I think I read somewhere that she had minor surgery and was recuperating. I always heard that last year was it for her, anyway. Is that true? I would love to see her at the US Open.

Capriati is reportedly returning in March.

Someone (Wertheim?) specifically said the real Martina is not done playing.

Don't know where the Herald Sun is. Melbourne, I suppose.

Maybe if Andy actually had game he'd be winning more often than he has. I sincerely doubt that that he'll ever win anything of note ever again, he's just not that good and a lot of other up-and-coming guys have more complete, well-rounded games. Mats Wilander just fell short of calling Roddick stupid after Andy's loss to Baghdatis and Pete Sampras just dissed Andy in a recent interview as well. I don't think that Andy's not trying, I think he's made the most of what he's got but it still isn't enough.

On another note, how I envy all the folk who get Eurosport coverage of the Slams where the have the wise Wilander commentating. Two minutes of listening to ESPN is enough to make me want to press the mute button.

I wish I had Eurosport, too. I thought I'd get good tennis coverage with The Tennis Channel. Nope. Weeks-old matches from Hong Kong instead! Eurosport is covering the Toray Pan Pacific Tournament in Japan and Martina has already beaten another top-20 player. But I'd never know that from TTC

print whore, can you elaborate on what Wilander and Sampras said?

Just some quotes from an NYT article:



As for the Sampras quotes, about a year ago Sampras said something like Safin was the only one who could challenge Fed because Hewitt and Roddick just aren't good enough. Then recently he mentioned that Fed makes it all so easy unlike Roddick who makes it all look like work. The gist of the interviews was that Pete wasn't/isn't impressed by Andy at all.

While it's not exactly hard to see, that was pretty astute analysis by the both of them. Perhaps ESPN should hire Wilander and Sampras (or at least let them be guest commentators).

I remember Wilander being a guest at the USA booth during the 2004 US Open and correctly calling the result of the Roddick-Johansson match. When I first heard him I thought he was merely backing his own player.

The more I hear of him, the more I like him. He seems to be very honest and smart in his analysis.

In that NY Times article, they also included comments from Dean Goldfine, Roddick's coach. I thought those were a bit on the delusional side.

Are they showing the Tokyo tournament at all? Hingis and Sharapova are finally going to play each other in the semifinal. First time they have met up.

jimena, do you remember any details?

I certainly have found myself thinking he wasn't as powerful as before. I know he wasn't in a lot of matches at the Oz Open (Yay, Marcos!), but does anyone recall what his serving speed was like?

I'd love it if Pete Sampras was a tennis commentator. This is probably not a very popular opinion (seeing that Sampras wasn't exactly the most popular guy) but I think that Pete was always very astute in summing up the technical and psychological limitations of various players. I'd love to hear him commentate on a match just to hear him take someone's game apart.

This is a little off-tangent but I suspect that Mats Wilander had a lot to do with Johansson's victory over Roddick and Safin's victory over Federer, seeing as he correctly predicted the outcomes of those matches. Wilander is a clever bastard and I'm sure he gave Marat and Pim-Pim a few strategic tips.

ETA: Harry24 I'm just going by the stats from the Baghdatis match and Roddick's average first serve speed was 204km and the second serve speed was 173km, the fastest being 226km. Business as usual in the power department for Roddick. The problem with Roddick is that he doesn't really vary the placement of the serve--if you focus on power, you lose a lot in precision/placement. So if a good returner knows where it's going, it's just going to come back that much faster. Baggy takes the ball on the rise so early, he just ate those serves up.

I really wish he was more on US tennis coverage. I agree- he is very honest and smart. I like that he does not try to gloss things over- he just calls him as he sees him.

Plus, I've had a crush on him since I was about eight years old.

I've been reading Jon Wertheim's coverage of the Aussie Open and I agree with him that with all of the hoopla about Marcos Baghdatis' charisma (which is great!) and his merry band of followers, the fact that he is a very talented, darned good tennis player was been overshadowed. That's one thing that I liked about PMac during his commentating. He liked Marcos' persona, but more than that he really respected his play and seemed to get more and more impressed with Marcos' skill as the tournament went on. Someone upthread implied that Baghdatis just plays on talent and does not use his smarts in the same way as Federer. While I would say that Marcos is not yet as tennis smart as Feds, I do think that he plays a very intelligent game. PMac actually helped me to realize that. I agreed with PMac when he said that Marcos has a very acute sense of the chemistry and dynamic of the match. He did lose that in his Aussie final, but since that was such a huge occasion I will let that slide a bit.

It looks like between TTC and ESPN we will be getting quite a bit of tennis in the next few months with both the US hardcourt and LA claycourt swing. Yahoo!

When Roddick lost weight he lost some of his power and hasn't really changed his game to compensate. He's still playing as though he has the same amount of power, but there's been a definite decline in the pop of his shots making it easier for people to get them back.

He lost weight to improve his movement, but he seems to not think it payed off I guess because he stands way back to give himself more time. If he used his slimmed-down frame to chase more balls down he would probably be able to compensate more for his lessened power. I guess once you've gotten used to playing a certain way it's hard to adapt but if he doesn't he will not win another major title. Not even Wimbledon, unless Rog takes ill.

Anyways, do we know if any of the upcoming matches will be on ESPN? I'd love to actually see Hingis/Sharapova.

I don't know if Hingis could beat Sharapova, but she has the ability to frustrate the heck out of her and Yuri.

Neither ESPN nor TTC has Hingis-Sharapova scheduled, dammit. If you're lucky enough to have Eurosport, you can catch it, though.

Confession: I'm so pathetic. I downloaded Hingis' Aussie mixed final as a bit torrentl. It took forever, but I got to see the match.

Me too! He was such a smart player and, while not as obviously/conventionally cute as the equally likeable Edberg, definitely very attractive. I wish I could hear him as a commentator too; his statements above are so smart and incisive and entertaining.

This is just for Harry24, from the same article quoting Wilander:


I completely disagree with him. I don't think Andy is ever going to be a complete player. Yes, his volley's are better, but they still let him down constantly when it matters. His movement is a liability, and his court positioning is atrocious. He's not a cerebral player, and he should stop trying to be.

Chucky just rolled over Maria Sharapova. Hingis defeated Sharapova in 1 hour and 6 minutes. 6-3 6-1!

Well, that Hingis-Sharapova that wasn't televised in the US? It should have been televised. Martina won 6-3 6-1 and Sharapova never broke her serve. I don't even think she had a break point on it, but I'll have to read the match stats.

Oh! Beaten to the punch by ShellsandCheese!

Oh wow....Go Chucky! She's just racking up ranking points.

Re: Roddick, does anyone think he's lost a fair bit of motivation as well? He won the US, won lots of cash, got the girls, then decided he couldn't beat Federer regardless of what he did anyway (so No.1 was impossible) and now just doesn't seem to have as much drive as before. I think to a certain extent other guys on the tour have worked him out, but the motivation also seems to play a part.

This was something that I think led to him not being "liked" on the tour because he wasn't shy about assessing himself, and his opponent, honestly. I remember when Pat Rafter went off on his anti-Pete rant about how he "doesn't respect other players" and I figured he was just pissed that Pete didn't agree with the rest of the world that he was just totally jim dandy and the bestest guy in the world. He ended it with the most vapid of comments, that he wouldn't want to have a beer with Pete. Pete followed it up, astutely and bluntly, by saying that the difference between the two was ten (at the time) Slams. Then he hit a serve that broke through Rafter's racquet. Pete always showed his opponents the "respect" their game was due. If a lot of times he was able to point out the weaknesses that wasn't a sign of disrespect, that was just a sign of a competitor.


That was me, so I'll clarify it a bit. I think he's a very smart player, but he's still very young and inexperienced and doesn't have the matches or the maturity yet to play as "smartly" as Federer. He overplayed that first set to win it and ran out of steam by the end of the second. He won the initial battle but lost the war because his ability to compete fell off quickly. None of the young guns play the score very well yet, and that's something Federer and Sampras mastered. Only expend as much energy as necessary to win a match. Nerves and intimidation took over Baghdatis' brain, but once he's no longer nervous or intimidated he'll add the court-smarts to make it into the top 10.

I don't really agree with that, vallegirl. As I recall, Pat beat Pete pretty consistently one summer (1998, I believe), and Pete made some really unsportsman-like comments, effectively not giving Pat his due for beating him fairly and making that "ten Slams" comment. He acted like a brat because someone had figured out a way to beat him, and he didn't like it. Also, the fact is Pat WAS the best-liked guy on the tour at the time, which doesn't mean that criticism can't be leveled at him about his play; but he wasn't the type to go "off" on another player without provocation. I think it was after Pat beat him in Cincinnati that Pete basically said, "Yeah, well, I wasn't playing my best and the difference between us is ten Slams." Yeah, OK, Prince Pete, the hottie Australian that everyone loves couldn't possibly have just outplayed you. And that's what Pat called him out on. I wonder if Pete wasn't a little jealous of how beautifully and naturally Pat could volley. Seriously, the man was amazing to watch at the net.

Ohh, I remember that. And isn't that around the same time as when Pete sniffed away Pat's rising accomplishments and dismissed his as nothing but a mere "journeyman."

From what I can recall about Pat- he was pretty darned respectful of everybody- the players, the ball kids, the directors, etc. So I imagine that it did rub him wrong that Pete essentially wasn't respecting Pat as a player. Who cares about the difference in Slams? Pete just wasn't respecting Pat's play- and that really turned me off on Pete.

Word on Pat's beauty at the net.

But even though Pete did sometimes bug me- I do wish he was still involved with the game somehow. Be it commentating or whathaveyou. But it seems like once he was done he didn't really want to do anything else with the game- which I think kind of stinks because he is the holder (for now) of the most GS titles.

I think actually that happens to a lot of players that play Federer. It's not a matter of pacing as much as a matter of the quality of tennis one needs to produce to take a set off of Roger. Keeping that level is going to be extremely hard, even for players as talented as Baghdatis.

In theory, it takes a lot to win a set off of Federer but the reality of the final was that he was very tentative and erratic in that first set. A more experienced player, like an Agassi, would have been able to read how Federer was playing and just lay back, play the percentages and let Federer UE his way out of the first set because he knew the likelihood of having it that good against Federer for the whole match was small. But Baghdatis really played that first set like almost every point was match point.

Then, at the end of the second set, he made a classic youthful mistake and forgot that he had to win one more point to get into the tiebreak. He lost his focus and gave Federer the small opening he needed to break the match wide open.

Does the 22 or 23 year old Baghdatis make those same mistakes? Probably not.

I'm not saying Federer isn't the most dominant player on tour today nor am I disagreeing with Patrick McEnroe that he could well be on his way to Graf-like dominance of the whole tour. But I do think that a key component of Baghdatis poor showing in the third and fourth sets was as much his own inexperience and immaturity, as it was Federer's ridiculous talent. Of course, the good news for Baghdatis is with each tournament he becomes more experienced and mature and with time he'll start playing smart matches that will better showcase his smart game.

As for the whole Rafter-Sampras dust up, I agreed with Sampras. Yes, he'd lost three straight times to Rafter and yes, Rafter managed to win two consecutive US Opens, and while that's a great accomplishment, he was 25 before he won his first one and 27 by the time he was out of tennis. Prior to his breakthrough? Barely in the top 50, and didn't break into the top level until he was already in his 20s. So yes, Rafter was, for the bulk of his career, a journeyman.

And Rafter began the whole dust up by talking about how much he enjoys beating Sampras because he doesn't like him personally. Sampras' evaluation had nothing to do with who Rafter was as an individual, just as a player. It was after Rafter shot his mouth off that Sampras dismissed his whining with the "ten Slams." Comment.

Most telling about who was right and wrong in that dust up was that Rafter actually retracted some of what he said and acknowledged that he'd been kind of a prat about it. It was then that he made the comment about Pete not respecting other players games. And then, like I said, Pete served through Rafter's racquet.

Actually, what Pat said was that he didn't think Pete enjoyed himself out on the court, with which I wholly agree and which is a big reason why I never liked Pete. This was said soon after Pat won his first US Open. Pete's response was that he didn't care, doesn't drink (reference was made to how Pat celebrated pretty hard after the win), and never wanted to be a journeyman. Then, there was the whole situation at Cincinnati in 1998 with the overruled call that gave the match to Pat, of which Pete would not let go, turning the crowd against him completely; this culminated in him saying, "I thought we were in the United States" or something to that effect, incredulous that the American crowd wouldn't support him.

Now, you're right in that Pat apologized for his comments, which was a nice thing to do. Pete never apologized for his more condescending comments. Neither of them should have been critical of the other, but at least Pat was man enough to apologize in public.

I'm also of the opinion that it's in extremely poor taste to critique publicly the way your fellow tennis players play.

I think we may just have to agree to disagree on this.

Yikes! Hingis loses 6-2 6-0 to Elena Dementieva! Just a day after she demolishes Sharapova. Oh well her first bad loss since her comeback. Still a great tournament for her.

I'm okay with that because I really like Elena Dementieva. And honestly it doesn't surprise, her wonky serve aside, Elena is more comlete player than most of the girls on the WTA; I think she is definitely more of a complete player than Sharapova.

I don't think Hingis has ever beaten Dementieva anyway. It's so funny, Dementieva might be really good because she can't serve, she has to defend the serve so she has to be really fast and hit fierce returns. She can't depend on the serve like everyone else. I was reading in that match that her serving was what helped her win-she was acing Hingis. If her serve improves, it's probably a matter of time before she finally wins a big one.

Hingis beat Dementieva the first two times they played, but now she's lost three in a row.

I'm looking forward to seeing the red clay soon.

TTC showed the Hingis-Dementeiva match today. It was odd...like a different Hingis emerged. She was really off her game and Dementieva played as well as I've ever seen her. She lobbed exceptionally well and Hingis' serve was only 48%. A totally wonky match for her.

The commentators on TTC said maybe this is just what she needs, to lose like this, because it allows her to see the work ahead.

She has talked about not playing Roland Garros. I hope she does, though.

Did anyone catch the Delray Beach final between Tommy Haas and Xavier Malisse? Pretty high quality stuff. In fact, it think it was Leif Shiras who said it was the best final that they have shown on The Tennis Channel. Tommy is really having some great form right now.

I am getting more and more impressed with The Tennis Channel as it continues to mature. They are showing more tournaments than ever, and I love the fact that they often show doubles. Granted- they do have patches where they repeat the same episode of "No Strings" over and over, but overall- I really like the number of tournaments that they show. And I do enjoy the shows like "Center Court", "No Strings," etc.

Stupid DirectTV not getting the Tennis Channel.

But I'd be all set if I wanted to watch the Golf Channel.

I was surprised that they were showing both Delray and Vina del Mar. I remember when getting the championship series on ESPN was a big deal so it was nice to see coverage of smaller tournaments. And I agree about Haas. He really seems to be regaining his form from a few years ago. Nice to see some of the "old" dogs starting the year well. New faces, even if they're just old faces that haven't been seen in a while, is always good for the game.

And I liked his episode of the "day in the life..." series. (I can't remember the name.) He was musing about ordering French Toast instead of two eggs, then corrected himself and said "Freedom Toast." Cracked me up. He and his coach practicing was also good fun. Those player profiles are good filler.

I'm so looking forward to Davis Cup this weekend.

Both TTC and OLN will be showing US Davis Cup matches this weekend.


Also, Andy Roddick has made a coaching change. His brother John will now be his coach.

Maybe he'll be more willing to listen to his brother and start playing more aggressively. Can't play power tennis from 20 feet behind the baseline, Andy.

Navratilova is saying that if it doesn't work out with her current partner, she is going to try to get Hingis to finally team up with her. Please let this happen-just the idea of seeing this is making me drool.

Grosjean beat Kiefer in Davis Cup play, apparently to a rowdy German crowd. Sadly, we won't see it on TV. Is TTC only showing U.S. Davis Cup? There's a sports bar with lots of TVs I can go to and maybe get one set on TTC.

Dang, Andy Roddick lost his Davis Cup match today. The US is down 0-1 with James Blake scheduled to play the next singles match. Andy's opponent came back from two sets down to win. Ouch. Apparently Andy was very sick, stomach ailment, but he didn't pull an Henin-Hardenne.

TTC is showing France vs Germany. I saw the Grosjean/Keifer match this morning. They showed the first match before the US coverage and said they would show the 2nd singles match delayed after the US coverage.

I really like the coverage of the Germany-France series better than the US one, even though JMac sometimes has an almost minimalist elegance in the booth. At least when the US is losing.

Where did Gasquet come up with that play yesterday? He looked so great the announcers were comparing him to a young Federer.

And Tommy Haas, of course, just looked hot.

I hope I didn't spoil you, then. I figured it was old news and untelevised at that.

NEWS FLASH!!! NEWS FLASH!!! NEWS FLASH!!!

NEWS FLASH!!! NEWS FLASH!!! NEWS FLASH!!!

Australian Open? Never heard of it.

Davis Cup? ZZzzzzzzzz

Olympics? O-what?

This news is really big:

On Murphy Jensen's show from Oz, James Blake, when asked what would make 2006 the best year of his life, answered, "I don't know. Maybe falling in love for the FIRST TIME." (My emphasis.)

So he wasn't in love with that slutty-looking, but undeniably hot, blonde chick at the US Open!! Yippee!

It looks like she has found something else to do with her time other than attend tennis matches.
http://www.maximonline.com/girls_of_maxim/...ferScholle.girl

Link to story about Peng Shuai.

Please don't post entire articles -- that's copyright infringement. Just post a link. Thanks.

Does Pete Sampras read this thread? Not only is he doing WTT, he's also thought about calling matches:



IMO Pete would be a fantastic commentator. Yes he'd have a bit of an ego about his own accomplishments but he'd also be very blunt and no-nonsense about commentating. One of my pipe dreams is ten years down the road he'll end up calling a match or two with Andre. Wouldn't that be something.

Does anyone know how one might watch the Dubai tournament this week if one lives in New York? The Las Vegas tourney is fun, but Dubai has Roger, BamBam, and HAD Marat, Andre and many others.

Thanks!

Unless you can find a live stream over the internet I don't think you can, sorry. I wish we had coverage of it, too.