2010 WTA Tournament; Highlights from Friday
The round robin stage of the 2010 WTA Tournament in Doha wrapped up on Friday, with the opening two clashes having major implications.
First one was the Olympic winner Elena Dementieva of Russia who surprisingly retired from the WTA Tour at just twenty nine years of age after losing in her final group match at the season end WTA Tournament in Doha.
Elena, who made her way into a total of two major title battles in her career and enjoyed her biggest moment at the Beijing Games, bowed out amidst tearful scenes after a 6-4, 6-2 defeat at the hands of Francesca Schiavone, the reigning French Open winner
from Italy.
"Everybody knew, not me. She has been a really big example for everybody. I am friends with her. She feels it is her time to leave. It's part of life. I wish the best for her. She deserves it," said Francesca after winning on Friday.
She had lost both of her previous round robin clashes, however, ended on a positive note. She will take part in the final of the Fed Cup next week versus the United States of America.
A lot of people expected the tall, strong hitting Elena to carry on for a while yet, and make a couple of more attempts at the major events with the help of her powerful game. However, the professional tennis player from Russia, contrary to every one’s expectations
announced her retirement from the WTA Tour on Friday.
Her compatriot player, Vera Zvonareva while commenting on Elena’s retirement said, "Russia is proud of you, and proud of what you have done. Not only for Russian tennis, but for Russian sport you have been an inspiration."
The retirement was all the more unexpected since Elena has worked extremely hard over the last few seasons to improve her serve on the tour. She was defeated in the title battle of both the French Open as well as the United States Open back in 2004.
Secondly, another Russian tennis sensation Vera Zvonareva who is seeded number two to win the season ending Doha event bounced back from a break down on two occasions in the opening set and twice in the next to take avenge of her United States Open final
loss from the third seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium on Friday. She won the battle in two sets in the end. The final score line was 6-4, 7-5.
Vera when asked about her victory said that she is really happy with the way how she played against Clijsters and is looking forward to continue her form in the rest of the matches in Doha as well.
The Belgian on the other hand reflected that she didn’t give her 100 percent against Vera as she felt tried. However, Clijsters is hopeful that after taking some rest, she will feel much better and compete with full energy in the semi final round on Saturday.
In the third clash of the day, Victoria Azarenka, the eight seed player bounced back from an early 3-1 deficit to brush aside her sixth seed foe, Jelena Jankovic in two sets on Friday. The final match score was 6-4, 6-0.
In the semi final rounds in Doha, Kim Clijster will take on the fifth seed Samantha Stosur of Australia where as Vera Zvonareva and Caroline Wozniacki will square off for the second semi final round at the WTA Tournament.
Clijsters lead the pair’s head to head encounter at 4-0 whereas Caroline and Vera are tied at 3-3 in their lifetime mark on the tour.
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