Thursday, December 20
Last updated at 10:35 pm EDT
AUSTRALIAN PRESS
Roche loves the surface his charge so despises - Linda Pearce, Melbourne Age
TONY Roche, who coaches Lleyton Hewitt, has taken the provocative step of publicly endorsing the court surface his star pupil so famously disliked.Roche, who has an official involvement with Australia's senior and junior touring teams as the Optus director of tennis, features on a public relations email being distributed on behalf of the manufacturers of Rebound Ace.
The media release trumpets the fact that Roche has installed a "new generation Rebound Ace Club court at his home in Sydney", and apparently continues to train his players on what is claimed to be an updated, improved and cheaper version of the much-maligned rubberised surface.
Lleyton Hewitt is trademarking his "C'mon" celebration and is going into business. On the eve of his thrust at an elusive Australian Open title, Hewitt and his management have developed a logo representing the hand signal and traditional affirmation seen on the tennis courts of the world for the past decade, and expect to see it bob up on a clothing range before too long. Hewitt's Melbourne-based manager, David Drysdale, confirmed yesterday that the logo had been submitted for trademarking. "I think it's good that he has his own brand and that (the c'mon) is the one thing that's most synonymous with him," Drysdale told Sporting Life. Little Lleyton told Australian Tennis magazine recently that he had been considering the idea for a while. "It's funny — I walk down the street and everybody says 'C'mon.' They copy me for doing my signal. I'm not quite sure how to describe that signal, there's no real word for it. So we've trademarked 'C'mon.' We're going to try and push that as much as possible as my brand, and get it out there in the marketplace, make shirts for kids, golf shirts and different kinds of stuff like cargo shorts."
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Websites
So it was nice to see a slew of positive news coming from the USTA which announced that in 2007, the sport grew on every level. Here are some key stats: In the US, participation has grown faster than any other major sport since 2000 with more than 25 million Americans now playing tennis....It’s not as if you can make up an official legal document so there must be something to the story. Plus, no one is denying that the 30-year-old Stepanek and 18-year-old Vaidisova are dating, but Vaidisova’s camp is strenuosly denying that they are engaged, so we will have to leave it at that for the moment.
...Serena has never been committed to Fed Cup. She’s played all of three ties since 1999 and never faced a significant singles player in her three matches. This year, the team really needs her as she’s the US’ best clay-court player and there is no way the US is going to upend Russia on dirt unless she makes the April trip and puts herself out there in singles. If she, Venus, Davenport and Huber made that trip, they could win, because as good as Russia has been over the last few years, at this point, you’d have to take Venus and Serena in singles over Chakvetadze and Elena Dementieva or Nadia Petrova, even on red clay.
...It looks like France’s Marion Bartoli will have to fight her way onto the Olympic team after she said that she won’t play the upcoming tie against China (neither will Amelie Mauresmo) and says she won’t go back on the team unless her father, Walter, is named a coach. "I explained my choice to the national coach, Patrice Dominguez,” Bartoli told Tribune de Geneve. "I repeated that I can't see playing Fed Cup if my father isn't completely integrated into the technical staff. It's a sine qua non of my entry into the French team. I haven't changed my opinion." Dominguez won’t pick her for the Olympic squad unless Bartoli committs to Fed Cup.
Fed Express continues to deliver -- but not forever
It's been four years on the trot at the top now for the brilliant 26-year-old Swiss. The coronation will continue, and there will be plenty of great tennis coming from this man's racket, but it's also likely that at least half his regal reign is over. It may sound heretical to say this about a man who just won three Slams, but there were a few tiny cracks in Federer in 2007 -- much like a baseball player who went from hitting .410 to .390. He suffered multiple losses to the likes of Guillermo Canas, David Nalbandian and, yes, Rafael Nadal. His Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals were won more by grubbing than zoning. And as for his effort to earn that elusive French Open title, former pro David Wheaton said, "With every passing year, that becomes much harder. Losing to Nadal three straight years in Paris, that becomes a mental hurdle. That French is very much in doubt. I would love for Federer to prove me wrong and win it. I say, you better enjoy him now."Gambling: A modest proposal
...Arias' belief is that gambling might be curtailed if the rankings system was reformed. During his career, every tournament counted toward a player's rankings. Currently, that's no longer the case, as the ATP only counts a player's efforts in the Slams, nine Masters Series events and his best five results in other tournaments -- in other words, only 18 events in a time when most players enter in excess of 20 tournaments a year. Perhaps if everything is part of the ranking there will be less incentive for a player to throw a match.
Jelena Jankovic: not having to play Henin until the finals of any tournament....Elena Dementieva: a Grand Slam title for her, and the Stanley Cup for the Buffalo Sabres (her boyfriend, Maxim Afinogenov, plays right wing!)....Svetlana Kuznetsova: a duet with 50 Cent....Martina Müller: a longer calendar year so she can play more than 31 tournaments, as she did in '07.
Wires
Tennis Australia has unveiled its anti-corruption policy, which includes a match-fixing hotline to report alleged corruption, a ban on unauthorised use of laptop computers courtside, and increased security measures designed to restrict access to players....TA chief executive Steve Wood said strict sanctions would apply for players and their support staff for breaches of the policy, ranging from fines to life bans. Offenders could also face prison terms, with offences arising from match-fixing attracting a maximum of 15 years' jail under Victorian law.
AMERICAN PRESS
Authorities soon are expected to take their latest step to combat a "serious risk" to the integrity of the game by naming an independent panel charged with analyzing the nature, scope and potential for match-fixing and corruptive gambling forces. The panel, which will offer recommendations and is expected to complete its work by March, is an outgrowth of concerns shared by the sport's major governing bodies: the International Tennis Federation, the men's ATP Tour, the women's Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and the four Grand Slam tournaments....Besides the soon-to-be announced independent panel, the sport is taking other measures. A Florida law firm has been hired to draft common sanctions and rules for the various governing bodies.
...Murdock says his company has "many methods to monitor patterns," some high-tech and some not. "There are triggers, which quite literally set off alarms," he says, ranging from the size of bets, suspicious accounts and activity that doesn't "positively correlate." The latter was the case when money came in on the much higher-ranked Davydenko to lose his match in Sopot even after he won the first set.
Under U.K. law, Betfair's registrants must provide a passport number or other identification within 72 hours or the account is frozen. Other countries have their own regulations. In cases where large sums of money are bet, Betfair will sometimes visit a person's home, according to Murdock. Frank Mahon, the top bookmaking enforcement officer for ESSA, says plenty of safeguards are in place via sophisticated technology to alert companies of strange activity. "When high odds are attacked, our systems can very easily pick up any irregular betting patterns," Mahon says. Conceding "if it talks, it can be bought," Mahon adds ESSA has its "eyes open every second of every day."
"Tennis," he argues, "is not as bad as it's being portrayed."
Magazines this Month
