U.S. Women's TennisVibes Weekly Report 3/5

$2.1 Million Dollar Pacific Life Open Preview

Today marks the beginning of the qualifying rounds of one of the biggest tournaments on the WTA schedule. The Pacific Life Open is played in the hot Palm Desert sun of southern California. The women have been involved in this tournament since the mid 1990's.

This tournament has a similar format to the Sony Ericsson Open played in Miami, Florida. There is 96 player main draw and qualifying rounds consist of 48 players.

American players in this year's qualifying rounds include....

Jessica Kirkland
Lindsey Nelson of USC
Kimberly Couts who is the number 5 American junior
Anne Yelsey of Stanford
Coco Vandeweighe

Other Americans in the qualifying rounds of this two week tournament are Abigail Spears and Lindsay Lee-Waters.

The main draw of the Pacific Life Open begins on Wednesday. All of the American players ranked in the top 100 will be participating with the exception of the Williams sisters and of course Lindsay Davenport. Americans receiving wildcards into the main draw were....

Bethanie Matek
Lilia Osterloh
Ahsha Rolle
Lauren Albanese

Pacific Life Open On TV This Week

For those of you lucky enough to have The Tennis Channel....here is when you can catch this week's Pacific Life Open....

Saturday, March 10th 1pm-Midnight Eastern
Sunday, March 11th 2pm-1:30 AM Eastern

Qatar Receives Tier I Tournament From WTA

It seems that the country of Qatar has unlimited funds for their professional tennis tournaments. This past week the Total Qatar Open was played and the purse for the women was a cool $1.34 Million. That figure is a 100 percent increase from last year's purse and guaranteed them several of the top women players in the world but Qatar is not content.

Next year's Qatar Telegram German Open will no longer take place in Germany. The Qatar Telegram Open will now move to Qatar and will become a $2.5 Million dollar event.

That purse will make The Qatar Telegram Open the third largest tournament behind only the WTA Tour Championships and The Sony Ericsson Open. Yes, it will put them ahead of this week's Pacific Life Open.

The Middle East has become a tennis hotbed. The Dubai Open already offers well over a million dollars in prize money and is attracting several of the top players in the world.

Americans Disappointed At Las Vegas Challenger

For the first time in five weeks, no Americans were able to advance past the round of 16 in a challenger event.

The $75,000 Las Vegas Challenger had seven Americans in the main draw and by the time the 2nd round was finished, no Americans remained standing.

In the 2nd round Akiko Morigami easily defeated Angela Haynes 6-4,6-1. American Ahsha Rolle had a difficult time with Jarmila Gajdosova during the 2nd round. Gajdosova came away with a 6-0,6-2 victory.

American Lilia Osterloh was unable to compete in the 2nd round which gave Vavara Lepchenko a walkover victory into the Quarterfinals.

No USTA challenger tournaments are scheduled for this week.

UNC AND Georgia Tech Faced Upsets This Weekend

The University of North Carolina women's tennis team had a very difficult weekend. The Tar Heels lost both of their scheduled matches.

Wake Forest squeaked past UNC 4-3. The upset minded Sun Devils of Arizona State had an easier time with the top 10 Tar Heels, winning 5-2.

Georgia Tech also had another difficult weekend. The Yellow Jackets were upset by the number 12 team in the country, the University of Georgia 5-2. The Yellow Jackets woes continued the following day when the 13th ranked Clemson Tigers also defeated Georgia Tech 4-3. The Yellow Jackets have now lost four matches since upsetting the Stanford Cardinal earlier this year.

Speaking of Stanford, this past weekend proved to be the first time that they looked like the number one school in the nation. The Cardinal easily defeated both the number 18 team in the country, Pepperdine and top 10 Cal, 6 matches to 1.

It will be interesting to see what the top 10 list will look like this upcoming week.

*Junior Player Spotlight*

American, Nicole Bartnik was the surprising winner of The Copa HSBC El Salvador Junior Open. The tournament is a Grade 4 international junior event.

The 15-year-old Bartnik struggled through her Quarterfinal and Semifinal matches en route to the championship round. In the Quarterfinal round she came back to defeat the number 4 seed Francesca Segarelli 6-7,6-3,6-3. She struggled again in the Semifinals before overtaking Columbia's Andrea Yacaman 6-3,5-7,6-1.

Nicole, who was only ranked 754 in the junior world rankings, had an easier time in the Finals. She easily defeated Emi Mataguchi and took the championship 6-0,6-4. Nicole Bartnik is a student from the Nick Bollettieri Academy.