Congratulations to Monica for winning the Hong Kong Challenge. It's
only an eight-player exhibition-tournament, but Monica went through
the opposition like a hot knife through butter, and she's made an
excellent preparation for the Australian Open.

The bad news is that her foot has flared up again, but I hope it's
not serious.

She also suggested (before the tournament) that the 2004 season might
be her last. At least this is better than the rumours that 2002 would
be her last, but it doesn't make it any easier to come to terms with
the fact that our beloved Monica is not planning to play forever!

"It's so hard to put a certain day on it. I know I am at the end of
the stage of my career. I will probably play to when I am max 31. As
long as I am enjoying it and playing at a high level and having shots
at players and my body is letting me play I will continue to play."

She still hopes to add to her nine Grand-Slam titles. "That's what
drives me. I'd love to win another one and keep going as long as I
can stay injury free. That will be my goal for 2003 and if I can do
that and play at a high level, I will be happy at the end of the
year."

She is targetting the Australian Open in particular. "I got to a
couple of semis and I want to go further than that. I love the
Australian. The field is extremely tough and I will take it a match
at a time."


In the first round (quarter-finals) of the Hong Kong Challenge, on
Wednesday 1st January 2003, Monica easily disposed of 16-year-old
China girl Peng Shuai 6-2 6-0. As usual, Monica was full of praise
for her opponent: "She's a fantastic player with a bright future."

Photos:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030101/170/2yl0m.html
(Monica)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030101/170/2yl0o.html
(Peng Shuai)


In the semi-finals on Friday 3rd January, Monica gave another
youngster a tennis-lesson, but this time it was a 15-year-old Maria
Sharapova. I have yet to see Maria play, but she's top of my `hunch-
list'. I saw a brief TV-documentary about her last year. She's a very
pretty and charming girl, I've read that she has both power and
athleticism, and Nick Bollettieri said she's "another Seles" in terms
of determination.

Maria had beaten Magdalena Maleeva in the previous round by the
astonishing scoreline of 6-3 6-0, which ironically was also the score
by which Monica beat Maria in the semi-finals. It's nice to see that
Maria is 3/2 better than she was at Indian Wells 2002, when Monica
beat her 6-2 6-0 in the second round! ;-)

Maria made an aggressive start to the battle of the MS girls, and
actually took a 3-1 lead over Monica! But she couldn't keep it up,
and was not to win another game. This was partly due to inconsistency
and lack of concentration on Maria's part, but Monica also messed up
her rhythm with drop-shots, slice and offensive lobs (thanks to
Ehrlich Tang for this information). It was a much tougher match than
the scoreline implies.

Photos:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030103/168/2yxjg.html
(hot Monica!)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030103/170/2yxoz.html
(Monica)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030103/168/2yxld.html
(Maria)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030101/170/2ykzq.html
(Chinese dragon)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/021230/170/2y7if.html
(sexy off-court gathering)


Monica celebrated the Selebbath by beating Chanda Rubin 5-7 6-1 6-2
in the final. Rubin is a very dangerous player, who might have won a
Grand-Slam title if her career had not been plagued by injuries after
she almost beat Monica in the semi-finals of the 1996 Australian
Open, so I'm happy for Monica just to get a win.

Rubin took the first set 7-5, but in her words, "I had some good
shots earlier on and I sort off trickled off a bit and she got a bit
better." This was the understatement of the millennium as Monica won
the second set not only 6-1, but 6-1 with three breaks. She continued
her dominance to take the third 6-2.

Monica was delighted with her victory. "The match could have gone
either way. We were both hitting the ball very hard. It's a fantastic
way to get ready for the Australian Open."

Photos:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030104/170/2z4ay.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030104/168/2z40m.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030104/170/2z49e.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030104/168/2z40g.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030104/168/2z40o.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030104/168/2z40n.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030104/170/2z4el.html

It's wonderful to see that Monica took such genuine joy from her win.
The above photos are the best of her smile that I've ever seen. I
swear Monica has gone up a class in beauty, and I have changed our
front-page photo accordingly! :-)


Last week was a great week all round for Selesians as, on top of
Monica's Hong Kong victory, María Antonia Sánchez Lorenzo put her
injury-problems behind her to have a great run on the Gold Coast,
where she won five matches to qualify and then reach the quarter-
finals.

In qualifying for Gold Coast, María Antonia beat Maria Vento-Kabchi 6-
0 6-4, Roberta Vinci 6-2 6-0, and Klara Koukalová 6-1 6-3.

In the first round of the main draw, María Antonia beat third seed Ai
Sugiyama in a marathon match, 7-6 (8-6) 3-6 7-5. Iva Majoli lost to
Marie-Gaïané Mikaelian, and it's at times like these that I think
that the Spaniard rather than the Croatian should have been billed as
the new Monica Seles, even though I'm a fan of Iva and only a demi-
fan of María Antonia. They were both born in 1977, but it's María
Antonia who has the two-handed forehand.

María Antonia beat Emilie Loit 7-5 6-4 in the second round, but fell
in the quarter-finals 6-4 2-6 6-4 to eventual runner-up Marie-Gaïané
Mikaelian.


The Qatar Open at Doha was a trail-blazing tournament for two
Selesian men. The magical Fabrice Santoro beat Felix Mantilla 6-3 6-3
and Christophe Rochus 7-5 6-7 (8-10) 7-5 to reach the quarter-finals,
where he lost 3-6 6-3 6-3 to Younes El Aynaoui. But it was Jan-
Michael Gambill who really impressed at this tournament.

Jan-Michael reached the quarter-finals with victories over Ivo
Heuberger 6-1 7-5, and David Ferrer 7-6 (7-5) 6-4. There he pulled
off one of the best wins of his career with a 6-4 7-5 defeat of Roger
Federer. "Federer is one of the best players in the world, so I am
very excited about reaching the semis."

Jan-Michael won his semi-final with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Mikhail
Youzhny. But he was denied a fairy-tale ending in the final by Stefan
Koubek, who beat him 6-4 6-4. It was Koubek's first title since he
defeated Gambill in the 2000 Delray Beach final. Ironically, Jan-
Michael's last title came at Delray Beach 2001.

And to cap it all, Julian Knowle won the men's doubles at Madras with
Michael Kohlmann! :-)

--
Andrew Broad
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/seles/