Quote For The Day

"We lived through a decade of Carlos Rodriguez coaching Justine Henin after every single point and nobody called it on them."

--Lindsay Davenport, Tennis Channel commentary during the Maria Sharapova, Samantha Stosur match on Monday, March 28, 2011.

Apparently, Sharapova was called out for on-court coaching from the stands during a previous match in Miami. Davenport seemed to be underscoring a double standard. Or maybe she was simply stating her perception of a widely known "fact."

I put fact in quotations for I remember Carlos and Maria being called out once. But only once. Back in 2004 during Justine's quarterfinal against Svetlana Kuznetsova in Indian Wells. I remember being surprised by the call out, but not by the coaching, which only the blind couldn't see. Those in denial wouldn't admit. Carlos was telling his charge to charge the net more in order to turn around the second set. Sveta was leading 5-4 or 5-3, according to my memory. Justine took her coaching advice and won the last 3 or 4 games to take the match in straights.

Quote For The Day

"I'm old enough to remember Willis Reed of the New York Knicks walking onto the court at Madison Square Garden with both knees taped to the max to tumultuous applause. That was how I felt when Venus not only walked back on court but picked up her racquet and resumed playing. She then proceeded to put on a tennis clinic. Visibly in pain she proceeded, not with flash, but with skill and knowledge to dismantle her upstart opponent who won the first set in a tiebreak that ended with Venus injury. Showing why she has won seven slam titles and playing with passion unseen for quite some time Venus won the second set 6-0.

"The final score was 6-7(6), 6-0, 6-4. Don't believe any bullshit you will hear or read about what happened last night. Venus trended worldwide on Twitter because of the dress. In the end the dress was a secondary story. The big story was that Venus started a match and she was going to finish it. Kind of makes that "tummy ache" from a few years ago laughable doesn't it?"--Savannah

Wimbledon Breaking News

by Savannah

The Wimbledon Referees have released the Order of Play for Centre Court tomorrow. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be in attendance.


The Championships 2010 Intended Order of Play for Thursday 24 June 2010

CENTRE COURT ONLY

CENTRE - SHOW COURT - 1.00 PM START

1. Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) vs Andy Murray (GBR) [4]
2. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) [3] vs Kai-Chen Chang (TPE)
3. Robin Haase (NED) vs Rafael Nadal (ESP) [2]

Should I go into my conspiracy theory bag and think the WTA wanted Wozniacki on Centre Court as opposed to the defending champion?

More on this later from Craig I'm sure.

ETA:

You know they always say never assume. I assumed that Serena would be on Court 1. I was wrong. Here are the Court assignments for Courts 1 & 2. I can't talk about this now.

COURT 1 - SHOW COURT - 1.00 PM START

1. Ioana Raluca Olaru (ROU) vs Maria Sharapova (RUS) [16]
2. Robin Soderling (SWE) [6] vs Marcel Granollers (ESP)
3. Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) [13] vs Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA)

COURT 2 - SHOW COURT - 12.00 NOON START

1. Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR)vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) [10]
2. Florent Serra (FRA) vs David Ferrer (ESP) [9]
3. Serena Williams (USA) [1] vs Anna Chakvetadze (RUS)
4. Na Li (CHN) [9] vs Kurumi Nara (JPN)

Quote For The Day

"There's nothing worse than that. That's just plain cheating, and they should throw him out of tennis. There's just no room for it." --Andy Roddick on Wayne Odesnik getting busted for carrying eight vials of HGH into Australia back in January

(Thanks, Savannah)

Quote For The Day

"Britain's Andy Murray has received such a big clothing contract from adidas — around £15m over five years — that the brand have ditched Novak Djokovic, Marcos Baghdatis and the Bryan brothers to help fund it. So there was understandable meltdown within adidas when Murray turned up for a photoshoot last week at Dubai’s new racecourse wearing a distinctive Hugo Boss-branded polo shirt. Jim Latham, head of adidas tennis, will be making clear his disappointment to the Murray camp." --Charles Sale

Venus Defends Dubai

Getty

But I don't.

Look. I couldn't bring myself to watch a single point. Won't watch one next week either. As Venus Williams might say, I'm not trying to be down with Dubai. Shahar Pe'er gets her previously denied visa to enter the country and perform, but even when she plays the defending champ -- the defending champ, the kind of defending champ that gives this kind of event serious stature in tennis -- she's relegated to an outer court? Which means the stature-giving defending champ is relegated to an outer court also.

That's some straight-up bullshit.

Hey, Venus. Why you still so down with Dubai?

I don't care how much the players on both tours like the event, it simply shouldn't exist and I wish it didn't.

But it does, so....

I give it lip when it crowns a champion.

Oy.

Serena Williams On Jimmy Kimmel Live

ESPN: Fire Mary Carillo (Updated)

Dear ESPN,

I've never seen Mary Carillo as anything but a commentator who covers the sport with insight and wit and as much objectivity as she can muster when certain players aren't on the court. I've defended her around the Internet for years against accusations of ineptitude and far worse. When it comes to Serena Williams, I've found her criticism a bit acidic, but fair, giving her the benefit of my doubt, if I had any doubt about her feelings at all.

Tonight, she crossed a line.

She actually said from the broadcast booth that the world No. 1 and defending Australian Open champion is trying to start a gender war and that she got away with threatening murder.

I spit out my tea.

This from an analyst who doesn't understand that having the best serve and having the best service games won statistics are two different measures of ability and execution. One's an opinion, the other, a quantifiable fact.

Serena committed no crime, Mary Carillo. She wasn't arrested and charged. She wasn't handcuffed or dragged out of Arthur Ashe stadium in shackles.

Pam Shriver came armed and ready, as though she knew Mary would take her rant to another level during Serena's second-round match. Sounded like Pam read from a page, bringing facts to the table and let her colleague and all of us know that no man in the NFL who had an actual physical altercation with an official was fined more than $25,000.

Mary Carillo has driven fans away from tonight's broadcast because they didn't want to hear any more of her slanderous vitriol.

ESPN, do the sport a favor and fire Mary Carillo. And if you can't or won't do that, then ban her from calling another Serena Williams match for the rest of her tenure with your corporation.

Sincerely,

Craig Hickman
Maine

Update
I had intended this only as an open letter venting, but a reader suggested I post the ESPN contact link here for anyone who wants to send them a complaint. If you prefer snail mail, their corporate address is:

ESPN, Inc.
545 Middle St
Bristol, CT 06010

Inaugural Champion

Getty

Yanina Wickmayer of Beligum holds the trophy after defeating Flavia Pennetta of Italy at the women's Auckland Classic final on January 9, 2010. Wickmayer defeated Pennetta 6-3, 6-2.

::

What irony that she's the first titlist of the new decade.

Quote For The Day

“I think it was a shame [Yanina Wickmayer] got the ban and I’m happy she could come back. I sent her an e-mail to support her and I said I hoped she was fine. I think they went too far with the penalty, which she did not deserve.” --Shahar Pe'er, on playing her next opponent in the ASB Classic semifinals

Ouote For The Day

“The tour has received written confirmation from the UAE Ministry of Interior that [Shahar Pe'er] will be able to enter and participate in the event without incident. One of the conditions that Dubai had to meet was that this year there would have to be a written confirmation that she would be able to play because last year there were just verbal assurances.” --Katie Scott, WTA spokeswoman

Wickmayer and Malisse Can Play Again?

According to this article in French. Apparently nothing will be resolved until 2010.

Yanina Wickmayer will need a wildcard to get into the Australian Open according to this article in English.

As the World Turns.

Quote For The Day

“Because I didn’t have enough confidence in myself as a grass-court player. Because I am always scared of playing the Williams sisters on grass, especially Venus. Part of the reason I lost to [Marion] Bartoli in the [2007] semi-final was because I was scared to face Venus in the final.” --Justine Henin

(Thanks, Karen)

Quote For The Day

"We're going to appeal because we still don't have all the elements which will allow us to decide whether a sanction of one year is appropriate. The scale of sanctions (under the world anti-doping Code) is between one and two years. To drop down from two to one year there have to be justifiable elements. We're going to meet the Flemish authorities Friday to see how we can coordinate our actions, and to be consistent in how we approach this case because the athletes seem to want to make it an affair of principles on different levels."

--Olivier Niggli, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) legal director, on why WADA is seeking a tougher penalty against Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse

Tuesday Tirade: All About Control

Reuters

Serena Williams of the U.S. holds her trophy after defeating Venus Williams of the U.S. in their Ladies' Singles finals match at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, July 4, 2009.

::

It's been a mighty long time, but I'm feeling the need to rant this Tuesday. MadProsseah brought us the news and I posted the ITF press release about Serena's penalty in his entry.

The release itself is a fraud, the perfect representation of the fraudulent organization that released it.

As an astute commenter on another forum asked, "If she's not suspended....what does this one mean?"

3. Ms. Williams is hereby suspended from participation in either the 2010, 2011 or 2012 US Open, as the case may be, except that any such suspension will not be imposed if no further Grand Slam Major Offence conviction occurs through and including 2011.

It means that the ITF is trying to control her.

Who is the ITF trying to appease? Mary Carillo? Andre Agassi? Lindsay Davenport? The rest of the field? Make a clear-cut decision. Suspend her or don't suspend her. Fine her $175,000 or fine her $82,500. But whatever you decide, don't try to split the difference with some Draconian bullshit.

Serena Williams is not an animal who belongs on a leash, short or long. She's a human being who lost her mind and had a reprehensible and inexcusable outburst. Given her history of high-profile, on-court injustices, a lesser person would have lost her mind years ago.

Serena has been fined the maximum. She apologized. She's never done anything like it before; it's highly unlikely she'll ever do anything like it again. She's proven throughout her career that she learns from her mistakes, big and small.

Adults would move along.

But the adults are asleep at the wheel over at the International Tennis Federation and the infants are running wild.

Fine Serena excessively, but if she behaves she'll get half of it back? Suspend Serena from the US Open for three years, but if she behaves her suspension won't be enforced? And since that clearly isn't enough, let's put her on probation and treat her like a common criminal. Oh, yes. And let's not define our terms (what the fuck constitutes a major offense anyway?) so we can muddy the water with ambiguity.

What kind of mind games are these idiots playing? I'm not one for shaming, but the whole thing is beyond ridiculous and the ITF and its representatives ought to be ashamed of themselves.

The ITF's action here is even more reprehensible and inexcusable than Serena's because the ITF, despite its cowardice, actually has power over her and they're abusing it to try to control her.

If this is how the ITF governs, then it should be put out of its misery post haste.

And I hope Serena, her spirit willing, her body strong, is inspired to win every Slam she enters throughout her entire probation.

Wickmayer, Malisse Attack WADA

This could be fun.

Suspended Belgian tennis players Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse are launching appeals with European authorities challenging the legality of the whereabouts rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Victory at the European Commission in Brussels and the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights could force WADA to change its rules on when and where athletes can be tested out of competition.

“The indispensable fight against doping is not the issue here. The problem is the lack of proportionality of certain measures,” their lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Read the rest...

Quote For The Day

"It's in the hands of the Grand Slam administrator, who I believe has now completed his investigation and will be making a ruling within the next two weeks. That's what we have been told -- that Serena would hear, we would hear. We really have not gone down that path of making a judgment as to what would be right or wrong at this point. She was defaulted out of the singles and she has apologized sincerely. So we'll just have to see what the Grand Slam administrator comes to the Grand Slam committee chairs with. I think Serena is very anxious to hear." --Lucy Garvin, USTA President

Outrageous

US Open semi-finalist Yanina Wickmayer and her Belgian compatriot Xavier Malisse were on Thursday handed one-year bans for falling foul of doping regulations, the Belga news agency reported.

Wickmayer, the world number 18, was suspended by the Flemish Doping Tribunal (VDT) for failing to fulfil [sic] the controversial "whereabouts rule" while Malisse was also punished for missing a drugs test.

Both players can appeal their suspensions to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The suspension was announced despite 20-year-old Wickmayer currently playing in the Tournament of Champions event in Bali where on Friday she would be attempting to reach the semi-finals.

Wickmayer was accused of failing on three occasions to fulfil [sic] the ADAMS (Anti-Doping Administration and Management System) under which athletes are obliged to tell national anti-doping authorities where they will be at a chosen hour each day for a three-month period.

The sanctions came as a surprise - only last month, it was expected that the two players would escape with just a reprimand.

Malisse, 29, is currently 95 in the world, having been at 19 in 2002. He has won three titles in his career.

Color me curious that two Belgian players who haven't even tested positive for anything are banned for a year by a Flemish Doping Tribunal from the sport simply for not reporting whereabouts or missing a test mere weeks before another controversial Belgian player returns to the tour.

Can't say I'm a fan of either player -- didn't even know Malisse was still playing -- but this seems like overkill.

Actually, I think it's outrageous.

Wickmayer, who's contesting that other event that has no business on the WTA calendar, said she would immediately appeal.

Roland Garros To Move?

I hope the new stadium, if built, has lights.

The federation announced this year a project to build a new center court with a retractable roof that could be in use by 2013 or 2014.

The new 14,600-seat stadium would be located just under 500 yards from the current center court and surrounded by two other smaller, covered arenas at a cost of $177 million.

The project is reportedly facing opposition from green members of the city council and residents living near the stadium. Paris city hall said it remained committed to the project.

“Paris city hall and its political majority wants the French Open to stay in Paris,” city hall said in a statement. “We are well aware of the necessity for the French tennis federation to modernize its facilities to stay competitive. We want to find a solution in this area.”

Ysern said the federation has the right to use Roland Garros until 2015.

“We have already injected a lot of money, an architect has been appointed and has already started his works. We can’t lose our time. We have to build,” Ysern said.

The FFT chose architect Marc Mimram, who designed the overpass that connects France and Germany across the Rhine River in Strasbourg.

Ysern added the FFT would pursue other options—including the possibility of moving the tournament away from its historical site—in case the new stadium project falls through.

“We are thinking about the impact of such a relocation,” Ysern said. “When you want something and you understand it’s not sure that you are going to get it, you have to think about other options.”

The FFT hasn’t determined a site yet but it would be difficult to build a new arena in Paris itself, with the organizers probably being forced to consider a move toward the suburbs.

Andre Agassi And Doping II

This is not a dead issue.

"We take it extremely seriously if anyone has taken anything on the banned list of drugs, whether it is believed to be performance-enhancing or not," Howman told the Sunday Telegraph.

Last week's admission by Agassi that he took crystal meth and then deceived the authorities by declaring that he had fallen prey to "spiked soda" will not be allowed to rest by Wada.

The agency has an eight-year statute of limitations and cannot punish the player now he has retired, but Howman is demanding that the ATP and ITF take action. He wants the governing bodies to investigate whether he "lied on oath" after he failed the drugs test in 1997.

"Wada's position is simple," said Howman. "The tennis authorities should investigate a possible breach of the law by Agassi, if he lied on oath about this, and also a possible breach of the law by his lawyers. If his lawyers knew at the time he was lying, then that is extremely serious.

"There are limitations over what he can do, but we don't believe this is a dead issue. We believe the authorities should be investigating the possibility of perjury."

Wada are due to send out letters to the authorities this week.

I don't see how WADA can really do anything since it didn't have jurisdiction over the case in 1997, but it sure doesn't appear as though it wants to be disregarded.