In the singles matches played Wednesday at the Qatar Total Open 2013, there were nine players with the last name ending with “ova”. Of the 26 players who featured on the day as many as 17 were from Eastern Europe and Russia. They were from countries like Belarus, Rumania, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. Two were from the USA. Two Australians, an Italian, French and a Taiwanese were the others.
This influx of East European players was started in the 1970s by Martina Navratilova, the first and the greatest of the ‘ovas’. Earlier there had been the Russian Morozova and the Czech Kodes but neither had the impact on East European tennis that Navratilova and Lendl had. One of the reasons was that it was at this time that prize money and endorsements started gaining in value and becoming a tennis champion was like getting a ticket out of poverty into stardom and affluence.
That tradition has continued. The Czech have always had a strong tennis tradition with players like Drobny winning Wimbledon in the early 1950s. The Russians did not give importance to tennis because it was not an Olympic sport. But they still had players who reached the finals at prestigious events like Wimbledon. The Czechs have always had tall, strong, technically correct players. The Russians have also focused on fitness and technique and as a result, all these East Europeans are big, strong and very good all court players.
The American presence has diminished even though they have one of the greatest players of all time, Serena Williams, still playing. But Serena is on the wrong side of thirty and should have only a couple more years at the top. Sloan Stephens, the girl that beat her at the Australian Open, is talented. She has the right genes, being the daughter of a professional athlete. She moves well, is smooth from the baseline, but lacks Serena,overpowering overhead game. Christina McHale is another American who will be consistently in the top 50, but lacks the tools to get into the top ten.
So, in the near future, it looks to be Williams, Azarenka, Sharapova, Radwanska who will be going into the later stages of the Grand Slams. There will be the erratic Sam Stosur, who is capable of world beating tennis when in the right frame of mind. Another player who has caught the eye here in Doha is the German, Mona Barthel. A tall girl with a smooth and deceptively powerful service action, Mona has all the strokes including a natural feel for the volley, something that only Stosur has among the other girls. Barthel has been hugely impressive in her wins till now. She dismissed compatriot fifth seed Kerber without breaking sweat and now faces Caroline Wozniacki, the former world number 1 later Thursday for a place in the quarterfinals. On current form and keeping in mind dad Wozniacki’s impassioned coaching, Barthel has a very good chance. Wozniacki was struggling in her match against the Rumanian Cristea but came through in the clutch. Wozniacki seems to lack the big strokes that the top girls have, relying more on steadiness and retrieving. The weekend promises some fascinating matches.
