French Open 2012: Elite Women's Team Country Award

Every Grand Slam, this blog picks a country for the Elite Team Country Award.  It's awarded to the country that has the most number of players to have reached the fourth round.  Russia normally has a lock on this award for the past few years but last Australian Open, the award went to Serbia.  

Well, for this year's French Open, three countries had two players each in the fourth round - USA (surprisingly no Williams sisters), the Czech Republic and of course, Russia.  

Russia wins the award this year as the sum of the seedings of the two players in the fourth round - Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova, only add up to 30, the smallest number.

Runner-up is the Czech Republic, whose sum is 48.  Their team is composed of Petra Kvitova and Klara Zakopalova.

Finally, the USA has Sloane Stephens and Varvara Lepchenko, for a sum of 133.

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WTA Top Tennis Nations 2011: #1 Russia

Russia used to be very dominant in the WTA Tour with many of them in the Top 10 and the Top 100.  They still were in 2011, but not that much anymore.  From 15 players in the Top 100 in 2010, she drops precipitously to 10 players only in 2011 as many of its top players like Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina faded into the limelight.  But still, with 10 players, they are still 10 players ahead of the #2 country, Czech Republic who has 7 players in the Top 100.

Leading the way in the Top 10 are Maria Sharapova (#4) and Vera Zvonareva (#7).  Then there's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (#16) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (#19), Maria Kirilenko (#28), Nadezda Petrova (#29), Elena Vesnina (#57), Ekaterina Makarova (#53), Alisa Kleybanova (#68) and Vera Dushevina (#86).

But they should not fret as there are nine other Russian players waiting in the wings ranked from #101 to #150, so the hunger for the top is still there for many Russian players and maybe 2 or three of them should break through in 2012!

WTA Top Tennis Nations 2010 - #1 Russia

Russia has 15 women in the Top 100, with Vera Zvonareva as the highest ranked player, at #2. Elena Dementieva is the other player in the Top 10, at #9. But she will soon exit because she has announced her retirement. No problem though, as Nadia Petrova is at #15, Maria Sharapova at #18 and Maria Kirilenko at #20.

Next in line are Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (#21), Alisa Kleybanova (#25), Svetlana Kuznetsova (#27) and Ekaterina Makarova (#49) in the Top 50.

Deeper into the Top 100 are Elena Vesnina (#52), Vera Dushevina (#54), Anna Chakvetadze (#56), Alla Kudryavtseva (#60), Dinara Safina (#63) and Ksenia Pervak (#97).