Don't Believe The Hype

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...

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

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

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

by Savannah

Congratulations to all the winners.

Breaking News - Wimbledon Leaving NBC

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

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.