Sunday, January 16, 2011

Melbourne miscellany

The Rally for Relief was deemed a success. Kim Clijsters, Sam Stosur, Ana Ivanovic, and Justine Henin joined several members of the ATP to play in exhibition matches to raise funds for the victims of the recent Queensland floods. About 7650,000 was raised, but more money will come in when players auction shirts, gear and various other items. Both the WTA and the ATP tours are donating $10 for every ace served in the summer tournaments, and Sam Stosur is donating $500 for every ace she serves at the Australian Open. Bethanie Mattek-Sands is another player who has pledged money for the cause.

Most of you probably know this--C Note is in Australia, delivering tasty stories and photos regularly from all venues. She also has this story on Caroline Wozniacki in USA Today. And here is a link from Forty Deuce to a story on how Sam Stosur is learning to cope with sports stardom.

Virginie Razzano has slipped into the main draw and no longer "needs" her wild card, so it has been given to Caroline Garcia, about whom I know little, except that she lives in Lyon, and she isn't Kristina Mladenovic.

Lisa Raymond is blogging from Melbourne.

Elena Baltacha is writing a column for the BBC.

Carlos Cuadrado is in Melbourne, working as Svetlana Kuznetsova's new coach. Kuznetsova had hired Loic Courteau, friend and former coach of Amelie Mauresmo, but parted ways with him when she discovered he would not travel with her consistently (shouldn't she have known this before they signed the contract?). The Russian star has gone through a lot of coaches in the last several years.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When Virginie Razzano entered the main draw without needing her Wild Card, there was a debate among French tennis aficionados to know which player could receive it. Kristina Mladenovic wasn't very performant last weeks (by the way, she didn't manage to win her first qualifications match...), so Caroline Garcia, who seems to be promising, had the support of a large part of the French tennis community. I have to believe that the French Tennis Federation had the same reasoning.

Anyway, Mladenovic will receive surely a Wild Card for the next French Open.

Diane said...

I figured it was something like that. Thanks for the info, Jerem.