Legg Mason Tennis Classic: Hard work has kept Andy Roddick around
Andy Roddick returns to the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in search of his fourth title at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.
By Liz Clarke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 2, 2010
Even before last year's loss to Roger Federer in the longest, most soul-sapping singles final in Wimbledon history, Andy Roddick wondered if his best had passed him by.
The only way to find out, he decided at a particularly low point in the summer of 2008, was to keep working.
And that may well prove the legacy of Roddick's career, remembered as the player who poured as much effort into slogging away at the daily drudgery of professional tennis as he did reveling in its spoils.
At 27, Roddick is far from retirement, to be sure. But after a decade as a touring pro, the ethic of his career is well established.
If ever a millionaire athlete married to a Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover model could be mistaken for a working-class guy, Roddick is it.
Read the rest...
Basel, Switzerland - Slumping Serbian former number one Ana Ivanovic Monday turned over what she hopes is a new page in her career by hiring Staffi Graf's former mentor Heinz Gunthardt as coach.
The Ivanovic management made the announcement, which brings to an end the number 23 player's coaching relationship with the adidas team, still her clothing sponsor.
Swiss television commentator Gunthardt, 51, guided Graf to a dozen Grand Slam titles.
The relationship will start next week in a New York exhibition, with 2008 Roland Garros champion Ivanovic replacing Serena Williams in a field with Venus Williams, US Open winner Kim Clijsters and double Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Ivanovic has been in a slump since her last title, earned in Linz in October, 2008.
The 22-year-old last played to a pair of defeats in Fed Cup this month while winning her only match of the season in the Australian Open first round.
For the first time in nearly a decade, the U.S. Davis Cup team will be without stalwarts Andy Roddick and James Blake when it travels to face powerful Serbia in a first-round tie in Belgrade in March. “It certainly appears to be the end of era,” U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe told TENNIS Thursday. “But the door will always remain open to both of those guys in the event they decide they want to play again.”
Roddick and Blake have both decided to leave Davis Cup off their 2010 schedules. McEnroe has yet to name the squad he plans to take to Serbia for the tie against a powerful Serbian team led by world No. 3 Novak Djokovic. The U.S. singles players most likely to be selected are Sam Querrey and John Isner, although that could change in the next few weeks, depending on the performance of the U.S. players in Australia. Mardy Fish is also high on McEnroe's list of Davis Cup candidates. Serbia will be heavily favored given that it will be contested on slow red clay.
MONTREAL -- Frederic Niemeyer officially retired from professional tennis during a news conference Thursday, but he won't be leaving tennis altogether.
Niemeyer instead will join Tennis Canada as a personal coach for promising 18-year-old Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont. Niemeyer will train Raonic in Montreal and also will travel with the teenager 18 weeks a year on the pro tour.
Raonic made his ATP Tour debut at this year's Rogers Cup in Montreal, winning his first two matches against No. 77 Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia and No. 113 Michael Llorda of France to advance through the qualifying. He then delighted an overflow crowd at the BN grandstand court, taking 11th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez to the limit before losing 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4.
Montreal Gazette
Lima, Nov. 13 (ANDINA) - Luis Horna, one of the greatest players in Peru's tennis history if not the best, announced in tears his retirement from professional tennis at age 29.
The 2008 Roland Garros doubles champion announced he will retire from professional tennis after the "Challenger of Lima", starting this upcoming weekend.
"I've decided to retire from professional tennis after the Challenger of Lima," were the first words Horna said at a press conference he called to announce his future at professional tennis and Davis Cup.
"Lucho" was away from courts during several months this season due to a series of injuries. Recently he had suggested the possibility to going on some more years, but he seemed to need some break.
"I don't say no to Davis Cup. I could be in the future in the team," said Horna, when asked about it, although he didn't specify if his comeback would be as a player or as collaborator in the national team, whose main goal for next year is to get back to Group 1 of the American Zone.
He added that the best moment in his career was when he represented Peru at the Davis Cup. "It was when we took Peru to the World Group," he added.
Horna said that this victory was even more important than when he won the Roland Garros doubles title.
DAVIS CUP star Brydan Klein has been banned for six months by the ATP after an investigation into the 19-year-old's racial abuse of a South African opponent at a UK tournament last month. The ban follows Klein being fined the ATP maximum of $14,000, and his suspension from the Australian Institute of Sport.
Klein called Raven Klaasen a "f---ing kaffir" during a tournament in Eastbourne. An ATP statement issued yesterday said Klein, who apologised after his outburst, had been suspended from the ATP World Tour and ATP Challenger Tour, having been found to have committed the "player major offense, aggravated behaviour", under its code of conduct. He was fined a further $10,000 following the investigation.
"The determination said the use of the slur was 'repugnant', and is particularly upsetting and entirely unacceptable for this to be used in a sporting event such as the ATP World Tour," the statement said.
Klein, a West Australian, could appeal against the penalty. He could also have the length of the suspension reduced if he completes a racial sensitivity training course approved by the ATP within the first four months of the suspension. The remaining two months' suspension would effectively be waived by becoming a probationary period; and the additional fine could be waived.
The penalty is effective from July 20 unless Klein appeals against the decision.
A Tennis Australia spokesman confirmed the ban to Fairfax Media after Tennis West president Dean Williams said he was sad but not surprised because of Klein's track record.
"His behaviour since he was a junior has been absolutely shocking, we have seen it in Perth, disgraceful behaviour, now we have seen it on the world scene," Williams told the ABC.
"That is possibly, the most derogatory shocking terminology to another human being that you could possibly do. It is the worst."
Williams added: "It is not the first time he has been suspended", which was why "they have thrown the book at him this time".
"They are fed up with him. It is obviously going to jolt him.
"I am very aware they had to apply a harsh penalty because they had to send a message to young players that they will not tolerate this behaviour. Unfortunately it is rife amongst the juniors."
Read the rest...
Former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson announced his retirement from competitive tennis at the age of 34.
"I have now, after a lot of thinking, decided to put an end to my professional tennis career," the former world number seven said in a statement through the Swedish Tennis Federation.
Aside from the 2002 surprise win in Melbourne, where the Swede beat Russian Marat Safin in the final, Johansson won another eight ATP titles and reached the Wimbledon semis in 2005, losing to American Andy Roddick.
Last year he won the doubles silver at the Beijing Olympics with Simon Aspelin, losing in the final to Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.
Reuters
LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The German Open women’s tournament in Berlin has been cancelled, the WTA said on Wednesday.
“The tournament won’t be on the 2009 calendar but the tournament being scrapped has nothing to do with the global credit crunch,” a WTA spokeswoman said.
“The Qatar Tennis Federation, owner of the Berlin tournament membership, has made the decision that they no longer wish to operate the German Open in Berlin and to sell the membership back to the Tour.”
The claycourt event usually takes place in May and has been one of the traditional warm-up tournaments for the French Open.
Team Roddick is thrilled to announce that Larry Stefanki will be joining Andy on the road as his head coach.
An Illinois native, Stefanki played on the ATP tour for nine years reaching a career high ranking of 35. He has trained an impressive roster of players including John McEnroe, Marcelo Rios, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Tim Henman and most recently Fernando Gonzalez. Under his guidance both Rios and Kafelnikov reached the No. 1 ranking.
The timing of this exciting new partnership provides the duo the majority of the off season to prepare for 2009.
ATP - Italian ATP pro Federico Luzzi died Saturday morning in a Florence, Italy hospital. The 28-year-old went to a hospital for an illness earlier this week and was discovered with a accute case of leukemia. He went into an irreversible coma Saturday morning, and passed away soon after.
ATP Chairman Etienne de Villiers said, "Losing a young man so tragically in the prime of his life , a son to a loving family and a great sportsman is a terrible blow. Federico was hugely respected by his fellow professionals and was one of the most popular players on the ATP Tour. Federico will be much missed by all who knew him and the thoughts and the prayers of everyone at the ATP are with Federico's family on this very sad day for tennis."
Luzzi, a native of Arezzo, Italy, turned pro in 1998 and he compiled his best season in 2001 when he finished with a year-end high No. 96. That year he reached the quarterfinals in Barcelona, his best ATP result, and won two Challenger titles. He also made his Davis Cup debut.
This year Luzzi attempted to qualify in three ATP level tournaments and he competed in six Challengers, playing his last event in Todi, Italy last month.
He is survived by his father, Maurizio; mother, Paola; and older sister, Francesca.
