Future Tennis Stars

The good news for Ana Ivanovic? She did better today than the last time she faced Justine Henin in a 6-1, 6-2 loss in the French Open finals. The bad news? She still lost.

Justine Henin beat Ivanovic 6-4, 6-4 to move into Sunday’s final against Maria Sharapova. Sharapova routed Anna Chakvetadze 6-2, 6-2 in the first semifinal. Henin and Sharapova have not played since the semifinals of last year’s season ending Championships where Henin won 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).

A win on Sunday would give Henin her 25th win in a row, matching a run made by Steffi Graf in 1989. Henin could also win her 10th title of the year. No player has won 10 or more titles in a year since Martina Hingis did it in 1997.

Maria Sharapova beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 on Thursday and with the win, both her and Ana Ivanovic reached the semifinals. Both Sharapova and Ivanovic have 2-0 win/loss records while Kuznetsova and Daniela Hantuchova are 0-2. Sharapova and Ivanovic will still play each other while Kuznetsova will play Hantuchova.

Serena Williams just couldn’t overcome a knee injury and pulled out of the season ending WTA Championships.

Williams dropped the first set against Anna Chakvetadze 6-4 and said afterward her knee was sore to begin with and got worse as the match went on. This result puts Bartoli in a hole now down 0-1 for round robin play and even though they played one set, she is down 0-2 for the events so far. Bartoli will play tomorrow against Justine Henin and even though she beat Henin at Wimbledon, don’t count on a repeat performance.

Once again, Justine Henin beat Jelena Jankovic and this time, it wasn’t close. Henin beat Jankovic 6-2, 6-2 and it puts Henin up 2-0 in round robin play and puts Jankovic in a hole 0-1. Jankovic should cheer up though as she will have to play Williams and Chakvetadze (who are playing now and Chakvetadze took the first set 6-4) and Jankovic is capable of beating both which is exactly what she will need to do. Another loss and Jankovic could be out.