The ace Indian tennis player and the current Asian number one player, Sania Mirza, did create some panic in the mind of the World Number 4 player, Jelena Jankovic, before loosing to her 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a hard fought second round match at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship. There was panic and distress written all over the face of the Serbian number one player Jelena Jankovic, when Sania won the first set. The Serbian player had to fight hard to regain self esteem and win the other two sets.

Sania Mirza made a quick start to the match by winning the first set but was not able to maintain the same consistency of play throughout the match and the slightest edges she gave Jelena, was capitalized fully by the World Number 4 player. The crowd witnessed a hard fought battle for 2 hours and 14 minutes and was impressed to see their favorite star, Sania, fight neck to neck with Jelena Jankovic. Jankovic had to pull out all that she had in her to rally from behind and win the game. Sania Mirza, who admits that her serve is the weakest part of her game, had five break points in the match and made only four double faults all through the match.

The Serbian tennis sensation and World No 4 player, Jelena Jankovic, has confirmed her participation in the forthcoming Tier II Bangalore Open tennis tournament to be held from March 3rd to the 9th. She now joins the galaxy of women superstars like Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Patty Schnyder and the tournament director, Sunder Raja, says that it speaks well for the tournament if such saleable stars play as there will be huge crowds gathering at the stadium to watch these superstars.

The confirmation of Jelena has taken this tennis tournament to a different level and is the first such tournament in India where one will get to catch glimpses of a galaxy of top women players. Jelena will be the top ranked player in the tournament and will start the tournament as a favorite, but she cannot take the tournament lightly as the likes of the William sisters are playing in this event as well. Jankovic said that she was thrilled to be party of this Tier II event and is looking forward to play in India, a country of diversified art and culture. Jelena was the semi finalist in the 2008 Australian Open championships which she lost to the eventual champion, Maria Sharapova.

Andy Roddick beat Radek Stepanek 6-4, 7-5 on 24 Feb. to clinch the SAP open. This is his third win of the top-seeded 25 year in a row. Roddick never had to face a break point as Stepanek could not match his booming serve. Roddick finished each set with an ace thereby winning his 24th title. At the very opening of the match Stepanek lost the serve and never quite managed to recover. During 5-all at the time of the third set, Andy Roddick struck two ground strokes and that settled the match in his favor.

Roddick was 4-0 against Stepanek. He had also defeated him last summer. By winning the SAP open Andy Roddick posted his first win of 2008. He served well in the second set of the game. He did not have any break points in the third set. Roddick remarked that he was happy with the way he played. He said that he was happy to be in form. Stepanek, on the other hand admitted that Roddick played just too well to give him a chance. Stepanek was on the lookout for his third title. He was a favorite among the fans and he played the match wearing the Joe Thornton sharks uniform.

Justin Henin, the world number one women’s tennis player, won her first WTA title at home in Belgium when she defeated the Italian challenge Karin Knapp 6-3, 6-3 in front of a full house home crowd. The Diamond Games tennis tournament that was a WTA event for the past nine years has been scrapped off from the WTA calendar from 2009. Henin, who had lost the quarterfinal of the 2008 Australian Open to the eventual champion Maria Sharapova, was very determined to win this title in front of her home crowd.

The title win at the Diamond Games takes her tally of titles in 2008 to two and even though she did not play the sought of tennis that she is capable of, yet she defeated every opponent with ease. Henin who has won her 41st career title last week said that she was happy that she has won the last 10 finals that she has competed and wanted this one badly to show her love for the fans and the people of her country. She has played only in this tournament since her loss to Sharapova at the Australian Open as she was nursing the tender right knee that gave her trouble in Australia. Henin won both the sets comfortably in the final as she had broken Knapp’s serve early in each of the sets.

Monica Seles the nine time Grand Slam winner decided not to pursue professional play any more. Monica’s career was one of the most glorious with 53 singles title and six doubles titles to her credit. In her retirement speech, she expressed the importance of tennis in her life and said tennis will remain as a part of her life even though she is retiring from the professional play. Born in Yugoslavia Seles became a U.S citizen in 1994. She reached the world no.1 title in 1991 and remained in the top ranking for the next two years. She took a two year break from Tennis when she was stabbed during a match in Germany.

She re-entered Tennis with her win at the Canadian Open and the very next month reached the finals of the U.S open .In January 1996 she won the Australian open which was her ninth Grand Slam Victory. In 2003 she again fell victim to injury of her foot and was sidelined. According to Larry Scott, the chief Executive of WTA tour, “Seles is one of the Greatest Champions in the history of WTA tour and she is an inspiration and a role model for millions of fans throughout the world”. After retirement she has planned to dedicate her time for children and animals, her passions other than Tennis.

Agnes Szavay from Hungary lost to Russian player Alisa Kleybanova 6-2, 6-3 on the first round of the Diamond Games last Feb 12.  Szavay got her 18th career-high ranking only last Feb 10 when she reached the Open Gaz de France final. 

Alona Bondarenko from Ukraine, who ranked No. 8, lost to American Julie Ditty 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.  Ditty made five break points in the last set and got her first victory over a top 50 player. 

Karin Knapp from Italy was the first one to have made it through the quarterfinals.  Knapp won over Yaroslava Shvedova from Russia 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Sofia Arvidsson from Sweden beat Meilen Tu 6-1, 6-2.  Arvidsson is now set to play against Open Gaz de France champion Russian Anna Chakvetadze, who ranked No. 2, for a second-round match.

Tsvetana Pironkova from Bulgaria won over Anne Kremer from Luxembourg 6-1, 6-1, making her set to play against top-ranking Justine Henin.  Fans eagerly await Henin to open her WTA tournament in her native soil on Thursday, which will be her first in 5 years.  Henin remarks that the opening will be a present to her fans and supporters.

Japanese Ai Sugiyama and Dominika Cibulkova from Slovakia got their first-rounder victories.

After her successful stint at the Australian open, Maria Sharapova moved on with her fine form to win the first match at the Fed Cup in a convincing style. Sharapova defeated #2 player Tzipora Obziler from Israel 6-0, 6-4 to get a tie in 1 hour and 25 minutes. She finished her first set in 28 minutes with an ace. She had made 6 unforced errors in the first set. But the second set was more difficult as the ground support was to Obziler. Sharapova says that when the crowd supports her opponent she gets the drive to play even better.

By winning the second match at Fed Cup, Sharapova has secured Russia’s semi final berth in World group category. Her second match was against the Israeli #1 player Shahar Peer and Maria easily defeated her with the scores 6-1, 6-1 in 1 hour 14 minutes. Shahar Peer was undefeated for 11 times in the singles match of Fed Cup till her clash with Sharapova in Xinhua in Abu Dhabi. The second match was interesting as Maria took 5-1 lead and struggled to get the 6-1 win in 32 minutes. Though it was her debut in Fed Cup, Sharapova managed to win the matches in straight sets and in a very authentic way as well.

The Fed Cup is a tennis championship between women, which is equivalent to Davis Cup of men. It started in 1963, have 8 (World Group) with the total of 74. Russia have won the recent Fed Cup. This year Maria Sharapova has won Fed Cup debut match who won the Australian Open as well. Other Fed Cup news are Russia split with Israel in opening singles, while Spain and China 2-0 lead as of now. Sharapova defeated Tzip Obziler by 6-0 and 6-4. Shahar peer of Isreal came back from her first set pounding of 0-6 by Safina to over come her opponent in the next two sets by 6-2 and 6-2. After Sharapova was leading by 5-1 during the second set’s play after having won the first set but suddenly there was a change in the tide when Oblizer riding the support of 6000 patriotic fans won three games in succession. The crowd also started grunting like Sharapova to unsettle her. Sharapova said that she got really excited and anxious towards the end of the her maiden match at the Fed cup but the atmosphere and crowd brought out the best in her and she didn’t mind the imitation.

After losing to Serena Williams in the title match last year, Maria Sharapova is back in the game, and the season looks promising for her.

Sharapova won over Ana Ivanovic with 7-5, 6-3, getting her third major and first Australian open. As if proving to redeem herself, she was aggressive from the beginning save for one sloppy service game. Sharapova did not lose a point during her first three service games. The Russian player was clearly dominant over Ivanovic during the game.

Sharapova is definitely in top form this year, not dropping any set in seven matches and showing victory over other big players like Lindsay Davenport, Elene Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic, and Justine Henin. She could account for this success with her powerful and superior serve.

Sharapova’s ranking stays at number 5. But the rankings don’t reflect the true order anyway, not after Sharapova’s display of dominance. The Russian tennis player went to Melbourne without any idea that things would turn out well for her, not after her experience the previous season. She herself said that if somebody told her last year that she would be where she is now, she would not believe it. It certainly is good to see her get back in the game.

The fight for the Davis Cup in Austria is on. Andy Roddick has beaten Austria’s top two players and that should give the US that much needed shove to get in the running to win the Cup. Roddick, who is ranked sixth in the world, is still wary of the match. He doesn’t care for the format of playing for the best in five games score. He did help the US team win their thirty second Davis Cup title back in December.

The matches will take place in Vienna at the Ferry-Dusika Stadium. The stadium itself has a clay court that the Austrians will hope will trip up other competitors especially the US. Playing alongside Roddick will be James Blake, Bob Bryan and his brother,. Mike Bryan. The brothers usually play doubles together. They both say that Roddick is one of the finest tennis players on the US team, so they should have a lot of success when they go for the Cup. They also are quite glad to be on the same team with him. They have a lot of drive because this will be their thirty third win if they get it. That would be a great honor to bring the championship back home one more time.