Monday, December 16
Last updated at 9:25 pm EDT
AUSTRALIAN PRESS
Play-off farce provides Philippoussis with much-needed breather - The Australian
THE play-offs for two wild-cards into the Australian Open descended into the realms of farce yesterday with four matches not played due to walkovers or withdrawals. Mark Philippoussis elected not to play his third round-robin match against 16-year-old Junior Davis Cup winner Mark Verryth. Verryth was a stand-in for the injured Alun Jones, which meant the result of yesterday's match did not count anyway.But reigning Australian Open junior champion, Brydan Klein won his match 7-6 6-4 over Samuel Groth, who had beaten Philippoussis on Sunday. This meant every player in Philippoussis' Group A had won one match, and won the same number of sets. That led to a countback of games to decide which two players progressed to tomorrow's quarter-finals.
When the win-loss percentage was calculated, Groth with 62.2 per cent and Philippoussis with 61.5 per cent moved through to the final eight. Klein, with 60 per cent, missed out.
She credits her rise in ranking to the use of personal trainer and conditioner Scott Byrnes, an Australian who joined her in July 2006, and a determination to keep her emotions under control on court. She is now coached by Sven Groenefeld, who used to work with 1995 Australian Open champion Mary Pierce."My fitness needed improvement and when I started working with Scott it really made a big difference," Ivanovic said. "We've been working hard and that's been a big influence on my game.
"I also feel like I'm more experienced and I've matured a lot. Before I used to get over-excited and emotional on the court. But now I'm learning how to deal with this.["]
Philippoussis, meanwhile, is believed to have received medical treatment off-site, and forwarded the required medical certificate to the tournament office late yesterday afternoon. "He's desperate to play on Wednesday he wants the matches," one insider said.Yet considering his ongoing physical struggles, the bigger picture for Tennis Australia and its grand slam cash cow is the conflict Philippoussis represents between marketing and player development issues. From a bums-on-seats and TV ratings viewpoint, the Victorian's inclusion is a no-brainer but for the future of Australian tennis, there is a competing argument that the wildcard should go elsewhere.
TA now has a clearly defined and oft-mentioned "youth policy", and specific wildcard criteria, but development boss and Open tournament director Craig Tiley is also adamant that the emerging generation "has to get some runs on the board". Past generosity is not taken into consideration, so Philippoussis' recent history of handouts will not count against him.
..."It was three days in a row for me now, and I've pulled up pretty good, but I think the next matches if I keep on going will be probably tougher than this," said Dokic, who will meet 16-year-old junior Fed Cup representative Olivia Rogowska in the quarters... Still without a personal coach, Dokic has been training with Richmond Football Club conditioner Matt Hornsby.
The International Tennis Federation has devised a pace-rating scale for the various courts on the tour. On the scale, a rating below 30 is "slow", 30-34 medium, 34-38 was designed medium-fast, while anything above 38 was considered "fast".Tiley said the new Plexicushion had a speed rating of "34 to 38", which defined it as medium-fast.
Surprisingly, this was quicker than Wimbledon historically, the tournament that had always favoured serve-and-volley tennis, in which rallies were relatively short.
"Wimbledon is actually slower," Tiley said. "Because Wimbledon is medium the grass is new grass, a new kind of grass. The French is obviously very slow. So we're faster than Wimbledon, faster than the French, and a little bit below the US Open not much though US Open is 38, 39, they're faster."
Klein was heard to tell the former world No. 8 and dual grand slam finalist to "f--- off" after Philippoussis had broken his serve with a fine drop volley for 4-2 in the first set. The usually unflappable Philippoussis reacted furiously, telling Klein, among other things, that "you're not playing juniors any more". Philippoussis described the incident as "nothing" after the 6-3, 7-5 win on the opening night of the Australian Open wildcard play-off, insisting that "it was fun to be out there"....Klein had joked after the draw the previous day about Philippoussis' recent loss to 48-year-old John McEnroe in a seniors match, and suggested that he had nothing to lose against a player he suggested did not deserve a wildcard ahead of the younger generation if he did not earn it via the play-off.
...Jelena Dokic, too, has lost her ranking, as well as much of her fitness and the past few years of a once-glittering career. But comebacks must start somewhere, and Dokic's latest - and, surely, last - also brought a straight sets win. The former world No. 4 completed a 7-6 (7-2), 6-0 defeat of 17-year-old Alenka Hubacek, ranked 789th in the world, in a match that started almost eight hours late due to rain that threatened to wash out the entire first day's play on the Open's new plexicushion surface.
Having shed more than 10 kilograms but still in far from her best shape, Dokic struggled with her serve, as well as her mobility. But she can still hit the ball beautifully and said later she had played to only a fraction of her capacity.
"The doctors say as long as I'm careful not to push myself too hard and do a controlled rehab program the physios have set out for me, I should be fine with no long-term effects," Stosur said."I've got to monitor how I feel each day and if I sense anything coming on, go straight back to the doctor."
But with no singles matches in four months, Stosur has slipped to No47 in the world.
She will only play singles on the Gold Coast before teaming up with American partner Lisa Raymond for the doubles at the Sydney International.
It was reported in March, 2006 that the Tomic family intended to move to Melbourne, but Tomic says now it would be tough for him to be based anywhere else."Gold Coast is my home. I love it and can't imagine not spending most of my time there," said Tomic, who will do online schooling next year.
...Tomic says his height gain has been both "good and bad". "When you grow, it sometimes is difficult to adjust to your height on the court," he said. "But I feel I have now an opportunity to build on real weapons which will benefit me in the future, like my serve."
Tomic's success and confidence made him a big target even before he reached 190cm. There have been whispers in Queensland tennis for some time that Tomic is up to two years older than he admits. Tomic said the baseless claim -- which even appears on his biography on Wikipedia, the website where information can be edited into existing entries at a whim -- made him laugh. "This is the first I've ever heard of this. People will always be jealous and they will say what they want," he said.
AMERICAN PRESS
The USTA told them it was sticking with its plan to hold a four-player, round-robin tournament to award the wild card and that Ginepri would not be invited because the protocol is to invite no American older than 22... Without the wild card, he'll have to qualify, and that's where we'll find out if all the time he's putting in with coach Jose Higueras in California this offseason will reignite his motivation and his game....The USTA held an eight-player round robin for the women's wild card into Australia and 17-year-old Madison Brengle won it. There's a lot of good things to say about Brengle. She competes hard. Everything about her court demeanor says she's driven to win. Her ground strokes are solid and accurate off both sides and she plays good defense. But she doesn't have one major weapon, and with her size (5-foot-4), she must get better at finishing points at the net.
VICTORIA'S Secret model Selita Ebanks traded in her rapper for a preppy tennis pro. Ebanks, who seems to be following the trend of snagging a star-athlete boyfriend, has been shacking up with racquet man James Blake... "They met in LA and have been dating seriously," said our source.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Upsets of the year Bartoli beat Henin at Wimbledon and Filippo Volandri ousted Federer at the Italian Open. Maybe Federer's mind was on firing coach Tony Roche that week.Second-rate No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova finishes No. 2, despite winning only one title - in New Haven, Conn., right before the U.S. Open, when her opponent, Agnes Szavay, retired while leading 6-4, 0-3. Kuznetsova, 22, lost in her five other finals.
On the key factor that will help her break into the top 10: I dont think it is just one key factor. At the beginning of the year (07), I was doing exactly the same thing that I was doing at the end of the year. People were saying how bad I was playing and how I need to do this and do that. By the end of the year, I was doing exactly the same stuff. Its just that I was getting the results. Clearly there is no key as to what you have to do to break into the next level. Of course, I have to improve my serve and my fitness. I can probably pinpoint a lot of things.
At 35, Jonas Bjorkman doesn't wish for Christmas to come early any more but he is hoping his second child does or he will have to pull out of both the Heineken and Australian Opens.The 59th-ranked Swede and his wife Petra are expecting their second child on January 15 and, while this might appear to rule him out of New Zealand's premier tennis event, signs suggest the baby could arrive early.
"It's 50-50 at the moment," Bjorkman says from his home in Monte Carlo. "I have entered just in case because if it arrives early I will head over to Auckland and Australia. The baby is already in position so it might be two or three weeks early. If not, I will take January off."
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The world's number one tennis player Roger Federer has been named Switzerland's top sports personality for a record-equalling fourth time....Federer, who follows former cyclist Tony Rominger as a four-time winner of the award, said he was close to tears after being congratulated in video messages from former champions Bjorn Borg, Roy Emerson and Pete Sampras. Sampras, who still holds the record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles, told Federer to "have fun" breaking that record.
BRITISH PRESS
Six tennis moments of the year1) Roger Federer's reaction on being asked if he might take on Brad Gilbert as his coach, during the end-of-season Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. His "no chance" spoke more volumes than Gilbert has ever done himself.
2) The sight of Tony Henman, Mr Stone Face, overcome (almost) as Tim brought his career to an end after winning his Davis Cup doubles against Croatia on Wimbledon's No1 court in September.
3) The joy on Justine Henin's face after winning the French Open, her first major since she became re-united with her formerly estranged family.
4) Andy Murray's roar of pain when, out of the blue, he damaged his wrist in Hamburg, an injury that forced him to miss both the French Open and Wimbledon.
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