Month: August 2004 (Page 2 of 2)

Here comes the Olympics. On the tennis front, it has attracted quite a lot of criticism (see Wilander article weeks ago). Safin has added his always provocative thoughts: “The Olympics is not for tennis and tennis does not need the Olympics. It is not my goal in life to win a gold medal.” OK. Other players, such as Federer think differently. But you can’t accuse Safin of not wanting to play for his country, given his Davis Cup efforts. The problem is about scheduling. Why fly to Athens in the middle of the US circuit? A long-haul hop hardly helps.<br /><br />On the German issue, Larry Scott released a statement which was highly critical of the decision to prevent Anca Barna and Marlene Weingartner from playing. The best point, aside from all the ranking arguments, was that they completely ignored their own ruling in allowing Florian Mayer to play. It is not often you see such blatant, ugly, unsporting, chauvinist hypocrisy. As Scott put it: “The end result of this arbitrary and subjective decision by the German NOC is that two athletes with lifelong aspirations to play in the Olympics will not see their dreams come true.”<br /><br />For a full transcript of the statement, go to <a href=http://www.wtatour.atponline.net/global/includes/TrackIt.asp?file=/media/pressreleases/2004/Olympics_statement.pdf>http://www.wtatour.atponline.net/global/includes/TrackIt.asp?file=/media/pressreleases/2004/Olympics_statement.pdf</a>

Agassi winning the Cincinnati title is good for several reasons.<br /><br />1 – He knows he beat some big names to win top events (Roddick, Hewitt, Moya)<br />2 – An Agassi firing on all-cylinders gives the US Open a lot more spice<br />3 – Everyone else can shut up about him retiring<br />4 – Despite the emergence of other personalities, the tour still needs Agassi. He still is the most eloquent, popular player around.<br />5 – Everyone goes on about his age (34), but remarkable though it is, I prefer to think of Agassi as a bridge to the past – he played Connors, Lendl, McEnroe and now is mixing it with Roddick and other players of the future. Continuity in sport is a precious thing.<br />6 – It’s great to see a player of his talent end a title-drought.<br />7 – Plus, it was his 17th masters series title – no-one else is close.

I won’t comment much on Henman-Hewitt except to say… whoops. How wrong was I? 6-1 6-3. Ouch. I know Tim was tired after a late match, but that is just depressing. Lleyton was very gracious afterwards, although at 8-0 in head to heads he can well afford to be.<br /><br />Some brilliant clashes for the quarters in Cincy:<br />Safin/Hewitt, Agassi/Moya, Roddick/Haas.<br /><br />On the German Olympic story, there are some stubborn people out there. Tennis administrator Larry Scott is trying his best to stop 30 women players boycotting the games, and by all accounts isn’t doing too badly. But the Germans are hardly trying to find a diplomatic solution. According to a PA newswire:<br /><br />German Olympic Committee president Klaus Steinbach told www.sport.de: “We announced our squad of 453 sportsmen and women on 21 July and there won’t be any additions. We expect the ITF and WTA to recognise this.”<br /><br />The background is that the GOC is stopping Anca Barna and Marlene Weingartner from competing in the games despite qualifying under the WTA ranking rule, by their own criteria of an appearance in a slam semi or tour final. Why the GOC decided this arbitrary rule is unknown to all. It is idiotic to suggest that a decent player in the top 50 can’t go to the games just because they have not quite cracked the latter stages of a tournament yet. Where did they get the ranking points from?<br /><br />One other thought: who are the other two women on waiting on the sidelines with possibly the biggest moment in their careers in the balance? Have they booked their tickets? What the hell do their Olympic Committee think about all this? Do they support the WTA? Whoever might take the Germans place must want to go, but not in such circumstances.<br /><br />My solution (for what it is worth): the Olympics should allow athletes special dispensation to compete under the Olympic flag. This could be used in cases such as when an athlete misses out on qualification through illness, but is the defending champion or should be there for the good of the sport.

As the week progresses in Cincinnati, some great matches are on the horizon: Srichaphan vs Roddick today, and possible Agassi/Moya in the next round. But the match of the day (for me anyway) has to be Henman vs Hewitt.<br /><br />I try not to write too much about Tim, as he is THE British hope and around grass-season it all gets too much. The rest of the season on the tour he is an excellent performer and is well respected. However, Hewitt has his number. <br /><br />I can hardly remember two consistent top-ten players where their head-to-head was zero in one column. Even Henman got one victory over Sampras (in Cincinnati, coincidentally). But the Hewitt-Henman record is 7-0.<br /><br />Today is a good a chance as ever for Tim to get back one match. Why? Well, the court is playing fast, according to the players, which should suit Tim’s game. Although 3 of Lleyton’s wins are on grass, that was in the English silly season. Now the pressure is off, and Tim is playing really well. The downside is that so is Lleyton, plus he knows he has never lost to Tim. Could be close.<br /><br />Interestingly, perhaps it’s not just the Tim-factor. Hewitt has excellent records against 3 very similar players: Sampras (5-4), Federer (7-5) and Rafter (3-1). They are all multiple slam champions too. Not bad for a supposed counter-puncher.<br /><br />For the record, Hewitt-Henman (set scores Hewitt first):<br />2004 Rotterdam, Hard, S, Hewitt 6-3 6-3 <br />2002 Wimbledon, Grass, S, Hewitt 7-5 6-1 7-5 <br />2002 London / Queen’s Club, Grass, F, Hewitt 4-6 6-1 6-4 <br />2002 Indian Wells TMS, Hard F, Hewitt 6-1 6-2 <br />2001 London / Queen’s Club, Grass, F, Hewitt 7-6 7-6 <br />2000 Stuttgart Indoor, Hard, R16, Hewitt 3-6 6-3 6-4 <br />2000 Scottsdale, Hard, F, Hewitt 6-4 7-6 <br /><br />P.s. quick note about German Olympic Committee: Why the hell did they introduce their own Olympic qualification system over the ITF/WTA’s? Surely it was obvious that their poxy criteria could easliy throw up a conflict such as this? Complete idiots. <br />See the story here: <a href=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics_2004/tennis/3537108.stm>http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics_2004/tennis/3537108.stm</a>

So, Federer loses first round in Cincinnati. In a way, it’s not a huge shock. That kind of run has to end sometime, and it is very common for tournament winners to go out 1st round in the next event due to tiredness. But also his opponent – Dominik Hrbaty – is no slouch, and this is perhaps just as relevant. There are no easy matches in TMS events as the fields are stacked with talent.<br /><br />This is something that tennis journalist John Wertheim has been picking up on in his column on <A href=”http://www.si.com”>www.si.com</a>. There can be huge early round matches that would not be out of place in a slam quarters or even better. A random sample:<br /><br />Toronto:<br />Nadal vs Hewitt rnd1, Haas vs Agassi rnd1<br />Cincinnati:<br />Novak vs Safin, rnd1, Hewitt vs Keurten, rnd2<br /><br />Even the qualifying events can have grandslam winners in: Thomas Johansson had to qualify for Toronto, which is appalling considering he won the event back in 1999. Perhaps a wildcard wouldn’t have been amiss? To his credit he got to the semis.<br /><br />All 20 of the top 20 ATP players entered these two masters events. Given that they are 64-man fields, the quality is extremely high. Arguably, some of the TMS events are harder to win than a slam. OK, they are best of 3-set rather than 5, but they are over a week rather than 2. Look at who Henman beat to win in Paris last year:<br />Davydenko, Grosjean, Kuerten, Federer, Roddick, Pavel<br />That’s a huge list (except for perhaps Pavel).<br />

After a week in the mountains many miles from anywhere, it is interesting to get back to city life and some sports news. Actually, I could occasionally keep up with tennis scores via Orange’s WAP site, although there was virtually no commentary to speak of. You would think they might just syndicate a newswire or something. And their textback update service was just appalling – the ‘latest’ story was Rusedski winning Newport. <br /><br />As well as Federer’s continued dominance of Roddick, and the run he is on (3 tournament wins in a row on different surfaces – first since Borg; best run of 24 wins since Sampras on 25 in 1999), Lindsay Davenport is having an equally impressive US summer. If she is retiring soon, she couldn’t go out in much more style. Definitely a big tip for the US Open. <br /><br />Speaking of which, a Fed/Rod final in NY would be fantastic. And I reckon Roddick would be pumped for revenge with one heck of a crowd behind him.