Feature Article

Stars Gather in Zurich for Final Tier I Tournament of the Season

Posted by Aaress Lawless on Oct 15, 2007 | Print | Email | Bookmark | Free Subscription

The final Tier I tournament of the year began on Monday in Switzerland as seven of the world’s top 10 gathered to compete for the 2007 Zurich Open title.

For a couple players, this will be their last time to compete before the Sony Ericsson Championships in November.

Four of the women, Justine Henin, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Jelena Jankovic, and Ana Ivanovic have already qualified for the season-ending event, with Serena Williams unofficially added to the field.

World No. 1 Justine Henin has only competed at twelve tournaments this year, and except for four instances, she walked away with the singles trophy. Regardless of her performance at Zurich or even Madrid, she will head into 2008 as the number one player in the world.

Henin will open her Zurich pursuit against Vera Zvonareva or a qualifier. If the draw holds, she could face Jelena Jankovic in the semifinals. The pair has met six times in 2007, with Justine remaining undefeated.

Despite her relatively poor success in finals this year, second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova continues to be a consistent competitor who can never be discounted at a tournament. She reached the semifinals at the Kremlin Cup on Saturday, before losing in straight sets to runner-up Serena Williams. To duplicate her 2006 run to the semifinals in Zurich, Kuznetsova may have to face Serena again for the third time in three weeks.

Jelena Jankovic’s long season is starting to take its toll on the 22-year-old Serbian. With a month still left to the tennis season, the third seed has already competed at twenty-four tournaments. A haul of four titles is quite an accomplishment for the woman who contemplated retirement last year, but a trophy that included a win over Justine Henin would be doubly special. Another potential meeting lurks in the semifinals of Zurich, especially as the other seed in Jankovic’s quarter is slumping Amelie Mauresmo.

After defending champion Maria Sharapova’s late withdrawal from the tournament on Sunday, Roland Garros finalist Ana Ivanovic was promoted to fourth seed. Thanks to her first-round bye, Ivanovic will get an extra day of preparation before she faces Tatiana Golovin or Maria Kirilenko.

Although she is only the fifth seed, Serena Williams always merits watching, especially on the heels of reaching the final at last week’s Kremlin Cup. She has a tough draw which will see her playing her first round match against former top 10 player Patty Schnyder, followed by a potential second round meeting with her opponent in the Moscow final, Elena Dementieva. Should this occur, it will be an intriguing match as Serena tries to forget her 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 meltdown in Moscow’s final on Sunday.

Other players to watch in the Zurich Open draw include Elena Dementieva, Tatiana Golovin, and Sania Mirza.

As a Tier I tournament, the Zurich Open features a main draw of twenty-eight singles players and sixteen doubles teams competing for $1,340,000 dollars in prize money.