2011 WTA season review

Recently I got some feedback of people telling me that I barely write about WTA events and players. In fact, I usually write about men's tour because I prefer watching ATP - even considering men use shorts and women use skirts :P

Anyways, I'll now write my point of view on this last WTA season and, specially, talking about my fave player (Ana Ivanovic).

4 Majors, 4 different champions, 3 different continents. We can resume WTA season in this sentence; in my opinion, women's tour is now being through a "revolution": players like William sisters and Kim Clijsters are starting to disappear and the generation of 1988, 89 and 90 is starting to appear. To prove this segment, we just need to look at top-5: the top-ranked was born in 1990, and so did the 2nd ranked. Closing top-3, appears Victoria Azarenka - who was born in 1989. Then, it comes Sharapova who is too experienced but just 24 years old. The 5th ranked is the chinese Li Na; she's 30, but she just appeared (and disappeared, btw) this season.

Basically, that's it. The next years will be dominated by players like Caroline Wozniacki, Petra Kvitova, Victoria Azarenka, Vera Zvonareva, Agnieszka Radwanska and Andrea Petkovic, who can possibly be joined by Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic - both experienced but still young women.

Talking about some players "tete-a-tete", I'll start for Caroline Wozniacki. This season, she became the first player in Era Open to finish two consecutive years as top-ranked without winning a single Slam. She's undoubtedly the most consistent player on tour but still has lots of weaknesses that don't let her win a two-week championship. Next season she better improve her game a lot, specially the forehand, or Kvitova will easily move through the #1.

Petra Kvitova, the player of the season. Starting as 34th ranked, this 21 yo Czech won Wimbledon, YEC Masters and Fed Cup, enough to finish 2011 as 2nd world player - if she had won a single match in US Open, she'd now be the top-ranked.

I may say, I don't like her style and play too much but she's really a great player and candidate to win many more Majors in the next years.

Also, German Tennis has to be congratulated for this amazing 2011! Players like Andrea Petkovic, Julia Goerges, Sabine Lisicki and Angelique Kerber did a great season; imagine a possible Germany team for Fed Cup 2012...

Starting for Andrea, this 24 years old who left school at 19 reached the quarters in three of the four Majors and finishes 2011 as #10. Then, we also had Julia who won her first Premier event in Stuttgart (defeating the top-ranked Wozniacki in the last match) and starts 2012 as 21st ranked. Angelique did quite a good season till September, but then she shocked tennis' world by reaching semis in US Open; therefore, this Bremen-born    closes the year as 32nd world player. The last one, Sabine Lisicki, is probably the comeback of the year; this blondie spent last year almost without competing and start 2011 in #179. By winning 2 titles and reaching semis in Wimbledon, she didn't just moved 162 places but she also reached her best rank ever, the 15th!

About Ana's, nothing much to say. Another inconsistent season, with just one title (Bali, last tournament of the year) and, I assume, lots of money due to photo-shoots and so on. In August, she hired Scott Byrnes and Nigel Sears and it seemed like she was finally trying to get her 2008 shape back; two days ago, she fired Byrnes. Hoping for a good 2012 in order for her improving A LOT her current 23rd WTA rank.

Cheers,
Pedro Mendes