Monday, May 16, 2011

It's Always Something

by Savannah

Fans of American tennis looked forward to the all American doubles final that was to take place in Rome yesterday between the team composed of Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish and the team of John Isner and Sam Querrey. This was Rome, a clay court, the surface American players are seemingly born allergic to. It was going to be an epic battle and good news for tennis in the United States.
Photobucket
As you know by now Andy Roddick pulled out of the tournament citing a shoulder injury giving the crown to the team known as "Quisner". Pretty straight forward right?

Actually, it wasn't. Later in the afternoon and early evening reports began to surface about Roddick leaving Rome in a snit. Didn't make sense at first but Here is an account of what happened.

Andy Roddick was prowling the corridors at the Rome Masters on Sunday, incensed that he and Mardy Fish were going to be docked $42,800 — a share of the prize money they earned for their unexpected arrival in the doubles final because he was unfit to play.

An ultrasound on the right shoulder of the former world No. 1 and three-time Wimbledon finalist showed a buildup of fluid, which required a few days' rest, but Roddick was told that unless he and Fish fulfilled their commitment, they would be paid only what they would have received for reaching the semifinals. Roddick officially withdrew at 5 p.m. local time Sunday.

That at least gave Fish, as well as John Isner and Sam Querrey — their opponents in an all-American final — an opportunity to catch the only flight Sunday night from Rome to Dusseldorf, where the three players are representing the United States in the ATP's World Team Cup on Monday and where the organizers were threatening sanctions if they did not turn up in time to play.

Roddick was talked out of convening a news conference, but he asked The (London) Times to be present in the ATP office when he rebuked officials over a rule that reads, "Should a doubles match be uncontested or fail to be completed, the losing team shall only receive points and prize money from the previous round," which contained three provisos, none of which was applicable in this particular case.

No one was prepared to bend, which meant that the world No. 12 had to decide whether to play, which seriously could have undermined his French Open prospects, or take the prize money deduction and docking of ranking points on the chin and then appeal against the rule.

"We're going to have to beg for the money we've earned," Roddick said. "Why should Mardy be punished when I can't play? Mardy has played the (semifinal) match, he won the match, he earned the money, you can't take away something he has already done. This is embarrassing for the tour.

"The ATP people said they could not make a unilateral decision, so I either take a chance with the appeal process or I played with a shoulder that didn't give us much chance of winning and had a risk for the future.

"I would have had to play the full match. I asked if I played a point and then withdrew what would happen and they said the same thing, so it would have been an hour mockery as opposed to a five-minute mockery. The ATP stands for Association of Tennis Professionals; it should be the Association of Tie People."

The ATP said that it has to govern for all and that the rule was brought in a few years ago to deter players who were abandoning official doubles events without good cause to go off and play other lucrative matches.

There are some who will argue that Andy is arguing the principle of the issue and side with him. I'm not one of them. There is a rule on the books that was adopted just for situations like this. Apparently Andy feels that it doesn't apply to him. Yes he framed the argument in terms of it being unfair to Mardy but in the end didn't he want to break a rule that as an ATP player he is bound to abide by? I wonder if Andy is used to throwing hissy fits like this with the USTA and getting his way? He's been top dog in the States since forever and I'm sure whatever Andy wants Andy gets.
I guess the suits in Europe pissed him off so he went public. He asked the media in and that is why this all became public.

Everyone jumped on Donald Young's case when he publicly cursed out the USTA. The silence is deafening about this incident. Young posted on Twitter. Roddick called in the Times of London. Not much difference to me.

Since Roddick chose to do this in such a public way I hope that the public is allowed to know the outcome of any appeal if one is filed.

3 comments:

b said...

Great post. I thought it was quite obvious why the rules were instituted. A lower earning doubles player (especially one who was not also a top singles player) would have almost certainly played the match "injured" & stuck it out till the end.

Also saw an interesting comment on another forum that puts a very interesting (and credible) spin on it i.e. that the 4 friends decided together to do this.

http://www.menstennisforums.com/showthread.php?p=11037926
"Originally Posted by Kat_YYZ
I think you guys are missing the point. It was Isner, Querrey and Fish that needed an excuse to bail on that tournament, not Roddick. He didn't have to play the next day; they did. Yet if any of those three had claimed to be injured, there's no way they could be playing the next day in Germany (Roddick may withdraw from Nice; or he might say the 2 or 3 days were enough to recover).

It would be silly for the ATP to punish only Roddick when they can see the charade. If they don't punish all the conspirators, they are saying it is okay to treat doubles tennis as a side show to singles tennis; that it's okay to for a doubles title to just be decided amongst friends rather than actually contested.

I have no idea why Roddick is making a loud stink about it; those guys all have enough money and he should be happy he (and the others) aren't being sanctioned for what some might say amounts to fixing."

It makes sense to me that they decided to pick Roddick to be injured as he is one of the most (if not the most)powerful male players not named Federer.

b said...

Great post. I thought it was quite obvious why the rules were instituted. A lower earning doubles player (especially one who was not also a top singles player) would have almost certainly played the match "injured" & stuck it out till the end.

Also saw an interesting comment on another forum that puts a very interesting (and credible) spin on it i.e. that the 4 friends decided together to do this.

http://www.menstennisforums.com/showthread.php?p=11037926
"Originally Posted by Kat_YYZ
I think you guys are missing the point. It was Isner, Querrey and Fish that needed an excuse to bail on that tournament, not Roddick. He didn't have to play the next day; they did. Yet if any of those three had claimed to be injured, there's no way they could be playing the next day in Germany (Roddick may withdraw from Nice; or he might say the 2 or 3 days were enough to recover).

It would be silly for the ATP to punish only Roddick when they can see the charade. If they don't punish all the conspirators, they are saying it is okay to treat doubles tennis as a side show to singles tennis; that it's okay to for a doubles title to just be decided amongst friends rather than actually contested.

I have no idea why Roddick is making a loud stink about it; those guys all have enough money and he should be happy he (and the others) aren't being sanctioned for what some might say amounts to fixing."

It makes sense to me that they decided to pick Roddick to be injured as he is one of the most (if not the most)powerful male players not named Federer.

(PS this is the same as *b* from Craig's site)

Savannah said...

b I didn't want to go there but I'm glad that you posted that link.

Unfortunately the scenario is totally plausible and gives Europeans another reason to dislike American players and doubles players another reason to resent singles players.

Since Roddick has withdrawn from Nice they will get their money.