Tennis News

After spending a large portion of 2013 on crutches, Moscow native Daria Gavrilova overcame the odds and eventually succeeded in winning the Australian Open playoff event to receive a wildcard entry into the first Grand Slam of the season.

“I was just like ‘Oh, I wish I was playing, why did this happen to me?’ ” Gavrilova recalled after Sunday’s playoff finals win over Arina Rodionova guaranteed her main draw entry at Melbourne Park next month (via Sydney morning Herald). “But now I actually thought about it during my match, I was like ‘Oh, wow, you were on crutches last year, so c’mon, keep fighting, you can do it’. So that helped.”

Her effort is not to be taken mildly. She was required to undergo right knee construction and then forced onto the sidelines for a significant period of time. The US Open junior champion and former world No. 1 Junior had ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament in Taiwan and had to wait patiently until she had recovered. Her tournament victory is the result of hard work and dedication to the craft and to her recovery.

“I’m really happy,” said the graduate of Russia’s Spartak Tennis Club, more recent Carlton fan and Vegemite lover. “It’s unbelievable, and it just feels great that I won it, and I just feel like ‘Yeah, you deserve to be in the main draw of the Australian Open’.”

The 20-year-old Russian native, who is applying for Australian citizenship, will soon become the latest representative and prospect from the and down under. It will be interesting to see how she perform during the Australian Open in January.

Tennis has had no shortage in drug abuse, both recreational and performance enhancing. However, many tennis fans and professionals are content to believe that tennis is more or less a PED-free sport. Media outlets in tennis underplay certain drug failures, instead of arguably striving to publicize such failures.

The topic of tennis’ ‘flawed’ drug testing was recently discussed in a Sports Illustrated Mailbag with Jon Wertheim, where he explained that, for years, “tennis operated under the assumption that it was above doping.” There has even been cases of the ATP burying Andre Agassi’s positive test during the early portion of his career, which emphasized their ability and willingness to cover up for certain stars.

However, it appears the International Tennis Federation has stepped up the regimens and increased drug testing over the past few years. Players such as Marin Cilic and Viktor Troicki have felt the wrath of the ITF when they failed to meet their standards. Yet, while the ITF conducted over 2,7000 tests in 2014, only 6000 of them were out-of-competition random tests, which is the best method to catch abusers.

Several days ago, Canadian star Eugenie Bouchard took to twitter to reveal that she had been tested on six separate occasions to date in the off-season – which is to say, in less than two months.

While no other player has been this vocal about the testing on twitter, it is safe to assume that Bouchard is not the only notable tennis star being subjected to consistent testing.

“6th anti doping visit this off season… Think we’re good guys.” pic.twitter.com/UUA7w1FyCt

After parting ways with Romanian No. 1 Simona Halep during the off-season, it appeared as though coach Wim Fissette would be joining forces with Madison Keys, the top-ranked American youngster behind Serena Williams. However, that report was soon refuted and it has now been revealed that the Romanian coach has joined forces with another American in Taylor Townsend.

The news was first announced by Belgian website Sportwereld.

Fissette previously coached the likes of Kim Clijsters and Sabine Lisicki. Under his tutelage, Halep took part in a career-best season on the WTA tour – one that included her first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros, a career-high ranking of world No. 2, and a semi-final showing at the Wimbledon Championships. She completed her season with a runner-up showing at the WTA Finals in Singapore.

Townsend won her first ITF title in Charlottesville, defeating Montserrat González in the final. Together with Asia Muhammad she also won doubles competition at the same tournament. Just a week later she won her second ITF title in Indian Harbour Beach, her opponent in the final this time was Yulia Putintseva.

Later on in the year, she won the USTA wild card entry into the French Open, where she made her Grand Slam singles debut ranked No. 205 in the world. In the first round, she defeated fellow American world No. 65 Vania King, and then upset the No. 20 seed and No. 1 Frenchwoman Alize Cornet in the second round to become the first American woman to advance to the third round.

As one of the most promising American female youngsters on the tour, it will be interesting to see how Fissette molds Townsend over the coming months.

After abstaining from professional competition against his will following arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder in June, Tommy Haas announced that he will not compete in the first Grand Slam tournament of 2015.

Hass has not been seen on the tour since he retired during the opening round of the French Open. This is not the first time the veteran will undergo surgery during his professional career, as he had operations on his hip and elbow back in 2012.

“The comeback from injury is going pretty well,” Haas said in an interview with E llesse Italia. “Obviously, surgery went well, which is one of the most important things. The other important thing is to be patient and let the healing process take its course.”

“My doctor strictly said that if everything goes well, I’d probably have eight months before I could come back, which means (I’ll be back) for Indian Wells 2015. I’ll be ready to go again. It is probably one of my favourite tournaments throughout the year.”

The three-time semi-finalist also revealed that he will likely not return from his spell on the sidelines until the Indian Wells Masters event in March. He is one of three Top 100 players who will not take part in the Australian Open this year, along with Jack Sock, who underwent hip surgery and is still recovering from the procedure.

Haas is currently ranked at No. 77 on the ATP World Tour and will be looking to climb back to his regular home within the Top 20 on the tour in 2015.

The latest endeavor of the Roger Federer foundation was the ‘Match for Africa’ event last week, which featured an exhibition match between the 17-time Grand Slam champion and fellow countryman and Swiss No. 2 Stan Wawrinka.

The event, which took place in the sold out Hallenstadion in Zurich, garnered 11, 000 fans to watch their country’s top two competitors take part in an enthralling encounter mixed with entertaining points and humorous moments. Eventually, after a 93-minute affair, Federer won the match 7-6 (4), 6-4.

“The evening was a great experience for me,” said Federer. “Stan and I were given a wonderful reception in the stadium. The fact that we were able to raise such a large amount for the foundation makes the evening even more special. A hearty thank you to Stan that he made this possible.”

Although the match concluded in straight sets, it was an entertaining and competitive affair and only featured one break of serve throughout. Federer was able to take the lead in the second set and maintain it to finish the match in dominant fashion.

The event was deemed a success, as the Roger Federer Foundation was able to raise 1.3 million Swiss Francs. The goal of the organization is to support and promote access to quality education and to help operate local nonprofit organizations in Southern Africa.

Federer will begin his 2015 season at the Brisbane International, where he finished runner-up to Lleyton Hewitt last season. Wawrinka will take part in his traditiona first stop on the tour – the Chennai Open in India.

Following a mediocre year on the tour, Daniela Hantuchova announced that she has officially joined forces with Li Na’s former coach Carlos Rodriguez for the upcoming season on the WTA Tour.

“I’m very happy to announce my working relationship with Carlos Rodriguez, whose work I have admired for many, many years and what an incredible job he has done with Justine and Li Na. It’s my privilege to have Carlos by my side and I’m very thankful for this opportunity,” she said on Facebook.

The ATP revealed this week that there would be significant prize money increases over the next four years that will see overall player compensation on the ATP World Tour reach US$135 million by 2018.

Over the past year, there were rumours and speculation that players were interested in an increase in prize money particularly at Masters 1000 events, which just so happen to be the most impacted events over the coming years. They will witness a 14-percent hike in prize money allocation to players.

Compensation for players at ATP World Tour events in 2015 will exceed US$100 million for the first time in the tour’s history. This increase is a testament to the sustained success of men’s professional tennis, as well as demonstrating the ATP’s confidence in the strength of its product and projected growth in future years.

The biggest increases in player compensation come at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 category, with tournaments providing annual increases of 11%, and with the ATP contributing a further 3% increase, resulting in a 14% annual increase in that category through to 2018. Player compensation at the ATP World Tour 250s is set to increase at an average of 3.5% per year during the same period.

The latest decisions at Masters 1000 and 250-level mean that player compensation is now confirmed across all three ATP World Tour tournament categories for a four-year period. Player compensation for a five-year period for the ATP World Tour 500 category was decided at the end of 2013.

The ATP’s announcement comes shortly following the WTA’s historic broadcast deal several days prior – both signs of the continuous development of tennis on a global scale.