gave the Williams’ Sisters a chance to come to the rescue and they have delivered on the court and in the stands.
With Venus taking on Jelena Jankovic in Wednesday night’s session, the attendance was a whopping 6,908. With both Williams’ playing in Thursday’s day session, it could be a record Thursday crowd at the Family Circle Cup Tennis Center.
Serena took the court ahead of her sister on Thursday and didn’t disappoint. After a slow start, she blitzed Marina Erakovic of New Zealand 6-2, 6-2, for an impressive showing on clay.
As Erakovic double-faulted on match point, Serena pumped her first and booked her spot in the quarters.
Venus was next up and she started slowly as well. As she did the previous night against Jankovic, the elder Williams found her range in taking down Anastasia Rodionova 7-5, 6-2. The way Venus is serving, she could compete with any player on tour, right now.
“Sister Act”
A Saturday semi-final featuring the siblings could be in the cards, and with all the hoopla in Charleston this weekend as the “Original 9” are being honored, it could be quite a weekend for women’s tennis.
Here’s to a possible Saturday showdown.
Rick Limpert covers sports, technology and the intersection of sports and technology for the likes of Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports, and Examiner.com. He also hosts the popular “The Tech of Sports” radio show and podcast at http://netcaststudio.com/ . You can follow him on Twitter at @RickRoswell
What's the Mattek?
Bethanie Mattek, like Roger Federer, is having a quiet few weeks. In Miami, she played doubles with Mashona Washington. This week, she’s still in the draw at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina.
Outfits by Bebe Sport.
Tennis Legend Evonne Goolagong Cawley Officially Recognised
Written by the WTA Tour
ST. PETERSBURG, FL, USA – Australian tennis legend Evonne Goolagong Cawley has been officially recognised as one of only 16 women to have attained the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s World No.1 singles ranking since computer rankings were introduced in 1975.
It was recently discovered that Goolagong ascended to the top spot for one ranking period (rankings were issued bi-monthly during 1975-1990) shortly after her gripping 63 57 63 win over Chris Evert at prestigious 1976 Virginia Slims Championships held at the Forum in Los Angeles.
The belated accolade comes about following a recent search in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings archive in St. Petersburg, Florida, which revealed that a handful of paper records were in fact missing between April and July 1976, most notably was the ranking period April 26 to May 9.
On looking at the point differential between No.1 Evert and No.2 Goolagong on the April 12 printout, there was little separating the two. When the Jenkins method was applied to compute the rankings following the results of the Virginia Slims Championships on April 17, and with the 1975 Family Circle Cup points (which Evert won) from the 52 weeks previously coming off on April 26, Goolagong moves into the No.1 spot by 8/10ths of a Rating Point.
Two weeks later on May 10, when Evert’s victory at the 1976 Family Circle Cup and Goolagong’s non-entry are factored in, the American moves back into the No.1 spot for and would continue to hold it for 112 consecutive weeks until Martina Navratilova’s victory at Wimbledon in 1978.
To celebrate the achievement, the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour sent Goolagong Cawley a Waterford Crystal trophy, something new No.1s in recent years have received. She is pictured in this story with the trophy.
“I’m simply delighted,” said Goolagong Cawley from her home in Noosa, Queensland. “In Australia at the end of 1975 and during the ’76 Virginia Slims Tour (which finished just before Easter – Chris and I then played World TeamTennis with no more official tournaments until the WTT break for Wimbledon) I played at the highest level, the most consistent tennis of my career. The tournaments were on grass and on mostly quick carpet which helped the serve and volley part of my game and for five or six months I felt virtually unbeatable.
“Prior to this time, I had lost to Chris a number of times in a row mostly on clay – her best surface – but strangely during that time it was my ground strokes that improved and subsequently gave me such an edge on everyone, including her. Today I am happy and gratified that what I felt at the time has now been recognised officially. It’s personally very satisfying and this has been the best Christmas present.”
“Evonne was always one of the most beloved and gracious of champions,” said Sony Ericsson WTA Tour CEO & Chairman Larry Scott. “We felt once it came to light that she did in fact assume the No.1 ranking for a period in 1976, it was important to recognise the achievement, just like we had with all the other 15 women who have achieved that pinnacle in women’s tennis.
“Unfortunately our record keeping wasn’t perfect in those early days of women’s tennis and our ranking system was viewed as a means of just accepting tournament entries. It wasn’t until the early 1980s that the media and players started to pay attention to the changes in the rankings during the year as opposed to only the end of season rankings. Media coverage has evolved to the point now when a player cracks the Top 10 for the first time or attains the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour No.1 Ranking that it attracts world-wide attention and deservedly so.”
Veteran observers of the tennis writing community had this to say:
“Back in the Seventies, most of us as tennis writers didn’t pay much attention to the weekly rankings; we were more concerned with where the players stood at the end of the year, and that was when we paid serious attention. The computer rankings in the seventies were only just evolving and most of us were still writing on typewriters; of course there was no internet.
“Hence, when the WTA, through an innocent mistake, did not give Evonne Goolagong the honor she deserved as an authentic No.1 in 1976, that error went right by us in the press. We knew that Evonne was having a great year and was involved in an exciting battle for the top spot with Chris Evert, but the oversight regarding her rise to No.1 during that season was simply not noticed. Blame that on the times, the circumstances, and the fact that the week in, week out rankings were not a top concern of many writers, and that is why Goolagong never got her due.
“She was one of the great players of the Open Era and it is a very good thing for all of us historians that she is finally getting recognition for having achieved the No.1 ranking in the world. It adds to her legacy of seven Grand Slam singles championships and a wonderful overall record through the years.
“I do not blame the Tour in the least for what happened; in fact, it is setting the record straight now, and 31 years later Goolagong is at last being officially given an honor she deserved long ago. It is good for her and good for the game. When historical errors are made, they should be corrected, and that is the case right now. Good for the Tour and good for Goolagong, because now everyone will know that she was indeed the No.1 player in the world during her prime.”
Steve Flink
“Evonne was certainly one of the most graceful and charming of champions – a delight off the court and on. She was very shy as a young player and I think she surprised many of us by maturing into a powerful advocate for the Aboriginal people. I would imagine a strong family life when she got married helped her develop the confidence off the court and on it. 1976 was most certainly her most consistent year.
“The rankings were, indeed, less noted on the women’s tour than the men’s in those early days and records were badly kept so week by week would have been difficult to check at the time. It’s terrific that she gets her just reward now. But Evonne’s game transcended statistics. As Bill Tilden might have said, she played her own sweet game.”
Richard Evans
“Hurrahs to the diggers who discovered that Evonne Goolagong should have been ranked No.1 during 1976, not No.2. It took a while, but never too late for justice. This fact will be noted in the next edition of my Tennis Encyclopedia in 2008.”
Bud Collins