Monday, October 29
Last updatd at 3:15 am EDT
BRITISH PRESS
Andy Murray claims third title to stay in hunt for Shanghai showdown - Neil Harman, The Times
Murray Jr kept his part of the bargain yesterday, winning the St Petersburg Open, his second title of the season and third of his career, with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Fernando Verdasco, of Spain, arguably his most comfortable performance of the week. The timing could not have been better, nor have left the Masters Series event here - a tournament wrecked by withdrawals in recent years - in such a breathless state....The orders of play for tomorrow and Wednesday here are going to be among the most eagerly awaited in recent tournament history. There are six players within eight points of each other in pursuit of the eighth and last place for Shanghai, given that Fernando González, of Chile, this year's Australian Open finalist, has a decent enough lead in seventh not to be unduly worried by his 0-5 match record at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy.
It will, therefore, matter enormously where each of those subsequent six, all of whom have first-round byes, are scheduled to play. With so little to choose between them, a win for, say, Tommy Haas in his opening match would require the other five (Tommy Robredo, James Blake, Tomas Berdych, Richard Gasquet and Murray) to match that feat to keep their hopes alive.
Gasquet is not even certain of appearing after suffering knee pain during his loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Lyons last week. "Of course I want to [play] but I am a bit scared of the fan reaction if things go wrong," Gasquet said.
"How many people are here?" asks Martina Navratilova as we walk through an area of humanity which is, in effect, "a disaster zone". The nine-time Wimbledon singles champion is an ambassador for the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which lends support to Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA), a remarkable group of local young people out of Mathare's population of more than 600,000. "That's 200,000 people per square mile," Navratilova responds incredulously when Peter Karanja, MYSA's 31-year-old director, supplies her with the information. "That's ridiculous."..."All of this makes you want to yank all these people out of here, the kids especially. They're eager and capable, very bright. They want to do stuff, but how do you go from here to being successful in life? It's very difficult. You have to be so brilliant that it's not fair. I was lucky that I was born in the Czech Republic. It's bad that it had a communist system but, considering all of the places in the world in which I could have been born, I was lucky. Opportunities were there, like the four tennis courts in my town. Here people struggle to get clean water, so tennis isn't going to help.["]
While many of Murray's rivals have been faltering in recent days, he has been picking up points aplenty.Unfortunately, he has a tricky draw in Paris, where he is seeded to play Djokovic, the world No 3, in the third round of the indoor tournament.
As the No 15 seed, he has a bye through the first round and then will meet either Juan Monaco or Jarkko Nieminen, who yesterday lost 6-3, 6-4 in the Basle final to home-boy Federer, a result which guaranteed that the Swiss will end the campaign as the world No 1 for the fourth year in succession.
After all, it's not every day a young player is told he can receive specialised coaching, be fed and accommodated, along with his family, for as long as 10 years and it won't cost them a thing - unless they succeed. The Mouratoglou academy is like no other private academy in the world because it's not run as a business. "My pleasure is helping them become a success," said the founder, Patrick Mouratoglou, who was prevented from realising his own potential as a 15-year-old when his father ordered him to give up tennis and concentrate on his studies."I didn't know why I wanted to do this when I started it 10 years ago, but now I think I did this because I wanted to give kids the opportunity I was denied."
Already the academy has produced two top-10 players in Marcos Baghdatis and Mario Ancic as well as two top-30 players in Ivo Karlovic and Paul-Henri Mathieu. All of them were more than happy to repay the cost of their development and accommodation, which over 10 years can run to more than ?1?million. Even then, that money goes only a small way towards covering the costs of the academy, which are borne by Mouratoglou himself and the businesses he has set up solely to fund the academy. His father, Paris, the chairman of EDF Energies Nouvelles, a French renewable energy company, who last year made $450?million (£220 million), despaired of his son's obsession long ago; Mouratoglou turned down a partnership in the family business.
...A little controversially the academy took on a five-year-old boy last year, an American called Jan Silva, who with his long blond hair and precocious talent brings back memories of those early Andre Agassi home movies. It has brought the academy a great deal of publicity but the downside to all that welcome attention for little Jan is that it has had an adverse affect on his older brother, Kaydn, who as a result has given up tennis.
French undercover police have been invited into this week's Masters Series event in Paris following recent suspicions over match-fixing in tennis. Officers specialising in gambling from the Renseignements Généraux, the intelligence service of the French police, have been given full accreditation to roam incognito among the stands and corridors.More used to investigating casinos or horse racing, they will be on the lookout for suspicious betting activity.
...Cédric Pioline, co-director of the Paris Masters, said a player performing badly would not be enough to deduce that he was deliberately trying to throw a match. "The guy might have a cold, have had a row with his wife or had light shining in his eyes when he served," said the former Wimbledon finalist. "To detect cheating, there must be a preliminary alert into suspicious cash movements."
"I said at the start of the week that to have a chance of qualifying for Shanghai I really needed to win here. Now I think a couple of wins in Paris and I'm probably one of the favourites to make it," said Murray."I played a pretty solid match, not too many mistakes. I came to the net at the right time and put a lot of pressure on his serve, so overall, it was a pretty comfortable match for me.
"Getting to Shanghai would be a ridiculous effort after what has happened to me. A wrist injury, as every tennis player knows, takes such a long time to come back from. If I was to make Shanghai I think it would be an unbelievable effort and I'm going to give it my best shot."
...It is impossible to work out all the permutations at this stage. A few years ago the ATP listed a dozen possible TMC options on the quarter-final day of this tournament and they were all wrong. Such are the complications. The only certainty is that, if Murray were to win in Paris next Sunday, he would be sure of reaching Shanghai... However, the British No1 is certain to be fired up. Reaching the TMC was one of his main objectives this year and by April he was well on course, having broken into the top 10 for the first time. Then came the wrist injury which appeared to stymie his hopes before this late run, including a final in Metz at the beginning of the month, rushed him to within a chopstick's length of making it to Shanghai
Anti-corruption investigators from the online betting exchange Betfair have launched an inquiry into Wednesday's St Petersburg Open match between Dmitry Tursunov and Boris Pashanski after punters cried foul over unusual market moves.The fifth-seeded Tursunov lost to Scotland's Andy Murray, the second seed, yesterday but it was the Russian's 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 second-round win over Serbia's Pashanski that drew scrutiny. One punter states that Tursunov was continually being backed to win the match at 1.20 [Betfair's equivalent of 5-1 on] despite having lost the first set and trailing 2-0 in the second.
Betfair has declined to void the market because, according to a source close to the investigation, prices had been influenced by the actions of a single high- rolling punter, an individual well known to the exchange as a significant net loser. It is said that he had attempted to place a large bet discreetly through the organisation's brokerage team but, frustrated at delays, lumped on his stake "up front", sending prices tumbling.
However, independent punters who were observing the market believe Tursunov still had significant short-price backers. "Those in the know continued to back him at ridiculously low prices even while he was getting treatment for a lower back injury at the end of the first set," said the Betfair punter.
Winning here is Murray's only guarantee of booking his place in Shanghai, but much will depend on the performances of other contenders. In theory he could still earn a place by losing in the third round.Murray said it felt "pretty special" to be so close to qualifying. "It gives you a reason to get fired up for your match because you're playing for something that hardly anybody else can say that they've done," he said.
AUSTRALIAN PRESS
The highlight was a grand slam doubles title with Mara Santangelo at the French Open; confidence and consistency on the singles court have taken slightly longer to regain."I'm a fair way off (top 30) if you look at numbers so, obviously, I didn't make the goal that I set for myself," said Molik, who will return to singles at the Hopman Cup in January. "But I think the last couple of months maybe have shown that even though the number isn't close, I feel like my tennis is very close."
..."Over the break, I'll evaluate the things that I really need to improve and work on," Molik said. "Going into the summer, you're at an added advantage if you have played a lot of matches, so it's certainly something that I'll look to do, so that I can go into the summer and the Hopman Cup running, instead of taking a week or two to warm-up."
Serving artWhen it comes to art, Bec and Lleyton Hewitt know what they like, and what they don't. The aspiring Medicis of the tennis world have commissioned the Perth cartoonist Jason Chatfield to create a caricature of the couple. Chatfield would not be drawn on the commission but PS hears it came with very specific guidelines, including not making Bec's smile look "cheesy", not drawing Lleyton in an effeminate pose and including the Opera House, a beach (but not Bondi), a kangaroo and a koala in the frame. Apparently a gum tree is optional, as is an image of baby Mia.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
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Skinniest Legs: No one in the history of sport spent more time in the gym on their legs with less visible improvement than me. Now the talented Belgian Kristof Vliegen will have to enjoy life on tour with the skinniest legs.Maccabiah Games Favorite: Being one of the best Jewish tennis players in the world for the better part of a decade is kind of like being one of the most personable Russians [?]: It doesn't take much. That being said, Dudi Sela has emerged this year. He led the Israelis to a huge upset over Chile in the Davis Cup, advancing them to the World Group, and he also climbed into the rankings of the top 100 players in the world. Mazel tov!
...Boris Becker Wanna-be: I didn't do many things well, but I was a heck of a diver. True, many weren't needed and most were a result of poor balance. Nonetheless, I hit some good ones. Little-known Serbian Dusan Vemic is an amazing athlete and can really lay out on the court. Hopefully he'll make it to a show court some day -- if so, the crowd will be in for a show. Most in Need of a Haircut and Brush: You would think with access to free haircuts almost every week on tour, I would've taken advantage of a few more. Andy Murray rightfully takes over this distinction with me hanging it up. He benefits from the constant use of a hat on court, but trust me, it's not a pretty picture in the players' lounge!
SHARAPOVA TO EXECUTIVE PRODUCE A SPORTS-RELATED DRAMA FOR CW NETWORK: Maria Sharapova is spreading her wings again, this time by helping produce a pilot for the teenage-orientated CW network. Sharapova's show will take place in the world of pro tennis and the word off the court will be that it will be styled on the popular HBO show, Entourage. Sharapova's partner in the series will be Jacob Epstein, who has written for "Without A Trace" and "Sliders." The word off the court is that Sharapova will not act in the series, but is willing to do a cameo or two.
Flavio Saretta tells Brazilian weekly Istoé he has several times been offered money to lose matches, including €100,000 for a first-round match at the French Open against Potito Starace last year. Saretta won the match and went on to face Nikolay Davydenko. In September, Giles Elseneer said he was offered €100,000 to lose a first-round match at Wimbledon in 2005 against Potito Starace.Marcos Daniel also told the weekly that at Acapulco last year, he was woken up at 6 o'clock in the morning by a phone call offering him $20,000 to lose his first round match against Nicholas Massu.
On hard courts he still hits with too much topspin, negating the force of his forehand. Back in March, when he won his first U.S. Masters Series tournament on outdoor hard courts at Indian Wells by employing a much more aggressive style, it was thought that Nadal would carry that mentality into the summer hard-court season and into the fall. But he didn't, perhaps because he was injured too much or he simply didn't fully take to the adjustment mentally...He's having to work too hard to win matches, and his body is rejecting the grind. Look at what happened at the Australian Open and in Madrid - Andy Murray pushed him in into uncomfortable positions all over the court and made him work for hours to win. Then when Nadal came out for his next matches (against Fernando Gonzalez and Nalbandian), his legs were too heavy to give his opponents serious tussles.
..."Djokovic has shown a lot of resilience, is pretty savvy and seems to have more weapons that Nadal," Shiras said. "He can come up with unexpected blows, throws in drop shots, has big weapons off the ground and has a better serve... To state the obvious, Nadal has to keep improving. But he also has to be of the mindset to keep going for it.["]
Wires
However, she admitted that a shortage of good coaches remained a problem -- a view shared by Prpic.He said: "We're not that successful in turning young talents into pros. I often hear from players that, while in the young categories, they were beating some of those who later reach top class. We have a wide base of young talents, but far from enough top coaching experts."
Ivanisevic, Ljubicic and Ancic all found coaches abroad, he recalled, and the HTS is now taking steps to reverse that.
"We had a very chaotic situation where no licences were required for tennis coaches." Mihelic said. "Now we have introduced education courses for coaches and no one will be able to work without our licence. It is our top priority to upgrade the coaching potential."
The top-seeded Davydenko won the first set in 27 minutes, but drew a rebuke from chair umpire Jean-Philippe Dercq in the third set. Davydenko double-faulted four times in the second set and six times in the third."When I made a double-fault, he gave me a notice for a wrong behavior on the court as if I was throwing the match," Davydenko said Thursday after the match. "I was surprised. I've never heard anything like this before. No matter how I'd played, no matter what had happen to me, I was never given such a notice."
Davydenko said during the exchange, Dercq asked him about his condition. Davydenko first said there was nothing wrong, but later said the problem was in his legs.
"He could not solve my problem anyway, that why I first told him I was OK, but I didn't play the way I did in the first set. That's why he gave me a notice," Davydenko said. "Later I told him that my legs have collapsed. I could not move."
"Nikolay Davydenko was fined $2,000 for lack of best effort in his second-round match against Marin Cilic," the governing body for men's tennis, ATP, said in a statement on Friday.The top seed played near-flawless tennis in the first set against the 102nd-ranked Cilic but then started making numerous errors and committed 10 double faults in the last two sets. He was warned by Belgian umpire Jean-Philippe Dercq in the final set for not trying hard enough.
"I double-faulted to lose a game in the third set and he gave me a warning saying I was trying to lose on purpose," Davydenko told reporters after the match. "I was simply shocked to hear him say that. This is just outrageous. How does he know what I was trying to do? I was so upset with the whole thing I started crying."
>> This is unbelivable. Assuming the umpire had good reason to give the warning, none of the potential scenarios make any sense: Explanation A: He got hurt in the second set (and didn't dare to retire). Why it doesn't make sense: Why didn't he call the trainer?
Explanation B: He tanked the match. Why it doesn't make any sense: Why win the first set?
Explanation C: The match was fixed. Why it doesn't make any sense: With all the scrutiny he's under -- who would be that stupid? And who would take the bet?Fines for lack or effort have been levied before (even against Federer, once upon a time!) but a lack-of-effort warning during a match? It might have happened before but nothing comes to mind. clip of the incident here.
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