The week of tennis ended fittingly with a strange weather day at the Family Circle Cup. The tournament weathered its own storm cloud all week with players retiring with injuries, but you can't blame those in charge of the tournament. You can blame the WTA tour and its players. Serena Williams was the first to bow out during a match on Tuesday night. She was down 5-3 in the first set and had a noticeable limp, but said in her post match press conference that she thought she may be ready to play in 7 days. Way to work through the pain. The worst case of the injury bug happened on Friday night. Danira Safina was playing Tatiana Golovin in the night time match in front of the biggest crowd yet. It was some of the best tennis we'd seen all week then Golovin pulled out after losing the first set. An injured ankle seemed legitimate but then Safina was supposed to play doubles immediately following that match. That is until she realized she was in the semifinals then she came up with a mysterious injury and was not going to play doubles. And to think there are those who want us in the media to take doubles seriously. Not when a player pulls out simply because she's still playing in the singles draw. Maybe the players were all really injured so bad they couldn't go on, but it just seems like a few of them could have kept playing.
As for the best part of this tournament - had to be Saturday and Sunday. The Venus Williams vs Jelena Jankovic match was the best match I'd seen at the FCC in years. Jankovic seems to be the real deal. Sunday she had so much more mental toughness dealing with the wind that Safina never had a chance.
Let's just hope Jankovic stays healthy around this time next year.
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