The world's best tennis players are all coming to Southern California, as the PNB PARIBAS OPEN begins play March 7th, with wild card entries. The main draw of the 2-week event commences Wednesday March 9th with the finals the following weekend at the gorgeous Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Some interesting developments transpired over the weekend, with NOVAK DJOKOVIC defeating ROGER FEDERER for the second consecutive match, 6-3, 6-3 to win his 3rd consecutive Dubai Championships in the United Arab Emirates. DJOKOVIC last beat FEDERER in the semis at the Australian Open in January, where he won his 2nd grand slam title. NOVAK has beaten FEDERER in their last 2 meetings in grand slam tournaments. Could he finally be getting a mental edge on the machine that is ROGER FEDERER?
In other developments, JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO, who was touted as the young challenger that was going to dethrone ROGER FEDERER after his finals shocker of FEDERER at the US Open in 2009, won his first tournament since that stunning upset, by winning the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships besting JANKO TIPSAREVIC 6-4, 6-4. DEL POTRO had fallen to nearly 500th in the world after a career best 4th at the end of 2009 before undergoing wrist surgery.
His victory puts him at 89th in the world and rising.
On the women's side VERA ZVONOREVA upset number 1 CAROLINE WOZNIACKI, 6-4, 6-4 in Qatar over the weekend. ZVONOREVA, who is ranked 3rd in the world after a resurgence in her game, won the tournament out in Indian Wells in 2009 beating ANA IVONAVIC. WOZNIACKI was fresh off a win in Doha just a week earlier.
All the players mentioned will be at the PNB PARIBAS OPEN starting March 7th, along with nearly every other player on the tour. It is like the 5th grand slam, and not to be missed if you are a tennis fan!
Some information on the wild card entries- rising stars Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, Ryan Harrison, Bernard Tomic, Coco Vandeweghe, and Christina McHale were granted wildcards into the main draws for the BNP Paribas Open. Veterans James Blake, Vania King, Jill Craybas and Sania
Mirza were also given wildcards into the main draws.
Raonic, currently ranked No. 37 on the ATP World Tour (from No. 156 at the end of 2010), advanced through qualifying at the Australian Open
this January and proceeded to blaze into the fourth round. Just a few weeks ago the 20-year old Canadian captured his first ATP World Tour
title in San Jose and reached the finals at Memphis in back to back weeks. With his results he became the highest ranked Canadian singles
player in the history of ATP Rankings (since 1973).
In addition, three other up-and-coming stars who have been granted wildcards are Kei Nishikori of Japan, who captured a title in 2008 at
Delray Beach and reached the semifinals there last weekend, which helped him climb to No. 62 in the world; American Ryan Harrison, who
advanced through qualifying at the US Open last fall and in the first round defeated top 20 star and defending BNP Paribas Open champion
Ivan Ljubicic; and Australian Bernard Tomic, who reached the third round of the Australian Open earlier this year before falling to World
No. 1 Rafael Nadal. Eighteen-year olds Harrison and Tomic are the two youngest players ranked in the top 200.
They are joined on the men's side by American veteran and former World No. 4 James Blake, who will be seeking to conjure up memories of 2006
when he made the finals of the BNP Paribas Open. The 10-time winner on the ATP World Tour battled injuries throughout 2010, but is starting
to get healthy and looking to climb the rankings.
On the women's side a host of Americans have been granted wildcards into the main draw including youngsters Coco Vandeweghe, Christina
McHale, Lauren Davis, and Sloane Stephens. Vandeweghe, from San Diego, was part of the US Fed Cup team that competed in the finals against
Italy last November. A few weeks ago she reached the quarterfinals of Memphis. McHale, who reached the semifinals at Quebec City last fall,
also helped the US Fed Cup team to the finals last year by assisting in a win over France early in 2010. Stephens played through qualifying
at the BNP Paribas Open last year and made it to the second round of the main draw. Davis finished 2010 as the No. 3 ranked junior in the
world.
In addition, veterans Vania King, who captured two Grand Slam doubles titles in 2010, (w/Shvedova) at Wimbledon and the US Open, and reached
the semifinals at Strasbourg in singles; Jill Craybas, who reached the third round of the BNP Paribas Open and the quarterfinals of multiple
Tour events in 2010; and Sania Mirza, a former top-30 ranked Indian star, also received wildcards into the main draw. There is one
remaining women's wildcard to be granted.
Qualifying draw wildcards were given to four men's players including 1999 BNP Paribas Open champion Mark Philippoussis, who is attempting a
comeback. The Aussie reached the finals of Wimbledon (2003) and the US Open (1998) and reached a career high ranking of No. 8 in the world.
American Ryan Sweeting reached the quarterfinals at Delray Beach last week and also reached the third round of Wimbledon last year. Steve
Johnson is the No. 1 singles and doubles player on the University of Southern California (USC) tennis team that captured back-to-back NCAA
championships the last two years. Greg Ouellette is a former Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and last season he captured
three titles on the ITF circuit.
Former top 30 German star Sabine Lisicki, three young Americans, Madison Keys, Madison Brengle and Maria Sanchez, and rising Puerto
Rican junior Monica Puig, were granted wildcards into the women's qualifying draw. Lisicki won a WTA event at Charleston in 2009 and
reached No. 22 in the world, Keys became one of the youngest winners in WTA history two years ago when she won her first career WTA match
at Ponte Vedra when she was 14 years old, Brengle has multiple ITF circuit titles to her name, Sanchez is currently the top ranked player
in women's college tennis and plays for USC, and Puig recently reached the finals at the Australian Open Junior Championships.
For information or tickets, go to bnpparibasopen.com |
