ATP Career Prize Money Leaders

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Ten active players make the list of the top 40 ATP Career Prize Money Leaders as of December 28, 2009. Roger Federer is the #1 career prize money leader with $53.4 million dollars - $8.8 million of which was earned during the 2009 season. Rafael Nadal, the second highest earner during the 2009 season is #4 in the all time list with $27.2 million dollars in earnings. Novak Djokovic, the third highest earner for the season is ranked #13 overall. Other active players in the top 40 include Lleyton Hewitt (#11), Andy Roddick (#12), Nikolay Davydenko (#19), Juan Carlos Ferrero (#41), Andy Murray (#34), Tommy Haas (#35), and David Nalbandian (#36). See the full list below:

Rank	Player	Career	2009 Earnings
1	Roger Federer	$53,362,068	$8,768,110
2	Pete Sampras	$43,280,489	$0
3	Andre Agassi	$31,152,975	$0
4	Rafael Nadal	$27,224,163	$6,466,515
5	Boris Becker	$25,080,956	$0
6	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	$23,883,797	$0
7	Ivan Lendl	$21,262,417	$0
8	Stefan Edberg	$20,630,941	$0
9	Goran Ivanisevic	$19,876,579	$0
10	Michael Chang	$19,145,632	$0
11	Lleyton Hewitt	$18,312,036	$682,947
12	Andy Roddick	$17,109,084	$2,478,719
13	Novak Djokovic	$15,984,098	$5,476,471
14	Gustavo Kuerten	$14,807,000	$0
15	Jonas Bjorkman	$14,600,323	$0
16	Marat Safin	$14,373,291	$450,800
17	Jim Courier	$14,034,132	$0
18	Carlos Moya	$13,382,822	$39,133
19	Nikolay Davydenko	$13,239,499	$3,659,160
20	Michael Stich	$12,595,128	$2,645
21	Juan Carlos Ferrero	$12,588,898	$689,963
22	John McEnroe	$12,552,132	$0
23	Thomas Muster	$12,225,910	$0
24	Tim Henman	$11,635,542	$0
25	Sergi Bruguera	$11,632,199	$0
26	Patrick Rafter	$11,127,058	$0
27	Thomas Enqvist	$10,461,641	$0
28	Petr Korda	$10,448,900	$0
29	Alex Corretja	$10,411,354	$0
30	Todd Woodbridge	$10,095,245	$0
31	Richard Krajicek	$10,077,425	$0
32	Fabrice Santoro	$10,003,153	$384,042
33	Wayne Ferreira	$9,969,617	$0
34	Andy Murray	$9,920,493	$4,421,057
35	Tommy Haas	$9,910,081	$946,095
36	David Nalbandian	$9,794,060	$286,284
37	Marcelo Rios	$9,713,771	$0
38	Greg Rusedski	$8,944,841	$0
39	Jimmy Connors	$8,641,040	$0
40	Mark Woodforde	$8,571,605	$0

Some observations:

- 32 players have won more than $10 million dollars in their careers
- Andy Murray, currently at #34 earned almost half of his career earnings in 2009. If he makes at least the same amount in 2010, he could be ranked within the top 20 by year-end.
- Who will enter the top 10 first: Andy Roddick or Novak Djokovic?
- Rafael Nadal may likely overtake Andre Agassi for the #3 spot by end of 2010, but it would take him 3 more $6M/year seasons to overtake Pete Sampras for #2
- Goran Ivanisevic and Michael Chang at #9 and #10 respectively are the highest players in the list never to have been ranked #1
- Jonas Bjorkman (#14) and Nikolay Davydenko (#19) are the only 2 players in the top 20 who have not won a Grand Slam singles title
- Two active players are most likely to join the top 40 list at the end of 2010. They are Fernando Gonzales (#42 - $8.4M) and Juan Martin del Potro (#62 - $6.7M). Gonzales earned $1.5 million for 2009 and del Potro earned $4.8 million for 2009.

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Yahoo Blogger’s Stupid Posts against Williams sisters

To anyone who hasn’t heard of his name, it’s Chris Chase. Amongst others, he contributes to the Yahoo tennis blog, BUSTED RACQUET. In his more recent entries, he has written posts against the Williams sisters that are biased, uncalled for and yes, very stupid.

GAME: In ranking the 10 best women’s tennis players of the decade, Chris Chase put Venus William’s achievements behind that of Maria Sharapova. This caused a lot of disagreements from the blog readers. In the initial post, Chris Chase put the number of slams won by Venus at 5 instead of 7. This was later corrected after several comments were made on this. As for Sharapova, Chase comments that she finished in the top 10 for six consecutive years. A check at the WTA tour website reveals that Sharapova had a year end top 10 rank from 2004 to 2008. That’s five years. This incorrect stat has still not been corrected. In contrast, Venus had a year end top 10 ranking in eight of the ten years in the past decade.

In defense of this ranking, Chris Chase notes: “I stand by my ranking of Sharapova ahead of Venus. There are dozens of reasons Venus could have been higher (more Grand Slams, more tournaments won), but there are dozens of reasons Sharapova should be too (more year-end top 5s, didn't squander talent)”. He has never revealed the “dozens of reasons” why Sharapova should be ranked ahead of Venus, simply because they don’t exist. A comparison of statistics shows the following:

Grand Slam Performance:

Venus won 7 majors, 6 other major finals, and reached the finals of all 4 Grand Slams.
Sharapova won 3 majors, 1 other major finals, and hasn’t reached the final of the French Open.

Ranking Performance:

Venus finished 3 times in the year end top 5, and 8 times in the year end top 10.
Sharapova finished 4 times in the year end top 5, and 5 times in the year end top 10.

Chris Chase sites that Sharapova didn’t squander her talent but Venus did. That’s one of the most stupid tennis comments out there.

SET: On a December 8 post called “Line judges beware: Serena Williams now owns a cricket bat”, Chris Chase was writing about the fact that during the Thanksgiving weekend in Barbados, organizers presented Serena with a commemorative cricket bat. He started with the following line – "What do you give a woman who has everything, including a temper problem? A cricket bat, apparently." That would seem hilarious except for the facts that (1) Serena doesn’t have everything, (2) Serena doesn’t have a temper problem, (3) Chris Chase doesn’t get the facts straight on what he writes on. He simply has to ask people who know Serena before saying she has a temper problem.

In the same post, he wrote the following stupid comments:
- The country of Barbados does not get US Open coverage. (I'm sure the country of Barbados has way more sensible people than Chris Chase and his ilk.)
- "I'm not saying Serena is going to use it (the cricket bat) for throat-shoving purposes upon a line judge who makes a bad call, but I'm not saying she won't either."

Chris Chase is telling the world that he doesn’t like the Williams sisters. His December 8 blog post is a stupid, stupid post. It’s more like a tabloid article than a respectable Yahoo blog post. Clearly, this is not the standard we expect from Yahoo writers.

MATCH: His latest blog post was his reaction on Serena being named as the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. Here, Chris Chase doesn’t hide his dislike for Serena Williams. The title of the post is “Undeservedly, Serena Williams earns AP's female athlete of year”. He makes several stupid comments:

Stupid Comment 1: "Serena's 2009 will be more remembered for that U.S. Open tirade rather than her successes." Wrong. 2009 will be remembered as the year Serena won her 10th and 11th grand slam tournaments, and that she finished the year as world #1. She was also awarded by the ITF as singles champion and part of the doubles champion team.

Stupid Comment 2: "To reward her for a season which included the ugliest tennis incident of the decade is a distinct blunder by voters." Here, Chris Chase makes his most stupid comment ever. There were 158 US newspaper editors who voted – 66 of them voted for Serena. Any other candidate didn’t receive more than 18 votes. Chris Chase wasn’t even qualified to vote. What blunder was he talking about?

Stupid Comment 3: "Her tennis year wasn't nearly great enough to outweigh her behavior on the court, particularly when there still doesn't seem to be any attrition on the part of Serena". Serena played 60+ matches for the year. She had one huge meltdown for sure, which I would never approve. Then again, there’s a positive side to it - the meltdown generated more interest in tennis, much more than the collective lifetime writings of Chris Chase. Serena did apologize to the lineswoman herself, with the lines person saying that the incident has been blown way out of proportion.

Stupid Comment 4: "Personally, I'd have voted for Zenyatta, the first female horse to ever win the Breeders' Cup Classic. She finished with 18 votes." To date, Chris Chase puny attention grabbing opinions have not received a single reaction from the Williams sisters. They’re not affected. So, Chris Chase does the next best thing: kiss-assing a female horse.

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Most Googled Men's Tennis Players for 2009

Using Google's search volume index for 2009, the top 5 most searched men's tennis players can be determined by comparing the search volume of one player's name against the other. World #1 Roger Federer is at the top of the list followed by world #2 Rafael Nadal. American #1 and world #7 Andy Roddick is third, followed by Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro and the United Kingdom's Andy Murray. Novak Djokovic is at sixth place. Amongst non-active players, Andre Agassi heads the list followed by Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras. The data below shows the countries searching for the top 5 most "googled" players, and the events and months that made them the most searched in Google.

1. Roger Federer

Most Searched on: July (Wimbledon win), June (French Open win), September (US Open finals loss)
Top Countries Searching: 1. Switzerland 2. Argentina 3. Morocco 4. Singapore 5. Peru
Languages Most Searched on: French, Spanish, German

2. Rafael Nadal

Most Searched on: February (Australian Open win), May (French Open loss), September (Man arrested for kissing Nadal at the US Open)
Top Countries Searching: 1. Spain 2. Argentina 3. Morocco 4. Yugoslavia 5. Peru
Languages Most Searched on: Catalan, Spanish, French

3. Andy Roddick

Most Searched on: July (Wimbledon), January (Australian Open)
Top Countries Searching: 1. Singapore 2. Ireland 3. United Kingdom 4. Australia 5. United States
Languages Most Searched on: English, Hungarian, French

4. Juan Martin del Potro

Most Searched on: September (US Open), June (French Open)
Top Countries Searching: 1. Argentina 2. Peru 3. Chile 4. Spain 5. Colombia
Languages Most Searched on: Spanish, French, English

5. Andy Murray

Most Searched on: July (Wimbledon)
Top Countries Searching: 1. United Kingdom 2. Ireland 3. Switzerland 4. Australia 5. Argentina
Languages Most Searched on: English, Spanish, French

Some Comments:

- The men tennis players that are most searched all belong to the top 10, unlike the women tennis players where Sania Mirza and Anna Kournikova were amongst the top 5. See Top 5 Most Googled WTA Players for 2009.
- With the exception of Andy Roddick, the top countries searching for those in the top 5 are their home countries
- The searches for the top players spike during Grand Slams

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Federer, Serena - 2009 ITF Champions

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) named Roger Federer and Serena Williams as the 2009 ITF World Champions. The award is based on performances at grand slams, tour events and Davis and Fed Cups. Serena and sister Venus were named the women's doubles world champions while American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan took the men's doubles world champions title.

Roger Federer ended the year ranked #1 in six of the past seven years. He reached all Grand Slam finals this season, and won the French Open and Wimbledon. By winning his first French Open title, he has won a career grand slam. In winning Wimbledon, Federer broke the record number of grand slams won (15) he previously shared with Pete Sampras. It is the fifth time that Federer got the ITF nod.

Serena won 2 grand slam titles - the Australian Open and Wimbledon for her 10th and 11th grand slam championships this year. She also ended the year ranked #1 for the second time in her career. She partnered with sister Venus to win the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open titles. Serena joins Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis as the only other players to attain singles and doubles world championships in the same year.

The Bryan brothers got the men's doubles award for a record sixth time. They did this in the past seven years.

The singles and doubles champions will receive their awards at the annual ITF World Champions Dinner on June 1 in Paris, during the French Open.

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Chinese Players win Freedom to Manage Careers

Four Chinese WTA players will now be freed from being managed by the state controlled China Tennis Association (CTA). Li Na (world #15), Yan Zi (world #310), Peng Shuai (world #46), and Zheng Jie (world #35) will now be fully responsible in managing their careers and will not be paying 65% of their winnings to the CTA. Instead, they will just be required to pay eight percent of their earnings to the state system.

Due to this added freedom, the above mentioned players are directly going to handle their training and select the tournaments they would be participating in. There's a downside too – these players will not be able to rely on the state system in the case that their revenues dropped due to a slide in the rankings or any injuries.

Zheng, the first Chinese player to reach a grand slam semifinal in Wimbledon 2008 is well aware of what she's getting into. "I am one of the first to try this and in the first year, I crossed the river feeling the stones," Zheng told China Weekly magazine. "My obligation is to try my best to get good results. As to whether I am suitable for self-management, I am not sure what is the standard we judge by, ranking or prize money?"

But, she's excited with her new-found freedom. "In the past when I was young I was only told by the coach and leaders what to do. Now I am grown up, I choose my own tournaments. Now I think more about wanting to play well. I am playing for myself." Others are not as happy for her. CTA chief Sun Jinfang referred to Zheng as one of the "less talented and more hardworking" players, and indicated that she would be better off inside the national system.

My take – I salute the Chinese players for pushing for these changes. I know it has been going on for some time. (I think it's very similar to the situation Natalia Zvereva was in the late 80s when she was competing under the now defunct Soviet Union.) It's inevitable that not all of the four Chinese players will be in the advantage due to this but as a tennis fan; I believe that players should only play because they love the game, and not because they have to. The Chinese WTA players have improved so much in the past decade and their achievements have done a great deal to enhance tennis in Asia. I hope that pretty soon, one of them will be able to reach the top 10. This newfound freedom could be a motivating factor for them to reach this next milestone.

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Molik may not get Australian Open 2010 wildcard

Former world #8 Alicia Molik and current world #197, who is making a comeback after a year of retirement, lost an opportunity to grab one of the wildcards for the 2010 Australian Open in Melbourne. She lost in the quarterfinals to Jessica Moore, ranked #221 in a tournament for Australian players to decide wild-card berths for the first grand slam of the new decade. Her current ranking may not be good enough for a spot in the qualifying tournament.

Molik will now have to rely on Tennis Australia if she is to compete in the first major of the year. I am hoping she gets it. This would be good for the tournament. Tennis fans like comeback stories and Australia would definitely be electrified again if Molik does well in Melbourne. Jelena Dokic was one of the hottest topics of the tournament earlier this year when she reached the quarters in 2009. Molik reached the quarterfinals in 2005 where she beat Venus Williams in the 4th round. She lost a narrow contest to eventual finalist Lindsay Davenport.

Tennis Australia ought to prioritize giving Molik a wildcard. Having won a bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics, and being the last Aussie to reach the top 10, she definitely deserves it. Probably more than Yanina Wickmayer does. Of course, I'm hoping both of them will be given wildcards. It will be a good situation with the fans too.

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Which WTA Players are most searched in Google for 2009?

To come up with a list of WTA players that are most popular in terms of the volume of searches in Google, I decided to do a 6 round elimination process to determine the top 16 players. Once the top 16 players were compared, I came up with a draw to determine the top 10 players, and finally, come out with the top 5 players.

1st Round Top 30 Group: For the first round, I had two types of groups. The first group is the Top 30 group. This is composed of all top 30 players in the latest WTA rankings. I divided all 30 players into 10 groups of 3 players each. To determine which player goes into which group, I assigned a top 10 player in each group. I then used random numbers to assign players ranked 11-20 and 21-30 into the 10 groups. I then compared the search volume of each player by group. The player was the least number of Google searches in each group was identified and moved into an elimination pool.

1st Round - TOP 30 Groups:

SERENA WILLIAMS
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE
ANABEL MEDINA GARRIGUES - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool

DINARA SAFINA
AMELIE MAURESMO
MARION BARTOLI - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool

DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA
NA LI - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool

CAROLINE WOZNIACKI
DANIELA HANTUCHOVA
YANINA WICKMAYER - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool

ELENA DEMENTIEVA
SABINE LISICKI
NADIA PETROVA - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool

ANA IVANOVIC
VENUS WILLIAMS
SAMANTHA STOSUR - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool

FLAVIA PENNETTA
VICTORIA AZARENKA
ARAVANE REZAI - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool

MARIA SHARAPOVA
JELENA JANKOVIC
MARIA JOSE MARTINEZ SANCHEZ - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool

VERA ZVONAREVA
ELENA VESNINA
VIRGINIE RAZZANO - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool

KIM CLIJSTERS
AGNIESZKA RADWANSKA
ALISA KLEYBANOVA - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool

1st Round Others Group: The other group in the first round are a combination of players within the top 100 which I deemed as newsmakers, and inactive / retired tennis players. There were 12 of them identified – 6 active, and 6 inactive. They were divided into 3 groups of 4. Their Google search volume index were compared, and the lower two players in a group were identified and moved into an elimination pool.

KIMIKO DATE KRUMM
MARTINA NAVRATILOVA
ANNA CHAKVETADZE - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool
SHAHAR PEER - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool

ANNA KOURNIKOVA
MARTINA HINGIS
JELENA DOKIC - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool
JUSTINE HENIN - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool

MELANIE OUDIN
SANIA MIRZA
STEFFI GRAF - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool
LINDSAY DAVENPORT - 3rd Place, Elimination Pool

2nd Round and first elimination round:
*** 3rd Placers in the 1st round groups were placed in 5 groups of 3 or 4. The lowest ranked person in each group became the first to be eliminated.

ALISA KLEYBANOVA
MARION BARTOLI
STEFFI GRAF
VIRGINIE RAZZANO - Eliminated

ANNA CHAKVETADZE - Eliminated
JELENA DOKIC
JUSTINE HENIN

LINDSAY DAVENPORT - Eliminated
NA LI
NADIA PETROVA

ARAVANE REZAI
SHAHAR PEER - Eliminated
YANINA WICKMAYER

ANABEL MEDINA GARRIGUES - Eliminated
MARIA JOSE MARTINEZ SANCHEZ
SAMANTHA STOSUR

3rd Round and second elimination round:
All top placers from the top 30 receive a bye in this round.
Top placers in the OTHERS group, along with survivors of Round 2 are drawn randomly in 9 groups of 3 players each. The lowest ranked person in each group is then eliminated.

SANIA MIRZA
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA
NADIA PETROVA - Eliminated

JELENA DOKIC
DANIELA HANTUCHOVA
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE - Eliminated

STEFFI GRAF
JELENA JANKOVIC
MARTINA NAVRATILOVA - Eliminated

MELANIE OUDIN
MARTINA HINGIS
YANINA WICKMAYER - Eliminated

VENUS WILLIAMS
NA LI
AGNIESZKA RADWANSKA - Eliminated

ANNA KOURNIKOVA
KIMIKO DATE KRUMM
ARAVANE REZAI - Eliminated

AMELIE MAURESMO
ELENA VESNINA
MARIA JOSE MARTINEZ SANCHEZ - Eliminated

JUSTINE HENIN
VICTORIA AZARENKA
SAMANTHA STOSUR - Eliminated

SABINE LISICKI
MARION BARTOLI
ALISA KLEYBANOVA - Eliminated

4th Round:

Players were split in 9 groups - 8 groups had 3 players, 1 group had 4.
The 10 players that topped the Round 1 top 30 were distributed in the 9 groups.
All other survivors from the 3rd round were randomly assigned to the 9 groups.
To enable seedings in the following rounds after this, players gained points if they placed 1st or 2nd in a group.

The lowest ranked player in each group was eliminated.

MARIA SHARAPOVA
DINARA SAFINA
MELANIE OUDIN
ELENA VESNINA - Eliminated

AMELIE MAURESMO
VICTORIA AZARENKA
VERA ZVONAREVA - Eliminated

SERENA WILLIAMS
JUSTINE HENIN
DANIELA HANTUCHOVA - Eliminated

ANNA KOURNIKOVA
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI
NA LI - Eliminated

MARTINA HINGIS
SABINE LISICKI
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA - Eliminated

STEFFI GRAF
ELENA DEMENTIEVA
MARION BARTOLI - Eliminated

ANA IVANOVIC
JELENA DOKIC
KIMIKO DATE KRUMM - Eliminated

SANIA MIRZA
KIM CLIJSTERS
JELENA JANKOVIC - Eliminated

VENUS WILLIAMS
FLAVIA PENNETTA
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA - Eliminated

5th Round:

At this point, only 19 players remained.
By using points acquired in the previous rounds, 6 groups were formed.
5 groups had 3 players, 1 group had 4 players.

The 5 last place finishers in the groups with 3 players will be put in an elimination pool. The last 2 finishers in the group with 4 players will be put in an elimination pool.

SERENA WILLIAMS
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI
FLAVIA PENNETTA - Elimination Pool

DINARA SAFINA
MELANIE OUDIN
AMELIE MAURESMO - Elimination Pool

ANNA KOURNIKOVA
STEFFI GRAF
SABINE LISICKI - Elimination Pool

SANIA MIRZA
VENUS WILLIAMS
MARTINA HINGIS - Elimination Pool

ANA IVANOVIC
JELENA DOKIC
ELENA DEMENTIEVA - Elimination Pool

MARIA SHARAPOVA
KIM CLIJSTERS
VICTORIA AZARENKA - Elimination Pool
JUSTINE HENIN - Elimination Pool

6th Round:

Players in the elimination pool were pitted against each other.
The lower 3 players were removed.
After removal, only 16 players remained.

FLAVIA PENNETTA
AMELIE MAURESMO - Eliminated
SABINE LISICKI - Eliminated
MARTINA HINGIS
ELENA DEMENTIEVA
VICTORIA AZARENKA - Eliminated
JUSTINE HENIN

Top 16:

At this point, the top 16 were determined. I came up with a draw using points from previous rounds. The points accumulated determined who were in the top 8. The other 8 players were randomly paired to a top 8 player. The Google search index were compared between each pair.

SERENA WILLIAMS - Wins
MARTINA HINGIS

KIM CLIJSTERS - Wins
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI

ANNA KOURNIKOVA - Wins
FLAVIA PENNETTA

SANIA MIRZA - Wins
JUSTINE HENIN

JELENA DOKIC
DINARA SAFINA - Wins

STEFFI GRAF
ANA IVANOVIC - Wins

MELANIE OUDIN
VENUS WILLIAMS - Wins

ELENA DEMENTIEVA
MARIA SHARAPOVA - Wins

Top 8:

Those advancing to the top 8 were paired against each other. The top 4 were determined.

SERENA WILLIAMS - Wins
KIM CLIJSTERS

ANNA KOURNIKOVA
SANIA MIRZA - Wins

DINARA SAFINA
ANA IVANOVIC - Wins

VENUS WILLIAMS
MARIA SHARAPOVA - Wins

At this point, there were only 4 players left. The losers in the top 16 and top 8 rounds were compared against each other. Of the 12 players who have lost at this point, the lowest 6 were chosen. The lowest six, which I'll call my BRONZE GROUP would be amongst the top 16 most Googled players.

BRONZE Group, Top 16:

ELENA DEMENTIEVA
JELENA DOKIC
STEFFI GRAF
JUSTINE HENIN
MARTINA HINGIS
FLAVIA PENNETTA

The remaining 6 players that are not in the top 4 were matched against each other to determine the most googled player on the group. Anna Kournikova came out on top.
The lowest five, which I'll call my SILVER GROUP, would be amongst the top 10 most googled players.

Silver Group, Top 10:

KIM CLIJSTERS
MELANIE OUDIN
DINARA SAFINA
VENUS WILLIAMS
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI

Top 5

Anna Kournikova was put back in the top 5 and all the google search index between the remaining players were compared.

The final 5 came out. Here's the list:

#5. Anna Kournikova
#4. Sania Mirza
#3. Ana Ivanovic
#2. Maria Sharapova
#1. Serena Williams

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Top 5 Most Googled WTA Players for 2009

By using Google's search volume index, one can check the volume of searches done on a particular keyword. If the names of WTA players are used as search parameters, Google displays a graph depicting the volume of searches done on a player over a period of time. By using this tool, I was able to extract the top 5 most "googled" WTA tour players for this year. Three of the top 5 players were expected – the other two were not. Among the two, one is a retired tennis player. The other one is not even ranked in the top 50. Here are the findings:

#5. ANNA KOURNIKOVA

Top Search Month/s: June
Top Topic/s: Alleged involvement in bar brawl

Top Countries Searching:
(1) India (2) Netherlands (3) Finland (4) Canada (5) United States

#4. SANIA MIRZA

Top Search Month/s: June & July
Top Topic/s: Arrests done in Mirza's Hyberadad home

Top Countries Searching:
(1) Pakistan (2) India (3) Bangladesh (4) UAE (5) Saudi Arabia

#3. ANA IVANOVIC

Top Search Month/s: January, May, June
Top Topic/s: January – Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon results (or non-results)

Top Countries Searching:
(1) Yugoslavia (2) Bosnia and Herzegovina (3) Australia (4) Philippines (5) India

#2. MARIA SHARAPOVA

Top Search Month/s: May, June, August
Top Topic/s: May – French Open quarterfinal run, June – Sharapova upset in Wimbledon early rounds, August – Reached finals in Canada

Top Countries Searching:
(1) India (2) Philippines (3) Indonesia (4) Malaysia (5) Chile

#1. SERENA WILLIAMS

Top Search Month/s: January, July, September
Top Topic/s: January – wins Australian Open for 10th grand slam, July – wins Wimbledon singles and doubles, September – US Open outburst

Top Countries Searching:
(1) South Africa (2) India (3) United States (4) Canada (5) Australia

My observations:
- India is present on all top countries searching for all those who made the top 5 list
- Mirza generates more interest than all other players in the top 50 save for Ana Ivanovic, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams
- Russia has 2 players in the top 5
- Kournikova is more popular worldwide than other top and higher ranking players such as Venus Williams, Dinara Safina, and all other players in the top 10 save for Serena
- Serena's US Open outburst was the hottest search topic for the year

To learn which players made the top 10 and top 16, and to check how I came out with the rankings, visit this accompanying post: Most Googled WTA Tennis Players

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Wickmayer, Malisse allowed to Play

Belgian tennis players Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse may now be able to participate in next month's tennis tournaments after a Belgian court on Monday suspended the doping bans given to them. World #16 Wickmayer may yet be able to play in the 2010 edition of the Australian Open even if the entry list to the first grand slam has already been closed. The US Open semifinalist can receive a wild card for the Australian Open.

The two players were banned for one year by a Belgian court on November 5 for failing to comply with World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules. In the previous year, both players have failed to report their whereabouts for drug testing three times. The “whereabouts” rule requires elite athletes to make themselves available for out-of-competition testing for one hour a day, 365 days a year. Under the rules, athletes must give three months’ notice of where and when they can be located for testing. The information is registered online and can be updated by e-mail or text message.

The 20-year-old Wickmayer claims she was not properly informed of the online reporting requirements for drug-testing that led to her ban. WTA Tour CEO Stacey Allaster was recently asked if Wickmayer is being treated fairly. Here was her reply: "The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour is a founding member (together with the ATP and ITF) of the WADA Code, which serves to ensure the competitive fairness of our sport and is globally recognized as a world-class program in protecting the integrity of professional tennis. We support and will enforce the ruling of this independent national tribunal under the Tennis Anti-Doping Program. There is no doubt that this program is not only comprehensive but also rigorous, and it is for this reason that it's considered one of the very best in sports. The program asks a lot of athletes, but we believe that no matter how onerous the requirements may be, the end goal of integrity warrants associated inconveniences."

Allaster did admit that the whereabouts rule may need to be reviewed and that it "should be modified to account for the peculiarities of professional tennis and its players (e.g., 10 months in competition season which makes out-of-competition testing difficult to conduct, along with daily changes to schedule based on matches and on single-elimination format), and we are striving to have such changes adopted. At the end of the day, the Tour fully supports the Program and recognizes the decisions made by independent national tribunals under the WADA Code".

The ITF, the body that manages the Grand Slams, said it based its ban on the local anti-doping tribunal’s decision. By suspending the original ruling, the Brussels court made it clear tennis authorities no longer had a legal basis to justify their penalty.

After the ruling, Wickmayer was offered a wild card to the ASB Classic in New Zealand that runs from January 4-9. The tournament is one of the tune-up tournaments for the Australian Open in Melbourne.

So far, majority of fans have welcomed the suspension of the ban. This blogger thinks that the issue should not have gone overboard if a simple process such as a verbal warning is in place. While I agree that the integrity of the sport should be protected, it should also be done in a sensible manner. Suspending a promising player's right to play for a year for a very possible oversight is nonsense. If they had warned her on her second violation that she is about to be suspended, and she still hasn't complied, then a ban would have been merited.

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