Archive for the 'Players News' Category

French tennis star Amelie Mauresmo is out of commission for at least a month because of an emergency appendectomy. Ranked fourth in the world, Mauresmo was hospitalized in Paris due to a severe stomach ache for a few days before a sonogram detected that her appendix required removal. She was forced to withdraw from the Sony Ericsson Open being held in Key Biscayne, Florida but hopes to be well in time for the clay court season.

The operation went well and all that’s left for me is to wait patiently. The surgeon advised me to walk a bit but not to do anything else. I will doubtless need a good month to get all my physical capacities back.”
– Amelie Mauresmo

All of us at Wicked Backhand wish Amelie a quick and complete recovery, Roland Garros would not be the same without you!

It must be truly tough to go through a divorce and lose your world number one ranking at the same time. This is what Justine Henin is facing, yet she refuses to surrender her career. Justine recently separated from husband Pierre-Yves Hardenne and revealed publicly that she is in great pain and shock. She is not aiming to regain her number one ranking just yet, instead she is thinking less about competing and more about regaining emotional control, motivation, and rhythm.

Justine missed this year’s Australian Open due to the separation, the details of which she wants kept private. Though the former triple Grand Slam winner spoke candidly about the pain in her life, she stressed that her recovery from this trauma depends partially on how she is treated during the next few weeks.

“I want to keep my private life with the name I give it — it’s private,” emphasized Henin.

“I am sure a lot of people understand that. You always have a lot of people who are very curious and they want to know why and who — and who cares? That’s my life. Everyone has to respect it because we all have the same rights.

We can talk about tennis and I know I am a public person. I understand that perfectly. But as soon as I am not on a tennis court, and as soon as something touches my private life, I think I can keep it for myself, and it is a little bit like my secret garden and I am sure people can accept that.

Why would I be different, because I am a famous tennis player? I am human. And I am a person before I am a tennis player.”

The Medibank International is just finishing up in Sydney, Australia. One of our Wicked Backhand readers subscribes to The Tennis Channel and I do not, so I wanted to share with you his account of yesterday’s semifinal match between Jankovic and Vaidisova:

“Wow, what a slugfest between Jankovic and Vaidisova. Jankovic was really stretched to her limit but was she tough in the clutch. I thought Vaidisova could have won it but when the points got very important late in the 3rd she just wasn’t mentally as tough as Jankovic. Nicole has a big game though–what Mary Carillo coined ‘Big Babe Tennis’. I love that. She has that kind of game as does Jelena but she has a more well-rounded game. I’ll be very surprised if Jelena has enough to take care of Clijsters. She is certainly a good bet for winning a slam this year.” (Contributed by Linus Minsk)

Though Clijsters did beat Jankovic in the finals, Jelena managed to knock off Hingis in the first round of play and Mauresmo in the quarterfinals; she certainly does look to be a contender for a Grand Slam win this year. Despite losing to Clijsters, Jankovic climbed to number 11 in world rankings. As for Clijsters, what a way to begin her last year in professional tennis!

Former World No. 1 Björn Borg is scheduled to play the Liverpool International Tennis Tournament this June, his first appearance on English grass in over 25 years. The 50 year-old Swedish tennis legend will play a doubles match on June 13 and a singles match on June 15 at Calderstones Park in Liverpool. For ticket information, visit www.liverpooltennis.co.uk.

Borg won five straight Wimbledon titles (1976-1980) but lost his last Wimbledon final to his rival John McEnroe in 1981. Eurosport.com has an entertaining excerpt from a recent joint interview with Borg and McEnroe. For Swedish speakers, Expressen has the full interview between the legendary rivals.

Borg holds a record six French Open titles; he is widely considered one of the all-time greatest tennis players. He officially retired from tennis at the age of 26 in 1983. In December 2006, Borg was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by BBC Sports.

Venus Williams, ranked number 48 in the world of women’s tennis, has withdrawn from next week’s Australian Open. Williams will miss the first Grand Slam of 2007 due to an injury to her left wrist. The women’s competition should be fierce regardless; Amelie Mauresmo was just beaten in the Sydney International by Jelena Jankovic who looks to be a strong possibility for the Australian Open title. Jankovic is number 12 in the world and won New Zealand’s Auckland Classic last week as well.

The men’s competition for the event is decidedly less so. Nikolay Davydenko, currently world number 3, just dropped out of the Sydney International due to what is likely a stress fracture in his foot. David Nalbandian, ranked eighth in the world, is suffering from tendonitis in his knee. Both are likely to be no-shows next week in Melbourne along with world number 2 Rafael Nadal who appears to be temporarily out of action.

Three-time Grand Slam winner and former world number one, Lindsay Davenport is trading her racquet bag for a diaper bag. She and husband Jonathan Leach recently announced her pregnancy and stated that she does not expect to play tennis professionally in the future.

At thirty years old, Lindsay says she hates to use the word “retirement” but that due to injuries and her focus on family, she is ready to move to the next phase of her life. She suffered from back problems throughout most of the 2006 season, ending the year ranked at 25 in the world.

Davenport’s career highlights include winning the US Open in 1998, Wimbledon in 1999, and the Australian Open in 2000; 51 singles titles, 36 doubles titles; Olympic gold medalist in 1996. She finished four seasons as top ranked player in the world (1998, 2001, 2004, and 2005). Among active tennis players, Davenport has earned the most career prize money, more than $21 million. Over 6 feet, 2 inches, she is the tallest woman ever to win a Grand Slam singles title!

The International Tennis Federation chose Swiss superstar Roger Federer and Belgian ace Justine Henin-Hardenne as their 2006 World Champions. This is Roger’s third consecutive year winning this honor; Justine won it previously in 2003. Both Federer and Henin-Hardenne finished the tennis season as number one in the world, competing in all four of the Grand Slam finals. Ironically, Federer’s only Grand Slam loss came at the French Open, which was Henin-Hardenne’s only Grand Slam win in 2006.

Bob and Mike Bryan, American twins, are the International Tennis Federation’s men’s double world champions; Lisa Raymond (US) and Samantha Stosur (Australia) are the ITF women’s double world champions. Thiemo de Bakker of Holland is the boy’s world champion and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia is the girl’s world champion. The ITF Awards ceremony will take place in Paris at the French Open on June 5, 2007.

Though Henin-Hardenne led the WTA Tour this year with six titles, Mauresmo beat H-H in both the Australian Open and Wimbledon finals. Henin-Hardenne also lost to Mauresmo in total number of votes for the International Tennis Writers’ Association’s Player of the Year Award. The ITWA chose Roger Federer and Amelie Mauresmo as Player of the Year, voting them the sport’s best ambassadors. This is Roger’s third successive year selected; it is Amelie’s first such honor. Mauresmo won this year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon, as well as the hearts of fans and journalists.

Kim Clijsters, currently ranked number five woman in the world of tennis, has declared 2007 her last year of professional tennis. Though Clijsters is only 23, she is plagued by persistent injuries. She also plans to marry American Brian Lynch right after Wimbledon and devote herself to starting a family and making a home. Lynch plays for the Belgian basketball club Bree, Clijsters’ hometown team.

Clijsters’ career highlights include winning the 2005 US Open as well as 36 other singles titles. She was the first Belgian female to reach a Grand Slam final at Roland Garros in 2001 though she was defeated by Jennifer Capriati. Kim held the world’s number one ranking for a period during 2003 and has earned over $14 million in prize money.

In 2004, injuries began to bother Clijsters when she sprained her ankle badly and withdrew from a tournament in Sydney. She managed to come back and win Antwerp (the biggest match in her home country of Belgium) but then another injury struck when Kim hurt her wrist in play at Indian Wells. After months of rest and rehabilitation, she fought her way back again. In 2005, her world ranking soared from 133 to 17, and even a bad knee injury did not keep Clijsters from winning her first Grand Slam—the US Open! Sadly her game in 2006 was hampered by an injured hip, a twisted ankle, an injured foot, and a painful fall on her wrist.

“2007 will become my final year for sure. Pretty special if you ask me. I’ll select some nice tournaments so as to go and say goodbye to the many nice people I have met in the past,” Clijsters said in her web diary in November. Kim will begin her last year in tennis in Australia where she has long been a favorite, perhaps partly due to her former engagement to top Australian player Lleyton Hewitt. She will also play her home tournament in Antwerp though she declined an invitation from the Belgian Olympic Committee to play at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Read Clijster’s web diary for further thoughts about her last year in women’s tennis.

Imagine you are at CBGBs in NYC and you overhear John McEnroe go to Henry Rollins, “Yeah, whatever. F— Lendl.” [Laughs]. No, really, it happened. You may know Rollins as a hardcore/punk singer/songwriter, spoken word artist, prose and poetry writer, radio and TV personality, movie actor, comedian, or voice-over artist, but he also plays a wicked game of tennis. Read more at tennis.com.

Andre Agassi is scheduled to appear in a special, Barbara Walters Presents the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2006 on Tuesday, December 12, 2006 at 10 p.m. (ET) on ABC.

Agassi’s amazing career includes eight Grand Slam titles, a total of 21 US Opens (including two championships), and spans two decades. He is the second American to win all four major titles.

Agassi is a giant on and off the court; since retiring from tennis he devotes more time to championing abused and underprivileged children with organizations such as Grand Slam for Children. The March of Dimes recently honored Agassi as Sportsman of the Year.

Also featured on the Barbara Walters special will be Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, Grey’s Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey, and rapper Jay-Z.