Where Are They Now? Part Four

Sybille Bammer. Not only should Bammer win the "Mom of the Year" award over one Miss Lindsay Davenport, she might also be a strong candidate for "Breakthrough Player of the Year". In her 13th year on the tour, Bammer has reached a career-high #20 in the rankings and compiled a stunning 44-23 record. At 27, I can only see it getting better for the Austrian.

Tamira Paszek. Speaking of successful Austrians, one can't forget another breakthrough player from 2007 in Paszek. The 16-year-old, in her first year of competing at the majors, went 8-4, including 4th Round appearances both at Wimbledon and the Open. She had just two losses to players outside the Top 50 this year, and gave Justine Henin a run for her money more than once.

Sania Mirza. Midway through the year I was ready for Sania Mirza to finally make her run into the Top 20. She has had inconsistent success over the last three years, and after she shook off a bit of injury and immaturity, I thought Mirza would come into her own. But that didn't quite happen...though it doesn't mean it won't. Mirza went 14-6 over the summer, and her baseline game (particularly her giant forehand) loves the hardcourts. Is 2008 her year? I'm unsure of that, but she certainly will be one to watch.

Taylor Dent. Hasn't played a match in nearly two years, but has a new web site launched by (it appears) adidas and IMG. I'm guessing if you asked Dent today, he'd tell you he's still looking to get back on the tour as soon as he can.

Vania King. King was as high as #50 in the rankings last fall after she won Bangkok, but following a year in which she lost in the first round of every major and only made the quarterfinals in Thailand, the American teenager has fallen out of the Top 100. Perhaps some time in lower level tourneys might help King find her form.

TGIF: Tennis Chatter

The keyword "tennis" brings up 86,200 videos on YouTube. It's incredible to think of all those videos added by users that include pro tennis matches, commercials, player appearances, etc., along with homemade videos of individuals playing tennis, watching tennis or whatever. A lot of the videos are table tennis related, as well, and some have nothing to do with tennis at all! ...They just happen to have a "tennis" tag.

The top few videos (most watched) fall under the table tennis category. So I wanted to find out what was the most watched pro tennis video. After a little digging I found that this video, featuring Mr. Novak Djokovic, is the top tennis vid with over 1.3 million views. Check it out:



Defending Bangkok champion Vania King won a nail-biter over Dominika Cibulkova 6-7, 7-6, 7-6. If King wants to salvage her mediocre season, getting to the semis or finals of the tournament she won last year (featuring a much tougher draw this year) would be quite the accomplishment.

Sybille Bammer isn't the WTA's favorite mama anymore. Lindsay Davenport has stolen that title, and, it seems, #1 Mama as well. Bonnie Ford writes about Davenport's success since her comeback.

Scroll to the bottom of this news brief to see what Venus had to say after her loss to Virginie Razzano last week in Tokyo.

Paul Henri-Mathieu and Janko Tipsarevic continued their successful seasons with wins in Moscow on Friday to advance to the semifinals.

Vote on TENNIS.com on whether you think Sharapova will win a major next year or not. You might be surprised by the results once you vote.

Weekend Warriors

Rafael Nadal is proving himself to be quite the weekend warrior, just in time for the French Open.

Following his success at the Pacific Life, Nadal - for the second year in a row - defeated Roger Federer in the finals of Monte Carlo, this time in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.

What was telling about Nadal's performance this weekend wasn't the flashy part of his game, but rather his ability to stay clean on the dirt. Compared to Federer's 38 errors, Nadal committed just 19, holding his nerve and his game for his second title of the year.

Not only is Nadal looking good on the court, the Spaniard has also racked up 67 straight wins on clay, dating back to 2005. The next few weeks will be telling for Nadal's confidence heading into Roland Garros, where he's the two-time defending champion.

Meanwhile, Vania King, the 18-year-old American who vaulted herself into the top 100 last year, saved the day for the U.S. Fed Cup team, substituting for an injured Serena Williams to give the Americans an insurmountable 3-0 lead over Belgium.

King beat Kristen Flipkens 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 early in the afternoon before Venus won her singles and King teamed up with Lisa Raymond to give the Americans a 5-0 win. Now if King, ranked 83rd, can turn this weekend Fed Cup success into some tournament wins, we might see her inside the top 50.

Bridging the Gap

The men and women are playing together this week - and they're not at a major.

In Memphis, the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships kicked off this week. This event models what the future of the tours should look like: men and women playing together, at all levels, attracting fans, television audiences and growing the community of the two tours together.

Scheduling issues are wreaking havoc on both tours: the men are trying out round-robing while the women are slowly, but surely cutting our big events (bye, bye San Diego) because the tour is trying to please all parties.

Having more conjoined events would mean bigger crowds would get to see more players playing top-level tennis. I really enjoy the way that Toronto and Montreal have continued to switch their tournaments every other year. If the men and women were to join together at one location on year A and then jump to another location on year B, the tour(s) could continue to hit as many locations as possible while hopefully gaining more fans.

Creating community between the two tours is something that not only should happen, but needs to happen. This sort of connection would foster good relationships between players, coaches, agents and all those other inside people to make sure that the tours are attractive events that culminate four times a year at the Majors.

Meanwhile the WTA has caught on to the success of ATP.com's player blogs. This week, Vania King (who already lost in a heart-breaking first round singles match) is the blogger on the women's side while Tommy Haas (defending champion) is blogging it up on the men's side.

New (Players) Please

AA few years ago the ATP did all it could in the advertising department with the "New Balls, Please" ad campaign. It was a creative sort of run. There were superhero pictures with players like Hewitt, Safin, Roddick and Coria all gracing the blue/gray ATP posters and billboards with a sort of attitude that said, 'Yeah, we know we're big stuff.'

But the thing is, the NBP generation certainly hasn't produced what the tour thought and hoped it would. Coria is still slam-less (see: '04 final meltdown for that explanation), while Roddick remains a one-slam wonder (see: Federer, Roger) while Safin and Hewitt are known more for being head cases than for their games.

While Federer may have saved that generation on his own, it seemed as though the late 90s guys passed on the torch to the wave of players we are just beginning to see emerge now. With the new issue of TENNIS Magazine out, the abundance of new stars is pared down for those of us who gets all the new -ovics mixed up with the -ovas and criss-crossed with the, well...you get the point.

This "Hot Shot" section is one I really enjoyed. Though Nadal is the only Slam-winner of them all (he owns two French crowns), I don't think the hot shots of this generation will suffer the same fate as the lack-luster crew of the NBP campaign.

There is something about the Ivanovic/Vaidasova/Jankovic future of the WTA that I really like. There is personality, flair, drive and drama. There is also maturity, something we rarely see in women's tennis players prior to their 21st birthdays (see: Hingis, Martina). Is Vania King in the same league as these other girls? Well obviously not yet, but she certainly has the potential, and hey, TENNIS is giving its U.S. fans the optimism we all want.

Same goes for the men: look at that list! Nadal/Djokovic/Monfils/Bagdhatis and Gasquet sure make for a fun top five. What about Andy Murray? He's certainly up there, maybe just not as unknown as the latter four of that group. And while Nadal has been around a good while now, the guy is still young and still willing to do the publicity the ATP wants for a new sort of campaign. Sam Querrey falls in the King category: he can get there, he still has a way to go.

The fact is, the starts will just keep coming. For tennis today, however, I think it is necessary for fans to begin to establish relationships with players early. Look at the way those men listed above have already riled up crowds in many matches; that's something the women must learn to do as well, get some of that on-court spunk and get the crowd behind you. The last thing we need is an unpopular core of top five tennis players...something I doubt the Hot Shot Generation will be anything about.

Overseas Success

Madison Brengle isn't the only up-and-coming American teen.

Vania King, who won her first WTA Tour title last fall in Bangkok, won her opening match in Pattaya City, Thailand this week.

King has already had a busy 2007. After qualifying at Gold Goast, she suffered two first-round losses (including a first-round loss to Ivanovic at the AO) before going 2-1 at the qualifying draw in Tokyo.

She got a direct entry into Pattaya City this week and swept aside Jelena Kostanic Tosic 6-1 6-3 in the first round.

For King to continue her success she must keep playing a variety of tournaments. It is good that she still has to do some qualifying, it keeps her grounded and gives her good match experience. She has solid results last spring and summer that'll she'll have to follow up this year to keep inside the top 50 and - hopefully - move up.

As for Brengle, she sits #469 right now. She can continue to work on her minor-to-major shift slowly and hopefully enjoy the 2007 success that King had in '06.

For a continued success overseas, King will have to play points like this one from last year's Bangkok final against Tanasugarn: