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April 2006
The Comeback Is Nearly Here.
Alicia Molik, Australia’s number one tennis player of the last three seasons is set to make her long awaited comeback at the prestigious Rome tier 1 tournament. Alicia gains entry into the tournament via an Injury Protected Ranking. Her IPR as issued by the WTA is number 23, which for me is a little low.
The official rule states the IPR must be taken from the following week after the last tournament played, Alicia played the Swiss Open and lost first round retiring hurt to Serbian Jelena Jankovic. As Alicia won the tournament the year before she lost a lot of points and then her ranking went to number 23, which now is her IPR.
Another subsection of the rule states that a player may only use their Injury Protected Ranking to gain entry into the tournament and therefore cannot be seeded. Alicia will be a dangerous floater in the draw as she feels and I can see that clay is a good surface for her as she has more time to set up shots and think about what she can do next.
Alicia as reported in the press has stated that she is going to fulfil her Dancing with the Stars commitments and appear on the season finale on May 9, after this Alicia is free to resume her WTA career. Rome, Italy (Tier1) will be the first stop, then for Alicia its onto a lower tiered tournament in Istanbul, Turkey (Tier3), then the second grand slam of the year at Roland Garros (Paris). As stated before Alicia gains automatic entry into these tournaments due to her IPR and lets hope the clay season bring much needed wins and points for the for former Australian number one.
10. September 05
Heartbreak and Triumph
Hey guys unfortunately as the title suggests New York and the US Open did not go as planned for our girl Alicia, I thought being seeded 14 my favourite number we were in for a chance of bringing the open title home to Australia.
As we all know things didn’t go to plan with a first round defeat by American up and comer Shanay Perry 4-6 4-6. Although Alicia played well you could see from the match that she wasn’t full fit and match ready although it was 4-4 in both sets match practise proved the key.
There is a positive to all the negatives here and one major positive was seeing the Australian number one and former top ten player back in action, although it was much shorter than we all expected and hoped for. Alicia has made some changes in her all court game which is also great to see, to me it seems she is more attacking and more willing to move around the court to compete with all the top players again.
Alicia also made a return to doubles this tournament partnering Svetlana Kuznetsova they were seeded 2 for the tournament and a real chance for the title. An interesting fact about Sveta (as she is known on tour) is she is the first singles winner in the open era to be defeated in the first round the next year. Sveta came up against another talented Russian Ekaterina Bychkova and she lost in straight sets.
Putting this disappointment behind them both Alicia and Sveta made a charge in the doubles the team made a strong start to the tournament until the QF against the legend of the game Martina Navratilova and Anna-Lena Groenefeld. The combination between age and youth proved too much for Sveta and Alicia and they lost a heartbreaking match 7-6 5-7 5-7 it was a very tight and tough match and when all four were on song in the final set it was truly an amazing match, you really did not want to see a losing pair.
All and all for me the US OPEN 2005 was full of triumph and heartbreak for our girl and with a full schedule until the end of the year. Lets hope that Alicia stays fit and healthy and hope she can some match wins and confidence and build up her chances for the Australian summer and the Australian Open 2006.
Good Luck Alicia for the rest of the season
Mark
July/August:
Well, there is not a lot to report in this section of the news as Alicia has been struggling with an inner ear infection since the American hard court season in early March/April. This infection, which is not contagious to other players, causes fatigue and makes Alicia seem unbalanced when she is on court. In the little tennis coverage that we have received in Australia of the English grass court season, you could definitely see it in Alicia’s eyes that she was not 100% fit, but the big heart she has forced her to try her best and unfortunately it ended up causing Alicia a little more damage and put her in doubt for the US Open which begins in late August.
This infection is located in the middle ear and there is not much in terms of medication that can clear it up, so Alicia is at home in Melbourne relaxing and doing fitness work so her return to the tour will be quick and her rise back up the rankings swift. Alicia’s ranking has not yet suffered, although if there is the horrible threat of Alicia not playing until next season there is a possible solution.
The WTA tour has what is called an IPR (injury protected ranking), although you have to be out of the game for a minimum of six months. Alicia has played her last match on the tour in June 2005 so she cannot receive an IPR until December 2005. Alicia’s IPR will be the same as her ranking when she played her last tournament. If this happens, then her loss to Laura Granville at Birmingham when she was ranked number 9 in the world means her IPR will be number 9.
Lets hope that Alicia comes back strongly, because if she plays the US Open and the European Indoor Season, Alicia has a lot of points to defend and the good point about this season is that her ranking will not go below the world’s top 40 as her tremendous start to this season counters any point loss.
We will try and get some more information on Alicia’s condition and update you all on her progress back to the WTA tour, and we can count down the weeks and days before the world will focus on NEW YORK and the US OPEN - the fourth and last slam of the year.
Peace Guys!
Mark
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