From Box Office to Back Office...

Not very many people have been overly impressed with the quality of the tennis in Doha this past week, and rightly so.

Safina in particular, going out 0-3 marked for me the lowest point of the tournament: you could reasonably have expected the 'winningest' (I'm sorry that term always has me in hysterics) player of the last 6 months to reach the knockout stages if nothing else. And that was before the now all too familiar pull outs. I know fatigue plays a factor in all of this; lets hope the WTA calendar changes go at least some way to making this event everything it has the potential to be: A Box Office Tournament, not a Back Office one.

Anyone else feel there's something almost 'Kill Bill' about the black and green Eleven jacket Venus Willams warms up in!? She certainly looked like she could take on a room full of fifty assailants as she delivered perhaps her very best performance of the year and in doing so, salvaged some of the big time feel this event ought to have. In fact, aside from the recent all Williams clash in the US Open quarter finals, I'd go as far as to say that it was her best hard court performance of recent years. There's few certainties in Tennis, but if you dictate play with powerful, deep and accurate shots point after point (quite like Safin did to Federer in that Aussie Open Semi in '05), it almost doesn't matter who's on the other side of the net: the odds of winning the match are drastically in your favour.
I really hope this is a sign of things to come next year - I'd love to see her win at least one of the two Slams that have eluded her.

Zvonareva deserves her accolades here; although not a household name, her appearance here in the finals should not be wholly surprising: coming into this she was after Jankovic, the most consistent player on tour - she's certainly one of the very few near complete players in the women's game.
I want to see her improve her Grand Slam record (only a single quarter final appearance at Roland Garros) - she's dispensed with much of the on court histrionics that marred her chances in the past.

Williams image by Jet Magbanua