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Vaidisova cracks Top 10 rankings on California road trip

August 15, 2006 - World TeamTennis (WTT)
Sacramento Capitals News Release


Nicole Vaidisova makes her Top 10 debut this week after a string of impressive runs at high-profile events, including in the Tier III event in Strasbourg (winning the title), Roland Garros (making her first Grand Slam semifinal), Wimbledon (reaching the fourth round), and her first summer hardcourt events at Stanford and San Diego (reaching the semifinals at both events). The result gives her a No.9 ranking as of August 7, 2006. "It is nice to be in the top 10. I have been working very hard and this is a nice reward. Rankings are not my driving force, winning is, but it is obviously a result of winning a lot of matches."

She is the 12th-youngest player since the inception of the computer rankings over 30 years ago to crack the Top 10, at 17 years, three months and two weeks old, following (from youngest to oldest), Jennifer Capriati, Andrea Jaeger, Tracy Austin, Gabriela Sabatini, Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, Anna Kournikova, Natasha Zvereva, Maria Sharapova and Carling Bassett-Seguso.

Tennis met racing at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford in late July, as Vaidisova and Kim Clijsters each spent time during the week on the court (and on the track) with Champ Car stars Bruno Junqueira and Sebastien Bourdais. Vaidisova was first to fuse the two sports, hitting the practice courts with Junqueira before trying out his Champ Car on the grounds of the tournament. After their hit, the two exchanged gifts, with Vaidisova receiving a shirt signed by actor Paul Newman (one of the Newman/Haas Champ Car Team's owners) and Junqueira taking home an autographed racquet.

In the Stanford semifinals, Clijsters erased a set point in the first set with a second serve ace, then went on to defeat No.3-seeded Czech phenom Nicole Vaidisova, 7-5 6-2.

Nicole Vaidisova blog on WTA Tour website Monday, July 24, 2006 Hello everyone, Welcome to my first blog! I'm here at Stanford University for the Bank of the West Classic. It's my first time playing here, and so far, it's pretty cool. I got here yesterday afternoon from Sacramento, where I was playing World Team Tennis, which is always a good time.

Hanging with Wayne Bryan (father of Mike and Bob Bryan) Lonnie Nielson and Ben Combs (the owners of the Sacramento Capitals) and the rest of the team is always fun. WTT is so different from playing on the Tour because you're part of a team. You have your teammates on the court cheering you on, giving you tips, making a lot of noise. The crowd in Sacramento is the best in the WTT league. Always cheering and being loud. On break-points, the croud always yells: "What time is it? BREAK TIME!" Pretty funny. Anyhow, we won, which was awesome and then it was back on the road on the way to Stanford.

Like I said, I got in Sunday afternoon and checked out the tennis site. I've been to other universities, but this one is very nice. It's huge! And it's great to see so many sports going on. (During the summer, Stanford hosts many youth sports camps for soccer, tennis, rugby, basketball, etc.) I haven't seen the whole campus yet, but maybe I could borrow a golf cart and take a spin around the school. We went to dinner on University Avenue, which is where all the restaurants are in town. We ate at an Italian place called La Strada. I had a caprese salad and seafood pasta. Pretty good stuff, I must say.

Afterwards, I just wanted to chill out in the hotel. I watched that movie, Something's Gotta Give, and had to unpack all my bags, which I don't really like. That's one of my least favorite things about traveling on the Tour - all the packing and unpacking. It never ends and you always have to worry if your bags are too heavy and whether you're going to be hit with a huge charge at the airport. This morning, I woke up at 8:45. I am still on Florida time (I live and train at the IMG/Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida) and came from Europe two days before that so the jet-lag is still a bit there. But I had a Starbucks breakfast - coffee and a chocolate muffin - breakfast of champions. Then, back to training - some jogging and exercises with my dad, who's my coach, on the track, which is right by the courts, followed by lunch in the players' lounge. Because of the extreme heat right now in California, they have to turn the lights down in the lounge so that they can keep the air conditioning running and not use up too much power. I must say though that I prefer the Stanford heat over the Sacramento heat. That was like a sauna.

After lunch, back to the hotel for yet another movie - this time, Alien vs. Predator. I know, I know, it's a terrible movie, but for some odd reason, I liked watching it. It's like the smart person in me knows it's a bad movie, and I shouldn't watch it, but the silly person says that it's great. The silly person won. I had to come back to the tennis site to do All-Access Hour, which are media roundtables that the top seeds do at the start of tournaments. The other players who had to do it with me were Kim Clijsters, Patty Schnyder and Anna-Lena Groenefeld. Now, I'm off to play my doubles match with Maureen Drake. I'll check in with you all later. Bye for now!

--Nicole Vaidisova

--courtesy of Sony Ericsson WTA Tour

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