All About Control

by Craig Hickman


Reuters

Serena Williams of the U.S. holds her trophy after defeating Venus Williams of the U.S. in their Ladies' Singles finals match at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, July 4, 2009.

::

It's been a mighty long time, but I'm feeling the need to rant this Tuesday. MadProsseah brought us the news and I posted the ITF press release about Serena's penalty in his entry.

The release itself is a fraud, the perfect representation of the fraudulent organization that released it.

As an astute commenter on another forum asked, "If she's not suspended....what does this one mean?"

3. Ms. Williams is hereby suspended from participation in either the 2010, 2011 or 2012 US Open, as the case may be, except that any such suspension will not be imposed if no further Grand Slam Major Offence conviction occurs through and including 2011.

It means that the ITF is trying to control her.

Read the rest...

Why Just the Spaniards?

by Savannah

David Ferrer

The above picture was taken just after David Ferrer went on a mini rampage after his loss to Robin Soderling. Ferrer has quite a temper and a mouth to match but could his anger have come due to nothing that took place on the terre battue?
Craig Hickman has been covering the growing controversy over all of the Spanish men still in contention - David Ferrer, Tommy Robredo, Fernando Verdasco and Rafael Nadal, being hauled out of bed for drug testing at 7a Paris time. Ferrer, who had just completed a long match and gotten to bed about 2a could not give a sample until two hours after being awakened.

Has drug testing become a political issue in men's tennis? That could only be the case if there are interests who prefer that certain matches take place as opposed to others. Of course that's just so much idle speculation on my part.

What the What?!

by Savannah

Craig says it all. It's a sad state of affairs when your WC playoff winner can't be replaced by any American man in the Top 400.

To those afraid of the United States becoming a "clay court nation" what signal does this send to the rest of the tennis world? Are we saying that we're just a bunch of mindless ball bashers who can't be bothered learning how to play the game of tennis? Is that what you want to say about this country?

Shame.

The Debt

by Savannah

Part of the joy of his contests with Federer is watching the way he mercilessly tests the arc of the Federer backhand, those high, looping, teasing topspins forcing the Swiss to execute a stroke that looks almost vaudevillian.

Federer responded in Melbourne by stepping in and taking the backhand, where possible, on the up. But Nadal was not discouraged, switching the play, using the expanses of the court, testing Federer's legs, before shunting it back into the backhand side. The ebb and flow, thrust and counter-thrust, was magical.

For more on Matthew Syed's probing article please go to Craig Hickman's Blog. The entire article is HERE

Crocodile Tears

by Savannah



I can't write anything yet. Craig posted the following as his "Quote of the Day". Chew on this for awhile kiddies as you contemplate all those crying pictures. VAMOS!

"You know, in a fifth set, anything can happen. That's the problem. Not usually the better player always wins. Just a matter of momentum sometimes.

"You know, maybe I should have never been there, you know, in the first place. But, I mean, I think he played well. You know, I definitely played a terrible fifth set, you know. I kind of handed it over to him.

I mean, no doubt he's one of the tougher guys out there for a fifth set ‑ no doubt." --Roger Federer

Davis Cup Final Portland Oregon 11/30-12/2/2007

Craig is in Portland! That's him up top with Katrina Adams from Tennis Channel. For details of his flight and the draw ceremony please visit
Craig Hickman On Tennis where a link to mmmm8's post on Talk About Tennis along with pictures from the Draw Ceremony can be found as part of TAT's Davis Cup Coverage.

Also on TAT GVGirl has posted about her arrival and what is going on in the city of Portland Oregon which fought very hard for the right to host this event. Looks like they've stepped up to the plate bit time.

The Tuesday Tirade

Craig has a tradition on his site of posting a general rant about anything tennis that strikes his fancy on Tuesday's. This week it was more of a Tuesday conversation. It started with us exchanging e-mails and Craig thought it would be a good idea to post our conversation and allow others to join in.

The conversation is about the Tom Perrotta article in the NY Sun which reports that there is talk of seeding the US Open based on US Open series performance that I posted, and ranted about, on Monday of this week.

I hope you all enjoy and that some of your will post your opinions.

The Tuesday Tirade