Friday, February 8
Last updated at 12:05 am EST
An experimental attempt to provide updates through the day here.
AMERICAN PRESS
Norman, at Pebble Beach, Stirs the Memories a Bit - New York Times
He will be 53 Sunday, is the oldest player in the field of 180 golfers and still turns heads. Wide-shouldered, thin-waisted and shockingly fit, Norman looks the way he did when he last played here in 1992, in the days when he was known as the Great White Shark. Now he has the former tennis star Chris Evert for a fiancée, and when she appeared by the gallery ropes at the 14th hole at Poppy Hills, she looked as if she could step on to Center Court at Wimbledon.Norman had four-putted the 13th for a double bogey when Evert, who had just arrived from the San Francisco airport, worked her way through the crowd. On the first shot she saw, he hit his best iron shot of the day, to within 5 feet of the hole.
“As great as Greg is as a golfer, I think he could have been better as a tennis player,” said Evert, a winner of 18 Grand Slam singles titles. “He is such a great athlete, with quick feet and reactions.”
Norman is playing the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am with his college-student son, Gregory....Evert and Norman became engaged in December. Fill in the blanks with your imagination. When is the wedding? "Probably this summer," Evert smiled. "Ask him." I did. "We have got a date," Norman said, "but you'll have to wait and see what it is." Apparently Evert will also have to wait to see what it is. Chicks dig enigmatic guys. Whatever the date, it's going to be the all-time greatest power-merger of sports superstars/corporate titans. Evert was ranked No. 1 in women's tennis for seven years, or 364 weeks. Norman spent 331 weeks as the world's No. 1 golfer.
..."My observation of golf," Evert observed, "is that mentally it's a tougher sport than tennis. There are no freebies. I've been down 6-0, 5-0, 40-love and come back to win. You can't do that in golf. You have to be relentless with every shot.
"And if you win a golf tournament, you beat every golfer in the field. My first Wimbledon (win), I didn't play Billie Jean (King) or Evonne (Goolagong) because they lost in earlier rounds, and I surely would have lost to them on grass then."
Harkleroad, the No. 1 seed at this week's Dow Corning Tennis Classic, left Chicago early Wednesday morning to catch a plane and play a match in Midland that afternoon."I probably got three hours of sleep last night," said Harkleroad. "We got stuck in Chicago, and I woke up at 4:45."
Fortunately for her, Harkleroad had enough energy left to defeat Jelena Pandzic 7-6 (5), 6-3 in a first-round match... "Especially when you have a huge crowd (at the Fed Cup) and you come here and you are picking up your own balls," said Harkleroad. "It is a little bit of a letdown. But, that's OK."
...Fellow Fed Cup player Laura Granville also took the court on Wednesday as she rolled over Mirjana Lucic 6-4, 6-0.
Dow Corning sees tennis tourney as extension of corporate philosophy
- Bay City Times
AUSTRALIAN PRESS
Torn calf muscle to sideline Molik for six weeks
- Leo Schlink, Melbourne Herald Sun
Molik will be sidelined for at least six weeks after a Fed Cup setback that will compromise the South Australian's preparation for May's French Open.ALICIA Molik's injury curse has grown worse - on two fronts - with the former world No. 8 now nursing a torn calf and golfer's elbow.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Davis Cup comes round too soon for some
- Christopher Clarey, International Herald Tribune
"When is enough going to be enough for them really?" McEnroe said of the International Tennis Federation, which organizes Davis Cup. "It's not a U.S. problem anymore. It used to be, 'Well, it's just the U.S.' Now, it's just about every other country except us. No Roger. No Nadal. No Murray. You think Murray's really hurt? Give me a break."
..."Who outside Portland and Russia cared about the final? Let's be honest," McEnroe said.Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are much more accommodating men, but neither of the game's top two players will be involved in this weekend's festivities. Federer has said no to the opening round for the last three years to keep his mind and body fresh for regular tournaments, and he could not quite keep Switzerland in the World Group last September. Nadal is following Federer's lead by declining to play (on red clay no less) in Spain's first-round tie in Peru, whose team, led by veteran Luis Horna and not much more, is making its World Group debut.
Canada loses Dancevic for Davis Cup tie
- The Globe and Mail
Israel must be at its best for Davis Cup tie vs Sweden - Jerusalem Post
Sweden undoubtedly has an excellent team, but its stars, Thomas Johansson and Jonas Bjorkman, are both well past their peak, and this will be just the second time Israel will be hosting a World Group tie... Being unseeded in the draw for the last 16, Israel couldn't have really asked to receive a better opponent, but saying all that, anything short of the team's very best will not be enough to defeat a Swedish side which reached the last four of the competition last year....Simon Aspelin (11 in the doubles world rankings) and Robert Lindstedt (40) are set to face Israel's Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich on Saturday.
"Playing three days in a row would be too tough for me, so I'm happy I'm just playing in the singles," Bjorkman said. "Aspelin and Lindstedt have a lot of experience and they've trained a lot together so I'm sure they'll be ready for the doubles match."
"My Daughter is upset"
- Times Now
The upset father also reminded that Sania played in the Federation Cup to avoid an Indian relegation despite her doctor's advice to take rest. "Under the present circumstances she is not going to be at her best. Mentally this has affected her; this has taken a toll on my daughter. This is a temporary thing and not permanent. It should not be forgotten that she played the Federation Cup for India on Saturday against the doctor's advice and won however damaging her back, this a reflection on what she feels.", said Imran Mirza. In an attempt to clear the air in the latest Sania Mirza controversy, Imran Mirza, the father of the tennis sensation has express[ed] disappointment over the controversies hogging his daughter.
Roger Federer: where does he stand now?
- Sportstar
Sharapova set for Qatar Open
- Qatar Peninsula
Websites
Media Power Rankings for January - SI.com
1. Darren Cahill, tennis analyst, ESPN: The Australian Open typically attracts two types of television viewers: bleary-eyed insomniacs and tennis fans more diehard than Bruce Willis.The fortnight airs in the middle of the night East Coast time and Cahill was a revelation for those of us who slogged through evening after evening to watch. "A match can be quite complicated at times with what is happening," says Cahill, who coached Andre Agassi during his final years on the Tour. "If you can simplify it to look for a few things that might be evolving, I think the audience becomes better connected to what is happening."
This is Cahill's second year with ESPN and he's quickly rising to the level of the sport's best analysts, alongside Jimmy Arias, Mary Carillo and John McEnroe. "The coaching bug will always be floating around somewhere inside and you never know when the opportunity might arise to get back into it," says Cahill. "For the time being and the immediate future, I am where I want to be."
Recent powerhouse Serbia looking to tame talented Russian squad - ESPN
South Korea vs. Germany in Braunschweig, clay, indoorsPhilipp Kohlschreiber's pulsating win over Roddick at the Australian Open might not have been his biggest career scalp. Don't forget he beat Davydenko, on clay, in Moscow in last year's semifinals.
Kohlschreiber and his German teammates, who don't include the oft-injured Tommy Haas, are heavily favored against South Korea, making its first world group appearance since 1987.
Hyung-Taik Lee, 32, enjoyed his best season as a pro last campaign, though his most noteworthy results occurred during the U.S. Open Series -- he logged just three top-tier clay wins. Who's No. 2 on the team? Woong-Sun-Jun, a 21-year-old who has yet to win an ATP match.
Davenport hopes to drape Olympic gold around her neck once again - Sandra Harwitt, ESPN
While Davenport might no longer have her heart set on Olympic gold, admitting that scoring silver or bronze would be a huge thrill, she insists it's actually not all about taking a medal home."To me it's more about the experience and being an American and cheering all the other American athletes on," Davenport said. "You realize what you have in common and every athlete has stuff in common no matter what their sport is like. And you have so much respect for any athlete in any sport -- it could be archery, it could be a marathoner -- it doesn't matter. Anyone who is the best in their field, you know what it took to get there for that person, all the sacrifice. It's kind of like an instant sorority or fraternity for all of the American athletes bonded together for one goal of trying to win medals for your country. You wear your red, white and blue proudly for the opening ceremonies."
In fact, Davenport smiled when asked to describe her remembrances from the matches that delivered her gold medal performance, admitting she has few recollections of a great serve, wicked forehand or any other shot.
"It's so much less about the gold medal and the matches," Davenport said. "I remember being with Mary Joe [Fernandez] and Monica [Seles], who are two of my great friends on tour, being in the village, going to opening ceremonies, hanging out together, practicing together, meeting other athletes and going to other events."
Pressure on for Djokovic, Americans - Matthew Cronin, Foxsports
The U.S. is in a new fairly new spot. For the first time since 1996, it will defend a title and begin play in Vienna, Austria. The road to a repeat is harrowing, as captain Patrick McEnroe's veteran team of Andy Roddick, James Blake and Bob and Mike Bryan are in their least favorite locale: a foreign city on chopped up, indoor clay. However, despite Roddick's career-long woes on clay outside of Davis Cup, he has shown himself capable of winning for his home country, as he did last year, when he and his boys bested a decent Czech team under similar circumstances.Roddick then scored his most significant clay court win ever when he bested top-15 player Tomas Berdych on dirt in Ostrava. If he can produce the same level of play against the streaky Juergen Melzer in Friday's opener, the U.S. will be off to a fine start.
Blake, who is very dependable at home on hard courts but a huge question mark away, will play the role of underdog against the lefty Stefan Koubek in the second match, who is ranked some 43 places below world No. 12 Blake, but has a far better grasp on how to construct points on a soft surface.
...Twelve years ago, the U.S. team was unable to defend its title as Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi took passes on the first two ties. Captain McEnroe was a player then and he and Pat Galbraith scored a doubles win over Mexico in the first round, but in the second round, they, and the rest of the team, endured a tough loss to the Czechs.
US could fall to Austria; Israel may rattle Sweden - Matthew Cronin, tennisreporters.net
RUSSIA V. SERBIA IN MOSCOWJanko Tipsarevic is out of Friday's play with the stomach flu, so it will be up to Novak Djokovic to carry his team to victory. That means singles wins for the AO champ over Mikhail Youzhny and Nikolay Davydenko, and a doubles victory with the competent Nenad Zimonjic over (maybe) Marat Safin/Dmitry Tursunov. Safin has recoved from a toe injury and looks to be penciled in for the doubles. Look the Djoker to earn his first big whiff of DC glory, but he'll leave Moscow on a stretcher.
...ROMANIA V. FRANCE IN SIBIU
How does Romania remain in the World Group with the mediocre Victor Hanescu and declining Andrei Pavel as their top two players? They won't for a long, not when France's unveils a much-improved squad with Richard Gasquet and new sensation Jo-Wilfried Tsonga playing singles, backed up by the solid doubles duo of Arnaud Clement/Michael Llodra. That's the team that should face the US in North Carolina in April.
The Prodigal Brother
- Peter Bodo, TennisWorld
while it's conjecture on my part, I have this sneaky feeling that Jamie's broadside is less about patriotism than self-interest. It's like Andy scored tickets to a Coldplay gig and decided to offer the extra one to someone else. Sometimes brother get bent out of shape about stuff like that.
Davis Cup - Here Again
- Douglas Robson, Sports Dish
If I’ve barely dried off from the three days of constant rain at the Davis Cup final in Portland last December, I can only imagine how the winning U.S. team feels now that they are lacing up their sneakers for an indoor clay-court tie against Austria in Vienna this weekend. Actually, I don’t imagine, because some team members have been vocal (yet again) in their distaste for the Davis Cup format, which forces them to defend their hard-fought title when the hangover from their beer-soaked victory party has scarcely passed.
An Argentine mountain to climb
- Davis Cup website
France the favourite in Sibiu
- Davis Cup website
"Considering the way Jo has played in Australia, and what he has been showing us in practice, I really don't see why he can't play a high enough quality tennis to bring the team one or even two points, even if this is a new experience to him," said Forget on debutant Tsonga.
Player blog - Bondarenkos
- WTA website
[Alona] People are always wondering if we get into arguments when we're travelling together, and the answer is, of course, yes. But we've improved. A few years ago we fought so much more but now I think we're used to being around each other all the time and we are a little older now, so we get along much better. And our fights are only for 30 minutes, maybe an hour, so they don't last that long.
Wires
Tipsarevic out of Serbia's Davis Cup tie with Russia
- Reuters
Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic is out of the Davis Cup World Group first-round tie with Russia in Moscow because of a stomach bug.
"Tipsarevic will not be able to play...and will be replaced by Viktor Troicki," the Serbian Tennis Federation (TSS) said in a statement on Thursday.
Somdev Dev Varman set to make his Davis Cup debut
- PTI
Sania lost opportunity to climb up the ladder: Vijay Amritraj
- PTI
BRITISH PRESS
Argentina hold all the Davis Cup aces
- Mark Hodgkinson, The Telegraph
So, even if the rumours around Buenos Aires prove to be correct, and Maradona fails to appear in the VIP box today, it is unlikely that the British players will be given a cosy hello. No wonder John Lloyd, Britain's captain, recently spoke of "the nutcases" at the Estadio Parque Roca.Although Andy Murray is believed to have given assurances to Lloyd that he will appear in the next tie, he has opted out of this trip to South America to prevent a knee injury ahead of next week's ATP tournament in Marseille.
Despair as doubles is best chance to avoid whitewash - Steve Bierley, The Guardian
Murray, by the way, has booked his flight and hotel for next week's ATP tournament in Marseille, so obviously the injury is not that debilitating, although to be fair it was the switch from hard courts to the clay here that was apparently causing him the most concern. Jamie has already said his piece on the subject of his younger brother's absence here and, as he reiterated yesterday: "We have to get on with it. I'm not angry, just disappointed."...What the captain would love to see is the far more talented Bogdanovic rise to the occasion and make a match of his encounter with Agustin Calleri, the Argentine No2. Last year Bogdanovic rose to No108 in the world, although he has since slipped back 80 places. His ability has always been unquestioned, but time and again, particularly in the Davis Cup, he has disintegrated most horribly when under pressure.
Attitude key as Lloyd's men stumble into the real world - Paul Newman, The Independent
Paul Hutchins, Britain's head of men's tennis, has no doubt given his son, Ross, who will partner Jamie Murray in tomorrow's doubles, an idea of what to expect. Hutchins Snr captained the last British team to play here, in 1981, when Guillermo Vilas and Jose-Luis Clerc did not drop a set in five rubbers against Buster Mottram, Richard Lewis, Andrew Jarrett and Jonathan Smith.
Argentina have a formidable record playing at home on their favoured clay courts. They have won their last 10 matches in a row here, nine of them 5-0, with only Croatia avoiding a whitewash. Runners-up two years ago, they are third on the current Davis Cup rankings list (Britain are 20th) and believe this year's draw – the winners here play Sweden or Israel in the quarter-finals – offers an outstanding chance to win the competition for the first time.
Magazines this Month
January 2008 issue - Australian Tennis magazine (Table of contents)
After The Blaze, Malibu Racquet Club Builds Status And Star Power - Richard Evans, Tennis Week
Welcome Home - Richard Evans, Tennis Week
Players Who Were Pick Up Artists - Tennis Week
November-December 2007 issue - Tennis magazine (Table of contents + web extra)
First Serve: The Right Man's Burden - Bill Simons, Inside Tennis
The Buzz - Inside Tennis
Russian Roulette - Matthew Cronin, Inside Tennis
It's a Tough Job But Somebody … - Matthew Cronin, Inside Tennis
The Genius - Chris Bowers, Inside Tennis
An Open Era U.S. Davis Cup Timeline - Inside Tennis
All Bets Are On - Matthew Cronin, Inside Tennis
December 2007 issue - Tennis Life (Table of contents)
November 2007 issue - ACE magazine (Table of contents)
Warriors Ready to Battle for Their Honor - Deuce
Andy Roddick: The Road Ahead - Joel Drucker, Deuce
Ferrer Steps Out of the Shadows - Deuce
Kiefer's Comeback & The Getting of Wisdom - Deuce
ATP's 'FEEL IT' Set for Global Rollout in 2008 - Deuce
Erlich & Ram Share Dreams On and Off Court - Deuce
The Last Time... with Tommy Haas - Deuce
