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Post by Grarliner on Feb 17, 2005 7:03:08 GMT -5
Thank you, Vix. I like Els, but it's time, I suppose. The geezers are dropping like flies!
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Post by Brinyi on Feb 17, 2005 9:09:18 GMT -5
The geezers are dropping like flies! That sort of goes with being a geezer, I guess. ;D
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Post by Brinyi on May 5, 2005 19:51:46 GMT -5
Barbara Rittner annouced after her doubles loss in Berlin that she has officially retired from tennis. She will be honoured with a ceremony on centre court on Saturday.
/me is verklempt
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Post by Grarliner on May 6, 2005 0:45:41 GMT -5
I think it's time for Mo Majick to head out that door ... and I have resisted that call for some time! She can be followed by Vera Drake/Warren Zevon.
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Post by Brinyi on Oct 20, 2005 10:48:45 GMT -5
"I really don't feel much regret. I had some difficult moments this year when I realised that I was going to stop but at the moment I'm quite happy with my decision and I have let it go already. I don't mind because I've been to places so many times and I've done this for so long that I wouldn't mind another kind of life. I get a little bit sad sometimes but...I'm looking forward to a new life.
-- Maggie Maleeva.
/me wishes Magdalena good luck as she turns her interests toward tennis club management, retailing and organic farming -- she is a bright young lady and I'm sure will thrive in whatever she does
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Post by Lee on Oct 20, 2005 12:12:51 GMT -5
;D I live the organic farming bit.
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Post by TennisHack on Oct 20, 2005 12:18:20 GMT -5
From Bob Larson:
A Dying Breed
For more than two decades, there has always been a Maleeva on the WTA Tour. This week, it finally ends. Magdalena Maleeva has called it a career.
The youngest of the Maleeva sisters is only 30, but she has been on the Tour for sixteen years. She played her first Slam at Roland Garros in 1990, reaching the third round and hitting the Top 100 for the first time later that year. There was much better to come. She hit the Top 50 right about the time she turned 16; by the end of 1992, at 17, she was Top 20, and would stay there for five years, peaking at #4 in early 1996. She would have two more years in the Top 20 later on, though she never hit the Top Ten again after that year (she went as high as #11 for a few weeks in 2003).
In her career, she has won ten titles, on all surfaces: San Marino 1992, Moscow 1994, Zurich 1994 (her first big win: a Tier I -- no surprise that she's retiring here 11 years later), Chicago 1995 (her first Tier II), Moscow 1995, Oakland 1995 (second Tier II), Pattaya City 1999, Budapest 2001, Moscow 2002 (her second and last Tier I; she would later call this the best moment of her tennis career), Birmingham 2003 (her last title, which finally gave her a grass win and let her complete the surface sweep).
She had a winning record at every Slam, with at least a fourth round at all four -- but she had only one quarterfinal, and the 1992 U. S. Open. That was, in a way, the symbol of her frustration. She was one of the best indoor players of her era (note that all four of her big titles were either carpet or indoor hardcourt, as were several of the smaller ones), but with no indoor Slams, she never really got to show what she could do on her best surface.
It would not be far wrong to say that Maleeva had two careers. She missed both the 1996 and 1997 Australian Opens, then had major wrist surgery in 1998, missing almost a year. She fell out of the Top 100 at the end of 1998, and played only one Slam in 1999. It was a very different Tour when she came back; the new ranking rules meant ability to play lots and lots of events mattered far more than specialized skills. Plus the emergence of a new generation of players meant that raw power was the chief coin of the realm -- tough for a player who made her living mostly with hands and head. Yet she was back in the Top 25 by the end of 2000, and stayed in the Top 30 (with three single-week hiatuses) from October of 2000 until May of this year.
Her overall career won/lost is 439-290.(61.9%), which is in the Top 30 in total wins; some of the players close to those numbers include Anke Huber, who retired with 447 victories; Mary Joe Fernandez, with 437; Lori McNeil, with 436; and Natasha Zvereva with 434. Only about three of the players ahead of her on the list have not been in the Top Five.
She was less noted for doubles than singles, but she did win five titles: Bol 1991 (with Golarsa), Antwerp 2002 (with Schnyder), Miami 2003 (with Liezel Huber), Warsaw 2003 (with Huber), and Gold Coast 2005 (with Likhovtseva). Those two big titles in 2003 eventually brought her as high as #13 in the world.
Despite turning pro so very young, she is not one of those players who shut off her mind to learning; she enjoys reading about science, notably astronomy. She is proud of having been part of the movement against communism in her native country of Bulgaria; she also is active in cleaning up after the disastrous environmental policies of the communist government, being involved in a tree-planting initiative at home.
Maleeva married Lubomir Nokov on July 10 of last year. She isn't giving up tennis, really, since she and her sisters have a club in Sofia. But she sounds ready to stay in one place for a while.
It's something to think about: Manuela Maleeva started her WTA career in 1982, winning her first title in 1984 and her last in 1994; she had 19 in all. Katarina Maleeva won her first title in 1985, and the last of her dozen trophies in 1995. Magdalena won the first of her ten trophies in 1992 and the last in 2003. From 1994-2003, the only years in which no Maleeva held up a trophy were 1986, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 2000. Hardly any active players can remember the days when there were no Maleevas on the Tour; many of them were not even born back in that day. And all three sisters made the Top Ten at some time. And all three won over 350 career matches (Manuela had 475 wins, Katarina 369).
It had never happened before -- not three sisters with such strong credentials. One suspects it will be a long time before it happens again.
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Post by Brinyi on Oct 25, 2005 19:32:51 GMT -5
HASSELT, Belgium (AP) -- Silvia Farina Elia, the highest-ranked Italian female tennis player in history, retired Tuesday after losing in the first round of the Gaz de France. The 33-year-old player rose as high as 11th three years ago, and was 28th in the most recent WTA rankings. She won three career titles, all at Strasbourg, from 2001-03. ``My body has really reached its limit,'' Farina Elia said. ``I had already decided this would be my last year and I tried to finish the season at all costs, even after hurting my shoulder in February and re-aggravating the injury.'' She lost 6-3, 6-2 Tuesday to Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium.
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Post by Brinyi on Oct 25, 2005 20:18:57 GMT -5
"Off court, Japanese Ai Sugiyama, who contemplated retirement this year, said she now planned to play next season. The 30-year-old has been ranked in the top 10 in singles and at number one in doubles but she began 2005 by winning just one match in her first six tournaments. She eventually turned her year around in August, reaching the final in San Diego, during a week in which she overcame world number four Svetlana Kuznetsova, and she has enjoyed consistent results since."
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Post by TennisHack on Oct 25, 2005 21:40:16 GMT -5
Larson's feature on Farina Elia:
Another Week, Another Goodbye
Last week, we said goodbye to Magdalena Maleeva. Words is that we now have to bid farewell to another player who won with hands, heart, and head rather than by having artillery cannon built into her arms.
Silvia Farina Elia never made the Top Ten -- not quite -- but the 33-year-old had a 17 year career in which she finished in the Top Fifty nine times (including this year), and four times (1998, 2001, 2002, 2004) was in the year-end Top 20.
It might have been more, except for the two monkeys on her back. The first was that her favorite surface was grass; the second was that for years she couldn't win titles.
She eventually solved the latter; she won consecutive titles at Strasbourg in 2001, 2002, and 2003. And she earned nine doubles titles in her career, the biggest being Warsaw 2004 with countrywoman Francesca Schiavone. But before she took home that first singles title, she had lost seven straight finals, including a depressing four in 1998, the year she first hit the Top 20.
Her liking for grass came late -- she was, after all, an Italian who grew up on clay, which was her next-best surface. But it was sincere; her one-handed backhand was a nasty weapon on grass. It took her years to learn to take advantage, but once she did, watch out! She made the quarterfinal at Eastbourne 2001, and the third round at Wimbledon that year. She made the third Wimbledon third round again in 2002, then made the Eastbourne semifinal in 2003, beating both Lindsay Davenport and Magdalena Maleeva. At Wimbledon that year, she made the quarterfinal -- he only Slam quarterfinal -- beating Chanda Rubin along the way. She made the Round of Sixteen in 2004, and the third round again this year. Those Wimbledon wins were the last Slam wins of her career; indeed, she didn't win another match until Zurich, where she outlasted an injured Elena Likhovtseva.
Despite that horrid ending, she had a winning record even this year (24-23), and posted a career 469-370 record (55.9%), putting her in the top 25 all-time in wins -- she's only two behind Martina Hingis, and six behind Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere (though the latter two, especially Hingis, naturally had better won/lost marks).
Her peak singles ranking was #11, reached for three weeks in 2002. In all, she spent a bit over a year in the Top 15. She peaked at #24 in doubles, and was Top 30 as recently as last October. She twice made the year-end championships in singles, in 2001 and 2002.
In her career, she scored wins over players such as Amanda Coetzer, Kimiko Date, Lindsay Davenport, Jelena Dokic (while Dokic was still a Top Ten player), Martina Hingis (before Hingis hit the Top Ten, however), Anke Huber, Magdalena Maleeva, Conchita Martinez, Anastasia Myskina, Jana Novotna (in the last match of Novotna's career), Chanda Rubin, Gabriela Sabatini, Patty Schnyder, Monica Seles (in Fed Cup), Maria Sharapova (on clay, to be sure), Paola Suarez, Nathalie Tauziat, Sandrine Testud, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams (beating both sisters this year). Talk about a player who spanned eras!
Pretty amazing for someone who didn't start playing tennis until she was ten.
She was relatively injury-free for most of her career, though a knee problems suffered in late 1999 cost her much of her 2000 season. This year, though, she had suffered a series of nagging pains; early in the year, she decided that she would cut back, and finish at the end of 2005. And so one of the longest runs on the WTA is over.
The former Silvia Farina married her coach Francesco Elia six years ago, about the time of that knee injury. Maybe she was due to settle down. We, at least, will miss her -- she wasn't the Greatest of the Great, and she certainly wasn't flashy, but she played with her whole heart and she played with a lot of style and she used hands and mind as well as body. We could use more like that.
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Post by Brinyi on Oct 27, 2005 19:38:24 GMT -5
Another one -- Els Callens has reired in Hasselt. She is hoping to become a coach and one day captain the Belgian Fed Cup squad. Any money Larson doesn't do a tribute to her.
To Old Woman Els! (clink)
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Post by TennisHack on Oct 27, 2005 20:16:35 GMT -5
Hasselt: That's Three We've been saying a lot of goodbyes lately -- Magdalena Maleeva, Silvia Farina Elia; on the men's side, Marc Rosset packed it in after his doubles match at Basel. Els Callens isn't formally done yet; she still has doubles to play with Kim Clijsters. But we may not get another chance at her, and in any case, her singles career is over; Julia Schruff ended it 6-3 6-1.
We aren't going to give her the full feature we gave Farina Elia or Maleeva; Callens was never in that league. Her best singles ranking was #43, and she only once (1996) ended the year in the Top 50. But she spent six years in singles in the Top 100, and she was a stalwart for Belgium's Fed Cup team, once beating Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario for Belgium and almost always taking part in the doubles; in recent years, with Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters often missing ties, she played a lot of singles as well.
Still, she made her main mark in doubles, winning ten titles -- including Antwerp this year with Cara Black. Her best surface was probably grass (she won the Birmingham doubles three times, and Wimbledon was probably her best Slam), but she had titles on all four surfaces; her best title was Berlin 2001 (with Shaughnessy). With Dominique Van Roost, she took the bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics; the next year, she and Chanda Rubin beat the Williams Sisters at the U. S. Open -- and the Sisters haven't played the Open since. She never quite made the Top Ten -- her peak was #12 -- but she spent a lot of time in the Top 30.
She turned 35 in August, .and has been on the Tour for 15 years. The last year was tough; she didn't win a singles match in 2005. It was probably time to go, but she is going out in nice style.
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Post by Brinyi on Dec 22, 2005 9:27:59 GMT -5
Farewell to the Oompa Loompa
All over for Bedanova
Czech Daniela Bedanova has retired from professional tennis at the age of 22 after a string of injuries, the daily Sport reported on Thursday. The 22-year old last played a tournament in Kedzierzyn-Kozle in Poland in August, but was forced to withrdraw because of a hand injury.
"As I feel it now, the end is definitive. I struggled for a year, the injuries kept coming back," Bedanova said. "I am only 22 and perhaps I will miss it so much that I will try again one day.
"But now I have to find a different programme for my life."
Bedanova won one WTA tournament in 2000 and reached the U.S. Open quarter-finals in 2001.
Reuters - 22/12/2005
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Post by freudo on Dec 22, 2005 10:13:43 GMT -5
bye bye and good luck...dadababa...
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Post by DBBN on Dec 22, 2005 11:57:22 GMT -5
Farewell to the Oompa LoompaAll over for Bedanova Czech Daniela Bedanova has retired from professional tennis at the age of 22 after a string of injuries, the daily Sport reported on Thursday. The 22-year old last played a tournament in Kedzierzyn-Kozle in Poland in August, but was forced to withrdraw because of a hand injury. "As I feel it now, the end is definitive. I struggled for a year, the injuries kept coming back," Bedanova said. "I am only 22 and perhaps I will miss it so much that I will try again one day. "But now I have to find a different programme for my life." Bedanova won one WTA tournament in 2000 and reached the U.S. Open quarter-finals in 2001. Reuters - 22/12/2005 Poor Daja I tried to interview her at Sarasota, but she w/d from the tournament that day (after beating Zuluaga in 1R!) and that was the beginning of the end I saw her holding her check. That was weird. You never think they actually have to go to the bank like us plebs ;D
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Post by Brinyi on Dec 22, 2005 12:13:38 GMT -5
And now we mourn the departure of Fabiolita too. That was truly a seminal match in Sarasota.
I can't say I have any abiding memories of her matches, even though she had some pretty decent runs a few years ago. I think I missed her big USO win over Seles.
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Post by DBBN on Dec 22, 2005 12:47:08 GMT -5
I caught the tail end of that; they showed the final set on TV. Seles was not playing very well but it was still a quality win. I think even more impressive was the win over Dementieva at the AO earlier in the year; only one contestant in the GSC picked Daja to get to 4R there, and for the life of me I can't remember who ;D She was also named WTA Tour Newcomer of the Year in 2000. Thin field that year, but impressive nonetheless. She also made the semis of Yeastbourne in '02 beating #1 seed Dokic (!), reached her highest ranking of #16 around then.
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Post by DBBN on Dec 22, 2005 12:47:56 GMT -5
Hmm. She and Tulyaganova have had basically the same career!
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Post by Brinyi on Dec 22, 2005 13:03:14 GMT -5
That was arguably the second-best call in GSC history -- arguably the best being the contestant who picked Guga to reach the R16 at the 1997 RG in Muster's bracket. "She and Tulyaganova have had basically the same career!" -- That's uncanny, given their remarkable physical resemblance.
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Post by leena on Dec 22, 2005 13:19:48 GMT -5
Daja was such a waste. Injuries took their part, but she loved the boys, too. Oh well. Probably good for her to get out of tennis, though... she was one of those who was waifly thin.
And Taxi Ferrero should have won Newcomer in 2000. Except she was like in her 20's by then.
Too bad Bovina reached #14 last year, or we could have grouped her with these losers.
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Post by Grarliner on Dec 22, 2005 18:51:35 GMT -5
I bet she tries a comeback eventually
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Post by Brinyi on Mar 5, 2006 23:39:41 GMT -5
Pregnant Grande lays down racket From correspondents in Naples March 04, 2006 ITALIAN tennis veteran Rita Grande has announced her retirement from international tennis as she is pregnant and expecting a child in July.
Grande won three WTA tour singles titles and five doubles events during a 15-year career that saw her earn close to 2 million dollars in prize money. Her last tournament was the 2005 US Open where she lost in the first round.
"My dream is to work in tennis in Naples because I have spent too much time a long way away from home and I want to make up for lost time," said Grande.
"I want to make my contribution to finding a top-level female tennis player from this region."
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Post by shenaynay on Mar 5, 2006 23:43:38 GMT -5
Will miss Rita.
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Post by DBBN on Mar 13, 2006 20:34:45 GMT -5
Quoth Wertheim: Dally Randriantefy The best player in the history of Madagascar officially retired this week and has requested she be removed from the rankings.
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Post by shenaynay on Mar 13, 2006 21:12:02 GMT -5
That's a shame. Just less than a year ago, Dally was playing the best tennis of her life.
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Post by Brinyi on Mar 13, 2006 23:46:46 GMT -5
Quoth Wertheim: Dally Randriantefy The best player in the history of Madagascar officially retired this week and has requested she be removed from the rankings. /me is in shock. She actually made the top 50 last year. But she began having foot problems and maybe they became chronic.
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Post by janie on Mar 14, 2006 8:11:46 GMT -5
Not Dally! We'll miss you, kid.
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Post by DevilishAttitude on Apr 15, 2006 17:18:32 GMT -5
And now another fave of mine gone: Conchita Martinez Martinez says it's time to stop Former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez has announced her retirement, a day before her 34th birthday. The former world number two caused an upset when she prevented Martina Navratilova from winning her 10th Wimbledon singles crown in 1994. Martinez, the only Spanish woman to win a Wimbledon singles title, also reached the final at the Australian Open in 1998 and the French Open in 2000. She won 33 singles titles in her career, the last in Thailand in 2005. Martinez, who turned professional in 1998, also won five Fed Cup titles with Spain. She took part in four Olympic Games, winning silver in the doubles event in both 1992 and 2004 as well as a bronze in 1996. A clay-court specialist whose only Grand Slam title ironically came on grass, Martinez was ever-present in the world's top 10 between 1989 and 1998, reaching number two in 1995. Her ability to grind down opponents in long, attritional rallies helped her reach the semi-finals of all four Grand Slams that year. Four years after winning Wimbledon, she reached the final of the Australian Open where she was beaten by Martina Hingis. And in 2000, she lost to Mary Pierce in the final at Roland Garros. "It wasn't an easy decision, but everything has to come to an end," said Martinez, after announcing her retirement at the Valencia Open. "There were some hard times but in the end the successes will always remain." Martinez, who has been struggling with tendonitis in her left foot recently, said she may still play doubles. _____________ One of the last 90's players has gone. Her game will be missed. I still wonder if she'd hit that FH against Justine at RG 2005 at 0-15 5*-4 3rd set in if she could have won. Adios Conchita. You'll never be forgotton
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Post by Edna Krabappel on Apr 15, 2006 18:21:01 GMT -5
I still wonder if she'd hit that FH against Justine at RG 2005 at 0-15 5*-4 3rd set in if she could have won. No.
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Post by Brinyi on Apr 15, 2006 21:46:05 GMT -5
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