Spotlight On … Urszula Radwanska

A former junior world number one, Urzsula Radwanska is the younger of the two Radwanska sisters. The Polish teenager won last year’s junior Wimbledon tournament, which has resulted in her receiving wildcards into WTA main draws and qualifying tournaments. She is currently on the cusp of the top 100.  She has only played in one Grand Slam main draw but that was a success. She lost in the second round of Wimbledon this year to eventual finalist Serena Williams, but the scoreline was fairly competitive, especially given the ranking difference between them.

This year has seen Urszula win an ITF tournament in Vancouver. Much of the 2008 season has been spent playing WTA qualifying tournaments and ITF events. Notable scalps this year include Julia Goerges (who was in the top 100 recently), and Klara Zakopalova.

Last year, she reached the quarter-finals of WTA Beijing, and won a WTA doubles title in Istanbul with older sister Agnieszka. She also claimed doubles titles at ITF level in Germany, America and China.

Title Watch: Tsonga, Roddick, Kirilenko Claim Titles

 ATP Bangkok (Thailand)

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga stunned top seed Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the final in a rematch of this year’s Australian Open final (albeit with a reversed result).

ATP / WTA Beijing (China)

On the men’s side, Andy Roddick got his season back on track with a 6-4 6-7 6-3 win over surprise finalist Dudi Sela, who had beaten Tommy Robredo and David Ferrer en route.

On the women’s side, Jelena Jankovic will play off against Vera Zvonareva in the final.

WTA Seoul (Korea)

Top seed Maria Kirilenko beat Sam Stosur in three sets in the final to avenge her loss against Venus Williams in last year’s final.

Spotlight On … Laura Robson

After claiming the 2008 Girls’ Singles title at Wimbledon, Laura Robson became the youngest champion since Martina Hingis. The fourteen-year-old Brit has been making waves on the junior circuit for a while now, having won four titles and made the final of several other tournaments. This was her biggest title to date though, and her first ever junior Grand Slam event. She rose from # 36 to a career-high of #5 on the ITF junior rankings following her success.

She was born in Australia but moved to the UK and now competes for Great Britain. Her highest ITF junior ranking (#5) is better than any of the current WTA top 10 players at the same age (bar Maria Sharapova, and the Williams sisters, as Venus and Serena didn’t play junior events), so there is some undoubted potential there, if she carries on the same rate of progess.

Laura made her professional debut in a $10K tournament in France, where she entered the qualifying tournament. She qualified with ease and edged past Alice Balducci to win her first ITF main draw match. That was to be the end of her tournament as she sustained a shoulder injury during her second round match against the 2nd seed, and retired while trailing in the first set. Her second ITF tournament was $75K Shrewsbury (UK). She was given a wildcard into the main draw, and beat compatriot Sarah Borwell for her second ITF main draw win. She had a mucher tough test in the second round against fellow rising star Urszula Radwanska, who is also a Junior Wimbledon champion, and looks set to crack the top 100 soon. Against the odds, she stunned Radwanska in straight sets and followed that up with a straight sets win over 4th seeded Israeli Tzipora Obziler, who is 21 years her senior. Her first ITF semi-final will be against 2nd seed Maret Ani.

What’s Gone Wrong With Ivanovic?

It’s been a miserable summer for Ana Ivanovic. Since winning her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros back in May and reaching number one in the world rankings, the Serbian has been on a downward spiral. A surprise third round exit at Wimbledon to wildcard Jie Zheng (having almost come a cropper against Nathalie Dechy in the previous round) was followed by a third round exit in Montreal to Tamira Paszek (after a first round bye). That was at least partially explained by a thumb injury that caused her to bypass the Beijing Olympics. The intention was to get ready for the US Open, but this was another poor tournament, as she was beaten by French qualifier Julie Coin. She was the top seed in each of those tournaments, and had top billing again this week in Tokyo. Her first match ended in yet another defeat; this time to Nadia Petrova.

Right now, it seems unlikely that Ivanovic will be getting to the latter stages of any tournament, let alone a Grand Slam. Not having seen all of these matches, I can’t comment on exactly what her current form is, but the results certainly don’t make good reading. She has slipped from first to third in the rankings over the summer, and is only marginally ahead of Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina in fourth and fifth. Even six-ranked Maria Sharapova isn’t too far away, despite having been out of action for some time. It’s not difficult to see Ivanovic’s ranking taking a further hit if things don’t improve soon.

What exactly has gone wrong for the Serb? Has her form disappeared, or is it more of a confidence crisis?

Spotlight On … Arantxa Rus

Arantxa Rus is currently making waves on the WTA tour, having qualified and reached the quarter-finals in Ghangzhou (China) with wins over Yanina Wickmayer and 5th seed Gisela Dulko. She plays Camille Pin for a place in the semi-finals. This event is only her second WTA event.

Despite the slightly Spanish-sounding first name, Arantxa Rus actually hails from the Netherlands. She gained the world number one ranking in the juniors after junior Wimbledon, and is currently ranked 229 (a career high ranking) in the seniors. The left-handed teenager has won one ITF singles title this year in Bari (Italy), to go with the two that she won in her native Holland in 2007.

She has awarded wildcards into the WTA tournament in s’Hertogenbosch (Holland) for the last two years, but has lost in round one on both occasions (to 8th seed Alona Bondarenko in 2007, and Mariya Koryttseva in 2008). The rest of her career so far has been spent on the ITF circuit.

Arantxa started playing tennis when she was five years old. As a junior, her achievements have included winning the 2008 Australian Open in singles (d. Jessica Moore in the final), and reaching the final of the same event in doubles (w/ Lesley Kerkhove).