Li Na Makes History

by Craig Hickman


AP

Li Na became the first Chinese player to win a Premier event on the WTA tour. The first Chinese player to ever break into the Top 10 and the first to compete in a Slam quarterfinal (Wimbledon 2006), the independent and spirited fighter is poised to make more waves at the Australian Open next week. Last year, she and compatriot Zheng Jie both advanced to the semifinals Down Under. Surely Li will be looking to go at least one step further. She has a draw she can work with, to be sure.

She looked down and out against Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals but fought through. In a blink, she was facing a 0-5 deficit in the finals. Then, almost like clockwork, Kim Clijsters performed one of her characteristic disappearing acts, stinking up the joint with error after error, and in another blink, the set was level at 5-5.

The rest is history.

"I've played here many years. Every time I saw the name of the champion and I would think, 'Oh, when will my name be there?'" Li said. "Also, when you walk to center court, you can see many pictures of champions over there. So after today I talked to me team, saying we will come next year and see my picture.

"But now Sydney is over and I have to focus on Melbourne. After these two hours, I just have to forget everything and start the next day."

The week's other winners.


Getty

Gilles Simon of France holds the trophy after beating Viktor Troicki of Serbia 7-5, 7-6(4) in the 2011 Medibank International final at Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre on January 15, 2011 in Sydney, Australia.


AP

David Ferrer of Spain celebrates with his trophy after his 6-3, 6-2 victory over David Nalbandian of Argentina at the final of the Heineken Open men's tennis tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011.

Does the Spanish David play the flute?

AP

Jarmila Groth of Australia celebrates her 6-4, 6-3 victory over Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States at the Hobart International women's tennis tournament in Hobart, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011.

Is that a trophy, a splay of organ pipes, or some dried driftwood with a shield affixed?

::

On to Melbourne....

::

The Weekend's Winners - and The WTA in the Desert

by Savannah

The WTA wound up it's season with a Premier event in Moscow and an International event in Luxembourg. The only women who got a break were the ones who took one.

Roberta Vinci won the singles title in Luxembourg.

Timea Bacsinszky and Tathiana Garbin were the Luxembourg doubles champions.
Meanwhile in Moscow there was a Victor/Victoria moment.

Victoria Azarenka fought like hell to come back from being down 0-4 in the second set to defeat Maria Kirilenko in straight sets 6-3, 6-4. Kirilenko will have nightmares about that second set.

Meanwhile the Glam Girls team of Flavia Pennetta and Gisela Dulko won the doubles championship.
The ATP staged 250 events in Moscow and Stockholm.

To no one's surprise Roger Federer won easily in Stockholm. It seems Jonas Bjorkman managed to detach himself from Roger's anus.

Eric Butorac and Jean-Julien Rojer won the doubles championship.

In Moscow the team of Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Kunitsyn took the doubles championship.

Viktor Troicki won his first ATP title in Moscow defeating Marcos Baghdatis in three sets.
Congratulations to them all.

Women in the Desert

The WTA Year End Championships begin tomorrow in Doha. The WTA is also introducing it's new logo, featured above with seven of the eight competitor at this event. The group breakdown is as follows:

Maroon

Caroline Wozniacki

Francesca Schiavone

Samantha Stosur

Elena Dementieva

White

Vera Zvonareva

Kim Clijsters

Jelena Jankovic

Victoria Azarenka

The White Group is quite competitive while the Maroon Group is pretty, well, WTAish. May the best woman win.

Idle Chit Chat

As everyone in the world knows Maria Sharapova's engagement to Los Angeles Laker Sasha Vujacic was the big news last week. They look very happy in this picture and I'm glad to see that. Of course, being me, I wanted to see the ring.

Looks like he stepped up to the plate and did right by her. I don't think a date has been set. The NBA season is about to start and her season will start in January. Best wishes to both of them.