Photos.

What is tennis’ place in America today? From YMD. Thanks.

YMD

PART ONE
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
What is tennis’ place in America today?

——————————————————————————–
By Greg Garber
ESPN.com

The epitaph was written 15 years ago, on the May 9, 1994, cover of Sports Illustrated.

Against a backdrop of red clay, the bold headline asked: “Is Tennis Dying?” A yellow tennis ball punctuated the damning rhetorical question.

“Tennis is spoiled rotten,” Sally Jenkins’ piece began. “If you are wondering exactly when a wonderful game became such a lousy sport, the answer is, the first time a corporate executive gave a 14-year-old a stretch limo to play with.”

In retrospect, the 5,000-word story reads far more benignly than the furor it stoked within the game. It lodged a strident complaint that tennis was out of touch with its public, more than lying in a state of repose.

“I don’t think any story could have hurt the sport more,” said tennis analyst Pam Shriver, her voice heavy with emotion. “In those days, the SI cover was everything, and that was a huge disservice to a sport that’s been around for so long and served so many parts of the population so well.”

Mary Carillo, like Shriver a player-turned-broadcaster, believes the story ultimately had a positive effect.

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“The whole sport gulped,” said Carillo, who counts Jenkins as a good friend and lives in an apartment one block away from her in New York. “The original reaction of the tennis world was, ‘How dare they?’ Then it was ‘Wait a minute, there’s some validity to this — maybe the sport has lost some traction.’

“In the end, I think it did the sport a lot of good.”

Jenkins, a prodigious author and a columnist for the Washington Post, sighed when the subject of the Sports Illustrated cover was broached.

“Gosh,” she said, “it’s been a long time now. It wasn’t purely my opinion. It was based on the opinions of people like Billie Jean King and Chris Evert. There was an element of self-consciousness and embarrassment. Brad Gilbert said it was too bad an a—— like Sally Jenkins had to write it. He knew it was all true.

“One of gratifying things was that people said, ‘Let’s try to shore up a fading sport. It shouldn’t be fading this way.’”

Anne Worcester, the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director, became the WTA’s CEO three months after the Sports Illustrated story.

“Tennis was at a crossroads, and that cover was a wakeup call,” Worcester said. “The world was watching. The feeling was, ‘We better get this fixed.’”

Fifteen years after that cruel, sobering stroke, with the U.S. Open approaching fast, it’s an appropriate time to answer the question: Did tennis get it fixed? What is the sport’s place today in America? Tennis is alive, certainly, but is it relevant?

After crunching all kinds of numbers — from rising participation totals to television ratings to equipment sales — and conducting dozens of interviews with people in the game, the answer is: relatively speaking, yes.

Bud Collins, the sage tennis observer, summed it up succinctly: “I think we were in a slump with the game, but I see it improving.”

Clearly, the world has shrunk drastically in the last decade and a half. Tennis matters more today in places like Serbia (where it is the No. 1 sport), Europe in general, and South America. In America, where there are so many more options for our consumption, tennis isn’t all that high on the list. In fact, tennis is the No. 10-most trafficked sports on ESPN.com, behind major league baseball, the NFL, the NBA, soccer, college football and basketball, the NHL, golf, and NASCAR — but second among individual sports.

“Of course tennis matters to all of us who love it,” Carillo said. “But does your average American jamoke on the street care? I don’t know. The casual fan only hears about tennis a couple of times a year. I’m not sure it was ever much more than that.”

At the top, mixed results

Those one, two or three times a year that tennis touches every fan are the Grand Slam events, where lately the results have been mixed for Americans. When the Sports Illustrated story ran, America was in the midst of its worst Open Era decade with respect to Grand Slams. Between 1988 and 1997, U.S.-born players won only 18 major titles — 10 of them belonging to Pete Sampras. But the following decade, from 1998 to 2007, eight different athletes, most notably, the Williams sisters, helped America take 30 majors — surprisingly equaling the 1968-77 period, when King and Evert were the leading lights.

The last man to win a major singles title was Andy Roddick, in 2003. Since then, the Williams sisters have won a total of eight Grand Slam titles (Serena five and Venus three). With Venus already 29, Serena turning 28 next month and Roddick reaching 27 later this month, there are growing concerns about where the next generation of U.S. champions is going to come from.

Serena and Venus are ranked No. 2 and 3 in the world, respectively, but the next American woman is 17-year-old Melanie Oudin, at No. 70. Eight American men are in the top 100, but Roddick is the only one in the top 20.

Lower down the tennis ladder, the news is better.

The United States Tennis Association and the Tennis Industry Association, always conscious of tennis’s public image, work aggressively from a two-page document of key messaging points. Keeping in mind that statistics can be subjective; relative; and, depending on how they are parsed, misleading, here are some highlights:

• Tennis is the fastest-growing traditional sport in the U.S.; according to a Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association May 2009 report, tennis participation increased 43 percent since 2000 and 9.6 percent in the last year. However, nontraditional sports — such as Pilates and lacrosse — have experienced greater growth.

• The SGMA study says in 2008 there were 18.6 million tennis players in the U.S. (age 6 and above), higher than, for example, totals in 1998 (16.9 million) and 1987 (17.3 million).

• Ball and racket sales increased significantly between 2003 and 2008 — balls were up 16.2 percent and rackets increased 44.3 percent. Junior racket shipments increased by 87.7 percent in that five-year period.

“Everybody is working to move forward with positive momentum,” said Jolyn de Boer, the TIA’s executive director. “And we’re going to keep pushing.”

It seems to be working. The Associated Press recently produced a positive story on the growth of tennis and de Boer reports that Jon Wertheim — a writer for Sports Illustrated, of all venues — didn’t promise a cover story, but said he’d consider noting some of these rising bullet points.

The recent television numbers are up, too. In 2008, tennis was broadcast for a record 3,150 hours in the U.S. The number in 2009 will be higher.

Although television ratings have been in a steady decline over the years, NBC’s ratings for the Wimbledon men’s final the last two years featuring wins by Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer — 3.5 (2008) and 3.8 (2009) — were the best since 1999 and 2000, when Pete Sampras triumphed over Andre Agassi and Patrick Rafter.

Those epic matches, when they come in Grand Slam finals and feature all-time players, can capture even the indifferent observer, Carillo’s “jamoke on the street.”

“In the history of tennis, those matches bring in the casual fan,” said U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe. “Federer and Nadal on men’s side — they’re almost bigger than the game, among the greatest of all time — that draws attention and increases the numbers all the way around.

“That takes tennis into the talk at the water cooler, which is where all of those who love the sport want it to be.”

Jim Courier, the four-time Grand Slam champion, knows the numbers intimately — for the co-founder of the Outback Champions Series, it’s a business necessity. He has anecdotal evidence, too.

“From what I’m seeing, people are playing tennis again,” Courier said from the Manhattan office of InsideOut Sports & Entertainment, which runs the senior circuit. “You see more people in the streets carrying rackets and riding bikes, too. There was a time when there was a moratorium on tennis rackets in airports. I’ve seen more and more of that.”

A premium niche

Serena Williams’ straight-sets victory over Jelena Jankovic in the 2008 U.S. Open final posted a 3.3 rating, the highest in six years. ESPN’s programming folks say that tennis generally does 1.5 times better than the usual programming on ESPN2. In the five years that the Australian Open men’s final has been televised by ESPN2 at 3:30 a.m. ET, the ratings were, in order, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.9 this year.

“We’re in this huge ascending mode,” said Ken Solomon, the excitable CEO of the Tennis Channel, which was born in 2003. “The tennis fan is most abused fan in sports for two decades. That’s all changed.

“You put it out there, they’re going to soak it up. That’s the magic of what we’re doing.”

According to Solomon, from a business standpoint, these are the unique advantages of tennis:

• Half of Tennis Channel’s viewers and participants are women. No other major sport can say that.

• Three-quarters of the audience play the game — another unique number.

• Its season runs virtually year-round and there are professional matches being played almost every day of the year. And the best players play the most matches.

• Tennis Channel has the most affluent audience of all cable networks, with its viewers’ salaries averaging more than $82,000 per household.

“The closest analogy,” Solomon said, “is the Sweet 16 — we do that every week. That’s why tennis draws a growing audience.”

Despite the sharp downturn in the economy, attendance at the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and ATP World Tour’s U.S. events has increased in recent years. The WTA reported a total of 1.75 million spectators for its 11 U.S. events in 2008, 400,000 more than the 1998 figure. The 12 ATP World Tour events in 2008 drew 1.5 millions fans, up more than 200,000 from the 2000 total. These increases are due largely to significant gains by the U.S. Open (720,000 in 2008) and the events in Indian Wells (approximately 330,000) and Miami (300,000).

“Despite these difficult economic times,” said Stacey Allaster, Sony Ericsson WTA Tour CEO, “the tour is in the strongest financial position in its history. Of our 51 tournaments, only one [Los Angeles] has lost its title sponsor. Attendance is holding its own, and when you metric that against how other sports leagues are doing, we think we’re doing well.

Grand Slam titles by U.S.-born players

Years Total Slams
1968-77 30
1978-87 26
1988-97 18
1998-07 30
2008-09 4

“Tennis is a premium, niche product. It’s very attractive to consumer and luxury brands. They have the resources to invest in these top-quality events and top-quality athletes.”

Tennis, with its noble origins and high-end demographics, has always been a tough sell to the masses. It is a highly individual sport; there are no teams in major cities to excite widespread loyalty and support. As Allaster says, it has always been a niche sport and, with the proper care and feeding, probably will continue on that trajectory.

Paul Annacone is better known as a former player and Pete Sampras’ coach through his dominant years, but for one year after that terrific run with Sampras, Annacone was the USTA’s managing director of the high performance division — roughly the title occupied today by Patrick McEnroe.

How do you elevate tennis in America?

“If there was an easy answer,” said Annacone, now the head coach of men’s tennis for Britain’s Lawn Tennis Association, “everybody would have it.”

How, Annacone asked, do you get more rackets in the hands of our kids? What’s the catalyst?

“Kids usually get involved in sports because they want to emulate someone,” he said. “One of the most exciting times — and maybe the saddest times in retrospect — is the great group we had in the ’90s. We had Michael Chang, Pete Sampras, Mal Washington, Jim Courier, Todd Martin. If you can’t capture kids with all those personalities and diversity, well, I think we missed a big opportunity.

“I don’t blame the USTA, the agents, the players, me included. I don’t blame anybody — I blame everybody. We should have been more creative in finding a way to get players to carry the flag. I feel like it sort of slipped away, and that’s too bad because that was an era we may never see again.”
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&id=4399662

Part 2

Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Luring U.S. kids gaining traction?

——————————————————————————–
By Greg Garber
ESPN.com

Long before he was Pete Sampras’ coach, before he reached No. 12 in the world, or the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 1984, Paul Annacone was a Bollettieri kid.

He logged thousands of hours at Nick Bollettieri’s tennis academy in Bradenton, Fla. There, banging with the best and the brightest young players in the game, he learned — he earned — the craft of tennis.

When Annacone’s son, Nicholas, who had been raised in the culture of tennis, asked at the age of 10 to go to Bollettieri’s, his father had his back-in-my-day speech ready. To be as good as you can possibly be, he said, it’s going to take a lot of hard work and sacrifice. It’s time in the gym and the classroom; it’s five, six hours a day on the sun-baked courts. It might even mean missing parties and other social events.

Nicholas’ eyes widened.

“His answer, it was very honest,” Annacone said. “He said, ‘I don’t know if I’m interested. No, Dad, I don’t think I want to do that.’”

Annacone wants you to know that his son is not “a lazy slacker.” He’s 22 now and attends his father’s alma mater, the University of Tennessee. Nicholas was just a typical, path-of-least-resistance American kid.

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“These days, kids are thinking their life is pretty good,” Annacone said, sounding like any parent over 40. “They’ve got their Game Boy, PlayStation, Sony, Wii. They’re getting decent grades in school, hanging out with their girlfriend.”

Mastering the sport of tennis is an exceedingly difficult proposition. It requires athleticism, strength and endurance — and mental toughness. Relentlessly running down that small bouncing ball, adjusting to its changing geometry, well, it’s not as fun as texting.

“We’re in the dreaded middle ground of real exercise and bona fide skill development, which puts us in the category of ultra-challenging, skill-developing sport,” longtime player Todd Martin observed. “That’s one of our greatest limitations.

“When you pick up a basketball, all you have to do is put it through the hoop. A kid does it once, he wants to do it again because it reminds him of LeBron or Kobe. Nothing a kid does on a tennis court can remind him of what he sees in Federer or Nadal.”

College tennis, once the preserve of U.S. country club kids, is now far more diverse. In this year’s NCAA championships, 21 of the 40 singles players were from outside the United States.

Back in the late 1970s and early ’80s, when American tennis was in full flower, typically more than half of the top 100 ranked players on the men’s and women’s sides were Americans. Today, there are eight U.S. men in the ATP’s top 100 and five U.S. women in the WTA’s top 100 — one of them Varvara Lepchenko, a U.S. citizen who was born in Uzbekistan.

By contrast, there are five Russian women among the top 10. When you factor in the former territories of the Soviet Union that are now countries in their own right, the total is 24 — nearly one-fourth of the top 100.

Fewer choices means hunger

The professional game has gone global, and not surprisingly, much of the young talent is coming from Eastern European nations that don’t enjoy the relative wealth we have in America.

Serbia, where tennis has become the No. 1 participation sport, is the leading example.

Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, who were both briefly No. 1, learned to play tennis in a suburb of Belgrade. Amid sirens during NATO raids, they hit balls on a carpeted, downsized court that was once an Olympic-size swimming pool. The walls were only 18 inches from the lines, so they couldn’t hit crosscourt shots or serve out wide. Out of necessity, they went for the lines — a metaphor for the hunger of today’s emerging international players. Fellow Serbian Novak Djokovic, who finished No. 3 in the world the last two years, left Belgrade at age 12 to train in Munich, Germany, with Niki Pilic.

The most popular participation sport in France is soccer, with more than 2 million registered players. Tennis is No. 2, with more than 1 million. Is it merely a coincidence that France — a nation of 65 million, compared to 300 million for the United States — has 11 men and eight women ranked among the top 100?

“We’re at a disadvantage because we have so many choices, so many sports for men and women,” said Bud Collins, who has been in the tennis game for a half-century, going back to the late 1950s, when he was the tennis coach at Brandeis University. “The Spanish are so good because they only have soccer, basketball — and tennis.

“We have to somehow convince our good young athletes to play tennis.”

Todd Martin was born in 1970, in Hinsdale, Ill.

“One of the greatest things in my childhood was boredom,” said Martin, who became part of that great generation of American men that included Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Michael Chang.

When he was 4 years old, growing up in Hudson, Ohio, Martin got his mother to help him tip over the redwood picnic table on the brick patio his father had laid in the backyard. For hours, he’d hit tennis balls against it.

“That doesn’t happen nowadays,” said Martin, the father of two boys, Jack, 6, and Cash, 3. “In this culture, you can never be bored. Our society is so averse to the kids’ being creative on their own.”

The next day, after a one-hour phone conversation, Martin sent along an e-mail that clarified his thoughts.

“Something I did not mention,” he wrote, “was the need for young tennis players to go out and play with one another without constant instruction. Too much input can be stifling for the child and the learning process, not to mention detrimental to the development of the independence needed to play tennis.”

There is a prevailing view in tennis that professional stars help the game in a trickle-down kind of way; kids see the Williams sisters and are motivated to pick up a racket.

“When kids see tennis on television,” U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe said, “it gives us a better chance to have a bigger pool of tennis players.”

A recent Harris Interactive poll — 2,177 U.S. adults were surveyed online in June — found that Serena and Venus Williams were the two favorite female sports stars. Three other tennis players — Maria Sharapova, Chris Evert and Anna Kournikova — made the list, although Evert and Kournikova are retired. No male tennis players made the list, which was topped by Tiger Woods.

As the success of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal suggests, having American stars at the top of the game isn’t absolutely essential to the success of global tennis, but it doesn’t hurt. The American market is important to both pro tours.

“Five tennis players, three Americans — that’s pretty significant,” said Stacey Allaster, CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. “That’s a great dynamic to promote the sport to our younger fans.”

According to Allaster, 42 percent of the WTA’s “premier” events — eight of 19 — are played in the United States. Two of the top 5 events, featuring $4.5 million in prize money, are Indian Wells and Miami.

Tapping another large pool

Tennis is a vastly tougher sell in America than it used to be. At the dawn of the Open era in 1968, there was no cable television — no ESPN, no HBO, Food Network or QVC to absorb audiences. Lacrosse was an elite sport in scattered pockets around the Northeast. Skateboarding, BMX bikes and the entire family of X Games sports had not yet seized the imaginations of our youth. Today, the Internet’s dizzying social networks and cellular phones have certainly cut into the pie of leisure time.

For Anne Worcester, Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director, technology has advantages and disadvantages.

State of tennis
More than 15 years after tennis was left for dead, it has witnessed positive momentum. But while more visible, how relevant is it in the matrix of American sports? Garber: Part I »

“My kids need no more than an iPod Touch to keep themselves occupied on an eight-hour flight to Europe,” Worcester said. “But the challenge for tennis got harder with the advent of Facebook, Twitter and all those things that take up a consumer’s time and dollar. We can’t sit back and be just tennis tournaments; we have to be sports entertainment events.

“We’re selling the competition of tennis, but we’re also selling the wine tasting, the fashion show and the rock-climbing walls.”

Although legitimate participation numbers going back to the 1970s are unavailable, there is a general feeling that tennis in America enjoyed its finest moments in the mid-1970s and into the ’80s. Hollywood embraced the sport, and it was fashionable to wear tennis gear. With the wave of Baby Boomers, there were simply more Americans in their teens and 20s at that time — a time in life when sports loyalties are forged. There were more than 4 million births per year in America between 1954 and 1964, with the record, 4.3 million, coming in 1957.

CBS’ best U.S. Open rating ever, 11.0, came in the 1980 final, when John McEnroe defeated Bjorn Borg in five sets. Those two men delivered NBC’s best-ever Wimbledon rating, 7.9, the following year with another riveting final.

“The economy was fantastic at the time,” legendary coach Nick Bollettieri said. “Everyone, it seemed, was playing tennis. Mom and Dad would bring the kids to the courts, and they’d all hit.

“Today, they don’t see Mommy and Daddy playing. Mommy’s got a job — or two — and the economy is a big factor in the sport.”

Those baby boomers had their own children, of course, and between 1989 and 1993, annual U.S. birth rates climbed back over 4 million. This is probably a factor in today’s rising participation numbers and television ratings.

“My parents’ generation fell in love with tennis,” said Jim Courier, co-founder of the Outback Champions Series. “They passed the sport on to us. Now people of my age are having kids, and they’re passing their love of tennis to their kids. There maybe a natural cycle in that direction that comes in another 20 or 25 years.”

“When was the last time we won a Grand Slam — six weeks ago at Wimbledon, right?” said Peter Bodo of Tennis Magazine and frequent contributor to ESPN.com. “It’s not like we fell off the map. Where’s the next batch coming from? Listen, it’s like summer lightning — it happens quickly.

“I remember writing these post-John McEnroe stories, and wham, we had Sampras, Courier and Agassi. When one of these kids wins the Open — maybe Sam Querrey or Devin Britton — we’ll be writing that American tennis is coming back.”

Pam Shriver, who won 20 Grand Slam doubles titles with Martina Navratilova, was exposed to tennis through her family — grandparents, parents, cousins, aunts and uncles. The other day, on the west side of Los Angeles, a tennis lesson broke out outside her home.

“My three kids grabbed me and said, ‘Come on, Mom; let’s hit some balls,’” Shriver said.

Kate and Sam, who are 3, played with their junior rackets, and 5-year-old George hit with his new (and very much prized) full-sized Wilson Roger Federer model.

“It was fun,” Shriver said. “It’s a great family sport because it brings people together. Tennis should always be in the conversation of keeping and staying healthy. We need to keep getting that message out in today’s America.”

There is video to go with both parts:
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&id=4400014

Brooklyn Decker bares all. From Rick. Thanks.

RICK

Brooklyn Decker bares all.

Click here.

Photos.

Cincy Update — 8/18. From Anand. Thanks.

ANAND

Cincy Update — 8/18

Let’s break down the draw into the Contenders (top 4), Seeds (5-16), Dangerous Floaters (or just Floaters for short), and the Rest (or Tomato Cans as TP would say).

Before the Contenders have even fired a shot (i.e. while they were having a Bye), the following has occurred:

KO’d Seeds: Gonzo (10), Verdasco (11), Soderling (12), Monfils (13), Cilic (14), Robredo (15)
KO’d Floaters: Blake, Kohlschreiber, Ferrero, Wawrinka

Seeds: 5-8 (Roddick, Tsonga, Davydenko) got a bye, but still lost Del Potro. Of the rest, only Simon and Stepanek survive.
Floaters: Haas, Guccione, Berdych, Karlovic, Ferrer, Hewitt, Querrey, Youzhny, Melzer, Safin are still lurking.
Rest: Acasuso, Becker, Almagro, Garcia-Lopez, Benneteau, Kunitsyn, Chardy, Ljubicic, Petzschner, Mathieu and Seppi — these would be the TCs.

Only Roddick and Tsonga face Floaters in the 2nd round (Querrey and Guccione respectively).

As for the Top 4, they face TCs first up, then run into low Seeds or Floaters, then 5-9 and after 3 matches if they are still around, they get to meet each other.

So far in the 1st round there have been 3 retirements, plus Del P withdrew. 25% of all finished sets were tie breaks. A lot of tall high serving freaks abound. As TP has stated in the past, is this the future of tennis? It’s going to be boring … until a tall Federer shows up, a la Usain Bolt.

David Nalbandian Update. From Jenny. Thanks.

JENNY

David Nalbandian Update. Source ATP site.

Click here.

Street tennis with Ivanovic.

Cincinnati 2009 Preview Interview Federer.

Cincinnati 2009 Preview Interview Nadal.

Photos.

Is the current men’s top 10 the greatest ever?

Click here.

Del Potro’s two options.

1. Run up and down hills like Agassi to improve conditioning.

2. Follow Karlovic: Serve and volley.

Of course, combining the two would be ideal, but if a title against the big cats is in the forecast this year, the second option may be the ONLY choice now.

Skipping Cincy is clearly for the US Open, but with a five set format despite the day off between matches at the Slam, winning a final against Murray or Federer is not happening without the first requisite. It may not happen with the first one either, but at least you don’t have to summon your acting skills to delay the torture like Montreal.

Interesting matches coming up at Cincy.

-Federer vs Roddick.

-Djokovic vs Tsonga.

-Nadal vs Karlovic.

-Djokovic vs Davydenko.

Last year’s Cincy results for top four and current rank points.

Player	Last year result	lost to	current pts
Federer	3rd round	Karlovic	11,040
Murray	Winner	beat Djokovic	9,250
Nadal	Semis	Djokovic	8,665
Djokovic	Finals	Murray	7,150

Draw possibilities: Cincy.

Round	Federer	Murray	Nadal	Djokovic
1st	Bye	Bye	Bye	Bye
2nd	Acasuso	Almagro	Seppi	Ljubicic
3rd	Ferrer	Stepanek	Karlovic	Haas
Quarter	Roddick	Youzhny	Tsonga	Davydenko
Semi	Murray	Federer	Djokovic	Nadal
Final	Djokovic	Djokovic	Federer	Federer

Federer’s number one ranking up for grabs, says Murray. From Sarah. Thanks.

SARAH

Federer’s number one ranking up for grabs, says Murray

By Simon Cambers

CINCINNATI, Aug 18 (Reuters) – Roger Federer’s lead at the top of the world rankings is far from insurmountable, number two Andy Murray said on Tuesday.

The Briton, who this week took over second spot from Rafa Nadal, begins the defence of his Cincinnati Masters title on Wednesday, fresh from his triumph at the Montreal Masters last weekend.

Murray (9,250 points) is the first British male to be ranked number two and a good performance this week could help him close the gap on Federer (11,040).

“It (the gap) is not that far,” the Scot told reporters. “It’s a matter of a couple of matches.

“If I’d had a slightly better run at the Australian Open or instead of losing a tight game to (Andy) Roddick in the semis at Wimbledon, who knows?

“I know it’s a long way from losing in the semi-finals to winning but that would have made a huge difference,” added Murray. “I would be very close to Roger in the rankings if I had won those two matches from the semis onwards.

“That’s really the only difference, getting a slam, between being number one and number two because the consistency in the other tournaments has been pretty similar.”

Only three men, Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter and Roddick, have won in Canada and Cincinnati back-to-back.

Winning 10 matches in two weeks is a tough task but Murray said he was not worried about the risk of overdoing things ahead of the U.S. Open which starts on Aug. 31.

“In the U.S. Open you can play your first round on the Wednesday so you could in theory have nine days in between matches,” Murray said.

“Because I took a five-week break after Wimbledon I would hope I would still be reasonably fresh.

“I think it’s more mentally than physically that’s important, because physically I think I’ll be strong enough to compete in the slam,” added the Scot.

“You need to go in there mentally fresh. It’s a long, stressful couple of weeks if you want to do well. But I am not that fussed about having to play five matches (here). It can get hot here but I guess it’s the same for everyone.”

(Editing by Tony Jimenez. To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/news;_ylt=AhkVOSCT9Z1UG0bvWks8Mw04v7YF?slug=reu-menmastersmurray_pix&prov=reuters&type=lgns

Contenders: Cincy.

Player	Aces	Ist serve pct.	Sets lost	Tie breaks	Bk pt conv %	Time on court.	Matches played
Federer	33	59	1	1	36	5:32	4
Murray	24	55	1	1	39	4:52	3 OUT
Nadal	13	68	0	2	26	4:05	2 OUT
Djokovic	29	60	0	1	36	6:12	4

Photos.

Veterans vs Young Guns. From Jenny. Thanks.

JENNY

Veterans vs Young Guns

Let’s call the veterans 26yrs old and over [we could make it 25 and over?] Current results and rankings speak for themselves, there will obviously be a changing of the guard, it’s happening and will happen whether we like it or not. It takes time to get accustomed to it, especially by some of us old die hards. But right now, given a choice of matches subject to streams, TV etc., who would you prefer to watch tennis terms, who rocks your boat on the courts? Forget the looks [or try to]!

Veterans:

Federer
Roddick
Nalbandian
Gonzalez
Blake
Haas
Lopez
Ferrer
Hewitt
Kiefer
Lapentti
Gicquel
Ljubicic
Ferrero
Davydenko
Acasuso
Stepanek

Plus more – please add

Young Guns

Nadal!! lol he is only 23!
Djokovic
Murray
Del Potro
Cilic
Dimitrov
Gulbis
Verdasco [he's under 26]
Querrey
Monaco
Tsonga
Monfils
Simon
Again, please feel free to add

Live chat: Cincy.

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Montreal review.

Murray reaches the final while knocking out Nadal at the No. 2 spot. That long, eternal and self induced slide may just be starting for Nadal unless the rust and whatever else comes off in a hurry.

Murray is producing some impressive streaks of retrieving skills one after another. It’s almost impossible to run a ball past him today. Even Tsonga, the ultimate flat shot provider was forced to hit numerous ‘extra’ shots to win points. With both Roddick and Del Potro not even close to that ability, it’s hard to imagine they even winning a set tomorrow forget about winning.

But Roddick has lot more at stake this afternoon than just a finals berth. He has his eyes on the US Open emboldened by his recent form that has taken him past Djokovic. While today that may not be something to talk about given Djokovic’s showing of late, it surely is huge booster just as Del Potro’s win over a tired Nadal was couple of weeks ago.

Roddick also will be seeking revenge for the loss against Del Potro at Washington a week ago. But if both Roddick and Del Potro have been watching the Murray matches, they know this is the end of  the road for them. ONLY weapon that will even keep them in the match tomorrow will be their serve. Rest will be dispatched with disdain.

Nevertheless, Roddick-Del Potro match should be a competitive encounter battling for the No. 5 spot.

Did Federer’s meltdown against Tsonga have anything to do with who his next round opponent would have been? Given that Murray has beaten him five straight times – three just this season – Abu Dhabi, Doha and Indian Wells – it’s not too much of a stretch to assume. There’s no better time to ponder on that possibility than being up 5-1 in the deciding set.

Besides, the ‘honeymoon’ Federer has been on since the FO win both on and off the court is just too precious today to relinquish. While this loss to Tsonga does make a dent in that balloon, the burst would have happened only with a fourth straight loss to Murray this year.

Tsonga’s ‘go for broke’ play may have something to do with it too, but it’s difficult to rationalize it as the ONLY factor for the kind of meltdown that Federer’s career has NEVER witnessed.

And Federer, if you come up with this ‘now I have more time to prepare for the next event (Cincy)’ bull crap one more time after losing early, I will go nuts – OK, completely nuts – oh, yeah, it can still get uglier.

With both Montreal and Cincy widely regarded as the birth place for the season’s US Open winner, Roddick has got to make the charge now and up the ante by winning this thing. With Federer, Nadal and Djokovic all riddled with distractions, Murray is the only one Roddick may now need to conquer.

Although Murray is clearly playing at a much higher level, his lack of experience on the big stage may tilt the scale for Roddick. Not to mention the huge home court advantage.

The gloomiest story of the last day, however, is the state Nadal is in. If that was not enough, the prospect of him returning to his old ways seemingly looking bleak makes it even harder for his fans. Nadal is now left with just his top spin forehand. Everything else has receded maybe beyond return.

And what’s the freaking rationale for that manly looking aunt to not be there for such an important phase of Nadal’s career? Xisca is somehow supposed to fill in for that? Shouldn’t she be the last person to be with him now? Or is the doctor scrapping the ‘cure’ barrel with sex therapy now? Either that or the aunt is locked up in a psychiatric ward for not reading the writing on the wall for four freaking years.

Tidbits:

-Did you watch that disguised drop shot cum baseline shot from Roddick against Djokovic that left even him laughing. Stefanki HAD to laugh to save his job.

-And did you hear the umpire say ‘it looks out from here‘ to a disputed call when Del Potro asked him if it was in? No, moron, from your home. Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzz!!!!

Montreal’s congrats to Federer and Mirka.

Throwing of insults. From Jenny. Thanks.

JENNY

This lttle delight nearly came to fisticuffs, the supervisor was called. From what I’ve read, Massu had a med time and Coria seemed to question it, Coria questioned everything in many of his matches, but on this occasion, they both ended up throwing insults at each other from both sides of the net.

Haas talking to himself. From Jenny. Thanks.

For freaks still dragging their carcasses from under that rock. From M. Thanks.

Nadal boat ad.

Filming of a Nadal ad.

Ancic in a different kind of match.

Two freaking stats ATP has no business overlooking.

1. On the freaking live scores chart, why is unforced error stat considered irrelevant to say all the other BS numbers they have up there – from service points blah blah to blabaty blabaty blah?

2. On the player’s playing activity page why are numbers not broken down for Slams only? Who freaking cares about the finals and all other freaking BS?

Rare occasion when ‘Time on court’ will work in reverse for Nadal.

Usually Nadal’s goal is to limit his stay on court to the minimum given his track record of folding after gruelling matches. But with the rusty showing he had against Ferrer, he will have a strange balancing act on his hands – getting an extended work out without aggravating the knee injury.

Nadal had to fight off what eight break points on his serve before finally giving in and get broken. And that’s with the limited mobility Ferrer was running around with.

It’s ironic that this break may actually break Nadal, maybe as soon as in the next round – against a tomato can – to add insult to injury – if he plays even remotely close to how he played today.

It’s got to be a combination of pure rust and tentativeness in going full out on the still vulnerable knees. That duo is not going to get better in time for Nadal to make any inroads at least here in Montreal – even if Del Potro and Djokovic clear his way.

Nadal’s backhand in particular lacked the sting and placement to allow him any leverage in dictating points from the baseline. Not that the forehand was any better, but it at least allowed him to go on an offensive motion.

While it will be drastic to predict an end to the Nadal we have come to know in years past, there may be a touch of it to remove any bewilderment if it at all materializes.

If there’s ONE available seat at Nadal’s match, should Montreal licence be revoked?

This is clearly the biggest match so far in the tournament for more than obvious reasons. With an evening slot, there’s no excuse for everyone not to be here.

Nadal is putting a lot on the line. But a seemingly tough draw for Nadal has turned out to be quite soft in the past. With Robredo already out and some tomato can next after Ferrer, will that come true here?

He will need it to plough through the next clowns: Del Potro, Djokovic and Federer.

Nadal must be craving for a Federer encounter more than even picking his behind to prove some obvious stuff not to mention the boost of adrenaline and confidence it will entail.

With a battle looming in the semis for Federer against Murray, it can turn into a great leap for Federer if he beats everyone – including Nadal.

Photos.

How do you feel about this live match deal from ATP?

I think, it’s pretty cool. For just $129 (US), $99 (elsewhere) you have access to almost everything for 12 freaking months. It sure beats the FREE stream BS, at least in quality and convenience. That’s what $10 a month?

I just find it freezing and stuttering periodically and I think they don’t stream the finals.

What’s been your experience?