Mornin.' Just wanted to give you all a place to gather to call today's matches on another of those weeks much like the ones following the Australian Open. After the tribes gathered for a pair of rendezvous at Indian Wells and Miami, the tours have again gone their separate wayssplitting and splitting again, as the relatively minor events this week are scattered far and wide, from Marbella, Spain and Charleston, SC (USA) for the WTA and Houston, TX and Casablanca, Morocco for the ATP.
Tomorrow, I'll take a closer look at some of the recent tennis news and after that we'll focus on the clay-court season that's now officially underway, if still under the radar until Rafael Nadal begins the quest for an (outrageous) seventh consecutive title in Monte Carlo. Meanwhile, how about that Christina McHale? The 18-year-old American worked her way into the Top 100 early this year (her current ranking is No. 97) and she's fired two shots heard 'round the tennis world in recent weeks. At Indian Wells, she eliminated No. 13 (and two-time Grand Slam champion) Svetlana Kuznetsova.
A cynic might suggest that Kuznetsova is on the face of this earth to make struggling journeywomen or up-and-coming youngster like McHale look like Margaret Court, and that's a point...but yesterday McHale wrecked the hopes of the No. 8 seed at Charleston, Alisa Kleybanova (WTA No. 26). And the score made me do a double-take: 6-1, 6-0. And I found no mention of any extenuating circumstances working against Kleybanova, such as injury.
McHale is right up there in the major leagues; she lost to Nadia Petrova in the third round at Indian Wells (but extended the winner to three sets). Her good run in the desert wasn't in time to get her straight into Miami. She had to play qualifying and lost in the second round to former world No. 4—and periodically resurrected—Jelena Dokic.
It's funny, the official WTA website has already put "Pelham" into McHale's activity sheet, probably because she'd entered that 25K event (played in Pelham, Alabama) before she learned she was straight into Charleston. We'll keep track of her, and maybe try to get her to tell us a little about her recent fortunes. [[Correction: Apparently, McHale did play Pelham and made the quarters. I guess the site hasn't been updated. Hat tip to Matt Cronin for catching that...PB]]
BTW, Bobby Chintapalli is covering Charleston for Tennis.com and TW. Maybe we can get her on the McHale case...
-- Pete