Andre Agassi and Sexting

by Savannah

Sometimes someone says it better than you. Sarah Thurmond at tennis.com wrote about the incident in Taiwan over the weekend where during a charity auction Agassi offered the highest bidder for an item the chance to see his wife naked via a picture on his cell phone. The video of the event can be found by clicking the above link. Here is Ms. Thurmond's piece/

Remember when Andre Agassi smacked his wife, Steffi Graf, in the face with his racquet while attempting a left-handed forehand during an exhibition in Houston? She walked off the court holding a towel to her face; he continued playing. We can only imagine the hell she gave him later that night. It probably went something like this: "You always have to get so carried away in front of a crowd! One of these days you're going to take it too far, and someone is going to get hurt. Oh wait—that just happened!"

Well, that sound you hear is a bell ringing, signaling round two of what I suspect will be another bout between the married tennis legends. Once again, Agassi used Graf as the mark of his comedic jabs. Last week, Agassi was in Taipei playing an exhibition with Marat Safin, Mikhail Youzhny and ATP players from Taiwan, including Yen-Hsun Lu. The players attended a charity auction, and, as this clip shows, at one point Agassi took over as auctioneer. Holding up what looks like an autographed, semi-ornate porcelain platter, he said, "You pay more than $4,000, and I will show you a picture of my wife on my phone naked." That got the crowd clapping. It also got a man to put up the money because the next shot on the video is Agassi showing him something on his phone. It may not have been an actual photo of Graf in the buff, but if it was, it didn't get too much of a reaction from the winning bidder:

Graf must be a really a good sport to put up with Agassi's "take my wife, please!" schtick. If she isn't, it's a good thing Agassi was a good defensive player because after this latest incident, those skills must come in handy at home.

Oh What A Night!

by Savannah

I don't publicize it but Friday nights are pour moi. If possible I avoid the Internet and sit and watch television. I did that for the first part of the evening catching up on shows I missed during the week that were sitting on the DVR and preparing for a tennis overdose tomorrow by avoiding the above mentioned internet and except for a foray onto the Foodnetwork to find an oven setting I did well.

But such is my life that I got a text asking when my fave ATP player was going to play so I went to the BNP Paribas Open/Indian Wells official site to check out the Order of Play.

You see once I start looking at tennis stuff my brain short circuits and I end up on tennis fanboards. That is how I found out about the Dust Up in the Desert (I don't have that rhyming gene a la Muhammad Ali. Sorry.) The boards were all lit up about some trash talk between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. There was talk of a fired up Agassi with blood shot eyes going after Sampras the way he did in his book. Deciding I needed to find out just how serious this was I went on Twitter and the tennisheads were all over the situation too. Insinuations were being made there that Andre appeared to be "on something".

I found this hard to believe. I mean what tennis player is going to take the court in a high profile exhibition match aimed at raising money for the people suffering in Haiti intoxicated or high? Andre has done a lot to tarnish his image in the last few months and something like that would just be beyond the pale.

Fortunately Tennis Channel's war with Cablevision ended right after the US Open last year so when someone let me know they were repeating the event I put on my television. This was the regular television not the HD one that's in the living room. I had read that on HD the condition of Andre's eyes was very clear so I decided that when the men's segment came on I'd watch it on the HD television.

It must be said that Martina Navratilova talked all through the women's portion but while annoying it didn't get personal. Unfortunately my ear isn't tuned to her accent when she's speaking fast so I didn't catch a lot of what she said. I can say I'm sure that no insults were spoken by her.

Unfortunately I could easily understand what Andre was saying. It started when he said younger viewers probably wonder who the two bald guys are playing with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Even though Sampras managed to reply by saying he still had some hair left you could see that he was annoyed to say the least. Losing your hair is traumatic for anyone, male or female, as Andre of all people should know. You will read that it started when Pete imitated Andre's pigeon toed walk. Sampras did that after the hair comment. Now it was Andre's turn not to be amused.
Before you could settle down Andre started in on Pete being a cheapskate and bad tipper. First he turned his pockets out and imitated a person pretending to look for money in said pockets and finding none. A few minutes later he said he'd hate to be a parking valet when Pete drove up.
Sampras aimed a serve right at Andre barely missing him. The crowd had been laughing and taking the comments lightly. Now an uneasy silence reigned and both Federer and Nadal were quite uncomfortable. Federer tried to make some jokes of his own but by that point things had gone too far downhill to salvage the good feelings that were part of the first few points.

Both Tracy Austin and Patrick McEnroe were stunned into silence. Justin Gimelstob tried his best to calm the waters but instead seemed to be making matters worse. At the end there was an embrace at the net but no one was fooled. Emotions were still running high.

By the end of the match Agassi had run out of gas and his team lost 8-6 to Federer/Sampras. But the score will always be secondary to what happened between the two biggest stars of American tennis. It's perverse tennis history and something that will be talked about for a long time. Was Andre "on something" as many implied? I don't know. I know that I saw that his eyes were big and round, pupils hugely dilated, the whites of his eyes were bloodshot and that he suddenly ran out of gas leaving Rafa to play two men on his own. HDTV is a bitch. It shows everything.

What should have been a joyous occasion before a packed house turned out to be a downer. The people of Haiti, and the people who put the exhibition together, deserved better.

The good news is that a check for one million dollars was given to the Red Cross. That is what this was supposed to be about.

Seen and Heard Around

by Savannah

The Big Come Back

Wearing an egg yolk yellow skirt with a white top featuring an unfortunate ruffle around the waist Maria Sharapova shrieked her way back onto the WTA tour eking out a 6-1, (6)6-7, 6-3 win over Tathiana Garbin at the Warsaw Open. Sharapova had match points at 5-3 in the second set before Garbin, given confidence by double faults and errors off of Maria's racquet forced and won the second set tiebreak. After a visit from MIchael Joyce Maria took control of the third set and won going away.

I don't think anyone expected perfection in her first match back after a nine month layoff. Her luck just got better though since Caroline Wozniacki did the expected and pulled out of the tournament with a sore back. Maria's shoulder was taped. I'm assuming it was a precautionary move.

Meanwhile there is drama concerning the withdrawal of Agnieszka Radwanska from the tournament. Here is the report, in English, from the Polish Press

(...)
The official line from her trainer, the tennis star’s father Robert Radwanski, is that she will not play due to back injury.

“Agnieszka will not play because of her [back] injury, but there is another issue – that the organizers of the event are not treating us properly,” claims Radwanski. The coach claims that a sponsoring dispute has strained relations between the player and organizers of the event.

“We wanted to enter the parking lot with our car [on Saturday] but we were told that we could not,” maintains Radwanski adding that Agnieszka’s friend found out that one could only enter the car park with passes for those participating in the tournament.

Tournament director, Stefan Makarczyk, stated that because the Radwanski family drives a Mercedes, they were not allowed into that particular car park because only Suzuki vehicles the official sponsor of the Warsaw Cup, were allowed to park there.

“Maybe Agnieszka is injured, but from the fact that she highlighted her desire to play in matches in Warsaw so strongly in interviews, why would she not realize her dream,” added Makarczyk.

Neither side have bothered to hide the evident dislike between Radwanski and Makarczyk who have allegedly been arguing over financial compensation for appearing on Warsaw’s red clay courts – several tens of thousands of dollars are supposedly at stake.

“I do not know anything about financial negotiations. I came, I wanted to play, but I am injured and that’s all,” maintains the 20-year-old tennis star from Krakow. In 2008, Radwanska became the first female Polish tennis player to make over 1 million USD in career prize money.

I think this speaks for itself no?

Meanwhile Sabine Lisicki also withdrew from Warsaw. First reports stated it was because she was suffering from appendicitis which would throw her French Open participation out the window but that was later revised. The official cause is now a very bad stomach ache.

Wimbledon Center Court Ceremony and Matches

I tried to watch this last night. I really did. But from the ceremonial closing of the roof to the strains of "Amazing Grace" "sung" by Farel Smith and Katherine Jenkins where the tape went kablooey to the singles match between Kim Clijsters and Steffi Graf which Clijsters won I found myself, like Virginia Wade, dozing off.


I found it odd that Boris Becker, the epitome of the past Wimbledon champion, was sitting in the stands with his fiancee (who made sure all the bitches in the stadium and watching knew she was ENGAGED to Mr. Becker and to back off) while a nearly geriatric Andre Agassi was on the court. Boris let the LTA/AELTC know how he felt when he was invited down on court and made it plain he had not been invited to participate. That could account for the sardonic looks on both his and his fiancee's faces.

Andy Murray was there as well and while not a Murray fan wouldn't an exho between Murray and Becker have been kind of exciting? Where was five time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams? If you had to have Clijsters wouldn't a show match between those two been interesting? I doubt Virgina would've dozed off if those two had been on the court.

Still it was a great spectacle. The translucent roof is awesome and I'm glad that play on Centre Court will no longer be subject to the whims of British weather and no top player will have five days off while another has to play day after day after day.








Australian Open Financial Problems
Australian online newspaper The Age reports the world wide financial crisis has hit the Australian Open hard.

THE financial crisis has cost the Australian Open nearly $10 million in vital sponsorship after Garnier decided to abandon its deal with the grand slam tennis event.

As the sponsorship market continues to tighten locally and internationally, Garnier, part of the L'Oreal Group, yesterday became the second major backer to pull out.

The tournament's other associate sponsor, GE Money, recently decided against extending its three-year arrangement...

The Open's much smaller arrangement with MasterCard is also over, while a multi-faceted deal with Optus that extends to Australian national teams is under review.
(...)

The Australian Open's 2009 sponsorship portfolio was worth an estimated $35 million. It has been headed since 2001 by Korean car manufacturer Kia, which remains committed until at least 2013. Lacoste and Rolex both signed lucrative multi-year contracts last year.

A couple of years ago there was concern in Australian tennis circles about the Chinese purchasing the rights to the event and moving it to Shanghai. There is symbolism involved here as well.
The Grand Slam concept was conceived by the countries that dominated tennis back in the day - The United States, Britain, France and Australia. If the Australian Open is moved to another country that would make many traditionalists very upset to put it mildly.

End Note

I'm going to be scarce this week. With the French Open coming up fast and the start of the grass court season hard on it's heels it's going to be a busy few weeks. If something comes up that's deserves an airing I'll post.

Heard Around

by Savannah

The WTA final at Madrid will feature Dinara Safina against Caroline Wozniacki. Should be an interesting match between two women who hit the snot out of the ball. It's ironic that both women reached the final by defeating two women who actually play clay court tennis. Then again Schnyder is past her prime and Amelie, who served for the first set at 5-3 and was broken never mentally recovered her poise. It is what it is. The two have apparently never played each other before.

Meanwhile Dinara is telling all of her critics to stop hating. In this INTERVIEW given after her quarter final victory over Alona Bondarenko - another match TennisTV didn't bother to air- the few reporters who attended seemed to focus on the criticism directed her way for being a Slamless number one and only winning her first tournament of 2009 last week in Rome.

I guess they're jealous that I'm so young and No. 1.," Safina said at the Madrid Open on Friday. "I don't know. I really don't know."
(...)
"To become No. 1 it's not just winning the Grand Slams, it's how you compete the whole year," the 23-year-old Russian said. "I won last year four tournaments ... I beat almost all the top-10 players so I think I deserve that spot."
(...)
"Yes, I didn't win a Grand Slam but I was in two finals and in one semifinal in one year. Many people can't achieve that in a career," Safina said. "Overall, I think I'm where I should be for the consistency of my whole year."
(...)
Only a handful of journalists bothered to attend Safina's press conference after a quarterfinals victory over Alona Bondarenko in front of half-empty bleachers in the "Magic Box" tennis center's main stadium.

I hate to break it to Dinara but 23 is pushing middle age in professional tennis. And yes she was in two GS finals and one GS semi final during the twelve month period just past, but Serena Williams WON two Grand Slams and made the final of another during the same twelve month period. I'm just sayin'.

Maria Sharapova's Return

Here is the Main Draw for the WTA Premier event in Warsaw, Poland. Whoever it was who called me out about Maria's seeding or lack thereof was right.

Main Draw

[1]Wozniacki Caroline (DEN) v Q
Garbin Tathiana (ITA) v [WC]Sharapova Maria (RUS)
Domachowska Marta (POL) v Amanmuradova Akgul (UZB)
[WC]Piter Katarzyna (POL) v [8]Bondarenko Alona (UKR)

[4]Wozniak Aleksandra (CAN) v Goerges Julia (GER)
Dokic Jelena (AUS) v Q
Gallovits Edina (ROU) v Craybas Jill (USA)
Keothavong Anne (GBR) v [7]Mattek-Sands Bethanie (USA)

[5]Errani Sara (ITA) v Bondarenko Kateryna (UKR)
Mayr Patricia (AUT) v Voskoboeva Galina (KAZ)
Q v Pironkova Tsvetana (BUL)
Q v [3]Zheng Jie (CHN)

[6]Hantuchova Daniela (SVK) v Llagostera VIVES Nuria (ESP)
Radwańska Urszula (POL) v Koryttseva Mariya (UKR)
Zakopalova Klara (CZE) v Czink Melinda (HUN)
Govortsova Olga (BLR) v [2]Radwańska Agnieszka (POL)

Wozniacki is in the Final at Madrid. I'm guessing she won't play until Wednesday.

Idle Chit Chat

• The web site for the Madrid Open is one of the worst I've ever seen. I just wanted to get that in.
  
• Did I mention that the seats were basically empty this morning for the women's semi finals? No? Am I beating a dead horse? Yes? Moving on.
  
• Is it news that Caroline Wozniacki attended dinner with Fernando Verdasco's family last night at one of the family restaurants?
  
• Speaking of web sites what does it mean that I don't speak, read or write Polish but that the website is easy to use and to find information on?
  
• Wimbledon provided, via Twitter, verbatim news from the presser in relation to the Centre Court dedication featuring Andre Agassi, Stefanie Graf and Kim Clijsters in almost real time?
  

If you haven't seen the artists drawings of the new Roland Garros please click on this LINK and enjoy yourself. Pay close attention to the details. You'll see various players going about their business in the complex.

Who Will It Be?

by Savannah

What are fans looking for in a new leader for the WTA? There are the expected "ding dong the witch is dead" posts but there are also fans of women's tennis who are giving a lot of thought to what type of person should take over the reins from Larry Scott. Here are some of the people being mentioned.

Chris Evert
Martina Navratilova
Monica Seles
Stefani Graf-Agassi
Billie Jean King
Mary Jo Fernandez
Chanda Rubin
Pam Shriver
Zina Garrison

Scott is scheduled to meet with the press starting at 12:30p Eastern Time USA.