I’m not going to go into much detail over the BNP Paribas Billie Jean King Cup event held at Madison Square Garden other than the fact that Venus Williams won it over Kim Clijsters 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
Despite its attempt to showcase some of the best women players, it looks like the event was half-filled, probably due to the recent snow that hit New York City and the hit the event took when Serena Williams pulled out due to her ongoing leg issue.
The only real interesting thing to watch was the return of Ana Ivanovic who played surprisingly well against Kim Clijsters in the first semifinal.
Ivanovic, now under the guidance of new coach Heinz Gunthardt, went for her forehand more and was up at net a lot. The serve was still a mess but let’s give Ana some time. Svetlana Kuznetsova also played decent enough but again she was only given a set to figure things out. Big credit to Williams for dealing with major jet lag after coming straight from Acapulco. Apparently she was falling asleep in the players lounge prior to her first semi.
Also, since I watched most of it on ESPN360.com, I got to experience Lindsay Davenport in action as a commentator. I’m guessing she’s unofficially retired from the game but she was a delight to listen to in her analysis of each match. I wish she would move over to ESPN and take over from several of the so-called announcers on there now. You know which ones I mean.
The other part of the event was to showcase “Tennis Night in America” which is an initiative to promote youth tennis . While I’m glad of their efforts, they still need to come up with a new name as “tennis night in America” is still owned, in a weird way, by 30 Rock and their classic spoof ad.
And the real question is, did you even know it was “Tennis Night in America”?
Adjusting the Net 
That was nice final match.
It was a good match. Unlike most exos, the women really went for their shots. Good for Venus considering how much tennis she’s played in the last few weeks.