Month of January , 2009

Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka are headed to Memphis in February.

World No. 12 Wozniacki and the 15th-ranked Azarenka have signed on for the Cellular South Cup set for February 13-21, 2009 at The Racquet Club of Memphis.

Way back when, some people thought that Nadia Petrova would be the first Russian to break through in a big way. She had almost everything—a big serve, solid groundstrokes, and quite a bit of finesse at the net.

In 2003, she reached the semifinals at Roland Garros, knocking off Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati on the way. That year, she also reached the final at Linz, played in several semifinals, and won some doubles tournaments.

Women tennis players will earn more prize money than their male counterparts at next week's Sydney International tournament.

Of the near US$1.1 million (£686,000) up for grabs, the women will be vying for US$600,000, while the men will be playing for $484,750.

Tournament director Craig Watson said the discrepancy was due to the category of the event on the respective ATP and WTA tours.

Wimbledon semi-finalist Zheng Jie has said she is relishing her new freedom after being allowed to leave China's rigid state-run sporting system and keep more of her earnings.

"Finally I can have my own schedule. I can control my time now," the world number 25 told the China Daily newspaper.

The paper said Zheng will now be allowed to keep as much as 92 per cent of her prize money, after formerly having to part with up to 65 per cent, and could for the first time miss winter training camp to enjoy a holiday with parents.

There is probably no one in the world that has not heard of the number one women’s tennis player Jelena Jankovic. The queen of smile and of the WTA rankings has marked the year 2008 as the 9th player in the history of tennis ever to finish the season as world’s number one. Furthermore, the International Tennis Federation, the Serbian Tennis Federation and the Olympic Committee have all named Jankovic the best player of the outgoing year. She is the most influential Serbian woman in the world, and Blic has accordingly named her the personality of the year.

Sania Mirza wants to get back to where she once was on the WTA Tour. “I wish to get back that winning feeling. I want to make winning a habit,” she says in a chat with Kalyan Ashok.

Living a dream and her doubts finally banished, the 25-year-old says that a place in the world’s top 60 could be just the beginning

SLlovakian Daniela Hantuchova was pleased to be back in unforgiving Australian conditions on Wednesday.

Tournament director Brenda Perry has handed out the final main draw wildcard for next week's ASB Classic.

As expected two times former champion Eleni Danilidou, a long time supporter of the tournament has received the final main draw wildcard.

The Greek player has hit lean times of late and her ranking has slipped to 146th in the world.

The top two seeds, world number four Elena Dementieva and 12th ranked Caroline Wozniacki, arrive in Auckland late on Friday.

Name three great Canadian tennis players. Okay, name one.

Still struggling? That's probably because the list is about as extensive as the one for great New Zealand players.

Much like New Zealand with Marina Erakovic, though, Canada does have one player to pin its hopes on - fast-rising 21-year-old Aleksandra Wozniak, the fourth seed at this year's ASB Classic.

The parallels with Erakovic are striking. Wozniak began last year ranked 130 and ended it ranked 34, a rise of 96 places that mirrored Erakovic's rise from 161 to 60.

There will be more to this weekend's official start to the new tennis season than the inaugural Brisbane International christening its sparkling $80 million riverside home. The on-court coaching experiment that was tried and discarded by the men's tour a decade ago, then trialled briefly by the women from mid-2006, will be formally adopted by the WTA Tour.

Its many critics are dismayed by what is being sold as the latest TV presentation enhancement, one they argue is an unforgivable dilution of the sport's special gladiatorial nature.