[Volcana]

Venus Williams - 73% first serve percentage in 1st match back. She looks healthy and fit. I won't be saying 'she was ill' if she doesn't win OZ this year.

Francesca Schiavone - Wins over Clijsters and Seles in Hopman Cup. Only 21. Is she a top ten player? Or are Monica and Kim unprepared for the start of the season? Obviously, this wasn't one lucky match.

Anna K. - Finally is playing Tier V's and looks like her first tour win is finally coming

Meghann Shaughnessy - Larger shoulders with more definition. Someone's been hitting the weight room ...

Kim Clijsters - See Francesca Schiavone<br />Monica Seles - See Francesca Schiavone

Sandrine Testud - Opening match loss at Thalgo was NOT what she had in mind.

Mary Pierce - def Barbara schett 6-4, 7-5. It was an exo, but its stll good to see Mary winning on a tennis court.

Lindsay Davenport withdraws from Sydney with knee injury. Bad news. Get well fast LD!

[ January 03, 2002: Message edited by: Volcana ]</p>

 

[SweetLindsay]

Volcana, I enjoy your commentary. Please keep it coming throughout the beginning of the year! <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

 

[cynicole]

Welcome back from vacation, Volcana. (Where were you?)

<br />I don't know what to say about Schiavone...except that I'll be watching her more closely the next few months and see what comes out of it. Maybe it's the Rebound Ace?

I'm more concerned about Seles, though. From what I hear and from pictures I see she's in better shape than she has been. But if this is what comes out of it???

Pierce - great!

Testud - she crashed out of Auckland last year. Then made the finals of her next tournament. At least she doesn't really "lose" anything points-wise. And she wasn't going to move up in ranking had she won anyway (maybe if she beat both Venus and Justine...which I would never bet on)...not that it would make much of a difference.

Seems like Auckland is opening up for Anna. Wouldn't it be ironic if she made the finals and lost?

And Tina Pisnik - what has she been eating? Must be the same thing as Schiavone. Hopefully, it contains no Nandrolone (or whatever the heck it's called).

 

[Volcana]

cynicole - I was in Florida mostly. Some beach time and some family time.

 

[CB]

cynicole: hopefully I think Schiavone is not taking Nandrolone! She just rised so fastly!

Nice words Volcana. I also noticed that Meghann is looks so much muscular than last year... take a look guys:

She said she was spending like 3 hours on the gym! That's a lot. By the way, there is a very nice article on Tennis Magazine about her fitness: Working out with Meghann Shaughnessy, it's called. It's a monthly article and it's always with a different player. Meghann's was very interesting <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

p.s: she switched from Head to Babolat rackets!!! HOW GREAT!!!!

 

[jd4eva]

Well, Monica is in the best shape of her career in terms of speed and fitness, however, she's not striking the ball probably as well as she would have liked.

Schiavone could be a top 20 player, not top 10. Her strokes are pretty good but her wins have pretty much come from running everything down.