French Open Preview: Part 2

In the first part (available here), I looked at four of the leading ladies - Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka and Li Na. In this second part, we look at four of the ladies that could potential wrestle the title away from the leading four.

Agnieszka Radwanska

Another player for whom 2012 has been a breakout year, the Pole has climbed to a career high of number three in the world, collecting titles in Dubai and Miami in the process. However, were it not for the spectre of Victoria Azarenka hanging over her, she would undoubtedly have more titles.

In the past, Radwanska has struggled against the big power-hitters. However, she has subtlety adapted her game in the latter part of last year and the early part of this. The change has seen a rapid improvement, although the one player that has consistently caused her problems has been Victoria Azarenka.

The pair have met six times so far this year, with the Belorussian winning every encounter. Aside from Azarenka, Petra Cetkovska remains the only player to have beaten Radwanska this year, and despite previous poor results at Roland Garros, she goes into the tournament full of confidence. “It’s not my favourite surface, but I’ve had some good results. I’m just happy that this year I’ve been able to play a couple of good matches on clay.”

Can Radwanska advance to her first Grand Slam final at the site of her junior triumph?

She also has good memories of Paris from her time as a junior. Six years ago as a sixteen-year old, she won the junior Roland Garros title. It provides further proof that, while she may not enjoy the surface, she is perfectly competent on it. She still speaks fondly of the experience; “I played most of my matches against players that I see every week, players that are at the top of the WTA. It was just a great memory from Paris.”

She will have been pleased to find herself in the ‘weaker’ half of the draw, albeit the same side as her nemesis, Victoria Azarenka. However, a dangerous second round encounter with Venus Williams awaits, which should provide an early test of her credentials. Should she progress, she faces another challenger against the former champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova, who admittedly is not the force that she once was, but still remains a talented player. Errani or Ivanovic await in the fourth round, before a quarter-final match against Angelique Kerber to set up a seventh opportunity against Azarenka.

While she is arguably one of the form players, if Radwanska stands any chance of winning this tournament, she will have to find some way of beating Azarenka. However, her style simply does not match up well against the power of the Belorussian, and it seems unlikely that she will change this on her least favoured surface.

Petra Kvitova

After winning her maiden Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, securing the WTA Year End Championship and leading the Czech Republic to Fed Cup glory in 2011, this year was meant to be the year that Petra Kvitova cemented her status as the top player in the world.

It seemed simply a matter of time before she rose to number one, but the emergence of Azarenka scuppered those plans. Without a title in 2012, she finds herself as the number four seed and looking to restore her confidence on a surface where she often has a few issues.

However, she remains optimistic that she can cause a stir at Roland Garros. “Everyone was surprised that I won Madrid in 2011 and I think I learned that I can play on the clay too.” Indeed, as a small girl, she began her career on the clay courts of the Czech Republic.

Kvitova has had a disappointing year so far, but could turn it around on the clay at Roland Garros

When she is on form, there is nothing that can stop her. Having returned from a difficult American swing, where she often struggles due to her asthma, she swept aside all-comers on the indoor hard courts of Asia and Europe late last year. Six titles on four different surfaces bear testament to her constant threat.

She will also be pleased with her draw in Paris this year. The Australian wildcard, Ashleigh Barty, should provide little resistance, while she is seeded to play Monica Niculescu in the third round – a player whose style gives her little opportunity against the power striking of the Czech. A match against either Jankovic or the 2010 Roland Garros champion, Francesca Schiavone, awaits in the fourth round, but both those players appear to be well past their best. Li Na should be her first real test, before the major challenge of derail either Serena or Sharapova to reach a first final.

It is impossible to discount Petra Kvitova from any tournament, although it would appear that there are more suitable challenges to come in the near future on the grass of Wimbledon. Having said that though, she won two clay court titles in 2011, and if she is on form, she could ride the wave of success deep into this tournament.

Samantha Stosur

Roland Garros holds bittersweet memories for Samantha Stosur. While it was the site of her first Grand Slam final, the very same match was the greatest disappointment of her career, as she lost against Francesca Schiavone.

Having won her first Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows last year, Stosur is desperate to add a second at Roland Garros on a surface that has gone from her least favoured to that which suits her game the most. Her powerful and effective kick serve, combined with her big forehand mean that she has the game to beat the best on the clay. She enjoys playing in Paris as well. “Ever since that semi-final run in ’09, I’ve felt really comfortable on the courts and just really enjoy playing here.”

Stosur has reached the final before at the French Open, but will be looking to win the title this year

During the Australian Open, she struggled under the expectations of her home crowd, crashing out at the first hurdle against Sorana Cirstea. Since moving to the clay, she has reached one semi-final in Charleston and a pair of quarter-finals in Stuttgart and Madrid, but will be hoping that she can go further at Roland Garros.

Despite her questionable form, she seems happy with the state of her game; “I’ve been playing really quite well, so not too much to be disappointed about.”

She will be relatively happy with her draw. Elena Baltacha should provide little trouble, while the first test could be a third round encounter with the Russian, Nadia Petrova, who took Serena to three sets in Rome last week. Sabine Lisicki could be the fourth round opponent, although she does struggle to bring her game on clay courts, while the biggest test will be against world number one, Victoria Azarenka in the quarter-finals. If she can beat Azarenka, she could easily go the whole way.

Stosur is a definitely contender for this title. A beaten finalist two years ago, and a semi-final in 2009, she knows what it takes to go deep into the tournament and it will take a good player in good form to stop her.

Ana Ivanovic

It was four years ago when Ana Ivanovic won the title at Roland Garros as she marched to the number one ranking in the world. At the time, it looked as though the next tennis superstar had arrived.

However, a combination of injuries and loss of form would plague Ivanovic over the next few years, and she dropped as low as number 63 in the world. “It was the lowest moment of my career so far because, all of a sudden, I wasn’t in tournaments anymore. It was a very tough time.”

The last twelve months have seen somewhat of a resurgence for Ivanovic. Although she failed to win any titles in the regular season, she did win the second-tier end of season championship in Bali for a second consecutive year, and her ranking returned into the top twenty.

Four years ago, Ivanovic was the French Open champion. Can she relive those glory days in 2012?

She has been beaten by Azarenka and Sharapova in her last two tournaments on clay, but the matches have been close. While she is still waiting for that big win to restore her confidence, she is managing to put away the lower ranked players, and she has proved in the past that she is capable of beating the top names.

In addition, clay is her favoured surface. “When I step back on clay, I feel like a kid again because I grew up on clay. That’s where I started to love them game.”

She will like the draw that she has received as well. She faces Spanish qualifier, Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino in the first round, but the first test is likely to come in the third round as she faces Sara Errani. Errani has been in good form this season, but has struggled against the better players, of whom Ivanovic could be classed as one. She faces a tough match against Radwanska in the fourth round before a quarter-final meeting with either Marion Bartoli or Angelique Kerber to reach the final four.

While Ivanovic is by no means a favourite for this tournament, she knows what it takes to win in Roland Garros, and if she is able to get into the zone, her powerful ground strokes are capable of blasting through any opponent.

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French Open Preview: Part 1

While the French Open for the men looks to be at most a two-horse race, the ladies tournament looks set to be one of the most open Grand Slam tournaments for many years. With at least ten players who will consider themselves in with a realistic chance of winning the title, predicting a winner is a tough proposition. 

However, we shall look in more detail at some of the leading contenders to try and pinpoint the true champions and the pretenders to the title. In this first part, we look at four of the leading contenders: Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka and Na Li.

Serena Williams

The resurgent Serena Williams is one of five former Roland Garros champions in the draw this year. It was exactly ten years ago that she defeated her sister, Venus, to lift the trophy and mark the beginning of the ‘Serena Slam’. However, she has not reached the final of the French Open since then – a semi-final in 2003 and four quarter-finals being the best that she has achieved.

This year seems to have marked a change though. Her performances on clay this year have astounded even her biggest fans. She is yet to lose a match, having won titles in Charleston and Madrid, has only dropped two sets, and has crushed her leading rivals. In Charleston, Sam Stosur was dispatched for the loss of only two games, while in Madrid, both Sharapova and Azarenka could take only four games each as the power of Serena simply proved too much.

She seems more focused on tennis than she has been for many years, perhaps realising that her career is beginning to approach its twilight years. Sam Stosur has noticed the same signs, saying “she seems super dedicated at the moment, maybe more so than in recent years. She’s obviously very focused on her own goals that she’s trying to achieve and the matches I’ve played against her, and the ones I’ve seen her play, she’s playing very, very well.”

Serena Williams won the French Open title back in 2002 and is the favourite to win her second title a decade later

It was Stosur who shocked Serena in the final of the US Open last year. Going into the final, there seemed to be only one winner. Azarenka, Ivanovic, Pavlyuchenkova and Wozniacki had been dismantled in straight sets and Serena was on an 18-match unbeaten run. However, Stosur produced an outstanding display of power hitting to stun Serena in a match that unfortunately will be better remembered for Serena’s unsavoury outburst against the umpire.

She will begin her quest for her 14^th Grand Slam title against Virginie Razzano. The first real test is likely to come against Julia Goerges in the third round, before a meeting with either Kaia Kanepi or Caroline Wozniacki sets the stage before arguably one of the most anticipated matches of the tournament – a potential meeting with Maria Sharapova in the quarter-final. Should she get through that, the defending champion, Na Li, or Petra Kvitova should await in the semi-finals.

She has the talent and power to beat any of those opponents, even on her least favoured surface. However, over the course of a Grand Slam, she will often throw in a careless performance. Whether that performance comes against a player that is capable of beating her will likely determine if she can win a second French Open title.

Maria Sharapova

The French Open is the one title that currently eludes Maria Sharapova. She has won Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon, Flushing Meadows and the Australia Open, but the Roland Garros title continues to elude her.

For the world’s highest-paid female athlete, it is virtually the only hurdle that remains. After a difficult few years with injury, she has returned to her very best form in the past twelve months. She equalled her career-best semi-final appearance in Roland Garros last year, reached the final of Wimbledon and again reached the Australian Open final earlier this year.

However, as with Serena, it is her improved performances on clay that have really caught the eye over the past month. Before this year, she had only three titles on clay, two of which were in relatively minor tournaments. She has admitted that she struggles on the surface, labelling herself as ‘a cow on ice’ on the clay. This year though, she has won high-profile titles in Stuttgart and Rome on the clay, beating world number one, Victoria Azarenka, in Germany, and the defending French Open champion, Na Li, in Italy.

Maria Sharapova has developed into a real threat on clay and looks to complete the career Grand Slam this year

Despite her form though, she still has issues with the surface. “The first days on clay are brutal. It’s so frustrating. I never crack rackets, but those first few days I crack rackets all the time. The physical aspect of all that and mentally understanding that your body has to be ready for all those matches in a short period of time on clay has always been tough for me.”

However, she does admit that her recent performance have given her hope that she could finally make the breakthrough and join the illustrious group that have won the career Grand Slam. “If I go there and play well and physically, I feel healthy and I feel great. There is no reason I can’t win it.”

The draw early on has been relatively kind to her. Alexandra Cadantu, despite being a clay-court specialist, should provide little trouble in the first round, while Hercog or Morita should be no greater issue. In the third round, Shuai Peng has struggled to reproduce the form she showed last year, while her likely opponent in the fourth round, Maria Kirilenko, has had injury problems in the past couple of weeks.

It is the potential clash with Serena in the quarter-finals that will stand as the benchmark of whether she can win this title. Win against the tournament favourite, and it would take a brave man to back against the Russian going all the way.

Victoria Azarenka

One of the stars of the 2012 season thus far, the Belorussian goes into the French Open on the back of winning her first Grand Slam title in Melbourne. A 26-match unbeaten start to the season was finally ended in Miami, but she has showed good form in the clay-court swing, reaching back-to-back finals in Stuttgart and Madrid, although crushing defeats in both will have dented her confidence.

She has played a lot of tennis in 2012, and it was no real surprise that she withdrew from Rome, although her comments following the decision left a bitter taste. However, while physical concerns have always been an issue for Azarenka, it is her improved mental toughness that has really propelled her to the top of the game.

Victoria Azarenka won her first Grand Slam earlier this year and will be looking to add to that tally in Roland Garros

After a serene start to her career, she struggled to make the final leap to the elite level. She began to dwell on her mistakes, her intensity would lead to frustration and her game would slip away from her. Her close friend, Maria Kirilenko, could see this; “She has been so good for so long, that you would ask, why isn’t she doing better on the court? I’d always tell her to believe. I know she was trying. She had to see herself like all of us saw her. She had to learn to be stronger.”

It got to the point where she almost left the tour in early 2011. She went home to Belarus for several weeks and considered her future. Supposedly it was a conversation with her grandmother that convinced her to return to tennis. “My grandmother worked hard her whole life, and did not have the opportunities I have to make money, travel, do fun things. This is just tennis. Why do I complain so much about a game? She was right, I knew it.”

It was a turning point in her career. She won the title in Key Biscayne on her return, and would reach a career-high ranking of number three. Her first Grand Slam title would come in early 2012, and she is now one of the leading contenders for every tournament that she enters.

She is once again enjoying tennis, and the success is flowing. Even the hard hours of training are worth it. “When you have tears in practice, and you know you cannot do any more, but you are still going, you get to have a smile on your face again. It’s what I do.”

She plays Alberta Brianti first up in Roland Garros, before a meeting against either young French hopeful, Caroline Garcia or a qualifier. In reality, her first real test will come in the fourth round against either Lucie Safarova or Dominika Cibulkova, the Slovak, who came so close to ending her unbeaten run earlier in the year. Sam Stosur likely awaits in the quarter-final before a meeting with Agnieszka Radwanska, who Azarenka has already beaten six times this year.

She has never passed the quarter-finals at Roland Garros before, but it would take a brave man to predict an early exit again. She is a different player to twelve months ago, and with many of the danger players on the opposite side of the draw, she will be optimistic about adding a second Grand Slam title to her collection.

Li Na

Twelve months ago, Li Na became one of China’s greatest sporting figures by winning her maiden Grand Slam title. She was the first Asian player ever to win a Grand Slam title, but she has struggled to rediscover her form and focus since then.

Her major problem has been closing out matches. Many of her matches have shown a common theme this year – she plays some excellent tennis to create a winning opportunity, before her ability completely deserts her. She has admitted as much herself; “I’m not worried about the forehands or the backhands, it’s finishing the matches that is my problem.”

She had four match points against Kim Clijsters in the Australian Open before losing in three sets. She also led Maria Sharapova 6-4, 4-0 in Rome last week before collapsing to another three set defeat.

However, the form is clearly there. She is playing some good tennis to get herself into the positions to be closing out the matches against this quality of opposition. While there has been no title since Roland Garros last year, her performances have definitely improved in recent months. She failed to win consecutive matches for over three months after her triumph amid rumours that she was enjoying her success and celebrity a little too much.

Li Na is the defending champion and will be looking to rediscover the form that made her a national superstar twelve months ago

A first final in seven months came at the start of 2012, followed by a string of quarter-final exits before her defeat in Rome last week. However, she has taken plenty of positives from that match. “I have to say, I feel physically great right now. I can slide on court and get back to the opposition and I liked the way I hit on the court. A lot of positive things and I think I am ready for the French Open.”

However, she has a difficult start to her title defence against the much-improved Sorana Cirstea, who has already beaten Marion Bartoli and Jelena Jankovic on clay this year, as well as taking a set of Petra Kvitova in Rome. A difficult third round tie also lurks against either Christina McHale or Mona Barthel, two of the most promising young players on tour. Petra Kvitova likely awaits in the quarter-final before either Sharapova or Serena in the semi-finals.

Li Na is undoubtedly capable of beating any player on clay. She proved that last year as she beat Kvitova, Azarenka, Sharapova and Schiavone in consecutive rounds to clinch the title. If she can somehow find a way to close out matches on a more consistent basis, she is undoubtedly one of the favourites to win again in Roland Garros.

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Atletico Madrid: Success Built on Dangerous Foundations

While Atletico Madrid celebrate winning their second Europa League title in three years, one major problem at the club is beginning to stir in the background. This problem is the huge debt that the club faces.

While it is no secret that there are major financial problems in Spanish football, stemming from a combination of the general economic situation in the country, poor financial management in the past, and the major inequality in television revenues, there is a real danger that some of Spain’s major clubs could be facing an uncertain future.

Despite the poor financial health of many clubs, Spanish teams have been going well in European competitions this season

Indeed, a leading professor in economics and finance in Spain, Jose Maria Gay, has recently said that once the new UEFA financial fair play system comes into operation, in his view, there are only five clubs in the top flight of Spanish football that are certain to survive – the big two of Barcelona and Real Madrid, Osasuna, Athletic Bilbao and Valencia.

Even now, six of the top flight clubs in Spain find themselves under bankruptcy protection, with substantial tax repayments due to be made by June.

Recent government assessments have suggested that clubs in the top two divisions of Spanish football owe almost $1bn in unpaid taxes – a staggering amount. In the top division alone, the combined debts of the twenty clubs are believed to be around $4.61bn, or around $230m per club.

Naturally, this debt is not spread evenly across the clubs. At the bottom of the list is Almeria, with a mere €30m worth of debt, closely followed by Sporting Gijon (€32m) and Malaga (€38m). However, it is at the opposite end of the list that the figures become quite astonishing.

Real Madrid top the list with a debt of €590m, followed by Barcelona with a debt of €578m. While these are very high figures, the debt cover (revenue:debt) of these two clubs is actually fairly respectable at 81% and 78% respectively.

However, there are seven other clubs with debts of over €100m. Sevilla at €101m are not a huge worry, given their debt cover of 82%. Valencia have worked hard over the past five years to rein in their debts, which now stand at €382m with debt cover of 31%.

Survival is essential for Villarreal this season, given their existing debts of €267m. Their current debt coverage is only 22%, and relegation could ultimately spell the beginning of the end for the club.

Survival is vital for Villarreal if they are not to struggle under their large debts

It is a similar story for Real Zaragoza, who have come back from the dead this season, and have now given themselves a real chance of staying in the division. However, as with Villarreal, their debt of €152m at 23% coverage could potential pull them under if they are unsuccessful in staying in the top division.

Two of the other sides with over €100m debts are Espanyol (€188m) and Deportivo La Coruña (€100) with debt coverage of 24% and 33% respectively.

However, the real worry is Atletico Madrid. Their debt stands at an incredible €514m, only €76m below their city rivals. With a debt coverage of only 19%, their recent success stands on a foundation of sand.

One major source of this debt is unpaid tax. Atletico Madrid owe the taxman an unbelievable €155m, over €100m more than the second highest team, Barcelona at €48m. This figure comes after the entire €50m fee for Sergio Aguero last summer was given directly to the tax authorities.

They have recently come to an agreement to repay €15m per year in tax. However, even excluding any new tax that is due, this still means that it will take over a decade to repay the initial sum. When you add in the 4.5% interest rate on this tax debt, it is likely to be at least twenty years before their full tax burden is repaid.

The Atletico Madrid CEO, Miguel Angel Gil, explains this. “This arrangement has been going on for years. Other teams have bank debt, we have tax debt.” In other words, instead of borrowing from the bank, they just decided not to pay their taxes and view it as a loan.

It is believed that around €46m of that tax debt comes from when the club was relegated to the second division in 2000, and simply stopped paying its taxes for two years in order to concentrate on getting promotion back to the top division. Another €50m comes from recent reviews of their tax positions.

This situation is not dissimilar to that of Rangers, who have been forced into financial administration over a claim from HMRC for up to £75m. However, in Spain, this is less of an issue.

Rangers have been forced into administration by their tax debt, unlike many of the Spanish clubs

Jose Maria Gay, the economics and finance professor, attempts to explain this. “The government cannot demand payment without crippling clubs and leaving supporters very upset. Considering the context of the situation our country is facing, it is unreasonable to start introducing dysfunctional steps into the championship that could affect its image, which has a commercial value.”

In other words, the government does not want to take the blame for crippling Spanish football at a time when it is experiencing great success and acting as a distraction from the tough austerity measures that are being introduced.

However, this does have a distortional effect on a European-level. Spain had two of the four semi-finalists in the Champions League, and three of the four semi-finalists in the Europa League. The success of these Spanish clubs in Europe is predominantly based on an unsustainable financial system, backed by a government that is unwilling to act.

The hero of Atletico Madrid’s Europa League final victory over Athletic Bilbao is a shining example of the problem. Despite huge debts and unpaid tax, Athletico were still happy to splash out a club record fee of €40m for Falcao last summer.

Falcao was the difference in the Europa League final, but his transfer has raised some questions

Indeed, the final was a clash between two complete opposites on the financial responsibility scale. I have already painted a picture of Atletico Madrid’s situation. On the flip side, Athletic Bilbao, much praised for its policy of only selecting Basque players, is one of only six clubs that does not owe any outstanding taxes, and its debts of €79m are combined with debt coverage of 73%.

Uli Hoeness, the president of Bayern Munich, the team that knocked Real Madrid out of the Champions League, summed it up. “This is unthinkable. We pay them hundreds of millions to get them out of the shit, and then the clubs don’t pay their debts.”

While Spain is certainly not alone in this situation, the problems are far more severe and widespread than elsewhere. Actions need to be taken, and taken soon, if the Spanish league is not to collapse under the pressure exerted by this huge financial discrepancy.

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Donna Vekic: Future Tennis Superstar?

Chiswick, a leafy suburb of London, seems an unlikely place as the setting for the first step on a journey that one girl hopes will end at the top of the ladies tennis game. Particularly when that girl is not even English – in fact she is from Osijek in Croatia. However, when Donna Vekic lifted the title in the $10k tournament last July, it marked the start of her rapid upward progression.

Last week, Vekic rose to a career highest ranking of 284 in the world, becoming the youngest player in the top 300 at the tender age of 15. With two career titles to her name at ITF level and an additional five finals, she has made a real impact at the lower levels in her first year. What is even more astonishing is that she has achieved these seven finals in only ten tournaments.

With seven finals in her first ten tournaments, Vekic has shot up the rankings over the past twelve months

Born in Osijeck in June 1996 under the shadow of the Serbian cannons pointed at the city, her family history suggested that she would become an athlete. Her grandmother, a physical education teacher, was credited with discovering one of the city’s most famous exports – the Croatian footballer, Davor Suker – while her grandfather was the head of the youth academy at the Osijek football club. Her mother was a successful national athlete, while her father was a professional footballer.

Donna would take up tennis at a relatively early age. After working with a succession of local coaches, she would find herself working with a name familiar to English tennis fans – David Felgate. However, over her formative years, the list of coaches who she has received advice reads like a who’s-who of tennis coaching – Sven Groeneveld, Chris Evert and Nick Bolletieri.

Vekic has blossomed under the guidance of former LTA Performance Director, David Felgate

Her first tentative steps onto the tennis ladder would come in a small, local tournament on the island of Brac. Vekic came through qualifying and would clinch her first ever victory at ITF level, beating the 18-year old Dutch player, Demi Schuurs, who only months before had won the Australian Open Junior doubles tournament. Sadly, in the second round, two match points came and went as she was beaten by the Czech player, Jana Jandova, but more importantly, she had earned her first WTA point and officially had a ranking.

The picturesque island of Hvar was her next stop. Victories over Alena Tarasova, Zuzana Zlochova (who had won the tournament the week before), Gracia Radovanovic and Marion Gaud would see Vekic reach her first ever final. She was unable to defeat her opponent, Ema Burgic, but she had developed a taste for success, which she was to build on rapidly in the coming months.

This brings up back to Chiswick. In what could almost been seen as her home tournament, given she is based in the area at the Dukes Meadow Club, she impressed the watching locals as she cruised through the field, dropping only one set in the entire tournament.

She started with victories over three British girls – Alexandra Walker, Olivia Smith and Jade Windley – to reach the semi-final, before beating the Dutch player, Quirine Lemoine, for the loss of only five games to reach her second consecutive final, where she faced a difficult challenger.

The Australian, Bojana Bobusic, ranked inside the top 250 in the world, was the second seed, and had already reached two previous finals in 2011. Her experience showed early on, as she took the first set by 6-3. However, the smart and powerful hitting of her opponent, eight years her junior, began to take its toll, and Vekic levelled the match by taking the second set by 6-3. The tide had well and truly turned and it was only a matter of time until Vekic had wrapped up the match, and with it, her first ever title.

Her first senior title came in Chiswick in the $10k last year

It was an emotional moment for the young player, falling as it did on the third anniversary of her grandfather’s death, arguably the man who had supported her development in the earliest days.

She continued to go from strength to strength. Her next tournament was another $10k competition in Westende-Middlekerke in Belgium in August. She would reach the final of the singles, only losing to the Chinese player, Jing-Jing Lu, while she won the doubles tournament alongside the British player, Alexandra Walker.

The next step on her journey was Lagos in Nigeria for a pair of $25k tournaments – the next level up from the $10k tournaments that she had been playing. In the first round, she would beat the sixth seed, Melanie Klaffner, ranked 305, comfortably in straight sets, before seeing off qualifiers, Nidhi Chilumula and Natasha Fourouclas to reach the semi-finals.

This would be her biggest test to date as she faced Nina Bratchikova, ranked number 134, and who would go on to reach the third round of the Australian Open earlier this year. In a real shock, Vekic completely outplayed her higher-ranked opponent to won 6-3, 6-2. Unfortunately, the final was one step too far for Vekic, as her run came to an end at the hands of the 2010 French Open Junior champion, Elina Svitolina.

The following week saw a series of rematches as Vekic would repeat her impressive victories over Bratchikova and Klaffner, before defeating Dalila Jakupovic in a final-set tiebreak to reach the final. Again, she was unable to clinch the title, although put up a fight against Tamaryn Hendler, the 224^th ranked player, before fatigue began to play its part in her tenth match in just fourteen days. However, she had shown that she was perfectly capable of challenging at the $25k level.

2012 would start slowly with qualifying defeats in Moscow and Kuala Lumpur before she would head to Bangalore. Victories over Curovic and Naydenova would see her into the quarter-final where she faced a prior foe, Tamaryn Hendler, still ranked almost 200 places above her.

Vekic would take the first set 6-3 and racing into a 4-0 lead in the second set. However, Hendler’s quality began to show, bringing the scores back level and eventually winning the set on a tiebreak, having broken Vekic when she served for the match. From this point, there seemed only one winner, but Vekic had not read the script. More high-quality attacking play followed and Vekic would finally win the set 6-3 and book her place in the semi-final.

A straight-sets victory over the local favourite, Kyra Shroff, in the semi-final would book Vekic a place in the final, where Andrea Koch-Benvenuto, ten years Vekic’s senior, awaited. While the final was hardly a high-quality affair, Vekic would show great maturity, serving well, varying her pace and volleying effectively to clinch an impressive straight-sets victory, and collect the $2,940 cheque and, more importantly, 50 WTA points.

Vekic won her first $25k title in Bangalore earlier this year

Next stop was Namangan, Uzbekistan at the end of April. A high-quality field meant that Vekic was forced into qualifying for the tournament, but that proved no problem as she cruised through her two matches for the loss of only six games.

Justyna Jegiolka was dispatched for the loss of only three games in the first round, before victories over the world number 263, Lenka Wienerova, and the world number 234, Monique Adamczak, for the loss of seven games saw her into yet another semi-final.

The Ukrainian, Veronika Kapshay, was dispatched with a single break in each set to set up a final with the Russian, Olga Puchkova, ranked 177 and almost 150 places above Vekic. Despite winning the first set 6-3, Vekic was unable to pick up consecutive titles as her higher-ranked opponent showed her experience and superior fitness to win 6-2 in the deciding set.

Repeating a fact from earlier, ten tournaments in the past twelve months have seen two titles and an additional five finals. In almost every match in those ten tournaments, she has been playing against players ranked higher than her, and generally at least several years older than her.

It is important to remember that she is only 15-years old. When she finishes developing physically, she will be a very dangerous player. It is clear that Donna Vekic has the potential to go far in the ladies game. Whether she has the ability to fulfil her dream and go to the very top of the rankings remains to be seen. However, if her first year on the senior tour is anything to go by, it is surely only a matter of time before she appears in her first WTA tournament, and her first Grand Slam.

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Hodgson Tactics Suit England

There has been much written over the past week about the choice of the FA to appoint Roy Hodgson as the new England manager over the supposed ‘people-choice’ Harry Redknapp. Ignoring the question of who is the more experienced at bigger clubs, ignoring the question of who the players would prefer, ignoring the question of who the fans would prefer, the real question is who will be the most successful as the manager of England.

This question really comes down to a clash of styles – Hodgson and Redknapp have almost polar opposite approaches to almost every aspect of management and coaching. We shall look at both of the two managers’ styles and see why Roy Hodgson is the correct choice for England.

Roy Hodgson is very active on the training ground, drilling his players until they know exactly how he wants them to play

Roy Hodgson is very much a pure coach – he is very active on the training ground. He relentlessly drills his players on the training ground to ensure that they know exactly what they need to do on the pitch.

“Every day in training is geared toward team shape on the match-day coming up. I’ve been working with the manager three years now and every day is team shape, and it shows,” Simon Davies tells the Independent. Davies, who worked under Hodgson for several years at Fulham, has plenty of first-hand experience of Hodgson’s training methods. “He gets the 11 that he wants on a match-day and he drills everything in that he wants.”

Simplicity is often the key for Hodgson’s approach. He does not try anything flashy, but he ensures that the basics are there in the system that his team plays. In the limited time that national coaches get to work with their players on a daily basis, this approach could be very successful.

“I personally think it will discipline the players a bit more and make them a bit more mentally stronger,” says Kevin Gallagher, who worked under Hodgson many years ago at Blackburn. “You only have four or five days to work with players to get your points across, but the players will understand him.”

Harry Redknapp has a very different approach. Redknapp is very much about the individual, rather than the system as a whole. In his own words, “it is 10% about the formation and 90% about the players.”

Harry Redknapp is much more of a motivator than a coach, allowing his staff to take most of the training sessions

However, like him or not, he is very talented in getting the best from individuals and gets on well with people, as shown by his close relationship with the media.

Tactically though, he very much prefers freedom over a set system. He gives freedom to the important players to roam and do what they want. He has often been known to have told his key players, such as Gareth Bale, to “play where they want.”

While sometimes this can work very well when they are able to find space and trouble defences, it can also create problems, as has been shown in Tottenham’s poor run of form this year, where the freedom offered to Bale and van der Vaart has often led to a lack of structure in their side, and when those players are not on form, the team will struggle.

“There are no long and boring speeches about tactics,” explains Rafael van der Vaart. “There is a board in our dressing room, but Harry doesn’t write anything on it. It’s not that we do nothing, but it’s close to that.”

On the training ground, Harry Redknapp does not conduct training sessions himself either. He very much acts as an overseer while he entrusts the actual training to his coaches – Joe Jordan and Kevin Bond are a key pair in Harry’s team at Tottenham.

So, we can see that Redknapp and Hodgson vary greatly in terms of both their approach to training and their approach to tactics on the field. So, which approach would suit England better?

Going into Euro 2012, all but the most deluded of England fan would accept that England are certainly not one of the favourites for the tournament. In reality, they are a long way behind the likes of Spain, Germany and Holland, and probably even the likes of France and Portugal. In other words, England are very much outsiders for the tournament.

As a comparison, it would be useful to look at other teams that have won international tournaments from the position that England find themselves in. Greece in 2004 won the tournament, while Zambia were highly unexpected winners of this year’s African Cup of Nations. Despite their World Cup exploits, Uruguay were unlikely winners of last year’s Copa America.

Greece won Euro 2004 as big outsiders with an organised and disciplined defensive style

There is one common theme that can be found in all three of these successes. Each team played defensive and simple football, rather than attractive football. Indeed, Greece and Zambia both had the lowest pass completion rate in their respective tournaments.

While England fans would love to see their side playing attractive passing football, the truth is that we would get slaughtered by the bigger teams in the tournament. Even now, the leading sides in international football play relatively defensively.

Despite their style of play, Spain won the World Cup scoring only eight goals in seven games. Their success was as much based around solidity in defence as it was based on their Barcelona-style ‘tiki-taka’ passing. Their final opponents in 2010, Holland, are considered one of the least ‘Dutch’ teams in recent times – the Dutch ideas of total football have very much been side-lined at the expense of two holding midfielders in the centre (van Bommel and de Jong during the World Cup), relying on the front four to score the goals. Even the young German side that thrilled spectators so much in the World Cup relied very much on a strong defence, allied with lightning-fast counter-attacks.

So, to give themselves any hope of competing in Poland and Ukraine, England need to play a solid, basic defensive game, while looking to break quickly. In this case, Hodgson seems very much more suited to the job than Harry Redknapp.

Whether you like his style or not, Hodgson will ensure his side are a solid unit, working for each other, far more than Harry Redknapp would. He will instil organisation and discipline into a squad that often seems to have been lacking these simple ingredients.

As Redknapp supporters in the media repeatedly point out, Hodgson has had far greater success with smaller clubs than the top teams. In terms of international football at the current time, England are more of a mid-table side than they are a leading nation. Their very attempt at painting Hodgson as a failure at the top-level and a success at underdog clubs merely serves to strengthen his England credentials at this moment in time.

England have a lot of good players, but very few world-class players

A recent blog on the BBC poses the question of ‘whether Hodgson is a galvaniser of good players rather than a motivator of top-level ones?”

However, as fans and the media seem to claim on a regular basis, where are the world-class English players in this generation? If Hodgson can get the best out of good players, this would again seem perfectly suited to England’s purpose right now.

At the end of the day, England are highly unlikely to win Euro 2012, or any tournaments in the near future for that matter. However, under Harry Redknapp’s open, attacking and free style of football, we can safely say that England have no chance of winning Euro 2012. It works at Tottenham because he has plays of the ilk of Luka Modric, van der Vaart and Gareth Bale. England do not currently have this type of player.

Under Roy Hodgson’s organised and disciplined style, England at least have an outside chance of winning the tournament. Greece and Zambia have proved that disciplined, defensive football can succeed at the top level. England have a much stronger squad than either of those sides did.

Thus, from a purely stylistic point-of-view, Roy Hodgson is a much better fit for England at the current moment, than Harry Redknapp would be.

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