Sports Line Archive
July - December 2006

Wozniak cracks Top 100 on Sony Ericsson WTA Tour

(November 14) Aleksandra Wozniak won the $75,000 PNC International Tennis Tournament in Pittsburgh on Sunday to climb to No. 91 in the WTA Tour rankings. It's the first time Canada has had a woman in the top 100 since Maureen Drake in 2003.

Wozniak was one of five players featured in the WTA Ranking Movers section of their final publication of the 2006 season. She owns a career tour record of 110-49 with seven ITF Women’s circuit singles titles, including three tournament wins this year at Pittsburgh, Hamilton and Ashland, Kentucky. Recently at the Bell Challenge in Québec City, she reached her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour quarter-final in singles. When the 2005 season concluded, Wozniak was No. 168 on tour. The 77-place improvement is a significant rise to success.

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Wozniak advances to quarterfinals of Bell Challenge

(November 2) Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada, beat American Ashley Harkleroad 6-1, 6-4 Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title this week in Quebec City, one of two Tier III hardcourt events before the winter break.

Wozniak, who also defeated Alina Jidkova of Russia in the first round, will next face the winner of Anastassia Rodionova of Russia and qualifier Lilia Osterloh of the USA.

U.S. Open semifinalist Jelena Jankovic of Serbia is the top seed at the Bell Challenge.

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Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak closes in on top 100

(October 18) Aleksandra Wozniak of Blainville, Quebec continues to shine in a string of USTA tournaments. The 19-year-old is currently the top-ranked Canadian player on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings at No. 108.

Wozniak's semifinal run in San Francisco last week continues a solid showing of results over the past few weeks. She won the Kentucky Challenger at the beginning of October, her second ITF singles title of the year and sixth career title, and made the quarter-final in Alabama at the Troy 50K Challenger before reaching the semis in San Francisco.

Canada's top-ranked singles player started the month in high fashion by rallying from a 1-5 second-set deficit to beat Agnes Szavay of Hungary 6-1, 7-6 in the final. "I beat another tough player," said Wozniak, who ousted No. 1 seed Laura Granville in the quarterfinals. "This will improve my confidence."

The following week, Wozniak who is coached by Johnnie Brown of Delray Beach, Florida, did not drop a set in going into the quarters. The No. 5 seed defeated qualifier Leanne Baker 6-3, 7-6 and Tiffany Dabek 6-2, 7-5, before falling in a hard-fought three-set battle with No. 2 seed Ashley Harkleroad 6-7, 6-2, 6-4.

Last week, Wozniak reached the semifinals of the San Francisco Tennis Classic. The Canadian teenager, who was the tournament's No. 2 seed, defeated American wildcards Katherine Ruckert 6-3, 6-3 and Story Tweedie-Yates in the first and second rounds, respectively. She then ousted Angela Haynes 6-2, 6-4 in the quarter-finals before falling to Clarisa Fernandez of Argentina in a grueling three-set encounter, 5-7, 7-6, 4-6. Both Wozniak and Fernandez represented their countries in Fed Cup play when Canada defeated Argentina 3-2 in July, however they did not compete against each other.

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Groenefeld defeats Malek, advances in Stuttgart

(October 4) Successful start for Anna-Lena Groenefeld at the USD 650.000 Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany. Overcoming a mistake filled second set, Groenefeld stormed back to defeat German wild card Tatjana Malek 6-3, 2-6 and 6-0.

The match marked Groenefeld’s 31st victory of the year and the first time, she was able to reach the second round at the Porsche Grand Prix. Next up is a rematch of last year’s first round encounter with fourth seed Nadia Petrova (RUS).

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Groenefeld misses out on third doubles title of the year

(October 2) The third time wasn’t a charm for Anna-Lena Groenefeld (WTA 18). Playing in her fifth doubles final of the 2006 season, the 21-year old from Nordhorn, Germany, came up just short of capturing her third title of the year, falling with partner Liezel Huber (RSA) to the third seeded pair of Kveta Peschke (CZE) and Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 6-2, 4-6 and 1-6.

Next up for Groenefeld is a start at the USD 650,000 Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, where she’s entered to play both singles and doubles.

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Anna Smashnova stopped in WTA finals

(August 28) After going down a set and staring down the barrels of Anna Smashnova's flawless finals record, the odds seemed fairly stacked against Meghann Shaughnessy. But the American rekindled the fire that once took her within striking distance of the world's Top 10, pulling off a 1-6, 6-0, 6-4 victory to capture her second Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title of the year.

Saturday's final, played for over two-and-a-half hours under warm but cloudy conditions, took several turns. Smashnova came out on fire, drilling her trademark deep, topspin groundstrokes to perfection and coming away with an easy first set triumph. Shaughnessy kicked into gear at that juncture, cruising through the second set with some consistently aggressive play, coming into net often and producing clever angles to finish the points.

From the beginning of the third set it was apparent that both Shaughnessy and Smashnova could sense the finish line, as both women began playing their best at the same time. Based on their prior finals appearances it would seem the Israeli would have the edge (she was 12-0) but in the end it was the American who pulled through, gaining the critical break for a 6-4 final set win.

"It was an honor to play in such an historic site this week," said Shaughnessy on the venue, formerly used for the US Open. "Anna played really well all week and today as well. All the players really enjoyed their week here, including me."

The 64th-ranked Shaughnessy, a former world No.11, had claimed three titles before this year, at 2000 Shanghai, 2001 Québec City and 2003 Canberra, and has finished a runner-up four times, at 2001 Scottsdale, 2001 Hamburg, 2002 Sydney and 2005 Memphis. She is now 5-4 lifetime in finals.

Smashnova's impeccable 12-0 finals record falls to 12-1 with the loss. She has taken home at least one Tour singles title in each of the last five seasons. Her dozen trophies include Tashkent in 1999, Knokke-Heist in 2000, Auckland, Canberra, Vienna and Shanghai in 2002, Sopot and Helsinki in 2003, Vienna in 2004 and Modena and Budapest last year. The biggest triumphs came with her Vienna and Sopot wins (they are Tier III events).

This was the third staging of this US Open warm-up event. In its first year, Russian veteran Elena Likhovtseva won the title, beating the Czech Republic’s Iveta Benesova in straight sets in the final. Last year, Lucie Safarova outlasted Sania Mirza in an all-teenager championship. Safarova returned to defend her title this year as the top seed, but was ousted in the first round.

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Groenefeld successful in Montreal debut

(August 16) Successful start for Anna-Lena Groenefeld at the USD 1.340.000 Rogers Cup in Montreal, Canada. Seeded 10th, the 21-year old from Nordhorn defeated compatriot Julia Schruff (WTA 58) 6-3 and 6-3 in opening round action on Tuesday.

The meeting marked the second head-to-head encounter between the two Fed Cup team mates in 2006. Earlier this season, Groenefeld defeated Schruff in the first round of the Tier I event in Indian Wells.

Groenefeld will now face American Shenay Perry (WTA 45) for a place in the third round.

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Groenefeld advances at JP Morgan Chase Open

(August 10) Anna-Lena Groenefeld (WTA 16) has advanced to the third round of the USD 600,000 JP Morgan Chase Open presented by Herbalife in Los Angeles, California. After a bye in the first round, the 21-year old from Nordhorn defeated Japanese product Akiko Morigami (WTA 62) 6-3 and 6-2.

Awaiting Groenefeld in the round of 16 is Serbian prospect Ana Ivanovic (WTA 20), who defeated Italian Mara Santangelo (WTA 41)
7-6(4) and 6-4. The match will mark the first head-to-head contest between two of the WTA Tour’s most promising young stars.

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Groenefeld wins fifth career doubles title in Stanford

(August 1) Anna-Lena Groenefeld (GER) and partner Shahar Peer (ISR) have won the doubles title at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford. Defeating the pair of Maria Elena Camerin (ITA) and Gisela Dulko (ARG) in Sunday's final, Groenefeld was very happy to have captured her fifth career doubles title. " I am extremly pleased with our play this week. We had fun out there. Our goal was to play aggressive and keep rallies to a minimum", so the 21-year old from Nordhorn, Germany.

Top-seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters captured the singles title at the USD 600,000 US hard court series tournament, defeating second seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 6-4 and 6-2.

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Smashnova retains Budapest title; stays perfect in Tour finals

(July 31) When it comes to peaking at the most critical stages of a tournament, very few have done a better job in recent years than Anna Smashnova. The Israeli veteran improved her finals record to 12-0 Sunday afternoon in Budapest, claiming her 12th career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Spain's Lourdes Domínguez Lino.

Smashnova, seeded No.8 at the $145,000 Budapest Grand Prix, the last clay court event of the season, was in fine form against the No.5-seeded Domínguez Lino, capitalizing on her backboard-like ground game and several successful forays into the net, winning the first three games of the match and eventually closing out the Spaniard decisively in two sets.

"I'm really happy to be here and win again," said Smashnova, who also captured the 2005 title in Budapest. "It was tough - not as easy as the score suggests. I was patient during the match and fighting for each point. I'm really glad to get through this whole week."

And patient she was, grinding out wins over five clay court naturals, the most difficult of which was her 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 first round victory over former Top 15 player Eleni Daniilidou. From then on, Smashnova wasn't pushed beyond four games in a set, downing Laura Pous Tio, 6-0, 6-2, in the second round; top seed Catalina Castaño, 6-2, 6-2, in the quarters; unseeded Martina Müller, 6-4, 6-3, in the semis; and then Domínguez Lino. The run at times provided déjà vu for the Belarus-born Israeli, who turned 30 two weeks ago; last year, she beat Domínguez Lino in the first round and Castaño in the final, by near-identical scorelines.

Smashnova who has been represented by ITMS Sports since 2002, has now taken home at least one Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title in each of the last five seasons. Her dozen trophies include Tashkent in 1999, Knokke-Heist in 2000, Auckland, Canberra, Vienna and Shanghai in 2002, Sopot and Helsinki in 2003, Vienna in 2004 and Modena and Budapest last year.

But she has also done well on much bigger stages; she has twice reached Tier I semifinals, at Berlin in 2002 and Moscow in 2003, has played the second week of Grand Slams twice (both at Roland Garros), and has been ranked as high as No.15, having made one season-ending Championships appearance, in 2002.

This was the sixth staging of the Budapest Grand Prix. Smashnova is the first player to win twice at this event. Other former champions are Magdalena Maleeva (2001), Müller (2002), Magüi Serna (2003) and Jelena Jankovic (2004).

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Smashnova reaches Budapest final

(July 29) Number eight seed and defending champion Anna Smashnova from Israel is just one win away from achieving a perfect 12-0 record in WTA Tour singles finals after advancing to the final of the Budapest Grand Prix.

The ITMS Sports client who also won her seventh career ITF circuit singles title at the $75,000 Challenger in Prostejov this year, would become the first repeat champion in the tournament's 11-year history.

Smashnova defeated unseeded German Martin Muller 6-4 6-3 in the semi-finals and will now take on Lourdes Dominguez Lino in the decider after the Spaniard beat Dutch No.2 seed Michaella Krajicek 6-3 6-4.

Smashnova has been in solid form throughout the tournament, dropping only one set en route to the final.

Since 1999, she has reached 11 WTA Tour singles finals and won each of tthem.

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Smashnova through to Budapest quarters

(July 27) Anna Smashnova cruised into the quarterfinals of the Budapest Grand Prix on Wednesday with a straight sets win over Spain's Laura Pous Tio, setting up a potential rematch of last year's final.

The ITMS Sports client, who is ranked 63rd in the world and seeded eighth at the tourney, will next face the winner of Thursday's match between top seed Catalina Castano (35) of Colombia and France's Aravane Rezai (91). Smashnova defeated Castano 6-2, 6-2 to win the title in Budapest last year.

Smashnova was in strong form in Wednesday's 6-0, 6-2 win over Pous Tio (107), On Tuesday night Israeli No. 1 Shahar Pe'er joined forces with German star Anna-Lena Groenefeld to beat China's Meng Yuan and Mariana Diaz-Oliva of Argentina 6-2, 6-3 in the opening round of the doubles at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California.

The third seeded pair was scheduled to face Canada's Maureen Drake and Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic late Wednesday in the quarters.

Pe'er and Groenefeld are the highest ranked team to start with a win, after top seeds Ai Sugiyama of Japan and Slovakian Daniela Nahtuchova and No. 2 seeds Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and Czech Kveta Peschke were upset during the tourney's first two days.

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American way still rules All-Star Game

(July 12) There was a time when the National League dominated the American League. It hasn't been that way in quite a while but the Nationals almost turned back time last night at the 77th All-Star Game. After eight brilliant innings from its unheralded pitching staff, the AL finally broke through and captured a 3-2 victory before a stunned crowd of 38,904 at PNC Park.

Trevor Hoffman on the mound, one strike to go, fans on their feet at Pittsburgh's enchanting ballpark. But no matter the setting or the season, the Nationals can't find a way to close out the AL.

Down to a final strike, Michael Young hit a two-run triple off Hoffman for the victory Tuesday night that kept the Americans unbeaten for the past decade. "You're never going to forget these things on this kind of stage,“ said Hoffman, who has 460 saves. “You feel like you let a lot of people down.“

Young took home the MVP award -- and the AL won home-field advantage in the World Series for the fourth consecutive year. “Nobody wants to make the last out of anything, whether it's a regular season, World Series or an All-Star Game, “ said Troy Glaus, whose double set the stage for Young.

Behind David Wright's home run and some daring, old-style baserunning, the NL took a 2-1 lead into the ninth. Houston Manager Phil Garner went to Hoffman, who is closing in on Lee Smith's career saves record (478) and has converted 24 of 25 chances this season. After getting two soft groundballs back to the mound, Hoffman gave up a single to Paul Konerko, who was replaced by pinch runner Jose Lopez.

Then the NL nearly caught a break -- it hasn't had many since its last victory, in Philadelphia in 1996. Glaus' smash bounced over the left-field fence for a ground-rule double, perhaps preventing Lopez from scoring. He was held at third, until Young made that moot.

The Texas Rangers' underrated shortstop lined an 0-2 pitch into right-center and slid into third. “I'm not going to lie. This is a pretty big highlight in my career, “ Young said. “No one's really giving huge rallying calls to getting home-field advantage in the World Series, but we're all aware of how important this game is. “

Mariano Rivera worked around Lopez's error at third base for the save, retiring Milwaukee slugger Carlos Lee on a popup with a runner on second to make the AL 9-0-1 in the Midsummer Classic over the past 10 years.

The NL's best result in that span was a tie in 2002 in Milwaukee. Call it a decade of dominance for the American League, which got an early homer from Vladimir Guerrero. Garner smartly worked his pitcher-batter matchups -- as he said he would -- and the NL employed a drastic overshift against Boston slugger David Ortiz. Guerrero hit his first All-Star homer in the second, off starter Brad Penny, over the short porch in right field. Wright connected in the bottom half against Kenny Rogers.

Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Beltran each stole a base in the third against strong-armed catcher Ivan Rodriguez, an 11-time Gold Glove winner and 13-time All-Star. Soriano was on second when Beltran singled, but Toronto's Gold Glove center fielder, Vernon Wells, cut down the speedy Soriano with a perfect throw to the plate.

Beltran reached second on the throw and stole third with two out -- with Albert Pujols at the plate. Beltran then scored on a wild pitch by Roy Halladay that glanced off Rodriguez, giving the NL its first lead since the eighth inning in 2003.

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Tatiana Perebiynis advances to Wimbledon semis

(July 6) Tatiana Perebiynis and Yuliana Fedak of the Ukraine beat the fifth-seeded German-American pair of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Meghann Shaughnessy 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the Wimbledon semifinals today.

The quarterfinal doubles match started Wednesday but was suspended due to darkness with Groenefeld and Shaughnessy leading 7-6 (3), 2-4. The Ukrainian duo came back strong to finish the second set 6-4 but got broken early in the final set. Groenefeld and Shaughnessy looked well in control of the match and held on to the break to serve for a 5-3 lead in the third only to then lose serve twice in a row and the quarterfinal match. In total Perebiynis and Fedak converted on three of 13 breakpoint opportunities while Groenefeld and Shaughnessy managed just one out of seven breakpoint conversions.

Perebiynis and Fedak will next play eight-time Grand Slam champions Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain and Paola Suarez of Argentina for a place in the ladies’ doubles final at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

Groenefeld partnered Martina Navratilova to reach the semifinals of both Wimbledon and the US Open in 2005 and reached the semis of the 2006 Australian Open with Shaughnessy.

21-year old Anna-Lena Groenefeld and 23-year old Tatiana Perebiynis are both current clients of ITMS Sports.

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ITMS Sports clients to square off in Wimbledon quarters

(July 4) ITMS Sports client Tatiana Perebiynis and her Ukrainian partner Juliana Fedak will play against the German-American duo of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Meghann Shaughnessy for a place in the semifinals of Wimbledon.

The unseeded Ukrainian pair easily beat Jarmila Gajdosova and Ashley Harkleroad 6-1 6-1 to advance to their first quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament. Groenefeld and Shaughnessy, seeded fifth, advanced yesterday by beating Lucie Hradecka and Hana Sromova 6-4 7-5 in the third round. The German-American team hopes to reach their second Grand Slam semifinals together after reaching the semis of the 2006 Australian Open. ITMS Sports client Groenefeld also partnered Martina Navratilova to reach the semifinals of both Wimbledon and the US Open in 2005.

Perebiynis’s hopes in the mixed doubles evaporated when she and Paul Hanley lost to the fourth-seeded pair of Leander Paes and Samantha Stosur 4-6 6-3 12-10. The pair had advanced to the finals of the Wimbledon mixed competition in 2005 and were hoping to again adavance to the later stages of The Championships this year.

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