My son and I went to the first quarter final game on Friday evening and had a great time. Cincinnati is attempting to become a place where the women will want to come, like for the men currently. One way to help this happen is to attend these Tier III and Tier II events to show that we in Cincinnati support tennis, and want to see the big names come as well.
Chakvetadze easily wins final match
A quick scan of the women's tennis rankings shows that the game belongs to the Russians. Four in the top 10, six in the top 15, seven in the top 21.
Look closer at their ages, and it appears that their dominance displayed in Cincinnati the past two years could last awhile on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.
Twenty-year-old Russian Anna Chakvetadze won the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open title Sunday, soundly defeating Japan's Akiko Morigami 6-1, 6-3. Chakvetadze became the second straight Russian to win here, following Vera Zvonareva's 2006 title.
"Russia is not like the U.S. or Japan financially," Morigami said, "but they come up with some great players. Maybe they're really hungry to win. I don't know, but I'd like to know too why that is."
Chakvetadze is a top-10 player, ranked No. 7 after Sunday's win, but her career doesn't yet compare with the likes of Russia's Maria Sharapova (No. 2), the current queen of Russian tennis. Sharapova, after all, has two Grand Slam titles at the age of 20. Chakvetadze hasn't experienced that success, winning five titles but none of them in Grand Slam tournaments, where she's yet to advance past the quarterfinals. Sunday's win was her third Tier III championship.
"I need to play better in bigger tournaments," Chakvetadze said. "When I started playing tennis, I never thought I'd become a top-10 player. Now I think I can win a Grand Slam just because I think I can."
With a $175,000 purse and a $25,840 check for the winner, the W&S Women's Open is hardly comparable to a Grand Slam. So maybe that's why Chakvetadze's reaction to winning Sunday was somewhat understated.
When Morigami hit the ball out of bounds on match point, Chakvetadze gave a light fist pump and politely waved to the crowd. But there was no emotional outpouring; not like in 2004, when she won her breakthrough match as a 17-year-old by beating Russia's top player, Anastasia Myskina, in the U.S. Open. Back then, Chakvetadze was stunned by the magnitude of her accomplishment. On Sunday, she was taken aback by the brevity of her victory.
"I'm happy to win," Chakvetadze said. "I just didn't expect it to be so easy."
It took only 59 minutes and might have been quicker had Chakvetadze served better. She made only 53 percent of her first serves, leaving a bit of an opening for Morigami to score some points. But Morigami could not overcome Chakvetadze's speed and angled shots once the players began rallies. Chakvetadze's court coverage kept Morigami fixed to the baseline, trying to return a variety of forehands and backhands.
"I got a couple good shots, and then she'd attack again," Morigami said. "I couldn't find any rhythm. She's very smart."
That is by design. Chakvetadze does not possess an overwhelming serve, so she aims for the lines and tries to keep opponents running. It worked well enough to win a title here. When the U.S. Open begins Aug. 27, however, Chakvetadze likely will have to serve more accurately than she did this week if she's to contend for a title. She complained often here that her up-and-down concentration levels made things harder than necessary.
Nevertheless, she won her fifth title in as many finals appearances and third of the year, more than any other Russian. At No. 7, she is the third-ranked Russian, behind only Sharapova and No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova - but ahead of the top American, No. 8 Serena Williams.
Chakvetadze grew up idolizing Russian Anna Kournikova, who won over cameras with sex appeal despite never winning a WTA tournament.
Chakvetadze has nowhere near that kind of name recognition (she said the French have the hardest time pronouncing her name). She still hears variations of her name at every tournament stop. It's the price of obscurity that for Russian women is best cured by a Grand Slam title.
"I hope I can," Chakvetadze said. "You need a lot of things to come together to win a Grand Slam. I've made the quarterfinals two times. I think I can do better."
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