Report Cards: Zverev and Keys

by Savannah

Readers will recall that I decided at the beginning of 2015 to keep my eye on two up and coming players: Alexander Zverev of Germany and Madison Keys of the United States. I thought I'd look at what they've done since the last time I spoke about them and how their respective careers seem to be progressing.

I'll start with Madison since there isn't much to say. she and her team seem to be continuing down the "focus on the majors" path and as I expected Madison doesn't have much to show for that strategy.

Using ESPN's Results for this year her record is pretty pathetic. Her best tournament was predictably on US soil where she made the final at the Family Circle Cup in South Carolina losing to Angelique Kerber. She was unable to defend her title at Eastbourne losing in the second round to Belinda Bencic after a first round bye. So far this year she has no single or doubles titles with a 21-11 record.

The young lady needs matches. She's still playing the same way she was playing last year. The problem areas are the same and she's shown no mental growth. She's losing to players who while not playing week in and week out have been playing some of the smaller tournaments and who are now able to out think and therefore out play Keys. You can't go out on court thinking your game will prevail no matter what. You have to pay attention to what your opponent is doing to thwart your intentions and adjust. This is why many young players are having so many problems. Yes you have to have faith in your game but your opponent isn't going to be standing across the net letting you do what you want. You have to force them out of their game plan and this is not what I see Keys doing.

Keys is not the only US player facing this dilemma but she's the one I'm doing the report card on. So far this year I'd give her a D. She is capable of much better. It's going to be interesting to see what she brings to Stanford next week.

On to Alexander Zverev.

Again using the ESPN Results page we see Zverev has a 2-5 record with no titles on the main tour. His best was in Båstad where he made the semi's losing to Tommy Robredo. He has been playing matches on the Challenger circuit though. He is in danger of believing his own hype and has been throwing tantrums on court when things don't go his way. He's still a bit too grip and rip for my tastes but if he catches the right player when he's able to impose his will he's formidable. That hasn't happened a lot so far this year though.

Still I give him credit for trying. Suffering is seasoning. No tennis player likes to lose and a smart coach will sit his or her charge down and go over what he or she needs to do when an opponent does A, B, C or D during a match. The fruits of that labor will be seen two to three years down the road for a player like Zverev who is still a growing boy. In my opinion he should be a bit more focused on Challenger level events and win a title or two there instead of trying to become a phenom on the main tour. I'll give him a C- for his work so far this year.

This and That

There was a sneaky little announcement that Maria Sharapova and her latest love Grigor Dimitrov had reached the decision to officially go their separate ways.

Dimitrov's PR people at Tony Godsick's agency put out a picture or two of Dimitrov nattily dressed,beaming and holding a racquet saying that he would now be able to focus exclusively on his tennis. There were also posts on fan sites using the exact same language about how this would be a good thing for Grigor since he would not be distracted by his high maintenance ex.

Of course no one outside of the players immediate circles know the truth of the matter.

Homosexuality and Tennis

So Jon Wertheim got dragged for being straight. Some background. There were rumors of a male player thinking about coming out. There was of course wild speculation but so far nothing has happened and the furor died down. Here is how one fan presented the issue to Mr. Wertheim.

I read your recent column and I think you continue to ignore the homophobia behind the scenes on the ATP tour. Since you are a straight man I am not sure you are aware of the homophobia due to your life experience. You write about homosexuality and men’s tennis yet your comments just prove a straight male reporter should not cover this issue! Jason Collins said he talked to a former ATP player who is gay and thinking of coming out. The ATP tour is anti gay and their comments to the press are PR lip service. The real question is would the ATP tour want a Top 10 player or the No. 1 player to be a gay man? The answer is no! The ATP tour functions on heterosexuality the media always point out the top players’ wives and girlfriends and children. The ATP tour is selling a product to audiences world wide and they do not want gay men to disrupt the product. Do you think the ATP wants one of the younger male tennis stars to come out as gay? On the WTA tour I can name ten lesbians easily. Casey Dellacqua came out as a lesbian a few years ago and it was not big news. I think Sports Illustrated is deceiving tennis fans by just repeating the standard public relations comments. The bottom line is the ATP tour is similar to the NFL—there are high profile NFL players who everyone knows are gay, yet the media protect these closet cases and engender the lie of being inclusive. Please get a gay male reporter to write about this. It is hard to take a heterosexual male journalist such as yourself discussing an issue you have no true understanding about.
—Brampton, Ontario, Canada

• I think the notion that you're disqualified from writing about anything about which you have no "internal knowledge" or life experience gets us to an ugly place very quickly.

We’re always open to dissent. Here, specifically, I’m totally open to the suggestion that the climate is less hospitable than I make it out to be. But I have spoken about this with players. And coaches. And gay employees at the ATP. And ITF. There are openly gay chair umpires. And journalists. The consensus: if a top player were to come out, there would be a few knuckleheads but, overwhelmingly, it would be met with acceptance. (I can also tell you that the top players on the ATP are well aware that gay men make up a not insignificant proportion of their fan bases.)

I actually had a bit of back-and-forth with this writer, asking if he had any evidence—anecdotal or otherwise—to the contrary or was just speaking in vague generalities. He mentioned Sergiy Stakhovsky’s remarks during Wimbledon. My response to that: yes, this would suggest some degree of homophobia in the locker room. It was also a Cannonball-Run style race to who could be first swiftly to denounce Stakhovsky’s comments.

Some day, hopefully soon, this will not be a theoretical discussion. A top ATP player will come out and we can see for ourselves how he will be received.

The Link is here. The link to the referenced article is also there.

Amy Schumerenka

This is the last time I'm talking about this issue (I hope). As long as the WTA promotes looks before talent the non tennishead part of the populace can be excused for thinking this is how tennis really is.



She does hit all the talking points one usually hears when women's tennis is being broadcast doesn't she?

The US Open Series

A few years ago some bold tennis writers were questioning the relevance of the US Open series implying that it was a watered down version of what used to be well attended tournaments featuring top US players. I said at the time that the US Open series was relevant and should continue. How do I feel today? I mean the events still feature top US players right? The series starts this week in Atlanta. Next week the top WTA players will be in Stanford. Then comes the Rogers Cup in Canada featuring both tours, Cincinnati the following week, Connecticult and Winston Salem after that and then the Big Show, the US Open.

Not a bad line up no? So why do I now feel that the US Open series needs something to bring all the top players to the yard? The Europeans still don't come until the Rogers Cup and continue to play clay events while the US Open Series starts. The bad blood between the USTA and the other federations goes back to when the USTA worked hard to get rid of Monaco because US players didn't want to travel to Europe and be forced to eat real food and be surrounded by people who don't feel the need to speak English to make them feel better. As a result the level of tennis is pretty low at some of these events. Add to that the weird broadcast schedule - try to find a television broadcast of Atlanta - and you've got a bit of a disaster on your hands. There's ESPN3 you say? It's the worst. When it works it's fine but more often than not a fan encounters buffering and frozen screens to the point that you sometimes end up five minutes behind in a match. I saw a post by a fan the other day saying he got it to work better by using some kind of a VPN or proxy to watch it. I may be using the wrong terminology but I think you'll understand. Add the commentators who could be anyone dragged off the street and thrown behind a mic for the amount of tennis knowledge they exhibit and it's simply awful for a US viewer. Something needs to be done.

From Jail to A Championship

In my last post I featured the mug shot of Bernard Tomic taken in what I now know is Florida style, shirtless, after his arrest in Florida. I wonder who paid his bail? Anyway he left Florida and flew down to play Bogotá where he was defending champion.

Some of the "we need characters in tennis" crowd must have been thrilled. I mean the saga sounds like something from a demented music video. They must also have been thrilled to see the shenanigans Tomic performed in the third set of the final where a supposed lower back/left hip injury vanished into thin air after a MTO and his win. I bet tennis gained tons of fans!

Will He or Won't He?

There's a lot of speculation about Andy Roddick coming back to the Main Tour. He's been in Atlanta with his friend Mardy Fish who is retiring from the sport after the US Open. If you don't think US tennis is desperate you should now.


© 2015 SavannahsWorld All Rights Reserved

The WTA 2012 Awards and Other Tennis Stuff

by Savannah

The WTA has finished releasing it's best of list for 2012.

Player of the Year - Serena Williams
Newcomer of the Year - Laura Robson
Comeback Player of the Year - Yaroslava Shvedova
Doubles Team of the Year - Roberta Vinci and Sara Errani
Most Improved Player of the Year - Sara Errani

The above list comes to us courtesy of the professional Tennis Writers.

Then there are the awards voted on by the players:

Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award - Kim Clijsters
Player Service Award - Venus Williams

Fans voted too.

FAN FAVORITE SINGLES PLAYER - Agnieszka Radwanska
FAN FAVORITE DOUBLES TEAM - Serena Williams & Venus Williams
FAN FAVORITE TWITTER - Caroline Wozniacki
FAN FAVORITE FACEBOOK - Agnieszka Radwanska
FAN FAVORITE VIDEO - Agnieszka Radwanska & The Bee

So, Laura Robson, who finished the year ranked #53 gets "Newcomer of the Year". Sloane Stephens finished the year ranked #38. Heather Watson finished the year ranked #49. Who the hell voted for Robson? Was the ballot stuffed or weighted by British tennis writers who see Laura, not Heather Watson, as the second coming for British women's tennis even though Heather ended the year ranked four places ahead of her? And what about those slackers in the American tennis hierarchy? Sloane finished at #38, 11 places ahead of Watson and 15 places ahead of Robson. Right now I have nothing against Ms Robson but she's been the darling of the Brits since forever.

I wonder if the voting went like this: The Yanks got the top spot so we deserve the next most prestigious place. Sure Laura was born is Australia but we gave her British citizenship and the Aussies are part of the Tennis Axis Powers so it's all good. Heather? Where is her mother from again? Papua New Guinea? We don't even know where that is. Laura is our girl. You say it didn't go that way? I'm still trying to figure out how she got the award over two newcomers who finished higher in the rankings.

I'm skipping over the awards Clijsters and Venus won. If their peers voted for them there's nothing else to say.

And whoa to the Aga Radwanska Fan Club. You guys did your player proud.

ATP This and That

Grigor Dimitrov is no longer being coached by Patrick Mouratoglou.

John Isner has parted with long time coach Craig Boynton and will now be coached by Michael Sell. Sell, who once coached Monica Seles has worked with the USTA since 2003.

Sergei Bubka who sustained multiple fractures after a three story fall in Paris is standing and taking hesitant steps. He underwent 9 hours of surgery to repair his injuries. I wish him the best of luck in his recovery.

Speaking of recovery Mardy Fish has withdrawn from the Australian summer swing due to issues related to his heart problems that were diagnosed last year. He's looking to come back for the US spring hard court swing.

End Notes

I'm tennis'd out. I've been tennis'd out since late spring. Yes it has a lot to do with my favorite player being out but it goes deeper than that.

I'm a blogger, not a journalist, and I've been doing this for awhile now. I've never wanted to be part of the in crowd. I want, and continue to want, to be someone who can speak free encumbrances to a press organization or professional organization.

My interest picked up at the big events - the tennis season is hardwired in my brain - but I remember staying up to see the fall Asian swing. Not this year. Coming to my senses? Perhaps.

But when you look at the decision made by the WTA re it's television rights, the fact that my cable company hasn't made Tennis Channel available since September 2011 (or was it 2010? It's a blur) and Tennis TV, something I pay for, is blacked out more often than not forcing me to rely on sometimes shady live streams out of Europe it's become very difficult for a fan like me to actually watch live tennis. The ultimate frustration for a tennis fan is watching a stream and the person decides he or she is bored and changes the channel. If you're lucky you'll get a Eurosport stream that is clear and has decent announcers.

If I want I can watch UEFA, Serie A, Spanish or British football any time I want. How many of us here in the States saw Ibrahimovic's fantastic goal from a couple of weeks ago? Yet to see a tennis match I have to jump through hoops no other fandom does. Maybe the tennis establishment wants it like this. They want to control the commentary, fan attitudes towards players, and deem which players are worthy of fans adulation.

That is the only conclusion I can reach based on the antics of the tennis establishment this past year.

Will I stop watching tennis? Of course not. Come the end of December I'll be watching whatever I can online however I can. I like American football, baseball and basketball but I love tennis. I think it's time that tennis stop pretending it wants to be a sport everyone can relate to since it continues to make it difficult for a fan to be a fan. If tennis is serious about becoming a big deal, especially in the States, it's time for it to stop behaving like the niche sport it presently is.

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.

It's Always Something

by Savannah

Fans of American tennis looked forward to the all American doubles final that was to take place in Rome yesterday between the team composed of Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish and the team of John Isner and Sam Querrey. This was Rome, a clay court, the surface American players are seemingly born allergic to. It was going to be an epic battle and good news for tennis in the United States.

As you know by now Andy Roddick pulled out of the tournament citing a shoulder injury giving the crown to the team known as "Quisner". Pretty straight forward right?

Actually, it wasn't. Later in the afternoon and early evening reports began to surface about Roddick leaving Rome in a snit. Didn't make sense at first but Here is an account of what happened.

Andy Roddick was prowling the corridors at the Rome Masters on Sunday, incensed that he and Mardy Fish were going to be docked $42,800 — a share of the prize money they earned for their unexpected arrival in the doubles final because he was unfit to play.

An ultrasound on the right shoulder of the former world No. 1 and three-time Wimbledon finalist showed a buildup of fluid, which required a few days' rest, but Roddick was told that unless he and Fish fulfilled their commitment, they would be paid only what they would have received for reaching the semifinals. Roddick officially withdrew at 5 p.m. local time Sunday.

That at least gave Fish, as well as John Isner and Sam Querrey — their opponents in an all-American final — an opportunity to catch the only flight Sunday night from Rome to Dusseldorf, where the three players are representing the United States in the ATP's World Team Cup on Monday and where the organizers were threatening sanctions if they did not turn up in time to play.

Roddick was talked out of convening a news conference, but he asked The (London) Times to be present in the ATP office when he rebuked officials over a rule that reads, "Should a doubles match be uncontested or fail to be completed, the losing team shall only receive points and prize money from the previous round," which contained three provisos, none of which was applicable in this particular case.

No one was prepared to bend, which meant that the world No. 12 had to decide whether to play, which seriously could have undermined his French Open prospects, or take the prize money deduction and docking of ranking points on the chin and then appeal against the rule.

"We're going to have to beg for the money we've earned," Roddick said. "Why should Mardy be punished when I can't play? Mardy has played the (semifinal) match, he won the match, he earned the money, you can't take away something he has already done. This is embarrassing for the tour.

"The ATP people said they could not make a unilateral decision, so I either take a chance with the appeal process or I played with a shoulder that didn't give us much chance of winning and had a risk for the future.

"I would have had to play the full match. I asked if I played a point and then withdrew what would happen and they said the same thing, so it would have been an hour mockery as opposed to a five-minute mockery. The ATP stands for Association of Tennis Professionals; it should be the Association of Tie People."

The ATP said that it has to govern for all and that the rule was brought in a few years ago to deter players who were abandoning official doubles events without good cause to go off and play other lucrative matches.

There are some who will argue that Andy is arguing the principle of the issue and side with him. I'm not one of them. There is a rule on the books that was adopted just for situations like this. Apparently Andy feels that it doesn't apply to him. Yes he framed the argument in terms of it being unfair to Mardy but in the end didn't he want to break a rule that as an ATP player he is bound to abide by? I wonder if Andy is used to throwing hissy fits like this with the USTA and getting his way? He's been top dog in the States since forever and I'm sure whatever Andy wants Andy gets.
I guess the suits in Europe pissed him off so he went public. He asked the media in and that is why this all became public.

Everyone jumped on Donald Young's case when he publicly cursed out the USTA. The silence is deafening about this incident. Young posted on Twitter. Roddick called in the Times of London. Not much difference to me.

Since Roddick chose to do this in such a public way I hope that the public is allowed to know the outcome of any appeal if one is filed.

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.

They're Back

by Savannah

David Nalbandian can count himself among the few who have returned to the Main Tour after hip surgery. Showing the form he usually reserves for the indoor season Nalbandian came out like a house on fire and weathered the inevitable challenge from Marcos Baghdatis to win the singels title at Legg Mason in hot and steamy Washington DC. It was a great week of tennis for David.

Mardy Fish and Mark Knowles won the men's doubles crown in Washington. Fish somewhat redeemed himself in my eyes by staying and playing doubles.

Everyone knows that Svetlana Kuznetsova, when on, is one of the best players in women's tennis. It's the when on and brain is fully engaged part that is important. This week Sveta was all systems go and found herself in the San Diego final against Aggie Radwanska, the modern day Martina Hingis. There was that blip in the second set where Sveta lost focus and found herself on the losing end of a 7-6(7) tiebreak but she came back in third set and won it decisively 6-3. Women's tennis is always more fun with Sveta in the mix.

The fairly new doubles team of Maria Kirilenko and Zheng Jie pose with the trophies they received for winning the doubles crown in San Diego.

Caroline Wozniacki, aka Sunshine (Cliff Drysdale and Pam Shriver were affectionately using her nickname yesterday while broadcasting the San Diego final but I digress) won the inaugural Copenhagen event where she was - gasp - the top seed. She defeated Klara Zakopalova in straight sets. She also debuted her new summer do while proudly holding up the tureen, uh, trophy.

The doubles winners in Copenhagen, Julia Goerges and Anna-Lena Gronefeld posed proudly with their trophies. Goerges has had a pretty good summer so far. It's going to be interesting to see her in the States.

The Week Ahead

The women are in the MidWestern United States playing in Cincinnati while the men's tour is north of the border in Toronto, Canada. I haven't checked to see if the cameras are on so that tennis fans will get to see the early round action. It does the reputation of the American tennis authorities no good to make fans in the States have to scramble to see tournaments where the best players are featured. Then again - oh never mind.

An American Free Zone

1 Rafael Nadal 10,745

2 Novak Djokovic 6,905

3 Roger Federer 6,795

4 Andy Murray 5,305

5 Robin Soderling 4,740

6 Nikolay Davydenko 4,285

7 Tomas Berdych 3,780

8 Juan Martin Del Potro 3,770

9 Fernando Verdasco 3,475

10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 3,455

This is the first time since the modern ranking system went into effect that there is not one American man in the Top Ten. Andy Roddick, who has been American men's tennis is now ranked #11.
11 Roddick, Andy (USA) 3,235

We all knew this day was coming. Andy Roddick should not be blamed for what has happened. He has done all he could to try and get himself into shape mentally and physically to play the modern game. Was it a few years too late? Maybe. Will he be back in the Top Ten? Good runs leading into the US Open can ensure that especially with Tsonga being injured. I'm not going to write one of those posts going into the whys and wherefores of how we got to this place. I've written about it a lot and don't really feel the need to now. Let's just say that we're up that proverbial thick brown creek without a paddle.

1 1 Williams, Serena 26/09/81 USA 8355

2 2 Jankovic, Jelena 28/02/85 SRB 5900

3 3 Wozniacki, Caroline 11/07/90 DEN 5710

4 4 Williams, Venus 17/06/80 USA 5287

5 5 Stosur, Samantha 30/03/84 AUS 4690

6 6 Dementieva, Elena 15/10/81 RUS 4590

7 7 Clijsters, Kim 08/06/83 BEL 4510

8 8 Schiavone, Francesca 23/06/80 ITA 4285

9 10 Radwanska, Agnieszka 06/03/89 POL 4070

10 9 Zvonareva, Vera 07/09/84 RUS 3905

I don't get why the WTA always prints the players birthdays and usually remove them but I left them in now because we need to take a really good look at the women's Top Ten. Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska are the only babies in the group. Everyone else is "middle aged" when it comes to tennis years. There are Americans, two in fact, in the top ten of women's tennis but of course the establishment spends more time snarking about them than praising them for their accomplishments. We're headed up that same dark brown creek we're mired in on the men's side. We can believe all we want.

Fashion Statement of the Week

A closer look at Caroline Wozniacki's hair. This is a variation on traditional African corn rows where twists are used instead of tightly braiding the hair. The style puts less stress on both the hair and the hair line. Nice summer do for the young woman.

Sunday's Winners

by Savannah

I didn't watch one final today. I was tired and I wanted to watch Ghana vs Serbia. The World Cup is addictive even for someone like me who only really starts paying attention to soccer in WC years.

You don't like that excuse for not watching the finals at Queens Club, Halle or Birmingham? It's the truth. I made a conscious choice not to watch. It did cross my mind to watch Birmingham but I was too lazy to act on it. Living on European time wears you out you know?

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Apparently the weather held in England and didn't matter in Halle. The Germans have a roof over their center court. Novel idea no? Look it could be worse. At Birmingham they didn't have the right size tarp for their center court and the grass got wet despite the ground being covered. I guess it's a good thing Mardy Fish wasn't playing there.

At any rate here are the singles and doubles winners for the three events.

The Birmingham tennis fans love Maria Sharapova. They love her so much that after her win over Alison Riske on Saturday not many of them hung around to watch Li Na play Aravane Rezai. If they had they would've known their girl was going to face a tough opponent. Maria lost in straight sets to Li, 7-5 and 6-1.
Cara Black and Lisa Raymond defeated Liezel Huber and Bethany Mattek-Sands 63 32 ret.

In a personal triumph Lleyton Hewitt, resident of the Bahamas, defeated Roger Federer at Halle 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4. I haven't seen any pictures of Miroslava Federer reading or yawning during today's match. Think I'm kidding? Making this up?

This was during her husband's match against Alejandro Falla.
Sergiy Stakhovsky and Mikhail Youzhny defeated Martin Damm and Filip Polasek 4-6, 7-5, 10-7

Well somebody had to win and Sam Querrey defeated Mardy Fish at Queens Club 7-6(7), 7-5. I'm just glad it wasn't Fish holding that trophy.
Novak Djokovic and Jonathan Ehrlich won the doubles crown defeating Karol Beck and David Skoch 6-7(6), 6-2, 10-3.

This and That

Fernando Gonzalez will be out for ten weeks with injury. He will miss Davis Cup and Wimbledon. He hopes to be back for Toronto.

Juan Monaco is out for nine weeks with a wrist injury.

Mario Ancic had to withdraw from Queens Club and the tournament in Holland citing a back injury.

Richard Gasquet withdrew from Queens Club with a back injury.

Juan Martin del Potro is out until after the US Open with a wrist injury.

This is what Aravane Rezai will be wearing for the grass court season. I wonder why I started singing "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" when I saw the jacket? I know she loves shiny things but really Aravane?

The Babysitters Club

by Savannah

I apologize to the author of the above mentioned series. None of the girls portrayed in that series were the kind who, when they didn't get their way, would pick up their marbles, or dolls, or whatever, scream "you don't like me!" and go home. Yet in two instances so far this spring American men who play tennis have pulled stunts you would expect a six year old to pull.

I've already talked about Big Baby Sam Querrey who, after a loss in Paris, said he had to go home. I read elsewhere that he complained about the food. Only a spoiled American brat would complain about the food in Paris. Today though he is joined in Babyworld by Mardy Fish. The stunt he pulled today may rank as one of the all time worst things done by a male tennis player. (Of course Justine Henin owns the one for female players. She's the one who complained of indigestion and then hung around the court without ever going to a bathroom in Melbourne in case you forgot. There's the hand incident too but she's in a class by herself.)

Back to Mardy Fish and his antics at Queens Club this evening. Mardy had surprisingly won the first set over Andy Murray and promptly lost the second. He was up 3-0 in the third set but to his credit Murray fought back and leveled the third and deciding set at three games all. I saw Fish start to whine at the chair umpire Cedric Mourier of France and figured, since it was about 8:30p in England he was complaining about the light. I also saw Andy Murray standing on his baseline ready to resume play. I guess I can be excused for thinking play would resume since only one player was complaining. At no time was Murray consulted as to how he felt on the matter. Lo and behold the next thing I, and the fans in the stadium knew, Fish was gone and play had been suspended. Murray stood, hands on hips, on the court for several minutes in total shock. When he finally moved he ripped Cedric and the tournament referee. Unfortunately the mikes were off.

The BBC posted the following from Murray's presser.

The score was locked at 4-6 6-1 3-3 when Fish appealed to umpire Cedric Mourier to stop the match and resume tomorrow because of the gloomy conditions at Queen's.

Mourier agreed and Fish gathered his equipment and walked off without a word, leaving a bemused Murray stood on the baseline ready to continue.
When the Scottish third seed realised what had happened, he approached Mourier to complain at the decision before also confronting supervisor Tom Barnes.

"Mardy says he doesn't want to play so we stop playing. The referee didn't consult anyone," Murray said on Centre Court.
"That came out of nowhere. The weather was absolutely fine. It's ridiculous.
"The only reason he wanted to stop was because it was 3-3."

Anyone who reads this space regularly knows I'm not an Andy Murray fan but right is right. I mean London and Paris are not that far apart geographically and we all know how late play goes there. It is true that the dew on the grass could make conditions unfit for play as the evening wears on but that wasn't what the complaint was here. Even though Fish had slipped already on the wet grass he chose to complain about the lights, or lack thereof.

I wonder how the Grand Poobah's of American tennis journalism are going to handle this one. There was barely of mention of Big Baby Sam's actions. Fish acted in full public view. I'm sure they'll emphasize that he really meant the grass.

I think the American men need people to look after them. You know, babysitters.

This and That

by Savannah

"Some people have that drive more than others who've been #1. Rafa doesn't seem like he cares as much for #1, or he doesn't show it."

The Monogram

Jean-Francois Caujolle, is telling anyone who will listen that he is not happy with Andy Murray.
(...)
Caujolle first spoke with L'Equipe, and then to Eurosport France, and THEN the British press, about how furious he was that Murray had withdrawn from next week's event in the south of France.

Murray was due to be top seed in the tournament but pulled out so he could "take an extra week off to recuperate and recover for the long season ahead".

Not a good enough excuse according to Caujolle, who now wants Murray suspended by the ATP, especially as it is the second successive year the Scot has pulled out of his event.

"Murray did the same thing to me last year," Caujolle said with what we imagine was a typically Gallic shrug of the shoulders.

"He can't know what it is to keep his word. A week ago, he asked me for a wildcard to play doubles with his brother Jamie and I gave him one.

"A few days ago he asked me for five hotel rooms and I gave him them. The number one seed of a tournament should have a sense of responsibility. If he does not respect his commitments, he should be suspended by the ATP."

Jean-Francois Caujolle TD Open 13 - Marseille
Caujolle has since modified his comments regarding suspension saying he never said that. The fact that he went off on Murray and didn't mention Juan Martin del Potro leads me to believe Delpo was never going to play here.

Weekend Results

Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova both of the Czech Republic, doubles champions GDF Suez - Paris

Elena Dementieva Singles Champion GDF Suez - Paris

Fernando Verdasco of Spain Singles Champion SAP Open - San Jose

Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey of the United States Doubles Champions SAP Open - San Jose

Robin Soderling Singles Champion Rotterdam

Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia and Daniel Nestor of Canada Doubles Champions Rotterdam

Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain singles Champion Costa do Sauipe Brazil

Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay and Marcel Granollers Doubles Champions Costa do Sauipe Brazil

The End?

by Savannah


It ended with a respectful handshake at the net four plus hours after Marat Safin and Josselin Ouanna walked onto center court, Phillip Chatrier, at Roland Garros. Marat, who says this is his last year, and Ouanna, in the tournament by virtue of a wild card from the French Tennis Federation (FFT) appear to be on different career tracks.

I first saw Josselin Ouanna play last year and liked his smooth as silk stylish game. He's been playing mostly off the radar so far this year. Marat is supposed to be on his farewell tour.

So why is it that along the way to the handshake at the net fans saw Marat in the above pose?

Ouanna's joy is totally understandable. After all he beat one of the great names of men's tennis. Will he continue to play well? Today's match was his second five setter and after today there's no way his next opponent, Fernando Gonzalez, will be caught unawares.

How do Marat's fans feel about his performance today? She's been away a long time but Haruka was moved to put her thoughts into words about what she saw today. Enjoy.

The Clay Court Season and American Men

James Blake and Mardy Fish commented on the poor showing of American men in Paris.

PARIS (AP)—There are plenty of theories about why U.S. men have so much trouble at the French Open, and James Blake offered his thoughts on the matter after losing in the first round Tuesday.

“For the Americans, a lot of times, this isn’t our main goal of the year. Ours is generally Wimbledon and the U.S. Open,” Blake said.

“I think if we were to try to prepare completely for the French Open, we would be giving away some of our advantage at the Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. That’s where we excel. We’d rather, I think, prepare best for what our strengths are.”

Mardy Fish had this to say.

“We’re trying as hard as we can,” Fish said. “Once these two weeks are over, the clay talk is over, and we’ll be looking to my most fun part of the year: Wimbledon, grass courts. That’s where we play our best.”

In 2007, the country’s men went 0-9 at the French Open. No American has won the title since Andre Agassi in 1999, and none even has reached the quarterfinals since he did in 2003.

Great. It's bad enough most of the tennis world felt Americans had nothing but contempt for clay court play. Blake and Fish have opened their mouths and proved it. It's really nice to know how you guys really feel. I bet Andy Roddick, Serena Williams and Venus Willams feel the same way as they fight to make it to the second week of the French Open.

This and That

by Savannah

From the ITF via tennis.com

Following Australia's decision not to contest its Davis Cup tie in Chennai because of security concerns, the ITF has officially declared India the winner of the zonal contest. India now advances to September's World Group playoffs.

"The ITF regrets and respectfully disagrees with the decision of Tennis Australia to default," the ITF said in a statement. "By virtue of its decision not to send a team to compete against India, Australia has forfeited the tie.

"[B]ecause of the specific concerns of Tennis Australia, the ITF [had] asked its independent security consultants, the Olive Group, to make a site visit to Chennai to investigate both the situation on the ground and to assess the security arrangements put in place by AITA [All India Tennis Asociation]. Following the site visit, the Olive Group reported that it was satisfied that the tie could go ahead as planned. Tennis Australia received a copy of the Olive Group report... Following an appeal by Tennis Australia, the ITF Board of Directors voted to uphold the decision of the Davis Cup Committee, after having received complete documentation for review."

I'm not surprised at all by this. Maybe my worldview is more jaded than others but as soon as the first appeal was filed I thought this could happen. The attack on the Sri Lankan cricket players, even though it took place in Pakistan, sent a chill through that part of the world. I totally understand where Australia is coming from but they backed themselves into a corner by raising the security issue. Once that was done their only option was to forfeit the tie.

Good luck to India in September's playoffs.

Roma Masters Draw

[1] NADAL, Rafael ESP vs BYE
SEPPI, Andreas ITA vs QUERREY, Sam USA
SODERLING, Robin SWE vs GRANOLLERS, Marcel ESP
QUALIFIER vs [14] BLAKE, James USA

[9] TSONGA, Jo-Wilfried FRA vs GASQUET, Richard FRA
ALMAGRO, Nicolas ESP vs GULBIS, Ernests LAT
FISH, Mardy USA vs ANDREEV, Igor RUS
BYE vs [6] VERDASCO, Fernando ESP

[4] MURRAY, Andy GBR vs BYE
KIEFER, Nicolas GER vs i]QUALIFIER[/i]
CHELA, Juan Ignacio ARG vs ROCHUS, Christophe BEL
[WC] CIPOLLA, Flavio ITA vs [15] CILIC, Marin CR

[12] GONZALEZ, Fernando CHI vs CHARDY, Jeremy FRA
TIPSAREVIC, Janko SRB vs ACASUSO, Jose ARG
BENNETEAU, Julien FRA vs MELZER, Jurgen AUT
BYE vs [7] DAVYDENKO, Nikolay RUS

[5] DEL POTRO, Juan Martin ARG vs BYE
HANESCU, Victor ROU vs TROICKI, Viktor SRB
QUALIFIER vs QUALIFIER
KUNITSYN, Igor RUS vs [10] WAWRINKA, Stanislas SUI

[13] ROBREDO, Tommy ESP vs SAFIN, Marat RUS
KOHLSCHREIBER, Philipp GER vs BOLELLI, Simone ITA
[WC] STARACE, Potito ITA vs MONTANES, Albert ESP
BYE vs [3] DJOKOVIC, Novak SRB

[8] SIMON, Gilles FRA vs BYE
[WC] FOGNINI, Fabio ITA vs [WC] VOLANDRI, Filippo ITA
QUALIFIER vs BERDYCH, Tomas CZE vs
MATHIEU, Paul-Henri FRA vs [11] FERRER, David ESP

[16] STEPANEK, Radek CZE vs SERRA, Florent FRA
QUALIFIER vs LOPEZ, Feliciano ESP
QUALIFIER vs KARLOVIC, Ivo CRO
BYE vs [2] FEDERER, Roger SUI

Qualifying play began today.

Fed Cup News

Both Anna Chakvetadze and Svetlana Kuznetsova were reportedly left hanging at the net by their celebrating Italian opponents Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone. DRAHMAH.
The Italians are up 2-0 over Russia.


Meanwhile Alexa Glatch of the United States bested Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic to give the United States an unexpected split of the first two singles rubbers.

You know it's the clay court season when...

The whining starts about the homogenization of surfaces. I remember a mere couple of years ago a player who was an all surface player was the ideal. Now it seems the all surface player is some kind of pariah and needs to be replaced.

As usual the whining centers around Wimbledon. The latest one comes from Victor Lamm of Tennis Week. Here's a sample.

Tennis is a unique game in many ways. It can be played indoor or outdoors; a match can span less than an hour or more than five hours; players can actually lose more points than they win yet still win the match.

One of tennis' top distinctions is that it remains one of the only significant sports played on different surfaces, which encourages diverse games styles. Or so it did.
(...)
Grass courts used to yield notoriously fast and low bounces that destabilized even the most potent baseline games.
Players couldn’t hang from the baseline for long and even the most defensive players had to serve and volley in order to stand a chance.
(...)
In the aftermath of Pete Sampras' victory over Goran Ivanisevic in a battle of big servers in the Wimbledon final, outcry grew for longer rallies on grass.

The All England Club's grass has become slower every year — as if it were a 55-year-old weekend hacker suffering from herniated discs in his back and blisters on his feet — and hard courts are getting so slow that the ball gets fluffy after a few games.

"What's disappointing about Wimbledon is how much I really don't enjoy playing on grass now because it's changed so much," said four-time Wimbledon semifinalist Tim Henman, prior to his last appearance at the grass-court Grand Slam. "The grass court has changed massively. They're so much harder and so true, the ball bounces up a lot higher. Here if you're hitting a good shot, you feel like it goes through the court. I think a combination with the grass changing to 100 percent Rye and the balls...it's so soft... the ball almost stops and sits up."
(...)
But the deeper byproduct of all these surface changes is that Grand Slam surfaces have become more consistent — and less varied — in terms of speed and bounce.
(...)
Consider that in the last 30 years 16 different men have won Roland Garros and of those 16 champions, nine never won another Grand Slam title in their career. In that same span, 14 different men have won Wimbledon and 10 of those 14 won other major titles. But only three of those Wimbledon winners — Borg, Nadal and Agassi — also reigned at Roland Garros.

YAWNNNNNNNNNN! Mr. Lamm also misses the days of hard court specialists, clay court specialists and grass court specialists. They're still around. It's just that their distribution can't be made by nationality anymore. It's kind of like The Slob assuming that because Fernando Gonzalez and Juan Martin Del Potro are from South America they're automatically clay court specialists. Gonzalez plays well on clay but he and his game are more at home on a hard court. Hard court specialists? Let's see. There's Andy Roddick, who may not play at all during the clay court season, James Blake and Mardy Fish. I give Sam Querrey and both Bob and Mike Bryan credit for playing the European clay court season. Roddick, who is playing well right now, just pulled out of Rome. Unless he plays one of the ATP 250 events leading up to Roland Garros he's skipping almost the entire season. He'll probably show up at Roland Garros since it's a Slam.

So what is it the whiners want? Do they think that certain players are not "temperamentally fit" to compete and win on certain surfaces? Should we go back to wooden racquets and ignore the effect technology has had on the sport?

I'm sure many of you saw the above picture of Rafael Nadal and Manolo Santana. Mr. Santana was donating the racquet he won Wimbledon with to Rafael's foundation. My first thought was why is Manolo giving Rafa a squash racquet?

People can talk all about the changes in the various surfaces the sport is played on but if you ignore the evolution of the racquet you're just making noise with no substance. I remember that match between Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanesivic. It was boring as hell. Is that what purists want a return to? I think not.

Tennis Talk

by Savannah

As of April 20, 2009 Dinara Safina will become the top ranked player in the WTA continuing what has become a tradition of Slamless Number One's on the women's tour. There is no doubt in anyone's mind who the real number one is - winner of the last two Grand Slams and semi finalist at Sydney, the Paris Indoors and Dubai. The right knee problem that surfaced in Paris came back to haunt Serena as she lost in Miami to Victoria Azarenka, and today to Klara Zakopalova at Marbella in Spain.

I have nothing against Dinara, I like her game, but right now she has no business sitting on top of the WTA as it's top player. Staunch fans of women's tennis decry all the what's wrong with the WTA talk in the tennis world but as long as it's best players are shunted aside by lesser lights due to the number of tournaments they've played and not the quality of their wins the talk will continue.
Bring back Quality Points? Make more events mandatory? I'm against mandatory events so I guess I fall in the Quality Point camp. Think back to what was going on in women's tennis when they were suddenly deemed a liability and look at what is going on now.

So congratulations to Dinara Safina. She is number one because that is the way things are set up in the WTA. She did nothing wrong. Let's see how long she holds onto her crown.

As I tweeted yesterday an inflamed shoulder has caused Victoria Azarenka to pull out of Charleston.

The woes continue for American tennis. James Blake, the top seed, was defeated by Guillermo Canas who has had a rough start to 2009. Bjorn Phau of Germany defeated the second seed Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey pulled out with a hamstring problem.

Fourteen year old Madison Keys will play tonight against veteran Nadia Petrova at Ponte Vedra Beach. What does it tell you about the state of tennis in the United States when the entire tennis establishment is looking to a fourteen year old as it's future? Then again the British are putting the same pressure on Laura Robson so I we're not unique. I guess it's a good thing there is a bright light on the women's side. I see no one on the men's side.

I came across an old article about the LTA getting tough with it's players. Then phenom Alex Bogdanovic had his stipend of 80,000 pounds per year cut off. As a result of this he agreed to see a sports psychologist. Anyone heard from him lately? Think I'm kidding? Here is Stephen Bierley's 2004 article. I wonder if this is still going on?

End Note
Think that Sports Business Journal piece declaring to one and all that Maria Sharapova is still relevant, and poised to be a super model wasn't serious? Take a look at these pictures taken last night at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont with the guy who is supposed to be her boyfriend.


I wonder whose jacket she has on her shoulders. It's going to take some time to do something about her athletic build isn't it? If these pictures scream athlete to you I've got some great property down in Florida you might be interested in.

We Are The Champions...

by Savannah

Rafael Nadal 2009 BNP Paribas Open Men's Champion


Vera Zvonareva 2009 BNP Paribas Open Women's Champion


Vera Zvonareva and Victoria Azarenka 2009 BNP Paribas Open Women's Doubles Champions


Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish 2009 Men's Doubles Champions

Congratulations to the men and women who won over the last two days. My rant about TennisTV and it's non delivery of service during the Women's Final will come tomorrow.