The Australian Open - The WTA

by Savannah

This is the new spin from Jelena Jankovic. Guess she's now saying it wasn't the flu.

"

I struggled to get into the match, I felt very slow and I didn't get my rhythm but it is the first match of the season so I cannot expect myself to play the best tennis of my life, so I look forward to playing as many matches as possible and trying to get in form because I haven't played a match in two months," said Jankovic.

"I just came off training and it's so difficult to get back to the playing and finding the rhythm and consistency."

"I have also got a little bit bigger, I have more kilos than I used to have so it is a little bit different and I am not used to that at the moment, so it will take time for me to get used to my new body, the stronger Jelena.

This from "Volcana" on Tennis Forum

It seven weeks since the end of the YEC. She could have put on quite a bit of weight in that amount of time, but not that much muscle. Not without steroids anyway. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. I think, at OZ, we'll see a slower Jankovic, but not one that hits appreciably harder. It's not like she was overweight or something. Muscle is harder to build than fat is to lose.

As Wayne posted it's time to be over Jelena. This is the woman ranked Number One for the WTA, it's representative to the world of tennis from juniors to seniors and the non tennis world. Either no one believed the flu caused her beat down by Venus Williams in Hong Kong or she spins so many tales she has trouble keeping track of what she says. I saw pics of Jelena taken during a practice session when she was in Mexico. She is significantly bigger. Volcana makes a good point. I guess while she recovers from the flu she wants to prepare tennis fans for her new physique.

Now that Maria Sharapova is officially out of Australia some are daring to say what was said here months ago about rotator cuff injuries. Of course they're using variations of the same theme - it's worse than her people want to let on - but I don't understand why it's just now hitting them now that she's officially withdrawn.

It's just that I've been following tennis a long time. I remember when
Venus Williams suffered her abdominal tear and tennis "experts" were hinting that it couldn't be that bad and that maybe, just maybe, Venus was faking it. When Maria first said that she had a "small" rotator cuff tear I called bullshit and said that they were either lying about the tear or that something else was going on. Now Sharapova is saying that after all the non surgical attempts to heal her shoulder she had surgery in October. Not back in March when this problem was first announced, but October.
Recovery from rotator cuff surgery doesn't happen in a few weeks. I read somewhere it can be up to eighteen months. I find it amazing that no one questioned the time line on this, that no one is saying that since this type of injury is a known factor in sports medicine and that very few if any athletes go the non surgical route towards repair of the injury that something is rotten in Denmark.
Maybe she really thought she could defy the odds. Maybe she had the surgery back in March after all and is now realizing she won't be able to speed up her recovery time. I don't know. I do know that Maria got what I call a fair seeding here last year. Just sayin'.

In another controversy involving the WTA Alize Cornet has everyone's panties in a bunch over a revealing outfit she wore during a doubles match at the Hopman Cup.
This pretty much sums up what is going to be done to avoid "titty-gate" in Melbourne.

AUSTRALIAN Open referees will double as fashion police to stamp out skimpy outfits at the Melbourne event.

Open officials have threatened fines of up to $2000 for any player caught flouting its strict dress code after French player Alize Cornet caused a stir at the Hopman Cup last week.

The teenager wore a short skirt and revealing, see-through top during a doubles match at the tournament in Perth.

One of game's great players, Margaret Court, condemned her attire last night, saying it pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable.

And Open officials said they would review the rising star's outfits ahead of the tournament from January 19 to February 1.
(...)
Court, Australia's greatest female player, said the revealing outfits of today's female players made them "look like they should be on the beach".

"I just don't think the tennis court is the place to be everything clingy and showing everything," she said.

Court, a three-time Wimbledon champion and winner of 62 Grand Slam events, said fashion had gone overboard.

"Women don't need to expose themselves so much," she said.

"You're good at something, you do it well, you can look so nice without needing to reveal everything.

"If they think everybody's looking at their body and they've got see-through and no bra (outfits), it would have to affect your game."

The rest of the article is HERE
This is the only picture I could find.


Okay. Now that all the drama is out of the way let's talk about who's hot and who's not going into Oz now that Maria won't be there to defend her title.

The WTA Top 30

(1)
JANKOVIC, JELENA SRB
(2)
WILLIAMS, SERENA USA
(3)
SAFINA, DINARA RUS
(4)
DEMENTIEVA, ELENA RUS
(5)
IVANOVIC, ANA SRB
(6)
WILLIAMS, VENUS USA
(7)
ZVONAREVA, VERA RUS
(8)
KUZNETSOVA, SVETLANA RUS
(9)
MARIA SHARAPOVA
(10)
RADWANSKA, AGNIESZKA POL
(11)
PETROVA, NADIA RUS
(12)
WOZNIACKI, CAROLINE DEN
(13)
PENNETTA, FLAVIA ITA
(16)
AZARENKA, VICTORIA BLR
(14)
SCHNYDER, PATTY SUI
(15)
CORNET, ALIZE FRA
17)
BARTOLI, MARION FRA
(18)
CHAKVETADZE, ANNA RUS
(19)
CIBULKOVA, DOMINIKA SVK
(20)
SREBOTNIK, KATARINA SLO
(21)
HANTUCHOVA, DANIELA SVK
(22)
MAURESMO, AMELIE FRA
(23)
MEDINA GARRIGUES, ANABEL ESP
(24)
ZHENG, JIE CHN
(25)
SZAVAY, AGNES HUN
(26)
BAMMER, SYBILLE AUT
(27)
KANEPI, KAIA EST
(28)
LI, NA CHN
(29)
SUGIYAMA, AI JPN
(30)
KIRILENKO, MARIA RUS

Why list the top thirty as opposed to the top ten or twenty? Is the field that deep or is it that weak? That's going to be the argument about the WTA for the rest of the year.

Who is hot coming in?
Elena Dementieva
Victoria Azarenka
Dominika Cibulkova

The above three women have impressed during the warm up tournaments they've participated in. The most surprising is Dominika Cibulkova who beat Dinara Safina at the Hopman Cup like she stole something.
Victoria Azarenka fought tooth and nail to win her first WTA title. If she gets a favorable draw she could end up in the second week and give the Big Girls fits.
The most impressive of the bunch was Elena Dementieva. She had a great 2008 and is not resting on her laurels. She has continued to work on her serve and since the rest of her game was always good she's going to be a force to deal with in Melbourne.

Who is not?
Dinara Safina
Daniela Hantuchova
Ana Ivanovic

Dinara Safina was not impressive at all during Hopman Cup. Maybe it was the pressure of playing with her big brother who as usual brought the drama, I don't know. She can play better than she did there. I wouldn't count her out but she's going to have to play much better

Daniela Hantuchova seems to be sinking slowing through the rankings. She needs to control the court in order to play well and that doesn't seem to be happening. She's just not competitive in matches she should be.

Ana Ivanovic has started 2009 where she left off in 2008. It all came together for her at Roland Garros but after that it was "meh" the rest of the year. Maybe I'm judging her too harshly because of how she lost to Amelie Mauresmo who does own her but I don't think so. She'll need a very nice draw to make it to the second week. If she makes it we'll see which Ana came to Melbourne.

The Perennials
Who could I be talking about? Oh yes, those sisters. Venus Williams and Serena Williams of course. Will they meet in the Final? Can anyone stop them? Venus never plays well in Melbourne. Serena won it all a couple of years ago. They've been written off, ignored, chastised by former greats and ridiculed for their life style choices away from tennis yet no one can count them out at any Grand Slam.
I'm not predicting them to have to face each other in the Final. I think Venus will play better than she has in the past here. Serena will be focused. Will the draw have them potentially face each other in the quarters as has been standard of late? Maybe not. I don't see anyone having a true "cupcake" draw here. I think one of them will be in the Final. I'll leave it at that.

Who will win?
I think the road to the final will be through Elena Dementieva. Vera Zvonareva is hungry but will she hold it together for six matches? Will Dinara shake off the cobwebs and make a run here? Can Cibulkova overcome the physical challenge she faces? What about Zheng Jie? Will she get hot like she did at Wimbledon? And the World Number One? Assuming she gets used to her new physique and gets a favorable draw she could be a factor up to the quarter finals. Marion Bartoli has not played poorly. It's just a crap shoot with her. Victoria Azarenka wants a Slam badly. One may be in her future. Australia is a flukey Slam. One never knows. But no one will be overlooking her here. Where she falls in the draw will be very interesting.

I still think that If it's not a Williams hoisting the trophy it'll be Elena Dementieva.

Sharapova out of Australian Open

by Savannah

The article in it's entirety.
Judge for yourself. As I said in an earlier post if she was going to be ready for Melbourne she should've had the surgery when she said she had a rotator cuff tear not in October.

EXCLUSIVE NEXT week's Australian Open has been rocked by the withdrawal of defending champion Maria Sharapova.

Sharapova's management contacted Melbourne Park officials today with news her right shoulder injury had not fully recovered.

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley confirmed Sharapova's battle for fitness had been lost.

"I'm obviously disappointed for Maria because she's extremely disappointed," Tiley said.

"We've been in constant contact with Maria and she's decided to withdraw because she's not ready in her rehabilitation process.

"She's loves the Australian Open and she loves Melbourne - she's bitterly disappointed."

Sharapova, 23, has not played since Montreal in August because of chronic soreness in her shoulder.

Sharapova had been desperate to defend the Melbourne Park title.

But she last week withdrew from a Hong Kong exhibition, triggering fears she would have to bypass the Open.

The decision comes as a massive blow to the Russian, who spent 10 weeks in Arizona rehabilitating.

"We were working hard on my strength and building up all the muscles around my shoulder," Sharapova said on her website.

"Since I can only do that for two hours a day, I also worked really hard on working on other parts of my body.

"Unfortunately after my 10 weeks of shoulder rehab, I started hitting and serving again and I still felt the same exact pain that I have had in my shoulder since March."

Sharapova then underwent arthroscopic surgery - but believed she would recover in time for the next week's Open.

"I miss competing so much. I am trying to do everything possible to be ready for Australia, but I have promised my doctors, coach and family that I will not rush back," she said.

"I have only been able to practice so many hours at a time which is why I don't feel like I am ready to compete at a high level right now and this is why I need to pull out of the exhibtion in Hong Kong.

"But the great news is that we have taken care of the problem that has been bothering me so much over the last couple of years, and now is the time to get into what I call 'match shape'."

Sharapova joins Lindsay Davenport (pregnant) and Nadia Petrova (viral meningitis) as high-profile absentees.

Russia's world No. 5 Nikoloay Davydenko (foot) is the most notable casualty on the men's side.

Idle Chit Chat

by Savannah

It's early in the 2009 season and already the off the court games have begun.

Andy Murray said after his win over Roger Federer at Doha that his back was in very bad shape implying that Andy Roddick would win the trophy in a walkover. He played.

Jelena Jankovic, after getting her ass handed to her by Venus at Hong Kong has now said she is so deathly ill with some kind of bug (take your pick here) that she may miss the Australian Open. If she doesn't play the Open her current ranking would be in jeopardy. This is the same ranking that she implied in the off season would have to be pried from her cold dead hands. If you believe her give me a call. I have some prime land in Florida you might be interested in.

Novak Djokovic blamed his early exit from Brisbane on the change he made from a Wilson racquet to a Head racquet. That's interesting because I watched that match and Djoke, to say the least, was only mildly interested in what he was supposed to be doing with that racquet. Whispers abound that he really didn't want to play Brisbane to begin with. Now he's the top seed at Sydney.

In the first real controversy of the young season Richard Gasquet staged a remarkable comeback in his quarterfinal match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Brisbane. His fans saw the win as proof that 2009 will be Richard's season. I didn't see that match but there are a lot of fans who think something fishy went on and that Gasquet's play didn't have anything to do with it. As proof they could cite Richard's semi final match against Radek Stepanek. Radek did his usual schtick, fist pumping and celebrating wildly after every point he made. This hasn't stopped most of the top players from beating him in the past but Richard came totally unglued. I did watch this match and I was stunned at Gasquet's appeals to the chair to make Radek stop. The chair rightfully ignored the requests. Needless to say Gasquet lost his concentration and the match. His fans are calling Radek a clown in purple pajamas. The clown is in the final. As far as I know Richard isn't blaming his racquet or saying he was sick.


The Week That Was

Victoria Azarenka won her first WTA title over Marion Bartoli at Brisbane. She played very well and if she holds her present form will be a dangerous floater at Melbourne. I still can't get that match where she did everything but show her ass to the chair. I'll have to be convinced she's all that and two bags of chips.

Elena Dementieva is the one to watch in my very humble opinion. She played take no prisoners tennis at Auckland and there was no one there who was able to stop her.

The best match I saw was the one between Anne Keothavong of Great Britain against Elena Vesnina of Russia. This was a battle of relative equals and a lot was on the line for both women. Vesnina won that war but had nothing to fight Dementieva with in the final. Ms Keothavong showed a lot of guts and potential.

The worst match I watched last week was the one between
Amelie Mauresmo and Julie Coin, both of France. Some saw it as a valiant struggle by Amelie against a valiant opponent. All I kept saying was "Julie Coin Amelie?" I was bored to tears and despite Amelie's win the next day against Ana Ivanovic felt that she wasn't playing her best tennis. She retired with a back injury in her match against Marion Bartoli in the first set at 4-4.

The surprise of the week has been Somdev Devvarman of India. Devvarman is the first Indian to reach the Chennai final in quite some time. On his way to the final Somdev defeated Carlos Moya and Ivo Karlovic. Rainer Schuettler withdrew with a wrist inflammation putting Somdev in the final where he'll face Marin Cilic.

Do you see the pattern here? I hope so.

Andy Roddick played very good tennis on his way to the final in Doha. It's been said you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Faced with Murray's heightened level of play Roddick showed he still has trouble thinking on court. Not sure what new coach Larry Stepanki can do about that.

Raise your hand if you picked Slovakia to win the Hopman Cup. Congratulations to Dominika Cibulkova and Dominik Hrbaty for their win over Russia in the final. I didn't see the men's play but Dominika was moving Safina all over the court with ease. Let's see how deep she goes in Oz.

Team Americas, Gisela Dulko, Venus Williams and
Coco Vandeweghe won the Hong Kong Exhibition. Venus defeated Vera Zvonareva to secure her teams victory. Nice work ladies.

All in all this was a hell of a week for tennis fans. There was tennis all hours of the day and night, most of it available online. My daughter and I set up our laptops side by side watching live streams and still had a third stream going. With the Australian Open coming up it was good practice to be watching a match that started at 4a EST in the United States. We'll be doing a lot of that over the next three weeks. Sleep is a very overrated activity.

I wasn't looking to go into the shallow end of the pool so early in the season but hey, sometimes a blogger's got to do what a blogger's got to do. That said could someone explain to me what the hell is going on with Vera's outfit? I know it gets cool in Hong Kong this time of year but this out uglies Aravane Rezai's get up in Auckland. Sorry Vera. You get the Golden Finger this week.

It's Adam Helfant

by Savannah


L. Jon Wertheim is reporting that Adam Helfant, a 44 year old Nike executive, will replace Etienne de Villiers as head of the ATP.

Source

Q: I gather you have some news from the tennis world.
A: I'm told by multiple sources that the search is over and the ATP has finally settled on a new chief executive: Adam Helfant, 44, a Harvard-educated former Nike executive with both a legal and marketing background. The contract is being finalized and an official announcement is forthcoming.

Q: Is this a surprise?
A: In several ways, it is. For one, as tennis' nerve center has gone "off shore", there was a sense that the job was going to go to a non-American. (One suspects that, in part to appease the European contingent, Helfant will relocate from the U.S. to London.) Also, the slate of candidates bandied around was comprised of classic tennis insiders, figures familiar with the sport who had either worked for the ATP or a management agency or had run a tournament. Helfant is none of the above.

This is a classic case of an outsider surprising the field. This can be both a plus and minus. He's likely to bring a broad range of experience to bear. On the other hand, outsiders tend to get frustrated by the snarled politics and inherent conflicts and competing fiefdoms that so often prevent the sport from moving forward. Too often, they eventually throw up their hands and say, "Who needs this?"

Q: What sealed it for Helfant?
A: I was told that the top players (which often means their agents and advisors) strongly supported his candidacy and thought highly of the global nature of his work at Nike. His predecessor, Etienne DeVilliers, was brought on with the mandate for change, which is polarizing in and of itself. But his real undoing came when he lost the backing of the top players.

Q: What is Helfant's mandate?
A: It's not quite Obama territory, but he has his work cut out for him from Day 1. One of the big jobs entails replacing Mercedes and shoring up the ATP's sponsorships, no small challenge in these times. He'll also need to address the never-ending calendar issues and assure that the new ranking system and tournament commitment system is in working order. Then there are broader marketing and broadcast issues, the ongoing quest for players to receive more revenue from the Grand Slams, the residue of the match-fixing scandal. No question he'll have his work cut out for him. At the same time, the process spanned months so one strongly suspects he is going into this position with eyes wide open.

Tennis Talk

by Savannah

I guess the biggest news of the day is Novak Djokovic going out in the first round to Ernests Gulbis at Brisbane. Many of Ernests fans saw this match as a set up for Djokovic and there was a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth on fan boards.

I watched the match and all I can say is that Gulbis played well. There were no lapses in his concentration and he wasn't at all intimidated by Djokovic. He said later that he focused on winning the next point instead of thinking about winning the match. I guess he knows a lot of people will be watching to see how he progresses through the tournament. Meanwhile Djokovic has been awarded a wild card at Sydney where he'll again be the number one seed. He also said in a prematch interview that his family will not be traveling with him this year.

In a match I didn't watch all that closely Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Jarmila Gajdosova of Slovakia played a match that set new lows for on court behavior. I was watching the Hopman Cup play between France and Italy on another laptop and missed all the hystrionics and bitching. Even fans thought the ladies were out of control. Azarenka won the throw down.

The reason I wasn't watching the drama at Brisbane was because it looked like Alize Cornet of France was about ready to pass out on the court during her Hopman Cup match against Flavia Pennetta of Italy. Cornet was gasping for air and at one point sat down on the court to try and get herself under control and it looked as if she would have to forfeit the match. Alize had already admitted that she got to Perth late and watching one had to wonder how a seemingly conditioned athlete ends up laboring for breath like a beached whale. Alize said after the match - which she won - that she forgot to breathe during points. Looked more like Ms Cornet hadn't worked on her cardio much during the off season. Guess it was the night for the ladies to bring the drama.

Simone Bolelli took Gilles Simon out in their Hopman Cup match last night by the way. The score was three and three. Gilles doesn't look too happy about that.

Oh, and because no one wants to let this go yet here's a close-up of Dinara Safina's brother from the other night.


Elena Dementieva had to wait for Chan Yung-Jan of Taipei to realize she was about to take out a top ten player and choke to end up winning her opening round match at Brisbane. Ms Chan, who prefers to be called Latisha by Westerners who regularly butcher her name played an almost perfect first set and was up 5-1 before she fell to earth with a thud and never recovered her form.

Venus is in Hong Kong. She's wearing long braids. She looks healthy.


The Trouble with Juniors
Colette Lewis who chronicles the play of the girls and boys who may become household names one day has posted a rather disturbing post about the state of junior tennis in the United States. The remarks are made by none other than Robert Lansdorp who is revered in US tennis circles. I usually try to end on an up note but since I'm one of the people always whining about the state of tennis in the US I'll end with this as food for thought for those of us who love the game of tennis. Based on the behavior of some tennis parents I don't think this problem is restricted to the States.

Enormous Cheating has to Stop Now!
By Robert Lansdorp

Recently I was asked to become a member of a special advisory council for USTA player development, so apparently I am now officially entitled to share my opinions about what is happening in American junior tennis.

So let me start by making a few comments about a topic no one ever talks about publicly: the enormous amount of cheating now going on in junior tennis. Maybe the most shocking thing is that it’s so prevalent in the younger divisions, the 14 and unders, and even the 12s.

I’m not talking about an occasional bad call here and there. I’m talking about a culture that almost sees cheating as part of the game, almost as a strategy to use at certain times to win matches. Somehow that is now ok.

Here’s an amazing and shocking example from a national tournament in Florida in the girls 14 and under division.

Like most tournaments today, at this tournament there were scorecards on the court. If you’ve seen them, you know that the kids are supposed to flip the cards on the changeovers so the spectators and officials can see the score. The kids are also supposed to turn the cards so that the card with each player’s score points to his or her side of the court.

So here is what happened. At 4 all in the third set, one of the players holds serve to go up 5-4. As they change sides, the player who held serve flips the scorecard to show that she now has 5 games and the other girl has 4. But she neglects to turn the scoreboard so that the 5 is pointing to her side of the court.

So the girl that is behind 4-5 serves and wins the next game. The actual score is now 5 all. But the girl that just held serve claims she has now won the match. She claims that since the 5 was pointing to her side, she was the one who was ahead 5-4, and that she just won the third set 6-4.

Of course the other girls says no way, it’s 5 all, and calls the official to the court and explains the situation. And guess what? The official looks at the scorecard, sees which way the numbers are pointing, and awards the match to the girl who just cheated on the score. The referee probably didn’t know the rules. So here you have a young girl, whose family traveled all the way to Florida to watch her get cheated out of a match at 5 all in the third.

But the problem actually goes beyond incidents like this that are just between players. More and more the families are getting involved in the gamesmanship. They are clapping and cheering on every point, including clapping when the opponent kid chokes or makes a bad error.

Here’s another horrible story. In a first round match in another national tournament, the family of a younger player who upset a seed in the first round ran on the court and carried her off on their shoulders. Carried a 12 year kid off the court after a first round match! What’s going to happen if this kid wins a match in the junior French Open?

Sometimes you see the adults in the families yelling at each other from opposite sides of the court. I won’t go into details but I even know of some incidents that have ended up in physical confrontations with the dads exchanging blows.

The entire post is located on Bob Larson's Tennis News
Thanks to Colette for bringing this important issue to our attention.

Seen and Heard

by Savannah

I held off on my first post of the year to let a few matches, and some tennis chatter, take place. From our forced hiatus we now have the women playing an exho in Hong Kong to go along with the Hopman Cup exhibition. Tournaments are taking place in Auckland and Brisbane as well as in Doha and Chennai.

We've already got a potential cause celebre with Maria Sharapova pulling out of the Hong Kong exhibition after admitting to having had shoulder surgery in October. Remember when she said she had a tear in her rotator cuff and that she wasn't doing the surgery thing? Would it not have made better sense to have the surgery earlier in 2008 and come back strong in 2009? What do I know I'm just your average tennishead. Whatever is going on with Ms Sharapova the world is waiting to see what happens come AO time.

Meanwhile Roger Federer is saying he plans on dominating mens tennis in 2009 which means winning Slams and everything else in sight. There are a lot of people who want him to do just that. Let's see what his draws look like starting with the AO. No, I'm not letting that particular idea go.

The Brits are all atwitter about Andy Murray's chances in 2009. With his win at the Abu Dhabi exhibition some are over the moon. Last I heard you needed a lot of assistance getting up there.

They haven't forgotten Laura Robson either. I'm sure they wish they could do what some countries do and age her overnight. For now they'll have to wait and let her develop naturally. This is tennis not gymnastics.

Meanwhile back in the States the powers that be may be not be too happy about the commentary earlier today during Andy Roddick's match. The commentators said that while Roddick will have some wins he's no longer a threat at Slams. James Blake picked up where he left off at the end of last year losing to Dominik Hrbaty at his Hopman Cup 2009 debut. James even got cited for an obscenity. He should've started cursing and carrying on last year.

Nick Bollettieri has his opinion on why American tennis is in the toilet right about now.

'Pete Sampras said it will be five, 10, 15 years, maybe never will we see the likes of Agassi, Sampras, Courier, Chang and Martin. One of the reasons is that, now, we’re playing against the whole world. 
'You have  Russia, China, India, you have Korea, the third-world countries, you have South America, you have Portugal, you have Spain. It’s the whole damn world playing  now.'

Wasn't that the plan Nick?

Not to be left out
Pat Cash has said that "Ball Bouncing Wasters" are driving fans and potential fans from the sport.

All the signs suggest the very peak of elite male tennis is going to be astounding in 2009. When was the last time a new year dawned with such a sense of expectancy surrounding the four main contenders? If things go to plan, more and more people will watch tennis. But with added exposure comes a need to get everything in order and the four big names must do their bit. I just hope that two of them realise their responsibilities, make a few simple modifications and therefore avoid shooting the game in the foot at a time when more floating spectators are being drawn to tennis.

Who am I pointing my finger at? Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. What am I accusing them of doing? Basic stalling that is beginning to get on the nerves of everybody who watches and plays the game. They habitually hold up the action by bouncing the ball far too many times before serving. Not only does this practice show contempt for the guy waiting to receive at the other end of the court, but quite frankly, it bores the pants off the fans. It’s wrong and it’s about time serious action was taken to stop it.

Well it's his opinion. Everyone has one.

Count on Marat Safin to bring the drama. The stands were packed as everyone wanted to see the most famous tennis siblings not named Williams play together for the first time. So what does Marat do? As seen above he showed up late with two black eyes - according to Marat we should've seen the other guy - and proceeded to play tennis the way we know he can. Dinara has changed her hair color but who cares when we can speculate on what the hell happened to her brother.
The mixed doubles match turned out to be forgettable as Marat acted like a school boy trying to get the attention of a girl he likes by hitting at
Flavia Pennetta every chance he got. No word on whether or not he got Flavia's attention.

In another much anticipated match Jelena Dokic faced off against Amelie Mauresmo. Amelie has been plagued by injuries of late and Dokic had played well coming into their match but it was the match tested Mauresmo who overcame the hard hitting Aussie. It took her two tie breaks to do it but she did. Jelena had several chances to take control of the match but wasn't able to. Jelena needs to work on her serve, and hit the gym. She still hits the snot out of the ball but that's not enough today.

Did I mention that in introducing Roger Federer at Doha no mention was made of his current rank? They listed all of his accomplishments though. Let's see they do the same thing at Melbourne.

It's the start of the new season and once again tennis fans are reliant on live streams. Something called tennisTV is being launched but no pricing has been provided as of yet. Tournaments need to get hip to the reason live streams are so popular. First of all most of us work. A lot of us are students. Internet access is not only for those lazing about at home and the ability to sneak a peek at a match away from home is not a luxury anymore.
Get with it guys. Look at what Wimbledon does and copy it. Of course every event can't afford to duplicate that level of service but in this day and age something should be available for all the majors.

Reports are circulating that Ana Ivanovic is no longer working with Sven Groeneveld. Sven was never her personal coach to begin with so maybe she's looking for someone full time.

Tennis.com reports the following.

The Pakistan Tennis Federation is asking the ITF for $60,000 in compensation after its home Davis Cup tie against Oman was re-located because of security concerns. It has also requested that the tie be moved to a neutral venue rather than being held in Oman. Pakistan will still be allowed to choose the surface for the tie.

From the same source it's reported that Brad Drewett and Adam Helfant are the men still in the running to replace Etienne de Villiers. The announcement should be made just before the Australian Open begins.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone from Savannah.