Can someone explain the why Mauresmo went from 1st to 3rd even when she reach the final and Sharapova didn't?
967426
Amelie Mauresmo won the WTA Championships in 2005, and, since ranking points won in WTA tourneys are kept for 52 weeks, she thus had 485 "points to defend." Normally, this would mean that Amelie could not gain any points at the same tourney this year, but for some reason the ranking points for this years WTA Championships were increased, giving the champ 525 points instead of last year's 485, so Amelie could have 40 more points in the Nov 13th rankings.\nThe victory by Martina Hingis over Nadia Petrova on Wednesday guaranteed that Justine Henin-Hardenne would finish no lower than third in the "Yellow" group at the Championships. This alone would be enough for Justine to edge out Amelie for the # 1 ranking, and thus Amelie could not finish the year at # 1.\n # 2 Maria Sharapova was in a somewhat better position. She had only 218 "points to defend," and might have finished the year at # 1 by simply matching her performance of last year in reaching the semis--if Justine Henin-Hardenne had finished last in her round-robin group. But with her win over Nadia Petrova on Thursday, Justine clinched a place in the semifinals. That meant that Maria would have had to win the tourney to have a chance at finishing # 1. Justine's victory over Maria in the semis eliminated that possibility, and clinched the # 1 ranking for Justine.\nJustine Henin-Hardenne, who reached all 4 Grand Slam tourney finals this year, entered the tourney in the best position to finish the year at # 1. Maria Sharapova's loss in the semifinals (which happened to be a loss to Justine) meant that even if Justine had finished 3rd in her group, rather than reaching the final, she would have finished the year at # 1 anyway.
1073238
The media has some things to answer about Tim's Wimbledon experience but they cannot be responsible for how well he performs and plus would you say that reaching 4 semi finals is poor form and loosing to the winner each time is poor? I certainly wouldn't and this doesn't account for the 4 quarter finals he has also reached! The media have criticised unjustly in my opinion.
1018483
You can make a great arguement for Steffi, she's the only player in history to win each of the Grand Slams at least 4 times, plus she's 2nd only to Margaret Court with 22 grand slam titles.  But, I don't think her number would have been as high if Monica Seles had been stabbed, remember Seles had won 8 of 9 Grand Slams before her stabbing, and she was CLEARLY the #1 player in the World at the time.  \n\nI think you can make a great case for my girl Chris Evert.  Was ranked 1 or 2 in the world from 1974 to 1986, also won at least one grand slam title for those 13 years in a row (still a record).  She's the only player male or female who won 90 percent of her matches for her career.  Incredible....she played in 56 grand slam tournaments and got to the semi-finals or better in 52 of them.  \n\nShe got to 34 grand slam finals and won 18 of them.  \n\nAlso you can make a case for Martina Navratilova and Margaret Court as well, but I think the top 4 women (in no particular order are Steffi Graf, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Margaret Court)
188602
Hello???? R u ok? Martina is back! She's playing really well this year. She's very consistent in all the Tournaments that she entered in. Although not yet a winner this year, she had already made the Quarterfinal at the Australian Open, Finals at Tokyo, and a number of semi-finals and quaterfinals. I think as far as i can remember, of all the 7 tournaments that she entered, she only have one First round loss and that's against Henin. All of the other results are either a quarterfinalists, semi-finalists, or a finalist. That's not bad for a comebacking player, i mean that's Awesome. \nTo add to it, from a Ranking of 400 or more at the start of the year, she is now ranked 27 in the world. I bet after the year ends i will not be suprise to see her at the top 5 in the world.
537595
Roger Federer & only Nadal can stop him. But remember, if he wins, he becomes the first to hold four grand slams concurrently. What can be more motivating?\nAmelie, Kim, Petrova, Justine, Martina, Sharapova......\njust take your pick! But remember, Amelie is playing at home.
826514
Maria, because she is more focused on the sport than outside interests. Anna, for all her talent, never had the mental capacity to win even one tournament at the pro level. She could have built up her confidence by playing the satellite events and Challenger series tournaments (the minor leagues of pro tennis), and winning a few of those, because it is unlikely any player in those events could compete with her. Anna had plenty of potential as a future tennis star. Remember, she was a 16 year old semifinalist at Wimbledon. However, Enrique Iglesias, fat endorsement contracts, not to mention her celebrity status were too much for her. Maria was very close to being the #1 player in the world, and she has won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open already. There is hope she can win the French and Australian Opens in her career. I think Anna is pretty much done as a player. It's obvious\nMaria is the better tennis player. Anna might be the betterlooking of the two since I'm assuming she gets more money than Maria for endorsement contracts, but Maria is very attractive also. The\ndifference is Maria didn't let her life outside of her pro tennis career distract her to the point where it adversely affected her \nresults, Anna did.
56781
I am indian .I watch her play but i don't think she is to 2 good to match with sharapova.Her forehand r good and have strentgh but she is back in backhand play. Indian media has taken her to seventh heaven by hiding her errors and weakness.
307334
She is a good player, but I do not like the way she behaves and I think she is not qiute sure of her abilities to play good tennis. :)
1015377
1 Amelie Mauresmo\n2 Kim Clijsters \n3 Nadia Petrova \n4 Maria Sharapova \n5 Justine Henin-Hardenne  \n6 Mary Pierce \n7 Lindsay Davenport \n8 Elena Dementieva \n9 Patty Schnyder\n10 Svetlana Kuznetsova
161549
lost to JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE 2-6 6-2 6-3 in quarterfinals
474179
The draw is divided into two parts: seeded players, and the rest of the field.\n\nFor Grand Slam tournaments, the field is 128, and there are 32 seeded players.  The seeds are allocated by the ATP (men) or WTA (women) ranking released in the previous week -- except Wimbledon, which has subjective seedings.\n\nThe 1st seed is in slot 1.\nThe 2nd seed is in slot 128.\nSeeds 3-4 are drawn into slots 33 and 96.\nSeeds 5-8 are drawn into slots 32, 64, 65, and 97.\nSeeds 9-12 are drawn into slots 17, 49, 80, and 112.\nSeeds 13-16 are drawn into slots 16, 48, 81, and 113.\nSeeds 17-24 are drawn into slots 9, 24, 41, 56, 73, 88, 105, and 120.\nSeeds 25-32 are drawn into slots 8, 25, 40, 57, 72, 89, 104, and 121.\n\nThe rest of the field is then drawn to the remaining slots.\n\nFor tournaments with 64 players, there will be 16 seeds.  For 32 players, 8 seeds, with the same basic structure.\n\nThere are tournaments with 96 or 48 players (or other numbers), in which case the top seeds will receive a bye in the first round.
506680
In men's tennis the situation right now is following (ATP rankings):\n(those # r points)\n1. Federer 632 \n2. Nadal   384 \n3. Ljubičič 251 \n4. Nalbandian250 \n5. Baghdatis 196 \n6. Blake 186 \n7. Haas 176 \n8. Davydenko 168 \n9. Nieminen 150 \n10. Ančič 139\n\nIn women's tennis (WTA rankings):\n\n1. Mauresmo 3272 \n2. Clijsters 3048 \n3. Petrova 2620 \n4. Sharapova 2543 \n5. Henin-Hardenn 2408 \n6. Pierce 2302 \n7. Davenport 2254 \n8. Dementeva 1964 \n9. Schnyder 1753 \n10. Kuznecova 1577
164340
Each country is able to submit a team of performers....usually it's only three per event, but I guess sometimes its more.  Despite this, each athlete usually goes through qualifier rounds just to get to the finals..in which case you don't usually see more than 3 athletes per country.  They send three because the Olympics rewards three spots...Gold, Silver, and Bronze.  So rather than competing for the top spot, athletes compete for all three spots.  It's about being the world's best athlete...not the world's best athletic country.
1112913
the qualifying stages aren't knock out, these are specally kept to tune the teams and clear are the pending warnings like yellow cards and stuff\n\nthe second round is a knock -out stage \nu lose and your out , there is no room for error\n\nlot of really good teams have lost in the second round like netherlands aussies and now spain \n\nfrance will meet brazil next and ofcourse will lose this time :)
668938
Martina Navratilova\n During her career she won 18 Grand Slam singles titles and 40 Grand Slam doubles titles (31 women's doubles and 9 mixed doubles). She won the women's singles title at Wimbledon a record 9 times. She is considered one of the greatest players of all time.\nNavrátilová won her first Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon in 1978, where she defeated Evert in three sets in the final and captured the World No. 1 ranking for the first time. She beat Evert in the final again to successfully defend her Wimbledon title in 1979.\n\nIn 1981, Navrátilová won her third Grand Slam singles title by defeating Evert in the final of the Australian Open. Navrátilová also reached the final of the U.S. Open, where she lost a third set tie-breaker to Tracy Austin. Navrátilová won both Wimbledon and the French Open in 1982.
3213
Serena, Venus.\n\nSerena:\n\n• Won first professional singles title at Paris Indoors the same day older sister Venus Williams won Oklahoma City, marking first time in professional tennis history that two sisters won titles in same week.\n\nI don't know why it says same week since it was also the same day, but ...
740942
Moi je n'ai rien à dire, sauf chapeau... les mauvaises langues disent ce qu'elles veulent, mais Justine s'est battue et a joué un tennis de haut niveau contre Sharapova et Mauresmo (qui n'a pas démérité durant ce master) en finale. Elle méritait de retrouver sa place de numéro un mondiale. Quant aux gens qui la trouvent arrogante, et bien c'est peut être pour se protéger d'une certaine presse belge qui la critique pour certains choix (comme vivre à Monaco)... \n\nBref, une grande championne, et j'attends avec impatience 2007 pour une nouvelle saison de tennis.