Not So Idle Chit Chat

by Savannah

Play started today at the BNP Paribas Open/Indian Wells. Of course none of the top seeds were playing but there were some interesting match ups for hard core tennis fans. I guess we tennisheads should be used to the cameras being turned off until the Big Babes and Boys begin to play but it's really not fair. Sometimes someone perceived as cannon fodder goes on a tear and makes a deep run in a tournament. Of course no one will be able to say "I saw the change in his/her game from their first match" because for most of us early round play consists of scoreboard watching. In the United States preseason baseball, basketball and football are televised. This way if some kid just up from the minors gets hot fans can see his development. I wish TPTB in tennis would recognize that fact. I would have loved to see how Patty Schnyder, coming back from injury, played today. Jelena Dokic, who hasn't been seen much at all this year, plays today not to mention Magdalena Rybarikova plays Justine Henin. You'd think the cameras would be on for that match. Don't scoff. I've seen them turn the cameras on for one match that involved Maria Sharapova and turn them back off. On the men's side I would like to have seen Michael Russell and Lester Cook as well as Ryan Sweeting. As it stands I'll have to wait and see who makes it through to Friday.

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

A couple of weeks ago I talked about how Australian tennis is in turmoil with accusations flying left and right. In the same post I talked about the state of quiet desperation tennis in the United States is in. So how are the Brit's doing?


It seems all hell broke loose after the British Davis Cup team, led by John Lloyd, above, best known on this side of the pond for being Chris Evert's first husband, lost to Lithuania. The whole point of Davis Cup is that any country, on any given day, can beat another country. The loss to "lowly" Lithuania however has caused the tennis bigwigs in Britain to pull their hair out by the roots and begin to demand something to show for the large amounts of money that have been tossed at the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA).

Admittedly I don't know much about John Lloyd's tennis brain but I wonder if he's going down in flames for problems he did not create.

Back in 2006 Roger Draper took over the LTA based on his success with Sport England and I remember him vowing to stop the bullshit and bring success to British tennis. To say that hasn't happened is an understatement.
There were rumors of tons of money was allocated to "stipends" for promising young British players and there was talk of stopping the payments unless there were results on the tennis courts. Now, along with John Lloyd, calls are being made asking that Draper step aside.

So who would take John Lloyd's place? Talk is that Tim Henman is in the running. Boris Becker, who, when last I checked, is German, has also thrown in his two cents. I guess since the roots of the current British Royal Family are German he has the right to register an opinion.
Meanwhile The BBC posted the following:

World number four Andy Murray won both his singles matches for Britain as they lost to Poland in September, but missed the match against Lithuania to concentrate on preparing for this season's Grand Slams.

The Scot, who moved to Spain as a teenager to continue his training, was supported in his decision by Draper, though David Lloyd believes Murray should have been encouraged to play.

"Murray didn't come from the system. His mother was brave enough to take him out of it," said Lloyd, who is also a successful entrepreneur with a chain of fitness and tennis clubs.
"Roger is wrong endorsing the fact that Andy shouldn't have played. That was a bad call.

"I would try and encourage him to play and give something back to the game.
"I would ask him to play against Turkey. We want him to help our young kids. We all owe something to the game."

The article is based on comments by David Lloyd who is, you guessed it, John Lloyd's brother. He is also a former Davis Cup captain which totally gives him the right to speak. I also think his talk of "encouraging" Andy Murray to play the tie against Turkey stops just short of dark colored vans and men in black. I think.

Serena Williams Wins Laureus Award

Serena Williams has won the Laureus Award for Sportswoman of the Year for the second time. The award was given to her for winning two grand slams and regaining the number one ranking in women's tennis in 2009. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won the men's award. Kim Clijsters won the comeback award. Serena has also won the Comeback Player of the Year award making her the recipient of three Laureus awards.

End Notes

I took a few days off and of course the world kept turning. In the little reported on WTA tournament in Monterrey, Mexico Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeated Daniela Hantuchova to win the title. With the men playing Davis Cup it was the only pro level event last week.

Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova won the Doubles Crown.

Meanwhile David Nalbandian, who flew to Sweden from Argentina at the last minute to help motivate his countrymen during their tie against Sweden ended up catapulting them to victory. Nalbandian has been out for months with injury and was not expected to be able to contribute much.

After John Isner's heroics in defeat Nalbandian's is the biggest story to come out of last weekends play.

Don’t Play Davis Cup – and Have Your Patriotism Questioned

During the just fnished Miami tournament Rafael Nadal announced that he would not be playing Davis Cup for Spain. ESPN’s court side reporter Pam Shriver found Emilio Sanchez in the stands and of course asked Spain’s Davis Cup captain how his team would fare without Rafa. I guess no one told Pam that Spain had managed to win against Switzerland with Rafa sitting on the bench.

Emilio was as diplomatic as he could be making nice noises about Rafa having to protect his foot managing to call Spain’s top player “fragile” as he did so. Needless to say the United States Davis Cup captain seized on his peer’s words saying Emilio was “bitter” about Rafa’s decision not to play. Of course Patrick McEnroe didn’t do a dance in the broadcast booth but he had to like his team’s chances with Rafa not even a threat to play in Winston Salem this weekend. Rafa made the trip to Switzerland and stayed the entire weekend to cheer his compatriots on.




I’m sure Patrick was less sanguine when Andy Roddick pulled up lame during his match against Andy Murray with a pain in his not so famous butt. Andy Murray, exhibiting behavior that can only be called “peckish” rolled over and played dead during his match against Novak Djokovic all the while shouting obscenities at his coach Brad Gilbert. Murray has now said that he was suffering from both a groin and leg injury and is unlikely to play Davis Cup for Britain against Belgium. I wonder how bitter John Lloyd is?

Normally I wouldn’t write about this except that a thread appeared on www.menstennisforums.com asking if today’s athletes are patriotic. It started when Rafa pulled out of Davis Cup and has now been expanded to include Andy Murray and the entire Russian DC team. Funny that no one questioned Andre Agassi’s or Pete Sampras’ patriotism when they refused to play Davis Cup because it was inconvenient for them to play for their country. Sampras famously had to be begged to play. Agassi didn’t make DC officials grovel as much as I recall. Sampras felt no one appreciated his play – there wasn’t enough press coverage- in Moscow during one tie and then got Davis Cupitis. I’m not sure what set Andre off.

People have a right to question athletes about any and everything and I wouldn’t deny them that. I think it’s a bit unfair to rag on Rafa about not playing Davis Cup when the reason his foot is in the shape it is is as a result of his playing himself into exhaustion and carrying Spain on his back in 2005. It was Davis Cup play that stopped him from playing the Australian Open in 2006 with the foot injury he is now understandably citing as reason for his not playing.



Nikolay Davydenko who for some reason is drawing fans ire is a man who played so much tennis in 2006 people wondered how he could even lift a racquet. He seems to be playing a more moderate schedule this year and is playing this weekend’s tie. Why the fans are after him I have no idea.

Andy Murray is also being called out for being a slacker. The entire history of Scotland and England is being dragged out as possible reasons why Murray isn’t playing. Murray isn’t the only one who’s alleged political beliefs are being used to explain his not playing. Catalunya’s quest for nationhood has also been thrown into the mix by those questioning Rafa’s decision. Davydenko’s Ukrainian ancestry is also part of the brew.

Is all of this fair? Probably not. The politics involved probably have more to do with those of tennis rather than nationhood. Davydenko made some comments last year about who is Russian and who isn’t. Emilio Sanchez became DC captain in Spain after the prior coaching team was tossed out and he is known to be a favorite of the most powerful man in Spanish tennis. And Murray is just trying to put some kind of positive spin on his churlish behavior in Miami by citing injury. If he was so badly hurt that he couldn’t defend himself against Djokovic how can he possibly play Davis Cup?



Davis Cup has been a problem child for tennis since the Sampras and Agassi boycotts of the previous generation. The athletes today can’t be faulted for me-firstism when these two greats got away with it for years. The game has changed, there are more tournaments and more money than ever. The athlete owes it to himself to put his health ahead of an event like Davis Cup which offers no ranking points and comes at admittedly awkward times of the tennis year. If some of the talked about changes come about – rankings points and only playing every two or four years things will probably change. Until then there will always be drama around DC ties with a lot of it taking place off court.

Note: I haven’t discussed Fed Cup yet but Maria Sharapova announced that she will not be playing Fed Cup due to shoulder problems and a hamstring issue. I wonder if her patriotism will be questioned…oh wait.