2010 Women’s season; some important happenings on the WTA tour- Part two
Here is the last part highlighting the important happenings throughout the season on the WTA tour.
Samantha Stosur's peak season
After stunning everyone at the French Open in Roland Garros with a semi-final appearance back in 2009, the Australian tennis ace Stosur further improved her game and achieved new milestones in singles career on the tour in 2010. During the month of April, the right hander Stosur won her first premier level trophy in Charleston.
More success followed when Stosur got the better of some of the top tennis players in the world such as Serena Williams well as Jelena Jankovic to make her way into the title battle of the clay court French Open in Roland Garros. Despite losing the finals at the hands of her Italian foe, Francesca Schiavone, Stosur improved her WTA rankings on the tour.
As a result of her back-to-back outstanding performances in 2010, Samantha Stosur from Australia registered her name as part of the elite group in women’s tennis.
European player’s performances
The second and third cornerstone competition of the season witnessed the crowning of two of the most unlikely winners in Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain. In Rome, doubles player Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez found her excellent form and thrashed out Venus Williams and Jelena Jankovic in the title battle.
A few weeks later, Aravane Rezai of France sprung from nowhere to cruise past contenders like Justine Henin, Venus Williams, and Jelena Jankovic in straight sets in the final to pick up the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open title.
Schiavone's French toast
At the presentation ceremony of the French Open singles competition this season, the former Roland Garros winner Mary Pierce was invited to do the honours who could not stop repeating the same lines over and over again that she is so happy for Francesca Schiavone. Francesca played the best tennis of her life throughout the tournament in order to fulfil her dream, clearly giving the message to her fellow players on the tour that dreams do come true. Her title victory, anyhow, came as a real shocker for the players of all ages without any question. The twenty nine year old Francesca while capturing the biggest crown of her career got the better of current world number one Caroline Wozniacki, Serena Williams, Elena Dementieva and Samantha Stosur. This was also her biggest day in her professional life as the right hander also registered her name as the first player from Italy to capture a Grand Slam singles crown on the WTA tour.
W stands for Wimbledon and Williams
It is certainly not possible to talk about the grass courts of Wimbledon without taking the names of William sisters. Despite a wave of shocks that included two surprising semi-finalist Tsvetana Pironkova and Petra Kvitova, last year’s winner Serena Williams surpassed everyone including the first time major finalist Vera Zvonareva of Russia to pick up her fourth crown at All England Club.
The 2010 grass court Grand Slam tournament will also be remembered for HRH Queen Elizabeth's visit to Wimbledon tennis club after thirty three years where the Queen also met William sisters, Jelena Jankovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Anne Keothavong, and Laura Robson along with the ATP players including Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.
Znovareva’s breakthrough
The 2010 will also be remembered for Russian Vera’s breakthrough that saw the right hander made her way into her first major title battle at the All England Club. The Russian tennis sensation overpowered some of tour’s hottest contenders such as Kim Clijsters of Belgium to reach the tournament match however eventually fell short to then world number one Serena Williams.
Vera, despite losing did well to further improve her game for the rest of 2010 and thus finished the season with her career high ranking of number two in the South African Airways WTA list.
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