subject: Will This Swiss Star Carry on The Long Tradition of Excellence From Her Country? [print this page] Will This Swiss Star Carry on The Long Tradition of Excellence From Her Country?
Switzerland is globally known as the peaceful and unassumingly neutral country, amongst a swarm of rash and impulsive neighbours. However, in the paradoxical world of tennis, Switzerland has come to be seen as one of the sport's great superpowers. Over the last 14 years, the tiny country has held the top spot on either the ATP or WTA rankings every year, spawning 21 singles Grand Slam titles in total. With Martina Hingis' retirement, Patty Schnyder ready to leave the scene at any minute and Roger Federer steadily closing in on his 30th birthday, the golden era of Swiss tennis looks set for an abrupt ending. Waiting in the wings are a number of young players hoping to fill the massive void left by Federer, Schnyder and Hingis in Swiss tennis. One such hopeful is 21 year-old Timea Bacsinszky. After a glittering junior career in which she shot straight into the top 15 with two Grand Slam semifinals, Bacsinszky graduated to the professional circuit in 2003. Her tour breakthrough would come in 2006 at Zurich, where she stormed through qualifying to earn her first top 20 scalping against Anastasia Myskina, in addition to moving into the quarterfinals of a WTA event for the first time in her career. The next few years would bear witness to a number of other achievements as she steadily rose up the rankings, reaching the 3rd round of the US Open in 2008, moving into the quarterfinals of a Premier Mandatory event for the first time in her career, and most notably, defeating Sabine Lisicki and Yanina Wickmayer en-route to clinching her first WTA title in Luxembourg last year. Despite being groomed for success from a young age, the last three years have also seen the charismatic Swiss' ranking come to a grave halt, with a slew of early-exits and letdowns accompanying all of Bacsinszky's positive results.
Even with the inconsistent and often patchy performances from Bacsinszky in recent times, the unique talents that have come to characterize the games of the Swiss elite over the years are not lost on her. Though often critiqued for her sub-par forehand and laboured movement, she plays with a flair that cannot be either taught or learnt, with her irresistibly smooth and world class backhand, crushing serve and outrageous drop-shots gaining her admirers across the globe. Indeed, her sense of mischief and the personality she injects into her game is so much that she once committed the faux pas of planting herself inches from the service line and hitting a drop-shot winner directly off Serena Williams' second serve. Needless to say, Serena was not amused.
2011 will prove a pivotal year for Timea Bacsinszky. She may still have her whole career ahead of her, but with four solid years of experience at the very tier of professional tennis and her talent bursting at the seams, the time is ripe for her to take that leap forward into the top 10 and never look back.
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