Tag: Maria Sharapova

French Open Dominated by American Women During Open Era

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Right or wrong, the strength of tennis in a country is often measured by the performance of its singles players in Grand Slam events.

Based on this definition of success the U.S. women clearly dominated the French Open during the Open Era of tennis (since 1968). The American women won 14 French Open championships, led by Chris Evert with seven titles. Serena Williams and Martina Navratilova have both been champions on 2 occasions.

By country, the dominance during the Open Era is summarized as follows:
• 1968 -77 – American and Australian players dominated.
• 1978 – 87 – Chris Evert won seven of nine French Opens between 1974 and 1986. Martina Navratilova won the other two.
• 1988 – 97 – Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario dominated.
• 1998 – 07 – Justine Henin captured four titles; however, players from six countries were champions.
• 2008 – 14 – Russian players dominated during this period.

The dominance by the U.S. at the French Open ended with the retirement of Chris Evert. Since then:
• Steffi Graf has won 5 titles.
• Justine Henin has won 4 championships.
• Monica Seles and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario have each won 3 titles.
• Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams have both won twice.

Stay tuned for the 2015 French Open starting on May 24th.

Will Sharapova defend her title? Will Serena regain her form of 2013? Will the younger players such as Halep or Bouchard bring home the trophy in 2015?

Women French Open Winners During Open Era

American Men and Women Have a Weak Showing at 2014 French Open

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Another Grand Slam event has passed and no American players were serious contenders for the title. What is the USTA Player Development Program doing?

Rafael Nadal won another French Open. Rafa has now won nine French titles.  Since the first tournament in 1891, Americans have won the event a total of 11 times. Four of those victories have come during the open era.

On the women’s side Maria Sharapova captured her second French Open. She defeated 20-year old Simona Halep in a knockdown-dragout match that lasted for more than three hours.

With the exception of John Isner and Sloane Stephens, the American players had a lackluster performance. After Isner, the highest ranking American male was ranked 64th.

In the men’s draw Bradley Klahn (71), Michael Russell (98), and Robby Ginepri (279) lost in the first round.

Sam Querrey (67) and Steve Johnson (64) won their first round matches, but lost in the second round.

Donald Young (79) and Jack Sock (75) won two rounds before bowing out in the third round.

John Isner (11), seeded 10th, held his seed by winning three matches before being defeated in the round of 16.

Overall, the American men won 9 matches and lost 8.

On the women’s side, tennis enthusiasts got a sneak peak of American tennis without the Williams sisters. Fans anticipated seeing the players face off in their third round; however, both Venus and Serena lost in the second round.

Only Taylor Townsend and Sloane Stephens advanced beyond the second round. Townsend won two matches before losing in the third round and Stephens won three before she was defeated in the fourth round.

In the last six Grand Slams she has reached the fourth round. In four of those tournaments she was the last American in the bracket. That sounds good, on paper, but….

The following American women fell in the first round: Grace Min, Lauren Davis, Christina McHale, Vania King, Shelby Rogers, Anna Tatishvili, and Madison Keys.

In addition to the Williams sisters, the second round losers included Varvara Lepchenko, Coco Vandeweghe, and Alison Riske.

At the moment Serena Williams is the only elite American male or female player. Although John Isner has been consistent, it is unlikely he will win a Grand Slam event.

Stephens has shown that she has the potential to play in the upper echelon. Time will tell whether there are too many players such as Simona Halep, Eugenie Bouchard, Belinda Bencic, and Garbine Maguruza, who will prevent her from being an elite player.

Another Grand Slam has passed and there is no evidence the USTA Player Development Program is having an impact on American tennis.

American Women Record Wins at French Open

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This past weekend, Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal were crowned Men’s and Women’s Champions at the French Open. For the trio of Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal, this was their 32nd win in the last 36 Grand Slams. Total dominance. For Nadal, this was his record setting seventh French Open championship.

Sharapova’s victory was also historic. She ousted a determined Sara Errani, retained her #1 ranking in the world, and completed a career grand slam. In a classy, post-match interview Sharapova provided some words of wisdom for life on and off the court, “I’ll retire the day I wake up and don’t believe I can be a better player.”

Overall, the showing by the Americans in singles was mixed. The women results for the women were respectable, while the outcome of the men’s matches was ugly.

The singles results for Americans are listed below.

U.S. Men’s Results
Round of 128
The 8 U.S. men players had a weak start – 3 wins and 5 losses.
• Winners – Brian Baker, John Isner, and Jesse Levine.
• Losers – James Blake, Ryan Harrison, Sam Querrey, Andy Roddick, and Donald Young.

Round of 64
The American players were pathetic in the second round – 0 wins and 3 losses.
• Winners – NONE.
• Losers – Brian Baker, John Isner, and Jesse Levine.

Round of 32
At the Australian Open 1 of 11 American men made it to the round of 32, while none of 8 American men made it to the round of 32.

At the French Open, the 8 American men won 3 matches and lost 8.
At the Australian Open, the 11 American men won 7 matches and lost 11.

U.S. – Women’s Results
Round of 128
The 12 U.S. women players showed promise in the first round – 10 wins and 2 losses.
• Winners – Lauren Davis, Irina Falconi, Alexa Glatch, Vania King, Varvara Lepchenko, Christina McHale, Melanie Oudin, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Sloane Stephens, and Venus Williams.
• Losers – Jamie Hampton and Serena Williams.

Round of 64
The women didn’t fare as well in the second round – 3 wins and 7 losses, although 2 of the matches pitted American players against each other.
• Winners – Varvara Lepchenko, Christina McHale, and Sloane Stephens.
• Losers – Lauren Davis, Irina Falconi, Alexa Glatch, Vania King, Melanie Oudin, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, and Venus Williams.

Round of 32
The American women performed admirably in the third round – 2 wins and 1 loss.
• Winners – Varvara Lepchenko and Sloane Stephens.
• Losers – Christina McHale.

Round of 16
The American women lost to the 4th and 6th seeds – 0 wins and 2 losses.
• Losers – Sloane Stephens and Varvara Lepchenko lost.

The 12 American women won 15 matches and lost 12.
At the Australian Open, the 10 American women won 9 matches and lost 10.

The Grand Slams are not a team or country contest. Nevertheless, it is still interesting to look at the performance of the top players an countries.

France had 29 players with 30 wins and 29 losses.
Spain had 20 players with 30 wins and 19 losses.
USA also had 20 players with 18 wins and 20 losses.
Russia had 17 players with 10 wins and 16 losses.
Germany had 15 players with 13 wins and 15 losses.
Italy had 12 players with 15 wins and 12 losses.
The Czech Republic has 12 players with 14 wins and 12 losses.
USA Tennis is a solid performer, but clearly not a dominant factor in the sport.

American tennis fans can only hope that the women continue to play well at Wimbledon. With a little luck, some of the younger players will have a break-through tournament. While the American men are fabulous players, they demonstrated again that they are clearly not in the upper tier.

 

Sports Illustrated Vault – Top Women Covers

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Which female athlete has most frequently adorned the covers of Sports Illustrated?

The answers can easily be found in the SI Vault (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/). The website includes a database that allows sports enthusiasts to conduct searches on articles, covers, galleries, and swimsuit issues. These searches provide an interesting perspective on what has been important in sports since SI began publishing in 1954.

The purpose of the following analysis is to identify the female athletes who most frequently adorned the SI covers and to look for other interesting trends. In December, 40 female athletes were selected for analysis. Their names, as listed in the charts below, were placed in the advanced search engine (exact phrase). Note that slightly different frequencies occurred when the names were placed in the general search box. It was also necessary to be aware of multiple athletes with the same name. As well, there were challenges associated with identifying tallies for women who played their sport under maiden and married names.

Keep in mind, the purpose of this analysis is not to identify the best athlete; rather the intent is to point out the athletes that adorned the SI covers most often. Athletes such as Suzanne Lenglen passed away before SI began publishing, so her coverage is minimal compared to current players. There are a number of factors that can determine whether an athlete makes the front cover or just receives mention in an article or picture gallery. The following questions address these factors:
• When did the athlete play?
• Did they participate in a team sport or an individual sport?
• How long has their sport been in existence, for example snowboarding is a relatively new sport?
• Did the athlete play in a major sport or a minor sport?
• Did the athlete play in a small market or a major market? Did they compete internationally?
• Who did the athlete have as sponsors and how well were they marketed?
• Was the athlete a flashy player who drew attention, such as Anna Kournikova, or were they a steady performer like Mary Jo Fernandez?
• How has the interest level in their sport changed over time? Are people as interested in that sport as they once were?
• Were there lockouts or strikes during an athlete’s career that prevented additional exposure?
• Did the athlete experience injuries that reduced media coverage?
• Were there other events that were more significant or overshadowed the significance of an athlete’s performance?
• Was it a “slow sports day”, which allowed for certain athletes to receive greater coverage?
It is interesting to note who has been on the cover most frequently, but it can be equally as intriguing to consider the factors that may have caused or prevented greater coverage.

The data suggests that there are a handful of athletes who might be considered media icons. While the men had media icons such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Muhammad Ali, no women received the same level of coverage as they did. Jordan was on the cover of SI 58 times, yet Martina Navratilova filled the spot only 9 times. The results also showed that only 10 of the 40 women in the sample appeared on the SI cover more than twice.

It is particularly interesting to note that 8 of the top 12 spots are filled by women’s tennis players. Would that be a function of the WTA’s efforts to market their women players and the sport or was that a result of a weak field on the men’s side?

It is also interesting to note that none of the 40 women were mentioned in articles more than 1,000 times. Half of the 50 men were mentioned more than 1,000 times.

In 1972 Title IX was put in place to give women an equal opportunity to participate in sports. Clearly, playing and coaching opportunities for women have increased drastically since then. Right or wrong, this basic analysis suggests that media coverage of men’s and women’s sports occurs at significantly different levels.

Analysis of the SI database is included in the December 2, 8, and 20 blog posts. The three discussions identify the sports, major sporting events, male athletes, and female athletes to most frequently adorn the front cover.