Just noticed that former top 20 player Anna-Lena Groenefeld won a match yesterday. Does anyone know what happened to her?? I remember that she went through a really bad patch of form and suffered from a huge loss of fitness.

But she appears to be back? Has she been injured or something?

Is that the blonde German player?

Well, she went through a hoorendous slump which you can trace back to Eastbourne in 2006. Up to that point, Groenefold was firmly established in the top 20 and had just reached the RG QF's. In the quarter-finals of eastbourne she had Kuznetsova beaten at 7-6 5-3 and had matchpoints and then completely choked and Kuzy went on to win. After that match, she won only two more matches on the main tour that year i think and then it got even worse.

Just to compound her mental issues, she put on a lot of weight and just couldnt win a match. Also, she had a feud with her coach at the French Open because apparently he was leaking informations to her opponents how to beat her :o That further pushed her over the edge.

The good news is that over the past couple of months she's made a push back up the rankings by winning a couple of challenger tournaments back to back, so at least the fundamentals of winning matches is there now. Havent seen any pictures of her recently, but i hope her fitness is back on track, because it was a sorry spectacle watching her last year with zero fitness and zero confidence.

A shame really because two years ago, she looked destined for the top 10. Has a beautiful serveice action, and has great volleying skills too ( remember she was Navratilova's partner in 2005) and her groundstrokes are huge when they're on. I wish her well with her comeback :)

Thanks Dl :)
I remember her putting on all that weight and also her huge slump in form-never really knew why.

She almost beat Sharapova in Moscow a couple of years ago-picked up an injury a set and a break up I remember....

She had a nice game from what I can remember-seemed destined to finally give Germany a decent player after Graf on the Women's tour. I guess there's Lisicki now :lol:

Hope she gets a few more matches under her belt on the main tour :)

I remember that match in moscow, she was up 6-1 4-2 i believe. I remember the Sharapova fans on the Beeb were like ' Sharapova fought so well'

Err- her oponent was kicking her ass and retired :rolleyes:

Yes, the WTA has been bereft of a great star from Germany. I mean there was Anke who reached a Slam final in 96, but retired in 2001 at an early age. There's been Marlene Weingarter (sp?), Anca Barna etc, all small names in the top 50 but there's never been anyone prolific since like Graf.

Lisicki and Kerber are Germany's main hopes now, and it does shine a pale light on women's tennis in Germany :unsure:

They have no real stars on the men's tour either at the moment, Haas, Kohlschreiber, Zverev, Kiefer. All good players but aside from Haas none of them have made any real impact.

Yeah, they're all solid but not spectacular. Haas looked like he was going to have one of his best seasons ever last year when he reached the Aussie Open semis, but just got injury after injury :shrug:

Same with Kolschreiber, where has his form gone since beating Roddick at the Aussie? I know he reached the final in Halle, but it's been vfery in and out from him too.

The Groenefeld slump as well as the fates of various other players is discussed on this website: http://www.tennis.com/features/general/fea....aspx?id=119078

Interesting to read about Chanda Rubin who I had completely forgotten about, as well as the fate of Daja Bedanova (who looked like such a prospect in 2001).

Lost to Cornet in the quarters 6-2 6-3, Still good to see her back even if she only got a couple of wins it is a start :)

Yuck, the new coldplay album :wacko:

Sorry SG, i always seem to hate your music roflmao

I watched Doctor Who though :D

Nah I don't really like the album-it just has a cool cover :lol:


I only post the mainstream sort of music that I like here-there are far too many bands that nobody ever hears of that I like :lol:

Although I should say this album is certainly better than their previous effort, not simply trying to be as commercial as possible which is nice...

I just seem to think Coldplay's albums have got worse and worse. I loved Parachutes, which was released in 2000.

X & Y was awful, so commercial and you just felt they were trying to make an anthem with every song...

This one is marginally better but still only 2/3 track worth listening to...

Right now I'm really enjoying VAmpire Weekend, The Courteeners and Santogold's albums... :)