Monday, April 18, 2005

2005 WTT schedule

The World TeamTennis schedule is finally out. Martina has added an extra sixth stop to her season this year which looks like this:

July 6 (Wednesday): Wilmington, Delaware

July 7 (Thursday): Cambridge, Massachusetts

July 9 (Saturday): Houston, Texas

July 19 (Tuesday): Mamaroneck, New York

July 20 (Wednesday): Avon, Connecticut

July 21 (Thursday): Cambridge, Massachusetts

The first stop in Boston on July 7 will also feature Martina Hingis while the Houston tie will include Tommy Hass on the opposing team. You can check out the complete season schedule on the WTT website here. The official Boston Lobsters website is here.

Disappointment in Charleston

2005 has undoubtedly been the worst year of Martina's comeback so far, filled with disappointment and misfortune, and Charleston brought more of the same. Martina & Anna-Lena were beaten in their opening match by the Czech pairing of Iveta Benesova & Kveta Peschke 7-5 5-7 7-6. This was a match our team should have won - they were up 4-2 40-15 and serving in the final set but somehow found a way to let their opponents back in. Up 5-4, they had a match point on Benesova's serve and then two more match points at 6-5 on Peschke's serve but each time failed to capitalize. They lost the final set tie-break 7-5.

As expected, there was no media coverage of Martina at the Family Circle Cup last week. For a few photos from the tournament website, click on the following links: Photo One, Photo Two, Photo Three.

Right now, I have no idea where Martina will be playing next. She might play Berlin in two weeks' time but her next confirmed event is Rome, the week after.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Martina in Charleston

Martina is back in Charleston for the fourth straight year with her fourth different partner! This week she is back with Anna-Lena Groenefeld and they are the #4 seeds. They have received a first round bye. Let's hope the ladies will have better luck this week - their previous pairing in Hyderabad ended in the most unfortunate of circumstances as you are all well aware. For the complete doubles draw, courtesy of the tournament website, click here.

Martina in the Bay Area

Martina will be in Mill Valley, California this fall, October 14-16, for the Women's Tennis Classic, a three-day fund-raiser to support the Marin Breast Cancer Council and Youth Tennis Advantage. She will be joined by Tracy Austin, Wayne Ferreira & Rick Leach. I'm not exactly sure why the thing is called the Women's Tennis Classic when the only featured match will be a mixed doubles match involving Martina & Rick against Tracy & Wayne, but whatever. You can read the complete article from the 'Marin Independent Journal' here.

What I'm really confused about though is that this event takes place right in the middle of the European indoor season. Does this mean Martina is planning to bypass the Fall indoor events in Europe like she did last year? Or is it just that week which is the week of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow? - not exactly Martina's favorite event. I guess we will have to wait and see. We hopefully should have something definite by September.

2005 WTT season

For those of you hoping to catch Martina at her World TeamTennis stops this summer, here's the scoop. Martina will be making 5 appearances this year for the Boston Lobsters - twice in Boston and once each in Houston, Hartford, Conn. & Wilmington, Del. The exact dates will be announced later this month and I will let you know as soon (relatively speaking) as I hear of it.

Amelia Island roundup

I decide not to update the page for a week and Martina has her best showing of the year - should I make this a habit? Ha ha. Anyways, Martina & Alicia made it to the semifinals at the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida last week. They were promoted to the #5 seed position following the withdrawal of the top seeded team of Nadia Petrova & Meghann Shaughnessy. In their opening match, they struggled to a 6-4 3-6 6-0 victory over a pair of qualifiers, Lourdes Dominguez Lino & Evgenia Linetskaya. In the quarterfinals, they found themselves down 3-6 4-5 0-40, down three match points to Eleni Daniilidou & Carly Gullickson, yet managed to stage a remarkable recovery, eventually prevailing 3-6 7-5 6-2. In the semifinals, however, their Cinderella run came to an end with a 6-3 3-6 7-5 defeat to Kveta Peschke & Patty Schnyder. They had been up 4-2 in the final set and wasted 6 additional break points. But all in all, it was a good week, Martina's first semifinal of the year.

For photos from last week, click on the following links: Photo One, Photo Two, Photo Three, Photo Four. The last two photos show Martina signing autographs at the Tennis Against Breast Cancer booth and the Nassau County Humane Society booth on the tournament premises. There was not much in the way of print media coverage, save for a few blurbs from the Florida Times-Union: Article One, Article Two, Article Three.

Martina nexts heads out to Charleston, South Carolina for the Family Circle Cup where she will be playing with Anna-Lena Groenefeld.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Amelia Island with Alicia

The claycourt season begins this week at the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida. Martina will be playing with Alicia Molik and they have drawn Liezel Huber & Mashona Washington in their opening match. Let's hope this week will be a good week for our team. For the complete doubles draw, click here.

Martina returns to Boston

"It's great to be back in Boston."
So says Martina, who will be back playing World TeamTennis this summer as a member of the Boston Lobsters. Martina last played for the Lobsters in 1978 and this time she will be joined on the team by James Blake, Scott Draper, Daja Bedanova, Kristen Schlukebir & Thomas Blake. For a look at the other players on the other teams, visit the WTT website here.