Monday, December 31
Last updated at 12:25 am EDT
AUSTRALIAN PRESS
Williams' Open hopes begin to take shape - Linda Pearce,
WHILE there is noticeably less of Serena Williams than there was during her improbable run to the Australian Open title 12 months ago, her appetite for success remains undiminished... "My heart belongs to charity," said Williams, rather grandly, when asked about her many off-court activities that include building a school in Senegal. "But of course I want to be No. 1, of course I want to win grand slams, and that's awesome as well. I mean, c'mon, I wouldn't be here if I didn't have those goals....Martina Navratilova is one of the many tennis observers used to hearing Williams say she has been working hard, putting in. "She said that last year and it didn't show; now it's really starting to show," said Navratilova, who is in Perth as a television commentator and for an exhibition of tennis art."She's got some definition now in her legs and upper body. She's lost a few pounds."
THERE were, apparently, two reactions in Taiwan in September when the Davis Cup draw for the Asia/Oceania zone group one draw coughed up 28-time champion Australia as a first-round visitor for the February 8-10 tie.
From the public, there was joy and excitement at the prospect of former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt travelling to the tennis outpost. Then there was the team response, as recalled this week by world No. 110 Lu Yen-Hsun, whose singles sidekick will be Wang Yeu-Tzuoo, ranked 148th.
"First of all when we hear we don't believe (it), because Australia, normally they are always in the world group, so for us we are surprised and also a little bit sad because is a tough match first round," Lu told The Age.
An assurance of a spot in the qualifying for this week's Adelaide International convinced Klein to travel to Adelaide last week but, after signing in, he learned that the standard of players attempting to make the main draw was high enough for him to be excluded....Klein was delighted to play a highly rated opponent in front of 6000 fans in his home town.
"I was nervous at first but because it was an exhibition, I relaxed and played some good shots," he said. "And I've never had a whole stadium sing me Happy Birthday."
"At Wimbledon against Roddick I played very well, and to win 8-6 in the fifth, it was incredible," Gasquet said. "It was my highlight of 2007. To be in a grand slam quarter-final, against Roddick, at Wimbledon, and produce my greatest match of the year. I will have a lot of great memories forever from that day."Then I had to play Roger, and while making a grand slam semi-final was amazing, it is so difficult to beat Roger.
"But I am young, so maybe not this year, but in two years or three years, I'm sure I can beat him.
"I did beat him once [in 2005 in Monaco]. I played my best tennis that day and it was on clay and that's obviously better for me, but Roger is a great champion, he's just incredible, and it would be incredible to beat him again."
...Davydenko was asked why he thought so many players were pulling out of the event, to which he replied: "Because it's a small tournament. So I don't think nobody care about here."
"Yeah it was incredible what he said last year," Gasquet said. "It was horrible because you have to respect the tournament, and the city, and I will try to play 100 per cent in Sydney because it's important for me.
Tennis Australia chief executive Steve Wood denied any animosity towards the Perth tournament, saying his interest was only in providing a blockbuster event in Brisbane. He said the Hopman Cup was a great lead-in to the Australian Open. "Tennis Australia wishes the Hopman Cup continued success," Wood said.However, McNamee was shocked at the national body's attempt to downgrade a tournament that has been such a success over the past two decades. "I don't appreciate this treatment and I can promise we're not going away," he said.
McNamee admitted the cup's future looked shaky in mid-year when it was without a sponsor, a long-term deal with the WA Government and a venue after 2009. "We fought back with a five-year deal with Hyundai, a six-year deal with EventsCorp, and an agreement to move to the new indoor arena in Wellington Street," McNamee said. "To make sure we bounced back well we brought Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic and Martina Navratilova to Perth."
Former great Martina Navratilova, who is in Perth as the VIP guest commentator for the Hopman Cup, was among those impressed with Williams' fitness.Williams' new physique is all down to an off season of hard work. "I knew that I just wanted to keep working and enjoy," she said. "I really wanted a vacation, but it's so hard to be a tennis player and take a vacation.
"I'm definitely more confident now. I think 12 months ago I wasn't as confident and I felt like I had put a lot of pressure on myself."
..."I love challenges," Williams said following the win. "I do best when I am faced with one. Justine, you are warned."
Hewitt pointed out that the US Open had a history of players cramping in hot conditions but the USTA had not brought in a heat rule."So it's only fair the ATP (doesn't).
"We're only playing three sets too; if you can't cope with that, then get another job."
Petrova says she will now re-think her immediate schedule because of the loss."The actual plan was to get a couple of matches here and also play doubles and then have a week of preparation in Melbourne," Petrova said.
"But going out so early, I'm going to decide in the next couple of days if it is necessary for me to take part in Sydney next week."
..."I try not to pay any attention any more to those little injuries and pains because it seems like I cannot avoid them. I did everything possible this year, having a physio and a fitness trainer travelling with me and still I was getting injured," Petrova said.
Sirianni, 32, who also won wildcard entry to the Australian Open later this month, faces up-and-coming American star Sam Querry tomorrow.Querry had a reasonably easy first round, beating Belgium's Steve Darcis 7-5 6-4, however Sirianni is confident he is in competitive form after a few years away from the game.
"I'm based in Holland and play a lot of club tennis, but enter European tournaments to keep my ranking," he said.
"After an ankle injury cleared up, I wanted to play again and get my ranking up."
It is Stepanek who now has to worry about injury, with an uncertain two weeks ahead.
The Czech had his right foot strapped during the second set yesterday, but eventually succumbed to pain in his right heel.
"I don't know where it came from," Stepanek said. "The pain was too big to finish the game, it came out of nowhere."
Hewitt, who lost his first-round doubles match with partner Nathan Healy, had no excuses for the loss, saying the conditions were part of the game."We're athletes, if you don't put in the hard yards then don't play," he said.
"If you can't play in that (heat) get a new job."
The heat at Memorial Drive prompted off-court debate about whether an extreme hot weather policy should be introduced to the ATP circuit.
TA critics are entitled to contrary views, but those who target Ashley Cooper's role in Plexicushion's successful bid are playing the man rather than the ball.Cooper is held internationally in the highest esteem, and not just because of his 1958 Wimbledon victory.
Rebound Ace had 20 years to get it right.
It didn't.
And the past few weeks of red-neck behaviour - measured in a shallow media campaign - has shown why TA was correct to get rid of a millstone.
One of the partners in the Jetty Road fashion house, Melanie Tomblin, tells Confidential even teeny-weeny size six was too big for the former Home and Away starlet. "We have really small sizes . . . she was saying she needs a bit more up top," Melanie says.And there was definitely no sign of a baby bump, despite recent pregnancy rumours. Melanie confirms: "She was tiny".
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Former world No 1 Lindsay Davenport lived up to her billing with a classy 6-2, 6-3 demolition of fellow American Laura Granville.And unseeded Russian Anastassia Rodionova lived up to her reputation as an erratic personality, bursting into floods of tears on several occasions before eventually withdrawing when trailing 6-0, 3-0 to 2005 champion Katarina Srebotnik.
The Rodionova camp blamed an eye problem for her bizarre display but the 25-year-old has form when it comes to tennis brattishness.
Last updated at 11:00 pm EDT
AUSTRALIAN PRESS
THE practice schedule on the whiteboard at the Burswood Dome was conspicuously empty for the two hours from 1pm. It had been booked, tentatively, for Serena Williams, who had arrived from Florida via New York and Dubai about 11 hours earlier, but approximately three days late.After a morning snooze, Williams joined her usual Australian hitting partner, Mark Hlawaty, and a German import for an hour-long session of two-on-one. A stomach bug had prevented the reigning Australian Open champion from catching her original flight to Perth, leaving US substitute Meghann Shaughnessy to partner Mardy Fish against India in Saturday's opening Hopman Cup tie.
..."I just had stomach flu. I was just really sick and that's not very fun to have, but I'm good. I'm feeling really good and I recovered really fast," said Williams in a three-minute courtside interview.
The illness aside, her build-up had "definitely been really good. I've just been trying to train a little bit, and have fun while I'm at it".
Bradtke has been helping develop a more potent Graf-like backhand slice and encouraging an aggressive approach to the mid-court balls generated by Molik's exceptional serve. Her kicker gripped well on the new blue Plexicushion on Saturday night and the 26-year-old then partnered Peter Luczak in the mixed doubles against Safarova and Tomas Berdych to seal Australia's 2-1 defeat of the highly rated Czechs.
AUSTRALIAN Open boss Craig Tiley has defended former Wimbledon champion Ashley Cooper's role on the committee that awarded the multimillion-dollar contract for Plexicushion courts at Melbourne Park to a company affiliated with a business Cooper held shares in for 24 years.
Cooper, a founding director of the company Australian Plexipave, was on an eight-person committee established by Tennis Australia to decide whether its 20-year association with Rebound Ace should continue. The contract was worth millions because part of Tiley's master plan for Australian tennis is to have the same surface laid in as many tennis centres as possible, complete with a $16,000 grant per court for the installations.
...Tiley said: "In terms of any conflict of interest, in Tennis Australia's opinion and my own opinion, there was no better person than Ashley Cooper to provide expertise and opinion on court surfaces. If I had to do it again tomorrow, I would include the same people."
The committee recommended Plexicushion to the Tennis Australia board, on which Cooper also sits.
Q: So, the new brand of Rebound Ace wasn't play-tested?CT: Obviously, because of our time frame, we decided not to make a decision on a new surface. In other words, a surface that had not yet been developed or stood the test of time. They (Rebound Ace) did submit a proposal on a surface that had been unproven. They had 20 years of opportunity to develop that. It wasn't like this was putting them under pressure at the last minute. We were making a very important decision. We were making a decision not just for the Australian Open, but for tournaments around the country. We had to find a court that could stand the conditions and had already proven it could do that. It was just a matter of finding the best surface that could meet that criteria. It was a very straightforward and unanimous decision, and based on fact. This wasn't an overnight decision. I'm passionate about the courts and what's right for our players in Australia.
"I don't really make New Year's resolutions but like I said health is a big priority for me so this year a resolution will be to try to keep healthy," Vaidisova said.
As of Sunday night, Adelaide, a bountiful Australian tennis nursery over the past 30 years, will no longer have a tour event. One of the most historic events in the world, and won by most of the sport's luminaries through the decades, it will be dead as a South Australian entity....The tournament will then become part of a hybrid event with the women's tournament now being contested at Royal Pines. It is a smart and pragmatic outcome for Tennis Australia; a tactical masterstroke by former Queensland premier Peter Beattie. Naturally, there is no end of heartache for Memorial Drive diehards who, despite the poor financial condition of their tournament, will never reconcile the event's transfer. Especially when it has had to endure the selfishness of an overblown exhibition event in Perth that haughtily parades itself as legitimate.
...In its early years, it was tolerable enough. It was hit-and-giggle. Singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Harmless. Almost no one took it seriously. Then it became pretentiously narcissistic. But player reverence did not move one iota when the International Tennis Federation climbed aboard the WA ego train. And last week's fiasco of Serena Williams opting out of the US's first match, to be replaced by Meghann Shaughnessy, shows nothing has changed at the circus. It remains a joke. And it is time for it to go.
AUSTRALIAN tennis legend and Adelaide International tournament co-director Mark Woodforde believes the new surface of Australian tennis, Plexicushion, will be a talking point all summer but prove a fillip for Australian tennis.Contemplating the surface after his first hit on it on Friday, he said the new-look, blue hardcourt appeared a fair surface and predicted it would survive player scrutiny.
The ATP does not have a heat rule, so players will battle each other, and 41C temperatures, on centre court.
Stosur said at the Australian Women's Hardcourts tournament that delaying her return until March meant she could maintain a WTA protected ranking in the 30s....Stosur, 23, lives a 10-minute drive from the Hardcourts venue at Royal Pines and is dismayed she will not have another chance to win the Gold Coast event, which will be merged with the Adelaide men's event to form January 2009's $1 million-plus Brisbane International.
"It's kind of sad I won't get another shot," the 2005 Gold Coast finalist said. "I'm sure I'll play when it moves to Brisbane, which will still be in the state, just not my home city."
It is 10 years since Hewitt claimed his first professional tennis title at the Adelaide International as a 16-year-old schoolboy. A tough, flinty figure outwardly, Hewitt is a sentimentalist at heart. And there is nothing more he would like than to help farewell his hometown tournament in style by winning it for the third time, and the first time in eight years...."There are changes in my game," Hewitt said. "But the public probably won't pick up on them. The players will notice.
"I'm feeling as strong and as fit as I've ever been. I've done all the hard work with Rochey and Nathan and I've really enjoyed it. I just want to get out there now and let the racquet do the talking."
The Australian has trademarked the hand signal introduced to world sport by Wilander and fellow Swede Niclas Kroon in the late 1980s. It is now Hewitt - who has taken to using the signal - who stands to make millions from it by launching a clothing range.He has renamed the salute "C'mon" instead of calling it "vicht" and was able to make his move after the Swedes' trademark lapsed. Kroon said he and Wilander were "gutted" when learning Hewitt had seized control of the signal they had invented and marketed - and even defended against another copy cat, successfully, in Sweden in the 1990s.
..."We just want to talk to him directly, not the people around him, and see if something can be sorted out," Kroon said.
BRITISH PRESS
The Renshaws and the Dohertys began the process in the 19th century, Tony Mottram and Buster, his son, were players of distinction, the influence of the Lloyd brothers, David and John, continues to resonate, but one wonders, as the first shots are ready to be exchanged in the 2008 season, if the sport in Britain has possessed a name as potent as Murray....When, last month, he parted company with Gilbert, few who followed their partnership closely were shocked. The talkative Gilbert had started to body-swerve those who once found him bursting with verbiage on almost anything. He has stayed on the LTA payroll but his role is as fuzzy as official answers about what he is being paid, what his responsibilities are and whether his heart and soul are really in it. That is not Murray’s worry any more, for he has decided to surround himself with a group of people who, he says, will get the best from him. Miles Maclagan, Leon Smith and Louis Cayer are not household names as coaches but together with Andy Ireland, Jez Green and Matt Little, the fitness team, and Judy, mother and omnipresent influence, they form the first line of Murray’s defence against the outside world.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
If that is not enough, there is also the national-team, mixed Hopman Cup competition in Perth, Australia. It is an exhibition and maybe the closest players come to playing just for fun during the year. There is money involved – but nobody gets too serious – and a lot of amusing byplay, especially in the mixed doubles.A year ago, the final featured Russia (Nadia Petrova and Dmitry Tursunov) defeating Spain (Anna Medina Garrigues and Tommy Robredo). But, strangely, neither of those powerhouse nations is in the field this time. There is a mishmash of teams led by Serbia with world No.3's Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic, and the United States with Serena Williams (who missed her first round-robin match with stomach flu) and Mardy Fish.
...New for the 2008 Australian Open and lead-in events is a two-tone blue, U.S. Open-type surface called Plexicushion. It replaces the rubber-tire based Rebound Ace, which was found to vary too much – high-bouncing in the day's heat and lower-bouncing in cool weather and at night.
...With the men's final already staged at night, and the women likely to follow suit in 2009, live viewing (16 hours ahead of Eastern time) of the title matches by North Americans seems destined to soon become the domain of middle-of-the night insomniacs.
“At the beginning of every year we all dream of catching Roger,” Davydenko said. “But in the end…”...“I hope to start well and try hard to win a Grand Slam this year.’
“My target in the coming season is to grab the world number one rank,” Tursunov said confidently.>> And to use deadpan humour more sparingly.
Second seed Marcos Baghdatis will bring in flair, style and personality; all much needed after defending champion Malisse’s new-found calm. The Belgian has promised maturity and control, robbing the tournament of tantrum-bursts. “People have been asking me this for years. I was a bit strange when I started my career, but I have changed because many people didn’t like the way I reacted. I realised the importance of controlling my emotions and I am a more mature guy now,” he said.
“The most important thing for next year is to be a better player, when compared to 2007. I am not saying that I have to win more tournaments and have better results; I want to be a better player and play better tennis. Winning and losing doesn’t depend on the way you play, all the time.”
Nadal dismissed talks of injuries that threatened to affect his career. On the match-fixing controversy that hit the sport, he said, “I can’t say anything about that. There is nothing strange on the Tour. The press and everyone like speaking about it. Tennis is the fairest sport, and I have 100 per cent confidence on my friends on the Tour. If something is happening, the ATP is fighting against it.”
When asked if he was tired of being the World No.2, he said, “No I’m not. I would love to be number two for 50 more years, especially in my current situation when I have 5,600 or 5,700 points. That is a lot. In a normal moment in the history of tennis, I would have been number one. At this point, we have an exceptional No.1 in Roger (Federer). He is the better player, but who knows of the future.”
Daryl Neo, a 23-year-old national serviceman, asked what she would do if she weren't a tennis star. To his question, Sharapova replied: 'Oh yes, without a doubt, I'd go to college for a year. My mother (Yelena) is really my inspiration as she was very into education since I was in kindergarten. Because after that, I was very much home-schooled by her and education is very important in my family.[']...Ernest: I asked Anna Chakvetadze about your screaming on court, and whether she thinks it's a tactical ploy to throw your opponents off. She said she thinks it's an American-school thing, and can be seen as a tactical ploy.
Sharapova: Well, actually, when I first picked up a tennis racquet at the age of four, I was already grunting. And from the age of four to seven, the grunting became a habit. So I'm afraid there's no tactical ploy there.
And during that period, I was growing up in Russia, so it's not an American-school thing. I guess you could say I came from the Russian school of screaming instead?
Finally, after warming up for 15 minutes, Sharapova finally laid hands on her tennis racquet as Joyce placed three tennis balls in a line parallel to the baseline - between the bottom of the service boxes and the baseline. They then started by stroking balls over the net in an attempt to hit the three balls on the opposing end. Joyce hit one within a minute and, by the end of the game, Sharapova had tied it up by hitting one as well.During a break, Joyce, while wiping beads of perspiration off his head, remarked to laughter: 'It's too hot in this country.'
Wires
Tiger Woods and Roger Federer have become good buddies in recent years, and it's easy to see why. They have a lot in common, specifically their quests to dominate their competition year in and year out -- and to keep a friendly eye on each other's progress as they rewrite the record books of their individual sports.
Russian star Maria Sharapova was off to a good start in her tune-up for next month's Australian Open, winning her exhibition match in Singapore on Sunday against compatriot Anna Chakvetadze... The former Wimbledon and US Open champion defeated her compatriot in straight sets, winning 6-0, 7-6 (12/10) in one hour and 34 minutes with blistering first serves and clean winners from the baseline.Websites
The men and women’s tours operate separately so market forces can play out in terms of prize money at all other events except the Grand Slams. But, in regards to the big four, 2007 will be remembered as the year that tedious debate on the matter was put to rest once and for all.
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