Thursday Ramblings
Since I have not watched a minute of Shanghai (I refuse to wake up at 4am to watch it live, and I struggle to watch tapes when I know the results), I’ll write about what else is going on in the tennis world, which isn’t too much. Once the semifinal pairings are set, I’ll post my predictions tomorrow.
-Speaking of Davydenko, the ATP reversed the $2,000 fine on him for lack of effort. This is a good decision by the ATP, for many reasons. Davydenko is dealing with so much right now, and for a guy who likes to have a low profile, it is probably impossible for him to put forth 100% in each match. Besides that, it’s the end of an incredibly long season for him, and isn’t it possible he just is not able to perform as well as he typically can?
- Shamil Tarpischev has named his Davis Cup squad for the upcoming Finals tie vs. the United States. It will consist of Davydenko, Tursonov, Andreev & Youzhny. Safin apparently may travel and could be a last minute sub. Tarpischev has to be concerned that his supposed top player, Davydenko, has been less than stellar the last couple months. He should also be concerned with the envelope full of cash that I may or may not have sent Davydenko yesterday.
- Andy Murray has split with coach Brad Gilbert. I know they didn’t appear to have the most stable relationship. But the fact is Murray would have qualified for Shanghai had he not had so many injury problems. I am aware that Murray is young and is naturally progressing anyway, but one has to think Gilbert had a lot to do with Murray’s rise to a nearly top ten player over the last couple years.
- Venus & Serena Williams have announced they intend on playing doubles together at the Australian Open. This has both positive and negative implications. Positive being that anytime you have players of the Williams’s sisters stature playing doubles, at a Grand Slam no less, that is great for the game of doubles and tennis. However, on the negative side, both sisters seemed to break down a bit as the year wore on, and you have to wonder if playing extra tennis will hurt their chances at Grand Slam and other big titles down the road.
- In personal news, I am a born again Andy Roddick fan. I thought everyone should know. For the past couple years, watching him off the court with his self-deprecating press conferences was always enjoyable, but I simply did not like him. Well, his love and passion for the Davis Cup has changed my opinion of him. The fact that he almost didn’t come to Shanghai because he wanted to be 100% for the finals speaks volumes. Win or lose in Portland two weeks from now, at least we know he will be going into it caring about winning as much as he cares about any other tournament, which is not too common for Davis Cup competitors these days.
A few links:
The fact that this story has to be written is kind of absurd. Israelite players struggling to decide whether or not to play in Arab Nations. Is it still 1972 over there?
Venus Williams in the spotlight, and it has nothing to do with drugs or gambling. Sweet!
As if Roddick knew I would write about him, he helps prove my point.
I’ve sucked up enough, might as well finish strong.
November 15th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
The ATP’s fining seems a little off in general. In Roddick’s Blog (I am a bigger fan of him than you!) he said that he got fined $20K for pulling out of Paris so he could focus on his fitness and make sure he was in top shape for the Masters and Davis Cup final. According to his blog, “In order to avoid the fine I would have had to stay in France for 4 or 5 days to fulfill media obligations for the tourney. To stay there for an extra 4 days when I only had a ten day window to train/recover did not seem like the right thing to do before Shanghai.. I thought it was a smarter play to be at home with my doctors and trainers preparing to make sure I was healthy for masters.” On a personal note, I agreed with him.
He went on to say that the fining is messed up since Davydenko was only fined $2K. Again, from his blog, “I read 3 days later that Nikolay Davydenko has been fined 2 grand for not trying in a match… I AM NOT here to say he did or did not try in that match…. I didn’t see it .. just heard about it… the thing that got me was the 2 grand fine…. in essence they are setting the precedent that preparing and getting healthy for their year end event is worth a 20 grand fine, but tanking (again I have no opinion on guilt or innocence here) only warrants 2 grand….taking care of injuries and health to be prepared for their event= 20 grand……….. not trying= 2 grand…anyone else see a problem with this??”
I agree with him – it does seem messed up. It’s almost like someone is picking and choosing how much to fine people based on how they feel that day.
On a final note, I can only imagine his reaction to the reversal of Davydenko’s fine…
November 15th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
I see where Roddick is coming from. But he has to view it from the tournaments standpoint. He was not getting fined because the tournament didn’t appreciate his decision to rest up from other events. He was fined because tournaments depend on sponsorship money to survive, and when a player of his magnitude pulls out, that tournament could struggle to get the same amount of sponsorship money next year. Stars pulling out of major events has been a much larger problem than stars tanking matches. Bottom line is that it’s all about the money, and I’m not saying that’s a good thing, but that’s just the way it is, somethings will never change, that’s just the way it is…do I have to cite that?
November 16th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Most likely, Roddick was referring to the disparity in the amounts – 20K vs. 2K . I think Roddick fully expected to be fined for withdrawing from Paris, but not such a large amount.