Around the World in 1000 Words
by Pete Bodo
Well, well, it must be that tennis season is bursting out all over, just like the first blossoms of spring here in much of the northern hemisphere, because there's no shortage of news to comment on, starting with the ongoing and still unresolved (as I write this) controversy over the Indoor Hard Premiere surface the U.S. hopes to use in its upcoming (July) Davis Cup quarterfinal tie at home against Spain.
Rafael Nadal, top dog on the Spanish team, weighed in on the matter yesterday. He was quoted by the Associated Press as saying: “if at the end (the surface) is not among the official ones, it should be ruled out or stiff fines should be applied, because for tournaments like that $50,000 is peanuts.”
First off, I wonder if Nadal really had an opinion here; it could be, in fact I think it more than likely, that federation types and Spanish captain Albert Costa prevailed upon him to weigh in on the issue, knowing that the world No. 1's word and opinion have heft.
Meanwhile, hat tip to TW comment poster Pierre and others who pointed out that the rules regarding surface stipulate that a Davis Cup court need be of the "type" used by a Grand Slam event or three men's pro tour events (here's the full quote from the rulebook: "For all ties in the World Group and Zonal Group - the court surface must be of a type (my emphasis) used in a Grand Slam tournament or in a minimum of three tournaments in the men's professional tour held in the year previous to the tie." I confess that I feel like I fell asleep at the switch yesterday, for failing to note that critical reference to "type." **
That word is the game-changer to me. Indoor Hard Premiere most certainly meets that "of a type" standard. Premiere is certainly the same type of court that's used by two of the four Grand Slams as well as most if not all hard-court tournaments. Beyond that, it's absurd to even suggest that the U.S. is somehow trying to pull a fast one, when you consider what other nations—including Spain—have done to maximize their chances to win home ties.
And on top of that, the second-leg of the two-legged Spanish appeal (common use being the first) is that Indoor Premeire is not on the ITF list of "approved" surfaces. Matt Cronin is reporting that this list of approved surfaces is just a guide for those who wish to build courts that conform to ITF specs. Read the details here.
Originally, I thought that Spain had a legitimate if not actionable beef, but the more I know the more it seems like plain and simple whining.
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The sad saga of Anna Chakvetadze just keeps getting stranger. You may remember that Chakvetadze rose to No. 5 in the world in the fall of 2007, partly on the strength of her semifinal performance at the U.S. Open. By then she'd won six singles titles, and it seemed to many that she would be a fixture in the Top 5 for a long time to come. In December of 2007, six invaders bound and gagged Chakvetadze in her home and beat her father, Djambuli. The thugs made off with over $300,000 in goods and cash, although the psychological impact on Chakvetadze was worse and probably far more costly.
Chakvetadze's 2007 year-end ranking of No. 6 fell 12 places over the next few months. But as is usually the case in a situation like this, the real horror show began the following year, at the end of which Chakvetadze made a hard landing at No. 70. The Russian player with Georgian roots fought her way back in 2010, knocking on the door of the Top 50. But she's struggling again, this time due to fainting spells that caused her to retire from three events so far this year (most recently, a few days ago in Stuttgart), where she fainted at 4-4 in the third in her match with Zuzana Kucova.
We Don't Talk about Money. . .
The French Tennis Federation has announced the official prize-money figures for Roland Garros; the overall figure is up over $4 million, to a nice, round, $25 million. The open-draw singles champs get a hefty raise of $300,000 from their payoff last year ($1.4 million), which pretty much proves that tennis players do in fact inhabit a different universe from the rest of us—at least when you consider how so many of the rest of us have been affected by the economic downturns of recent times. But never mind. . . bread and circuses and all that. Where would we be without the jugglers and clowns whom we've never met, but in whose defense we would slit the throats of our own kin?
The funny thing about this prize-money increase is that the winner's purses falls a paltry 100k short of matching the dole-out at Wimbledon. I suspect this is a conscious decision by the French, where many still strongly feel, or at least pay lip service, to that old rule, "we don't talk about money (although we're free to think about it all we want and do anything in our power to get as much of it as we can)."
I can just see the French officials deciding to pay out $1.9 million to the singles champs only to have a board member leap to his feet, declaring, Mon Dieu! If we do that, we'll be the ones offering the most prize-money of any Grand Slam. We will seem terribly . . . vulgar. There will be accusations of 'gigantism,' like there would be if we moved the French Open to a new venue. I say we knock it back to $1.7 million, and let Wimbledon look like the materialists with their 'richest tournament in the world' aspirations!
A Rising Tide Lifts all Boats*. . .
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Remember when everyone thought that Boris Becker and Steffi Graf would launch a two-person tennis boom in Germany? Well, spectatorship certainly exploded, as did general interest in tennis. Newspaper editors were all prepared with those Heirs to Boris, Children of Steffi headlines—only the boom in pro players never really occurred on the expected scale. Once Becker and Graf retired, all things tennis faded in Germany.
Well, maybe we dust off that old headline, although with a slight modification. Four German girls are through to the quarterfinals of the ongoing Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, the only WTA event held in their homeland. We're talking Grandchildren of Steffi, right? The fab four are Andrea Petkovic, who tacked up another win over No. 7 seed Jelena Jankovic (to go with her recent triumph in Miami), Kristina Barrois, who took out No. 8 seed Marion Bartoli; Julia Goerges, who advanced when No. 4 seed Victoria Azarenka quit their match with a shoulder injury and Sabine Lisicki, who upset No. 6 seed Li Na.
A quick take on each win:
Petkovic over Jankovic: Further confirmation that Petko is bent on becoming reliable force in the WTA game. She's been working her way up through the rankings in a sure-footed and sure-handed manner.
Barrois over Bartoli: Just one of those sweet wins before the crowd that matters most. A win like this for a journeywoman like Barrois (age 26, rank No. 79) must make it seem like all the hard work and diligence is worth it.
Goerges over Azarenka: Okay, she caught a break. But it makes this a story, because it's the first time since 1984 that four Germans are in the quarters of this event (back then, it was Graf, Eva Pfaff, Bettina Bunge and Claudia Kohde-Kilsch).
Lisicki over Li: Granted, Li's game has really fallen off since her appearance in the Australian Open final, but she's still a tough out—especially for a No. 155 player struggling to find the form that once enabled Lisicki to hit No. 22. She's coming back from an serious ankle injury, and this will speed the mental rehab.
Still Swimming Upstream. . .
Mardy Fish has not only hit a career-high ranking, he's also realized one of the major items on any aspiring tennis pro's dream career "to-do" list. He's become a Top 10 player, with the special status and recognition that entails. It wasn't a moment too soon, either—at 29, Fish is the fourth-oldest player to debut in the Top 10 since the inception of the computer rankings in August of 1973.
Fish joins a company includes one major surprise—Tony Roche. I would have thought he'd been a Top 10 player far earlier in his career, and he probably was. But he didn't crack the ATP code until July of 1975, almost two full years into the computer-ranking era. Bear in mind that Roche was one of those guys who straddled the amateur and Open eras.
I have a hunch that Fish is going to be heard from during this clay-court season.