2009 ATP TOUR TIPS - posted December 22

More tips for you and I urge you to get on while you can!

Last week's WTA tip for Caroline Wozniacki to finish higher than Nadia Petrova in the 2009 rankings was piled into and BlueSq have since pulled the market.

For the men, Carlos Moya to win a tour title next year is my headline selection at a tasty 9/2. You can check out my full preview here.

PLAYERS TO WATCH IN 2009 - MEN - posted December 18

Our four players to watch in 2009 have already shown their ability to a certain degree, but this is a quartet destined for even greater things over the next 12 months.

Latvia is not exactly renowned for its tennis stars, or sporting prowess in general for that matter, but Ernests Gulbis (pictured) is already something of a national hero.

And that status will surely rise soon, quite possibly over the coming year.

Gulbis' talent should not be questioned. Excellent from the back of the court aged 20, it appears he just needs to find greater consistency and an ability to nudge tight matches his way.

This is often easier said than done, but it would surely be a surprise for Gulbis not to improve on his current ranking of 53.

You may well have seen plenty of Gulbis already, even if you may not realise it.

He enjoyed an excellent run to the last eight of the French Open where he then pushed Novak Djokovic very hard despite the straight-sets scoreline.

A week later he was taking Andy Murray the distance at Queen's Club - a feat repeated against Rafael Nadal in Madrid later in the year.

To get so close to beating players of this calibre shows there is plenty to work with in the Latvian and we fully expect him to move deep into the world's top 40 over the coming season.

Thomaz Bellucci is another player who's looked to have something about him whenever I've seen him and again an improvement on his current ranking of 85 looks assured in 2009.

The Brazilian left-hander isn't afraid to take better players on shot for shot and while that tactic may not be the best right now, it will stand him in good stead as improvements are made to his game.

World number one Nadal certainly seemed somewhat surprised at Roland Garros, at least for the first two sets, where Bellucci gave the Spaniard arguably his toughest match of the tournament in the very first round.

He may have won only four of his 19 matches on the ATP Tour in 2008, but I'd be staggered if that record didn't improve in the coming year.

Admittedly all his best results have come on clay so far - no surprise there given he's a South American - and although he's still a long way from being mentioned in the same breath as compatriot Gustavo Kuerten, he could give the claycourt fans something to cheer in the near future.

It will certainly also be worth keeping an eye on Japan's Kei Nishikori next year after his stunning arrival on the scene in 2008.

With a solid all-round game, Nishikori started the season with a stunning victory at the Delray Beach International and went on to reach the last 16 of the US Open.

British fans may also have seen him take a set off Nadal at Queen's Club.

The 18-year-old finished the season ranked 63rd and looks to have more to give.

His main problem may be living up to what has gone before, especially in a country that puts much pressure on the shoulders of its stars.

Finally Croatia's Marin Cilic may already be well inside the world's top 30, but we're convinced he's going much higher. Certainly he should be a top-20 player this time next year.

Typically for a Croatian, Cilic possesses a big serve which is a potent weapon as it comes down from the top of his 6ft 6in frame.

That helped him secure some fine results on the grass - he made the last 16 at Wimbledon - but he was hardly a one-surface wonder having also made the fourth round in Australia and then the third round at the US Open where Djokovic found himself in a real fight before prevailing in four sets.

A first tour title at New Haven was also secured and if the Grand Slam performances can start to be reproduced at some of the run of the mill events - crucial to the ranking - then more trophies will follow for Cilic.

Watch this space.

Disagree with Andy? Let us know your players to watch in 2009 by emailing tennisfeedback@sportinglife.com

2009 WTA TOUR TIPS - posted December 17

Following on from my column on the players to watch out for in the 2009 WTA Tour season, I've now picked out my best bets for the year.

Plenty of bookies have priced up markets for the year-long race and Caroline Wozniacki to finish higher than Nadia Petrova is my headline tip.

You can heck out my full preview here.

PLAYERS TO WATCH IN 2009 - WOMEN - posted December 15

It's almost with a heavy heart that I pick out Briton Laura Robson as a player to watch in 2009.

At just 14, there's so much that could still go wrong for the Australian-born left-hander and the pressure on her is already immense.

Yet everything I've seen so far suggests Robson has a big future ahead of her and it's perfectly possible that she will make a big impact over the next 12 months.

As she surged to prominence by winning the Junior Wimbledon title in the summer, her weight of shot was something that made her stand out.

For a 14-year-old it's pretty impressive, while Robson's court craft suggests she is far from one-dimensional - a label often thrown as the teenagers coming out of the former Eastern Bloc.

She was soon competing on the ITF circuit against senior players and won a title in just her fifth tournament at that level.

Next up was a WTA Tour debut, achieved thanks to a wild card in Luxembourg.

And it was perhaps her performance there that most suggested she has what it takes to make it on the main tour.

Up against world number 42 Iveta Benesova, Robson raced through the first set before being edged out 1-6 6-2 6-3.

At present, she sits fifth in the junior world rankings. Given those rankings are basically for under-18s, it's a remarkable achievement.

Indeed look down the list and only one player in the top 100 is younger.

Robson is currently 516 on the WTA ranking list but can be expected to shoot up from that position in 2009 and it would be no great surprise to see her climb into the top 200.

That would put her in Britain's top five. Frankly she's probably already that good.

With the LTA's Carl Maes helping shape her career - he worked with former world number one Kim Clijsters at the same age and has already compared the Briton favourably with his old charge - Robson is in good hands.

A trip to the Australian Open for the junior event there could get 2009 off to a great start and, just as Andy Murray did after winning the US Open juniors, a rapid rise up the rankings could easily follow.

While much will be written about Robson in 2009, further up the rankings there will be players looking to make the most of what appears to be something of a power vacuum at the top of the women's game.

Since Justine Henin's shock retirement in May, no-one has been able to stamp their authority on the game.

With the Williams sisters heading towards 30, Maria Sharapova constantly struggling with injury and Russians such as Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina showing mental frailty a little too often, the scene is set for a new breed to take control.

Two players who look capable of challenging the established order in 2009 appear to be Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska.

Wozniacki could be the next big thing in Denmark, not a country renowned for its tennis prowess.

Helped by victory in three lower-tier WTA tournaments, the 18-year-old climbed 52 places in 2008 to finish the year ranked 12 - the perfect platform from which to launch an assault on the top 10, or even the top five, in the coming 12 months.

Her Grand Slam record is already pretty impressive for one so young - she reached the fourth round in Australia and the US during the season just finished and also made the last 32 at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

Anyone who saw her dismantle Svetlana Kuznetsova at Eastbourne in June will know that she's capable of mixing it with the best and now the challenge will be to start beating those top-10ers on a more regular basis.

Blowing my own trumpet somewhat, Radwanska was my tip to make an impact in 2008 and she duly did, finishing the year ranked inside the top 10.

The Pole has great groundstrokes but one area she'll be looking to improve in the coming season is her serve.

If she can add a bit of juice on her first serve and toughen up her second delivery, then she will have the game to mix it with the very best.

Like Wozniacki, Radwanska is a former Wimbledon junior champion - don't be surprised to see her continue her climb up the rankings in 2009.

Finally, Sabine Lisicki also makes our 'ones to watch' list.

The German had some outstanding results in 2008, including reaching the third round of the Australian Open on her Grand Slam debut as a qualifier (beating Dinara Safina in the process) and seeing off Lindsay Davenport in a Fed Cup rubber.

She also beat Anna Chakvetadze - her first win against a top-10 player - and made her first WTA final in Tashkent.

Backed up by a decent serve, Lisicki climbed almost 200 places on the ranking list in 2008.

If the 19-year-old continues her progress, a place in the top 25 this time next year should not be ruled out.

Disagree with Andy? Let us know your players to watch in 2009 by emailing tennisfeedback@sportinglife.com

YOUR FEEDBACK - MATCHES OF THE YEAR - posted December 3

I have to say that I totally disagree with your comments regarding the best women's matches, and especially with reference the the 2008 Wimbledon final. That match contained a very high number of winners - with only a marginal number of unforced errors. That kind of positive ratio is extremely rare in women's tennis and especially so in a Grand Slam final, where nerves come into play far more than in men's Grand Slam finals. The loser (Serena Williams) hit only six unforced errors (to 19 winners) in the first set - yet lost the set and, ultimately, the match. Statistically, it was probably the 'highest quality' Grand Slam final match of the modern era in women's tennis. In recent years, the 2007 Australian Open final (Serena v Maria Sharapova) also featured a high winner/unforced errors differential - but the winner absolutely killed her opponent in extremely short (and destructive) 1-3 stroke rallies, so the match was not in any way competitive. The Wimbledon final was.
Christopher Rourke

Definitely the Wimbledon men's final - wrong person won it though!
Stephen Ross

MATCHES OF THE YEAR - WOMEN - posted December 2

I'm afraid 2008 will quickly be forgotten in terms of the women's game.

Justine Henin's standards over the previous 12 months had set the bar high but once she made the shock decision to quit in May, no-one was able to take over the baton with a series of players treating the number-one ranking like a hot potato.

Searching through the memory banks for a cracking top-level match is difficult and reflects that power vacuum at the top.

The all-Williams Wimbledon final was certainly better than many expected but should be classed as good rather than great.

The sisters took things up a level in the US Open quarter-finals in which Serena gained revenge, coming from 5-3 down in both sets and saving set-points aplenty to win 7-6 7-6. It certainly had drama and quality, although the error count wasn't low.

The same could be said of Serena's final clash at Flushing Meadows against Jelena Jankovic - definitely the best of the year's Grand Slam finals and a match which saw Serena return to the world number one spot after a five-year absence.

Personally, I'm a big fan of a 'last-(wo)man-standing' match and a couple of those spring to mind, both at Wimbledon.

Top seed Ana Ivanovic was involved in a surprisingly-difficult second-round match with Natalie Dechy but the Serb produced a fine fightback.

She survived two match points to win 10-8 in the third. It produced one of my favourite moments of the year, Ivanovic kissing the net before leaving court - thanking the net cord which had helped her win one of those match points.

A bewildered Dechy, meanwhile, buried her head in a towel.

Dinara Safina suffered similar mental anguish three days later.

Given it was a match which took place at the same time Andy Murray was on court, few probably saw it but those who did will remember it well.

Showing her trademark guts and detremination, Safina managed to force the match into a decider despite opponent Shahar Peer twice serving for the match in the second set.

Despite struggling with a leg injury, Safina managed to move 5-3 ahead in the final set but that's when it all went wrong.

Unable to put any sort of spring into her serve, the Russian couldn't finish Peer off and the Israeli stumbled over the winning line, leaving a tearful Safina shattered, physically and mentally, after three hours and 23 minutes' play.

That match goes close to match of the year for sheer drama, but it's another Safina match that manages to take our top award.

The Russian's fighting qualities were once again on show in her French Open fourth-round clash with Maria Sharapova but this time the quality matched the drama.

Some of the baseline rallies were a terrific example of what claycourt tennis is all about while the fightback Safina produced to send the top seed packing was truly amazing.

After saving two set points, Sharapova won the opening set on a tie-break before rain halted affairs. When the players returned, Sharapova was razor sharp in establishing a 5-2 lead and looked home and hosed.

However, Safina began to swing from the hip and produced some tremendous shots - including a backhand down the line to save match point at 5-3 down - to level the set.

The game still looked up when Safina fell 5-2 behind in the resultant tie-break but five points in a row saw the match squared.

In last week's column about the best men's matches of the year we mentioned Rafael Nadal's mental strength when he blew a similar position against Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final.

Sharapova proved not so tough.

With the missed opportunities preying on her mind, errors crept into her game more and more in the deciding set and Safina took it 6-2.

"If you don't take the chances that you have it can go in the wrong direction really fast," was Sharapova's spot-on assessment afterwards.

Safina knew it too. Two days later she again came from match point down to beat another compatriot, Elena Dementieva.

Dinara certainly knew how to provide the thrills and spills in 2008.

Do you agree with Andy's selections? And which were your favourite women's matches of 2008? Let us know by emailing: tennisfeedback@sportinglife.com.

YOUR FEEDBACK - MATCHES OF THE YEAR - posted December 1

Even though I was very unhappy with the result, I thought the Nadal-Simon match in Madrid was pretty great!
Mary Jordan