{"id":1012,"date":"2009-04-25T12:24:29","date_gmt":"2009-04-25T20:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/?p=1011"},"modified":"2009-04-25T12:24:29","modified_gmt":"2009-04-25T20:24:29","slug":"2009-fed-cup-semis-the-wta-gets-taller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/2009-fed-cup-semis-the-wta-gets-taller\/","title":{"rendered":"2009 Fed Cup Semis: The WTA Gets Taller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Tall players dominated on day one of Fed Cup. Is that what the future looks like?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I wanted to watch <b>David Ferrer<\/b> take out <b>Fernando Gonzalez<\/b> is a third set tiebreaker in Barcelona, but it\u2019s on delay and I\u2019m going to an over 50\u2019s party this afternoon (you don\u2019t think they\u2019d have parties for older people at night do you?) so let\u2019s take a look at Fed Cup.<\/p>\n<p><div style=\"float:left;margin-right:5px;;height:462px;\" class=\"picappstyle\"><script src=\"http:\/\/cdn.pis.picapp.com\/IamProd\/Resources\/Javascripts\/PisV3.js\"><\/script><script src=\"http:\/\/cdn.pis.picapp.com\/IamProd\/Resources\/javascripts\/DataV3.ashx?ImageId=935006&#038;PublisherId=0\"><\/script><a href=\"http:\/\/view.picapp.com\/default.aspx?term=kvitova&#038;iid=4255858\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"remove\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"picappimg\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn.picapp.com\/ftp\/Images\/5\/c\/9\/c\/BNP_Paribas_Open_3b50.jpg\" width=\"234\" height=\"316\" oncontextmenu=\"return false;\" onload=\"try{registerLoadImage(this)}catch(ex){}\" alt=\"BNP Paribas Open Day 7\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var iamInit = function() {try{initIamServingHandler(234,316,935006,\"http:\/\/cdn.pis.picapp.com\/IamProd\/Resources\/Css\/css2.css\")}catch(ex){}}()<\/script><\/div>\n<p>I don\u2019t pay much attention to Fed Cup, particularly U.S. Fed Cup team because U.S. players don\u2019t pay much attention. True to form, both U.S. singles players are Fed Cup rookies. <b>Bethanie Mattek-Sands<\/b> is one of my favorite WTA players but not so much for her game as much as her personality.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s the fashion thing with the low cut bustier, plaid cowboy hat and knee-hi socks, but she\u2019s also the sauciest player on tour \u2013 she\u2019ll say anything and that\u2019s rare. Today her fashion is toned down with a plain white top and tennis skort except for the red, white and blue color scheme.<\/p>\n<p>Bethanie and her opponent, <b>Petra Kvitova<\/b> of the Czech Republic, express the difference between U.S. and Eastern European tennis. Bethanie is 5&#8242; 6&#8243; (1.68 m) and Kvitova is 6&#8242; (1.83 m). Kvitova isn\u2019t a great mover \u2013 she has those slumped shoulders tall women sometimes have as if to pretend that they really aren\u2019t as tall as they are \u2013 but, as you can imagine, she hammers the ball and today\u2019s match is on a fast indoor surface.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not like the U.S. never had such players. I\u2019ve just pretty much described <b>Lindsay Davenport<\/b> complete with slumped shoulders and <b>Venus Williams<\/b> without them, but Venus is an exception and Eastern Europe has size in spades. No one in the top ten is shorter than 5\u2019 7\u201d (1.7 m) and seven of them are over 5\u2019 10\u201d (1.79 m) and except for Venus and her sister Serena, they\u2019re all from Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m tempted to say that women\u2019s tennis has turned into what the men\u2019s tour might look like if <b>Ivo Karlovic<\/b>, <b>John Isner<\/b>, and <b>Sam Querrey<\/b> were in the top ten and Querrey is a good comparison for Kvitova because, though Kvitova is foot-heavy as is Querrey, she managed to get to the fourth round of the French Open last year and Querrey is not terrible on clay either.<\/p>\n<p>But I think a player like Kvitova will have more success than Karlovic and Isner if not Querrey because her strength will be more valuable than that of a tall guy on the men\u2019s tour. <b>Rafa the Terminator<\/b> can move as well as anyone but is also as strong, whereas on the women\u2019s tour you get one or the other \u2013 strength or movement. <b>Jelena Jankovic<\/b> is 5\u2019 9 \u00bd\u201d (1.77 m) \u2013 that\u2019s probably an exaggeration &#8211; and she\u2019s all movement.<\/p>\n<p>The new number one as of this week is <b>Dinara Safina<\/b> and that\u2019s a bit of an issue because she\u2019s one of four women who reached number one without winning a slam. <b>Kim Clijsters<\/b> and <b>Amelie Mauresmo<\/b> are two of those players and, of course, they did go on to earn the number one by winning a slam. I\u2019m pretty sure Safina will get her slam but the fourth woman in that foursome is Jankovic and I\u2019m not so sure about her.<\/p>\n<p>It seems to me that the women\u2019s game is undergoing a transition that isn\u2019t yet complete yet. It\u2019s as if the quintessential WTA player of the next few years hasn\u2019t turned up. If Querrey and Kvitova are indicative of the future, maybe the size of the average WTA player is taking a big jump and we\u2019re just waiting for a few of those players to develop and start winning slams along with the number one ranking.<\/p>\n<p>Except for a dry spot in the second set where she lost her serve, Kvitova just looked too strong for Mattek.  She closed out the second set tiebreaker at 7-2 to win the match 6-3, 7-6(2), and put the Czech Republic up 1-0.<\/p>\n<p><b>Alexa Glatch<\/b> is 6\u2019 (1.83 m) and she\u2019s only 19 years old. And she\u2019s from the U.S. She beat <b>Iveta Benesova<\/b> 6-1, 6-2, in the second match and that\u2019s pretty shocking because Benesova is ranked number 29 and Glatch only 114. On the other hand, Benesova has lost to Kvitova twice this year already so maybe those tall players are starting to take over.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m looking forward to that Glatch-Kvitova match tomorrow because that\u2019s what tennis will look like pretty soon: a few six foot and overs going at with a kind of uber power game. I have to say that I\u2019m not exactly looking forward to it &#8211; I\u2019d rather watch someone who mixes power and speed any day, but if it gives us a bona fide number one now and then and a few players who can consistently perform well at slams, I\u2019ll take it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tall players dominated on day one of Fed Cup. Is that what the future looks like? I wanted to watch David Ferrer take out Fernando Gonzalez is a third set tiebreaker in Barcelona, but it\u2019s on delay and I\u2019m going to an over 50\u2019s party this afternoon (you don\u2019t think they\u2019d have parties for older [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}