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[I have good news for all you WTA fans: Bobby will be covering Charleston later this week, on site, for TW. If the intel is there to be gotten, she'll find it. Use this post to discuss tennis events all day. I know Monte Carlo will be in the forefront of your minds but I'm glad we have boots on the ground in Charleston! - PB]*
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by Bobby Chintapalli, TW Contributing Editor
As the women’s tour winds its way through Charleston for the Family Circle Cup this week, we’re talking as much about the players staying away as those playing away. Before we get to those who’ll be sliding across the green clay in South Carolina, let’s spare a thought for those who won’t be there, including a few who haven’t been anywhere in a while.
Staying Away
What’s up with the injuries? In the past week previous winner Serena Williams pulled out with a knee injury, defending champion Sabine Lisciki with an ankle injury, Maria Sharapova with an elbow injury and Dominika Cibulkova with a groin injury (yikes). And they’re not the only ones hurting.
In Miami Svetlana Kuznetsova lost in the fourth round with shoulder pain so severe she felt like she had stars in her eyes (her words, not mine), and Venus Williams lost in the final feeling who knows how but wrapped in enough bandage to make everyone wonder. Then there’s poor Dinara Safina, who spent much of last year openly winning tournaments when they weren’t Grand Slams, answering questions about how she had the audacity to be Number 1 and depriving herself of chocolate, while not so openly dealing with back issues that caused her to retire in Doha last November and again in Melbourne this January. She hasn’t played a match since.
The injuries are unfortunate, especially with three-fourths of the year left to go and three-fourths of the majors left to play. For some players it’s a good opportunity to recover and maybe hang out at the beach before hitting the Paris clay raring to play. For others, like Safina, you suspect that staying away can be taxing mentally and that coming back can be harder than if your last name is Williams or your nationality is Belgian.
Playing Away
Despite the long list of injured players and the post-match pressers that increasingly require medical degrees to comprehend, some Top 10 tennis players are actually playing tennis. In Charleston we have Caroline Woznicki, Victoria Azarenka and Number 7 – yes, her last name is Jankovic (but you can call her JJ).
Last week in Marbella Azarenka retired up 4-0 against Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez with a thigh injury, so her health is a question mark. Better described as an exclamation mark is the recent form of 2009 runner-up Wozniacki and 2007 winner Jankovic. In the last month both got back into the swing of things, which for them means, at the very least, getting one more ball back into play.
Surely Jankovic did more than defend well to win Indian Wells, especially in the final against Wozniacki. Serving up less drama and more aggressive play than usual, she was so dominant she made Wozniacki seem, as a Eurosport commentator put it, “like a poor man’s Jelena Jankovic”.
And that’s saying a lot, because… have you seen Wozniacki play lately? Her play tapered off a bit after the US Open, but the winsome Dane is back to her winning ways. She reached the final of Indian Wells, lost a close quarterfinal match against Justine Henin in Miami, and defended her title in Ponte Vedra Beach this weekend. She’s playing like the Number 2 ranking is fun – and like she deserves it. Some of her recent matches also show that she can win when she’s not playing well (Google “Elena Vesnina and Ponte Vedra Beach”) - and that she can play well when she’s not winning, nor expected to (Google “Justine Henin and Miami”).
Others joining these Top 10 players in Charleston include previous winner Nadia Petrova (2006) and previous runners-up Patty Schnyder (2002, 2006) and Vera Zvonareva (2008) as well as Sam Stosur, Marion Bartoli, Daniela Hantuchova, Melanie Oudin and Michelle Larcher de Brito. Doubles teams to look for include Liezel Huber and Nadia Petrova (that’s not a typo), Melanie Oudin and Shenay Perry, and Caroline Wozniacki and her countrywoman Malou Ejdesgaard.