On the Baseline Tennis News

In hopes of reversing her singles slump, former world number one Amelie Mauresmo has made a last minute commitment to the Bausch & Lomb Championships.

Tournament officials also announced on Monday that Nadia Petrova has withdrawn because of a quad muscle tear.

Ninety-three of the women currently inside the Top 100 have all come up short at Grand Slams, making it an all-exclusive club with a steep membership price.

Join On the Baseline for a look at a few of the best women on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour who have yet to bring home a Grand Slam title.

Charleston’s Family Circle Cup has announced that 2006 champion Nadia Petrova plans to return to compete in their 2008 event.

World No. 1 Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic, and Venus Williams have already committed to the Tier I tournament.

Nadia Petrova did not originally plan to compete at the 2008 Medibank International, but in a last chance bid to obtain match time before the Australian Open, the former top five star has accepted a wild card into Sydney.

The Medibank International announced on Friday that Petrova is the recipient of the last wild card into the women’s main draw.

Russian tennis chief Shamil Tarpishchev has announced the roster of Russian players scheduled to compete in the 2007 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas final.

It was a bad day to be a top seed playing at the US Open on Saturday, and even more so if you hailed from Switzerland.
The only women from Switzerland ranked in the top 90 fell in the third round, both in three sets.

Agnes Szavay has accomplished the biggest upset of the 2007 US Open so far by ousting seventh seed Nadia Petrova in straight sets today.

Aces
World number one Justine Henin has said that she is rested and “fresh mentally for the end of the season” following her time off since Wimbledon. (Henin keen to get over Wimbledon loss with good show in Toronto)

Third seed Ana Ivanovic won her fourth career title today with a 7-5, 6-4 win over fourth seed Nadia Petrova at the East West Bank Classic.
Ivanovic’s win projects her to move to a new career-high of No. 4 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings tomorrow.

Ana Ivanovic and Nadia Petrova will be contesting the 2007 East West Bank Classic final after Petrova advanced to the championship round by virtue of a walkover from top seed Maria Sharapova.

Aces
World number one Justine Henin and Jelena Jankovic have qualified for the 2007 season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid. (Henin, Jankovic First To Qualify for Madrid)

Matches to Watch on Tuesday
(2) Maria Sharapova vs. (23) Venus Williams
This is the thriller that fans have been looking forward to watching since the main draw came out. As nice as it would be to see Maria and Venus deliver a highly competitive match worthy of the hype, Venus has yet to bring enough game [...]

Weather permitting, Thursday’s action at Wimbledon will see Maria Sharapova, Amelie Mauresmo, Svetlana Kuznetsova competing, as well as Venus and Serena Williams’ first doubles match together since Wimbledon of 2004.

Who’s Up
Nadia Petrova (9/11) – Petrova has not been too happy with her performance over the last several weeks, but she should be happy about regaining her position inside of the top 10.

Aces
Eighteen year-old Agnes Szavay has qualified for the main draw of Wimbledon for the first time after coming through the qualifying event at Roehampton without dropping a set. (Qualifiers for Wimbledon)