Archive for Percy896's Tennis Forum This is a new tennis forum to discuss professional tennis, vote and create polls, and ask advice about equipment, fitness, or anything regarding tennis! Now with a new Fantasy Tennis League!
Players of the FTL Tour are gathering in Australia for the start of Season 4. Just two weeks of warm-up tournaments will lead up to the year’s first Grand Slam, the Australian Open. Many have something to prove at the start of the season. Vanessa Child, who’s stunning form in the later half of last year enabled her to reclaim the number 1 ranking, has another chance to improve her legendary status in the game. She will look to complete a career Grand Slam by winning the Australian Open for the first time. Last year, she won her 4th Grand Slam at the US Open and comes into the new year having won the Federer Masters Cup at the end of the season with a thrilling comeback against PSALT in the final. World number 2 Jennacourt is just 163 points away from Child, and a good showing in Australia would certainly help her campaign to take back the top ranking. She had an amazing run of form at the heart of last year, when she went on a 13-match winning streak, which included her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon. A bit further down the rankings at 3 is PSALT, the young American who had a brilliant year. He reached 3 of 5 major finals [two grand slams] and has been in the final of the Australian Open for the last two years. Having lost both of his Grand Slam finals, he will be hungrier than ever to go the extra step in Melbourne. He did take a step forward at the Nalbandian Open, where he took his first Tier 1 title. John Edelstein is at 4th place right now, which reflects his dismal form last year. He was so unhappy with his game he even contemplated retirement. However, he is still around and has been in every Australian Open final, winning in the last 2 years. Another player ranked surprisingly low is Tricatrina. She was inconistent last year but did manage a run to the US Open final. She has never been beyond the SF in Melbourne, and had a disappointing 3rd round exit last year. Bizet, who started last year as the world number 1 has gone off the radar since losing in the Wimbledon final. His ranking could drop further if he doesn’t pick his game up. dav6789 and NEA picked themselves up from disappointing showings at the Federer Masters Cup to win the Team Cup for the UK for the first time, in emphatic style. dav6789 will look to better his SF appearance last year, while NEA will look to have a better start to the season than last year. Others to look out for are x.doublea who was a semi-finalist last year, Mollusk who recently won the Canadian International, and J-man the French Open Champion.
The season will start as usual in Auckland and Christmas Island. x.doublea won his first higher tier title in Auckland last year with an impressive victory over Jennacourt, a twice-former champion. Both have returned to New Zealand this year, and are joined by last year’s quarter-finalists Tricatrina and NEA, aswell as debutante dav6789. The Christmas Island Challenge has it’s poorest ever draw unfortunately, but stevos14, who was a popular winner last year, has returned to defend.
Some changes have been made to the tour for the new year. The Nalbandian Open has been downgraded from Tier 1 to Tier 2 status due to it’s inability to attract the best players. A new race ranking system will now decide the 8 qualifiers for the YEC. This will count up everyone’s performances at the Grand Slams and Tier 1 events, aswell as theit 5 best other tournaments. The normal ranking system will still remain, and decide seedings and acceptance into tournaments.
