WTA Number 22: Kaia Kanepi in 2010
Kaia Kanepi is a professional tennis player from Estonia, currently ranked World No.22 on the Women’s Tennis Association list. The highest spot that Kanepi has ever reached is World No. 18, setting a career-high ranking. Since
November 2010, she has been World No. 22. Kanepi has set a number of records in her home country. She emerged from her maiden Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Title in Palermo as the victor this year, making her the first Estonian female pro to take away a WTA title.
As a junior player, she was ranked World No. 1 by the International Tennis Federation before she turned pro in 2000.
In addition to this, she also made it to the quarter finals of three Grand Slam tournaments; she is the first Estonian player, male or female, to achieve this. Kaia Kanepi is also the first player from Estonia to be ranked in the
World’ Top Twenty players, on both the Women’s Tennis Association or the Association of Tennis Professionals.
A big player herself (she weighs in at 163 pounds and almost six feet), Kanepi has also made several big statements in her 2010 run. She qualified for both the French Open and Wimbledon, and fought Jelena Jankovic into three sets
before losing at Roland Garros.
She also battled Petra Kvitova in an extremely tough match, pushing her opponent to the limit in the quarterfinals at the grass courts of the All England Club.
However, Kanepi also let herself down on several fronts in 2010. With her legendary big serve and heavily powerful ground strokes, Kaia Kanepi could have taken away awards, or at least made a serious impression on the hard courts
of the two major US Masters, Indian Wells and Miami, in the beginning of spring. However, she crashed and went down in flames in the opening round of both events.
In review, Kanepi has made great changes during this year. She began 2010 just inside the World’s Top 60 spots, and she is ending it inside the World’s Top 25. This improvement is due to her dedication and diligence at the sub-tour
events sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation, such as Saint Guadens and Cagnes. At these events, Kanepi set herself up with a winning streak of ten matches and took away both the titles. This also improved her runs and chances at the French Open
and the All England Club. Many of her 2010 performances were indicatory of a solid player in the World’s Top 25. She managed to maintain this place till the end of the year.
One of the matches which exhibited both her skill and her flaws is her upset of World No.23 Yanina Wickmayer at the 2010 US Open, where her powerful racquet action and relatively slow court movement were both evident.
Whether or not Kanepi can make any further improvements remains to be seen. She is the first highly ranked tennis pro from Estonia, and it is risky to assume that she may be able to develop as a player. Her strongest point remains
the ability to fire off hard shots, but her size and poor movement will always make her an easy target for nimbler, faster players on the court.
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