The ATP Is Not Amused

by Savannah



The ATP released a statement this morning stating its position on the changes announced by the USTA regarding the 2013 US Open.

17 December 2012

ATP Statement Regarding 2013 US Open Prize Money / Monday Final

Following last week’s announcement regarding the 2013 US Open prize money and the modification of the schedule to a Monday final, the ATP said:

2013 PRIZE MONEY
The prize money increase announced by the US Open for 2013 is appreciated and, together with the 2012 increase, represents the largest increase by the US Open since the ATP Tour began in 1990. However, over the last nine months the ATP and its players have asked that the US Open fully recognise the fundamental role of the players in driving US Open revenues, which are the largest in our sport.

The ATP therefore remains committed to continuing discussions on this issue, with the objective of ensuring that the players’ share of the revenues at the US Open truly reflects the value that they generate for the event.

2013 MONDAY FINAL
By modifying the schedule to allow a rest day between the semi-finals and the final, the US Open has recognised the incredible physical demands of men's tennis.

However, the ATP and its players have made it clear to the US Open that we do not support a Monday final. We strongly believe the US Open should keep a similar schedule to the other Grand Slams, with the men’s semi-finals completed by Friday and the final on Sunday. It is unfortunate the US Open response did not reflect our views on this issue and the ATP and its players will continue to pursue this matter in its discussions with the USTA.

All emphasis is mine.

Long story short the ATP is calling bullshit on the moves by the USTA. Players share of revenue is not what they want and moving the Mens Final to Monday isn't satisfactory. I believe that Davis Cup starts Friday of that week.

It's necessary to note that the WTA hasn't made a formal reply to the changes instituted for the 2013 US Open. They're going to let the men spearhead the charge and stand on the sidelines reaping the benefits since the tournaments, especially the Slams, pay the women what the men get. Some ATP player is going to say something about that. And he will be right.

Miscellany

I actually watched some live tennis this past week. Tennis Australia provided live streaming from its site and it was much appreciated.

The USTA also provided live streaming of its Wild Card playoffs. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to watch any of the play.

In the United States Rhyne Williams defeated Tim Smyczek for the United States ATP wild card. Madison Keys defeated Mallory Burdette for the WTA wild card. This is Madison's second straight win.

In Australia Bojana Bobusic and Ben Mitchell won their respective WTA and ATP wild cards.

Gisela Dulko confirmed on Argentine television that she is expecting her first child.

The WTA has redone it's website. I'll take their word for it that it's an improvement. In this day and age you don't roll out a website that doesn't allow basic functions. And it's very busy.

Stan Wawrinka seems to have found his voice regarding that other Swiss player and Davis Cup.

“Roger keeps on saying that Davis Cup is important to him, but clearly it’s not. At the end of the day, tennis is an individual sport and it’s fair that everyone looks at his own career, but I understood his decisions more in the past than now. Apparently, to him, Davis Cup is not yet that important; I’m sorry he turns things as he pleases.”

Wawrinka then spoke about his own love for the team: “Even if the results don't always come, I gave my best for this team. To me, it has always been a funny experience. I don’t know if Roger will change his mind, I don’t kid my self about it, because I’m not that naïve as he apparently thinks.”

This is my SOURCE . Corrected to show original interview.

If only more players would stop groveling and playing lip service at that particular altar.

End Note

The tennis tournament at Los Angeles is no more. The tournament will be replaced by one in Bogota, Colombia. The folks who ran Los Angeles had a chance to keep it in the States but refused the offer by Larry Ellison, who owns Indian Wells, to buy it. They then released one of the most maudlin press releases ever mourning the death of the tournament. Ellison lives in the real world of sports while tennis TD's continue to think of their tournaments as fiefdoms and the players their serfs. Yes the players make good money at the top but the players who fight to become eligible to play main tour events can't afford coaches unless they're provided by their Federations and of course the support of a Federation is political. At least the ATP has put its money where its mouth is.

The Year is Over...Kind Of

by Savannah


The ATP has crowned it's King of 2012. Novak Djokovic, who showed remarkable restraint when faced with an opponent at the ATP WTF final who usurped the top ranked players seat to the left of the Chair surgically took the would be usurper apart. Anger saw him go down 0-3 in the opening set but then he pulled himself together and won in straight sets.

Apologists for the Usurper have tried to say that it's not a given that the higher ranked player in a match, who comes in last, always sits to the left of the Chair. They've even denied that Djokovic gave his opponent a look as he took the lower ranked players chair. True he didn't stand hand on hip, right leg thrust out and ask "Really?" but he did give a quick look to an opponent who avoided eye contact. They were on an indoor tennis court not a playground and Djokovic decided to take the high ground.

I am not, and will never be a fan of Novak Djokovic but I was pleased with how this match played out. The would be Usurper claims to respect and love the game of tennis. I would've preferred it if he had gotten up after realizing his mistake and moved to the proper position on the sidelines. Tennis is already living with the results of his backing new ATP head honcho Brad Drewitt and costing lower ranked players a bigger piece of the pie. Now he's spit in the face of tennis tradition publicly. And his fans still pretend he is a god and can do no wrong.


Marc Lopez and Marcel Granollers won the doubles crown at the ATP WTF. A nice ending to what was a good, if not great year in men's doubles. I hope that doubles gets more coverage going forward not just when a top player is playing the doubles tournament.

Davis Cup Champions



The Czech Republic put its Davis Cup hopes on the racquet of one Radek Stepanek who stood across the net from Spain's Nicolas Almagro to play the decisive fifth rubber in the 2012 Davis Cup Final. It wasn't Radek, who is more known for his, uh, let's say colorful on court attire and his celebratory worm dance these days than winning tournaments, who had thrown shade on Almagro though. It was Tomas Berdych who did that, saying that Almagro was the weakest link on the Spanish team and implying that he would be the way to victory for the Czechs. There was a lot of drama about those statements but in the end he was proven right.

It wasn't that long ago that Almagro was complaining bitterly about being left off of Spain's Davis Cup teams because he wasn't part of the "in crowd". In the deciding rubber he was playing the most pressure packed match of his career. Maybe he'll do better next time.

Captain Alex Corretja strongly defended his choices including not playing Feliciano Lopez in the final rubber in an interview after the tie ended in an interview with Reuters.

Corretja was unrepentant.

"As captain I try to cope with the situation as best I can and in the end we fought as hard as we could to win a final that eluded us by a tiny, tiny margin," he told Cadena Ser.

"If we played Czech Republic again tomorrow I would choose the same four players."

The failure of Spain's bid for a fourth title in five years left a bitter taste for Corretja and his players and the absence of the injured Nadal, who has only lost once in 21 Davis Cup singles rubbers, proved decisive.

The victory by the Czechs ended a year in which their players won The Hopman Cup, The Fed Cup and the Davis Cup. Congratulations to their players.

Gisela Dulko Retires



Gisela Dulko of Argentina retired from the women's tour at the age of 27. Playing with Flavia Pennetta of Italy she was part of one of the most popular women's doubles teams. Good luck and best wishes for your future Gise!

Does Anyone Know This Man?


Reputed to be a big time tennis player he's rumored to have been practicing in private for awhile now to test out a bad knee. He's also been posting pictures of himself online with a totally different look.

Fans of this man are reportedly waiting patiently for his return in 2013. Being realistic he won't be match tough and will have to play his way into top competitive form. He is also rumored to be playing a clay court swing in the Spring.
Let's wish him well.

Miscellany

There is a lot of drama surrounding top Czech players Petra Kvitova and Tomas Berdych, most of it centered on Miroslav Cernosek (seen to the left in the picture below)

Apparently Cernosek, described as a "sports manager" with a long time association with Czech tennis is quite a controversial figure. Unfortunately all of the articles related to the controversy are in Czech. If you think Google translations make a hash of French and Spanish you haven't tried to translate an article from Czech. Hash doesn't begin to describe what you get. Gibberish is closer to it.

If anyone can translate this article please do. There are summaries around that have one time player Pavel Složil stating the following about Kvitova and more about the situation in Czech tennis in general:

- in late 2011 he predicted that Petra wont dominate in 2012 for sure, maybe win few tourneys
- she isn't good enough (yet) to be on par with in form Serena/Masha (brain, fitness, ...)
- he didn't know for quite a time that she had asthma problems
- he recommends her to eventually contact Marian Vajda (to change few things in health/fitness/food - Djoko like)
- he openly said that she is fat a and that is a a big reason (often with ashma) that she cannot compete at 100%
- her overweight is cause of lack of fitness and that is big factor to her confidence in matches
- he suspect that she isn't traning hard enough in fitness area
- he said that she is for sure better than 8th in the world, but

Thanks to "Lufa" on fan board Tennis Forum for the above. There are also supposed to be comments about Berdych in the same article.

ATP Challenger Tour Finals

The ATP Challenger Tour Finals will be played in Sao Paulo, Brazil from November 27 to December 1. The tournament will feature the top seven Challenger tour players based on their top ten results of 2012 and must have played in a minimum of 8 ATP Challenger Tour events.

The top ten players are listed below.

1 Lacko, Lukas (SVK) 165
2 Becker, Benjamin (GER) 135
3 Viola, Matteo (ITA) 113
4 Rosol, Lukas (CZE) 110
5 Smyczek, Tim (USA) 109
6 Russell, Michael (USA) 95
7 Struff, Jan-Lennard (GER) 93
8 Mayer, Leonardo (ARG) 90
9 Donskoy, Evgeny (RUS) 90
10 Montanes, Albert (ESP) 80

Defending champion Cedrik-Marcel Stebe is not in this years top 100

The Art of Tennis

by Savannah

If you say someone took a "beat down" many images come to mind. There's the person stomped by others laying on the ground bleeding. There's the baseball team that was beaten 14-0. The basketball team that was on the wrong side of a 130-75 score. In the sport of tennis beat downs can take many forms. A 6-0, 6-0 final score in a best of three match, a double bagel as we call it, would be considered a beat down. There were two beat downs administered yesterday and neither one was a double bagel.

The men's final in Dubai was won by Novak Djokovic. He defeated Roger Federer 6-3, 6-3. That score is sometimes called a virtual bagel. I'm not exactly sure why but it's common to see it called that now. That said the final score of the best of three final was indeed a double bagel.

You see Roger Federer was never in the match. With surgical skill Novak Djokovic executed his game plan to perfection. The commentators talked about Federer's backhand not working at all and that his forehand wasn't doing much either. What they didn't say was that Djokovic simply wasn't allowing them to work. They were more focused on Federer resurrecting himself in the second set and winning their hoped for third set. It wasn't going to happen.

Djokovic's play in the first set was nothing short of spectacular. It seemed he couldn't miss and lost no opportunity to flummox his opponent who was like a soldier under enemy attack with no foxhole nearby in which to take cover. You don't play the way Djokovic did without coming back to earth and when Federer got the break early in the second set it looked as if the commentators would get what they wanted. Instead the second set gave us a more methodical and devastating performance by Djokovic who simply continued the beat down he was administering and took it to it's logical conclusion.

Once again I have to say a soft draw does not a champion make. Federer opened against Somdev Devvarman. He next faced Marcel Granollers. When Richard Gasquet defeated Gilles Simon setting himself up to face Federer in the semi finals he ensured that Federer would make the final without facing a seed.

Djokovic opened against unseeded Michael Llodra and went on to face Feliciano Lopez, Florian Mayer and the #3 seed Tomas Berdych in the semi final. Berdych retired at 2-4 in the third set citing injury but he did so after forcing and winning the first set 7-6(5) tiebreak. I didn't see the match but Berdych lost the second set 6-2. Still he took a set from Djokovic who had cruised through his early round opponents. In the end Berdych did something Federer couldn't do against Djokovic.

To be clear I'm not a Djokovic fan and don't think I ever will be but you have to give credit where credit is due. The man played his ass off in that final and didn't allow Federer to settle into a pattern. It was a masterful performance by Djokovic and he deserved to hoist that trophy.

The other beatdown occurred an hour away in Qatar where the WTA final was played between Vera Zvonareva and Caroline Wozniacki, the computer ranked world #1. I'd seen a lot of this tournament and noticed that Vera was playing very, very well. She opened against Dominika Cibulkova whom she defeated in straight sets. After that the going got tough. Vera defeated a determined Daniela Hantuchova in three tough sets 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-5. That match was followed by a semi final against Jelena Jankovic that again went three sets 6-1, 2-6, 6-4. That match was harder than it looked. JJ is always a challenge with her deflections and distractions and when Vera lost that second set 2-6 it looked as if she was going to be out of the tournament. What looks like a routine 6-4 third set wasn't. It was an all out war and Vera rallied herself mentally and came from behind in that set to win it.

Meanwhile Wozniacki was having an easier time of it. She opened against Nadia Petrova who appeared on court as Bad Nadia, best friend of Bad Sveta Kuznetsova. Bad Nadia lost in straight sets 3 and 2. Next up was Flavia Pennetta who tried but ended up doing nothing but playing the part every pusher wants their opponent to play letting Wozniacki set the pace and tone of the match. Hows this for a statistic? The winners to unforced errors was 35/7 for Wozniacki and 33/21 for Pennetta. And Flavia lost 6-2, 6-0.

Wozniacki's semi final was against Marion Bartoli. Bartoli defeated Wozniacki the last time they met and this match was expected to be a doozie. Instead a fitter Marion lost 6-1, 6-1 and was not able to change her strategy against Wozniacki. That led to Wozniacki making the final after having been able to have her way with three players who usually play better than they did against her but once again fell victim to a pusher. I have to say that if you think I'm nuts because I say Kim Clijsters is the older more experienced version of Caroline Wozniacki try and see the Bartoli match. I had to remind myself a few times that it was Wozniacki and not Clijsters playing Bartoli.

In my opinion the final would hinge on whether Vera would be able to play her own game and not do what the other players had done. She started the match with a break and after that never looked back. Vera's record in finals is dismal but yesterday she showed mental strength and played a match that had her opponent throwing racquets and talking to herself. Wozniacki found herself in positions where she was at her weakest and Vera was at her best. Vera moved her around the court like nobody's business and even when pressed didn't falter. It was a masterful performance from a woman who is best known for her waterworks and drama on court. At the end of the match she ran over and hugged her coach. It was the least she could do.

I saw absolutely none of the women's matches in Acapulco, one of my favorite tournaments of the year. The women's final wasn't even shown in the States, at least not on Tennis Channel. The winner, Gisela Dulko, looks quite stylish in her sombrero.

I did get to see the men's semi finals and final. Nicolas Almagro came into the final as the hottest player on the Golden Swing. He'd won two previous tournaments and was looking to add Acapulco to become the second man to win three clay tournaments in a row, something some other guy from Spain did back in 2009. He was going to face defending champion David Ferrer who had defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov in the semi finals. That match was expected to be a real throw down but in the end a mentally and physically tired Dolgopolov, who had also played the Golden Swing had nothing left and while winning the first set went down quietly after that. The final score was 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 for Ferrer.

Ferrer owns Almagro. The head to head coming in was 4-0 in favor of Ferrer. It is now 5-0. Still Almagro gave it his all and it was nice seeing a decent clay court match this early in the year.

A self admittedly tired Juan Martin del Potro defeated Janko Tipsarevic at Delray Beach. After his semi final win last evening Juan, breathing hard, said he was tired and also said the same thing today. Still he had enough in the tank to defeat Tipsarevic who seemed not to know what to do against the Argentine. Del Potro is not the guy to light up the court and I had to fight to stay awake. I'm sure Del Potro is happy to have a new trophy to add to his collection.

End Note

With the men's final in Dubai and the women's final in Doha taking place at almost the same time I ended up watching the ATP match and auditing the women's match knowing it would be on later if it was going to be worth my while to see it. Even though I wasn't watching the women every minute on TennisTV I knew every time Piotr came down to counsel his daughter. Imagine my confusion when none of those visits were shown on the Tennis Channel replay? It couldn't have been for time issues since the match wasn't overly long. I don't understand the black out on Piotr.

Rainy Days and Mondays

by Savannah

The late Karen Carpenter's voice was one of the best pop voices ever. She left us too soon.

Roger Federer, thanks to two retirements was the fresher player on Sunday afternoon in the heat and humidity of the American Midwest. There was only one break of serve and he got it and went on to defeat Mardy Fish. Fish can't complain. He's had a great summer. Now let's see if The Monogram gets his wish and Mardy is on the opposite side of the draw from him in New York. Federer will be the number two seed.

There is no million dollar bonus for doubles teams that win the US Open Series. Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan took home the prize at Mason, Ohio.

Flavia Pennetta and Gisela Dulko were forced indoors by rain in Montreal but they weren't fazed and walked away the winners.

The woman who will be the top seed in New York romped her way to victory in the rain delayed Rogers Cup Montreal final. Her opponent Vera Zvonereva never got going today. All Caroline had to do was keep the ball in play to get the easy victory. Surprisingly, or maybe not, there was absolutely no analysis of her game by the commentator. Instead all we got was straightforward reporting of the score and misses. Of course everyone was holding their breath for a Vera meltdown but she did not live up to the high standard she's set in that area.

The television schedule for the US Open has been released and it's going to be interesting to see who will commentate Caroline's matches and if there will be any analysis beyond "She kept it in play" or "she hit it out." There was a big announcement that if she won Montreal, defended her title in New Haven and went deep in New York that she could be number one. Heaven help us all.

The Winners Circle

by Savannah

Flavia Pennetta and Gisela Dulko won the Doubles Crown at Stuttgart.

Justine Henin won her first championship since her return to the tour.

Bob and Mike Bryan won the Doubles Championship in Rome.

Rafael Nadal won Rome for his 17th ATP Masters title.

Congratulations to everyone.

Sunday's Stars

by Savannah


Andy Roddick won the men's title at the Sony Ericsson Open defeating Tomas Berdych 7-5, 6-4 before an enthusiastic crowd.


Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta defeated Nadia Petrova and Samantha Stosur 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 to win the women's doubles crown in Miami.

Congratulations to all!

Four-Peat!

For the second time in as many weeks Rafael Nadal has completed a four peat. This week it was Barcelona. Felicitacions Rafa!
After the win Rafa went for a swim in the club pool. Nice no?

There were other winners as well this weekend.
The Bryan Twins won doubles on European clay at Barcelona. Americans can win on clay - if they want to.

Continuing with the men Fernando Gonzalez beat back a determined Simone Bolelli of Italy to win Munich.

Munich doubles champions Michael Berrer and Rainer Schuettler


Moving on to the women, Vera Zvonareva of Russia won Prague. She's been playing very well so far this year.

In doubles play the following pairs won.

Hlavakova and Hradecka won in Prague

A. Pavlyunchenkova and S. Cirstea won in Fes.
To round out the women's champions Gisela Dulko won the ladies singles championship in Fes.

Have fun helping Fernando break in that car Gisela!

Heard Around November 25, 2007

by Savannah

Shahar Pe'er is now being coached by Gabriel Urpi who will still be working with Flavia Pennetta, and The Moonball Princess Conchita Martinez. Shahar made the decision after what is being called an intensive three weeks of training in Spain. First reaction? What the hell does Conchita know about attacking tennis? She's the main reason I was so turned off women's tennis for a long time. The link is in Hebrew.
Shahar's New Coaches

Fernando Gonzalez is going to be playing an exo in Chile on December 6. Playing with him will be Gisela Dulko,
Carlos Moya and Martina Navratilova.
The link is to a nice fan blog about Fernando.
Fernando Gonzalez

I have to give it to Martina Hingis fans. Despite everything many are holding out hope that somehow things will be reversed and she'll be back in the good graces of the WTA tour. One fan, when told that Martina's ranking had been removed from the WTA site said that was because she had retired forgetting that what usually happens is that the players ranking is allowed to fall after retirement until they're no longer on the ranking chart.
I don't say this to gloat. As I've said before I've never been a fan of Miss Motormouth but she has her place among the greats of women's tennis. To blow it all, literally, is a shame not only for her but for women's tennis.

Sportingo has a nice look at Jelena Jankovic's career and what she needs to do going forward.

Kevin Kim of the Unites States beat John Isner 6-2, 6-2 and followed that up by beating
Jesse Levine this week. Levine had won back to back Challenger events, one over Donald Young. Mr Levine you will remember is the young man Roger Federer summoned to Dubai to hit with.

Speaking of Roger his fans are going to Rovian (as in Karl Rove) lengths to spin his loss as meaningless in the context of Roger's World. True it was an exhibition match. True Pete had to win one or why bother with any future exhibitions. But if you get a chance watch this highlight film from the second exo. Never a big fan of Pete but watch the shot making and movement. Once a great tennis mind always a great tennis mind I say. Pete was gaining confidence here. And Roger was rattled.
Thanks to tennishead "mewug83" for posting this and other clips from the Asian Exhibitions.


Sampras is saying he will stay retired. Makes sense for him to say that at this time no?

By the way there are some very short clips of Rafa vs Gasquet in Malaysia on YouTube. If a longer clip shows up I'll post it here.


Longtime tennishead Graf_Sampras has posted an interesting article on professional tennis approach to the world of online viewing and the digital revolution on All Court Game. The article is by Lynn Mennillo and is worth a read.

You can tell the silly season is upon us when you find threads dedicated to Roger Federer's left arm, Maria Sharapova's choice of footwear, and who has the biggest boobs. I kid you not.

However, continuing in that vein here is Stella McCartney's 2008 line. These outfits will probably be worn by Maria Kirilenko who is Stella's muse when it comes to tennis fashion.





Only one looks like a tennis outfit but what do I know?

On The Baseline reports that the ASB Classic will feature live streaming on it's website. Hear that USTA?

The Legends Rock Dubai tournament was won by Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands. Congratulations!


Best Pics of 2007

I'll start with some from the WTA. There were some great ones and they can't all be contained in one post so as I see them I'll post them. Thanks to the fans over at
WTAw for the idea and the thread.
I've been scattering them throughout the post but here is a series of them. I'm concentrating on pics taken on the court this go around.
Fed Cup Ceremony

Lindsay and Jagger

Venus and Marion

Serena at Wimbledon

Marion at Wimbledon

Serena Australian Open

Congratulations to the Winners

Gisela Dulko


Champion WTA Budapest 2007

Paul-Henri Mathieu


Champion ATP Casablanca 2007