AUS OPEN 2012: Venus Withdraws; Seeds Announced

7-time major champion Venus Williams announced today via Twitter that she is withdrawing from the 2012 Australian Open. Venus is now ranked #100 on the WTA Tour.

Also, today the seedings on the Men's and Women's singles were released, generally following the current world rankings:

1. Djokovic, Novak (SRB); 2. Nadal, Rafael (ESP); 3. Federer, Roger (SUI); 4. Murray, Andy (GBR); 5. Ferrer, David (ESP); 6. Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried (FRA); 7. Berdych, Tomas (CZE); 8. Fish, Mardy (USA); 9. Tipsarevic, Janko (SRB); 10. Almagro, Nicolas (ESP); 11. Del Potro, Juan Martin(ARG);12. Simon, Gilles (FRA); 13. Dolgopolov, Alexandr (UKR); 14. Monfils, Gael (FRA); 15. Roddick, Andy (USA); 16. Isner, John (USA); 17. Gasquet, Richard (FRA); 18. Lopez, Feliciano (ESP); 19. Troicki, Viktor (SRB); 20. Mayer, Florian (GER); 21. Wawrinka, Stanislas (SUI); 22. Verdasco, Fernando (ESP); 23. Raonic, Milos (CAN); 24. Nishikori, Kei (JPN); 25. Monaco, Juan (ARG); 26. Granollers, Marcel (ESP); 27. Chela, Juan Ignacio (ARG); 28. Ljubicic, Ivan (CRO); 29. Stepanek, Radek (CZE); 30. Anderson, Kevin (RSA); 31. Melzer, Jurgen (AUT); 32. Bogomolov Jr., Alex (RUS).


1. Wozniacki, Caroline (DEN); 2. Kvitova, Petra (CZE); 3. Azarenka, Victoria (BLR); 4. Sharapova, Maria (RUS); 5. Li, Na (CHN); 6. Stosur, Samantha (AUS); 7. Zvonareva, Vera (RUS); 8. Radwanska, Agnieszka (POL); 9. Bartoli, Marion (FRA); 10. Petkovic, Andrea (GER); 11. Schiavone, Francesca (ITA); 12. Clijsters, Kim (BEL); 13. Williams, Serena (USA); 14. Jankovic, Jelena (SRB); 15. Lisicki, Sabine (GER); 16. Pavlyuchenkova, Anastasia (RUS); 17. Peng, Shuai (CHN); 18. Cibulkova, Dominika (SVK); 19. Kuznetsova, Svetlana (RUS); 20. Pennetta, Flavia (ITA); 21. Hantuchova, Daniela (SVK); 22. Ivanovic, Ana (SRB); 23. Goerges, Julia (GER); 24. Vinci, Roberta (ITA); 25. Safarova, Lucie (CZE); 26. Kanepi, Kaia (EST); 27. Medina Garrigues, Anabel (ESP); 28. Kirilenko, Maria (RUS); 29. Wickmayer, Yanina (BEL); 30. Petrova, Nadezda (RUS); 31. Kerber, Angelique (GER); 32. Niculescu, Monica (ROU).

Kvitova, Stosur, Zvonareva, Azarenka Make WTA Tour Finals

Caroline Wozniacki, #1 player in the world, failed
to make the semifinals of the WTA Tour Championships

The final tournament of the 2011 WTA season is underway in Istanbul, the WTA Tour Championships. Although Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams did not even qualify, and World #2 Maria Sharapova showed up not fully recovered from an ankle injury and withdrew (from a round-robin tournament!) after losing two matches in a row.

The once and future World #1, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark clinkched the year-end #1 spot for the second consecutive year despite never having won a major title, and this year she did not even reach the final of a major.

Despite being #1, Wozniacki was dispatched relatively easily by Petra Kvitova after splitting two hard-fought 3-set matches with Agnieska Radwanska and Vera Zvonareva. The hard-hitting Kvitova came through the round-robin rounds undefeated and Zvonareva squeaked into the last semifinal spot ahead of Wozniacki when Radwanska failed to win a set against Kvitova depite being up 5-1.

In the other half of the draw Victoria Azarenka, Samantha Stosur, Li Na and Maria Sharapova (replaced by Marion Bartoli) fought it out for two spots with Stosur and Azarenka coming through to reach the semifinals.

2011 Wimbledon champ Kvitova will face 2011 US Open champ Stosur in one semifinal while Zvonareva faces Azarenka in the other.

MadProfessah predicts: Kvitova vs Azarenka in the final.

US OPEN 2011: Serena Seeded #28!

Serena Williams has won all 12 of the matches she has played on hard courts this year, and has won the US Open 3 times (1999, 2002 and 2008) and the Australian Open (which is also played on a hard court) 5 times (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010). But somehow the USTA seeding committee decided to seed her at #28, commensurate with her world ranking (at  #29). This is truly bizarre because she entered the tournament using her protected ranking of #1, which she had at the time she left the tour for 49 weeks in July 2010 after winning Wimbledon. She should have been seeded "Co-#1" similar to how Monica Seles was seeded when she came back from injury in 1995 after a 2 year hiatus. After all, Serena suffered a life-threatening malady which prevented her from playing for months.

The top seed at the final major for the year for the second year in a row is Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who despite being ensconced at the top of the WTA rankings for over a year has yet to win a major title and in fact has only reached one final, two years ago in 2009. The #2 seed is Vera Zvonareva of Russia who was in two major finals last year, while the #3 seed is the 2006 US Open champion, Maria Sharapova, who also made it to this year's Wimbledon final.

In the end it doesn't really matter where Serena is seeded, but she could end up hitting one of the Top 8 seeds in the 3rd round instead of the second week of the tournament. Bad luck for whomever she gets; the draw comes out on Thursday.

Serena Withdraws From Cincinnati With Toe Injury

Serena Williams withdrew from the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati on Wednesday, defaulting her 3rd round match with Samantha Stosur, whom she beat on Sunday to win the Rogers Cup title. The next time Serena appears on court, it will be at the 2011 US Open in New York City.

Venus, Serena Win In Grass Season Debuts

Venus Williams, 5-time Wimbledon champion, played her first grass court match of the year and her first WTA tour match since losing in the 3rd round of the Australian Open Andrea Petkovic on Monday. Venus won 7-5 5-7 6-3 against the World #11 (#8 seed) at the Eastbourne warm-up tournament for Wimbledon, which starts on Monday June 20.

4-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams played her first tennis match in nearly a year at the same tournament today, beating 2010 Wimbledon semifinalist Tsvetana Pironkova 1-6 6-3 6-4.

Venus and Serena have won a combined 9 Wimbledon singles titles since 2000, playing 5 finals against each other. The graphic above illustrates Venus' amazing performances at Wimbledon since her 1998 debut, 5 titles, 3 finalists and 3 quarterfinals but also two horrendous early round losses in 2004 and 2006.