 |
November 11-12, 2005
Player Profile Index (Men) Tennis Server
Top Pros (Women)
|
|
  |
|
Los Angeles, California - November 11-12, 2005 Photos by Pablo Sanfrancisco and Cliff Kurtzman
The End of the Round Robin on Friday
Our coverage continues with the final round-robin matches on Friday which were, er... lackluster, with the semifinalists already determined prior to the start of play. Mary Pierce and Amelie Mauresmo started off Friday with a match where the winner (Pierce) would have the draw of playing Davenport in the semi-finals, while the loser (Mauresmo) ended matched up with Sharapova. Neither Pierce nor Mauresmo seemed terribly inclined to invest a lot of energy in the match knowing that it was fairly meaningless, and that they would need their energy for a far more important match today. As Pierce stated in her post match press conference, "The first set for me was kind of weird. I just wasn't really motivated. And it was tough to get going. I was, you know, more or less just kind of having fun. And it was fun to be on center court with Amelie. And we will have a good time. And it doesn't really matter if I win or lose. But it kind of does matter. So I was kind of struggling with that. So that much didn't work for me because I wasn't playing well. So I made a lot of mistakes. So I sat down and had a change over after I lost the first set and said, 'What is goin on here? I don't like this. Win or lose I want to have a good match.' And the crowd was cheering for me. And I kind of felt bad for that too. Then I got into it and was able to start getting focused and raise my intensity level and started playing better and better."
Thursday's attendance was 6,111, while Friday's was 8,049, and the semi-finals Saturday were attended by 8,723, so at least the trend of decreasing attendance earlier in the week was reversed.
++++++++++++++++++++++++ SPONSOR'S MESSAGE ++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 Here's ONE THING You Can Do To IMMEDIATELY IMPROVE Your Tennis Game... Are you recovering quickly from unforced errors to win the next point? How good are you at maintaining your concentration and focus throughout the match? With Dr. Robert Heller's TennisMind Mental Toughness Software, you'll take control of your tennis game. This unique Software contains 10 eight-minute mental/emotional training sessions. Just choose one of the sessions and train for 8 minutes and you're done. With sessions like, "Coping with Choking", "Maintaining Focus and Concentration", and 8 others, you'll be beating players you never thought you could! Play Mentally Tough Tennis. See why TennisMind Software is creating a buzz in the tennis world:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The semi-finals on Saturday brought stellar tennis. Mary Pierce and Lindsay Davenport played an incredible two set match, with Pierce edging out Davenport 76 76. A net cord at 5-6 in the first set tiebreaker gave Mary Pierce the first set tiebreaker. Then Pierce edged out the second set tiebreaker at 8-6, with no unforced errors by either player in the tiebreaker. Both players won one break in the first set, and there were no breaks in the second. Pierce's statistics were phenomenal.... 70% of her first serves went in, she won 82% of her first serve points, and she had 40 winners with only 10 unforced errors. When you play percentage tennis the way Mary did, it is hard to lose. Davenport played well herself, with 49 winners and only 24 unforced errors, and winning 85% of her 13 net approaches. Any other day, it would probably have been good enough for a win, but not with the way Pierce was playing today. "What got me through it?" Pierce said in her post-match press conference, "A lot of prayers I guess. I don't know. Just yeah, really just fighting every point and not giving up. And that was pretty much it. Really." Davenport ends her season with a world number one ranking but in a year where she failed to achieve either a Grand Slam win or a win at the Tour Championships. In the Sharapova and Mauresmo semi-final, Sharapova started out strong, going to a 5-2 early lead, but then her play deteriorated into a steady stream of errors, allowing Mauresmo to get back into the set and take it into a tiebreaker. Sharapova barely showed up for the tiebreak, losing it 7-1 on a double fault. With a slow start in the second set, Mauresmo went out to a 5-1 lead on solid play coupled with Sharapova's errors. Then Sharapova found her mojo with some incredible shots as all appeared lost, and she worked her way back through one break to 5-3 before Mauresmo finally closed it out at 6-3. The match statistics told the story... 20 winners for Sharapova compared to 13 for Mauresmo, but with 39 errors for Sharapova against Mauresmo's 17. Victories by Pierce and Mauresmo in Saturday's semifinals means that Sunday will bring the first French winner in history of the WTA Tour Championships.
++++++++++++++++++++++++ SPONSOR'S MESSAGE ++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Match charting is a valuable tool to help improve players' performance. By charting a player's competitive matches, insights can be gained to identify weaknesses and make improvements. The actual data collected during a match may differ from the player's impressions of how things went; by demonstrating to the player the real facts lessons are more easily learnt. ProTracker Tennis makes charting an easy and pleasurable task. Parents and Coaches can use the tool to gather Stats and Scatter Diagrams previously only available to professional players or TV commentators. ProTracker Tennis uses innovative graphical input and display technology, making it fast to operate and quick to exploit. Data can be captured and instantly analyzed court-side on a PDA, and then transferred to a PC for further analysis and to produce a printed match report. ProTracker Tennis is already being used by a number of College and Academy Head Coaches and Tennis parents around the world. Learn more and download a free trial version from http://www.fieldtown.co.uk.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Below is photography of all three matches from Friday and the two Saturday singles semi-final matches. Most of the photography is by Pablo Sanfrancisco, with a few photographs by Cliff Kurtzman included as well.
Friday, November 11, 2005
(5) Mary Pierce (FRA) d. (4) Amelie Mauresmo (FRA) 26 64 64
 Friday, November 11, 2005 (7) Nadia Petrova (RUS) d. (3) Maria Sharapova (RUS) 61 62
 Friday, November 11, 2005 (2) Kim Clijsters (BEL) d. (8) Elena Dementieva (RUS) 62 63
 Saturday, November 12, 2005 (5) Mary Pierce (FRA) d. (1) Lindsay Davenport (USA) 76(5) 76(6)
 Saturday, November 12, 2005 (4) Amelie Mauresmo (FRA) d. (3) Maria Sharapova (RUS) 76(1) 63
To Part 1: November 8-10 Round Robin
To Part 3: November 13 Singles Finals and November 12-13 Doubles Semi-Finals and Finals
All Tennis Server photography is copyrighted by the photographer and/or the Tennis Server, and all rights are reserved. You may not copy these images without permission. While you are welcome to create hyperlinks to Tennis Server web pages, you may not embed these images into other web pages or blogs without permission. To request permission, please use this contact form. Please be sure to clearly indicate exactly which photograph(s) you are requesting permission to use, as terms and conditions will vary depending on the photographer and the photograph.
|
|
