Here are some ramblings on recent tennis news.  Actually, before I get to those, did anyone watch the Pats/Colts game yesterday (since the Red Sox are done, you will have to deal with infrequent Pats news as well)?  It looked to me like the NFL hired Tim Donaghy, of NBA game fixing fame, or at least his immediate family to ref that game.  The officiating was horrendous….

Speaking of horrendous, the Paris final was certainly nothing to write home about.  I managed to watch most of it on the Tennis Channel, and Nadal looked like he was pulling a Davydenko (that is, not putting forth enough effort).  Here’s the thing though, I completely understand.  Nadal had to hop on a plane to Shanghai were he will play 3-5 incredibly tough matches in the season ending championships.  So, he lost the first and probably didn’t care enough to grind out a three set win against Nalbandian, the hottest player on tour right now.

I think it is absurd Davydenko was fined for “lack of effort.”  I understand that people pay good money to watch these events, but unfortunately it is part of sports, and life.  Think about Miami Dolphins fans, they pay good money to watch their team not try each and every week!  I paid $7.50 to watch Tom Cruise mail it in during War of the Worlds, the only person I have to blame is myself.  I tanked at work last Monday because of World Series hangover, but I wasn’t fired.  My boss understood it’s not easy to put your all into each and every day (if you are reading this big guy, I’m just trying to prove a point).  Anyway, the point is that while it is unfortunate that athletes don’t go 100% for each and every game or match, let the consumer punish them by not showing up.  The ATP or whomever has no right to judge who is trying.

Can someone please explain to me what Martinia Hingis is thinking? I, and I’m sure many people agree, do not believe that Hingis is a cocaine user.  Maybe she was in 2006 when she was dating Stepanek, because that is one of the few plausible explanations for the relationship.  All kidding aside, bowing out amidst these rumors just makes her look incredibly guilty.  It’s almost like pleading the fifth right? 

Back to the Men’s side.  Kudos to David Nalbandian for climbing back into the top tier of Men’s tennis with what he has accomplished the last two weeks.  In winning back to back Masters Events, he catapulted himself from #24 to #9 in the yearly race.  This means that if someone pulls out of Shanghai Nalbandian would be given the first chance to take that spot (which could happen, as according to many sources Roddick may stay rested for the Davis Cup Finals).  Also, he beat the world’s top 3 players a total of five times in two weeks, I guess his year didn’t turn out as disappointing as everyone once thought.

One last shout out before some links, congrats to Lindsay Davenport, who won her second tournament just six weeks or so into her comeback.  Here’s to hoping she can vault back into being a contender at the majors in 2008.

Links:

Some troubling times lay ahead for tennis, writes Mark Kreidler.

Bodo’s take on Nalbandian.

Jon Wertheim’s Ad In/Ad Out feature.

Bjorn Borg’s mancrush on Andy Murray continues.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Tennis News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.