WTA Aug 9-15: Cincinnati W&S Financial Open Lindner Tennis Center, Cincinnati, OH PREMIER 5 $2,000,000 56m/32q/16d outdoor: hard Live Scores draws: WTA tourney draws & OOP pics: Y!: sports     news WSF - news CO | WTA interviews | Sports: Enquirer Cincinnati: radar - forecast # # # # # # # # # #

Cincinnati: 2009 - 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 previous other tourney pages next Cincinnati 2009: #5 Jelena Jankovic 5'9½" 130lb RH 2H-BH Cincinnati 2009: 11th WTA Singles Title

    The Cincinnati draws are not yet available as of this writing (qualifying draws are usually up on the Friday before the tourney begins, main draws on Saturday, sometimes later). The links are above for your convenience when the draws become available.

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  Cincinnati, 2009:

On Sunday in Cincinnati, in the final of the Western & Southern Financial Group Open, 24-year-old 5th-seeded #5 Jelena Jankovic from Belgrade, Serbia, defeated this year's champion in Madrid, 23-year-old top-seeded # 1 Dinara Safina (residence: Monte Carlo, Monaco), 6-4, 6-2 (Jelena is shown during the match, and with the glassware afterward). Jelena's prize is $350,000; Dinara's is $175,000.     Jelena said: "It's been a while since I've been in this sort of final. I'm so thrilled to play this kind of match, and beat the number one player in the world." BBC story - postmatch interview     Jelena played a good match, striking 18 winners with 17 unforced errors. Jelena also put 66% of her 1st serves in the box, and scored on 77% of her 1st serve points and %50 of her 2nd serve points. Jelena scored on 4 of 10 break points against Dinara; Dinara converted only 1 of 4 break points against Jelena.     Dinara struggled at times with her serve, possibly in part due to variable winds affecting her very high service toss. Although she fired 5 aces she also had 7 double faults, and won only 59% of her 1st serve points and 36% of her 2nd serve points.

    Dinara said: "I was just a little bit off today... I was feeling very confident stepping into the court, and then I was just totally off. My legs were not moving anywhere, and I was just not doing the things that I was supposed to on the court, and I let [Jelena] dictate." AP story - postmatch interview

    Jelena and Dinara are now tied at 3-3 in career matches; Dinara had won the last two times they played, both times on hardcourts. In the semifinals in Los Angeles last year, Dinara defeated Jelena 7-6(3), 6-1. And in the quarterfinals of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Dinara won 6-2, 5-7, 6-3.

    2008 US Open finalist Jelena is now 11-10 in WTA singles finals; she won in Marbella this year and in Rome, Beijing, Stuttgart, and Moscow last year, and ended 2008 ranked # 1 in the WTA. Jelena has a 35-12 match record this year.

    Valencia-trained 2009 Australian Open and 2008 French Open finalist Dinara is now 12-12 in WTA singles finals; she won this year in Madrid, Rome and Portoroz. Dinara has a 52-11 match record this season.

    Both Jelena and Dinara have 1st round byes for the coming week's Rogers Cup (Canadian Open) in Toronto. In the 2nd round on Wednesday, Jelena will play either #20 Patty Schnyder or #21 Anabel Medina Garrigues, and Dinara will play either #28 Alize Cornet or #38 Aravane Rezai.

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WTA SCOREBOARD: Cincinnati s=seed, #=rank, *=upset, LL=lucky loser ranks are for the previous week How do players get into the "draw"? The W&S Financial Open  Cincinnati, Ohio   NWS weather radar tourney time:        = GMT -6 hours        = US EDT        = US PDT+3 Cleveland news - Ohio news Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar   click for broader view   Lindner Family Tennis Center, Mason, Ohio Lat.: 39.34876 Lon.: -84.276434 goto link for World Wind     Cincinnati: The 56-player main draw for Cincinnati has 16 seeds, with 8 1st-round byes. There are 8 qualifiers and 5 wild cards in the main draw. Qualifying finals are on Sunday.     W&S Financial Open venue address: Lindner Family Tennis Center, 5460 Courseview Dr., Mason, OH 45040 2009: On Saturday, Aug 8 in Cincinnati, Elena Dementieva and freshly unretired former WTA #1 Kim Clijsters played a 20-minute mini exhibition on a precarious pedastal inside the Royal Fountains on International Street at King's Island...

Cincinnati, 1st Round, Mon-Tue 11am loser's prize: $5,400 US; points: 1

Cincinnati, 2nd Round, Tue-Wed 11am losers' prize: $10,275 US; points: 70

Cincinnati, 3rd Round, Thu 10am losers' prize: $20,000 US; points: 125

Cincinnati, QFs, Fri losers' prize: $40,000 US; points: 225

Cincinnati, SFs, Sat 1pm loser's prize: $87,500 US; points: 395

Cincinnati, Final, Sun loser's prize: $175,000 US; points: 620 winner's prize: $350,000 US; points: 900

Cincinnati, Doubles Final, Sun losers' prize: $50,000 US winners' prize: $100,000 US Cincinnati, Qual Finals, Sun Aug 8 10am losers' prizes: q1 $1,500 1pt; q2 $2,900 20pts; qualifier 30 points Cincinnati, Withdrawals

    (Mar 26, 2009) Retired former WTA # 1 Kim Clijsters announced today that she will return to the WTA Tour in August. 2005 US Open champion Kim has requested (and will receive) wild cards for this Summer's hardcourt tourneys in Cincinnati and Toronto, and for the 2009 US Open. Kim had previously scheduled exhibition matches against Steffi Graf (May 17 at Wimbledon) and Michaella Krajicek (June 14 during the Ordina Open), and will also play 2 dates of World Team Tennis. Kim retired two years ago, citing primarily that she was tired of the frequent injuries she incurred on the WTA Tour.

    Kim said: "I have missed playing tournaments most. I am doing it for the challenge. I have been training for 11 or 12 weeks. Training harder than ever before. Then this drive came back...
    "When I started preparing for the Wimbledon game with Steffi Graf I felt this drive. I wanted a new challenge. This is just for fun for now to see if I can do it. I don't need to be number one again. I have done that and I don't need to do it again. I am just going to see how things evolve...
    "I train six days a week, half of which is building up stamina and physique. I am really looking at (my) weak points to prevent injuries." AP story - Reuters story

    (Mar 24, 2009) Retired former WTA # 1 Kim Clijsters will hold a press conference on Thursday, March 26. Rumors strongly suggest that Kim will return to play on the WTA Tour. AP story - AFP story

    (Mar 13, 2009) Retired former WTA # 1 Kim Clijsters will play World Team Tennis this summer. Kim will play two matches for the St. Louis Aces, on July 21 in St. Louis, and on July 22 in Philadelphia. AP story

    (Feb 2, 2009) Belgian newspapers today are reporting that retired former WTA # 1 Kim Clijsters has begun training with former Belgian ATP player Wim Fisette, and speculate that Clijsters, still only 25 years old, may return to play on the WTA Tour. MSN Belgium story - in English via Google

See also: QuickShop: Sporting Goods - Martina Hingis - Anna Kournikova

Current WTA Results & Tennis News (tennis home page) - 2010 WTA Schedule with links & photos

Link to many postmatch interview & match highlight videos of WTA players at the 2009 WTA Player Videos page.

WTA PhotoRankings: the current top 20 Women's Tennis rankings with player photos, links, and bio info.