So the big news is the report from Poland that Elena Demetieva made a deal with the organizers of the Polsat tournament that she would come and play one match, lose, and then head to Paris to prepare for RG. Of course ducats were to be paid for her to show up in Warsaw.
Whether the allegations are true or not has to be determined by the WTA. I wouldn't hold my breath though. We should also not forget that the Tournament Director is feuding with the Radwanska family over payment of appearance fees and this could possibly be a case of him blabbing to a friendly journalist. Time will tell.
Juan Martin del Potro will not defend his US Open title. He had wrist surgery in early May and is now recuperating in his hometown of Tandil in Argentina. There was also talk a few weeks ago that Juan Martin was having panic attacks but that was quickly squashed.
I watched Caroline Wozniacki play Zheng Jie on tape delay on Tennis Channel. Wozniacki's ankle was taped when the match started and she took a medical time out to have it redone for better support. I have to say that there were not a lot of fans in the stands for that match which featured the highest ranking woman of Polish descent. I'm just saying.
I got a chance to rewatch the second set of the Madrid men's final about 2a this morning. My opinion? It was a whiff. Rafael Nadal's return bounced high and Roger Federer swung his racquet to hit the ball where he thought it was going to be not where it was. I still say if TennisChannel had replayed the shot ad nauseam as they would've done if it had been any other player whiffing match point there would be no argument. The YouTube replays are too short to let a fan make an honest decision.
The Men's and Women's singles draws for the French Open will be done tomorrow at 11:30a Paris time. That's about 5:30a Eastern US time. As is usual for the French the draw will be available live online.
5 comments:
Savannah, it was a bad bounce - LOL
I don't think it was a surprise that players with chances for good showing at RG are not going to give 100% in that tournament. Warsaw is my hometown and I would like for it to have decent tournament, but this schedule is just killing it. Very unfortunate, really bad weather again (we have flood all over Poland with Warsaw being hit on Friday!)Unless they change date and possibly format (indoor clay, for weather in May in Poland is unpredictable) I don't see this tournament being a success. So much for Jelena or Caroline curious cases of bad form/injury...
Beatka thank you for giving an on the site report about the Polsat Open. And welcome.
oh and thanks to Beatka as well. I love hearing reports from off the ground!
Karen, I saw it as a bad bounce too, so we'll just have to agree to disagree with Savannah on that one : )
I generally like ElenaD but hope this story gets some traction stateside as match fixing is what delineates real sports from wrestling and it's a slippery slope indeed. Ironic that she has insinuated that the Williams Sisters have thrown matches to one another over family loyalty. Which would be unsavory (if anyone could prove it, obvs the can't) but a unique situation at the pro level. Money as the motivation, not so understandable.
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