Savannah's World

Melbourne Mash-Up

2012-01-16T11:23:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

Calm down kiddies. The bromance isn't over. Fans of "FedAl" - the name given to the Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal friendship, were apparently heartbroken at press reports that a difference of opinion between the two men had led to an irreparable rift. Federer himself called bullshit on the reports as did Rafa.

Nikolay Davydenko picked up where Rafa left off however and rhetorically questioned why Federer was not with the players on this one.

This REPORT covers all bases.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A day after a rare show of discord, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal quickly closed ranks.
Nadal had criticized Federer for his unwillingness to speak out on issues affecting the men's game, allowing others to "burn themselves" as they seek improved conditions for players.

After joining Nadal in the second round of the Australian Open with a win on Monday, Federer said "things are fine" between the two longtime rivals, although he concedes that they disagree on a way to resolve a list of player grievances that includes the length of the season and the distribution of prize money.

"We can't always agree on everything," Federer said. "So far it's always been no problem really. Back in the day he (Nadal) used to say, 'Whatever Roger decides, I'm fine with.'
"Today he's much more grown up. He has a strong opinion himself, which I think is great."

For his part, Nadal apologized for airing his disagreement with Federer in public — although he didn't back down on the views he expressed.
"Probably I am wrong telling that to (the media), especially because these things can stay, must stay in the locker room," Nadal said.
"I always had fantastic relationship with Roger. I still have fantastic relationship with Roger. Just I said we can have different views about how the tour needs to work. That's all."

The rift emerged following a player meeting on Saturday that sparked talk of a possible strike for the second time in six months.
Nadal wasn't alone in questioning Federer's stance. Former No. 3-ranked Nikolay Davydenko said Monday he didn't understand why the 16-time Grand Slam champion wasn't supporting his fellow players.

The Russian said that while Nadal and No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic had been leading the push for changes, Federer had been reluctant to get involved.

"I don't know why Roger is not supporting the players," Davydenko said. "Because he don't want ... any problems. He's nice guy. He's winning Grand Slams. He's from Switzerland. He's perfect.
"He don't want to do anything, he just try to be an outsider from this one."

However, Federer said his reluctance to speak out shouldn't be construed as a lack of support.
"I was in the meeting. I completely understand and support the players' opinions," Federer said. "I just have a different way of going at it. I'm not discussing it with you guys in the press room. It creates unfortunately sometimes negative stories."
The players plan to meet again at the Indian Wells Masters tournament in March when they will assess how much progress has been made before deciding on a course of action.

Davydenko said a strike remained a remote prospect, but that "the ATP should try to do something between now and Indian Wells." Federer wants to avoid such drastic action if possible.

"(Strike) is such a dangerous word to use," Federer said. "It's not good for anyone really. We've seen it in other sports happening in the States. That's why I'm always very careful about it.

"If there's no avoiding it, I'll support the rest of the players. But I just think we have to think it through how we do it, if we do it, can we do it, whatever it is, instead of just going out and screaming about it."

Federer said there are "two or three" big issues that the players have been discussing. They include the length of the season and prize money at Grand Slam tournaments, which some players believe has not increased proportionately with growing profits.
American John Isner said he had been to the meeting and felt the players had a "legitimate beef" over prize money, which is also an issue at the Indian Wells tournament, where Davydenko said those players who lose in the first round can sometimes lose money after paying tax and travel costs to compete.

Federer said he was confident "a good solution" would be reached and he welcomed the healthy debate. Nadal, meanwhile, vowed that he wouldn't be speaking about it in public again.

"I do not talk anymore," he said. "Yesterday (Sunday), I started, and I say I don't want to talk anymore about this. Finally I talked too much as usual. That's not going to happen again. You can try hard, but I'm going to talk about tennis."

I read a lot about this situation yesterday and I agree with the tennishead who pointed out that those who feel nothing is wrong with the present schedule are living in the past. The game has become much more physical than it was thirty or even twenty years ago. Racquet technology allows for levels of play not dreamed of when the schedule was formatted.

As expected a lot of criticism is directed at the Rogers Cup/Cincinnati swing in the summer. I also point to the spring hardcourt swing where Indian Wells and Miami are pretty much back to back. If you've been reading this space a long time you know that a lot of the current discontent came about when the USTA made a push to shorten the clay season by getting rid of Monte Carlo and Hamburg in an attempt to give it's mostly hardcourt players a chance to move up in the rankings. Both Monte Carlo and Hamburg are still there and the rankings thing, well, it hasn't happened. The people behind the move didn't seem to be aware that the rest of the world they hold in such disdain was learning how to play on concrete while their players were aging and sagging under the weight of expectations.

Water under the bridge? Maybe. Maybe some of the Axis based press has been looking for a chink in the armor of European solidarity and were hoping this was their dream come true. I don't know. I remember both Federer and Nadal coming together over Monte Carlo and Hamburg and while as in any adult relationship, friendship or otherwise, there are disagreements. I for one still maintain that the real anger against Federer comes from his not supporting Richard Krajicek. No one in the tennis press is talking about that so a casual observer can be forgiven for thinking this came about all of a sudden.

There are many fans who think there will be some kind of action taken in 2013. 2012 has barely begun. There is still time for negotiation.
Let's hope so.

The Week That Was

2012-01-15T13:16:00.001-05:00

by Savannah

Ever wonder why the run up tournaments to the Australian Open get such high profile players on their entry lists? I bet the USTA does too. Also wonder why it's rare for those big names to actually go on and win those tournaments? That's pretty easy to explain isn't it? No one wants to limp into the Australian Open battered and bruised by pushing through to a final.

In Australia even the exhibitions get big coverage both on television and in tennis media. Both Hopman Cup and Kooyong are familiar to tennisheads and their results are tracked as closely as regular tournaments.

In the end the big show is still the Australian Open. You don't need to take out a second mortgage to afford to attend. The atmosphere is boozy and fun. Ethnic riots can break out at the drop of a hat, or toss of a serve. Still the folks of Tennis Australia have been innovative and forward thinking in terms of upgrading their facility and making sure play can continue on it's main courts regardless of extreme heat or rain. Maybe the folks at the US Open should give Tennis Australia a call. Maybe they can help the USTA figure out a way to complete their Slam within the two weeks instead of always ending up playing the men's final on a Monday afternoon. I'm just saying.

Anyway the players who won the tournaments last week deserve recognition for playing what was a pretty high level of tennis despite high winds and rain delays.

In Sydney Jarkko Nieminen won the mens tournament and his second ATP title.

Victoria Azarenka's obvious joy at winning the women's event at Sydney finds her tightly clutching the winning trophy. She defeated defending champion Li Na.

The Bryan twins won the men's doubles at Sydney while the team of Peschke and Srebotnik took the women's crown.

The ATP tournament at Auckland had some of the same weather troubles the women's tournament had but David Ferrer outlasted the field.

The doubles pairing of Marach and Peya took the doubles title.

The surprise winner of the week was Mona Barthel who came through qualifying to take the crown at Hobart for her first main tour win defeating Yanina Wickmayer. It will be hard for her to win seven matches in Melbourne but eyes will be on her to see just what is going on with her game and if she is indeed ready for prime time.

The team of Begu and Niculescu won the doubles.

The Kooyong exhibition was won by controversial Australian Bernard Tomic.

End Notes

What's a Grand Slam without some drama? If it's drama between the men still referred to as the top two it's even better drama no?
During a presser Rafael Nadal said that he was not going to be out front regarding player grievances against the tour. No big deal right? He's learned what so many others before him had to learn about being the face of protest. It's what he said after that that has some in the tennis media salivating.

Responding to the suggestion that Federer disliked players complaining openly about problems on the tour because it tarnished the image of tennis, Nadal said he took another view.

For him it's good to say nothing. Everything positive. 'It's all well and good for me, I look like a gentleman,' and the rest can burn themselves. Everyone is entitled to have their own opinions.

It's no secret that Roger Federer led the charge against Richard Krajicek becoming ATP CEO and that Rafa was leading the contingent pushing hard for him. It's my opinion that Federer more than any other player didn't need someone to be a players advocate. He's been working the system to his advantage for several years now so why change things to give a more level playing field? Add that to the fact that even American golden boy Andy Roddick stood with the players in New York last year while nary a word was heard from Federer the only surprise is that it took so long for someone to call him out even in this roundabout way.

Source of the above quote is here

Cakewalks and Trench Warfare - The 2012 Australian Open Singles Draws

2012-01-13T10:15:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

The draws came out yesterday evening US east coast time. I wanted to let them marinate a bit, sink into my consciousness before I turned a critical eye to both the men's and women's draw. This morning I looked again and keep saying either "really"? or "seriously" as I read them over. Read them for yourself and see if you don't walk away shaking your head in amazement.

I'm not going into the usual spiel I give when Grand Slam draws are released. I don't have to.

WTA Draw - Top Half

Caroline Wozniacki DEN (1) v Anastasia Rodionova AUS
Ashleigh Barty AUS v Anna Tatishvili GEO
Pauline Parmentier FRA v Alla Kudryavtseva RUS
Alize Cornet FRA v Monica Niculescu ROU (31)

Lucie Safarova CZE (24) v Christina McHale USA
Qualifier v Marina Erakovic NZL
Qualifier vPetra Martic CRO
Qualifier v Jelena Jankovic SRB (13)

Kim Clijsters BEL (11) v Qualifier
Stephanie Foretz Gacon FRA v Elena Baltacha GBR
Arantxa Rus NED v Lesia Tsurenko UKR
Qualifier v Daniela Hantuchova SVK (20)

Anabel Medina Garrigues ESP (26) v Eva Birnerova CZE
Patricia Mayr-Achleitner AUT v Olga Govortsova BLR
Sofia Arvidsson SWE v Olivia Rogowska AUS
Ksenia Pervak KAZ v Na Li CHN (5)

Victoria Azarenka BLR(3) v Heather Watson GBR
Casey Dellacqua AUS v Bojana Jovanovski SRB
Anne Keothavong GBR v Mona Barthel GER
Ayumi Morita JPN v (32)Petra Cetkovska CZE

Flavia Pennetta ITA (19) v Qualifier
Alberta Brianti ITA v Irina Falconi USA
Iveta Benesova CZE v Mathilde Johansson FRA
Aravane Rezai FRA v Shuai Peng CHN (16)

Francesca Schiavone ITA (10) v Laura Pous-Tio ESP
Anastasiya Yakimova BLR v Romina Oprandi ITA
Kimiko Date-Krumm JPN v Eleni Daniilidou GRE
Polona Hercog SLO v Julia Goerges GER (22)

Yanina Wickmayer BEL (28) v Galina Voskoboeva KAZ
Tsvetana Pironkova BUL v Sania Mirza IND
Qualifier v Simona Halep ROU
Bethanie Mattek-Sands USA v Agnieszka Radwanska POL (8)

WTA Draw - Bottom Half

Vera Zvonareva RUS (7) v Alexandra Dulgheru ROU
Evgeniya Rodina RUS v Lucie Hradecka CZE
Ekaterina Makarova RUS v Tamarine Tanasugarn THA
Johanna Larsson SWE v Kaia Kanepi EST (25)

Dominika Cibulkova SVK (17) v Magdalena Rybarikova SVK
Rebecca Marino CAN v Greta Arn HUN
Iryna Bremond FRA v Barbora Zahlavova Strycova CZE
Tamira Paszek AUT v Serena Williams USA (12)

Sabine Lisicki GER (14) v Qualifier
Shahar Peer ISR v Isabella Holland AUS
Sloane Stephens USA v Silvia Soler-Espinosa ESP
Chanelle Scheepers RSA v Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS (18)

Angelique Kerber GER (30) v Bojana Bobusic AUS
Stephanie Dubois CAN v Elena Vesnina RUS
Mandy Minella LUX v Qualifier
Gisela Dulko ARG v Maria Sharapova RUS (4)

Samantha Stosur AUS (6) v Sorana Cirstea ROU
Qualifier v Urszula Radwanska POL
Qualifier v Sara Errani ITA
Qualifier v Nadia Petrova RUS (29)

Roberta Vinci ITA (23) v Alexandra Cadantu ROU
Madison Keys USA v Jie Zheng CHN
Jelena Dokic AUS v Anna Chakvetadze RUS
Virginie Razzano FRA v Marion Bartoli FRA (9)

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS (15) v Klara Zakopalova CZE
Kateryna Bondarenko UKR v Vania King USA
Kristina Barrois GER v Michaella Krajicek NED
Lourdes Dominguez Lino ESP v Ana Ivanovic SRB (21)

Maria Kirilenko RUS (27) v Jarmila Gajdosova AUS
Shuai Zhang CHN v Aleksandra Wozniak CAN
Irina-Camelia Begu ROU v Carla Suarez Navarro ESP
Vera Dushevina RUS v Petra Kvitova CZE (2)

ATP Draw - Top Half

Novak Djokovic SRB (1) v Paolo Lorenzi ITA
Santiago Giraldo COL v Qualifier
Tatsuma Ito JPN v Potito Starace ITA
Nicolas Mahut FRA v Radek Stepanek CZE (29)

Milos Raonic CAN (23) v Filippo Volandri ITA
Lukas Rosol CZE v Philipp Petzschner GER
Cedrik-Marcel Stebe GER v Lleyton Hewitt AUS
Robin Haase NED v Andy Roddick USA (15)

Janko Tipsarevic SRB (9) v Dmitry Tursunov RUS
Qualifier v James Duckworth AUS
Mikhail Youzhny RUS v Qualifier
Andreas Seppi ITA v Richard Gasquet FRA (17)

Juan Ignacio Chela ARG (27) v Michael Russell USA
Igor Kunitsyn RUS v Pablo Andujar ESP
Matthias Bachinger GER v Ryan Sweeting USA
Rui Machado POR v David Ferrer ESP (5)

Andy Murray GBR (4) v Ryan Harrison USA
Xavier Malisse BEL v Edouard Roger-Vasselin FRA
Michael Llodra FRA v Ernests Gulbis LAT
Daniel Gimeno-Traver ESP v Alex Bogomolov Jr. RUS (32)

Viktor Troicki SRB (19) v Juan Carlos Ferrero ESP
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ESP v Mikhail Kukushkin KAZ
Thomaz Bellucci BRA v Dudi Sela ISR
Marinko Matosevic AUS v Gael Monfils FRA (14)

Gilles Simon FRA (12) v Qualifier
Julien Benneteau FRA v Karol Beck SVK
Joao Souza BRA v Matthew Ebden AUS
Stephane Robert FRA v Kei Nishikori JPN (24)

Marcel Granollers ESP (26) v Jesse Levine USA
Frederico Gil POR v Ivan Dodig CRO
Qualifier v Ricardo Mello BRA
Denis Istomin UZB v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA (6)

ATP Draw - Bottom Half

Mardy Fish USA (8) v Gilles Muller LUX
Alejandro Falla COL v Fabio Fognini ITA
Albert Montanes ESP v Pere Riba ESP
Philipp Kohlschreiber GER v Juan Monaco ARG (25)

Florian Mayer GER (20) v Yen-Hsun Lu TPE
Qualifier v Steve Darcis BEL
Qualifier v Blaz Kavcic SLO
Adrian Mannarino FRA v Juan Martin Del Potro ARG (11)

Alexandr Dolgopolov UKR (13) v Greg Jones AUS
Tobias Kamke GER v Victor Hanescu ROU
Kenny De Schepper FRA v Sam Querrey USA
Bernard Tomic AUS v Fernando Verdasco ESP (22)

Jurgen Melzer AUT (31) v Ivo Karlovic CRO
Carlos Berlocq ARG v Qualifier
Eric Prodon FRA v Andreas Beck GER
Qualifier v Roger Federer SUI (3)

Tomas Berdych CZE (7) v Albert Ramos ESP
Olivier Rochus BEL v Qualifier
Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR v Qualifier
Qualifier v Kevin Anderson RSA (30)

Stanislas Wawrinka SUI (21) v Benoit Paire FRA
Marcos Baghdatis CYP v Benjamin Becker GER
Jeremy Chardy FRA v Grigor Dimitrov BUL
Lukasz Kubot POL v Nicolas Almagro ESP (10)

John Isner USA (16) v Benjamin Mitchell AUS
Jarkko Nieminen FIN v David Nalbandian ARG
Flavio Cipolla ITA v Nikolay Davydenko RUS
Leonardo Mayer ARG v Feliciano Lopez ESP (18)

Ivan Ljubicic CRO (28) v Qualifier
Qualifier v Donald Young USA
Tommy Haas GER v Qualifier
Qualifier v Rafael Nadal ESP (2)

There should be champagne and flowers being sent by some while others put their creativity to the test by shaping tableware into the pointy and sharp objects known collectively as shivs.

Fun In the Sand and Sun

2012-01-08T15:20:00.001-05:00

by Savannah

I have to admit that I saw little to no tennis this past week. If it wasn't for Twitter I wouldn't have a clue about who won what or how they did it. Yes I'm resisting going on Australian time which is probably not a good idea but with me decluttering and painting my apartment I really won't have a chance to until the end of the week. It's gonna be fun ain't it?

Anyway there were a couple of significant wins this past week.

Kaia Kanepi won the WTA Premier title at Brisbane and added her name to the contenders list for 2012. She's been on the verge for awhile now.

Andy Murray pleased new coach Ivan Lendl and took the mens trophy.

Daniel Nestor continued his superb doubles play winning the men's doubles at Brisbane with Max Mirnyi.

Nuria Llagostera Vives paired with Arantxa Parra Santonja to take the women's doubles crown.

Milos Raonic fought his way to a victory over Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic at Chennai.

Tipsarevic smartly paired up with Leander Paes and got to take home the doubles trophy.

Zheng Jie rain plagued Auckland after Flavia Pennetta retired due to injury.

The Czech team of Hlavackova and Hradecka won the doubles.

Speaking of Czech teams Tomas Berdych and Petra Kvitova won the Hopman Cup for their country. They're seen here with Lucy Hopman who is 90 years young.

Despite it's being an ATP 250 event all eyes were on Doha. The last man standing was Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who faced countryman Gael Monfils for the championship. The subtexts to this match were huge. Not only were there two men of African descent playing for a main tour title but they were two French men. As everyone knows there was a lot of trash talked by French players during the "off" season about alleged doping by other countries. I guess that was a way to take some of the pressure off of their top players, Tsonga and Monfils. I don't think all the wishful thinking in the world would put Richard Gasquet in that category at this point.

Anyway the match needed to be a high quality one and it looked like it was off to a flying start when Monfils broke Tsonga to open the match. Tsonga had been complaining about the mist and fog that made the lines slippery and after that first game he got his way and play was suspended. I had running around to do so I left home at that point. On the way back I checked the scores and found out that Tsonga won in straight sets. I can't say anything because all I saw was one game.

Apparently some couldn't restrain themselves and posted comments online that were insulting to Gael. I was also too through with one of the commentators who couldn't refrain from making "jokes" about Gael's return to locks. I mean this is the 21st century. If you don't like locks and you work in sports I think you should know enough to keep your ignorance to yourself. I'm thinking it was the same commentator who kept referring to Roger Federer as the "greatest player ever" and no matter what was happening in the match constantly referred to his "beauty of movement" and "superior" play. I'm sorry but that's not commentary that's fanboyism. It has no place in the booth.

As for the other comments made by a member of the tennis media elite I'm not going to say a word. He's probably bringing enough hits to his site without me adding to the total.

Sigh. And the year is just beginning.

And So It Begins...

2011-12-31T09:46:00.001-05:00

by Savannah

It seems that the tennis "off season" is getting shorter and shorter. Why not since I dare anyone to say 2011 dragged. When young people are saying the year flew by it did. Back in the day I remember the years seeming just the right length, not as long as when I was a child but not as fleeting as an image in a rear view mirror.

Spain closed out the season winning the Davis Cup and starting this past Wednesday the draws, qualifying and main, started appearing for what is called the 2012 Australian summer hard court season. Amazing.

We've also had our first tennis media generated tempest in a teapot as well. Rafael Nadal announced he's taking February off to rest his shoulder. The Grand Poobahs seem to believe he should've kept that to himself or waited until after the Australian Open. Why? Rafa doesn't make the spring South American clay court swing, hasn't in years. And the USTA has two Masters Series, back to back, in March. On hard courts. My guess is that the big media boys wanted a chance to break some news. I say good for Rafa. In this digital age it's stupid to sit on something. Rafa broke his own news. More power to him.

Serena Williams has posted the first of her bikini pictures series proudly showing off what brings grown men, and young boys, to their knees. What is she supposed to wear a burkha? Please. If you're not ready for that large a serving of boo-tae the salad bar is to the left.

I'm still waiting for an explanation as to why Caroline Wozniacki's romance is headline news. I guess I missed a memo again.

And while I'm at it why does the WTA set up photoshoots of it's top, and not so top, players in soft porn poses? If I was inclined to like to look at sexy half naked women there are places on the interwebs for that. I mean it's nice to show the players off as attractive women but the idea that all women tennis players moonlight at tractor pulls is long gone isn't it? Now if there are shots of half naked sweaty men around I'm all in. I mean there are but those are usually taken after a warm up, practice or match. I do have my standards though. I mean clothed or not Marat Safin is one hot piece of manflesh no?

I was watching a match at the annual Abu Dhabi money grab and the British announcers gushed about new ATP CEO Brad Drewitt's cherished goal of instituting a time clock similar to what they use in the NBA. I narrowed my eyes so hard I fell asleep. I mean is that going to help the Americans or Brits win a major? I.Don't.Think.So. Just saying. By the way I'm glad I double checked his name. I was trying to name him Adam. I guess that's because "The Young and the Restless" was on in the hairdresser the other day. I mean that has to be it. I barely knew the name of the guy who preceded Adam, uh, Brad. Yep. Has to be Victor Newman's spawn that caused me to misname Mr. Drewitt.

Do I have to go into the spiel about how special 2012 is because it's an Olympic year? No? Good. For those who need to hear about it here we go: blah, blah, blah, Olympics, blah, blah, blah, Fed Cup, blah, blah, blah, Davis Cup, blah, blah, blah, heavy playing schedule, yadda yadda yadda etc., etc., etc. Capiche? Good.

I wish all my readers a safe, happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. If you wake up under a table and it feels like you've had a sock in your mouth while you were passed out or there are unexplainable wet spots over what's left of your clothing just roll over and go back to sleep. Oh, and watch out for that pool of, well, whatever it is.

And if your New Year's celebration includes shooting a gun out of your window please remember that bullets don't have eyes and while you don't intend to hurt anyone there's a chance you will.

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-23T09:12:00.001-05:00

by Savannah

Danielle Rossingh of Bloomberg News reports the following:

The women’s tennis tour will lose its biggest sponsor after mobile-phone maker Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB said it won’t extend its agreement when it expires next year.

Sony Ericsson signed a six-year contract worth $88 million in 2005, the largest sponsorship in tennis history and women’s professional sports, to become the WTA Tour’s title sponsor. The company, a joint venture between Sony Corp. and Ericsson AB, dropped the naming rights last year when it signed a two-year extension until Dec. 31, 2012.

“After seven years partnering with the WTA, we have decided not to renew the partnership,” Sony Ericsson spokeswoman Graciela Pineda said in an interview today. “We feel that after seven years our brand has evolved and our business as well.”

Australian Tennis is trying to inoculate young indigenous player Ashleigh Barty from Oudin-Young Syndrome.

Esteemed coach David Taylor has urged Australian tennis fans and officials from burdening teenage sensation Ashleigh Barty with unfair expectations.

Taylor on Friday hailed the 15-year-old junior Wimbledon champion as not only the hottest talent in world tennis, but also potentially even better than the great Martina Hingis.

“She’s the real deal. She is amazing,” Taylor told AAP.

The legendary Evonne Goolagong Cawley agreed, lauding Barty’s “fantastic” all-round game, but Taylor said it was critical the youngster was allowed to develop before being over-hyped.

“We have to be careful with her,” he said.

“People are excited because she is such an outstanding talent and we haven’t had one like that for so long.

“But she’s still got a long way to go and so many things can wrong before she becomes a top-20 player.

“She’s not even close to that. The distance she has to travel to get there is way off so let’s just be excited about her potential for now, eh.”

Yeah comparing her to Hingis takes the pressure off doesn't it? Seriously though I wonder if they're saying she's shorter than many of the top women players? Neither the WTA site or the ITF site gives height and weight information. Then again she's only 15.

Vladimir Kamelzon, a top Russian coach is speaking out about Ksenia Pervak's decision to play for Kazhakstan so that she can play in the Olympics, a goal of hers. Pervak's father is said to be quite wealthy so money isn't her reason for changing country affiliation. Some are also asking what Russian tennis guru Shamil Tarpishev expected when he told Pervak that he would not even name her to the squad dashing her hopes to play in London.

"I'm upset and angry about Pervak's switch to the Kazakhstan national team," Vladimir Kamelzon, head coach of the Russian team, told RIA Novosti on Friday. "I just can't understand Pervak's decision, and I will never accept it," he said.

Kamelzon said Pervak was "the personification of the Russian tennis method of developing top-class players," and lamented that she would depart despite spending all of her formative years in the hands of the country's finest coaches.

Brad Drewett and the ATP

The appointment of Brad Drewett as ATP Chairman has drawn applause from the Tennis Axis establishment and Roger Federer issued a statement of approval but on Twitter, where players post everything from their public (and sometimes private) lives the silence has been deafening.

Tennis X made the following observation:

Rafael Nadal, Mahesh Bhupathi, Ivan Ljubicic, Rohan Bopanna, The Bryans, Dustin Brown, Ryan Harrison, Jack Sock, Tommy Robredo, Juan Monaco, Juan Ignacio Chela, Jamie Murray, Milos Raonic and others were too busy tweeting the last 10 hours about the holidays, their Australian Open fashion and other mildly interesting memes than to even mention their new boss.

Ljubicic did retweet the ATP Drewett press release, but added nothing.

Amer Delic did comment on Twitter but his posts were less than a ringing endorsement.

That there were other candidates for the position including perennial candidate John P. McEnroe came as somewhat of a surprise. The ATP held its cards close to the vest and the tennis media proved the term journalist only applies to them in a tangental way by not airing any of the behind the scenes debate for the edification of fans. If there had been an open discussion rumors about parents of some players also having their hats in the ring wouldn't bubble to the surface and disappear back into the ooze.

The more I read the more convinced I am that all of this drama was orchestrated, that it was always going to be Drewett. I remember back in the summer when Drewett's image flashed on my screen and the talking heads verbiage was very favorable. I don't remember ever seeing or hearing about the other guy who was allegedly in the running. The powers that be made it clear that they did not want Krajicek and are now going out of their way to try and give Drewett player cred by repeating over and over that he was a player rep back in the day. Back in the day isn't now. There were no mandatory tournaments. Sponsor demands were nowhere near what they are now. The game was less physical. There were more tournaments on the natural surfaces of clay and grass. And the USTA had not yet gone to the extremes it would later to try and stop and stifle the true internationalization of the sport.

I don't know if Drewett's "mandate" will allow him the room he would need to address the issues at the heart of player protests that boiled over at last years US Open. His support comes from the USTA, Tennis Australia, the LTA and the FFT - the Tennis Axis, the ITF and the TD's of major tournaments. Will he allow more joint WTA/ATP events? Will he allow the players to be able to take control of their careers again and choose what tournaments they want to play?

It's going to be interesting to see how his address to the players in Melbourne goes over. Then again the tennis media will only present what TPTB want them to.

Miscellany

Swedish 19 year old Lucas Renard has been given a six month ban for corruption. Four months of the ban have been suspended conditional of his attending anti corruption training. Renard, ranked #882 was found to be in violation of the rule against a player trying to“contrive or attempt to contrive the outcome” of a match.

Revenge? Sour grapes? Bad form? The USTA is supposed to be bigger than this right?

Patrick McEnroe apparently has a lot to say about Alex Bogomolov Jr's decision to play Davis Cup for Russia.

"He has received quite a bit of support, it's an ITF decision and at the USTA we are exploring our options," he stated. I'll leave it at that."
(...)
"I certainly believe… I have no issue with Alex personally. From the USTA standpoint, he was born in Russia, he has family there, he should repay the USTA. He's actually signed something saying that and we'll see what happens."

I followed up asking if the USTA is continuing to explore options and McEnroe said, "that is correct."

SOURCE

Really Patrick? Alex was not ever going to be part of the United States Davis Cup team was he? Like Pervak, its a dream of his to play in the Olympics. He found a way to play and he took it. Sad that Patrick doesn't see the irony of his position and what it says about the American tennis establishment.

Happy Holidays to everyone who celebrates at this time of year.

Australia's Drewitt New ATP Chairman

2011-12-22T10:02:00.000-05:00

From the ATP World Tour:

Brad Drewett, former player and current ATP senior executive, has been named as the organisation’s new Executive Chairman and President, it was announced today. He begins his role on January 1, 2012, and will be based in the ATP's London office.

The 53-year-old Australian’s 3-year appointment was voted unanimously by the ATP Board of Directors with Drewett considered to be ideally qualified to take on the multi-faceted role with his extensive experience at the ATP. Drewett currently serves as CEO of the ATP International Group, where he has overseen operations in the Middle East, Asia and Pacific regions since 1999. Prior to that, Drewett served as an elected member of the Player Council and an ATP Player Board Representative (1993-1999). He has also been Tournament Director of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and formerly the Tennis Masters Cup since 2001, and has been instrumental in the event’s tremendous success.

During his 12-year professional playing career, Drewett reached a career-high ranking of 34 in singles, winning two ATP World Tour titles, and represented Australia in Davis Cup competition. The Australian Open Junior champion (1975, 1977) reached the quarter-finals in his first Grand Slam in Melbourne in 1976.

“I am honoured to have this opportunity to lead the ATP, an organisation that I am proud to have been a part of since the beginning of my professional playing career,” Drewett said. “The ATP World Tour and men’s tennis are stronger than ever and it is my intention to continue to lead the organisation on this successful path, working hand in hand with our players and tournaments. I am very excited about the opportunities ahead.”

ATP Player Council President Roger Federer said, “Brad is a very experienced executive and has been an effective leader within the ATP for many years. He understands the global nature of the business as well as the complexities of dealing with all of the Tour's stakeholders. I am confident that Brad's work ethic and leadership will help contribute to the continued success of the ATP World Tour.”

ATP Board Representative Gavin Forbes said, “Brad has the perfect combination of proven business abilities and understanding of player and tournament perspectives to oversee the continued growth of the ATP World Tour. He has been an integral part of the Tour’s success over the last decade, and will be able to get straight to work in January thanks to his deep relationships within the sport.”

If anyone is surprised by this you haven't been paying attention. The running of the ATP is safely in the hands of the Tennis Axis. Drewitt is the first Australian to be named to the position. None of that crap about players having more of a say.

Since there were public reports of a bitter split in the player ranks it's going to be interesting to see how Drewitt handles all of the issues raised by the Gang of Four at the US Open.

I don't know anything about the man so I could only speculate about what positions he will take and I'm not going to do that. I suppose I could make a guess given what has been published about his background but I won't at this time. I will say that I'm sure the USTA, LTA and FFT are raising celebratory toasts.

Congratulations Mr. Drewitt and good luck.

The Rearview Mirror - A Look Back at 2011

2011-12-11T03:05:00.001-05:00

By Savannah

There is no doubt who the ATP player of the year will be: Novak Djokovic. He won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, and for that alone he will win that accolade.

However at the end of the year the names on the lips of tennisheads were Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Federer set the bar high for himself winning his home tournament in Basel and the Paris Masters at Bercy, and came into the 2011 ATP WTF on a roll. Playing on a surface that appears custom made for him, Federer was the last man standing at the end achieving an emotional win over France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Nadal, who never plays well at the WTF put in a decent showing but went home early. All of the tentativeness and seeming distraction that he showed in London disappeared on the red clay court of Sevilla. Even when it looked as if he were going to falter - falling behind and losing the first set of the fourth rubber, he climbed back into the match and for the first time in his career played the match that won the Davis Cup championship for Spain.

With the top two draws in men's tennis closing their respective years with impressive displays on favored surfaces fans are wondering if this momentum will carry them into 2012 on a high.

Nadal has already said he will not be playing DC for Spain in 2012 due to the Olympics. Federer on the other hand has confirmed that he will play the tie between Switzerland and the United States in February. I haven't read if he will play if Switzerland wins and moves on in the Davis Cup.

Djokovic on the other hand has played lackluster tennis since the US Open. Andy Murray, who had a tremendous Asian swing also petered out during the end of the year.

Let's be real here. A lot of what happens after the US Open depends on what is best for the top players. They've come through a long and grueling season where they have to balance personal goals against national goals, physical and mental needs against the demands of the tour. With the institution of mandatory tournaments the players have lost control over their years. The US inspired downgrade of Monte Carlo during the spring European clay court swing and back to back hard court Masters events on US hardcourts in the spring and summer take their toll. Let's not forget the French Open/Wimbledon swing. It's not back to back but takes a toll mentally on players who wish to excel at both events. And just for shits and giggles let's add the Olympics to the pot. Something had to give and it will probably be Davis Cup for the men.

Many of the Europeans are still pissed about what happened to both Monte Carlo and Hamburg. Just as with Davis Cup the ATP seems to want to cow tow to the needs of the United States tennis establishment and forces players to play tournaments they can only opt out of due to injury. Could this be the reason Richard Krajicek is a favorite to take the reins of the ATP? Could this also be why no announcement has been made as to whether he, or someone else, has gotten the job? What does it mean that Roger Federer is one of the players (I'm assuming there are others) against Krajicek? As a fan I could speculate about personal ties and friendships that may be affecting the selection but I'd be doing nothing more than gossiping, something I don't do here.

For the ATP 2012 is going to be a barn burner. The fight between the top four men is going to be as vicious as a knife fight in a back alley.
I'll be the person in a dark corner watching with a feral grin on my face.

The WTA

Last evening Serena Williams posted a video on YouTube showing her trying to recreate serving the ball off of a person's head. Her hitting partner Sascha was the victim and needless to say hilarity ensued. I can't tell you where exactly Serena hit Sascha. I can tell you that Serena is lean and mean. I always measure Serena's fitness by her waist. It's almost non existent. Two weeks ago Serena and her sister Venus Williams played an exhibition match in Colombia that Venus won. Venus, who is struggling with an auto immune disease, has vowed to be relevant in 2012. Serena has said that she'll play Fed Cup for the United States. Does this mean that the Williams women will take the WTA by storm, depose wannabe greats and resume their reign over women's tennis? I think we should all take a deep breath and look at what is going on in women's tennis.

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, won Wimbledon and the YEC and deserves whatever accolades she receives. Is she going to take over the top ranking from Caroline Wozniacki? Statistically she can.

There were four different Slam winners for the WTA in 2011: Kim Clijsters won the Australian Open and then pretty much took the rest of the year off. Li Na won the French Open. As mentioned Petra Kvitova won Wimbledon and Samantha Stosur won the US Open. None of the Slam winners showed much ability to win anywhere else though and only Kvitova had enough functioning brain cells left to put her game back together and win the YEC in Istanbul.

Of the four Slam winners the most consistent, based on how she ended the year, was Kvitova yet her performance between Wimbledon and Istanbul was abysmal. There is a legitimate argument to be made that for the new Slam winners the increased demands from their Federations coupled with those made by the tour and sponsors probably blind sided and distracted them. I hate to compare the men and the women but it only makes you appreciate more what Federer and Nadal have done with their careers. The only active women players accustomed to dealing with success on and off the court are the sisters Williams, Maria Sharapova, and to a lesser extent Kim Clijsters.

Maria Sharapova is, in my opinion, the woman to watch. Fans know what Serena is capable of. She's won in Australia where Venus has always struggled. Those struggles may be related to her health issues as we now know but Venus puts enough pressure on herself without me piling on. Unless the Kvitova who showed up at Istanbul shows up in Australia, and can sustain a level of play high enough to take her to the seventh match of the Australian Open the war will be between Serena and Pova. I don't think Kvitova moves well enough to hang tough for two weeks and that lack of movement will cause her thought processes to break down as balls whiz past her.

I will stick by my opinion that Victoria Azarenka doesn't have the temperament of a Grand Slam champion. There will be so much pressure on Li Na to do well in Melbourne that she may crash and burn at the start of the second week.

And new coach or not Caroline Wozniacki will continue to do what she's been doing - beat up on lower ranked players and get out played by her betters at majors. If Ricardo Sanchez somehow succeeds in changing her game and making her more of an offensive player more power to him. I can only see him bringing a new level of clowning to her matches. Just as what Djokovic did to Gael Monfils at the US Open a few years back defined him for me Sanchez bullshit with that stop watch he borrowed from Flavor Flav against Venus was his defining moment. If he thought it was a good idea for Wozniacki to mock Serena during a recent exo then I rest my case. Wozniacki is poised to lose the top WTA ranking and only her hardcore fans will shed a tear. When the men's tour has multiple Grand Slam winners at the top of it's ranking system it kinda looks bad for the WTA to have a woman who can only beat lower ranked players at lower tier events sitting on top of theirs.

Looking Forward - The Olympics

Everything in tennis is going to be affected by the Olympic Games. It's a rare mix of personal achievement and pride of country for tennis players, a chance to be all for yourself and throw in a little patriotism on the way. I also expect that outside of the Slams. Masters 1000 tournaments and Premier tournaments for the women there are going to be some wacky results. No one wants to show up in London on one leg and dragging an arm behind them. Every country wants it's tennis federation to send its best and brightest except France when it comes to it's female players.

Marion Bartoli is appealing the French rule that forbids her to have her father along as coach for the Olympics. It's the same beef she's had with them seemingly forever and that has kept her from playing Fed Cup for her country. It's obvious Marion wants to play. It's obvious she's their best player. I get that the French want to ensure a team spirit for it's Fed Cup and national teams but it boggles the mind that there is no way a compromise can be reached so that their top female player will compete for them in the Olympics. I seem to remember seeing the men having their personal coaches along with them during Davis Cup competition and no one was pitching a bitch about it. What is it then with the women?

It should be said that Marion's coach Dr. Walter Bartoli reached out to the powers that be back in July to try and work something out but was rejected.

As for the United States I don't know where to begin. Our Fed Cup team was relegated for the first time ever and with Federer playing Davis Cup in February will our Davis Cup team follow them? I've said it before and I'll say it again. Andy Roddick, hate him or love him, has done what was asked of him. Until 2011 he was a mainstay in the top ten. He played the big dogs as well as he could. He tried to make some changes in his game. It's time for some of the young guns to step up and make some noise. Will it be John Isner? Sam Querrey? Donald Young? Ryan Harrison? A lot of money has been invested in these players and I'm sure the USTA is looking for some return on its investment.

But hey at least there are names on the men's side. Who does the US look to as far as women players are concerned? Melanie Oudin imploded due to the pressure put on her. Irina Falconi had a good run at the end of the year but I haven't heard from her since. Lauren Davis? Tiny. On a good day the big babes - Kvitova, Azarenka, Vera Zvonareva, even Wozniacki, will eat our current crop of young women alive.

Again being clear Venus is a big maybe. It's clear what she wants to do but she needs her body to go along with the program. Serena is fit but will she be crucified for putting what is best for her career and longevity ahead of what the so called tennis media feels is her duty to her tennis association? After them there is no one folks. No one.

I've gone on long enough so I'll end with Sam Querrey's comment to the effect that it's possible for six or seven American men to be in the top twenty by the end of 2012. I guess he's looking at the possibility of some really flukey results on the tour. But like I said at least I can name some American men who are legitimately part of the conversation even if they are asides at this point.

2012 looks to be a year that will bring achievement and change. I can't wait.

Is It 2012 Yet?

2011-12-06T10:29:00.001-05:00

by Savannah

In the wake of Spain's Davis Cup team's crushing defeat of Argentina followed by statements from Feliciano Lopez, Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer that they will not play DC in 2012 and rumors that Albert Costa will not be DC Captain there was a lot of speculation about the role that Nicolas Almagro will play in 2012. Almagro, aware of the speculation, answered in a series of Tweets and a long blog post.

To summarize it seems he's saying that even if the top 400 Spanish players declined to play he doubts he'll be considered due to his total inability to play well on hard courts. The blog post is of course in Spanish and in the shit Google translation (no idioms) appears to be very introspective and philosophical.

With Spain seemingly out of the running for 2012 it's very possible one of the bridesmaids of the World Group will be singing and dancing at the end of next year. Who? I have no idea.

The 2012 World Group is as follows:

Seeds

1. Spain
2. Argentina
3. Serbia
4. France
5. Czech Republic
6. United States
7. Croatia
8. Russia

The seeded nations will play against the following countries:

Austria
Canada
Germany
Italy
Japan
Kazakhstan
Sweden
Switzerland

While typing this I wondered if Russia is cheating by having two teams but I digress...

What I am happy about is that the spectacle in Seville has probably shut down the bitching of the "lets change Davis Cup" crowd for now. I'm sure there'll be sniping from the sidelines about eliminating the choice of surface option among other things once play gets underway but that's another column for another year.

While the drama about who will carry on the winning tradition in Spain goes on the drama in the United States is about who will reestablish the tradition in the axis countries. I've been ranting about the feeling of entitlement among the axis countries when it comes to Davis Cup play but I recently read some statistics, maybe I should say misuse of statistics, that go a long way in justifying their feelings.

Consider the following:

No nation other than the USA, Great Britain, France or Australia won the Davis Cup between 1900 and 1974. That's three-quarters of a century. And the next nation to break through was still strongly Anglo-European South Africa (although they won by walkover, when India refused to play because of South Africa's official embrace of apartheid).

Since '74 though, eight new nations have been added to the honor roll. All that is, to some degree, the result of the dramatic shift to "Open" tennis, which arrived in 1968 and abolished the historic separation of players into amateurs and professionals...
(...)
Until 1972, when the present-day World Group format was adopted, the ITF used the "Challenge Round" approach. That is, the winner each year sat out the competition until the other nations of the world played at intervals over must of the next year for the right to "challenge" the holder in a final.
(...)
...the ITF ought to make a significant effort to draw a bold, thick line between the Challenge Round and World Group eras. It has not done so to this point, and while that lessens the complications, it doesn't help the game appear of-the-moment, representative, or credible. If we're so happy and eager to separate the amateur and Open eras, why not do the same for Davis Cup, now that we have enough World Group history to call on?

That would make 1972 the first year of the professional era. Now you would have the U.S. with 8 titles, Sweden still with 7, Australia with 6, Spain with 5, France and Germany with 3, and one apiece for Croatia, Czech Republic, Italy, South Africa and Serbia — and Great Britain with zero. That seems to me a very accurate reflection of tennis geopolitics and something very much like an accurate power ranking of tennis nations.

Please click the above link for the source.

I agree 100% with this proposal. I don't think it's going to happen in time for next year but it could and should be implemented. That way we'll be comparing apples with apples and oranges with oranges. I think the Brits will fight the concept tooth and nail though. I'd like to be proven wrong but I don't think I will be.

End Notes

There are reports out of Britain that Judy Murray, mother of Andrew Murray, is going to be the next Fed Cup captain for that nation. I wonder who will coach her son?

I'm still not quite sure why Brad Gilbert got his panties all in a bunch about Sports Illustrated passing over Novak Djokovic for recognition as Sportsman of the Year. I'm also not sure why he posted his rant on Twitter. I'm thinking he must have a blog or something somewhere where he can vent his feelings. Then again maybe not.

Okay I lied. I know exactly why he did it, or I think I do. I've written here before about the close ties between the American tennis establishment and Djokovic. I guess Djokovic's American connections thought that they could get him something players like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, hell, Pete Sampras and Steffi Graf never got from SI as the magazine is called here.

Most ot the tennisheads pointed this out to Mr. Gilbert saying that the bigger slight, the one he can legitimately rant and rave about, is to tennis.
Later in the day Mr. Gilbert Tweeted something to the effect that yes the bigger slight is to tennis not an individual he happens to think a lot of. How gauche for him to let the facade slip so badly.

From now on he's Deputy Marat to you all. I mean he's already wearing leather...just saying.

All the pictures of WTA players in gowns with make up slathered all over their faces that are used to promote the women's game pale in comparison to this photograph of Svetlana Kuznetsova. In one picture you have beauty, athleticism and grace. The powers that be should hire this person as official photographer no?

Sevilla Mi Corazon...

2011-12-05T02:19:00.001-05:00

by Savannah

Midway through the second epic match of the 2011 World Group Davis Cup Final every fan in the stadium was on their feet singing the fight songs of their respective countries. For this viewer, and for the commentators on Davis Cup Television the sight raised goosebumps. It was such an electric moment I don't think I'll ever forget it even though I was watching on my laptop at some god awful hour on a Sunday morning. The electricity was palpable.

One of the comms said, and I quote "To change the event to two weeks and make it the fifth Grand Slam you've got to be kidding." Soon after that I either read or heard someone say that the United States has a problem with Davis Cup and that no one else does.

I had read about a conference call held by Mary Joe Fernandez and Jim Courier, the respective Fed Cup and Davis Cup captains for the United States but hadn't read it. I did some looking around and found a full transcript HERE

I will excerpt the following from what seems to have been a pretty decent call.

Q. Obviously we're coming into thefinals weekend here. There's been a little bit ofgrumbling at the ATP World Tour Finals inLondon from Nadal and the likes about theformat. Any new thoughts or insights on wherethat should go or where it could go at thispoint?
CAPTAIN COURIER: I'm sure we've hadthis discussion before. I'm pretty clear on therecord as to what I think should take place. Do youwant me to regurgitate that?
Q. Sure.
CAPTAIN COURIER: I think it's prettyclear that the Davis Cup format, which was builtquite a while ago, is no longer as popular or aspowerful as it could be. It certainly should becondensed into, in my opinion, a two-week formatfor at least the big boys. I think it should becombined with the Fed Cup, for that matter, so itbecomes in effect the fifth Grand Slam, not onlyfrom an attention standpoint, but aplayer-attendance standpoint.
The system is broken, clearly, from mystandpoint. It's not broken from the ITF'sstandpoint, because they still make money. What Iwould contend is they could make a lot moremoney than they currently do and that would allowthem to help spread the growth of the game withthe extra funds they would receive.
Let's be clear. Compared to what theGrand Slams make, taking two weeks out of thecalendar each year individually, that dwarfs clearlywhat the ITF would make on the Davis Cup.
So it's simple economics from thatstandpoint. If you want to grow the game, youneed money. You get more money if you have apowerful event. It's better for the sport if it getsmore attention.
Give you a clear example. I don't care one bit about women's soccer. Never watched awomen's soccer game outside of the Olympics andthe World Cup. When the World Cup took placelast year, I actually tuned in because it wasbuilding over a couple-week period. That's whatthe Davis Cup and Fed Cup can do if they're put inthat scenario. They can build interest outside ofthe core base. No one in America is going to beaware that great tennis players are playing inSpain this week, outside of us on the phone.That's a shame. It should be building intosomething.When we played in March in the firstround, now we're in December, two ties inbetween, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to knowthat that doesn't make sense as far as buildinginterest.
It's nothing new. I've been taking about itfor years. I'm not the only one. I don't haveownership of the idea. It's clear they're leaving alot of money and interest on the table and thatDavis Cup and Fed Cup are two of the mostunder-valued assets in the sport.

When I first started doing this blog I would post Davis Cup and Fed Cup results from countries outside of the axis to show that Davis Cup and Fed Cup are not events that Australia, England, The United States and France play. Countries from Haiti to El Salvador to Iran field teams and the results are followed closely there. The bitching about the Davis Cup schedule seemed to grow louder in the US once there was no denying that the age of axis domination was over. It seems to have grown louder in the last couple of years.

When I saw the fans in that stadium singing chanting and waving flags I realized part of the problem here in the States. We don't have a soccer tradition. Football is played all over the world from Asia to Africa to South America and we are johnny come late-lies to real international competition. Only the NBA has a truly world wide following and that is becoming more and more evident in the make up of NBA teams. Don't get me wrong we know how to raise a ruckus here but nothing equals what I saw Sunday in Sevilla.

And the tennis. There was some glorious tennis played on that semi indoor court. Some tended to dismiss the first rubber between Rafael Nadal and Juan Monaco. The final score was one sided but for those of us who saw it Monaco didn't play badly at all. He played to win. It was just that Rafa was not going to lose. David Ferrer, who played the second singles rubber against Juan Martin del Potro came out of the gates with the same fire his countryman showed in the first match and after the first set it looked as if Argentina would have to worry more about winning the doubles match the next day instead of the second singles match.

Instead, four hours and forty something minutes later David Ferrer stood triumphantly on the court while Del Potro wiped away tears of frustration.
The match went down to the wire and Ferrer was fresh enough at the end to take advantage of a physically depleted Del Potro.

The next day Argentina fielded the team of David Nalbandian and Eduardo Schwank. Schwank is a newcomer to Davis Cup final play but you would never have known it watching him work with Nalbandian. The two played well together and a casual fan would never have known that that was the first time the two had played together.

That same casual fan would've wondered if Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco had ever seen each other before taking the court. They were like strangers with each other and with Nalbandian directing traffic across the net they were dispensed with in a very efficient three set match by the Argentines.

That meant that both reverse singles matches could mean something. I have to say I was amused by all the calls for the Argentine Captain Tito Vasquez to play Nalbandian against Nadal. Nalbandian, while rested and fit for Nalbandian, was in no way ready to go four hours in a singles match. No matter what Vasquez may have wanted or wished to do Del Potro was going to be the player across the net from Nadal. After seeing the way he played on Day 1 I'm sure Nalbandian, who has never been concerned with fitness, wanted no part of the Spanish star.

He may have had second thoughts when Rafa proceeded to lose seven of the first eight games and looked as lost on court as he ever has. As Rafa proceeded to get back into the match one shot, one point, one game at a time I thought about what Emilio Sanchez Vicario calls the Four C's of Spanish tennis - head (cabeza), conditioning (condicion). the heart (corazon) and the balls (cojones). You saw those principles in action in David Ferrer's gritty match. They were on display in both of Nadal's matches. Neither man thought he would lose and played that way. This is what is missing in the approach of many tennis federations. Potentially great players are treated like demigods and fail to make the cut when they hit the pro ranks. The world is supposed to bow down before them. Instead someone they never heard of is hitting balls past them with reckless abandon.

Argentina wanted this win badly but it was fitness, or lack thereof that assisted in their defeat. David Nalbandian and David Ferrer are the same age. Ferrer reportedly smokes. Yet he outlasted a very well, maybe too well rested Del Potro. Rafa, playing injury free and fairly well rested, had no issues with his fitness either.

After the Final Feliciano, David Ferrer and Rafa all announced that they will not be playing Davis Cup next year. Keeping in mind that 2012 is an Olympic year many of the top players probably won't be playing Davis Cup leaving the door open for others to claim the huge cup. But right now there is no denying that Spain, where competition and camaraderie work side by side, has become the dominant force in tennis.

End Notes:

As I type this I'm not aware of who will comprise Spain's Davis Cup team next year. Someone mentioned in passing that Costa may not be back. I have seen some rumors/wishful thinking but nothing from reputable sources.

Courier was on a roll at the above mentioned conference call. He not only wants to scrap DC format but he questioned a top player's commitment to DC by putting the wife of said player's agent on the spot. I for one think it's about time her conflict of interest was given the attention it's due.

TIM CURRY: We'll take some commentsfrom Jim about his first year as captain and theroad trip to Switzerland.(...)I don't have any information for anyone yetas to who will be on the team. That will bedetermined as we get a little bit closer to the tie.We'll see who is going to be healthy and playingthe best as we get closer to it.
The Swiss team, they have StanislasWawrinka, who is a great player, very solid insingles and doubles. They have one other guy, Ikeep forgetting who it is...Federer, that's who it is,a very talented player in his own right. If hechooses to make himself available, which I expecthe will, and I'm expecting Mary Joe Fernandez,whose husband manages him, to tell us whether ornot he.
As of now, MJ, I'm operating under theassumption with Roger Federer playing the weekafter in Rotterdam, he'll be available for Davis Cup.Any light there?
CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Not 100% sure.But I know he loves Davis Cup and went all theway to Australia after the US Open.
CAPTAIN COURIER: I'm not sure I couldconcede he loves Davis Cup. Based on the facthe hasn't attended a first round since 2004, I thinkthat's a question.
CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: He loves it. Ithink he's attended every year, if I'm correct.
Anyway, he does love it and I'm assuminghe will be there, but you have to call the hubby forthat one.

Caroline Wozniacki announced that her new coach will be Jelena Jankovic's old coach Ricardo Sanchez. Good luck with that Sunshine.

No decision has been reached about the new ATP CEO. It is known that Richard Krajicek is favored by some and that Roger Federer would prefer someone with more CEO experience.

With the Exhibition Season about to get underway there could still be some interesting tennis news. We'll see.

Not With A Bang...

2011-11-29T01:30:00.001-05:00

by Savannah

The French have been making a lot of noise and pointing fingers at entire countries in the last few weeks haven't they? Just my opinion, but were they doing that to distract people from asking why France, given the huge investment made in it's players, can be said to have the biggest bunch of underachievers in tennis right now?

I mean let's look at the facts. We saw the type of player Richard Gasquet is when he refused to go out and play a critical Davis Cup rubber for his country opting to play the meaningless dead rubber a couple of years ago.

Then there is Gael Monfils. When Gael is focused, and healthy, he is among the best on the tour but how many times have tennis fans seen him play brilliantly only to get distracted and go on walkabout?

Of the two I'd say more has been invested in Gasquet. His backhand has been described in rapturous terms by many fans and tennis writers. The infamous "Pamela" incident is something else that comes to mind when talking about the money the FFT has invested in the man who was declared the future of French tennis a few short years ago.

Why the discussion of French players?

The ATP WTF final was played Sunday afternoon. Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, officially coachless, played Roger Federer for the right to hoist the crystal trophy. Watching that match, with some of the eminences gris of French tennis courtside, Tsonga, in the second set, showed the best and the worst of the French system. The defining play for me came in the second set. Tsonga, who worked hard throughout the match, was in position to hit a cross court volley. He was practically standing on the net. Federer was out of position, and hitting cross court was the shot. Instead Tsonga went for the smash - and missed. Although Tsonga did eventually win the set in a tiebreak in my mind there was no way he was going to win the match. If Federer had had that same opportunity the cross court volley would've been played and he'd have had the point.

That is the difference between the French system and that of other European countries. Whenever French players have a chance to make a pedestrian shot for a winner they go for the bling, playing a high risk shot just because it would be so pretty.

So Jo ended up with the tray and Federer lifted the trophy. When the French decide to stop pointing fingers and have a serious discussion about what has gone wrong with their system the disappointing results can be turned around. It's not going to happen overnight but it can happen.

Daniel Nestor and Max Mirnyi are the WTF doubles champions. I watched a lot of the doubles play and Nestor and Mirnyi played good smart tennis all week.

The 2011 ATP season is now over. The Davis Cup champions will be crowned this weekend. 2012 starts in five weeks.

There Is No Favorite

2011-11-25T17:56:00.001-05:00

by Savannah

Wonder of wonders. The ATP has given tennis fans truly wide open semifinals for its year ending WTF at the O2 in London England. I know the PC thing is to always spell out World Team Finals but if they had the balls to call it that knowing what the abbreviation would be I'm just the person to keep using the abbreviation.

David Ferrer who played the best tennis of the tournament didn't drop a set until today against Tomas Berdych. Due to the arcane rules of year ending round robin play Ferrer gets to face a man he's never won against,
Roger Federer.

Federer wanted this more than any of his top ranking peers and the level of his play during round robin showed it. It would appear that his road to the final is clear since he's going up against Ferrer who will be coming in with less than twenty four hours rest after his three set match against Berdych.

Berdych isn't the favorite against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. In fact I think that this match up is pretty even and could turn out to be a barn burner if both men play up to their potential.

The WTF's need for both semi's to be good. The level of play hasn't been the best and some appeared to sleep walk through their matches.

The usual thoughts come to mind. The season is too long. Scheduling sucks and the players are required to do more than just show up and play tennis. Of course some of the off court requirements have to do with the endorsement deals players sign but the tour requires a lot of it's top players as well.

Enough of that though. Regular readers know I don't do predictions and I'm not going to do that now. As I often say I'm a fan of tennis before anything else. Matches like Ferrer vs Berdych today are what creates tennis fans. The first two sets were riveting. Ferrer lost focus in the third set and was lucky to win a game. Of course that neon pink shirt could've had something to do with it but again I digress.

Tsonga and Federer will come in rested. I think the collective FFT will do cartwheels if Tsonga makes it to the Final no matter who he would face. I wonder if Yannick Noah will be courtside?

Emilio Sanchez Vicario - The Four C's Are Our Magic Potion

2011-11-23T19:27:00.001-05:00

The following is an English translation of an open letter sent by Emilio Sanchez Vicario to Yannick Noah in response to Noah's comments about Spanish players and what he called a "magic potion".

Translation credit at the end of the article.

They´re special, same as you were

Dear Yannick,
I write to you as a tennis player and friend, but I could also do it as the President of the Athletes’ Association of Spain, and the content of this letter would be very similar.

When I heard your inappropriate statements, I thought that probably your words were taken out of context, or that they were said in the heat of the moment. However, when I saw that the statements were from an article which was thought, written and sent from you to a newspaper for publishing, I felt a profound disappointment. You have hurt the Spaniards, the athletes and me; I think it is not fair to discredit the triumphs of Spanish athletes by treating them all as cheaters. You, who always defended sportsmanship! Is this a sportsman’s behavior? I don’t think we deserved it.

You and I competed together, we are friends and we have even discussed this topic at some dinner. The truth is that I am still stunned, you give to understand that being physically strong or having a privileged body is because of taking magic potions. Then, those who competed with you, what should we think? We had before us a much stronger and athletic player, faster, more explosive, and we thought: “he is the Great Yannick, pure talent, naturally strong, how lucky he is”. We never thought that you had the potion of Asterix.

What we do have in Spain, and you were a great paradigm of this, is that we have channeled the energy to create the best means to compete, and this goes beyond tactics and technique. These four factors are the head (cabeza), the condition (condición), the heart (corazón) and the balls (cojones). If you channel these four factors, it appears this energy that makes the difference. This Spanish four Cs, the four principles of the great Severiano Ballesteros, is what today leads most of Spanish athletes. This is our potion, dear Yannick.

I take this opportunity to tell you that Spain began sports competition in a continuous manner 30 years ago, the same stage where we improved as a country and got to the level of Europe. This social improvement gave us the confidence to believe more in ourselves and to be able to believe in our four Cs, mainly due to the hunger for successes not achieved before. The success in sports of Spain has been a process in which each generation has overcome the previous one, but not an overnight success as you declare.

For example, talking about our sport, tennis, where Spain leads the circuit, my generation was followed by the one of Bruguera, who won two Roland Garros. Then it came the generation of Corretja and Costa, surpassing the success of the previous one, and then the one of Moya, who achieved the number one position of the world for a few weeks, followed by Ferrero, who managed to be a solid number one.

Next it came the generation of Nadal and all the other great players we have in the top 100, which have been inspired by the previous generations and have surpassed them. The same has happened with other sports, like soccer or basketball, in which we have been gradually improving. You, who understand about soccer, can see that our players win because of their game, but not because of physical power. The same happens with our basketball players, who do not have the athletic body of your son, but they ended up beating him in the final. An exceptional generation, as Spain has in basketball, is not made overnight, indeed this is the fourth generation that succeeds. Slowly and progressively we have most of our national team playing at the NBA.

We all know that our Rafa, the only one with an outstanding physical condition, very similar than yours, wins because he channels better than anyone else the four Cs. The great champions do not win because of magic potions, they win because they are special and are able to create this unique energy, just as you did.

Traducción de Alex Costa alexandra@sanchez-casal.com

Others have also commented. When there is a translation involved I've done some slight editing that will be shown in parentheses.

Christophe Rochus:

Yes, it(he) only tell the truth ... If you remember, there are two or three years, I also stated that there were doped on the circuit, which had incurred the wrath of ATP. But we must stop the hypocrisy. It's not just the Spanish who are the top-level sport. And why are they suddenly all before today? Let's stop pretending to believe in clean sport is everything. We must empower athletes because, after doping, there is a real danger.

The FFT French Tennis Federation issued the following statement that was posted by ESPN.

"The French Tennis Federation wishes to express its disagreement with regards to the comments made by Yannick Noah," the FFT said in a statement Tuesday. "Faced with the scourge of doping, accusations without proof and provocative comments are inappropriate."

There is also this comment by Andy Miah of the University of the West in Scotland.

"The doping is a disturbing dogma, that leaves little room for serious debate on the ethical practices of elite sport. Those who issue a contrary view are disliked by the sports world," observes Andy Miah, professor at the University of the West of Scotland.For this researcher Ethics and Emerging Technology, author of "The Olympics", "it is time for what is said is heard: the fight against doping is broken."

No one is mentioning the fact that Major League Baseball is going to start testing for HGH (Human Growth Hormone) or that if the Pod that briefly, and I mean briefly, made news during the US Open provides what was called "blood doping" a lot of this will become moot. How do you test for the effects of using a pod?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I find it odd that all of the uproar comes when a non Northern European country is dominating tennis and many sports dear to Europe. The revelation of the active coverup of Andre Agassi's use of illegal drugs was met with mild outrage and much less drama among the tennis "media".

Don't get me wrong. Use of PED's, chemical or not, is not within the spirit of competition on any level, professional or amateur, and where it is found should be exposed and punished.

It's going to be interesting to see if this story has legs or like the contretemps of the summer be allowed to fade away.

NOTE:

Special mention must be made of the blog TennisHasASteroidProblem where more extensive commentary on this topic can be found. I don't agree with what they seem to be implying by the tennis players pictures featured on the site but for this subject they've done a good job of putting all the information in one place. Internal links referenced here can be found at that site.

As The Stomach Churns

2011-11-22T14:14:00.001-05:00

by Savannah

The following is an article that featured comments by French Open winner Yannick Noah that originally appeared in Le Monde, the French newspaper. The translation was done by another French newspaper, Le Figaro.

Singer and former athlete Yannick Noah has unleashed a tempest in both France and Spain with statements published in the French newspaper Le Monde this weekend. He accused Spanish athletes of using performance-enhancing drugs.
“How can a nation start to dominate a sport to this degree overnight?” questioned the former tennis player, who is famous for winning the 1983 French Open. “Sport today is a little bit like Astérix at the Olympics: if you don’t have a magic potion, it is hard to win. And now it seems like the Spanish have fallen into the cauldron. Lucky devils.3

The French celebrity finished in addressing the legalization of drug use.
“The best attitude to take is to accept doping,” he said. “Then everyone will have the magic potion.”

These statements unleashed severe responses from either side of the border. Noah’s son Joakim is a basketball player for the Chicago Bulls of the NBA. While playing for the French national team in August, lost to Spain.

Spanish Sports Minister José Luis Saez said Yannick Noah was “jealous” of Spanish players after his son’s loss. French Sports Minister David Douillet said Noah’s statements were “serious and, certainly, irresponsible.”

Players and their families also reacted violently to Noah’s statements.

“It shocks me that someone whose honesty has been questioned would allow himself to speak so negatively of Spanish athletes,” said Tony Nadal, uncle of the famous Spanish player Rafael Nadal. “It is really just ridiculous for him to come out saying that because there have been lots of rumors about him. I’m sure that ‘Rafa’ and David Ferrer have never taken anything in their lives.”

Suspicions about Spain

As often happens, Yannick Noah spoke spoke his mind, setting aside whether or not his comments were politically correct.
However, his questions on the brazen success of Spanish athletes summed up the skepticism of a fair number of observers.

Dr. Jean-Pierre de Mondenard, a specialist in performance-enhancing drugs, confirmed this.

“We can’t actually say he’s wrong on this point, because we have similar suspicions about Spanish athletes,” Mondenard said. “Today, anti-doping tests are incapable of proving who is cheating and who isn’t. Most tests happen during the competitions and thus predictable for the athletes. Tests administered unexpectedly, during training, are better indicators. Finally, history tells us that each time a country dominates a sport, there is doping behind it.”

Germany, China, Italy… examples of this proliferate…

In an article published in French sports journal L’Equipe, David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, confirmed that users were ahead of the game.

“We have created a anti-doping industry that is humming,” he said. “In 2010, we had 36 positive cases out of 258,267 tests; that’s ridiculous.”

“Circus Games” and Health Risks

Critics say that legalization of performance enhancing drugs endorsed by Noah (and others before him) is an extremely dangerous solution. Above all else, it is a public health risk.
“Taking drugs while fully exerting yourself physically is excessively dangerous,” said Mondenard. “There were numerous deaths in the 1990s connected to the use of erythropoietin. In the long term, there are grave consequences. Your life expectancy is practically amputated.”

Legalization would make the sports world into “circus games” say critics. They say that the biggest problem with total liberalization is that all athletes would be obliged to take drugs to win, even those who currently shun this scourge on the sports world.

Moreover, allowing chemically enhancers would give a huge advantage to athletes from rich nations. If this happened, the sports world equity so important to Yannick Noah would once again be ruined.

Where to begin in assessing Noah's comments?

Let's be clear. Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are all good players. They're just not great players. Much of the success of Spanish players has to do with their mental preparation. You can't say the Spaniards have the beautiful games or style of the French players but they've won not only Slams but Davis Cup ties as well.

Perhaps Noah and the FFT should look inward and see why so many of their players are mentally and physically fragile and seem to value style points more than anything else. Perhaps the French should look at their internal tournament schedule and put less demand on their professional players.

The current crop of Spanish tennis players has set the bar high and the rest of the tennis world, instead of whispering in private and whining in public about doping should be looking to see why, without the assistance of the pod used by some and to now no proof of doping despite all the wishing it were true, are the ones to beat between the lines, whether they're drawn on concrete, grass or clay. Technically sound games and good mental preparation beat style, flash and expectations any day.

The 2011 London Draw

2011-11-15T08:21:00.001-05:00

Group A

Novak Djokovic

Andy Murray

David Ferrer

Tomas Berdych

Group A head to heads.

Djokovic/Murray 6-4

Djokovic/Ferrer 6-4

Djokovic/Berdych 7-1

Group B

Rafael Nadal

Roger Federer

Jo-Wilfrid Tsonga

Mardy Fish

Group B head to heads

Nadal/Federer 17-8

Nadal/Tsonga 6-2

Nadal/Fish 7-1

Miscellaneous Information

Surface: Indoor Hard

Ball: Head ATP

I Wish I Could Quit You...

2011-11-14T17:16:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

I had no intention of being away from blogging as long as I was. I went for a standard eye check up and ended up needing eye surgery with a recovery time of four weeks. I was told I was able to return to a normal existence last Monday, but today, things are less blurry so I feel okay getting back to blogging. I was actually going to wait until the WTF was over but here I am. Nothing to say except that tennis is a hard addiction to overcome.

As regular readers know I don't usually talk about the ATP but a few things did catch me by surprise, one of which is the the sudden fascination with the main stream tennis media with appearance fees, specifically the fees paid to Andy Murray during the Asian swing and the man ranked ATP #1 Novak Djokovic. Murray is said to have received a ton of money for his appearances including Shanghai where he was the top player after Djokovic withdrew. To my knowledge no figure was ever released.

Then there's the controversy about the $1.6 million Djokovic was paid to in effect one match in Paris.

The $1.6 million was paid to a man who has not played much recently due to injury. To be honest I was surprised that he played a match in Paris. It can't be that he needs the money. I have read the defenses of Djokovic playing and taking the money and running. I've also read the comparisons being made by his fans to Rafael Nadal who, due to injury, withdrew from some top level tournaments.

The thing is: Rafa played until he couldn't. To my knowledge he hasn't ever played under the same conditions Djokovic did in Paris. I watched him at the 2008 US Open play despite pleas by his family to quit. Does it look bad for Djokovic to do what he did? Yes it does. There is no way to get around that fact.

Then again I wonder why the topic of appearance fees come up now when they were never an issue when Roger Federer was at the top of the sport. Some did mention not only the appearance fees but the perks a tournament was required to provide to ensure Federer's appearance.

The other big ATP controversy centered around Alex Bogomolov Jr announcing that he wants to play Davis Cup for Russia, the birthplace of his father. The argument was made that the United States tennis establishment paid for Bogomolov's training and that his first obligation is to those who have supported him throughout his career.

I have to say that that argument is surprising since Maria Sharapova, who has lived and trained in the States from childhood, was never called out when she decided to play Fed Cup for Russia. There were those who mewled that she was after all Russian and had every right to play for the land of her birth though.

After the announcement by Bogomolov Jr a brawl broke out on Twitter between Dmitri Tursunov and the blogger who was bagging on Bogomolov. I think the blogger, if he knew Tursunov's history with the USTA, as well as those who came out in defense of the position the blogger took, would have realized Tursunov has every right to call bullshit on those who say Bogo Jr owes the United States.

If you recall Dmitri, who is more of a Californian than a Russian, asked the USTA for help in getting his American citizenship so that he could play Davis Cup for the United States. The USTA respectfully declined. So I ask again why is Bogomolov Jr a traitor and Sharapova isn't? Just sayin'.

It looks like Jo-Wilfried Tsonga whom I call Ti-Ali has no qualms about expressing his opinions on his peers. Tsonga has been quoted as saying that "winning against Djokovic means less than winning against Federer or Nadal". The actual quote, in French, is as follows:"Djokovic n'a pas encore la même aura que Nadal ou Federer" which Google translates as "Djokovic has not the same as Nadal or Federer will". Babelfish translates it as "Djokovic...not yet the same will that Nadal or Federer ". If you are a native French speaker I welcome your clarification. One could say, that just like Ali could do back in the day, Jo's trash talk got to Djokovic in Paris.

I'll end my ATP musings with something I got in my email from http://www.tenniswire.org/

Serbia's Foreign Minister, Vuk Jeremic, is expected to take over the country's tennis federation, according to a report on Serbian television picked up by AP.

The official announcement is set to take place at a meeting on Nov. 24. Apparently there was a dispute between Novak Djokovic's father and the heretofore Serbian tennis chief, Slobodan Zivojinovic, who has resigned.

While Zivojinovic played professionally -- reaching No. 19 in singles and No. 1 in doubles -- it is unknown what is Jeremic's on-court experience.

However, as the sport has launched the small country into the spotlight in recent years, Jeremic's official role has involved tennis business.

Earlier this year the Foreign Minister elevated Serbia pro tennis players to "diplomat" passport clearance so they can travel more easily. He was reported as calling Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic, and others "ambassadors," and saying, "I am honored to promote to diplomatic service people who have contributed to the popularity of Serbia in the world."

Many headlines and stories have discussed tennis being Serbia's top export. And in September, Greg Bishop of The New York Times wrote that there is no explanation why the country has suddenly turned out so many top players. Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic were quoted here on the subject.

With the success of Djokovic and others, it's likely tennis has been an affair of the state for some time. Jeremic's impending appointment ties the two games -- politics and tennis -- even closer, perhaps.

And now to the WTA.

Does the #1 ranked player for two years in a row automatically get player of the year? That seems to be what some people think. Caroline Wozniacki who was given the nickname "Sunshine" by no lesser being than the CEO of the WTA has been ranked at the top of the heap for the last two years and is praised for her consistency. So what if she's never won a major and didn't even make a Grand Slam final in 2011. She is ranked number one and by default is player of the year right?Wrong. I think she needed a strong showing at the YEC to be able to make the claim that she's player of the year. I think there were those who were strongly leaning to Maria Sharapova as well. But despite her post Wimbledon slide Petra Kvitova, Wimbledon Champion came to Turkey to take names and she did showing the form that won her her first Slam.

What got my panties in a bunch is Sabine Lisicki winning comeback player of the year. I mean really people? When you have survived two foot surgeries along with life threatening blood clots and come within an inch of winning both Wimbledon and the US Open I'd think you were a shoo-in for comeback player of the year. I could go into why Serena Williams didn't get the nod but that would be beating a dead horse...then again maybe I should.

During the US Open Serena was called for "hindrance" when she roared after winning a point. It was said that her roar was "intimidating" to her opponent. Imagine my surprise when Petra, in front of the same chair umpire, was screaming in her opponents face after almost every winning point and not a word was heard from the chair.

There was also a lot of stage whispering about the WTA and ATP combining their respective YEC's. At first glance this would only benefit the WTA although the turn out in Istanbul was nothing sort of fantastic for women's tennis. I'm waiting to see the attendance in London.

End Notes

There will be tons of ink, cyber and otherwise, devoted to the era of FedAl. Tons of ink has already been spent. But the one thing no one will ever be able to say, no matter who they stan for, is that either man ever disrespected the sport of tennis. Both men have shown nothing but respect and carried themselves on court with respect not only for each other but for the sport that has made both men unbelievably wealthy.

That is why the joy I saw on Federer's face after winning Bercy was so refreshing. He's had a rough year and the death watch was already gathering steam but there he was, on a court some were whining was too slow, adapting to it and winning. And at the end there was no smug expression on his face. Instead there was the joyous satisfaction of winning.You all know I'm not a Federer fan but I think he deserves to be recognized for his pride in winning a title some feel is undeserving of being counted as a Masters 1000.

Then there is Venus Williams. Wounded warrior though she is her love of competition, of the sport of tennis, has her aiming to try and come back despite a chronic health condition. The same can be said about her sister. The only reason these women keep playing is because they love the sport that made them wealthy.I think it's safe to say that looking back at those who have defined their sport for the last decade or so when they're gone they will be taking something with them that will not be seen again in tennis for a very long time.

Idle Chit Chat

2011-09-22T10:02:00.002-05:00

by Savannah

Jon Wertheim reports via Twitter that the Brazil is in negotiations to bring the ATP WTF to Rio for 2013-2015. Brazil isn't sitting still after getting the World Cup is it? Wertheim has walked this back a bit saying there was a meeting but not about bringing the WTF to South America.

Sam Querrey suffered another setback to his return to the ATP main tour. Seems he got an abdominal infection near his navel. Minor surgery was needed to correct it.

Czech Press is reporting Tomas Berdych, who recently parted with long time girl friend Lucie Safarova is dating a...hold your breath for this...model. There are lots of pictures of the woman, none with Tomas. If you must see what she looks like here is the LINK .
There are also pictures HERE and HERE . Two are in Czech but it doesn't matter does it?

Andy Roddick held his annual charity gala last evening in Austin. Serena Williams was spotted at James Blake's event.

Lots of sturm und drang about Andy Murray's comments regarding a possible players strike, most of it centered on the effect it would have on lower ranked players - read this as meaning players not in the top four. Main stream tennis media taken by surprise that Martina Navratilova has come out in favor of the players taking some kind of action. If this doesn't prove that these people spend most of their time picking lint out of their navels nothing else does.

Anyone who was paying attention during the action taken by the Gang of Three saw no less a lady suit than Chris Evert get emotional about what the players have to put up with. I'm guessing they also didn't see John McEnroe's impassioned history of the bad relations between players and the tennis hierarchy. I'm pretty sure they dismissed Serena's supportive tweet to Rafael Nadal while the meeting was taking place with Brian Earley.

You can't have it both ways guys. If the lower ranked players were rabble rousing the top four would be castigated for not wanting to take the risk and loss of income. Instead, because they are taking a stand they're being accused of not caring about how a strike would effect their lower ranked brothers. Let's just report on the issues behind what the players are saying instead of trying to cast aspersions on the men speaking out. I know that's wishful thinking but it's early and I'm just waking up.

What continues to bother me is the silence of the WTA players. Sure we got pictures of them milling about on court and the de rigueur meeting with Brian Earley at the BJK National Tennis Center did take place but right now it's crickets. I'm guessing the WTA runs a very tight ship. Just keep those beauty shots coming.

Serbian press is reporting that Jelena Dokic has reconciled with her father Damir and has arrived at his estate in Serbia with her boyfriend Tin Bikic.
Link to translation is HERE . Dokic has been playing for Australia. Will this change? Time to make some popcorn?

Australian Davis Cup Captain Pat Rafter is urging enfant terrible Bernard Tomic to put in more hours training if he wants to play with the Big Boys. We'll see.

Speaking of Davis Cup the United States is still in the World Group. We'll start DC play in 2012 away at Switzerland.

Confusing medical reports about Novak Djokovic after his DC retirement that handed Argentina the victory in their DC tie. Anyone watching saw that the problem appeared to be his back. Later reports say that it's a tear in a rib muscle that will require four weeks off the tour. Guessing that will mean he'll mis the Asian swing but so far no withdrawals yet. Keeping in mind all the negative comments about Serena William's being out and about while she recovered from her documented foot injury Djokovic and his girlfriend were seen partying at a club in Serbia with Janko Tipsarevic and his wife. I'm just saying.

Objects In the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear

2011-09-19T09:42:00.001-05:00

by Savannah

The United States Tennis Association stands exposed. The organization that gets high marks for putting on a major sporting event in New York City that actually turns a profit has a decision to make that will require all of it's financial acumen.

The rains that forced the schedules to be readjusted did not sneak up on anyone. I have a weather widget that is remarkably accurate and it showed rain for most of what was going to be the second week, crunch time, at the US Open. Not showers. Rain from a tropical system that was slow moving and wreaking havoc on the east coast of the United States. If anyone with a computer could see the second week was going to be shot to shit why did the USTA officials appear to be caught off guard and not have plans for when the inevitable happened?

Instead of a well oiled machine we got the Keystone Cops - a scramble to assign courts and make schedules that wouldn't cause accusations of favoritism to enter the collective psyche of tennisheads like the 2003 US Open, and that would allow the players to get some rest during the crunch time that is Week 2 of a Grand Slam.

The player protests about being made to play in unsafe conditions are historic. The Gang of Three - Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and
Andy Roddick, spoke up for the men's tour.

The United States chooses to play tennis on concrete slabs. It also chooses not to cover said slabs during light drizzles or torrential downpours. I swear someone must get a really kinky cheap thrill watching the Zamboni's accompanied by ball kids on their knees sopping up the moisture on those courts because I have yet to read any credible reason as to why tarp's aren't used to cover at least the show courts. Instead we get to watch the farce as the make shift court drying crew goes into action taking 45 minutes to dry a court. Forty five minutes is a long time and very often the rain starts to fall and we go through it again.

To add insult to injury water began seeping through a heretofore invisible crack in Louis Armstrong Stadium causing the USTA to lose the use of that stadium. Andy Roddick's match was moved to Court 13. Court 17 is the new, and roofless addition to the NTC. It's round and a bit sunken and is called The Bullring after the famous clay court at Roland Garros. Notice I used the word "new". It's just opened this year. Did I mention it's roofless?

And that is the story of the US Open and the shortsightedness of the USTA.

Tennis Australia, recognizing the danger to fans and players alike sitting in the broiling heat of an Australian summer has already covered two of it's show courts and will soon have a third one covered. Wimbledon, where there are more sticks up more arses than anywhere else has covered it's Centre Court. The French had a huge debate about whether to keep the French Open at it's current location or move to another one. The word "roof" was included in all of the conversations about whether or not to move from the historic Roland Garros tennis complex in the Bois du Boulogne.

From the USTA all we get is whining about what can't be done. Arthur Ashe Stadium is too big we're told. The decision to not put a roof on it came because the water table under the National Tennis Center is too high and the weight of a roof would make the Stadium sink into the marsh.

We know, thanks to the water seepage in Armstrong, that the argument about the water table is legit. Still as a fan I have to wonder why, back in the not so distant day, the decision was made to build on the marshland instead of on more solid ground. The answer given is that the weather patterns at that time didn't indicate that it would rain the way it has over the last few years and that Ashe wouldn't sink into the ground.

The USTA can be forgiven if it didn't heed the cries of the wild eyed fanatics who were talking about climate change and global warming back then. What can't be forgiven or explained away is the monstrosity of a center court they built. Anyone who has ever been there knows that Ashe wasn't built for tennis fans. It was built for the suits who will pay top dollar to be seen at a sporting event they know next to nothing about.

Tennis fans tend to be found from the loge area to the nosebleeds. When I first started going my daughter and I would sit in the nosebleeds and watch the jumbotrons. The live tennis was taking place in another zip code far, far away.

I should note that this year I bought a grounds pass and didn't step foot in Ashe once. I had a ball. I spent a lot of time on the Grandstand, the best bang for the buck a tennishead could ask for, and on Armstrong.

I was with first time visitors and they enjoyed themselves and are already talking about next year. Buying the grounds pass and not feeling that since I had spent big bucks for a decent seat in Ashe I had to stay there I got to see tennis with all it's quirks up close and personal. I rarely go during the second week but I am thinking about it for next year.

But this post isn't about my experiences there. It's about the dilemma facing the USTA.

Tennis fans have been complaining about Ashe almost since it opened. It's outdated and needs to be replaced. Do you tear it down, move the Open to the Left Coast where the chance of rain is much less and the temperatures are lower? You can't go south because of the heat and humidity not to mention the random hurricane or tropical storm. Same goes for Texas.

And if the decision is made to replace Ashe how big a stadium are we talking about? How long is the lease on the land or was it purchased outright? Do we go with something the size of Philippe Chatrier? In case you haven't noticed that is one huge stadium. Do we go with something along the lines of the Caja Magica in Madrid, ultra modern, a good size, and roofed? Would the plan be for a complex like Melbourne?

The weight of Ashe is supported by pilings drilled deep into the marsh it sits on. Any new stadium is going to have to be built with that in mind. There was already talk of tearing down Armstrong and I presume the Grandstand since the two courts are linked and building something new. As a fan I would hate to see those stadiums go since they're the most intimate and fan friendly of the show courts but the water problem that arose this go around may have sealed the fate of those courts.

People save up for years to be able to come to the US Open, to walk its grounds, buy the expensive merchandise and enjoy the sport they love in person. There is nothing like seeing the racquet head speed of the top players up close. There is nothing like seeing the beauty of Serena William's serve in person. Canceling days of play is not only a tragedy for the networks and sponsors. It's a tragedy for the regular guys, the folks who make a trip to the US Open their end of summer vacation.

I for one hope that whatever the USTA decides to do will be in the best interests of it's bottom line, and takes into account the fans who pay for the shitty seats and swarm the practice courts because they love tennis. Whatever decision the organization makes has to be soon though. No amount of "We Survived the 2011 US Open" press releases will cover up the need for quick, intelligent and decisive decisions that take into account all of its constituents.

2011 US Open Women's Champion

2011-09-12T08:30:00.001-05:00

by Savannah

Samantha Stosur finally played the tennis I'd heard so much about. Under threatening skies at the National Tennis Center she unleashed her forehand with lethal consequences for her opponent, Serena Williams.

Serena can be a slow starter. She can also be flat. She was both yesterday and it was Stosur who stepped up and took control of the situation. Only when Serena got in a dispute with the chair umpire over what she (and I) thought was an incorrect call did anger spur her to begin to move the way the tennis world has grown accustomed to seeing her move. Unfortunately that didn't last long.

I could say I was surprised at the tennis heads on Twitter coming out of the woodwork to insult Serena's angry outburst. I'll never understand why an angry African American scares so many people. Serena, who never uttered one word that could be said to be a curse word, was called "classless". Someone said she's always in touch with her "inner brute". It's comments like this that inspired one person to post that the comments show why tennis will never become a big time sport in the United States calling the comments, a bit euphemistically, examples of the country club mentality. Andy Roddick has said and done worse on court. Ryan Harrison, following in Roddick's footsteps, has already, at 19, said and done worse on the court. Mardy Fish directed the epithet "dumbass" at whoever was listening. But these American's are said to be "passionate" while Serena, who at her worst called the chair umpire a "hater", is seen by some as their worst nightmare. I should mention that one idiot said that the word "hater" is the catch phrase for the "classless", "unthinking" lesser educated. I guess they haven't been listening to their children.

But this is a column about Samantha Stosur's victory. She overcame the bias of the crowd, a US Open crowd that for once was behind Serena, and kept her cool and played her game, a game that yesterday was better than the WTA #1 player.

Does Stosur beat a fit and totally rested Serena? Probably not. For about five minutes of yesterday's match we saw that she doesn't have the weapons against Serena.

It can't be said enough that the scheduling by the USTA did a lot to determine the outcome of the Women's Final. Stosur, who was publicly unhappy about her semifinal match being put on an outside court with a starting time that put her up against a men's semifinal, in the end got the better deal. She was back in her hotel and resting by the time Serena took the court late Saturday night.

I don't think tennis fans should overlook the importance of Stosur's second set tiebreak against Maria Kirilenko in the fourth round, a tiebreak Kirilenko won 17-15. After losing a tiebreak like that many players would've mentally packed their racquets and gone home. Instead Stosur, again overcoming a hostile crowd, came back and won the third set. She followed that win with another one over the WTA #2 Vera Zvonareva, another confidence boosting victory.

Fans should also keep in mind that Stosur has played Serena well and that no matter what this was going to be a match Serena would've had to bring her A game in order to win. She didn't and that was all she wrote.

Much is being made about the fact that Stosur, formerly known mostly for her doubles, is the first Australian to win a major in dog years. They're already comparing her to Australian Davis Cup Captain Patrick Rafter.

So congratulations to Samantha Stosur on her victory. It was well earned and well played.

Still Standing

2011-09-11T02:17:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

It was a night that the WTA couldn't have wanted to happen. One women's semi final was shunted off to the smallest of the show courts at the National Tennis Center and the other one was scheduled to take place after the men's semi finals.

An argument could be made that the women, who will play their final on Sunday, September 11, had been royally dissed by the USTA. The men, led by the Gang of Three, got an off day built into their schedule. Their semifinals ended up lasting a combined 7 hours.

But this is about the women and the importance of the match that took place between world #28 Serena Williams and world #1 Caroline Wozniacki.

Serena has been playing glorious tennis during the United States summer hard court swing. Her opponent, not so much. Most unbiased observers expected a blood bath.

In the end the result was respectable.

The final score was 6-2, 6-4. Serena didn't play her best. She seemed anxious to finish the match and even double faulted serving for it. Who could blame her? It was close to 10p Saturday night Eastern time when she and her opponent took the court. It was close to midnight when the match ended. Don't forget that there was still cooling down and press to do.

But I digress. With the final score 2 and 4 the WTA can say it's #1 played well. If a bagel or breadstick had shown up anywhere in that score line it would've been a disaster for women's tennis. As it was the world #1 finished the first set with zero winners. That's zero. Zip. Nada. Her first "winner" came in the second set and was a gift. She ended up with four winners I believe.

Serena will face Samantha Stosur in the final this afternoon. It should be a competitive match.

There will be excuses made about why the #1 ranked woman in the world could play an entire set and not hit one winner.

There will be excuses made about why the four top ranked women will feature only one who has won a Slam and that was in 2008. In case you don't know who they are they are, in no particular order, Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka and Vera Zvonareva.

There will be denials that there is pressure on Kim Clijsters to come back and "save" women's tennis.

There will be numerous mentions of Justine Henin's "unfortunate" retirement, none of which will reference her admission of cheating.

There will be references to Serena's time away from the sport she loves. Few of them will say flat out that she almost died and that for her to be playing the kind of tennis she is playing is nothing short of a miracle.

They will not say that, as the world saw tonight, she is playing on one foot.

Some on Twitter are calling Serena a living legend. I know nothing about Serena that would prove them wrong.

We Are Not Protected

2011-09-08T09:42:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

Being a tennis fan means being a student of nuance. Take a look at this picture. Take a good look. Notice anything wrong with it?

Okay I'll spill. Is Serena Williams dressed to play tennis? I mean yeah she has her kit on and all that but where's the bling? Serena let the world know she'd gone to Graff jewelers and purchased a pair of earrings to wear during the US Open. Just so you know Graff diamonds ain't Zales diamonds. See them? Neither do I.

I explained to my daughter that before Serena stepped on the court a group of WTA players gathered on the same court. All of them were set to play last evening. But when it came time to play only Serena and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova appeared. All of the others were in a meeting in Tournament Referee Brian Earley's office, Vera Zvonareva being the last one to enter. We were also allowed to see Samantha Stosur, Flavia Pennetta and Caroline Wozniacki conferring just before they went into Brian Earley's office. In the on court huddle Serena's agent was there representing her.
My daughter said "Serena wasn't going to play anyway and she knew it."
"Why?" asked the old person.
"No earrings."

In a day at the US Open that saw ATP players Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and importantly Andy Roddick doing the tennis equivalent of storming the Bastille a lot was made of why no noise from the WTA players who as the day progressed looked as if they were going to be sacrificed to the tennis gods. Were they perceived as more compliant, more malleable? Apparently not. Was a deal struck that saw Serena and Pavs come out on court to test the waters so to speak? Serena was standing up and ready to go a few minutes before the night was officially called.

In the end it doesn't matter if Serena participated in charade or not. The USTA was caught with it's pants down and there is no other way to describe what happened. They've managed to skate by for a long time with no real plans for putting a roof on the monstrosity that is Arthur Ashe Stadium, a stadium where if you have to sit above loge level you may as well stay home and watch television. I understand that some apologists were saying there are plans but in the end it was admitted that any talk of plans is pure speculation at this point. There aren't any.

In a day that saw EVERY former player contracted to ESPN expressing anger at how players are treated, that saw John McEnroe give a history of the struggles tennis players have had to endure over the years and Mary Jo Fernandez recount how she was injured in a bad fall on a wet court, it was an amazing day.

The weather report this morning is saying the heavy stuff will arrive from eastern Pennsylvania around 2p. Let's hope they're right.

Once Again - The Pod

2011-09-07T11:18:00.001-05:00

by SavannahTennis journalist Jon Wertheirm linked to this Blog Post on Twitter this morning. It makes a lot of the same points made in this space by me and others. I thought for clarity and fairness it would be a good idea to post another blogger's thoughts.

The $75,000 CVAC pod device, which is one of only 20 devices in the world, is different from the $5,000 hyperbaric chambers that are commonly used by athletes. Hyperbaric chambers serve to “saturate the blood with oxygen and stimulate healing.” The CVAC pod device, “is a considerably more-ambitious contraption. It uses a computer-controlled valve and a vacuum pump to simulate high altitude and compress the muscles at rhythmic intervals.” According to the WSJ article,
The company claims that spending up to 20 minutes in the pod three times a week can boost athletic performance by improving circulation, boosting oxygen-rich red-blood cells, removing lactic acid and possibly even stimulating mitochondrial biogenesis and stem-cell production…CVAC Systems chief executive Allen Ruszkowski says the treatment seems to have many of the same effects on the body as intense exercise. He claims that the technology may be twice as effective at helping the body absorb oxygen as blood doping—a banned form of performance enhancement.

...Now why the CEO of CVAC systems would try to market the device as being twice as effective as blood doping, is beyond me.

(...)

If you go to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) website, you can find their anti-doping code. According to the comment to Article 4.3.2 of Version 3.0 of the World Anti-Doping Code (pg. 32-33):A substance shall be considered for inclusion on the Prohibited List if the substance is a masking agent or meets two of the following three criteria:

It has the potential to enhance or enhances sport performance;

It represents a potential or actual health risk;

orIt is contrary to the spirit of sport.

None of the three criteria alone is a sufficient basis for adding a substance to the Prohibited List. Using the potential to enhance performance as the sole criteria would include, for example, physical and mental training, red meat, carbohydrate loading and training at altitude. Risk of harm would include smoking.

Notice the WADA code specifically states that none of the three criteria is sufficient on its own for inclusion to the Prohibited List. That’s why red meat and carbohydrate loading, while they are considered to be performance-enhancing under criteria #1, are not on the Prohibited Substances list, because they do not represent a health risk to the athlete (at least not in the same way that recreational drugs would) and are not contrary to the spirit of the sport.

Altitude training, whose effects the CVAC pod is supposed to imitate, meets criteria #1 of performance-enhancing measures. So if I were to treat those two as equal, then the CVAC pod device meets criteria #1.

WADA has already commented that the CVAC pod device, unlike altitude training on its own, is against the spirit of the sport. So the CVAC pod device meets two of the three criteria for inclusion on the Prohibited List and should be on that list.

Now, I’m sure there is more research that needs to be done on this device before WADA makes a ruling, but it seems if you put #1 and #3 together, use of this device should already have been prohibited by WADA. From my understanding, the CVAC device is different from a basic oxygen tent because the pod increases barometric pressure on the person to more effectively deliver oxygen to the blood.

My guess as to why WADA hasn’t outlawed the CVAC pod device is that the device is not an actual substance that can be ingested or injected into the athlete’s body. You can ban drugs but can you ban an athlete from using a device? This is clearly new territory for WADA and they are treading cautiously.

Note that as part of heightened efforts against blood doping, the International Olympic Committee has instituted a no-syringe policy for the 2012 Olympic Games. The no-syringe policy was already implemented by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) in May 2011 this year.

But anyone who looks through the history of doping in sports knows that as soon as new anti-doping measures are adopted, more advanced techniques are soon found to skirt the rules. Use of these devices is clearly new ground for anti-doping authorities. Yet it seems like only a matter of time before WADA will have to confront matters related to ‘non-invasive’ techniques.

(...)

Note that for blood doping, autologous blood doping (transfusing one’s own stored blood) is undetectable. There is not yet an accredited test that can show that an athlete has received an illegal blood transfusion of his/her own blood. Tests only exist for homologous blood doping (tranfusing someone else’s blood).

As you can imagine, homologous blood doping is nowhere near as prevalent as before. So how do anti-doping authorities in cycling, a sport that’s had many high-profile doping cases, monitor autologous blood transfusions in the sport?The UCI and WADA monitor the percentage of red blood cells (hematocrit level) in an athlete. The normal hematocrit level for an adult male is between 41-50. The UCI sets the upper level at 50% for cyclists (anything above 50% is illegal and requires an immediate suspension). Even under these rules, there is room for athletes to continue blood doping (so long as their hematocrit level stays just below 50%).

Whether or not the CVAC pod device can increase an athlete’s hematocrit level to above 50% should play an important role in determining its legality. So there is in fact a way (not a fool-proof way, but still effective) to test for unfair advantage through use of the CVAC pod device, by looking at the hematocrit level of the athlete. The same method that’s currently used to monitor blood doping in cycling.

This blogger takes what one fan already posted here in comments and expands on it. I will say what the blogger doesn't say. It's because of who has used the Pod that the United States tennis establishment has been silent in public. The United States tennis establishment has a vested interest in the player who sits on top of the rankings right now and has for several years.

Not to mention that two of it's rising stars, John Isner and Christina McHale, have publicly acknowledged using the device.If the device is banned I'm wondering when the ban will become effective. Will it be retroactive? I think it should be but it won't. The ATP and WTA have to save face and will pressure WADA not to.

Miscellany

I've seen one source cited by a fellow blogger saying that Caroline Wozniacki has apologized for her "joke" about Rafael Nadal's cramping in front of the press. Damn bloggers trying to cover a story the Grand Poobah's of tennis journalism won't touch and that TPTB at the WTA just wish would go away. I doubt they'd protect any other player the way they're protecting Wozniacki here.

It must have galled the USTA to have to call yesterday's schedule. It cost them beaucoup bucks. We'll see play today come hell or highwater something that can no longer be said lightheartedly given the fires in Texas and the flooding affecting the east coast of the United States.

Tennisheads have been highly critical of Chris Evert's commentating on ESPN2. I for one don't find her any worse than the usual crew. Chris does seem to be taken aback by some of the idiosyncrasies in the modern game but when allowed to talk tennis she is very good. She also looks askance every time Hannah Storm opens her mouth. That shows she is aware of some things no?

What is it about Feliciano Lopez that drives former tennis players and commentators wild? Are they pissed because Judy Murray wasn't lusting after them in public? Why did former great Boris Becker post comments that many considered homophobic on Twitter? I've never quite seen the attraction of F-Lo but he drives people other than me to distraction including Andy Murray's mother. Who is she supposed to lust after? Brad Gilbert? One of the McEnroe brothers? Really?

End Note

I need to understand the logic behind not covering hard courts. When it rains it takes at least forty five minutes to dry and prepare the courts for play. In a dicey weather situation like the one in NYC right now that is valuable time lost.

Apparently the official line about no planned roof for Ashe has expanded. The main line of reasoning is that the stadium is too damn big and has been for some time. The added reason, one that's been around for awhile but that's been whispered but not emphasized is that Ashe and Armstrong are built on a swamp. The stadiums are already sinking and if any refurbishing needs to be done it would involve tearing down and rebuilding new show courts.

If they've known this for years why is it that only now, with the embarrassment of an entire day of Grand Slam play being cancelled Topic A in tennis circles is this now being thrown out for public consumption? I'm sure engineering techniques have advance since the NTC was built and that solutions can be found. The time is past for the USTA's blather. It's time to bring the showcase of United States tennis into the 21st century.

Of Rain Delays, Double Standards and Greed

2011-09-06T12:46:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

***All Play for September 6 has been cancelled***

I've been at the NTC on a rainy day. Martina Hingis was one of the few players practicing in the rain and it was all around miserable. The announcement that day session play had been suspended and that tickets were good the next day was made at 5p. The USTA did all it could to try and avoid having to honor the tickets for the rain out.

I bring that up because the forecast in NYC is for rain and lots of it until Sunday. That's right, Sunday. This is the USTA's worse nightmare for several reasons. Davis Cup play starts next weekend for one. People who have saved to come to the second week of the US Open will be forced to return home to jobs and families. It also highlights the fact that not one of the NTC's showcourts has a roof.
Not even the new Court 17.

I expect any minute now some suit from the USTA will say no one could've anticipated a week of rain. I hope tennisheads call bullshit since the remnants of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Lee have been steadily making its way to the North East and New York City. Sporting events make regular use of long term forecasting so when some intern is forced to go before the cameras to read a statement saying "no one ever expected" pity the intern and rail at the USTA for shortsightedness and stupidity regarding it's show courts. The official line is that Ashe is too big and it's borders too irregular to make adding a roof cost effective. What about the Ashe/Grandstand complex folks?

I know. I'm beating a dead horse again. But it has to be said by someone.

Double Standards

"Golden Girls" fans are familiar with these words.
"Picture this, New York City, 2011". A top tennis player suffers a severe cramp during his post match presser with the Spanish language press. He slides to the floor to help ease the pain. Twitter goes wild as the initial reports say only that there was an "incident" following reports of the player collapsing and speculation that he'd suffered a seizure in some quarters.

Now picture the WTA #1 ranked player coming into her post match presser last evening and mocking the player who had suffered the cramp. That would never happen you say? It did.

Now let's get real. If another player, say Serena Williams for example, did something like this the tennis media would be up in arms. What if, as James LaRosa asked, gasp, Maria Sharapova did what "Sunshine" did? I'm not saying she'd be dragged through the streets like Serena would be but there would be an uproar.
Instead apologists are saying that mystery reporters egged Wozniacki on. This point of view assumes that the egging on was done by those damn bloggers again (forgetting that the US Open rarely if ever gives accreditation to bloggers) or that the WTA #1 is a simpering idiot who does whatever she's told to do and doesn't know when she's being led into a trap.

Side by side with this is Mardy Fish' behavior during his match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Tom Perrotta reported the incident in the Wall Street Journal.

Earlier in the match, Tsonga had complained that someone in the crowd, seemingly near Fish’s guest box, was screaming at him. As the match got away from Fish, he complained to chair umpire Carlos Bernades about noise in Tsonga’s box. Fish was blunt about why he couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“I don’t speak French, you dumb—,” he said to the umpire.

Tsonga and Fish shook hands and spoke at the net after the match, and both said there was nothing between them.

“I probably shouldn’t have said that,” Fish said. “We were fired up.”

“With Mardy, it’s all the time friendly,” Tsonga said. “It’s good.”

I guess being the top ranked American player means you can say whatever you want to whomever you want and pay no consequences. Again, picture the outrage if Serena had said this to a chair umpire. Incandescent would be the proper word to use about press reaction.

I'm trying to avoid saying anything about the scheduling for this US Open but they're making it hard not to. The best matches of the tournament have been on Louis Armstrong and the Grandstand. The gyrations that went into not putting the Samantha Stosur vs Maria Kirilenko match on Ashe make a game of Twister look like nothing. Yet fans were tweeting that people were high tailing it out of Ashe to see the match.

Then there's the schedule for today, September 6. First up, Donald Young's match. Third on Ashe is - wait for it - the Mixed Doubles semi final featuring the team of Melanie Oudin and Jack Sock. Yep. The women's quarter finals are on - I give you one guess. And the USTA wonders why it's so hated. All national tennis organizations try and favor their own players but the USTA goes out of it's way to insult and demean the stars of the sport who are not named Roger Federer. Some of his fans were screaming for his match to be moved to Armstrong last night. As if. The man himself wouldn't have agreed to that move. I've always found that fandoms know their beloved. I was really surprised that The Monogram's fans thought he'd deign to play on Armstrong.

End Note

Still no commentary on air about the CVAC other than to mention that John Isner and Christina McHale have used it. If you haven't please read the comment by "readyplay" about WADA rules. I agree with the conclusion. The Pod meets 2 out of 4 criteria for being banned. I'm going to leave it at that.

Caroline Wozniacki was using some kind of gizmo during her match against Svetlana Kuznetsova last night that no one in the booth had ever seen before. I understand that on ESPN Deportes the comms were saying it was a cell phone like device to receive messages on. ESPN2 comms said it was something to measure string tension. Little brown bottles, mysterious devices? CVAC's? Insulting chair umps? It's not what's done it's who does it.

A Day At The Open

2011-09-03T08:57:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

I made it out to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center this past Thursday. It was the first time I was going to the US Open without having paid for a seat in Ashe. For some reason the matches on Ashe weren't compelling enough for me to pay a king's ransom for the privilege of being baked alive watching a match with a fore drawn conclusion. Even Serena's match wasn't enough to get me into that cavernous stadium. Instead I brought a grounds pass. Since you never know with tennis I wanted the option to go into the nosebleed section in Ashe but all of those were sold out so I got a regular pass that lets you into everywhere but that stadium and off I went.

I should mention that I had newbies with me this trip. This was their first time out to the Open. It's interesting seeing things through a first timer's eyes.

We went to Armstrong first and got seats during the Gael Monfils/Juan Carlos Ferrero match. I'd never seen either man live before and was anxious to see them square off. I figured if Monfils was on it would be at most four sets. Apparently several thousand tennis fans felt this match was compelling enough to sit and bake in the sun for. By the end of the first set there wasn't a seat to be had. I wondered how the talking heads were taking that. Armstrong was packed to the rafters while I had a feeling that Ashe was fairly empty. I found out after I got home that it hadn't gone unnoticed by those whiz kids working for ESPN. A comment was made about the crowd during Roddick's opening match and how it had helped him. It would've been different if it had taken place in a half empty stadium the talking head intoned.

I bore rather quickly these days and after a set and a half I concluded Monfils was not going to beat Ferrero. My friend said that Ferrero was hungrier. He was enjoying the match though and when we left taking his seven year old daughter with us to go watch Andrea Petkovic vs Zheng Jie he went back to watch more of the Monfils match.

Zheng is very small. Smaller than Dominika Cibulkova I'm guessing. That made me appreciate her achievements even more. While Petko is not in the over six feet club it was clear who was going to win the match. Zheng's fighting spirit wasn't enough to prevail and while she did force three sets it wasn't her day.

Have I mentioned I love the Grandstand Court? If I have I'll say it again. It and Armstrong are the best show courts. You can actually see the tennis and that is why you go to Flushing. Whatever decision they make regarding a new stadium at the NTC I hope they make it fan friendly. The monstrosity that carries Arthur Ashe's name is an ode to corporate greed and not to tennis. They should also leave Armstrong and the Grandstand alone. I understand that suits and the corporations they work for help the US Open to be the only profitable sports operation in New York but the other Slams take care of them and understand that fans who save up to make a trip to see their favorites deserve to be able to see the men and women they idolize. They shouldn't be treated like pariahs and banished to the upper reaches of a place like Ashe. The joy of live tennis is seeing the grips, the footwork, the shotmaking up close. You can stay home and watch television.

The next match I saw was one between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Sergei Bubka. Bubka is pretty much a one trick pony. He hits the ball hard but he doesn't do anything else very well. Tsonga wasn't flying high during this match and he didn't need to. There were moments when he played up to his abilities though and when he did it was a glorious sight to see. I kind of soured on him when he did his "no mas" routine a couple of weeks ago but he is one to see live if you can.

There was no need to stay for the third set so we, along with my daughters friend Gian, headed out to Court 7 to see Aleksandr Dolgopolov. This gave my friend and his daughter a chance to see the US Open in all it's jam packed glory. Mind you the Monfils vs Ferrero match was still going on and wherever there were jumbotrons there were people standing or sitting in front of them watching. We found a table calling our name at the Food Court and while Gian and his friend went on to Court 7 we had a few bites to eat. Seven year olds love chicken nuggets and fries and my daughter got ribs. Neither one of them complained about the food so I'm guessing it was edible.

I should mention that I'm glad the US Open doesn't make you hide the water you bring in from the outside. When I was there last they made you remove the labels from your non Evian water and you had to hide your food. They don't enforce that nonsense anymore. Judging by the lines at the food court and beverage carts I don't think they lose any money. Then again people buy the large Evian bottle - the one with the red top - and refill at the water fountains.

They went on to Court 7 while I stopped and watched the jumbotron outside of Ashe along with several hundred other people. It was the fifth set and Gael, who had waved off a concerned trainer once, got another visit from him a few minutes later and this time he didn't wave the man off. There was little doubt who was going to win at that point but I got distracted by Tennis Channel's Cari Champion and her film crew walking by. She is tall and was wearing wedgies that were at least four inches. She looked cool, calm and collected in the late afternoon sun and once she was past me I headed for Dolgopolov's match. He was playing Flavio Cipolla. There is always a lot of churn on the outer courts and oftentimes you end up watching players you're not that interested in because you can see the mechanics of their games and why some will never be the superstars they dream of being.

But back to Dolgo. He is very slight, much slighter than I thought he was. The thing that struck me about his game was his service motion. I never noticed how odd it is. He twists his body and unwinds into it. That's the best way I can describe it. His ground strokes are good though and he won the first two sets against a totally frustrated, racquet throwing Cipolla. Figuring Dolgo had this match in the bag we turned to Court 6 where Melanie Oudin and Jack Sock were playing. Of course they'd drawn a decent crowd. Melanie is small. And she knew enough to let Jack Sock carry their team. I'm through slagging on Melanie though. She was thrown to the wolves by a United States tennis establishment fiending for the next blonde thing. It's a hell of a lot to ask a seventeen year old. I wouldn't want that kind of pressure on myself and I'm old. We watched for a few minutes and then headed back towards the Grandstand to see Sloane Stephens who had won her first set in spectacular fashion.

We never made it. My friend got distracted by the music and we sat down. Sloane didn't appear to be doing so well in the second set and with a bone tired seven year old in tow it just didn't make sense to join the line to get into the Grandstand. We were all stunned to find out Dolgo had managed to lose two sets to Cipolla. He won but that must've been one hell of a walkabout. We were also quite pissed at ourselves when Sloane pulled out the second set.

I don't graze like I used to so while my daughter got a frozen Cosmo from the Gray Goose stand - she loves their product - my friend got an expresso and a brownie and we listened to music.

My other regret was that I didn't get to see Court 17. God willing, and barring earthquakes and hurricanes I hope to get over there next year. I hear nothing but good things about watching matches there.

The US Open is still a fun, and expensive, tournament but as a tennishead I wouldn't dream of being anywhere else for at least a day at the end of August. As my friend said when we were leaving "This isn't a tennis tournament. It's a festival."
Indeed it is.

I Don't Know What My Path Will Be...

2011-09-02T10:52:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

The news that Venus Williams withdrew from the US Open minutes before her match was set to begin sent shockwaves through the tennis community. Venus had warmed up, was dressed for her match and all seemed well before she withdrew.

Shortly after her withdrawal her publicist issued a statement that gave the reason, Sjogrens Syndrome. Like many who had never heard of the condition I Googled it and found out that it is an auto immune disease that affects four million people in this country, mostly women, and that no ethnic or racial group is exempt from it.
I also read that it takes up to seven years for the proper diagnosis to be given.
Many first reactions were that due to Venus being a top athlete her diagnosis had to have taken less than seven years but when everyone had calmed down some were talking about Venus diagnosis of anemia a few years back and realized that the diagnosis may have taken longer than we initially thought.
There is no need to guess about how long the diagnosis took though. That most private of persons gave an interview to Good Morning America where she explains her symptoms, how long the diagnosis took, and how it's too soon for her to know how she feels about it.
I thank tennishead Omess for directing me to the video of the interview
There is no cure for the syndrome and doctors can only treat the symptoms. Venus sounds optimistic about returning to tennis and as a long time fan I hope that she can. I'm sure that since she wants to return to the sport she loves there is no need to counsel her to follow her doctors counsel. I look forward to the day when Venus symptoms have subsided and she can come back to her sport.

It's Showtime

2011-08-29T08:45:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

2011 US Open Men's Singles Draw

Novak Djokovic SRB (1) v Q CONOR NILAND
Pere Riba ESP v Carlos Berlocq ARG
Potito Starace ITA v Michael Berrer GER
Nikolay Davydenko RUS v Ivan Dodig CRO (32)

Alexandr Dolgopolov UKR (22) v Frederico Gil POR
Kei Nishikori JPN v Flavio Cipolla ITA
Ivo Karlovic CRO v Fernando Gonzalez CHI
Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR v Richard Gasquet FRA (13)

Tomas Berdych CZE (9) v Q ROMAIN JOUAN
Fabio Fognini ITA v Horacio Zeballos ARG
Philipp Petzschner GER v Albert Ramos ESP
Q AUGUSTIN GENSSE v Janko Tipsarevic SRB (20)

Marcel Granollers ESP (31) v Xavier Malisse BEL
Mikhail Kukushkin KAZ v Albert Montanes ESP
Pablo Andujar ESP v Juan Carlos Ferrero ESP
Grigor Dimitrov BUL v Gael Monfils FRA (7)

Roger Federer SUI (3) v Santiago Giraldo COL
Dudi Sela ISR v Thomaz Bellucci BRA
Q MICHAEL YANI v Bernard Tomic AUS
Ryan Harrison USA v Marin Cilic CRO (27)

Radek Stepanek CZE (23) v Philipp Kohlschreiber GER
Juan Monaco ARG v Andreas Seppi ITA
Tommy Haas GER v Q Jonathan Dasnieres De Veigy
Alejandro Falla COL v Viktor Troicki SRB (15)

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA (11) v Yen-Hsun Lu TPE
Andreas Haider-Maurer AUT v Q SERGEI BUBKA
Q MARSEL ILHAN v Q FRANK DANCEVIC
Jarkko Nieminen FIN v Fernando Verdasco ESP (19)

Michael Llodra FRA (29) v Victor Hanescu ROU
Kevin Anderson RSA v Q GO SOEDA
Q MALEK JAZIRI v Thiemo de Bakker NED
Tobias Kamke GER v Mardy Fish USA (8)

Robin Soderling SWE (6) v Q LOUK SORENSEN
Alex Bogomolov Jr. USA v Steve Johnson USA
Robby Ginepri USA v Q JOAO SOUZA
Marcos Baghdatis CYP v John Isner USA (28)

Juan Martin Del Potro ARG (18) v Filippo Volandri ITA
Diego Junqueira ARG v Karol Beck SVK
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ESP v Daniel Gimeno-Traver ESP
Ricardo Mello BRA v Gilles Simon FRA (12)

Stanislas Wawrinka SUI (14) v Maximo Gonzalez ARG
Donald Young USA vLL LUKAS LACKO
Dmitry Tursunov RUS v Steve Darcis BEL
Marinko Matosevic AUS v Juan Ignacio Chela ARG (24)

Feliciano Lopez ESP (25) v Tatsuma Ito JPN
Q VASEK POSPISIL v Lukas Rosol CZE
Rui Machado POR v Robin Haase NED
Somdev Devvarman IND v Andy Murray GBR (4)

David Ferrer ESP (5) v Igor Andreev RUS
James Blake USA v Q JESSE HUTA GALUNG
Olivier Rochus BEL v Q JEAN RENE LISNARD
Adrian Mannarino FRA v Florian Mayer GER (26)

Andy Roddick USA (21) v Michael Russell USA
Jack Sock USA v Marc Gicquel FRA
Denis Istomin UZB v Ryan Sweeting USA
Julien Benneteau FRA v Nicolas Almagro ESP (10)

Mikhail Youzhny RUS (16) v Ernests Gulbis LAT
Edouard Roger-Vasselin FRA v Gilles Muller LUX
Matthias Bachinger GER v Igor Kunitsyn RUS
Eric Prodon FRA v Jurgen Melzer AUT (17)

Ivan Ljubicic CRO (30) v Blaz Kavcic SLO
Bobby Reynolds USA v David Nalbandian ARG
Nicolas Mahut FRA v Q ROBERT FARAH
Andrey Golubev KAZ v Rafael Nadal ESP (2)

2011 US Open Women's Singles Main Draw

Caroline Wozniacki DEN (1) v Nuria Llagostera Vives ESP
Arantxa Rus NED v Elena Vesnina RUS
Vania King USA v Greta Arn HUN
Iveta Benesova CZE v Jarmila Gajdosova AUS (29)

Daniela Hantuchova SVK (21) v Pauline Parmentier FRA
Akgul Amanmuradova UZB v Tamira Paszek AUT
Jamie Hampton USA v Elena Baltacha GBR
Sara Errani ITA v Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS (15)

Andrea Petkovic GER (10) v (Q) Ekaterina Bychkova RUS
(Q) Vitalia Diatchenko RUS v Jie Zheng CHN
Casey Dellacqua AUS v Alize Cornet FRA
Irina-Camelia Begu ROU v Roberta Vinci ITA (18)

Kaia Kanepi EST (31) v Tamarine Tanasugarn THA
Kimiko Date-Krumm JPN v (Q) Silvia Soler-Espinosa ESP
Mathilde Johansson FRA v Carla Suarez Navarro ESP
Simona Halep ROU v Na Li CHN (6)

Victoria Azarenka BLR (4) v Johanna Larsson SWE
Rebecca Marino CAN v Gisela Dulko ARG
(Q) Michaella Krajicek NED v Eleni Daniilidou GRE
Bojana Jovanovski SRB v Serena Williams USA (28)

Shahar Peer ISR (23) v Sania Mirza IND
(Q) Reka-Luka Jani HUN v Sloane Stephens USA
Evgeniya Rodina RUS v Petra Cetkovska CZE
Ksenia Pervak RUS v Ana Ivanovic SRB (16)

Jelena Jankovic SRB (11) v Alison Riske USA
Jelena Dokic AUS v Olga Govortsova BLR
Petra Martic CRO v Barbora Zahlavova Strycova CZE
Anna Tatishvili GEO v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS (17)

Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez ESP (32) v Mona Barthel GER
Chanelle Scheepers RSA v Anne Keothavong GBR
Mirjana Lucic CRO v (Q) Marina Erakovic NZL
(Q) Galina Voskoboeva KAZ v Francesca Schiavone ITA (7)

Petra Kvitova CZE (5) v Alexandra Dulgheru ROU
Patricia Mayr-Achleitner AUT v Monica Niculescu ROU
Jill Craybas USA v Madison Keys USA
Magdalena Rybarikova SVK v Lucie Safarova CZE (27)

Yanina Wickmayer BEL (20) v Sorana Cirstea ROU
Alla Kudryavtseva RUS v Anastasia Rodionova AUS
Lauren Davis USA v Angelique Kerber GER
(Q) Urszula Radwandska POL v Agnieszka Radwanska POL (12)

Shuai Peng CHN (13) v Varvara Lepchenko USA
Virginie Razzano FRA v Tsvetana Pironkova BUL
Misaki Doi JPN v Laura Pous-Tio ESP
Kristina Barrois GER v Julia Goerges GER (19)

Flavia Pennetta ITA (26) v Aravane Rezai FRA
Melanie Oudin USA v (Q) Romina Oprandi ITA
Anastasiya Yakimova BLR v (Q) Noppawan Lertcheewakarn THA
Heather Watson GBR v Maria Sharapova RUS (3)

Marion Bartoli FRA (8) v (Q) Alexandra Panova RUS
Christina McHale USA v (Q) Aleksandra Wozniak CAN
Vera Dushevina RUS v Anastasija Sevastova LAT
Ekaterina Makarova RUS v Maria Kirilenko RUS (25)

Nadia Petrova RUS (24) v (Q) Yung-Jan Chan TPE
Bethanie Mattek-Sands USA v Polona Hercog SLO
Coco Vandeweghe USA v Alberta Brianti ITA
Sofia Arvidsson SWE v Samantha Stosur AUS (9)

Dominika Cibulkova SVK (14) v Shuai Zhang CHN
Klara Zakopalova CZE v Irina Falconi USA
Vesna Dolonts RUS v Venus Williams USA
Alona Bondarenko UKR v Sabine Lisicki GER (22)

Anabel Medina Garrigues ESP (30) v (Q) Karin Knapp ITA
(Q) Laura Robson GBR v Ayumi Morita JPN
Lucie Hradecka CZE v Kateryna Bondarenko UKR
(Q) Stephanie Foretz Gacon FRA v Vera Zvonareva RUS (2)

I was debating whether to do a write up on the draws this year. I always end up writing the same things and frankly it's boring. I mean how many times can you write that Maria Sharapova is being kept away from anyone who on paper should be able to disrupt her march to the "business end" of the tournament to steal a phrase. This year they've outdone themselves.

Shuai Peng CHN (13) v Varvara Lepchenko USA
Virginie Razzano FRA v Tsvetana Pironkova BUL
Misaki Doi JPN v Laura Pous-Tio ESP
Kristina Barrois GER v Julia Goerges GER (19)

Flavia Pennetta ITA (26) v Aravane Rezai FRA
Melanie Oudin USA v (Q) Romina Oprandi ITA
Anastasiya Yakimova BLR v (Q) Noppawan Lertcheewakarn THA
Heather Watson GBR v Maria Sharapova RUS (3)

Heather Watson is a promising British junior. So is Noppawan Lertcheewakarn. Yakimova has been kicking around the ITF circuit. Aravane and Flavia have not had good years. Oprandi just fought her way through qualifying. I'm leaving Melanie alone.

Peng Shuai has a nagging hip injury. Lepchenko is, you got it, a junior. Goerges has not done well on hardcourts this year. Misaki Doi has played well this summer but she's going to have to do really well to do any damage. Barrois and Pous-Tio shouldn't be able to do any damage either. Razzano is grieving. As for Tsvetana Pironkova will she get out of her section and threaten Sharapova? She can if she wants to but unless you put Venus Williams in front of her she can't be bothered.

Sharapova is also in the bottom half of the draw far, far away from someone named Serena Williams. Don't kid yourself. All that screaming and yelling about seeding Serena #8 was to try and make sure that she didn't face Sharapova early. Apparently Victoria Azarenka drew the short straw and is seeded to face Serena. Wonder who she pissed off?

The worriers could've saved themselves some drama. Why ask the USTA to break with tradition and seed Serena so high when they have their own way of doing things that they've gotten away with for a long time. If Kim Clijsters had played she'd have been the recipient of an even kinder section than Sharapova.

Anyway draws are hypothetical portrayals of what will happen once the tournament is underway. It's always nice to have the original draw as a reference once the second week is underway.

Who are the favorites? The pundits say Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. What do I say? I find it amusing that the top two seeds are on no one's list of finalists.

Miscellany

Mention weird egg shaped devices and most of us who keep up with popular culture will think of Lady Gaga's entrance into an award show writhing around inside of an egg shaped something or another.

I'd like you to turn your attention to the thingy featured in this Wall Street Journal article and how it relates to men's tennis. Some highlights from the article.

Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic hasn't earned his No. 1 ranking by taking the conventional road. There's his odd ritual of excessive ball bouncing before serves, which can break an opponent's concentration. There's his new gluten-free diet, which he's said has helped him feel stronger on the court.

But now there's something truly weird: the CVAC Pod.

Ever since last year's U.S. Open, Djokovic has been trying to improve his fitness by climbing into a rare $75,000 egg-shaped, bobsled-sized pressure chamber.

The machine, which is made by a California-based company called CVAC Systems and hasn't been banned by any sports governing bodies, is one of only 20 in the world. Unlike the increasingly trendy $5,000 hyperbaric chambers many professional athletes use to saturate the blood with oxygen and stimulate healing, the CVAC is a considerably more-ambitious contraption. It uses a computer-controlled valve and a vacuum pump to simulate high altitude and compress the muscles at rhythmic intervals.
(...)
Djokovic has never mentioned the pod publicly before. He acknowledged using it for the first time last week during a sponsor event in New York after he was asked about it for this article.
(...)
While pod users don't do much beyond sitting while they are inside (cellphone use is permitted), CVAC Systems chief executive Allen Ruszkowski says the treatment seems to have many of the same effects on the body as intense exercise. He claims that the technology may be twice as effective at helping the body absorb oxygen as blood doping—a banned form of performance enhancement.

I assume a certain level of reading comprehension from my readers so I'm going to leave you to draw your own conclusions about this device. I also want to single out this section including a quote from Patrick McEnroe.

In 2006 the World Anti-Doping Agency ruled that such oxygen tents enhance performance and violate "the spirit of sport," but did not add them to the list of banned substances and methods, saying they would wait until further studies were conducted.

Patrick McEnroe, the USTA's general manager of player development, says he's skeptical that any such contraption could have much impact on tennis performance. "I don't really take this stuff particularly seriously," says McEnroe, noting that Djokovic has not only improved his fitness this year but has also fixed key problems in his game, revamping his serve and developing a newly devastating forehand. "Maybe there are a few things that have helped (Djokovic) mentally, but let's remember that before he tried his gluten-free diet or went into a hyperbaric chamber he had already won a Grand Slam and beat Roger Federer."

Lou Lamoriello, the general manager of the NHL's New Jersey Devils, says he attended a presentation last year with his coaching staff in which Uehling cited Djokovic's defeat of Roger Federer in the 2010 U.S. Open semifinal as evidence of the CVAC unit's effectiveness.

End Notes

I made it out to the Qualifying Tournament for the first time ever. If you live in the New York City area and can get a few days off it's worth your while to make it out to the BJK National Tennis Center and take advantage of the free admission to see some of the up and coming players as well as the stars who can be seen wandering the grounds without phalanxes of security. Of course the first day I was there an earthquake hit the NYC area. I was almost thrown from the bench I was sitting on while watching Galina Voskoboeva play. She doesn't look so much like Pironkova in person but she is someone to keep your eye on. She was playing a young woman from Bolivia Maria Fernanda Alvarez Teran, who can hit the snot out of the ball and move but needs to work on her fitness. She had a good run at a tournament earlier this year but when there's more jiggle in your thighs than mine it's time to get to work.

I left earthquake day for fear of aftershocks but went back out on Friday. Unfortunately the humidity generated by the approaching storm did me in and I couldn't stay too long.

Still it was fun and did I mention the word "FREE"? Ironically when I was there I didn't get to see who I wanted on the practice courts. I got to see Stan Wawrinka and Alex Bogomolov Jr. as well as Viktor Troicki. Troicki is much bigger than he appears on television. The guy next to me kept telling people it was Janko Tipsarevic although there wasn't a tattoo in sight. I almost got to see Roger Federer but the crush of people with little kids running into your legs was too much for me.

The State of the WTA

2011-08-21T14:33:00.000-05:00

Most "state of" analyses of tennis take place after a major. I'm doing mine before the start of the United States Open on August 29th because there have been tectonic shifts in the conversation around women's tennis and most of it has to do with the woman pictured above.

The WTA top ten is as follows.

1 Wozniacki, Caroline 11/07/90 DEN 9915 22
2 Zvonareva, Vera 07/09/84 RUS 7045 21
3 Clijsters, Kim 08/06/83 BEL 6726 15
4 Azarenka, Victoria 31/07/89 BLR 6390 21
5 Li, Na 26/02/82 CHN 5671 18
6 Kvitova, Petra 08/03/90 CZE 5561 21
7 Sharapova, Maria 19/04/87 RUS 5446 14
8 Schiavone, Francesca 23/06/80 ITA 4955 21
9 Bartoli, Marion 02/10/84 FRA 4325 26
10 Stosur, Samantha 30/03/84 AUS 3775 21

Lets take a brief look at the top female tennis players starting with Samantha Stosur.

I have to be frank. I've never understood all the hoopla about Samantha. Yes she's made the transition from a doubles player to a competent singles player but I'm at a loss for all the adulation and rapturous cyberink spent on touting her as the second coming. I wonder if she was from any country other than Australia the Grand Poobahs would be so busy pumping her status up as the next big thing. Tennisheads all know that Stosur is the best Australian player right now and someone in the axis has to have a Big Star. It's obvious that the best of Britain so far is faltering and France, well, the less said the better.

Australia is so desperate to have a star that all of the drama between Bernard Tomic and his family is being swept under the rug and there is a lot chatter about Tomic's new found maturity and dedication to the game. Kind of the same thing that's being done regarding United States player Ryan Harrison.

But this is a WTA post. To my knowledge Stosur has never thrown a racquet, verbally assaulted a chair umpire or engaged in any conduct detrimental to tennis. It's clear that the hype is putting pressure on her and the hype machine needs to back off. I think if they did she could relax and play her game without worrying about the critiques that will come afterward. She could move up a couple of places if that would happen.

Marion Bartoli

I'm surprised that Marion has never really capitalized on her talent. Of course this could have to do with her almost constant brawling with the French Federation and her unorthodox style and her fathers unorthodox approach to fitness and play. When Marion's game is on it's on. She's slimmed down a great deal and can move much better than she used to.

I have to question the necessity of all the jumping up and down and gesticulating between points. The last match I saw Marion play she visibly flagged after playing a tough set. When the between point stuff stopped so did her game. I think she's ranked right about where she should be this year. the tennis press tends to ignore Maid Marion and allows her to fly under the radar. All of that works to her advantage.

Francesca Schiavone

The question is what the hell is this old broad doing in the WTA top ten at this stage of her career? The answer is she's there because she knows how to play tennis. Not slap the ball around, screaming and grunting all the time although she does make a bit of noise, but how to think and strategize on the fly, something that is an asset and very rare among the younger generation. She's not going to win all the time but you'll know you've been in a match after playing her. She doesn't let go of your throat easily as her coach knows.

It's the intangibles she brings that make her one of the women who can go deep at the US Open.

Maria Sharapova

Maria is still one of the most polarizing figures in tennis. Despite the kinder, gentler, giggly about her fiancé Maria the Siberian Ban Sidhe is still in residence and as determined as ever to regain her spot at the top of the game.

When pressured Maria can still make double faults and while her movement has improved no one would call her a gazelle on the courts. Pressure also causes brain freeze with her and she isn't the confident figure she makes herself out to be when that happens. She's added a beautifully disguised drop shot to her repertoire and this can help her with her movement issues since she'll catch her opponents off guard.

The draw is all important to Maria's chances of making the second week in New York. She's been given cupcake draws and well hidden within the draw in the past but this year I think the USTA is going to have to produce a more competitive draw for all seeded players, top to bottom. Can she make the semi's? If things align in her favor there's no reason why she can't. Is she a top ten player? Are any of them?

Petra Kvitova

I believe Petra really suffers from asthma. This will hinder her during the US summer hard court swing and prevent her from playing at her best. Her two performances this summer in the States have been disappointing. That she's now perceived as a threat by her peers is putting it mildly. I think we'll see her treated as such by the makers of random draws and especially those in New York.

Kvitova is experiencing the pressure a top tier player has to face and I don't think it'll make dealing with her asthma easier. When she is relaxed she's a joy to watch if you like Big Babe tennis. As a Big Babe she doesn't move well either and that can be a liability for her going forward unless she develops a shot that will keep her opponents off balance and allow her to get in position for a good return. Can she win the big one? She won Wimbledon. It felt weird writing that.

Li Na

It's amazing how this personality has been muted by the WTA press machine. It wasn't until this years Australian Open that the world at large got to know Li Na. There are a thousand reasons why, all negative, so I won't go into them here. Suffice it to say Li is another old broad who knows how to play tennis. The American comms like to make a big deal about endorsements and how she's surpassed Sharapova in the monetary value of her deals but they talk very little about how she managed to win a Grand Slam title this year. It could be said that she almost won two and would have if nerves and the newness of being in a Slam final hadn't gotten to her in Melbourne.
I thought that she was fueled by anger in Melbourne but that it had dissipated somewhat when she got to Paris. It's interesting how her former coach Thomas Hogstedt is being touted as a near genius by the American tennis establishment and not a word is spoken about his association with Li Na. I'm just saying.

If Li can control her emotions and play the mental game of tennis like she did in Australia and France she will continue to be a force to be reckoned with in women's tennis. Like Kvitova she's got a target on her back and is no longer considered fodder in a draw. Still she's a Grand Slam Champion and somehow I think she has it in mind to be more than a one time champion.

Victoria Azarenka

No one with the amount of junk food Azarenka carries in her tennis bag can stay mentally or physically focused over a long period of time. If you think I'm kidding about her junk food watch her Bag Check on Tennis Channel. I'm not sure if the Bag Checks are on YoutTube or not but Tennis Channel posts them on their website.

I'm not a revisionist when it comes to bad behavior on court. I'm tired of Andy Roddick's petulance on court as well as his apologies afterwards. This is learned behavior and he's probably been getting away with it since he was two. Azarenka has been advised to cut the shit and she hasn't gone after a chair umpire or had a complete breakdown on court in a long while now but I still think that in the end she doesn't have the temperament to win a major. Not that she doesn't want to but her knowledge of the game is severely lacking and like many of her generation of players she's incapable of thinking and constructing points while playing. She can overpower lesser opponents but when she starts playing more experienced players she shows up mentally fragile.

I'm always stunned at her ranking. I remain so.

Kim Clijsters

I have to admit I was surprised that Kim withdrew from the US Open. I thought she was doing her usual and trying to come into New York as the most rested player. She's done this the last couple of years and with the help of a soft draw has been able to go deep.

Kim is not only out of the Open. She announced earlier this year that she was not going to Japan, something the tennis press seems to have missed hearing since they're acting as if this is the first she's said she would miss at least some of the Asian swing. She's also announced that 2012 will be her last year playing competitively.

I'm not a fan of her style of play but that doesn't mean she doesn't deserve her ranking. Like everyone else she is ranked where she is mostly because of where she's played and how deep she's been able to get when she plays. I don't think her style will leave a lasting impression on the game.

Vera Zvonareva

Last night, for one glorious set, Vera Zvonareva showed why she is ranked number two in the WTA. There was pinpoint accuracy in her shot making and she moved with ease around the court frustrating her fellow Russian Maria Sharapova. The ESPN commentators swooned when Thomas Hogstedt told his player that Bepa wouldn't play like that for long and Bepa set out to prove him right. It was as if Vera forgot what to do on court, forgot what she'd done the first set and that gave Sharapova the opening she needed. In no time Sharapova won the next two sets and the match.

Is it any wonder people ask how Vera is ranked #2 in the world? She didn't ask for her coach, to her credit, but she totally lost the plot. The way she played last night it's a wonder she's in the top ten let alone the top three.

Then again Sharapova does not like losing to Russians and she will fight tooth and nail to make sure she beats them. Is it because the Russian's are all headcases unable to fight their way through a match? I don't know. I do know that Vera can and has played better than she did last night. Her mental collapses in big matches are becoming legendary and overshadow her wins.

Caroline Wozniacki

Where do I start? She has played the most matches, defeated many lower ranked players, and the CEO of the WTA calls her "Sunshine".
She is friends with all the top players including the Williams women, and hasn't met a photo op she doesn't like. The male dominated ranks of tennis journalists love her to death (it's not quite Ana Ivanovic worship but it's close) and she has a fan base that simply adores her.

So why is it when you mention her name you get side eyes, rolling eyes, hands thrown in the air, sucked teeth and facepalms? As I said she does have her fans but they sometimes get drowned out in the screaming.

She's a "pusher". Not of drugs but in her style of play. Offense seems to be, well, offensive to her and it drives many people up the wall including her opponents who often end up at a loss to explain how she beat them. It doesn't help that the commentators and the WTA think she walks on water. It's never good when your professional association gives you a nick name and makes it clear that you're the favorite, the new face of the sport. They did this to Sharapova too if you recall. Many fans still can't stand her because of the overt favoritism that came her way.

Be that as it may there's new drama around her regarding her coaching situation. Apparently her father, Victor or Piotr, whichever you prefer, is not coaching her anymore. People have been quick to say that Caroline wants to take her tennis in a new direction and that Victor/Piotr has agreed he's not the man to take her there. There's also a lot of blather about her and a pro golfer.

Personally I wonder if Victor/Piotr has stepped down for other reasons. The tennis press in the United States has not had much to say about Mr Wozniacki's name change and I have never heard them even mention it. The Danish press strongly hinted that there are reasons the man legally known as Victor Krason might want to use the name he was given at birth when working with his daughter. The only American to cover this was Christopher Clarey of the New York Times.

As you all know I can find a conspiracy in opening a newspaper so maybe I'm just being overly suspicious. It doesn't help that the Krason/Wozniacki family is playing games with who the new coach will be. It leads me to suspect that the stepping down has nothing to do with Caroline's desire to play more offensively and that her father had to step down quickly.

There is also talk of a power struggle between the golfer Caroline is said to be dating and her father. That gets an eye roll from me. Professional athletes don't make changes when someone has been in their life all of five minutes. Between her agents, her management company and the WTA I don't think there's a lot of room for the "fuck all of you" school of pro tennis.

Keep in mind I have no idea of what is really going on. The above is idle speculation on my part.

No report on the state of the WTA is complete without discussing one Miss Serena Williams. When she made her return in Europe I said that if she comes back and lays waste to the WTA it wouldn't be the brightest hour for the WTA. Serena wasn't physically ready to come back then and the rust was literally dripping from her. That is not the case now.

Serena has gotten herself to #31 in the rankings, high enough to be a seed at the US Open. There are a lot of people arguing that the US Open should do like Wimbledon does and give Serena a higher seed. It's not that all of these people are suddenly in love with Serena Williams. It's because as a lower seed she is tantamount to a dangerous floater and can take out some of the blonde ponytailed darlings the WTA relentlessly promotes early in the tournament. Ranking her among the top ten would seem to insure that she faces qualifiers and wild cards as well as lower ranked players and wouldn't meet one of the darlings until the second week.

In other words they're scared shitless of Serena continuing her rampage through the ranks of the WTA. Rank her higher they're screaming or there will be chaos! Bonuses and television rankings depend on certain darlings making it to the second week. We can't have this old woman beating up the little kids and taking their lunch money can we?

I still think Serena is not 100%. She was breathing heavily in her later matches in both Toronto and Stanford. It's going to be a hard road for her in New York if the Open takes place in typical NYC August weather. But I don't underestimate her will to win. She will also have a day off between each match that will probably help.

The state of the WTA depends on the physical condition of Serena Williams. And that's the truth.

The Silence is Deafening

2011-08-16T10:51:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

Notice it? ESPN's report on the statistical probability of the last ten US Open draws being random hit like a Mike Tyson punch to the jaw of the USTA. Sure the man who runs the draw made a weak response saying "not us" but the report stands and anyone looking at it with an open mind can't help but agree with the conclusion reached by the authors of the study.

Here is the statistical data.

Men's Grand Slam Percent of draw simula-tions as easy as actual draws
Australian 71.2%
French 69.5%
Wimbledon 37.0%
U.S. Open 0.3%

Women's Grand Slam Percent of draw simula-tions as easy as actual draws
Australian 94.7%
French 99.2%
Wimbledon 30.7%
U.S. Open 0.0%

Since Wimbledon uses their own system there is no cause for alarm that their percentages are low. They admit that their system isn't random and the simulations prove that.

The probability that the US Open draws for the last ten years have been random is, to put it mildly, non existant.

As regular readers know I've taken the position for years that draws have been rigged to favor certain players. It was always amazing to me that some players were given cup cake draws while others had to fight tooth and nail to get to the quarter finals where they would arrive battered and bruised, barely able to crawl on court while a favored opponent waltzed on court fresh as a daisy.

There is an old canard about statistics and lies but let me say this. Does anyone think ESPN rushed this report out without having more than one geek review it? Would ESPN stake it's reputation on a report attacking the reputation of one of the pillars of American sports? Don't you think that ESPN knows that the report calls into question the validity of certain players "dominance" of the event, an event it spends beaucoup bucks to broadcast? This is old news to me but it's sent some fans over the edge.

The overwhelming fan response has been to call bullshit, that the basic assumptions of the study have to be wrong. On one fan site where posters have the option of flying their country's flag the overwhelming majority of posters flying the stars and stripes have said the report is garbage. Others have just called bullshit because they don't believe this could be true.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. Anything done via a computer program can be made to reflect the will of the person or organization requesting the work. Anyone who has worked in an office can tell you how easy it is for a programmer to make sure a desired result comes out of an analysis. It's not quite garbage in, garbage out but say the desired result is that Player X make the final relatively unscathed. When the computer spits out the "random" draw lo and behold Player X is playing qualifiers and juniors trying to break into the Main Tour while Player Y is facing Murderer's Row.

Examples? Let's look at the 2007 US Open ATP draw.

(1)Roger Federer vs Jenkins (Q)
Schuettler (Q) vs Capdeville (Q)
Ascione (Q) vs De Voest (Q)
[WC] John Isner USA vs.Jarkko Nieminen FIN (26)

(21) Juan Carlos Ferrero ESP vs. Feliciano Lopez ESP
Robert Kendrick USA vs. Igor Andreev RUS
[WC] Donald Young USA vs. Chris Guccione AUS
Sergio Roitman ARG vs. Richard Gasquet FRA (13)

(9) Tomas Berdych CZE vs. Marc Gicquel FRA
Simone Bolelli ITA vs. Julien Benneteau FRA
Gilles Simon FRA vs. Waske(Q)
Fernando Verdasco ESP vs. Paul-Henri Mathieu FRA (22)

(32) Ivo Karlovic CRO vs. Arnaud Clement FRA
Thomas Johansson SWE vs. Nicolas Massu CHI
Jose Acasuso ARG vs. Martin Vassallo Arguello ARG
Justin Gimelstob USA vs. Andy Roddick USA (5)

(4) NikolayDavydenkoRUS vs. [WC] Jesse Levine USA
Nicolas Kiefer GER vs. Vincent Spadea USA
Peter Luczak AUS vs. Luis Horna PER
[WC] Alex Kuznetsov USA vs. NicolasAlmagro ESP (28)

(19) AndyMurray GBR vs. Cuevas (Q)
Juan-Pablo Guzman ARG vs. Jonas Bjorkman SWE
Dominik Hrbaty SVK vs. Hyung-Taik Lee KOR
Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo ESP vs. Guillermo Canas ARG (14)

(10) Tommy Haas GER vs. Darcis (Q)
Benjamin Becker GER vs. Petzchsner (Q)
Paul Goldstein USA vs. Sebastien Grosjean FRA
Max Mirnyi BLR vs. Marcos Baghdatis CYP (18)

(29) Filippo Volandri ITA vs. Michael Llodra FRA
Stefan Koubek AUT vs. Sam Querrey USA
Fabrice Santoro FRA vs. Albert Montanes ESP
Michael Russell USA vs. James Blake USA (6)

(8) TommyRobredo ESP vs. Reynolds (LL)
Mardy Fish USA vs. Echagaray (Q)
Przyziezny (Q) vs. Michael Berrer GER
Ernests Gulbis LAT vs. PotitoStarace ITA (30)

(17) CarlosMoya ESP vs. Phau (Q)
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ESP vs. Igor Kunitsyn RUS
Mariano Zabaleta ARG vs. Philipp Kohlschreiber GER
Nicolas Devilder FRA vs. Mikhail Youzhny RUS (11)

(16) Lleyton Hewitt AUS vs. Amer Delic USA
Andreas Seppi ITA vs. Agustin Calleri ARG
Sela (Q) vs. Nicolas Lapentti ECU
Edouard Roger-Vasselin FRA vs. Juan Monaco ARG (23)

(31) Jurgen Melzer AUT vs. Diego Hartfield ARG
Juan Martin del Potro ARG vs. Nicolas Mahut FRA
Carlos Berlocq ARG vs. Radek Stepanek CZE
Mario Ancic CRO vs.Novak Djokovic SRB (3)

l(7) Fernando Gonzalez CHI vs. Teimuraz Gabashvili RUS
Robby Ginepri USA vs. Olivier Rochus BEL
Stanislas Wawrinka SUI vs. Evgeny Korolev RUS
Dancevic(Q) vs. Marat Safin RUS (25)

(20) Juan Ignacio Chela ARG vs. [WC] Michael McClune USA
Danai Udomchoke THA vs. [WC] Wayne Odesnik USA
Pavel(Q) vs Meffert (Q)
Kristof Vliegen BEL vs. Ivan Ljubicic CRO (12)

(15) David Ferrer ESP vs. Florian Mayer GER
Florent Serra FRA vs. Werner Eschauer AUT
Xavier Malisse BEL vs. Kristian Pless DEN
Ivan Navarro Pastor ESP vs. David Nalbandian ARG (24)

(27) Dmitry Tursunov RUS vs. Tim Henman GBR
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA vs. Oscar Hernandez ESP
Janko Tipsarevic SRB vs. [WC] Ryan Sweeting USA
[WC] Alun Jones AUS vs. Rafael Nadal ESP (2)

Luck of the Draw everyone said when questions were raised about the top half of the draw. Ironically this is the draw that is mentioned in the report for the men.

Here is the women's draw for the same year, 2007

(1) HENIN, Justine (BEL)vs QUALIFIER,
POUTCHKOVA, Olga RUS vs QUALIFIER,
QUALIFIER, vs SCHRUFF, Julia GER
QUALIFIER, vs (28) SUGIYAMA, Ai JPN

(17) GOLOVIN, Tatiana FRA vs ROLLE, Ahsha USA
CHAN, Yung-Jan TPE vs KNAPP, Karin ITA
RUANO PASCUAL, Virginia ESP vs BONDARENKO, Kateryna UKR
CASTANO, Catalina COL vs (15) SAFINA, Dinara RUS

(10) BARTOLI, Marion FRA vs (WC)GLATCH, Alexa USA
ERRANI, Sara ITA vs QUALIFIER,
PETKOVIC, Andrea GER vs (WC)COHEN, Audra USA
(WC)MOORE, Jessica AUS vs (20) SAFAROVA, Lucie CZE

(27) ZVONAREVA, Vera RUS vs QUALIFIER,
(WC)ALBANESE, Lauren USA vs LIKHOVTSEVA, Elena RUS
POUTCHEK, Tatiana BLR vs CAMERIN, Maria Elena ITA
KERBER, Angelique GER vs (8) WILLIAMS, Serena USA

(3) JANKOVIC, Jelena SRB vs GAJDOSOVA, Jarmila SVK
ARVIDSSON, Sofia SWE vs GOVORTSOVA, Olga BLR
OBZILER, Tzipora ISR vs WOZNIACKI, Caroline DEN
QUALIFIER, vs (29) STOSUR, Samantha AUS

(19) BAMMER, Sybille AUT vs TANASUGARN, Tamarine THA
KING, Vania USA vs SHAUGHNESSY, Meghann USA
CRAYBAS, Jill USA vs QUALIFIER,
COHEN-ALORO, Stephanie FRA vs (14) DEMENTIEVA, Elena RUS

(12) WILLIAMS, Venus USA vs QUALIFIER,
OLARU, Ioana Raluca ROU vs HARKLEROAD, Ashley USA
DANIILIDOU, Eleni GRE vs MEUSBURGER, Yvonne AUT
DULKO, Gisela ARG vs (21) BONDARENKO, Alona UKR

(25) SANTANGELO, Mara ITA vs DUSHEVINA, Vera RUS
BYCHKOVA, Ekaterina RUS vs QUALIFIER,
QUALIFIER, vs REZAI, Aravane FRA
NAKAMURA, Aiko JPN vs (5) IVANOVIC, Ana SRB

7) PETROVA, Nadia RUS vs BACSINSZKY, Timea SUI
RODIONOVA, Anastasia RUS vs SAVCHUK, Olga UKR
QUALIFIER, vs SZAVAY, Agnes HUN
BRIANTI, Alberta ITA vs (32) KRAJICEK, Michaella NED

(22) SREBOTNIK, Katarina SLO vs MOLIK, Alicia AUS
KIRILENKO, Maria RUS vs MULLER, Martina GER
KOSTANIC TOSIC, Jelena CRO vs VESNINA, Elena RUS
VAKULENKO, Julia UKR vs (9) HANTUCHOVA, Daniela SVK

(16) HINGIS, Martina SUI vs JOHANSSON, Mathilde FRA
MALEK, Tatjana GER vs QUALIFIER,
QUALIFIER, vs AZARENKA, Victoria BLR
CIBULKOVA, Dominika SVK vs (23) GARBIN, Tathiana ITA

(31) MEDINA GARRIGUES, Anabel vs WOZNIAK, Aleksandra CAN
DOMINGUEZ LINO, Lourdes E vs CHO, Yoon Jeong KOR
PIN, Camille FRA vs QUALIFIER,
ZAKOPALOVA, Klara CZE vs (6) KUZNETSOVA, Svetlana RUS

(6) CHAKVETADZE, Anna RUS vs (WC)WEINHOLD, Ashley USA
(WC)JACKSON, Jamea USA vs PRATT, Nicole AUS
GRANVILLE, Laura USA vs QUALIFIER,
KANEPI, Kaia EST vs (26) MIRZA, Sania IND

(24) SCHIAVONE, Francesca ITA vs DECHY, Nathalie FRA
ARN, Greta GER vs PASZEK, Tamira AUT
BREMOND, Severine FRA vs GALLOVITS, Edina ROU
BENESOVA, Iveta CZE vs (11) SCHNYDER, Patty SUI

(13) VAIDISOVA, Nicole CZE vs KUDRYAVTSEVA, Alla RUS
PENNETTA, Flavia ITA vs PENG, Shuai CHN
MATTEK, Bethanie USA vs BRENGLE, Madison USA
TU, Meilen USA vs (18) PEER, Shahar ISR

(30) RADWANSKA, Agnieszka POL vs MORIGAMI, Akiko JPN
LOIT, Emilie FRA vs RAZZANO, Virginie FRA
SHVEDOVA, Yaroslava RUS vs DELLACQUA, Casey AUS
VINCI, Roberta ITA vs (2) SHARAPOVA, Maria RUS

Here is what I said back then. Remember the comments are on the 2007 versions of players.

Re the top half of the women's draw:

Marion. Ana. Lucie. Venus. Jelena. Dinara. Tatiana. Serena. A nice mix of seeds to go along with the world No. 1 Henin. There are also some lower seeds who have had a pretty good year in the mix. Rezai is hungry. Sybille Bammer wants to go deep into the draw. Ai Sugiyama can pull a good one out every now and then. Possible matchups? Justine and Serena for the third time in the quarters. Venus vs. Ivanovic? Maybe. The competition in this side of the draw will be fierce.

This is what I said about the bottom half.

Okay. So let's see. Nadia. Headcase. Daniela. Good player. Two weeks will tax her physically. Martina. Bad back. Svetlana. Have to classify her as a headcase. She is coming back off of a shoulder injury that kept her out of Fed Cup as well. Anna. Good player. Not a great player yet. And how many times this summer is she going to play Sania Mirza? Sania hasn't shown she's got the mental toughness to make it to the second week. Patty. Nicole coming back from illness. Shahar's level of play has slacked off lately. Ms. Radwanska is pretty good but not Grand Slam good yet.

And, oh yes, there is Maria, the "Golden Girl" of the WTA. While the ladies in the top half duke it out, Ms. Sharapova will be banging and grunting her way through to meet a player who has had to bite and claw her way through her matches. I don't mean to disparage any of the players in the bottom half of the draw. I mean who was Marion Bartoli a few weeks ago? Anyone can get hot and pull an upset.

There are those who argue that it is impossible to rig a draw in a players favor because there are too many safeguards in place. But when boards that were known for banning people because they didn't like a player favored by the mods have threads titled "RIGGED!!!!" and another one asking why is it that a certain player seems to always get a nice draw, things are a little out of control. Justine is the top female player in the world. So they threw a qualifier her way for her first round match. Once she gets past her quarter the Big Babes will be waiting for her. Meanwhile number two will be practicing her smile and wave. I guess sometimes it does pay to be No. 2.

I caught a lot of flack for that post but I never hesitated to point out when a player was being hidden or protected. I was never a fan of Justine Henin but I always said they tried to do her in when she played in New York. I should mention that the shenanigans didn't work for the women. Sharapova lost in the third round if I recall correctly and Henin won it all.

So what now? As I write this the USTA hasn't said a word. The crack journalists who cover tennis haven't said a word. Fans who have had abuse heaped on them for saying something was rotten are vindicated. Not every fan has a blog but every fan has an opinion. My questions about how the US Open is run go back to 2003 when the top American got the breaks at the expense of the then top Spaniard.

I know everyone is going to be paying attention to this years draw. Let's see how much luck is in it for some players.

US Open Draws Not Random

2011-08-15T15:10:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

Taking a break from my mini vacay from blogging to post this article. I'm posting it in its entirety so I can't be accused of selective quoting. Excuse me while I go do the "I told you so" dance in the corner.

An "Outside the Lines" analysis of 10 years of men's and women's Grand Slam draws shows the top two men's and women's seeds in the U.S. Open -- on average -- faced easier opponents in the first round than is statistically probable if the draws were truly random.

Not only do both of the men's and women's first-round U.S. Open matchups deviate significantly from true randomness, this skewed pattern was not found at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, which use a similar draw system. At the French Open, the difficulty of opponents for the top two women's players during that time period was significantly more difficult than a random draw should produce, but the men were in line.

USTA Pro Circuit Director Brian Earley, who has been the U.S. Open tournament referee since 1992 and presides over the draw, said he stands by his system. However, he said he was concerned about the questions the analysis raises about the random nature of the draw.

"I have such faith in the folks within my work that if there was something unfair about it, I think it probably would have been proven to me and to the tournament before this," he said. "But we are always interested in hearing input."

"Outside the Lines" analyzed the average difficulty -- determined by the players' ATP or WTA rankings before the draws -- of those who played the top two seeds in all Grand Slams over 10 years. That was compared to 1,000 random simulations of 10 years of Grand Slam draws -- or the equivalent of producing 10,000 random draws taken 10 years at a time.

Only three of OTL's 1,000 simulations produced first-round opponents as easy as those the top two men's seeds have actually faced on average over 10 years in the U.S. Open. In none of the 1,000 simulations did OTL get the extreme results found in 10 years of actual opening matchups for the top two women's Open seeds.

Dr. Andrew Swift, past chairman of the American Statistical Association's Section on Statistics in Sports and an assistant mathematics professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said the analysis and its methodology were sound.

"Any way you want to look at these, there is significant evidence here that these did not come from a random draw," he said.

That finding didn't surprise Scoville Jenkins, who in 2004 was ranked 1,433rd in the ATP singles rankings when he scored a wild-card entry into the U.S. Open. That made him the lowest-ranked player among the 128 entries in the men's tennis tournament. His opponent in the draw? No. 2 seed and defending champion Andy Roddick.

"At the time you think, 'Wow, this is unlucky,'" he said. "There's so many players in the draw I could have played."

A truly random draw for the unseeded players -- which is promised by USTA officials -- should have given Jenkins a two-thirds chance of playing another unseeded player, and a roughly 31 percent chance of playing a seeded opponent outside the top two seeds. He had a 2.08 percent chance of facing a top-two seed.

After facing Roddick in the first round in 2004, Jenkins drew No. 1 seed Roger Federer in the first round in 2007, when Jenkins was the 125th-best player in the tournament, according to the OTL analysis. He lost both times.

"Sometimes I think they put the player against who they would like to play," said Jenkins, who has since retired from professional tennis and is now an assistant tennis coach at Kennesaw State University near Atlanta. "If somebody came out tomorrow and said, 'This whole time we weren't doing it random and we were picking by whatever system,' it would not surprise me."

After being presented with the "Outside the Lines" analysis, Swift conducted his own study of the opponents of the top two seeds and found that only four times in 1 million simulations did he come up with an average ranking equal to or easier than what was actually observed in the men's and women's draws over the last 10 years.

"By itself, the U.S. [Open] numbers are weird," he said. "And then they're also weird in comparison to the other three Grand Slams. So you've got a double argument of weirdness here. Something weird is going on."

Trying to determine what has happened

But what exactly could that be?

"If there were anyone trying to fix this draw, which is comical to me & it would not be within my group and not within the USTA and not within the U.S. Open group," Earley said.

TOP SEEDS' FIRST-ROUND DRAWS

How frequently ESPN's simulated draws came up with average difficulty scores that were at least as low as scores for the actual Grand Slam draws. Percentages closer to 0 indicate a lower likelihood that the actual results are strictly due to random chance.

Men's Grand Slam Percent of draw simula-tions as easy as actual draws
Australian 71.2%
French 69.5%
Wimbledon 37.0%
U.S. Open 0.3%

Women's Grand Slam Percent of draw simula-tions as easy as actual draws
Australian 94.7%
French 99.2%
Wimbledon 30.7%
U.S. Open 0.0%
He said the computerized random draw is done as a small ceremony in a room in which representatives of the USTA and the men's and women's tennis associations and the chief of the Grand Slam supervisors are usually present. One of them gets to push the button on the computer that generates the draw of the unseeded players, which is displayed on a screen and printed out right away.

"So … you would have to say, 'Oh, yeah, well it's some programmer somewhere trying to decide, trying to fix this, or someone hacking into your system. I don't see that happening, either," Earley said.

Earley said he would consult with representatives of Information & Display Systems, the company that provides the software that generates the random draw. IDS has been providing the random draw software for the U.S. Open for more than 10 years, and does the draw for the Australian Open.

"I don't know how to explain it," Earley said. "And maybe we'll talk again, after I speak to someone who can give me a little bit better analysis of this, of how these could have happened, how this could have happened. Or if indeed it is as much of an anomaly as these would seem to indicate."

Leo Levin, IDS director of product development, said there is no problem with the program. A week after "Outside the Lines" presented its findings to the USTA, the organization forwarded an email from IDS president Rallis Pappas, in which he said the company simulated 200 draws. The 10-year averages in their sample were indeed random, but neither IDS nor the USTA offered an explanation for the skewed actual draws over the last 10 years, other than to say it had to have happened by random chance.

Chris Widmaier, managing director of communication for the USTA, said the organization stands by IDS and believes that it produces an automated random draw.

"If we were to put on 10,000 U.S. Opens, we'd probably see whatever the statistical average is, but we only put on one U.S. Open a year and for the last 10 years, the numbers have been the numbers," Wildmaier said. "I don't know what else we can say." He added there were no plans to investigate further and no changes will be made for this year's draw, scheduled for Aug. 24-25.

"I believe the answer is the age old saying, the luck of the draw," wrote Levin in an email, prior to conferring with the USTA. "There is nothing that happens at the U.S. Open draw that isn't done at other tournaments. Therefore, since the process is the same, the answer must be that's how they came out."

But Swift seemingly doesn't agree with that answer.

"There's always the chance that, yes, freak occurrences happen. But you're telling me a freak occurrence has happened with the men and the women?" he asked. "Double freak occurrences?"

Tennis fans have questioned the men's draw before, including two men Earley said approached him at a match last year with what they said was evidence the draw wasn't random. But he said he didn't agree with their conclusions. The men also took their data to ESPN, which televises the U.S. Open draw ceremony and tournament. ESPN examined their data, but its own statistician did an expanded analysis of both the men's and women's draws at all Grand Slam tournaments and came up with these findings.

Earley said the "Outside the Lines" analysis was the first time anyone had questioned the women's draw.

"What's really making the case are the players ranked in the 90s and 100, right?" he asked. "I mean, those are the ones that really skew the test?"

The top two seeds in each draw could have a first-round matchup with any unseeded player whose tournament rank is 33 through 128. Over the last 10 years, the average rank of opponents in the women's draw has been 98.5, and 97.2 for the men. A random draw should produce an average closer to 80.5.

"To get something as far away from 80 as 100 is extremely unlikely," Swift said. "If you looked at the other three Grand Slams over the same time period, the average rank of the opponents of the top two seeds in both the men's and women's sides was close to 80. It was close enough that it wasn't statistically significant."

Players: Two thoughts on playing top seeds

One of the players possibly affected by the statistical oddity was CoCo Vandeweghe. Vandeweghe's world ranking was 518 before she earned wild-card entry into the 2008 U.S. Open, which made her tournament rank 126 out of 128.

The then-16-year-old was coming out of practice one day when a friend asked if she had seen the draw.

"[My friend] said, 'You won't believe who you play,'" Vandeweghe recounted. "I said, 'Who is it?'" Her friend responded, "Jelena Jankovic," the No. 2 seed in the Open. "I thought they were kidding," Vandeweghe said.

She and Jankovic ended up playing a night match on the first day of the Open, which Vandeweghe said was "pretty crazy." She lost 3-6, 1-6.

"I was definitely happy to be playing a player of that caliber and kind of just see where I was at that point with my own game with a player like that," she said. "I took it all in as an experience. At the time, I thought I definitely could give her a run for her money."

When told about the U.S. Open draw analysis and the possibility that it was not random, Vandeweghe said it made her think about her experience being a No. 1 seed in other tournaments.

"If the No. 1 seed gets a slightly weaker draw, that's good news for them," she said. "It's kind of a funny stat to hear, especially when I've been a part of that stat."

Devin Britton was the lowest-ranked player when he entered the 2009 U.S. Open and drew Federer in the first round. Then 18, he had won only one set in his short professional career.

"I was kind of hoping to play another wild card to get a good shot at winning a match, but it was definitely a blessing to play Roger," he said. "You don't get that kind of atmosphere anywhere else."

Despite first-set nerves that Britton said caused him to trip over his feet, the newcomer broke Federer's serve and took at 3-1 lead in the second set.

"The crowd cheered a little bit and I thought, 'Oh, gosh, there's a lot of people out there,'" Britton said.

If for some reason, the draw for opponents for the top two seeds was skewed toward picking players at the very bottom of the rankings, such as Jenkins, Britton and Vandeweghe, those players said they aren't upset about the matchups -- even though they would have made more money in the tournament had they advanced to the second round.

Britton said he could see how that would be bad for people going into the Open with a lower ranking, but he said he still valued his experience and learned a lot from playing Federer.

"I could see where a lot of people would be upset about that," he said. "There's definitely two sides to it."

Jenkins had a similar attitude.

"Of course you wish you could have got somebody easier in the first round, second round. Next you realize that you're in a sport where you want to be the best, you've got to beat the best. He's the guy you have to get past," Jenkins said. " … That's the way it happens sometimes. It's not fair. It's a part of life, a part of sport. It happens."

As for the No. 1 and 2 seeds, representatives for Federer and Rafael Nadal declined a request for an interview. Representatives for recent top female seeds Jankovic, Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, and Kim Clijsters also declined comment.

Top two seeds rarely lose Grand Slam openers

Top players boycotted the U.S. Open draw in 1996, forcing the USTA to remake the draw after allegations it could have been rigged to favor certain American players. The players were upset the then-16 seeded players were chosen after the first part of the draw. The association ended up redoing the draw with the seeds in place. And in 2001, the U.S. Open changed to seeding 32 players, which meant none of them would face a first- or second-round opponent whose rank in the tournament was better than 33. Wimbledon also changed to 32 seeds that year, with the French and Australian opens following the next year.

Even though the No. 1 and 2 players in the U.S. Open drew easier opponents on average among the pool of unseeded players, it did not seem to have any impact on whether they won or lost in the first two rounds, based on a comparison with how the top two seeds progressed in the other three Grand Slams. It's unclear what impact, if any, the skewed first-round matches had on the rest of the tournament.

"Being nice to the star players? Getting an easier pair? They're getting an easier pair [already]," Swift said.

The highest-ranked unseeded player that any of the top two men's seeds have played in the first round since 2001 was 41. It was 37 for the women. The top seeds won both times. In fact, since 2001, no No. 1 or 2 seed has lost a first-round match in the U.S. Open or the French Open and only twice each at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

"What would the U.S. Open gain by fixing the draw in this way? I believe the U.S. Open would gain nothing," Earley said. "I think that that would be a risk that the U.S. Open would never take. Never."

Paula Lavigne is a reporter in ESPN's Enterprise Unit. Her work appears on "Outside the Lines." She can be reached at paula.lavigne@espn.com. Alok Pattani is an Analytics Specialist with the ESPN Stats & Information Group.

SOURCE

Lazy, Hazy Crazy Days of Summer

2011-08-01T09:11:00.002-05:00

by Savannah

It was a given that Marion Bartoli would fight back. Some complained that quarterfinalist Maria Sharapova didn't, that she was intimidated and tight. Semi finalist Sabine Lisicki, the flame thrower of the new generation put up a bit of a fight but in the end she went down with a bit of a whimper. The newly slim - not yet svelte-Bartoli was a horse of a different color. With all her twists and turns and jumping up and down it's easy to overlook her ability to play with power. All the moving around is a disguise, a way for Marion to distract and confuse while she blows you off the court. She defeated a just returning to play Serena at Wimbledon and if you think both players didn't have that match in mind I don't know what to tell you.

The match was played at noon California time, a time probably dictated by broadcast requirements, and Serena, who was playing her first day match came out a little slow. The sun was obviously bothering her from one side and Marion looked as if she was going to run away with the first set. If she had been playing anyone else, one of the new jacks perhaps, that would've been the case.

Instead Serena worked herself into that first set. Ignoring the scoreline she used a service motion she's never used in public before and while it didn't quite work showed that she was thinking, in the match and looking for her chance. Her Dad was there but she didn't call him down to discuss strategy or bitch. This is the Williams way.

Marion on the other hand asked to talk to her coach/father Walter when she was up 5-4. He seemed to give her a pep talk and she seemed satisfied. When she looked up again she had lost five straight games.

Marion is not of the old or new generation. She is a player unto herself. But reflexively she asked for a consult she didn't need. And that tightened her up mentally and physically. There was some discussion about her hand and she kept shaking her right arm out but when she finally won a game she was striking the ball without any problem. For many that is the problem with Maid Marion. Again her goal is to obfuscate, to distract. Serena didn't go for it.

There is talk about Serena being a favorite for the US Open. There are some who say you'll have to pry the trophy out of Kim Clijsters cold hands. Clijsters had not played since she showed up for the French Open and was quickly dispatched. This is her strategy. She comes into the US Open fresh as a daisy while everyone else has been playing as full a schedule as they can entering Flushing Meadows. Toronto and Cincinnati are Mandatory for WTA players. So was San Diego. It's a given in my book that Clijsters will have a very nice draw in New York just like she always has. Look for Serena, who will be unseeded, to have to face murderers row.
I'm not making Serena my favorite for the US Open. She is playing much better than she was in Paris and London but her father says she's only 60% back. You ignore Richard Williams comments about his daughters at your peril.

I didn't see the final at Umag in Croatia but I did see the semifinal between Juan Carlos Ferrero and Aleksandr Dolgopolov the day before. Dolgopolov shut down any and every idea Juanqui had defeating the defending champion. It seems the man with the best hair in the ATP had relaxed and was playing a style he hadn't played before. He made Ferrero look and maybe feel old. It was no surprise to me to hear that he defeated local favorite Marin Cilic. And yeah, that is one hell of a trophy. And no I ain't goin' there.

Nadia Petrova wore a kit by Ellesse and found her way to a trophy ceremony for the first time since 2008 at the inaugural CitiOpen held in a suburb of Washington DC. In the middle of the US Open series the WTA stages an inaugural event that is not part of that series allowing Tennis Channel to totally diss their product during an intriguing semi final match between Shahar Pe'er and Tamira Paszek and switch without an announcement that they were going to do so, to the semifinal between Ryan Harrison and Mardy Fish in Los Angeles.I finished watching the match online and decided that that was the last time I would invest in a woman's match on TC. Even though Harrison made it interesting there was no way Fish wasn't going to win that match. It was unclear who would win the women's semifinal. Add to that the heat and the length of the match and it was a better match to watch. Then again, who cares if two non Americans were playing a match that some suit decided should have been over in about two hours right? Much more exciting to see the "Alpha Male" of American tennis playing the up and comer, the future of American tennis right?

But I digress. I'm glad Nadia, retro kit and all, won a tournament. Sure Pe'er, after a three hour match was fried, but a win is a win even if US television decides your match is unimportant.

Marcel Granollers won the all Spanish final at Gstaad defeating the newly shorn Fernando Verdasco. Once again the PR firm representing the Alien Babies protested the use of one of their species gestation device. And once again their protests fell on deaf ears.

Ernests Gulbis doesn't fit the US tennis establishments view of a player from Eastern Europe. As tennis heads know all players from Eastern Europe have crawled out of their hovels and play tennis to the best of their abilities because they don't want to go back to their shacks with dirt floors and outdoor toilet facilities. Like many American players Ernests comes from a "very wealthy family" and his fits and starts on the court have been attributed to his "not needing to play" tennis. After all he flies to and from events in a private plane they always say.

None of this gets mentioned when someone like Sam Querrey, who also comes from a very wealthy family, plays. Last I checked Andy Roddick's family isn't destitute and neither is Mardy Fish's family but again I digress. They were blathering on about Ernests father and how he made his money and only Darren Cahill was able to shut them up and insert some talk about the tennis into his commentary. He couldn't do anything about Pam Shriver making up injuries for Mardy Fish when it became clear he wasn't going to pound Ernests into the pavement and win the match. The biggest question was whether Ernests would hold his nerve and defeat the visibly fatigued Fish.

The only thing Gulbis did wrong, and I'm sure his coach Guillermo Canas ripped him a new one about it, was when serving to close out his service game up 40-0 in the second set Gulbis served and before the ball landed was walking off the court. Gulbis hasn't earned the right to do shit like that and even if he did think he has swagger you don't do that. It's a bush league move and all it did was piss Fish off and force Gulbis to have to serve twice for the match. He closed it out the second time but he's going to have to check his ego at the gate going forward.

Xavier Malisse and Mark Knowles won the doubles crown in Los Angeles.

Sania Mirza and Yaroslava Shevedova took the doubles crown at the CitiOpen.

Maria Kirilenko and Victoria Azarenka were the doubles queens at Stanford.

The team of Cermak and Polasek were the doubles winners at Gstaad.

Bolelli and Fognini were the champions at Umag.

Don't Believe The Hype

2011-07-30T01:59:00.003-05:00

by Savannah

I'm pretty sure Juan Martin del Potro was asking himself who the hell the guy across the net was. "No really," he was asking himself, "who the hell is that guy? I was told I was playing Ernests Gulbis. You know, the guy who got busted in Sweden for picking up ladies of ill repute and hasn't been able to think his way out of a paper bag since? Come on people, really, who is this guy?!"

Well Juan Martin the guy across the net was indeed Ernests Gulbis and he only showed up to take names. I don't think a tennis head on the planet, except for die hard Gulbis fans thought he had a chance. Sure tennis nerds knew he had hired Guillermo Canas as his coach but surely that wasn't going to help the ATP's newest head case.
ESPN2 was contracted to show the match and that usually means that there won't be a live stream anywhere unless your ISP gives you access to ESPN3 online. I have access to ESPN3 but I figured why bother to look? The outcome was preordained. Silly me. ESPN2 was giving updates but the tennis community on Twitter was already going "WTF"? ESPN2 did cut away from the match it was showing and what I saw was jaw dropping stuff. Gulbis was hurling bombs all over the court. The shot he hit to win the first set was picked up on radar screens around the world. Delpo got a couple of licks in but if this had been a heavy weight fight the cut man in his corner would've been busy. Not to mention Delpo would've been fighting with both eyes swollen and shut.
It was a hell of a display put on by Ernests. It's going to be interesting to see if he likes the feeling enough to keep improving. He could hurt a lot of people if he does.

Unfortunately Maria Sharapova knew exactly who was across the net from her. In one of the most hyped non slam matches ever the stands at the Stanford University tennis complex were crammed with fans who came to see a steel cage match between two of the biggest servers in the woman's game. Serena Williams, as we all know, was coming back from injury and ill health and if she was going to be vulnerable it would be now. Sure she'd played some WTT matches managing to lose to old foe Martina Hingis but no one could seriously think that she was ready to face a woman who had gone deep at Roland Garros and made the finals at Wimbledon so soon right? I mean it was obvious that she was having trouble with her breathing in Europe and with Sharapova throwing bombs her way it could be a short night for Serena, and not in a good way.

Instead it was Maria who was not allowed to breathe. To continue the boxing analogy if this had been a fight Maria's corner would've thrown in the towel. What can I say? It was a statement. No, I take that back. It was a declaration. It was a beat down. It was impressive. Majestic even. It was Sharapova bringing a knife to a gun fight. It got so bad that the talking ego Brad Gilbert dragged his fellow commentators into asking why Sharapova didn't ask for her coach to come down and help clear her head as well as try and cool Serena off. There was also talk of Maria trying to slow the pace of the match down. I think it was Mary Jo Fernandez who pointed out that Maria was taking all the time she could between points and that it wasn't helping.

I admire Maria for not pulling a Wozniacki and trying to figure it out on her own even when it was clear that she was not beating the woman across the net from her on this night. Maria Sharapova is nothing else if not a veteran at 24. She's hated and loved by many. I respect her.

At the end the two women showed nothing but respect for each other and by extension their sport. That led a lot of people to ask where this kinder, gentler Serena had come from. I think Serena said it best herself during her on screen post match interview with the ESPN crew. She loves tennis. She loves being around tennis. She missed all that goes with playing, the work, the commitment, the need for warming up before matches, something new to her pre match regimen.

I would add that only someone who has been as ill as she was, who has been to the brink and come back can have that calm, that clear cut vision of what is important in his or her life and seek to hold on to it.

Serena has won 13 Grand Slam titles. Ernests Gulbis has, I think one ATP title. But both had something to prove tonight. One player has to prove he has the cojones to do what he did tonight again and again. The other, well, has 13 Grand Slams.

Lazing On a Sunny Afternoon...

2011-07-28T12:44:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

"And I love to live so pleasantly,
Live this life of luxury, lazing on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime..."

Ray Davies of the Kinks wrote those lyrics eons ago in today's time measurement to describe ennui in the face of semi tragic goings on.
The time after Wimbledon for me is one of rest, of mentally getting away from tennis and rejoining the real world. You know, that one where tennis isn't the be all and end all of existence?

Needless to say I'm never totally successful. After a brief interruption the European summer clay court swing continues while the United States prepares for its Lollapalooza, the US Open Series.
Since the big boys and girls stay in Europe until forced to come to the States - the women by Stanford and San Diego/Carlsbad, the men by the Rogers Cup, the US Open series becomes a showcase for American players like Mardy Fish who won Atlanta last week.

The doubles at Atlanta were won by the team of Alex Bogomolov Jr. and Matt Ebden, an American/Aussie team.

Meanwhile in Europe the players were slipping and sliding on red clay to their hearts content.

Gilles Simon won the singles crown in Hamburg.

The team of Marach and Peya won the doubles crown.
The WTA was playing on hard courts in the newly minted tournament at Baku in Azerbaijan.

Vera Zvonareva who was coming back from injury is the initial champion at Baku.

The team of Koryttseva and Poutchek took the doubles honors.

Creative Tennis Journalism

I mean absolutely no disrespect to last weeks winners when I say that it was a slow week for tennis news. That still doesn't excuse certain "journalists" making shit up to try and generate some excitement.

I started seeing posts on Twitter and elsewhere saying that Maria Sharapova wanted a piece of Serena Williams. The two will potentially face each other at Stanford, a WTA Premier event, and you can't call yourself a tennis fan if you're not at least mildly interested in seeing that match. You don't have to be a fan of either player to want to see how Serena, who has played some WTT matches on her way back to the main tour, will play and how Maria, who did well at Wimbledon, will rise to the challenge. Maria throwing shade at Serena is news though and while I wasn't aware of Sharapova ever doing this before I said to myself that a little hype for the women's tour isn't a bad thing.

But I had my doubts so I went looking for the transcript of the interview where Sharapova took off the gloves and laid into Serena.
This is what I found via ASAP Sports.

Q. Now, you've come back from injury a couple years ago, and Serena is now making her attempt at a comeback. What do you see in her game right now? If you were to give her any advice about how to play this summer, what would you say?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah, I don't think I'm the one to give advice to her. (Laughter.) She's an incredible champion and she's been through injuries before and has gotten herself back. Been a few more injuries than I have in my career, so I think she has it already figured out.

Q. Talking about Serena reminded me, if she comes into the Open unseeded, is that fair for the other players? If you drew her in the first round, how tough would that be?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah, I guess I went through that. I got some tough draws in the beginning of not being seeded and ranked very high. It's just something you have to go through. It's almost the luck of the draw as well.

Q. Is it unfair to the seeded player, for example, that if you're seed fourth or fifth and she unseeded and you got her in the first round...
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah.

Q. It would be tough for you, wouldn't it?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah, but I've always had a philosophy: If you can't beat them in the first round, why do you think you can beat them later on.

Q. But a lot of the top player kind of like to play your way into the tournament, I guess. I guess that will be the luck of the draw.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah. Yeah.

Q. Ideally though, you wouldn't want to see her name across from yours in the first round, would you?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: To be honest, I love playing against her. We've had very, very tough matches against each other. You know, I don't have a great record against her, and I would love to change that. There is no doubt I would love to play her this summer at some point.

Maybe it's me. All I hear Maria saying is that it's technically unfair for Serena to be unseeded and playing top players early rather than later. I hear her saying that she would like to improve her record against Serena and is not at all going to try and duck out on whatever the draw gods mete out this summer. If that's throwing shade tennis writers need to get out more. I bet more smack is talked on "Toddlers & Tiaras".

Then again I guess it's easier to make shit up than talk about why the man ranked #1 in the ATP is posing for pictures like this. I guess you could argue that the weight should fall on Janko Tipsarevic for pouring fuel on the fire by implying that Rafael Nadal would pay big bucks for someone to do this to Novak Djokovic. The man who until recently represented both Rafa and Djokovic demanded that the picture be removed from Tipsarevic's Facebook page and it was but not before it had gone viral in the tennis world.

Is this what we have to look forward to after the class acts that preceded the new man at the top? No matter how Roger Federer felt publicly he never did anything like this. I don't know who is representing Djokovic now but if something like this was allowed to get out he or she is asleep at the wheel.
Djokovic's fans are saying people are overreacting, that this is just two guys playing around. Playing around with guns is not "playing around" for many people, me included.

The picture has also ignited a virtual war between fans of Rafa and fans of Djokovic. Rafa fans are highly upset about him being dragged into something that is strictly between the two Serbians. To my knowledge Rafa has had no public response. Ironically neither have the tennis journalists who will go to any lengths to make sure new media practitioners have limited or no access to their turf. They'd rather make up a feud out of whole cloth than deal with why the top ranked player in the world is publicly seen playing with guns.

End Note

The WTA players at Stanford took time to pose for this picture. Great move ladies.

Tennis Talk

2011-07-18T02:40:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

Tennis Channel's Cari Champion's interview with Alisa Kleybanova became must see television when a day or two before it aired it was revealed that Alisa, one of the up and coming Russian players, has been diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkins Lymphoma. She is undergoing treatment in Italy. The most important thing for Alisa right now is to get well. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say all of our thoughts and prayers go out to her and that hopefully we'll see her mucking up draws on a tennis court real soon.

Weekend Winners
Spain has had a very productive couple of weeks. First came the not so surprising surprise win over the United States in Davis Cup play. The hero of Davis Cup for Spain, David Ferrer, honored his committment and flew to Bastad, Sweden where he was scheduled to compete. David made it to the final where he lost to Robin Soderling.

That he made it that far is amazing.
Meanwhile the oft ignored female tennis players from the same country were making their contribution to their country's tennis history by winning two tournaments.

Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez showed her fitness by holding the trophy from Bad Gastein.

Her compatriot Anabel Medina Garrigues had a much easier time showing off her trophy after winning in Palermo.

Not to be left out Juan Carlos Ferrero, who has been battling his way back after illness and injury fought his way to the championship at Stuttgart. I saw his match against Federico Del Bonis and have to say if you like hard hitting this Del Bonis kid, from Argentina, is someone to keep an eye on. It took all of Ferrero's skill and craft to overcome the challenge the young man threw down. Of course the test is whether Del Bonis will be able to keep up during the American Summer Hard Court season.

I don't usually talk about Challenger tournaments unless for some reason or another I'm on a tear about something but the joint event in Bogota, Colombia was on my radar screen all week. I don't know if you remember but right after Indian Wells Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic flew to Bogota for an exhibition match before heading to Miami. This week another of Spain's Davis Cup heroes Feliciano Lopez was in Bogota to play a $100K challenger event.

Looks like he did all right huh?
I was also paying attention to the women's event in Bogota because a young girl I've been following ever since I started this blog, Sachia Vickery, was playing.

As you can see she's not a little girl anymore. She also did very well making it to the semifinals.

I don't want to leave the doubles winners out.

The team of Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner won in Stuttgart.

Meanwhile in Bastad the top seeded team of Lindstedt and Tecau won the top prize.

Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci made Italy proud winning the doubles championship at Palermo.

At Bad Gastein the Czech team of Birnerova and Hradecka were doubles winners.

Idle Chit Chat

Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi became engaged to Faha Akmal Makhdum in an elaborate ceremony in Pakistan.

In more wedding news Elena Dementieva married her long time man Maxim Afinogenov in a ceremony held on top of the Ritz Carlton in Moscow near Red Square.
Almost everyone was there.

Dinara

Elena Vesnina

Vera Zvonareva and Svetlana Kuznetsova

Maria Kirilenko and Igor Andreev

Alla Kudryavtseva (who Tweeted many of the pictures) and I think Ekaterina Makarova

Vera Dushevina caught the bouquet (Alla hints it was quite a scrum)
And oh yeah, these people

Elena Dementieva

Elena and Maxim

When You Dig A Grave For Someone Dig Two Holes

2011-07-10T19:13:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

Remember a few weeks ago when the United States Davis Cup tie was awarded to Austin, Andy Roddick's home town? Remember when the surface that was chosen was compared to an ice skating or hockey rink? Remember when Spain protested the surface as being illegal and the decision was made that it wasn't and that Spain could like it or lump it?

I wonder what went through the minds of the American tennis establishment when Spain, on the backs of David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez won both singles matches to take a 2-0 lead over the United States? Surely the thought was the US would regroup after winning the doubles and with what DC Captain Jim Courier said were better match-ups for the reverse singles to be played today.

Let's be clear. The surface was chosen to frustrate Rafael Nadal. In my opinion Rafa was never going to play here, win or lose at Wimbledon. In the end the choice of surface played right into the hands of Spain's very good hard court players. In the rush to make sure Rafa was humiliated the United States dug it's own grave and it will be Spain facing France in Spain in September.

The United States had best get it's head out of its ass and realize that there are men with Spanish surnames who can play hard court tennis. It is also time for the US to realize that it takes more than a big serve to defeat a good player these days.

What struck me most during today's rubber was the court knowledge of David Ferrer. He didn't come out there to try and out ball bash Mardy Fish. He came out to play tennis. And play it he did. His shot selection, use of the qualities of the court and his ability to think on court is what gave him the win. He didn't learn to play on a slab of concrete in Florida or California. He learned on the dirt of Spain. He learned HOW TO PLAY TENNIS on that dirt not how to play clay court tennis. Once you learn how to play you have a skill that once mastered and understood translates from surface to surface.

In the end it was Ted Robinson who said it best. Switzerland without Roger Federer is not in the World Group. Britain with or without Andy Murray is not in the World Group. Spain without Rafael Nadal is in the World Group. That speaks volumes about the depth of the Spanish Davis Cup team. If the United States had to resort to putting down a court that was barely legal to give itself a chance to win we're in worse shape than I thought we were.

As regular readers know I bleed red, white and blue for Davis Cup but this time I'm satisfied with my team losing. I just don't like resorting to trickery no matter who is on court or where the matches are being played. Someone called Spain's winning of the second set "outright thievery" or words to that effect. Pot, meet kettle.

Weekend Winners

Polona Hercog hoists her first ever main tour trophy as winner at Bastad. She defeated local favorite Johanna Larsson.

John Isner becomes the first top seed in a long time to win at Newport.

Roberta Vinci won her third tournament of the year at Budapest.

2011 Wimbledon Images

2011-07-04T09:42:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

Congratulations to all the winners.

Breaking News - Wimbledon Leaving NBC

2011-07-03T20:14:00.002-05:00

NEW YORK — Wimbledon is leaving NBC after 43 years and appears headed to ESPN.

NBC said in a statement Sunday that "while we would have liked to have continued our relationship, we were simply outbid."

A person with knowledge of the negotiations confirmed that ESPN was working on a contract with the All England Club to televise all of the Grand Slam tournament. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal was not ready to be announced.

The switch was first reported by SportsBusiness Journal.

ESPN had owned the rights to extensively televise early rounds of Wimbledon, with NBC picking up coverage as the tournament progressed, culminating with the "Breakfast at Wimbledon" broadcasts of the finals.

It would be the latest major sporting event to move from the traditional four over-the-air networks to cable. College football's Bowl Championship Series title games are on ESPN, and NCAA basketball's Final Four will be on TBS in alternating years starting in 2016.

Months into its new partnership with Comcast, NBC is losing a marquee event. The network did keep an even bigger one when it outbid ESPN and Fox last month for four Olympics.

This year was the 32nd anniversary of "Breakfast at Wimbledon," with coverage ending Sunday when Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal in the men's final.

From the Hunter to the Hunted

2011-07-02T10:35:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

Dominating. Clutch serving. Wicked forehand. Nerves of steel.

Knowing how incestuous sports writing circles are and that tennis sports circles are among the worst there is no need to wonder how Maria Sharapova became the odds on favorite to win the Ladies Championships. There were some tennisheads who pointed out that Maria had not faced a single top ten player on her way to the final and that this might not be a good thing but their cries in the wilderness went unmentioned as Sharapova was all but handed the Venus Rosewater dish before a single ball had been put into play.

But wishing doesn't make it so. I admit that I had my reservations about Kvitova. She's prone to go on walkabout at crucial parts of a match and I felt that would hurt her in the Final. There were a couple of loose returns and forehands that landed in the Channel but they didn't cost Petra a set.

What did return were the double faults and serving malaise that has plagued Maria Sharapova since her comeback. And Petra took full advantage of every error. When Maria got a break in the second set and couldn't consolidate it the match was essentially over at that point.

What does this mean for women's tennis? Totally unheralded, ignored except by women's tennis nerds Petra Kvitova has done what the super hyped players haven't been able to do and win a Grand Slam. Her game is complete. She is not fleet of foot and is in no way a great mover. But she is comfortable with her game and knows how to use it. The biggest thing she has to fix is her focus and like another great player it may be with her the rest of her career.

Today belongs to Petra. Congratulations on your win.

Two Are Left Standing - I Think

2011-06-30T19:43:00.001-05:00

by Savannah

It's hard out there for a blogger. Especially one who isn't one of the cool kids and has to scrounge around for stuff like information and pictures. I've been at this awhile now so I'm used to having to fend for myself. Until the tennis community on Twitter blew up information was hoarded and doled out by powerful gatekeepers for reasons best known to them. I mean it's not Game of Thrones where ravens are what passes for air mail. (Just an aside - I've never understood how a bird, with a piece of parchment strapped to it's leg knew the message was for Joe Blow or Susie Smith and flew right there. From my far from professional observations they've got minds of their own.) AHEM.

Why an i talking about carrier ravens instead of Petra Kvitova (Pictured above)? Well unless you hit the photo sites accessible to all including the non cool kids you had a hell of a time finding any pictures of Petra. If you weren't in on the 411 you'd be hard pressed to know there were actually two matches played today. One involved Petra Kvitova playing against someone named Victoria Azarenka.

As you know I like pictures. I think a good picture is worth a thousand or so words at least. Facial expressions tell you what a person has been through in life, or in tennis. Of course some of us feel tennis is life but that would necessitate another much longer aside.

Petra looks elated. Excited. Slightly unbelieving. That's because she made it to the 2011 Wimbledone Ladies Final. She made said final despite going on a walkabout that lasted the entire second set. As you all know walkabouts are associated with another tennis player, one who owns SW19, but her triumphal march was interrupted by a pretender to the throne so in this post nothing more will be said about her. This was Petra's moment and she thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you were looking for picture though you were shit outta luck. There were tons of pictures of this woman though.

And I mean tons. Did you want to see her pensive? There are pictures. Did you want to see her in full flight? Again, tons of pictures. Did you want to see her returning? Look anywhere. Serving? Again just log in. Maybe you want to see her significant other? Easy.

Or maybe you wanted to see her opponent? Unlike Petra's opponent who seems to have vanished into thin air - she doesn't give post match pressers I recently found out. Seems groups of reporters don't want to talk to her in a room with voice recorders and shit. Mostly they want to talk to her one on one and she can refuse those. I find that odd since when players don't make themselves available to the cool kids words like fines and arrogant are bandied about. Dag another aside.

As I was saying if you want to see Sabine Lisicki distraught, asking herself what the hell she should do, on the verge of tears, there are a lot of those too. But not nearly the amount devoted to Maria Sharapova. As I understand it the coronation is planned for Saturday.

Seriously though if Sabine Lisicki had managed to play like she had coming into the semifinal and -gasp- won the men who run sports at NBC would've been hurling themselves off the roof of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Thanks to the crack (head) marketing of the WTA no one outside of tennis nerds would tune in to see Sabine vs Petra. Hell most of them think Petra is from Czechoslovakia. Tennis nerds don't give NBC decent ratings. Someone who has been rammed down our throats, uh, well marketed the way Maria has will draw casual viewers to the match. After all isn't she the face women's tennis wants to represent it? Sure Petra is blonde but she's not MARIA, the blonde of blondes in the WTA.

All this does for me is annoy me. Maria, a veteran at 24, has been playing very good tennis. She made herself competitive on the terre battue and was one of the players I picked to be a contender. (Another aside - we won't talk about who I picked to win it all here. She's vanished into thin air and thank goodness the cool kids don't talk to her.)

But there is a reason there is so much dislike of the Siberian Bansidhe. Do I really have to use the tennis fans as cats analogy again? It's my blog so I will. But you get the point. Just because a bunch of suits were saved from certain death doesn't mean I have to treat the Savior of the WTA as the Second Coming.

What she should quietly do is send bouquets to Marion Bartoli and Tsvetana Pironkova for their role in eliminating the main competition. Sure both women were exhausted after long injury lay offs and may have gone out the next round but no one underestimates their will and maybe, just maybe, the outcome would've been different. The asides just keep on coming don't they?

Despite the beatific expression in the above picture somehow I don't think that's gonna happen.

Maria should also be glad her opponent this year had no idea what to do with the gift of 13 double faults she was given not to mention the 3-0 lead she gave herself before going on her own walkabout. A thank you card should suffice.

Maria Sharapova of Russia will play Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic for the Ladies Championship. No picks this time. May the best woman win.

And Then There Were Four...

2011-06-29T01:07:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

Carnage. That's the word that comes to mind when taking a look at the results of round of 16 play for the women at SW19.

It started with Marion Bartoli's defeat of Serena Williams. Serena's ragged breathing was audible and even her tremendous will could not get her past Maid Marion who played the match of her life to defeat her.

Then there was the Tsvetana Pironkova Grand Slam Tour wherein she gets to play Venus Williams and leave The Great One shaking her head while she moves on to the next round.

Lost in the shuffle was Dominika Cibulkova, the self proclaimed party girl, sending the computer ranked WTA #1 Caroline Wozniacki home.

So how did the perpetrators do in the quarterfinals?

Maria Sharapova made quick work of Domi who was not allowed to get into the match at all. By defeating her so definitively - 1 and 1 - Sharapova got a measure of revenge against the diminutive one and put herself firmly in the favorite's role heading into the semi finals.

Sabine Lisicki faced Marion Bartoli who at the end of their match had absolutely nothing left mentally or physically. To her credit Marion, who has made herself much more fit than she was even a year ago finished the match without any of the injury timeouts she's become famous for.

Petra Kvitova showed Tsvetana that her bag of tricks was not going to deter her from her goal.

Victoria Azarenka took advantage of Tamira Paszek's inexperience (despite Paszek's dramatic defeat of Francesca Schiavone) at the highest levels of play. It wasn't the beat down Sharapova delivered to Cibulkova but there was never any doubt who was going to win their match.

So what is there to say about the all blonde semifinals? Surprisingly the quality of tennis should be quite high. All of the women who made the semifinals showed that they know how to play the game of tennis. The winners were aggressive, used a variety of shots and were able to prove they were at the top of their games.

Sharapova had the only blow out. Kvitova had mental lapses that against a stronger player could've cost her the match. Azarenka was determined to show she could get past the quarters and try to erase her most recent efforts this year that saw her unable to complete her matches.

The best match of the day was the one between Marion and Sabine. Marion lost because she had used everything she had to defeat Serena. Would the result have been different if the matches had not been back to back? Maybe. But Sabine, who was in the tournament via the granting of a WC - she is now ranked in the 60's - had to be stung by the criticism she received for getting the wild card and she is playing the tennis of her life right now. Maybe we'll get to see these two later in the year and see if they can produce the same quality of tennis we saw in the first two sets.

So we have Maria Sharapova vs Sabine Lisicki and Victoria Azarenka vs Petra Kvitova as the semifinal matchups. Who will be playing on Saturday?

I don't know. I think the contrast in styles makes it difficult to pick a favorite for each match. Sure Maria can come out throwing bombs and Kvitova could have a mental collapse she won't recover from. Sabine can't let herself be intimidated and Azarenka will have to keep her cool.

I said Azarenka didn't have the temperament to win a Slam. She just may prove me wrong.

Tennis Talk - Wimbledon 2011 Week 1

2011-06-25T14:17:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

This is why access to transcripts is vital to reporting tennis. The following was obtained from the website of ASAP Sports

Q. What do you make of being put on Court No. 2 today?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, uhm, you know, I don't know. They like to put us on Court 2, me and Venus, for whatever reason. I haven't figured it out yet. Maybe one day we'll figure it out. I don't know.

Q. I remember the last couple years you've said, Okay, it's Court 2, I'll play.
SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't necessarily think I should -- I try to play my match and take that first and foremost, deal with, you know, whatever later. 'Cause today, if I was thinking about that, then that would be a different issue.
But, you know, obviously they're not gonna change, so, you know, it's like...

Q. In the first set, you seemed to have a hard time reading her serve or making any impression on her serve. What was bothering you about it in the first set and what did you figure out about it after that?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Uhm, well, I just thought that she serves well to be her height. Usually players that height don't serve as well. She has so much power on her serve. That's actually really awesome.
So, uhm, that was definitely -- it's always hard to play with such power on grass court maybe.

Q. Was it frustrating to not even get a breakpoint chance in that first set?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I had chances and I kind of blew them. Like 30-15, I probably had a couple times. But she just really served well. Uhm, so, yeah.

Q. Can you just explain what it is about Court No. 2 that makes playing difficult? Is it noise? Is it atmosphere?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Uhm, I don't know. I pretty much won all my matches so far on Court 2, so...

Q. You have to go through the crowds, don't you?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I never have too much time to warm up. I look at that as kind of a warmup, trying to walk out there. I'm like, Okay, well, this gets my legs moving.

Q. This was only your fourth match total since you came back. Are you playing your way into shape, feeling better each match? Or does the first set in each match drive you crazy?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, no, I feel like I'm in shape. But I'm just playing my way into match condition. And, uhm, you know, just doing things that I did before. That's all. That's all I can do right now.

Q. You and Venus almost look at it as an insult that you're not automatically put on Centre, 1, like Djokovic, Nadal.
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, they're never moved across. Actually, Venus and I have won more Wimbledons together than a lot of the players or by ourselves in doubles even. So, you know, at the end of the day, I don't know. Like I said, they're not going to change, doesn't look like. So I don't know.

Q. Do you think in any way it could relate to you and Venus, you're bigger than life, you speak your mind, you're big personalities? Do you think that relates to it at all in any way?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know. Like I said, I don't really think about it. I don't make it a big issue.
I think at some point maybe I should. I don't know. I just really try to focus on not going down on Court 2. At least now they have a review out there, so I do like that. It was much better than the old one that was actually closer. I really hated that court, but...

Q. What is your reaction when you find out the next day's play? Do you say, Oh, no, that you're going to be out there?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I just say, What court am I playing? I just say, What time am I playing? Like 12:00. Oh, I have to wake up early.

The full transcript is HERE

The digital voice recorders had barely been turned off when Tweets started appearing about Serena practically foaming at the mouth about being assigned to Court 2. If there was no transcript those stories would have been taken as gospel and all the good press that's surrounded Serena and Venus return to the fray would've been overshadowed by Serena allegedly trying to tell the AELTC what to do.

To her credit one of the female comm's made it clear that the press, the people in the interview room were trying to goad Serena into making a controversial statement. When she didn't they went ahead with their hatchet jobs. Fortunately a small cabal wasn't able to hog access to transcripts and the lies, for that's what they were, didn't take hold. ESPN2 also showed tape of the post match interview to emphasize that Serena was as calm as the words of the interview indicate.

We should all keep that in mind when we read some of the insane stuff the press reports about tennis players. The Main Stream Tennis Press (MSTP) has it's own agenda. Who sets it I don't know. Apparently presenting the players fairly and honestly isn't part of it.

Circling The Wagons

I've laid off The Slob for awhile now. I try and play nice and not make this a place of negativity but sometimes shit just searches you out and hits you in the face.

As you know Feliciano Lopez defeated Andy Roddick for the first time in seven tries. In straight sets. On Centre Court. Keep in mind the defending men's champion was relegated to Court 1 so that this match could take place on Centre Court. I'm just saying.

Anyway Lopez had this look on his face the entire match that I found odd. There were no smiles, and after he closed it out there was no big celebration. Just a quiet sense of accomplishment. I was a little surprised since I've seen Feli celebrate a victory. I figured he wanted to be different.

A little while later I found out that maybe Feli was on a bit of a mission. Seems the Slob was in the VIP section of Wimbledon having lunch when he got a severe case of verbal diarrhea. Long story short he said that Feli would be a better tennis player if he didn't look at himself in the mirror so much. The Spanish press, a much more free wheeling lot than their counterparts in the States, had a field day reporting verbatim what the Slob had said and where.

Yours truly tried to use Google to translate the Spanish which was totally useless since it doesn't recognize idioms. The best translation I found was done by a tennishead who goes by MJ2004 who hangs out on talkabouttennis.com

Mid-day, minutes before the match, an ex-player, American Justin Gimelstob, ridiculed the spaniard at a lunch in the VIP zone of Wimbledon: if he would look at himself less in the mirror he would be a better player, he said.

And Gimelstob, close friend of Andy Roddick, the man beat today by Lopez, searched for an elegant way to pedal backwards.
"I believe Feliciano is a great player, but it's true that he loves to look at himself in the mirror. And it's find for him to do it, he is a very attractive man" the American told DPA.
"People always talk about women, but he is tall, good appearance with a good body. Yes, very metrosexual. But not just him, his tennis is also attractive, stylized."
"Yes, it seems that today for a couple hours he stopped watching himself in the mirror".

The original Spanish is here.

What did Feliciano have to say? Keep in mind when he Tweets he usually Tweets in Spanish.

feliciano_lopez
Its funny when people like justin gimelstob talks bullshit without knowing me at all.he did not learn what respect means as a kid..

Let's look at this situation. This man, Justin Gimelstob, is on the ATP Board of Directors. He decides to make what he probably saw as a quip, in public mind you, a statement insulting a player. I've said it before and I can't emphasize it more - he felt safe saying what he said because he thought he was in the company of people who would find his statement hilarious. It's the same with the statement's he made about sexually assaulting Anna Kournikova.

In the States what he said would never have been reported. In Europe, where the VIP section doesn't only include the type of people Justin is accustomed to associating with, the comments were reported by the Spanish language section of a German media outlet.

I worked in management for many years and was always aware that when I was at a business function - and lunch at Wimbledon for a member of the media is a business function - you kept your thoughts to yourself. As a member of the media - he is a broadcast announcer too - you are always "on" when in public. As a member of the ATP Board this is doubly true.

Defenders have taken the position that he didn't say it to Feli's face and that he did try to explain that he wasn't being malicious but the damage was done. As the translation shows the reporters made the direct connection between the Slob and his bff Andy Roddick.

I often talk about the tensions between the ATP and the rest of the world. With Adam Helfant stepping down at the end of the year personally insulting a player from the dominant tennis nation right now is not a good idea. Oh, did I mention this player has a good friend on the ATP Players Association board? And that said board will consult on Helfant's replacement? Way to go Slob.

This and That

Just an aside. As a parent you are also always on the job. I'm a woman. If I see a good looking man certain hormones make their appearance. But I don't talk about it in front of my adult daughter. It's just not something I'm comfortable doing. I understand the player who reacted negatively in public to his mother making no secret about her feelings towards a certain player's delectability. Mothers don't do that in front of their children no matter the child's age. I'm just saying. Then again I'm old.

Once again the tennis gods smiled on Wimbledon. It appears as if they can get their Middle Sunday day of rest in without any problems.

Those of you who read this space know my feelings about what I call the Axis, the countries who dominated tennis for many years. In fact Mary Carillo just alluded to that on NBC when she said that Wimbledon was usually won by Brits, Americans and Aussies. Her comment was met with deafening silence and they moved on. Earlier this week ESPN put up a graphic showing how long it's been since Axis members - Britain, The United States, Australia and French - had won a Grand Slam. Just use a graphic next time Mary.

There are some interesting names in Round of 16 play that starts Monday. Focusing on the women Ksenia Pervak and Tamira Paszek
are joining the festivities. I consider myself well versed in tennis on both the main and challenger level. I have never heard of Ksenia Pervak until now. I have heard of Ms Paszek. Not that I expected either woman to make the second week of play.

They'll be joined by Sabine Lisicki of Germany who is on a bit of tear in SW 19 but her countrywoman Andrea Petkovic didn't make it.

By the way the women's matches have been played at a very high level this week. That's right. The matches I saw did not feature ball bashing (I avoided Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova is trying to move around more. I did say trying.) to the exclusion of any other form of play.

But there will be no Li Na, no Francesca Schiavone, no Svetlana Kuznetsova in play next week. Sabine Lisicki had to play all court tennis to defeat Madame Li. And the way both Williams Women bossed their way around the court the last few days makes it seem as if they're making progress by the proverbial leaps and bounds.

Before I go the AELTC has instituted a program of having the parents of champions sit in the Royal Box. So far the parents of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have been seated. I'm waiting for Richard Williams and Oracene Price to take their seats. And no, I ain't touching whether Richard's new wife will accompany him. My mother would get up from her grave and smack me in the head.

One For the Ages

2011-06-22T19:28:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

Or should I say ageless? How about the throw down in Londontown? No? Oh well.

Most tennisheads know the story of Date Kimiko. She left tennis for 13 years seemingly content to play exhibitions and get on with her life.

But as we all know tennis is an addiction, an itch you can never quite scratch. Still I think most of us expected good but not spectacular play from her nostalgia tour figuring that her best tennis was behind her. Besides she was a throwback, someone who wouldn't stand a chance in the world of big babe baseline power tennis or survive the rise of the pusherocracy. At 40, as those of us who have left that age in the rearview mirror know, your body has started to exact it's revenge for all the shit you did up to that time.

Still the woman known now as Kimiko Date-Krumm kept plugging away on the sidelines while another woman from Asia began to hog all the limelight.

When she walked on court this morning I noticed she was cut but thought nothing of it. She'd annoy her opponent and that would be that.

Oh yeah. Kimiko Date-Krumm was playing someone named Venus Williams. Another ancient warrior, at 31 Venus has become the Grande Dame of women's tennis. She is the undisputed Queen of Wimbledon and for the last decade if she hasn't won the tournament her little sister has stepped up and maintained the family honor.

But Venus is 31. Many of us saw her severely injure (or reinjure or aggravate a healing injury depending on what you believe) herself back in January and after a four month layoff it was debateable what she could will her battered body to do.

It's now about 12 hours later give or take a few minutes and I'm doing something I rarely do - rewatch a tennis match. Why? Because it's been a long time since I've seen tennis played at such a high level by two women who many think should be home with a baby in one arm and a couple more pulling on the hem of her dress.

Instead I will say that I have never seen a set of tennis as spectacular as the first set of their match today.

The innovation shown by Date-Krumm was jaw dropping. She was playing all court tennis for sure, but she was creating angles where none should have been. She was absorbing the power of Venus and giving it back to her in a way the Queen of Wimbledon, I think it is safe to say, has not seen before. Kimiko was taking the ball early and with almost no back swing. Venus was forced out of her comfort zone and it showed. She fought back to force a tiebreak in the first set but lost it. Date-Krumm deserved that set. What remained to be seen was if she would be able to survive what was coming. She was threatening to throw Venus out of her house. No one abandons their house without a fight and she was in for one.

I won't say Venus calmly won the match. The older of the Williams Women is not given to emotional displays in public but she opened the door and let anyone who was looking see the emotion, the heart, the desire to win that fuels her, that makes her return to the sport that seems not to know how to embrace her.

The replays they'e showing here focus on the two sets Venus won ignoring the brilliant tennis that was featured in the first set. If the women of the WTA played the kind of tennis we were treated to this morning there wouldn't be any talk of no one wanting to watch a women's match. Date-Krumm and Venus Williams showed all their intelligence, court knowledge, skill and creativity as well as the ability to think for themselves in one amazing set of tennis.

Throw the rankings in the toilet. We're seeing Grand Slam tennis from the likes of Francesca Schiavone, Venus Williams, Li Na and Serena Williams. They're not, and never have, played every week so that they can accumulate enough points to be ranked #1 by the computer. They do their talking on the court. And oh, what conversations they have!

Rewriting History and Updating Fashion

2011-06-20T19:47:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

Some observations from Day 1...

Chris Evert is being paid to be a commentator. Sure the standards to be a tennis commentator are pretty low but when you botch something as basic to modern tennis as who got shafted by bad calls at the US Open resulting in the institution of HawkEye I'm sure the suits gave you a good talking to. Pammy corrected her as an aside and did the moving on thing. Really Chris?

So what to do about her? Put her in the studio? I don't think so since Hannah Storm called Michael Russell Michael Young and obviously wasn't listening to Darren Cahill who called Russell by his correct name because she promptly called him out of his name again. The mind boggles at the shenanigans Chrissie and Hannah could get up to in the studio.

Leave it to Venus Williams to make a huge fashion statement. Most people found fault with her modern day romper. I liked it. The legs are full and allow movement. The top is draped and also allows the arms to move freely. The fabric, white on white, is great. Of course Venus had to leave a little skin showing and the cut out in the back caps off the modern look.

There were also complaints about the zipper in the front but as any woman knows rompers and jump suits are not that popular because at some point you have to go to the ladies room. The zipper placed like it is allows for an easier time when you have to go. Besides it looks better there than in the back of what are supposed to be cocktail dresses or evening gowns where it just looks like the seamstress doesn't have a clue about sewing.

Due to the rain the majority of matches will be completed tomorrow. Unless Chrissie rewrites history again or Hannah continues to call people out of their name I won't post until all of the first round matches have been played.

Random Thoughts on the 2011 Wimbledon Draw

2011-06-17T12:46:00.001-05:00

by Savannah

Two things about the men's draw.
Note to Andy Murray: The AELTC doesn't like you as much as the French. I'm just saying. Maybe they look at you and see blue face paint and a tattered tartan?

If the biggest thing people are taking from the men's draw is John Isner vs Nicolas Mahut Part Deux the draw is pretty balanced.

As for the women's draw it takes some studying to see the traps that have been laid.

No one is talking much about a Final scenario involving WTA #1 Caroline Wozniacki. She hasn't played on grass coming into the tournament and some of the players she's facing are coming in on fire. Dominika Cibulkova got a big win over Svetlana Kuznetsova at Rosmalen. Julia Goerges has been playing well but will be relatively rested compared to others.

Samantha Stosur overcame her demons and got a huge win over Vera Zvonareva at Eastbourne Thursday. Maria Sharapova has won it all before and it's possible she will do it again. She wants it. Her fiance wants it. She's got to get something from new coach Thomas Hogstedt who didn't have the decency to send Li Na an email saying he was leaving her employ. There's a lot at stake for both Maria and Li but more on Li shortly.

The weakest of the seeds are Goerges, Peng Shuai and Lucie Safarova but Peng, of the three, has the biggest chance of doing some early round damage. Will Wozniacki surprise and run through her section of the draw? One never knows do one? Anything is possible. I think she has to at least make the quarterfinals to be able to say she made a good showing? Did I hear someone say round of 16 is the best she'll do? Meanie.

The good news is that Serena Williams and Venus Williams are in different halves of the draw. Maybe that's the only good news?
Serena finds herself in the bottom of the top half of the draw with Li Na, Ana Ivanovic, Agnieszka Radwanska, Bethanie Mattek Sands, Maria Kirilenko, Flavia Pennetta and Marion Bartoli. I'm saying again that I don't expect miracles from Serena. A healthy Serena wouldn't have a problem. The Serena from Eastbourne who had trouble breathing and her quads giving her problems will have to struggle a bit. The wild card here is Marion Bartoli. If she stays focused and plays up to her great potential she could find herself deep in the second week. Li Na is the other player who could find herself playing in week two. Of course I'd be very happy if Serena finds a way to steady her breathing and minimize her other physical issues resulting from her recent health concerns and finds herself in the semis. I'd like that a lot. But I'm not getting my hopes up.

The seeds in the top of the bottom half are Francesca Schiavone, Ekaterina Makarova, Shahar Peer, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Andrea Petkovic, Daniela Hantuchova, Kaia Kanepi and Victoria Azarenka.

I'm sorry Vika fans but I see Pavs coming out of this section. I think Dani Hantuchova who has been on fire of late will run out of steam and not make it to the second week. Vika retired from her last match, again, and I wonder about her being mentally and physically ready for the grind that is a Grand Slam. Of course Kaia could go on one of her tears and prove me wrong but that's tennis.

And now to the bottom of the bottom half of the draw. Who might be lurking here? Petra Kvitova for one. Looking around I see Roberta Vinci, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Tsvetana Pironkova, Yanina Wickmayer, Jelena Jankovic, Vera Zvonareva and...drumroll please...Venus Williams.

Will we see the Venus Williams we saw playing her opening match at Eastbourne or the Venus who lost for the first time in ten years to Daniela Hantuchova? That Venus was spraying errors all over the place and while she did win a second set failed to close the deal in the third. If Venus #1 shows up there is no need to even debate who is going to win the tournament. If she goes on one of her walkabouts it's an entirely different situation.
Petra has had a rather "meh" grass season and it's going to be interesting to see if she can hold her nerve and her focus for two weeks. When she's on she can hold her own with the best of them but when she's bad...it's bad.

Wickmayer doesn't have the temperament to survive a two week test of brain and heart in my opinion. She and Azarenka are hindered by the same things - lack of patience and a one note style of play. Both will do well but in the end disappoint their fans.

JJ, Sveta, and Tsvetana are the sleepers here. JJ can do it but will she? She's playing in such an insecure fashion of late I wonder if she'll be able to gather her will and fight the way she used to. I never count Sveta out until she takes herself out. I've seen Sveta play her best tennis and when she does she's almost unbeatable. I don't know if she gets distracted or she overthinks things but the only way Sveta loses is when Sveta takes herself out of her match.

Tsvetana really enjoys the hunt. The bigger the name across the net from her the bigger she plays. We know she can go deep and seeing her in the second week wouldn't be that big a surprise. If she plays with confidence she can surprise a few big names and that is just how she likes to roll.

All of that verbage leads up to me saying that the draw is wide open. Unless someone breaks her legs I think Sharapova will make the semifinals. If Venus stays healthy she can as well. I have no idea who else will be there. The tour is too weak to make any solid predictions and even when making one like I am here I can argue myself into a different scenario. It's gonna be fun y'all.

End Notes

I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of the more interesting looks from the WTA player party that took place Thursday evening. The WTA worked with British designers so that each woman would have her own unique look.
I've come to the conclusion Stella McCartney really hates Caroline Wozniacki. That or Caroline needs to hire a stylist who will hone her fashion sensibilities so that she doesn't come out in public dressed like a woman twice her age or a slut out for a stroll.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands outfit was designed by the man who does Lady GaGa's costumes. I think Stefanie would've said "no". I'm just saying.

Young Heather Watson looks great. So does Maria Sharapova. Serena looks awesome. The dress fits her from top to bottom and makes her look classy. Not a fan of the makeup but she otherwise looks fabulous.

I don't like Ana's dress. I'm sorry people. She's small busted and that dress actually makes the girls look like they're in pain. The dress itself also appears to be too small for her and that's saying something since she's extremely thin right now.

JJ's dress is a little matronly for my tastes. A well preserved fifty year old would look great in that dress. Petko gets a nod towards best dressed too. Her makeup is also great.

All of us were told by our mothers if you can't say anything good don't say anything. That's why I'm not talking about Li Na from the neck down. From the neck up the woman is flawless.

The AELTC has announced that live streaming will not be done this year pending a reevaluation of it's options. Here is a list, from the official site, of the carriers who will be featuring Wimbledon coverage.

BROADCASTER TERRITORY

ADMC Middle East
ARQ Czech Republic
B92 Serbia
BBC UK
Canal+ France
Canwest Canada (Men's And Ladies' finals only)
C More Sweden, Finland, Norway
Ctv(Tsn) Canada (preliminary rounds only)
ESS Asia
ESPN United States
ESPNSur South America
Fiji Tv
Fox Australia
Gaora Japan
Go Multiplus Malta
Globosat Brazil
I.K.O (Sport Klub ) Balkans
Lumiere Tv Cyprus
Media Eye Turkey (Ntv)
MPI Romania
NBC United States
Nova Greece & Cyprus
Nhk Japan
NOS Netherlands
NTV Russia
Pragosport (Sport1 Channel) Hungary
Polsat Poland
RDS Canada (Finals Only)
Reuters
Rtl(Clt Ufa) French Belgium
Seven Australia
Sky Deutschland Germany
SNTV
Sogecable Spain
Sport1 Netherlands
Sports Channel Israel
Sport TV Portugal
SRG Switzerland
Supersport Albania & Kosovo
Supersport South Africa
TVNZ New Zealand
TG4 Republic Of Ireland
TV+ Bulgaria
TV2 Denmark
The Tennis Channel United States
VRT Dutch Belgium
VTM (VMMA) Belgium
Wowow Japan

2011 Wimbledon Main Draws - Singles

2011-06-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

Ladies Main Draw

TOP HALF

Caroline Wozniacki DEN (1) v Arantxa Parra Santonja ESP
Sania Mirza IND v Virginie Razzano FRA
Anastasia Rodionova AUS v Andrea Hlavackova CZE
Alona Bondarenko UKR v Jarmila Gajdosova AUS (27)

Dominika Cibulkova SVK (24) v Mirjana Lucic CRO
Polona Hercog SLO v Johanna Larsson SWE
Mathilde Johansson FRA v Heather Watson GBR
Anabel Medina Garrigues ESP v Julia Goerges GER (16)

Samantha Stosur AUS (10) v Melinda Czink HUN
Anastasiya Yakimova BLR v Sofia Arvidsson SWE
Elena Baltacha GBR v Qualifier
Kirsten Flipkens BEL v Shuai Peng CHN (20)

Lucie Safarova CZE (31) v Lucie Hradecka CZE
Klara Zakopalova CZE v Emily Webley-Smith GBR
Angelique Kerber GER v Laura Robson GBR
Anna Chakvetadze RUS v Maria Sharapova RUS (5)

Na Li CHN (3) v Alla Kudryavtseva RUS
Sabine Lisicki GER v Anastasija Sevastova LAT
Jie Zheng CHN v Zuzana Ondraskova CZE
Qualifier v Bethanie Mattek-Sands USA (30)

Ana Ivanovic SRB (18) v Melanie Oudin USA
Coco Vandeweghe USA v Eleni Daniilidou GRE
Kristina Barrois GER v Petra Cetkovska CZE
Olga Govortsova BLR v Agnieszka Radwanska POL (13)

Marion Bartoli FRA (9) v Qualifier
Lourdes Dominguez Lino ESP v Romina Oprandi ITA
Evgeniya Rodina RUS v Chanelle Scheepers RSA
Irina-Camelia Begu ROU v Flavia Pennetta ITA (21)

Maria Kirilenko RUS (26) v Alberta Brianti ITA
Qualifier v Yaroslava Shvedova KAZ
Simona Halep ROU v Bojana Jovanovski SRB
Aravane Rezai FRA v Serena Williams USA (7)

BOTTOM HALF

Francesca Schiavone ITA (6) v Jelena Dokic AUS
Barbora Zahlavova Strycova CZE v Qualifier
Ayumi Morita JPN v Tamira Paszek AUT
Christina McHale USA v Ekaterina Makarova RUS (28)

Shahar Peer ISR (22) v Ksenia Pervak RUS
Sorana Cirstea ROU v Pauline Parmentier FRA
Qualifier v Qualifier
Greta Arn HUN v Andrea Petkovic GER (11)

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS (14) v Qualifier
Vesna Dolonts RUS v Nadia Petrova RUS
Kateryna Bondarenko UKR v Alize Cornet FRA
Sara Errani ITA v Kaia Kanepi EST (17)

Daniela Hantuchova SVK (25) v Qualifier
Qualifier v Qualifier
Sandra Zahlavova CZE v Iveta Benesova CZE
Magdalena Rybarikova SVK v Victoria Azarenka BLR (4)

Petra Kvitova CZE (8) v Qualifier
Naomi Broady GBR v Anne Keothavong GBR
Rebecca Marino CAN v Patricia Mayr-Achleitner AUT
Vera Dushevina RUS v Roberta Vinci ITA (29)

Yanina Wickmayer BEL (19) v Varvara Lepchenko USA
Anastasia Pivovarova RUS v Anna Tatishvili GEO
Jill Craybas USA v Alexandra Dulgheru ROU
Shuai Zhang CHN v Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS (12)

Jelena Jankovic SRB (15) v Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez ESP
Monica Niculescu ROU v Sybille Bammer AUT
Katie O'Brien GBR v Kimiko Date-Krumm JPN
Akgul Amanmuradova UZB v Venus Williams USA (23)

Tsvetana Pironkova BUL (32) v Qualifier
Vania King USA v Petra Martic CRO
Elena Vesnina RUS v Laura Pous-Tio ESP
Alison Riske USA v Vera Zvonareva RUS (2)

Gentlemen's Main Draw

TOP HALF

Rafael Nadal ESP (1) v Michael Russell USA
Pablo Andujar ESP v Ryan Sweeting USA
Gilles Muller LUX v Tommy Haas GER
Fabio Fognini ITA v Milos Raonic CAN (31)

Juan Martin Del Potro ARG (24) v Qualifier
Olivier Rochus BEL v Qualifier
Frederico Gil POR v Dudi Sela ISR
Qualifier v Gilles Simon FRA (15)

Mardy Fish USA (10) v Marcel Granollers ESP
Philipp Kohlschreiber GER v Denis Istomin UZB
Robin Haase NED v Pere Riba ESP
Radek Stepanek CZE v Fernando Verdasco ESP (21)

Juan Ignacio Chela ARG (25) v Qualifier
Donald Young USA v Alex Bogomolov Jr. USA
Qualifier v Julien Benneteau FRA
Filippo Volandri ITA v Tomas Berdych CZE (6)

Andy Murray GBR (4) v Daniel Gimeno-Traver ESP
Tobias Kamke GER v Blaz Kavcic SLO
Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR v Daniel Cox GBR
Ivan Ljubicic CRO v Marin Cilic CRO (27)

Richard Gasquet FRA (17) v Santiago Giraldo COL
Igor Kunitsyn RUS v Qualifier
Qualifier v Qualifier
Potito Starace ITA v Stanislas Wawrinka SUI (14)

Gael Monfils FRA (9) v Matthias Bachinger GER
Qualifier v Robert Kendrick USA
Arnaud Clement FRA v Qualifier
Ivo Karlovic CRO v Janko Tipsarevic SRB (23)

Thomaz Bellucci BRA (30) v Rainer Schuettler GER
Feliciano Lopez ESP v Michael Berrer GER
Jaroslav Pospisil CZE v Victor Hanescu ROU
Qualifier v Andy Roddick USA (8)

BOTTOM HALF

David Ferrer ESP (7) v Benoit Paire FRA
Ivan Dodig CRO v Qualifier
Carlos Berlocq ARG v Qualifier
Andrey Golubev KAZ v Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ESP (26)

Alexandr Dolgopolov UKR (22) v Fernando Gonzalez CHI
Qqualifier v Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo ESP
Grigor Dimitrov BUL v Qualifier
Qualifier v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA (12)

Nicolas Almagro ESP (16) v Jarkko Nieminen FIN
John Isner USA v Nicolas Mahut FRA
Somdev Devvarman IND v Denis Gremelmayr GER
Juan Monaco ARG v Mikhail Youzhny RUS (18)

David Nalbandian ARG (28) v Julian Reister GER
Florent Serra FRA v Andreas Haider-Maurer AUT
Adrian Mannarino FRA v Qualifier
Mikhail Kukushkin KAZ v Roger Federer SUI (3)

Robin Soderling SWE (5) v Philipp Petzschner GER
Kei Nishikori JPN v Lleyton Hewitt AUS
Igor Andreev RUS v Teymuraz Gabashvili RUS
Qualifier v Nikolay Davydenko RUS (29)

Florian Mayer GER (20) v Daniel Evans GBR
Xavier Malisse BEL v Mischa Zverev GER
Ernests Gulbis LAT v Dmitry Tursunov RUS
Alejandro Falla COL v Jurgen Melzer AUT (11)

Viktor Troicki SRB (13) v Maximo Gonzalez ARG
Yen-Hsun Lu TPE v Tommy Robredo ESP
Ricardo Mello BRA v Qualifier
James Ward GBR v Michael Llodra FRA (19)

Marcos Baghdatis CYP (32) v James Blake USA
Andreas Seppi ITA v Albert Montanes ESP
Kevin Anderson RSA v Illya Marchenko UKR
Jeremy Chardy FRA v Novak Djokovic SRB (2)

What Do The Seeds Mean?

2011-06-15T18:55:00.000-05:00

by Savannah

My reaction to the seeding done by Wimbledon was "meh". I mean when all is said and done the AELTC did what it usually does - stir the pot.

The two seeds I was looking for were Venus Williams and Serena Williams. A quick glance at Wikipedia gives you a list of winners going back to the dawn of time but I was interested in the last ten years.

2000 USA Venus Williams USA Lindsay Davenport 6–3, 7–6(7–3)
2001 USA Venus Williams BEL Justine Henin 6–2, 3–6, 6–0
2002 USA Serena Williams USA Venus Williams 7–6(7–4), 6–3
2003 USA Serena Williams USA Venus Williams 4–6, 6–4, 6–2
2004 RUS Maria Sharapova USA Serena Williams 6–1, 6–4
2005 USA Venus Williams USA Lindsay Davenport 4–6, 7–6(7–4), 9–7
2006 FRA Amélie Mauresmo BEL Justine Henin 2–6, 6–3, 6–4
2007 USA Venus Williams FRA Marion Bartoli 6–4, 6–1
2008 USA Venus Williams USA Serena Williams 7–5, 6–4
2009 USA Serena Williams USA Venus Williams 7–6(7–3), 6–2
2010 USA Serena Williams RUS Vera Zvonareva 6–3, 6–2

There seems to be a trend here no? In the last ten years there have been only two years that someone with the surname Williams has not won Wimbledon. One of those winners is retired and the other one is poised to make a deep run this year.

Is the AELTC trying to ensure an anyone but a Williams winner? Maybe. I just don't think it's smart to wave a red flag in front of either of the Williams Women. I'm just saying.

Still after today where after her gutsy win yesterday Serena showed the aftereffects of her recent health issues I wonder if she'll be physically ready for the rigors of a Grand Slam. She visibly hit a wall today and while she fought hard to try and make the outcome respectable in the end her mighty will couldn't get her over the finish line. That may turn out to be a good thing for her. She was really hyped up/nervous yesterday and she came out on the same high today. But the adrenaline wore off and she got to experience the limits of what her body can do now. Depending on her draw she could make it to the second week. I don't want to look much past that.

As for Venus she cc'd everyone on the email she sent out today. The bitch is back. I almost felt sorry for Ana Ivanovic today because it was obvious she had no recourse but to guess what Venus was going to do next. And she kept guessing wrong.
I'm sure Venus will face a murderer's row of opponents but if she plays like she did today it won't matter. Should she have been seeded higher? I think so. The AELTC has carte blanche when it comes to the women's draw and I have to say I was surprised to see Venus seeded #24. I saw some griping on Twitter today about the Williams Women being the only players to get moved around by the AELTC. I wonder who they wanted moved? Certainly not Kim Clijsters who as expected withdrew from the event today after the draw was released. Her ankle injury is said to be unrelated to the original one.

I have no reason not to take all of this at face value. As I said before and repeated yesterday I didn't think Clijsters would play a match before the United States hard court season and was stunned she played the French. I'll be shocked again if she plays anywhere before the US Open where she'll be guaranteed a cakewalk.

As for the men there's a lot of talk about the #2 and #3 seedings.
I have to say that I was surprised to see Roger Federer seeded according to his rank. I know the AELTC published some blather about the seeding for Venus and Serena that included paying homage to their history on grass. Following that same logic Federer should've been the number two seed. Once again I went to Wiki and here are the results for the last ten years.

2000 USA Pete Sampras AUS Patrick Rafter 6–7(10–12), 7–6(7–5), 6–4, 6–2
2001 HRV Goran Ivanišević AUS Patrick Rafter 6–3, 3–6, 6–3, 2–6, 9–7
2002 AUS Lleyton Hewitt ARG David Nalbandian 6–1, 6–3, 6–2
2003 SUI Roger Federer AUS Mark Philippoussis 7–6(7–5), 6–2, 7–6(7–3)
2004 SUI Roger Federer USA Andy Roddick 4–6, 7–5, 7–6(7–3), 6–4
2005 SUI Roger Federer USA Andy Roddick 6–2, 7–6(7–2), 6–4
2006 SUI Roger Federer ESP Rafael Nadal 6–0, 7–6(7–5), 6–7(2–7), 6–3
2007 SUI Roger Federer ESP Rafael Nadal 7–6(9–7), 4–6, 7–6(7–3), 2–6, 6–2
2008 ESP Rafael Nadal SUI Roger Federer 6–4, 6–4, 6–7(5–7), 6–7(8–10),9–7
2009 SUI Roger Federer USA Andy Roddick 5–7, 7–6(8–6),7–6(7–5),3–6,16–14
2010 ESP Rafael Nadal CZE Tomáš Berdych 6–3, 7–5, 6–4

Just for shits and giggles I looked up the #2 seed's Wimbledon results.
Tournament 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Career SR Career W-L Win %
Wimbledon A A 3R 4R SF 2R QF SF 0 / 6 20–6 76.92

Of course none of this matters except that a guy who has won the event six times is seeded behind a man who has never made a final. Oh well. Once again I'm just a lowly blogger so what do I know? I'm not even entitled to see transcripts from Grand Slam pressers according to the ITWA.

All I can say is that there are a lot of red being waved in front of some pretty irritable people. It's going to be an interesting tournament.

The 2011 Wimbledon Seedings

2011-06-15T06:01:00.003-05:00

WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011
SEEDED PLAYERS IN ALL EVENTS
EVENT 3 : Ladies' Singles
1 Caroline WOZNIACKI (DEN) [1]
2 Kim CLIJSTERS (BEL) [2]
3 Vera ZVONAREVA (RUS) [3]
4 Na LI (CHN) [4]
5 Victoria AZARENKA (BLR) [5]
6 Maria SHARAPOVA (RUS) [6]
7 Francesca SCHIAVONE (ITA) [7]
8 Serena WILLIAMS (USA) [8]
9 Petra KVITOVA (CZE) [9]
10 Marion BARTOLI (FRA) [10]
11 Samantha STOSUR (AUS) [11]
12 Andrea PETKOVIC (GER) [12]
13 Svetlana KUZNETSOVA (RUS) [13]
14 Agnieszka RADWANSKA (POL) [14]
15 Anastasia PAVLYUCHENKOVA (RUS) [15]
16 Jelena JANKOVIC (SRB) [16]
17 Julia GOERGES (GER) [17]
18 Kaia KANEPI (EST) [18]
19 Ana IVANOVIC (SRB) [19]
20 Yanina WICKMAYER (BEL) [20]
21 Shuai PENG (CHN) [21]
22 Flavia PENNETTA (ITA) [22]
23 Shahar PEER (ISR) [23]
24 Venus WILLIAMS (USA) [24]
25 Dominika CIBULKOVA (SVK) [25]
26 Daniela HANTUCHOVA (SVK) [26]
27 Maria KIRILENKO (RUS) [27]
28 Jarmila GAJDOSOVA (AUS) [28]
29 Ekaterina MAKAROVA (RUS) [29]
30 Roberta VINCI (ITA) [30]
31 Bethanie MATTEK-SANDS (USA) [31]
32 Lucie SAFAROVA (CZE) [32]

EVENT 1 : Gentlemen's Singles

1 Rafael NADAL (ESP) [1]
2 Novak DJOKOVIC (SRB) [2]
3 Roger FEDERER (SUI) [3]
4 Andy MURRAY (GBR) [4]
5 Robin SODERLING (SWE) [5]
6 Tomas BERDYCH (CZE) [6]
7 David FERRER (ESP) [7]
8 Andy RODDICK (USA) [8]
9 Gael MONFILS (FRA) [9]
10 Mardy FISH (USA) [10]
11 Jurgen MELZER (AUT) [11]
12 Jo-Wilfried TSONGA (FRA) [12]
13 Viktor TROICKI (SRB) [13]
14 Stanislas WAWRINKA (SUI) [14]
15 Gilles SIMON (FRA) [15]
16 Nicolas ALMAGRO (ESP) [16]
17 Richard GASQUET (FRA) [17]
18 Mikhail YOUZHNY (RUS) [18]
19 Michael LLODRA (FRA) [19]
20 Florian MAYER (GER) [20]
21 Fernando VERDASCO (ESP) [21]
22 Alexandr DOLGOPOLOV (UKR) [22]
23 Janko TIPSAREVIC (SRB) [23]
24 Juan Martin DEL POTRO (ARG) [24]
25 Juan Ignacio CHELA (ARG) [25]
26 Guillermo GARCIA-LOPEZ (ESP) [26]
27 Marin CILIC (CRO) [27]
28 David NALBANDIAN (ARG) [28]
29 Nikolay DAVYDENKO (RUS) [29]
30 Thomaz BELLUCCI (BRA) [30]
31 Milos RAONIC (CAN) [31]
32 Marcos BAGHDATIS (CYP) [32]

Doubles Seeding Gentlemen

1 Bob BRYAN (USA) & Mike BRYAN (USA) [1]
2 Max MIRNYI (BLR) & Daniel NESTOR (CAN) [2]
3 Mahesh BHUPATHI (IND) & Leander PAES (IND) [3]
4 Rohan BOPANNA (IND) & Aisam-Ul-Haq QURESHI (PAK) [4]
5 Jurgen MELZER (AUT) & Philipp PETZSCHNER (GER) [5]
6 Michael LLODRA (FRA) & Nenad ZIMONJIC (SRB) [6]
7 Mariusz FYRSTENBERG (POL) & Marcin MATKOWSKI (POL) [7]
8 Robert LINDSTEDT (SWE) & Horia TECAU (ROU) [8]
9 Eric BUTORAC (USA) & Jean-Julien ROJER (AHO) [9]
10 Mark KNOWLES (BAH) & Lukasz KUBOT (POL) [10]
11 Wesley MOODIE (RSA) & Dick NORMAN (BEL) [11]
12 Juan Ignacio CHELA (ARG) & Eduardo SCHWANK (ARG) [12]
13 Marcelo MELO (BRA) & Bruno SOARES (BRA) [13]
14 Marcel GRANOLLERS (ESP) & Tommy ROBREDO (ESP) [14]
15 Marc LOPEZ (ESP) & David MARRERO (ESP) [15]
16 Daniele BRACCIALI (ITA) & Frantisek CERMAK (CZE) [16]

Doubles Seeding Ladies

1 Vania KING (USA) & Yaroslava SHVEDOVA (KAZ) [1]
2 Kveta PESCHKE (CZE) & Katarina SREBOTNIK (SLO) [2]
3 Liezel HUBER (USA) & Lisa RAYMOND (USA) [3]
4 Sania MIRZA (IND) & Elena VESNINA (RUS) [4]
5 Bethanie MATTEK-SANDS (USA) & Meghann SHAUGHNESSY (USA) [5]
6 Nadia PETROVA (RUS) & Anastasia RODIONOVA (AUS) [6]
7 Andrea HLAVACKOVA (CZE) & Lucie HRADECKA (CZE) [7]
8 Shuai PENG (CHN) & Jie ZHENG (CHN) [8]
9 Julia GOERGES (GER) & Maria KIRILENKO (RUS) [9]
10 Iveta BENESOVA (CZE) & Barbora ZAHLAVOVA STRYCOVA (CZE) [10]
11 Maria Jose MARTINEZ SANCHEZ (ESP) & Anabel MEDINA GARRIGUES (ESP) [11]
12 Yung-Jan CHAN (TPE) & Monica NICULESCU (ROU) [12]
13 Daniela HANTUCHOVA (SVK) & Agnieszka RADWANSKA (POL) [13]
14 Cara BLACK (ZIM) & Shahar PEER (ISR) [14]
15 Chia-Jung CHUANG (TPE) & Su-Wei HSIEH (TPE) [15]
16 Olga GOVORTSOVA (BLR) & Alla KUDRYAVTSEVA (RUS) [16]

The Seeding Process

MEN

The seeds are the top 32 players on the ATP Entry System Position (ESP), BUT then rearranged on a surface-based system. Since 2002 a seeding committee has not been required for the Gentlemen’s Singles following an agreement made with the ATP. The seeding order is determined using an objective and transparent system to reflect more accurately an individual player’s grass court achievements: The formula is:

· Take ESP points at 13 June 2011

· Add 100% points earned for all grass court tournaments in the past 12 months

· Add 75% points earned for the best grass court tournament in the 12 months before that.

LADIES

The seeding order follows the WTA ranking list, except where in the opinion of the committee, a change is necessary to produce a balanced draw.

The only changes this year are Serena Williams and Venus Williams moving to 8 and 24 respectively. This reflects the balance between their proven records and also their lack of competitive play in the past 12 months.