Common Sense Journalist

Three writers brought to my attention the following exchanges that appear in two recent Jon Wertheim Mailbags.

There has been much debate on Twitter among tennis journalists whether or not bloggers should be credentialed for tournaments. I use the term blogger generally because there are some tennis journalists who do write blogs. Also there are some journalists who use information from blogs to write their stories. Where do you stand on this issue? (I don't know whether you should use my real name or not as I might get stoned by both journalists and bloggers.)
-Anonymous, New York/New Jersey

• I don't envy the credentialing gatekeepers on this issue. Tennis in particular -- as we'd expect from a scattered, global sport -- has a huge online presence and following. Excluding bloggers and even full-time tweeters would be a fool's errand. Yet if everyone with a blog were granted a credential, media rooms would need to be the size of the Palace of Versailles. A blanket policy won't work. You simply need to assess on a case-by-case basis. The saving grace: it's pretty easy to discern which bloggers are legit and have a critical mass of followers -- and which don't. Source

Continuing last week's discussion, where do you stand on bloggers? Are you, too, in the "fans with typewriters" camp?
- John P., New York

Since Key Biscayne, I've gotten bits and pieces about a "Twitter battle" and an "alias feud" and a lot of other weird allegations of subterfuge that I don't entirely understand. I'm not sure I ever got the blogger-journalist dichotomy. There are some bloggers who are knowledgeable and diligent and creative and belong in a press room. There are some bloggers who probably don't warrant credentials. As far as I'm concerned, bloggers are a welcome addition to the media caravan. As the mainstream media dwindles, as budgets are cut, as tennis loses currency in the U.S. and goes ever more global, bloggers serve an increasingly important role. If I'm following from afar, give me a passionate tennis lover who might write clunkily or express her fandom too blatantly over the hockey writer for the local newspaper who's covering the tennis against his will. Source

Jon's a cool cat with a fair and open mind. He's also right.

And with that, we'll put this baby to bed.

Where Tennis & Politics Meet

A screenshot form Kirkus. Click to enlarge.

Breaking Out

If you act fast, click here, and check the featured posts on the left sidebar.

Huffington Post has added a new sports section to its community blogging and based upon this little blog here, the sports editor invited yours truly to participate. There's even a welcome banner for me at the top of the page.

Humbled.

Quote For The Day

"So back to my first question: What’s special about Serena’s game? There are many elements you could point to, of course, but what struck me in Doha was how the normal rules of the sport don’t seem to apply to her. She can run through an approach shot and still put it right where she wants it. She can hit a backhand winner with her body completely open and parallel to the net. She can make perfectly solid contact with a ball even she's off balance. She can get to a short ball a second late and find a way to flip it inside-out for a surprisingly angled winner.

"Her ability to do this is generally chalked up to the vague and faintly insulting term “athleticism.” And that’s got a lot to do with it, even if it is a cliché. It was said that Boris Becker couldn’t put two service tosses in a row anywhere near each other, but it didn’t matter, he was such an athlete that he just went up and crushed the ball, wherever it happened to be—the normal rules didn’t apply to him. But when it comes to the Williamses, I also think of something Andy Roddick said about the way the sisters trained as kids in Florida. He said that no one worked more diligently or hit balls with more purpose or dedication than they did. What seems like talent or god-given athleticism in a top player is always the product of work as well, work that was done long before we saw that player on TV. Serena is still living off of it. Whatever position she finds herself in as she sets up for a shot, her ability to make something out of it, to hit the ball well, remains automatic.

(...)

After a week of wild and painful drama in Doha, I found myself thinking...[w]hy can’t we have more serves like this? Why can’t we have more solid and impressive tennis? Maybe we will next year. Until then, I’m happy to leave 2009 with a reminder, six weeks after she was at her worst at the U.S. Open, of how good the women's game can look when Serena Williams is at her best." --Steve Tignor

Quote For The Day

“I feel good and I feel confident. I think the big difference is that you get to those 30-all points and I just feel... calm... and like I’m going to play the point the way I want to. I feel like I’m able to plan out more what I’m gonna do. I have maybe some more options now. Yeah. I just feel calm on the court. It’s nice, but I think it can still be improved. It’s only been a couple of months, that I’ve been playing a little better, so....”--Andy Roddick

Thanks, Graf_Sampras for bringing this forward in the comments. From that article, here's a good passage from the writer:

Over the years, through crushing defeats (including the emblematic three consecutive losses to Federer at Wimbledon, two of which were finals), a succession of coaches, criticism that the game had passed by his “type” (the meat-and-potatoes power-player whose game is built around the serve), Roddick kept the faith. More importantly, he worked. He worked like a dog trying to keep pace with the fire truck barreling down his street, tongue hanging out, nails clicking and worn and bleeding on the pavement, chest heaving, but always keeping that vehicle in sight.

Quote For The Day

"I watch a lot of tennis with the sound muted—the jazz soundtrack of the weekend was The Sermon, by Jimmy Smith—but I did catch some of Justin Gimelstob's commentary. I’ve always thought he was an insightful analyst who knows the game and the players. He also worked with technique guru Robert Lansdorp, which has to help with the finer points. Gimelstob also offered some ATP information I didn’t know—the South American guys want some clay-court events to be switched to hard—and was honest in assessing the embarrassing competitive habits of David Nalbandian. My only trouble is that Gimelstob puts himself and his analysis front and center in the telecast—he's still proving himself, I guess—which can make it hard to relax and sink into the match itself."--Steve Tignor

Fashionable

Erwin interviews Venus Williams about posing for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition back in 2005 and previews EleVen's fashions for 2009.

Silly Blogger

Kourtin' Karen interviews one of the hottest new bloggers in tennis.

French Exhibitionists

Savannah can't wait to see them in action.

Ungrateful

Steve spent Thanksgiving shooting turkeys.

And The Winner Is?

Ravi Ubha predicts Argentina will clean Spain's clock in the Davis Cup final this weekend.

Depends on which David Nalbandian shows up. With Rafael Nadal out with injury, I bet they wish they'd have chosen clay after all. And given that Nalbandian and Juan Martin del Potro like fast courts, I'm not exactly sure why they're slowing down the hard court they did choose. Who will have the last laugh indeed?

It's The Schedule, Stupid

Steve berates the long tennis season for the umpteenth time.

What does it say about a sport when its two most important names, the two names and bodies that have been asked to resurrect tennis with their rivalry, are physically broken by the end of a single season? Like Roddick says, the punishing nature of the schedule, its length, and its travel requirements are eternal topics of discussion. But its excessiveness has never been displayed as plainly as it was in Shanghai. Federer is participating in a doubles exhibition this coming week, but for the most part he and Nadal limited themselves to the ATP’s lineup of mandatory tournaments in 2008. That includes the final two post-U.S. Open Masters events, in Madrid and Paris. Fairly or not, these remain the culprits in this story: Nadal and Federer injured themselves while trying to stay in shape to play them. Not to win them—I doubt they cared much about that—just to play them. Some relief may come to the schedule in 2009, but Roddick, who reiterated his thoughts about it last week, remains correct: The season will still end in November, and it will still include two mandatory post-Open Masters events (this time in Paris and China), as well as the Masters Cup. And it will, in all likelihood, continue to hurt the sport’s most valuable property, Rafael Nadal vs. Roger Federer.

When will the powers that be get it? The worldwide financial crisis will likely affect tournament sponsorships for 2009. Will that spearhead the beginning of serious talks for a shorter, not just a reorganized, calendar?

The End Of The Year-End?

Jon deconstructs the lackluster event the Season Ending Championships has become:

It seems to me the WTA had a choice several years ago. They could either put the year-end championships in a major media market, invest in the marketing/promotion and use it as a platform for women's tennis and the top players. (New York was ideal. Madrid seemed to be working well.) Or the WTA could simply go to sell themselves out -- literally -- to the highest bidder.

Regrettably, the executives chose Door No. 2. The result? The tour is making many millions from the good folks in Dubai and Istanbul, no small consideration, particularly in these austere times. Yet the year-end event, which should be a real showcase event, exists in a virtual vacuum and a literal desert. Buzz and media coverage is non-existent here in the U.S. and, judging from a lot of you, in Europe and Asia as well. The ESPN coverage is long gone. From what I saw, the attendance was dreadful. Sharapova and Henin were MIA, and two other top stars, Serena Williams and Ivanovic, couldn't even get through their matches.

I wasn't compelled to stay tuned to a single match. Not a single match. Not even Serena vs. Venus, which was a regression in quality I just didn't need to see. Sure I was knee-deep in electoral politics, but still. When my favorite sport makes me roll my eyes and switch the channel, well, then....

Winners to Errors, 1st Set

Winners
Mary Jo Fernandez has been named the Fed Cup captain beginning in 2009. Yahoo! Sports

And speaking of Fed Cup, Lindsay Davenport has been named to the team for the USA vs. Germany tie in La Jolla, California. Sporting Life

Andy Roddick Foundation is building a tennis center in Texas to give at-risk youth a chance to hone their tennis games. Austin Business Journal

Rowan, a tennis fan from Auckland, New Zealand, will be blogging from the ASB Classic and Heineken Open in his hometown. There's nothing like fan reports of tennis events. Yellowballin'


Errors
Anna Chakvetadze's family home was robbed by armed robbers who tied up her parents. The burglars got away with more than $200,000 of belongings. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured. Russian News & Information Agency

For all his efforts to try to return to competitive tennis, even playing in the local wildcard play-off, Mark Philippoussis will miss yet another Australian Open to undergo another knee surgery. Safe to say, his career is now over. Herald Sun

We've heard of her pending nuptials with Greg Norman. But did you hear that Chris Evert's name may come off the children's hospital at Broward General Medical Center? The drama of it all. (I'm being sarcastic) South Florida Sun-Sentinal

Happy Anniversary To Us!

I was going to write this long, drawn out tirade today (y'all know how verbose I can get) about how Martina Hingis is guilty as the devil (A and B urine sample positive tests mean she's guilty till proving herself innocent, which she can't do), knows it, (those jokes about her yelling to the ump, "That ball was in, didn't you see the coke fly up from the lines?!" at Wimbledon are really quite hilarious and give new meaning to on the baseline) and is trying her case in the court of public opinion (which is the only place she knows she has a thread's chance of "winning" given that she's gotten so many free passes from the tennis elite for most of the stupid mess that fell from her lips like dominoes throughout her career), when I realized this blog is a year old and I'd rather celebrate that than give her lying ass any more ink.

Happy Anniversary to us! Thanks to all the readers, commenters, and contributors, most especially Savannah and Mad Professah, for making this my favorite tennis community on the Internet. Yeah, I'm biased. Hehe. Vote for us whenever you visit in the sidebar down at the bottom and click on all the ads (several times) in the middle of the sidebar to keep the piles of cash (yeah, right!) flowing into my bank account so I can keep being a slug and do nothing but watch, read about, and write about tennis for the rest of my life!

The First Entry: What a difference a year makes.