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After a disappointing start to the season at the Australian Open, Vanessa Child has taken control of the tour once again and has remained the world’s top ranked player. She has finally regained the stranglehold she had on the game four years ago. At the start of the year, Yodavitch looked well on his way to becoming number 1 again when he won his first three tournaments of the season including the Australian Open. It all changed in the early spring, when Child got her season’s campaign going. Child won the Dementieva International in style without the loss of a set. She then achieved one of the greatest honours in tennis: winning both Williams Series titles. She had already achieved this feat four years ago before Jennacourt emulated her the following year. Last year, her and Jennacourt shared both titles, so this year was even more interesting. At the WS-Venus, she had impressive wins over Hewitt Hardcoruts champion Aztec and Jbors47 (who had ended Yodavitch’s streak), and won a re-match of the Masters Cup final against PSALT. She came back from a set down in all of those matches. She went to defend the WS-Serena, but once again had to fight through 3-setters. She beat rising star stevos14, and repeated a recent win over Mollusk to reach the SF. From there she beat both Australian Open finalists: the runner-up dav6789 5-7 6-4 6-4, and the champion Yodavitch 6-3 5-7 6-4. This is one of the biggest achievements in Child’s career to win the Williams Series for a second time. To reflect her utter commitment, 7 of her 8 matches were 3 sets.
The claycourt season then came about, a part of the year where Child has had ups and downs. This time, she only had ups. She defended the Coria Claycourt Masters with a convincing win over 2nd seed Jennacourt. She took a small break and came back just before the French Open. She won the Nadal Clay Championships, a tournament she had won in Season 1. She was in blistering form in Spain, racing to the title without losing a set. Her SF win over 2-time defending champion‘Queen of Clay’ Tricatrina was an absolute thrashing, 6-1 6-3 .She repeated another straight sets win over Jennacourt in the final. There were no surprise upsets of Child at the French Open, the year’s second grand slam, this time. Child once again fought her way through to a title. She had a marathon win over leftys_rock, 7-5 in the final set, and beat 8th seed dav6789 6-0 4-6 6-4 in the QF. In the SF, she stopped the huge run of Agassi2000, coming back from the brink of defeat and winning 4-6 6-4 6-3. She played Yodavitch in the final, the only player who has come close to matching Child’s form this year. Yodavitch won the first set 6-4, before Child stormed back in the second. The final went right down to the wire, with Child winning an exciting tie-break 7-5. She has retained the French Open, and has put together the highest ever winning streak on FTL. It has now reached 23! She has been completely dominant so far this year, and things only get better for her as she gets the chance to step on a grass court. Child is a two-time former champion at Wimbledon, and surely is a heavy favourite to win the title again.
Although no player has come close to Child or Yodavitch this year, there are some who have shown some promising form during the claycourt season. leftys_rock, who earlier won the Murray Indoors, won her biggest claycourt title at the Gaudio Grand Prix. She best both ‘the Queen and King of clay’ (former champion Tricatrina and NEA) in back-to-back matches. She came back from a set down in both matches. She made full use of those incredible victories with a comfortable 6-4 6-4 win over another former champion Stroganoff. Not_Even_Amateur started to live up to some of his claycourt potential. Before the claycourt season started, he won the Romania Clay Open, and a hardcourt tournament. He had a SF run at the Gaudio Grand Prix, which included a win over defending champion x.doublea. He showed some of his best ever form on clay a few weeks later in Russia. He won the Myskina Tennis Cup with a classic final win over French Open champion J-man. The match was filled with long rallies, but NEA, patient as ever, ground out a gruelling win 7-6 4-6 6-4. He had a shock loss to Avolt at the Henin-Hardenne Open, but rebounded with another SF showing in Spain. His results had him rocketing up the rankings, peaking at 3 for a while. x.doublea won the Lopez Clay Premier and managed to reach the Henin-Hardenne Open final for the second straight year, but lost out to Tricatrina. dav6789 had a poor start in Argentina, but rebounded with 3 QF appearances, including his first French Open QF. Agassi2000 hit red hot form towards the end of the claycourt season. He won 2 straight tournaments before a fairytale run to the French Open semi-finals. He fought back to beat last year’s finalist PSALT 3-6 6-4 6-4 in the QF.
The grass season will start later today, at the Johansson Cup in Linkoping, Sweden. Yodavitch, fresh from the French Open final, is the top seed this week. NEA is the second seed, followed by 2-time former champion Bizet, and defending champion PSALT. Wimbledon is only around the corner!
