Tennis News

paulcz wrote:

BlueClay wrote:

Do you think Nadal can't cope with the thought of defeat or that he simply does not have a choice in this particular matter. In other words if he is still serving some sort of silent suspension perhaps he has no choice. Or maybe the silent suspension is over and he is afraid of being caught again and his doctors have to come up with some new drug potion that won't be detected by the testers.There is also the Operacion Puerto trial that is coming up early this year and maybe that is part of this whole Nadal disappearing act as well? One thing is for sure, you have to be a moron to buy this story as the Nadal camp is selling it.

Welcome here BlueClay.

I rather think that if Nadal got a silent ban, then his team would come with a better disease and not with such a babbling about a stomach virus. We can speculate about the suspension, because there are many signs and doubts in it. You can find many posts here. All steps from Nadal´s camp show that his team holds him with an "aura of invincibility" and support him by incredible excuses and lies and they are surely able to do everything for their success. His defensive and nearly self-sacrificing game with court antics shows that tennis itself is not substantial for them at all.

You would think that if it is a silent ban the Nadal team would have come up with a better and more organized plan when encountering the media, but you know what I have figured out? The Nadal camp is not smart at all, they are quite dumb in fact. What other pro athlete do you know of who has handled an injury time-out in this most bizarre manner like Nadal's bumbling PR team?

When an athlete has an injury he or she comes out and tells us what the injury is ONCE and lets us know when he or she will be back in action, he or she does not come out every two weeks with a contradictory disease/injury to explain why he or she is not entering a tournament and he or she does not play the "will he or won't he" play in a tournament card to the press weeks before the event starts.

If you look at this whole incident logically we should be able to see two things: 1) The Nadal camp are PR fools but don't care because Nadal is a star tennis player who is protected by the ATP, Spanish government and his sponsors and 2) due to the complete breakdown of this whole story from beginning to end it sure looks suspiciously like a silent suspension.

BlueClay wrote:
You would think that if it is a silent ban the Nadal team would have come up with a better and more organized plan when encountering the media, but you know what I have figured out? The Nadal camp is not smart at all, they are quite dumb in fact. What other pro athlete do you know of who has handled an injury time-out in this most bizarre manner like Nadal's bumbling PR team?

When an athlete has an injury he or she comes out and tells us what the injury is ONCE and lets us know when he or she will be back in action, he or she does not come out every two weeks with a contradictory disease/injury to explain why he or she is not entering a tournament and he or she does not play the "will he or won't he" play in a tournament card to the press weeks before the event starts.

If you look at this whole incident logically we should be able to see two things: 1) The Nadal camp are PR fools but don't care because Nadal is a star tennis player who is protected by the ATP, Spanish government and his sponsors and 2) due to the complete breakdown of this whole story from beginning to end it sure looks suspiciously like a silent suspension.

I think Nadal's PR team have lost touch with reality, a classic case of pride comes before the fall, people start believing they are untouchable and begin to act arrogantly.

noleisthebest wrote:

BlueClay wrote:
You would think that if it is a silent ban the Nadal team would have come up with a better and more organized plan when encountering the media, but you know what I have figured out? The Nadal camp is not smart at all, they are quite dumb in fact. What other pro athlete do you know of who has handled an injury time-out in this most bizarre manner like Nadal's bumbling PR team?

When an athlete has an injury he or she comes out and tells us what the injury is ONCE and lets us know when he or she will be back in action, he or she does not come out every two weeks with a contradictory disease/injury to explain why he or she is not entering a tournament and he or she does not play the "will he or won't he" play in a tournament card to the press weeks before the event starts.

If you look at this whole incident logically we should be able to see two things: 1) The Nadal camp are PR fools but don't care because Nadal is a star tennis player who is protected by the ATP, Spanish government and his sponsors and 2) due to the complete breakdown of this whole story from beginning to end it sure looks suspiciously like a silent suspension.

I think Nadal's PR team have lost touch with reality, a classic case of pride comes before the fall, people start believing they are untouchable and begin to act arrogantly.

Sadly, the reality is Nadal is probably untouchable.

BlueClay wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:

BlueClay wrote:
You would think that if it is a silent ban the Nadal team would have come up with a better and more organized plan when encountering the media, but you know what I have figured out? The Nadal camp is not smart at all, they are quite dumb in fact. What other pro athlete do you know of who has handled an injury time-out in this most bizarre manner like Nadal's bumbling PR team?

When an athlete has an injury he or she comes out and tells us what the injury is ONCE and lets us know when he or she will be back in action, he or she does not come out every two weeks with a contradictory disease/injury to explain why he or she is not entering a tournament and he or she does not play the "will he or won't he" play in a tournament card to the press weeks before the event starts.

If you look at this whole incident logically we should be able to see two things: 1) The Nadal camp are PR fools but don't care because Nadal is a star tennis player who is protected by the ATP, Spanish government and his sponsors and 2) due to the complete breakdown of this whole story from beginning to end it sure looks suspiciously like a silent suspension.

I think Nadal's PR team have lost touch with reality, a classic case of pride comes before the fall, people start believing they are untouchable and begin to act arrogantly.

Sadly, the reality is Nadal is probably untouchable.

The fall of such a celebrity athlete affects the sport as well. The LA saga has tarnished the image of cycling very badly. Lots of people have lost interest in cycling and many of those are LA fans. Nadal is too big a name and like UCI who did all they could to protect LA, probably ATP too will to protect Nadal and the 'clean' image of tennis.

Frankly...The LA saga has cleared things up if anything. The image of Cycling has always been terrible and knowing we can catch the bigger fishes had considerably improved cycling's reputation imo....f it wasn't for those rotten UCI directors. I am convinced this former ATP director (Helphant?) was a rotten plank too.

Tenez wrote:Frankly...The LA saga has cleared things up if anything. The image of Cycling has always been terrible and knowing we can catch the bigger fishes had considerably improved cycling's reputation imo....f it wasn't for those rotten UCI directors. I am convinced this former ATP director (Helphant?) was a rotten plank too.

This is how it should be, but is it? People so openly started talking about doping in cycling and to the extent it exists in that sport only after USADA nabbed and stripped off LA of his titles. And these people include tennis player ( Murray for e.g. ) and tennis authorities. They are all trying to indicate that Cycling has such a high doping problem but tennis is clean since there hasn't been any major player caught in drug-cheating. This is how commonly people perceive.

More players and the big names caught means more doping problem. No wonder ATP/ITF doesn't want to catch any of the big names.

Tenez wrote:The image of Cycling has always been terrible and knowing we can catch the bigger fishes had considerably improved cycling's reputation imo...

I agree there.
Catching dopers doesn't ruin the sport however big the name is. It's a huge disappointment, of course, but it's like removing cancer out a body, you find out there is cancer and it's horrible, then you remove it and things start getting better which is why it's important to get rid of it asap, before it spreads completely.

To me it's worse having the tabboo on it, always suspecting and knowing nothing is being done about it. It makes it feel worse and bigger than it possibly is.
Again, just like being paranoid of having cancer but not wanting to check it out.

Tenez wrote:Frankly...The LA saga has cleared things up if anything. The image of Cycling has always been terrible and knowing we can catch the bigger fishes had considerably improved cycling's reputation imo....f it wasn't for those rotten UCI directors. I am convinced this former ATP director (Helphant?) was a rotten plank too.

I am not sure that the LA case has improved cycling's reputation and helped to clean the sport up. The fact is that the doping business is bigger than any one sport itself and unfortunately it exists in ALL pro sports. If you listen to guys Victor Conte, the BALCO guy who supplied drugs to many pro athletes and Angel Heredia another former big drug supplier to pro athletes, ALL top athletes in ALL pro sports dope and I really believe that. The system is set up so that dopers are not caught or at least the big fish are not caught. Nadal just happens to be the most obvious case where the most amount of smoke has occurred in the last 8 years. If Nadal is ever to be caught, it will have to be by an outside investigation like the one that occurred in the LA case. Nobody who is benefiting from Nadal's success(i.e.the ATP/ITF, sponsors, etc.) is going to give Nadal up unless they have no choice.

I don;t think it will help clean the sport (I was not born yesterday). But it;s healthy to know that it can happen and as big a name as one can be...no-one is safe. I also believe that ALL top athlete in ALL sport dope. But the reason I still like watching tennis is that talent can still make the difference...well at least talent could up to recently.

What annoys me about Nadal is that he took doping to new heigh and also went on to bend the rules to suit this ridiculous physical tennis. His tennis was clearly aimed at neutralising talent by making his opponents run with him and blunt their edges.

What happens though, like with LA...is that once the athlete is not selling anymore, (not benefiting as you say), they have no problem giving him in...it even makes good stories for the same papers that sold their prowess.

Hey..it's early in Canada....isn't it? A bit of a red eye?

Tenez wrote:I don;t think it will help clean the sport (I was not born yesterday). But it;s healthy to know that it can happen and as big a name as one can be...no-one is safe. I also believe that ALL top athlete in ALL sport dope. But the reason I still like watching tennis is that talent can still make the difference...well at least talent could up to recently.

What annoys me about Nadal is that he took doping to new heigh and also went on to bend the rules to suit this ridiculous physical tennis. His tennis was clearly aimed at neutralising talent by making his opponents run with him and blunt their edges.

What happens though, like with LA...is that once the athlete is not selling anymore, (not benefiting as you say), they have no problem giving him in...it even makes good stories for the same papers that sold their prowess.

Oh no doubt that Nadal would be dropped like a hot potato by sponsors and given up by the ATP if push came to shove, but we are nowhere near that stage yet, and for the time being Nadal is a huge seller for all concerned.

I agree with you about Nadal taking the doping thing to the highest level. He is such an obvious case of doping and being able to practically flaunt it knowing that nothing will likely ever happen to him. I bet Uncle Toni bribes a lot of folks!

article on tipsarevic's rise by Deuce, hehe maybe its because of the juice . sorry that was poor, i apologise

where is the article?

Bred Drewitt Steps Down From Being ATP Boss After Being Diagnosed With Motor Neurone Disease

"MELBOURNE, Australia -- Brad Drewett has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, and the ATP World Tour executive chairman and president is planning to step down once a successor is found.

Drewett's speech was noticeably slurred when he attended a news conference Saturday to announce a new racket sponsor for the ATP Tour. Remarks on behalf of the ATP were made by a member of the group's marketing department.

Drewett has held the top ATP position since Jan. 1 last year, but had previously led operations in the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific regions since 2006.

The 54-year-old Australian was a top-40 singles and top-20 doubles player before he retired in 1990.

"It has been a privilege to serve as executive chairman and president of the ATP, an organization that I've been a part of for more than 35 years since I became a professional tennis player," Drewett said Tuesdayin a statement. "I hold the ATP very close to my heart, and it's with sadness that I make the decision to enter this transition period due to my ill health."

Lou Gehrig's disease, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), affects voluntary muscle activity, including speaking, walking, breathing, swallowing and general movement of the body. It usually causes progressive disability.

"Brad has become a good friend of mine over the years and this is very sad news for all of us at the ATP and the entire tennis community," Roger Federer, president of the ATP Player Council, said in a statement."He is well-liked and respected by everyone and has done a tremendous job in leading the ATP over the past 12 months, overseeing some major initiatives and a record-breaking year in 2012.

"His dedication and service to the sport over the years has been truly admirable and he has been a central figure in helping to grow the ATP product across the globe."

WTA chairman Stacey Allaster said the thoughts and prayers of the tour's family are with Drewett, his family and the ATP.

"We know he will fight this terrible disease every step of the way, and have our full support for whatever he needs," she said.

Drewett's one year in the job was not an easy one. Within days of taking the job, he was forced to reduce tensions after rumors of a potential player strike surfaced at Melbourne Park.

Most of the complaints were about compensation for the lower-ranked players, and for increased prize money for the earlier rounds of Grand Slams, both of which have been addressed and improved at this year's Australian Open.

And beginning this year, the ATP decided to more strictly enforce the 25-second rule between points in an effort to speed up play.

On Saturday, Drewett said he planned to meet with the players to discuss the rule tightening.

"It's only been two weeks, and like anything else, change takes time and for the players to adjust," Drewett said. "So I'll have a better idea of how they feel after that. I've heard some reports, but it will be good to get the players' feedback directly."


Such a shame....just as things started moving in the right direction!
Ljubicic for the job

Yes I agree it is a real shame. HOwever I think teh one replacing him will carry on the good work.



Certainly a big fan of Ljubo and now that Nadal is not around would be a good time to step in.

Bring in the Ljub!

Nole and Pete to team up in doubles against Brian Bros at an exo in LA on the 4th of March

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/news/20130118/djokovic-sampras-team-for-doubles-exhibition/

Tennis to step up drug fight in light of Lance Armstrong scandal:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/21139622

luvsports! wrote:Tennis to step up drug fight in light of Lance Armstrong scandal:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/21139622

Again conflicting messages: Forget says there are dopers, Navratilova says there aren't.

There is no need why sport should not be clean, esp tennis. It does not gain quality by doping. There are no record breaking incentives like in athletics.
If the system was more transparent, it would be a lot easier.
But we know what happened to Agassi, and that has caused irepairable damage to trust in ATP. The onus is on them to restore our faith in them.
There is no doubt a lot of them are very fit, the saint Federer said they are all fit enough to play 7 5 setters in a slam.

luvsports! wrote:Tennis to step up drug fight in light of Lance Armstrong scandal:
[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/21139622

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/21139622[/quote[/url]]

Yes it's all coming out now. Intersting read. And as I said anti-doping has gone backward recently (following a discussion with LK).

how recent is recently? in what sport?

noleisthebest wrote:

luvsports! wrote:Tennis to step up drug fight in light of Lance Armstrong scandal:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/21139622

Again conflicting messages: Forget says there are dopers, Navratilova says there aren't.

There is no need why sport should not be clean, esp tennis. It does not gain quality by doping. There are no record breaking incentives like in athletics..

But tennis is not about quality anymore, it's about quantity. It's all about how many long rallies and how many sets you can sustain!

The onus is on them to restore our faith in them.

I think it's our job to appreciate talent and technique over purely physical performance nowadays. If we prefer McDonalds over a good healthy food, it's not McDonalds problem.

luvsports! wrote:how recent is recently? in what sport?

I was talking tennis. I am convinced that the ATP/ITF did not want to disrupt Nadal's regime and they would have done anything not to be put in a situation like Agassi...so they woudl have prefered not caught dopers than catching them and then having to hide the tests like with Agassi or UCI in cycling.

Tenez wrote: I think it's our job to appreciate talent and technique over purely physical performance nowadays. If we prefer McDonalds over a good healthy food, it's not McDonalds problem.

Is that why your favourite match-up is Federer-Nadal?

It would actually be Fed v Nalby or even Coria but I quite like the Fed nadal match cause Nadal's spins are the best challenge for Fed's timing. When he manages to time that ball it's a great joy to watch. Kind of caviar on toast...toast being Nadal.

Lovely news!
Justine Henin has become a mum to a baby girl

I am so happy for her, as her own mum died when she was little.

noleisthebest wrote:Lovely news!
Justine Henin has become a mum to a baby girl

I am so happy for her, as her own mum died when she was little.

Very nice, congratulation to great tennis mum

Great news!
ATP tournament in Stuttgart is switching to grass from 2015.
This should make the grass season a week longer as Stuttgart follows RG immediately on the calendar.

Berdych refused to play DC in Kazachstan. After he has been playing seven weeks in a row, he feels tired. Good decision from him, but Czech chance to move into semi quite decreased.

enter rosol

luvsports! wrote:enter rosol

He will be the first player for sure. Stepanek is going to play the double after 7 weeks after a disc surgery. That does not look good with our chance. Rosol has a game, but his mental approach to tennis is very poor. At least it will be the change and perhaps some fun with Rosol and Step in the double.

Ivo Karlovic suffered mild form of brain stroke and has been hospitalized in Miami.

Get well soon, Ivo!

Take a deep, deep breath: Nadal playing Basel this year!

http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013/04/nadal-play-federers-hometown-swiss-indoors/47236/#.UX54uXDRfzI

Impressive forearms on that pictures. He looks more and more a bodybuilder.

It;s going to be interesting to see what he can do with those big muscles on that relatively fast surface.

This may explain why he's playing there this year:

http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013/04/basel-tournament-director-federer-refused-our-offer/47250/#.UX7RvnDRfzI

just as I was hoping to see a trouncing....

Today is the 20th anniversary of Monica Seles's stabbing. I remember watching the match and the horror I felt when I saw the stabbing. I thought the maniac killed her at first.
I thought she was never going to come back.
He did not kill her and she did come back, but somehow, it was not her any more.
In some strange way she really died 20 years ago. So terribly sad.

http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013/04/20-years-later-remembering-monica-seless-stabbing/47277/#.UX_0cXDRfzI

Very sad news, Brad Drewitt died today at the age of 54.
Tennis fans will remember him as a man who loved the game and looked after it.

Another reminder that every day of our life is a gift that should not be taken for granted.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/tennis/atp-chairman-brad-drewett-dies-at-age-54-after-battle-with-motor-neurone-disease/story-e6frfgao-1226635040289

Ouah....very sad and so soon after he annouced the illness.

RIP!

Maria Sharapova has got a new........coach.

It's Jimmy Connors  .

http://www1.skysports.com/tennis/news/12040/8821854/Jimmy-Connors-to-coach-Maria-Sharapova

wow. did not see that partnership haha.
Connors was way b4 my time but when he commentated in 07 for the bbc i was so annoyed with his constant "mmm" ing after a good shot. that is all.

I think the reason why Sharapova hired Connors is she wants to beat Serena badly.
They have played several finals this year, and Sharapova lost them all, and after the twitter/press pre-Wimbledon verbal catfight they had (Grigor Dimitrov who used to date Serena as well in the past, got drawn in and branded a "black-hearted boyfriend" by his ex), so yes, the king of winning ugly seems to be the choice for Sharapova, he is going to turn Maria into a real bad girl now. 

Can't wait for USO 

Not strictly tennis news but I am off on my travels 2mo!!!! SO EXCITED!!! EEEEE!! 

Up at 5 flight at 7.20 to amsterdam, 3 nights there, 3 nights in prague, 2 nights in vienna, 3 nights in budapest then meeting up with the fam for 12 days in croatia, DREAM LAND!

Hope everyone has a good summer and I'll be back on here 2nd week of august or so, take care otf peeps!!!
To play me off here is my fav song of all time, take it away guys!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru732pStGcU

Enjoy your journey LS!

Whereabouts are you going in Croatia?
I've been there many times, but not planning to go back.

Thanks! take care buddy!
Dubrovnik and some islands i think, cannot wait

luvsports! wrote:Thanks! take care buddy!
Dubrovnik and some islands i think, cannot wait

Good choice!
Dubrovnik is very beautiful, and there is one gorgeous island nearby, called Mljet, make sure you get there whatever you do, the sea is to DIE FOR!!!

Locals are lazy and run the business on the principle: the world will never run out of tourists, so poor value for money in restaurants, best make your own stuff, supermarkets are ok.

http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013/07/murphy-jensen-paes-federer-wtt/48353/

I was pleased to read this short article. I always thought Leander Paes was an amazing talent just limited at singles due to his physique and fitness.

Some of doubles players develop such great feel for the court and game, they are much more fun when they play singles than the actual singles players.
I saw Zimonjic play singles for Serbia once (I think everyone else was injured) and he looked a bit like a dinosaur speed and fitness wise, but the game was great!

There is probably no doping among  doubles players, so you get the idea how much the rest have "moved on" when you compare both how they look and play.
Although, to be fair to the single players, doubles probably don't train as hard on their fitness.

I am not sure about no doping in doubles but you are right it's more of a ball striking game and where most of the talent is nowadays.

Do you think so?
That's really bad if it's come to doubles players to dope...next thing it will be coaches 

Not sure that this qualifies as "news" but still fascinating to read...


"I talk to Rafa during matches. I know that it’s not allowed but I think that at my age I have nothing to hide,"Toni told the Spanish journalist David Nadal.
Toni Nadal added that he sees little value in using sports psychologists, and added, "In the tennis world, those who are mentally stronger, are also technically stronger."


So is ATP going to say/do anything?
What a complete joke....

Full interview:
http://www.menorca.info/menorca/472207/perder/ninguna/tragedia/asume/entrenar