Friday, December 14
Last updated at 2:10 am EDT
AMERICAN PRESS
Vaidisova, Stepanek apply for marriage license - Bradenton Herald
Bradenton resident Nicole Vaidisova, the 12th-ranked women's tennis player in the world, has filed papers for a marriage license with men's professional tennis player Radek Stepanek, according to information received from the Manatee County Clerk of Circuit Court.Vaidisova and Stepanek applied for the marriage license Dec. 10, and their names are on a public records list that will appear in Sunday's Herald.
Vaidisova's agent at IMG Academies, Olivier Van Lindonk, could not be reached for comment.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Meanwhile, Federer racked up three more Grand Slam singles titles to bring himself within two of Pete Sampras's record of 14. He also shrugged off two late-season defeats to his former nemesis David Nalbandian to win the year-end championship in Shanghai.So much for revolution.
But the reality is that one set at the All England Club in July could have made all the difference. Rafael Nadal appeared to have the requisite momentum in the Wimbledon final after winning the fourth set against his Swiss rival.
Kirilenko survived a scare before winning in three sets against New Zealand's Marina Erakovic 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, while Rodina marched away with a straight set 6-4, 6-4 win against Yuliana Fedak.Wires
Asked whether there were any marriage plans between her and Norman, the American, sporting a large diamond on her left ring finger, replied: "Well, it is an engagement ring. We were engaged on Sunday night coming over here, en route to South Africa. We don't know when and where we'll be married though."Evert, 53, jokingly asked Norman: "Why don't you say something to them (the media)? Gee, you're a big chicken!"
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While men's tennis trended towards the veterans in 2007, the women still have their fair share of teens (Vaidisova, Golovin Szavay, Azarenka, Radwanska) and tremendous 20-year-olds (Ivanovic, Sharapova, Chakvetadze, Safarova and Kirilenko). But veterans like Henin and the Williams sisters reigned supreme at the Slams, and the elder set also had sizeable and surprising impacts throughout the year (Bammer, Hantuchova, Razzano). There are only three lefties in the Top 30 and only five players who make consistent use of the net. Some 16 nations have representatives. Russia rules once again with numbers, but France had a heck of a year....13. TATIANA GOLOVIN: Attention loving French teen busted out in the spring and fall with her relentless retriever's game. Doesn't have top 5 stuff, but no one wants to grind with her in a 3-hour sweat fest. Special props to Tati as she finished ranked ahead of Mauresmo, which we predicted way back in the spring and got toasted for it. Love it.
...20. SYBILLE BAMMER: The highest ranked mom on tour, the lefty Austrian made the most of her talent in '07 via hard work off court and a lack of fear on it. But will she able to focus with her cheeky 5-year-old, Tina, now in Kindergarten and off the road?
...30. MARIA KIRILENKO: So intent on a top 20 career that in mid-December, she was playing a challenger in Dubai. A much better shotmaker than she's given credit for, the modest Russian has shed her Kewpie Doll image and now is an opponent to be feared.
"My father bought me a tennis racquet from a car boot [trunk] sale when I was 7 for 50 cents and since then I just took to it and have loved the game ever since," Tomic remembers. "Still have the racquet. It was so natural for me from the beginning. I remember my first tournament even now. I won and since then I've never looked back."Tomic's backhand, which is as versatile as a Swiss Army Knife, his shrewd court sense and a serve that is much more imposing than his size would suggest form the foundation of his game. He describes himself as an all-court player, who has studied the game's greats in building his own game.
"I feel I have a good sense of the court," Tomic says. "I always said if I could pick [among favorite players] I would have the serve of Goran Ivanisevic, the shots of Sampras, heart of Hewitt and the movement of Roger."
Also, any eligible player can enter (as long as he is over 30, and has been a Top 5 player, a Grand Slam singles finalist, or a singles player on a winning Davis Cup squad. That, by the way, is how tennis's human train wreck [Mark Philippoussis] came to play for Jim a few weeks ago. There is also one wild-card slot in the draw at each of the six events. BTW, the next OCT will be the Oliver Group Champions Cup, March 12-16, in Naples Fla.We got to talking about the way senior tennis has been a hard sell in the past. There's a bias against the senior game in some quarters (in marked contrast to golf), and I think it's got less to do with, say, the level of play on senior tours than with the inherent fickleness of the tennis audience. Tennis is very much a "what have you done for me lately?" game. The people who are flocking to get an autograph from Roger Federer today will be the same ones who trample over him in the rush to get an autograph from whoever it is who finally supplants him at No. 1.
Is there a sport with a more simple, objective, almost cruel and conspicuous star system than tennis?
One of Jim's aims with the OCT is to provide veteran pro players with a little anxiety-alleviation as they face moving out of the game. "Most guys, when they retire, they want to get away from the traveling and the commitments," Jim said of the OCTs plans to stage more events. "So I think there's definitely a ceiling on the number of events we can run. But I also think that it's great for guys on the cusp of retirement to know that they can go out for a week here and a week there to keep in touch with what they've done - sometimes all they've done - in their lives to that point."
Best Rivalry
Justine Henin-Serena WilliamsIt had been four years since the sleek, silent Belgian and the powerful, vocal America had met -- an acrimonious semifinal in the 2003 French Open. But in 2007 they went toe-to-toe four times. At the Sony Ericsson Open final in March, Williams overcame two championship points to beat Henin 0-6, 7-5, 6-3. Subsequently they encountered one another in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, each match punctuated by the pleasing contrast between Henin's all-court versatility and Williams' firepower. Though Henin won all three -- and lost only one set -- it's clear that heading into 2008, these two have all the makings of a superb rivalry.
Going, going, gone
At the start of 2007 three popular European veterans -- France's Amelie Mauresmo, Belgian Kim Clijsters and Switzerland's Martina Hingis -- all held places in the top 10. But No. 3 Mauresmo was stricken with appendicitis early in the year, failed to win a tournament after February and ended '07 ranked 18th. Clijsters opened strong with a run to the Australian Open semis, issued one hint after another about not playing any more Slams and announced her retirement and pregnancy in May. Hingis' exit was particularly ignoble. Dropping out of the top 10 was one thing; deciding to retire amid controversy -- testing positive for cocaine during Wimbledon -- was exceptionally agonizing.
BRITISH PRESS
Two of its leading coaches, Brad Gilbert and Paul Annacone, flew the coop and landed last year at the LTA, followed by Bill Mountford, who was responsible for knitting together many of the coaching patterns of the United States Tennis Association (USTA). “There’s no doubt their decisions were all about money,” Patrick McEnroe said. “Had the USTA offered them similar sums to work in player development, I’m sure they would have stayed in America. I’ll probably get into trouble with the USTA for saying it, but this is something they have to get their heads around. If the LTA spends $40-50 million a year on development and the USTA’s budget is a quarter of that, people are going to be tempted. We have great coaches – Paul [Annacone] is a smashing guy and now he’s working for you. I think of others like Larry Stefanki and Jose Higueras who would be great for our programme.“We have to look closely at development [but] this is a 10 to 20-year task. The rest of the world has caught up with us, so we have to up the ante.”
Andy Murray sent his mum a note this week from Florida. It began: "Congratulations on your award. It obviously wasn't for your cooking." But while Judy Murray's culinary expertise was called into public question at the Sports Journalists' Association Awards Lunch in London on Wednesday, her credentials for the gong were unimpeachable... The Guardian's tennis writer once remarked that Mrs Murray was to blame for the poor showing of British tennis - she should have had more children....it was announced that Murray would be travelling with a retinue of coaches, trainers and physios.
"A lot of people have made out that I'm going to have so many people around me. But I'm never going to have more than one coach, a fitness trainer and a physio. I don't want to have five coaches, six trainers and three physios. It's just that I know what it's like being on the road all the time with one person and it gets quite stressful. I want to be in a position where I have a couple of coaches, a couple of trainers and a couple of physios who all get on well with each other and are good at what they do. Then they can rotate with each other. That way, if they get tired or want to go home or want to see their family or just want a little break, they can say so. I'll say 'fine'.
"If you travel 30-35 weeks a year, it gets tough. But if you travel 15-16 weeks and you feel fresh and rejuvenated each time you get to a tournament, it's much better. There's not so much pressure on the relationship." Some would argue that Rafael Benitez tried rotation and look where that got him. "Yeah," said Murray. "The Spanish League, the Champions League, the Uefa Cup and the FA Cup." Point conceded.
[Jamie]Murray revealed this week at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, where he was preparing for the coming season, that his partnership resulted indirectly from him catching the eye of other leading doubles specialists after winning three tournaments this year with American Eric Butorac.
“I had some offers from some top players, but none of these happened for me, I got messed around a bit,” he explains. Murray adds that these dalliances fuelled his ambition and unsettled his partnership with Butorac. “I did want to play with a top, top player who knew how to win grand slams.”
AUSTRALIAN PRESS
TA is gravely concerned Melbourne Park, once the grand slam stadia benchmark, has fallen behind its three older rivals. "The Australian Open, one of the world's four grand slams, is at a crossroad, its future position and existence at risk," TA's annual report warned. "Demand for the right to stage tennis events has increased dramatically in the past five years, with significant financial backing available in Asia and the Middle East."And we are seeing our grand slam partners supercede our once state-of-the-art facilities with massive investments in their own facilities."
TA's alarm comes as two of the world's leading tennis figures - Romanian promoter Ion Tiriac and French Tennis Federation boss Christian Bimes - raised the possibility of changes to the grand slam landscape.
...TA wants a $300 million upgrade and has applied for State Government funding. "During the past two financial years, Wimbledon, Flushing Meadows and Roland Garros have invested $195 million on redevelopments," TA's report said. "Qi Zhong stadium in Shanghai, venue of the Tennis Masters Cup, saw an initial investment of $283 million, with a further 80 hectares of land available for redevelopment.
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