These are the days that must try a WTA player’s soul. Fresh off a Grand Slam in one corner of the world, they scatter for Fed Cup duty the next weekend, and then put their noses back to the tour grindstone at events in Paris, Bogota, and Pattaya City, Thailand, all of which start today.
New No. 1 and star of the moment Victoria Azarenka was sidelined during Fed Cup in the U.S., and she’s not playing this week. But much of the rest of the tour plows on. The Open GDF Suez in Paris, in particular, has a strong draw, led by the woman Azarenka leveled in Melbourne, Maria Sharapova. We’ll see how quickly she recovers from that mortifying defeat.
Open GDF Suez
Paris
$637,000
Hard courts; WTA Premier
Draw is here
Sharapova leads the way as the top seed, followed by Marion Bartoli, Li Na, Jelena Jankovic, Sabine Lisicki, and Julia Goerges—not a bad lineup. This indoor court has been quick in the past, though I can’t say who that favors out of this hard-hitting group. It might favor the also-hard-hitting Lucie Safarova more than any of them. The Czech has been to the final here twice. She opens this time against Lisicki.
Other interesting first-rounders include Kaia Kanepi vs. Christina McHale, Jankovic vs. Yanina Wickmayer, Goerges vs. Shahar Peer and Li vs. Tsvetana Pironkova.
Questions to be asked, and, possibly, answered: Can Sharapova and Li bounce back from rough endings in Australia? On a related note, will we see another vanishing act from Li post-Oz? Where does Lisicki stand, consistency-wise, after her successful 2011? And what’s left for Jelena Jankovic, who just keeps rolling, seemingly through anything.
This weekend, after the heat of Melbourne, Jankovic survived temperatures inside a Charleroi stadium that dropped below 10 degrees during Serbia’s Fed Cup win over Belgium. It was so cold that the balls, the court, and Jankovic’s muscles all stiffened up. “I had sharp pain at times," Jankovic said after her win over Kristen Flipkens in the tie’s opening match, “but I tried not to think about it. I just kept going, and I got through it.”
I guess I wasn’t kidding: These are the moments that try WTA players’ souls, as well as their bodies.
PTT Pattaya Open
Pattaya City, Thailand
$220,000
Hard courts; WTA International
Draw is here
It’s taken years for fans in the U.S. to get used to the flood of -ovas, -evas, -inas, and vitches who have taken over the women’s game. Thank goodness, then, that Thailand has yet to turn itself into a WTA power. Playing their local tournament this year are Varatchaya Wongteanchai, Noppowan Lertcheewakarn, Nicha Lertpitaksinchai, Nungnadda Wannasuk, as well as the veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn. Makes you appreciate the presence of four-syllabled Laura Robson all the more—gives the mouth a break.
None of the locals at this most international of International-level events are seeded. Topping the draw is Vera Zvonareva; on the other side, seeded second, is Dominika Cilbulkova. Zvonareva, in particular, could use a positive jolt. She’s off to a slow start in 2012, having lost in the first round in Sydney and the third round in Melbourne. Zvonareva will be 28 this year; are her days of threatening for majors behind her?
Also here: Sorana Cirstea, who knocked off Sam Stosur in Oz; Jie Zheng, who has won in Auckland this season and reached the round of 16 in Melbourne; Heather Watson, who, along with Robson and new captain Judy Murray, won the most well-publicized non-World Group Fed Cup tie in history for Great Britain this past weekend; and Urszula Radwanska, whose name suddenly seems like a piece of cake for us Americans to say.