Tuesday, February 12
Last updated at 7:40 pm EDT
An experimental attempt to provide updates through the day here.
Magazine update below...
AMERICAN PRESS
Tiley turns down USTA job - Charles Bricker, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Evidently, Tiley took an offer from the USTA and bargained a better offer from Tennis Australia, leaving the USTA back at square one, looking for someone to step into the newly created job that had been lined out for Tiley.
"This was my first test," said the 27th-ranked Haas while icing his arm. "I progressively started to play more tennis in the last 10 days. … Overall, I'm happy with how I played. Unfortunately, the shoulder kind of left me at the end of the second set. I didn't have that much pop that you need."It's amazing how a few percentages, a few inches off your [game] and you're just at a different level."
Haas usually serves in the 120s, but rarely topped 100 mph on the radar gun.
"I had no power, that was the key," said Haas, the 2006 ITC champion who was once ranked as high as No. 2 in 2003. "I don't know how many times I wanted to throw in the towel and retire, but I still consider myself pretty young, so I'm going to try to see what this game brings to me."
''It's a tough game, but I love it so I'm trying to come back and see how it goes,'' said Haas, standing with a dripping ice bag on his shoulder in the interview room at the Delray Beach Stadium & Tennis Center. ``Many times I want to throw in the towel and maybe retire. I consider myself pretty young, so I'm going to try and see what this game brings to me.
Ginepri needed just 45 minutes, 19 seconds to defeat No. 160-ranked Mathieu Montcourt 6-3 6-0 in the opening round of the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships."It's been a while since I felt that way on the court, kind of playing within myself," Ginepri said. "I felt like I'm the old Robby."
Malisse, from Belgium, practically owned Delray Beach, winning the tournament twice and appearing as a finalist five times. Unseeded Bobby Reynolds of Acworth, Ga., made his 2008 trip a short stay 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.Malisse played in only five tournaments last year because of a right wrist injury, and the rust showed. He converted just two of 17 break points. Reynolds had a 6-26 career record coming in, but held on in 1 hour, 55 minutes. "I tried to battle, but I didn't have much confidence," Malisse said. "The wind made it even tougher. I played bad and made bad decisions."
...Haas, who had his third career shoulder surgery in November and had not played since October, fell to Argentine Diego Hartfield 6-2, 3-6, 6-2. Hartfield had never won an ATP Tour-level match on hard courts... Haas, who was born in Hamburg, Germany, and lives in Bradenton, hopes he will return to something close to full strength in a couple of months. He is ranked 27th in the world. "Many times I thought I would throw in the towel and retire," Haas said. "But I consider myself a pretty young guy."
Viktor Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic – both minor stars in Serbia's current glittering tennis constellation – were squeezing in a final practice before they headed to Moscow for the country's clash (Feb. 8-10) with Russia in the first round of the Davis Cup. But conditions here in the nation's premier tennis venue were hardly ideal. Even the court was wrong: at Gemax, the two men train on carpet; but the Russian venue would be a hard court. Serbs, shrug players here, are used to difficult conditions.The most famous player associated with Serbia is nine-time Grand Slam winner Monica Seles, who was born in the Serbian city of Novi Sad and played the greatest years of her career under the Yugoslav flag in the early 1990s. But, in the wake of the brutal ethnic fracture of Yugoslavia, many Serbs feel ambiguous about the ethnically Hungarian player who later took US citizenship. Nole is often referred to here as the first Serbian Grand Slam winner.
In 2003, Troicki was in the locker room before a top juniors tournament when a representative from Nike arrived to hand out gear to young players the company sponsored. When the rep saw Troicki – not on his list – wearing Nike clothes, he offered the young player a contract on the spot. But when he heard Troicki was from the poor and internationally vilified Yugoslavia – which Serbia was then still part of – it didn't exactly strike the rep as fertile ground for brand exposure. He took back the contract and said they'd wait to see how Troicki did at the tournament. The young Serbian tennis player never heard from him again. "I think he's regretting it now," laughs Troicki, who now has deals with Prince and the Italian sportswear line Diadora. "In Serbia, tennis is the most popular sport now."
Ideally, I'd like to see three rounds of Davis Cup — quarterfinals, semifinals, and the final — played over three or four successive weeks, with no other tournaments in session anywhere else. The travel and home-surface choices would remain, but the Cup would build momentum over those weeks, more so since the players would concentrate on it and nothing else....Until we get to the point where the season's other (and, to be honest, more important) flaws are on the mend, I'm resigned to leaving Davis Cup alone and hoping that some day there's a chance to make it a lot better.
Viktor Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic – both minor stars in Serbia's current glittering tennis constellation – were squeezing in a final practice before they headed to Moscow for the country's clash (Feb. 8-10) with Russia in the first round of the Davis Cup. But conditions here in the nation's premier tennis venue were hardly ideal. Even the court was wrong: at Gemax, the two men train on carpet; but the Russian venue would be a hard court. Serbs, shrug players here, are used to difficult conditions.The most famous player associated with Serbia is nine-time Grand Slam winner Monica Seles, who was born in the Serbian city of Novi Sad and played the greatest years of her career under the Yugoslav flag in the early 1990s. But, in the wake of the brutal ethnic fracture of Yugoslavia, many Serbs feel ambiguous about the ethnically Hungarian player who later took US citizenship. Nole is often referred to here as the first Serbian Grand Slam winner.
In 2003, Troicki was in the locker room before a top juniors tournament when a representative from Nike arrived to hand out gear to young players the company sponsored. When the rep saw Troicki – not on his list – wearing Nike clothes, he offered the young player a contract on the spot. But when he heard Troicki was from the poor and internationally vilified Yugoslavia – which Serbia was then still part of – it didn't exactly strike the rep as fertile ground for brand exposure. He took back the contract and said they'd wait to see how Troicki did at the tournament. The young Serbian tennis player never heard from him again. "I think he's regretting it now," laughs Troicki, who now has deals with Prince and the Italian sportswear line Diadora. "In Serbia, tennis is the most popular sport now."
No. 2 seed Granville took home her second Dow Corning Tennis Classic singles championship with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over No. 1 seed Harkleroad at the Midland Community Tennis Center. Both players were part of the U.S. Fed Cup team that played last weekend in La Jolla, Calif., and both were late in arriving for the DCTC...."(Today) I was just spent mentally, (and) physically too," said a tearful Harkleroad after the match. "The Fed Cup was so stressful and I felt a lot of pressure.
"I played such a late (doubles) match last night, like 9:30 p.m.," said Harkleroad, who is the 76th-ranked player in the world. "I probably shouldn't have played it, but I did."
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
The tone was set for an unusually uneventful opening round when defending champion United States, in tough on a very poor quality indoor clay court in Vienna, won both of its opening singles through Andy Roddick and James Blake....The Davis Cup practice of including the results of matches played after the tie is decided continues to confound... The Czechs, for example, defeated the visiting Belgians 3-0 over the weekend, but lost yesterday's singles when they played their doubles players, one of whom does not even have a singles ranking, making the official final score a misleading 3-2. Including the results of those matches in official head-to-head statistics is nonsense.
Websites
Here are some causalities post the DC first round: Dudi Sela (I'm guessing out of Delray Beach due to emotional angst), Hyung-Taik Lee and Arnaud Clement (out definitely for Marseille), and Agustin Calleri (gone from the Brazil Open). The high-flying Bondarenko sisters seem tired after their Fed Cup campaign (or maybe it was for over-blogging for the WTA). On Wednesday Alona lost to Juile Ditty. The Serbs - Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic - are nowhere to be found this week after their tussles in Hungary and Ashley Harkleroad imploded in the final of the Midland Challenger.But new Fed Cup warrior, Anna Chakvetadze, broke the trend, winning Paris last week and entering Antwerp, a tournament with a rich history that does not have its desired field this year, with only the sixth-ranked Russian and Justine Henin major headliners.
...Harper Collins just released, "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure." Here's one that been bandied about the caught my fancy: "After Harvard, had baby with crackhead." Here's mine: "Couldn't play it. Wrote about it."
Blake went on to win the second set, and Koubek looked shellshocked after that. The Austrian ceded court position in the third, desperately scrambling to stay in points rather than counterpunching his way into control of them. Blake just got stronger, particularly on the forehand side, which he rolled crosscourt with depth and smacked for outrageous winners down the line. It was a complete turnaround, and a complete performance for the American. When he drilled another forehand winner to go up 3-0 in the third, U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe stood with a slight look of disbelief on his face. Blake came over to bump fists and PMac nodded and pursed his lips as if to say, “I’m not sure I believe what I’m seeing, but I’ll take it.”Yes, the U.S. is on a Davis Cup roll. The Bryans were absolutely dominant the next day. Every time I looked up from the couch they had just broken serve. As one of their opponents, Julian Knowle, put it, “They outplayed us in every department of the game and we were miles away from winning.”
Wires
The Chilean tennis player will be inactive for almost four weeks due to an abdominal injury picked up while contesting the Viña del Mar Open. Fernando Gonzalez, ranked No. 16, will miss the trophies in American soil, in San Jose and Memphis, and is expected to reappear in Las Vegas on March 3, practice tournament for Indian Wells and Miami Master Series.
BRITISH PRESS
But all the same, perhaps this is the moment to jump up and down and froth at the mouth and excoriate young Murray for his disloyalty, his treachery, his rat-like leaving of a sinking ship.Sorry, I’m not really in the mood for that. Davis Cup tennis is great - one of the ultimate tests of sporting bottle – but it needs two reasonably well-matched teams. This was always a mismatch and if Murray didn’t fancy going halfway round the world for an heroic defeat, I can’t entirely blame him.
...So Murray’s backsliding makes sense and I am not inclined to clobber him too hard – well, not if he is out there winning matches, anyway. In sport, victory forgives most things.
That, though, was not Murray's fault, according to Apey. "There has been a lot of criticism of Andy for not calling John [Lloyd] to tell him," Apey said. "But that criticism is unfair because it was my decision. Andy was going to have some treatment on his injury - he wanted to have a quiet word with John, but the press release was going out, and it was my suggestion that I call him because of the timing."Andy could have waited a day, two days to tell him but he didn't want that. Once he had made the decision he wanted it done right away. It wasn't a popular decision but for his tennis it was the right decision."
..."It's OK for Jamie to have his opinion, of course. People will write that Andy and Jamie haven't spoken, but had Davis Cup not existed, had Jamie been playing on the South American clay circuit and then in North America, and had Andy stayed in Europe, then in all likelihood they wouldn't have spoken anyway."
Except this time, in seeking to ingratiate itself with its No1 player, the LTA indulged him as no one has been indulged before - he wanted the best, it provided it, no questions asked. And then last week he said that he did not want to play for Britain this time and, when asked for a comment, the new go-getting LTA went quiet. It helped to create the monster, but what happens when it roars, or in this case, slumbers
"No, I don't think that we would pay Andy that," Draper said as Britain lost 4-1 on the red Buenos Aires clay. "Andy is strong-minded, it's about his career and I fully support him on that. We wouldn't draw up a contract to pay him extra to play in the Davis Cup.
Strength in depth is not necessarily a prerequisite for winning the trophy but to have only one world-class singles player puts an almost impossible strain on any four-man team. It is possible, had he not cried off, that Andy Murray might have won both his singles here and teamed up with his brother, Jamie, to take the doubles. Not surprisingly he figured this was an improbable scenario and stayed at home before playing in this week's ATP event in Marseille.
"The bottom line is that with Andy in the side we're a World Group team," Roger Draper, the Lawn Tennis Association's chief executive, admitted before the start of yesterday's play. "Without him we're not."If there was some comfort to be derived from the final day's dead rubbers, Jamie Baker (world No 235) recording an excellent 7-6, 6-4 victory over Agustin Calleri (41) and Alex Bogdanovic (188) leading in both sets before losing 7-5, 7-5 to Jose Acasuso (50), Britain's total of 43 games – only 20 of which were won in live rubbers – was their second lowest in 108 years of Davis Cup competition.
...Changes are being made to encourage the top players to represent their countries – ranking points will soon be awarded for Davis Cup results and from next year ties will be played in the weeks immediately after the Australian and US Opens – but whether this will be enough to win over the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who also declined national duty this weekend, remains to be seen.
Magazines this Month
