Bud Collins’ Six Female Tennis Players to Watch
Posted by Aaress Lawless on Jun 9, 2006 | Print | Email | Bookmark | Free Subscription
MSNBC has a great piece written by tennis expert Bud Collins on his “Super Six” Sony Ericsson WTA Tour players to watch. He believes that the next girls to become top stars in women’s tennis could very well be American Jamea Jackson, Czech Republic’s Nicole Vaidisova, Serbia and Montenegro’s Ana Ivanovic, Russia’s Dinara Safina and Maria Kirilenko, Israel’s Shahar Peer, and Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany.
“They are pretty much flying under the radar at this point in their pro careers, but it may not be too long before their names become well known, and they take their place among the elite in women’s tennis.
They are my super six most promising up-and-coming players on the WTA tour . . . ”
(source: MSNBC)
Collins, as usual, has some great insights into the skills of these players, although I disagree a little bit with some of his predictions.
For one thing, Nicole Vaidisova is improving rapidly, but I do not think that she will end the 2006 season in the top ten. She has worked on her technique and fitness, but now it is time to work on the mental part of her game. She was two points from her first Grand Slam final, but allowed Kuznetsova to come back from being a set behind and win the match. I am looking forward to watching her performance at Wimbledon, but she probably will not have a run similar to Roland Garros on the grass courts of the All England Lawn Tennis Club. After the grass season ends, we should see Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, hopefully Lindsay Davenport, and Kim Clijsters reasserting themselves on the hardcourts in the United States, and Vaidisova may not be at the point to challenge them for the top spots on Tour.
Also, Bud Collins did not include any of the young Chinese players who are currently shooting up the rankings. China now has five players in the top 100, with a doubles team in the top ten. Jie Zheng and Shuai Peng have been producing excellent wins at the lower tier tournaments, and I think it is only a matter of time before one of them makes it into the top fifteen.
If you enjoyed this tennis article, please sign up for a free subscription!
Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.