Sports Calendar

Anne Keothavong, the British No.1 defeated Alberta Brianti of Italy, 6-4 6-2 to win the Barnstaple Open in Devon yesterday, after accepting a late wild-card in the tournament. "I hadn't planned on going down there this week, I thought I'd have a practice week at Roehampton (at the National Tennis Centre)" she said. The withdrawal of Jade Curtis, another British player who fell ill just before the event, open up a space in the draw, Keothavong had a change of heart and walked off with her third title of the year from five finals. "I had high expectations coming into this week and that's a different kind of challenge and pressure, expecting yourself to do well," she added. "I didn't drop a set all week. I'm probably going to play three more tournaments in Europe this season, all around $100,000 (the prize money pot) and next week I'm in Italy. Next year I will start off at the main WTA events in Brisbane and Hobart leading into the Australian Open.".

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Before she won her third title in three consecutive Sundays yesterday - an awesome achievement whichever way you look at it - Jelena Jankovic had found tournament finals to be decidedly daunting. In fact, she had won a mere six of 16 before setting off on the surge that has all but guaranteed the Serbian No.1 status on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour by the end of the year. Another case of a No.1 ranked player who has never won a grand slam title.

There was a sense that Jankovic was satisfied with contending at the latter stages of tournaments but something new and quite enlightening has come over her. It is as if the 23-year-old from Belgrade finally believes she belongs and that is when a player can start to become very dangerous. The Kremlin Cup was added yesterday to her titles in Beijing and Stuttgart - a period of success that was reward for all the determined work she had put in recently and the understanding that she would become truly great only if she improved her serve.

The Net Post has been told that Jankovic as been working extremely hard on it and such painstaking hours of hard labour are showing. She always played her best tennis when in aggressive mode and after initial signs of a tentative streak which were probably caused by an inferiority complex, she is looking every bit the part she first demonstrated in 2006, when she reached the semi finals of the US Open. We watch this space with interest.

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Can this really be so? It is one of those relationships that has lasted for what seems like an age but like so many things in life, nothing is forever. The Net Post hears that Perry Rogers and Andre Agassi, who once seemed to have an unbreakable partnership, have chosen to go their separate professional ways. Rogers has been at Agassi's side for as long as many people in tennis can remember - they have done most things as a team for over a quarter of a century, not least they inspired the development and building of the Agassi College Preparatory Academy - a $41-million structure - in Las Vegas, where both men make their home.

It is an independent public charter school, meaning that it is exempt from some Nevada state restrictions and, in return, must produce a higher level of results. It has been open since 2001, has 600 students, from kindergarten through 10th grade, and will have its first high school graduating class next year. It was the brainchild of Agassi and Rogers, who has rightly been termed - the former No.1's agent, manager and best friend.

"Perry and I met when I was 11 and he was 12," Agassi recalled once. "We were playing tennis, but he mostly had a crush on my sister. He didn't get my sister, but I got a life partner." Agassi went on to become one of the best tennis players ever, Rogers to a law degree from Georgetown and a lucrative sports agent career. He also represents the world famous basketball star, Shaquille O'Neal of the Los Angeles Lakers. Recently, Rogers was voted off the ATP Board where he had been one of the three player representatives. Agassi had worked intensely behind the scenes to try to get the players to back him but to no avail.

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The look on his face was one of disbelief and that is probably how he will feels for a good few mornings to come. Igor Kunitsyn, of Vladivostok, who started the year ranked No.127 became the 11th player to win the first title on the ATP Tour in 2008 yesterday when he defeated Marat Safin, this year's Wimbledon semi finalist in three sets. Philipp Petzschner of Germany, a qualifier into the main draw, had won the CA Trophy in Vienna earlier in the day, defeating Gael Monfils of France, to become the tenth.

What was so emphatic about Kunitsyn's performance was how he recovered from losing the second set on a tie-break to Safin and roll him in the set in front of a Moscow crowd that contained the widow of Boris Yeltsin, the former president, and Shamil Tarpischev, the most powerful figure in Russian tennis and the former No.1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who were all urging home boy Safin to win. This has been a vintage year for first time tournament winners. Take a bow - Kei Nishikori (Delray Beach), Sergiy Stakhovsky (Zagreb), Sam Querrey (Las Vegas), Marcel Granollers (Houston), Victor Hanescu (Gstaad), Juan Martin Del Potro (Stuttgart), Albert Montanes (Amersfoort), Marin Cilic (New Haven) and Jo-Wilfired Tsonga (Bangkok).