[Volcana]

1224 20 I.TULYAGANOVA - You're a top twenty player. Make some noise.

0991 28 D.HANTUCHOVA - "Little Venus" - Weaker, shorter, skinnier, slower, plays just like her. Richard must have nightmares Serena was born white. Nah. But Daniela plays a lot more like Venus than Serena does.

0953 29 R.GRANDE - Learn to volley

0916 30 F.SCHIAVONE - Beating Monica nd Kim WAS impressive. But what have you done for me lately?

0876 34 D.BEDANOVA - Her best results have been on hard court, and OZ this year was VERY slow. Reserve judgement.

0832 36 A.STEVENSON - Slow steady progress. Slow steady progress.

0791 39 L.KRASNOROUTSKAYA - I've had it explained to me why my expectations were too high.

0789 40 C.MARTINEZ - Won Wimbledon. I saw that match and I STILL can't figure it out.

0774 41 M.SUCHA...... Won Hobart 2002. Perhapsher run at OZ shouldn't hae been a surprise.

0763 42 P.SCHNYDER... We'll never know how good she could have been.

0747 44 A-I.MEDINA-GUERRIGUES - Clay court specialist. Won Palermo last year. Semis at Antwerp and Madrid. Hope she's seeded at RG.

0724 48 Adriana SERRA-ZANETTI - OZ 2002 her best showing to date. IMHO, the draw opened up. But I hope she proves me wrong, if only because her name drops trippingly off the tongue.

0612 58 E.BOVINA..... I've been hearing about this player for a long time. Is she ever going to do anything? She has some penetration in tournaments here and there, but it's always becasue her draw opens up.

• Her best tournament is undoubtedly Indian Wells 2001. She defeated, Iroda, Conchi, Schiavone and Nathalie Dechy before losing in the QFs.
• She defeated Patty Schnyder at 's-Hertogenbosch.
• Likhovtseva retired against her at San diego, but Bovina was up 7-5, 5-3.

In all, not a lot of noise for a progidy. I hope she isn't studying video of Mirjanan Lucic.

0568 63 C.RUBIN...... I don't under stand this. Is she healthy or not?

0548 67 E.DANIILIDOU

• 1998 - Fed Cup
• 2000 - Olympics
• 2001 - Rookie year. Lost in first round of every tournaments bnt four. Two of those four were Wimbledon and the USOpen. The other two were a week before WBm and a week after US. It's fair to say she peaks for majors.

 

[auntie janie]

GREAT POST, VOLCANA! :bounce:

But aren't you going to say something about Anna Smashonova, the surprise of the Pre-Open season? I eagerly await your pronouncement ...

 

[tenn_ace]

interesting summary... But Conchi and Rita on that list? I bet they have would have kissed you if the saw this post.

you missed Nadia... She hasn't had much success last year, but in all 4 majors and couple of I-Tiers she had to play either Serena or Venus. She was laso pretty consistent. I expect a lot from Nadia when she recovers from her multiple injuries.

 

[CC]

Nice post. I agree especially about Grande and Stevenson. Grande's volley efforts against Jennifer (AO) were quite futile and torturous watching her not give them the exclamation point to finish off the point.

About Likhotseva, what happened? I had high expectations after she defeated Venus and maybe Davenport? at fed cup a few years back.

 

[Williams Rulez]

I remembered Grande's volleys. lol... they were so loppy

And Conchita is an *up and coming* player?!

 

[Infiniti2001]

Interesting, but why is Conchi on this list??? heehee!!!

About Likhotseva, what happened? I had high expectations after she defeated Venus and maybe Davenport? at fed cup a few years back.

CC, Likhotseva has never beaten Lindsay (8-0) or Venus (7-0)... Elena Dimentiava is the one who beat Venus at Fed Cup in '99...

 

[Volcana]

Sorry. It's just so wierd even seeing Conchi's name down there.

 

[Randy H]

Just want to come to Rita's defense a bit...Her volleys definetly didn't have much punch in them towards the end, but to her credit she's really a pretty decent volleyer. She was in a long and tiring match, I think that's bound to weaken your shots after a while, Grande definetly was tentative towards the end, hence the reason she couldn't capitalize on her set point chances, and when you're at net trying to handle the power of Jennifer coming at you that's not a very easy task.

 

[TS]

You're absolutely correct about Eleni. She makes her move at the Slams...she has made the final 32 of the last 2 slams...so statistically one would think she should be Top 50...so can u imagine if she made some noise in the smaller tourns, what her rank could be? Eleni loves the big occassion, hopefully she will settle down and make her charge up the ladder. I fully expect her to be Top 50 soon, she has too much talent to not take full advantage. Today she won thru her Paris qualy match 6-1 6-1 so hopefully this is a sign she is going to step up.

 

[sartrista7]

Good analysis but Nadia should really be there. Her run at Gold Coast was fantastic - beating Farina Elia and Shaughnessy and, whilst injured, extending a fit Venus to 7-6 6-5 before retiring. Such a pity about that damn injury though.

 

[CC]

Ohhh. Thanks Infiniti2001

 

[bubble]

Absolutely agree that Nadia should be in the list.
I reckon that she make a splash this year when she recovers and get her form back.

 

[thefreedesigner]

Bovina remains a total mystery to me.

Every time I would even begin to expect something approaching 'promising' from her, she fails to even get out of the starting blocks.

Likhovtseva just makes me cry. Anyone who has the game to double bagel Davenport (she very easily could have at USO, ended up with one bagel - still lost the match) is obviously doing something right. Elena should be Top 16, definitely Top 20 player as she works well on all surfaces, is very fit and rarely injured. Her head is just not the right mentality for a sportsperson.

As for Anna Smashnova?? I truly stand by my statement that this Anna plays to her strengths, and big-time tennis isn't one of them.

Shaughnessy I don't know about. She seems to make an awful lot of relatively little, and if the 'ones to talk about' (ie Alexandra, Daniela, Iroda, Daja) start producing, I feel Meghann could be found wanting. However it's no way beyond Meghann to totally prove me wrong.