Wimbledon Says Mens Product Superior; adidas Sues Slams

Posted on April 26, 2006

Almagro Downs Seed, Coria Next at Barcelona

Each claycourt season sees its break-out star, inevitably a Spaniard or Argentine, and 2006 looks true to form with Nicolas Almagro of Spain currently emerging from obscurity to challenge the veterans on the slow red dirt.

Almagro began the year at No. 88 on the ATP Rankings, but this week entered Barcelona at No. 57 after capturing his career-first title a couple weeks back on the clay at Valencia.

On Tuesday in Barcelona, Almagro advanced into the third round with a 6-2, 6-4 win over No. 13 seed Gael Monfils, to his delight setting up a meeting with No. 3 seed Guillermo Coria. The Argentine former Roland Garros runner-up has struggled this year with his surgically-repaired shoulder and his in-need-of-repair confidence.

Coria survived a scare Tuesday, coming from a set down to defeat Spanish wildcard Galo Blanco 6-7(4), 6-0, 6-2.

Other seeded winners on the day were (5) David Ferrer (d. Murray from a set down 6-1 in the third), (9) Tomas Berdych (d. Montanes from a set down), and (12) Fernando Verdasco (d. Vik).

"This is my best performance on clay ever by a long way," Murray told reporters. "This shows that I'm not a bad clay player. Ferrer's a Top 5 on the clay behind (Rafael) Nadal, (Roger) Federer and some other guys."

Wednesday's highlights on the Barcelona dirt include (10) Ferrero vs. A.Martin in an all-Spanish meeting, the retiring (WC) Al Costa vs. (8) Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty, (1) Nadal vs. Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez in another all-ESP, Calleri vs. (12) Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco, (9) Berdych vs. Al "The Dropshot Dragon" Portas, "Dr." Ivo Karlovic vs. (2) Davydenko, (6) Robredo vs. "You Say" Potito Starace, Volandri vs. (4) Stepanek, Kohlschreiber vs. (7) Nieminen, and the oddball doubles pairing of Justin "The Gimel-blogger" Gimelstob/Andy Murray vs. Frenchmen Paul-Henri "The Gagger Counter" Mathieu/Gael "Force" Monfils.

Wimbledon Says Sorry Birds, um, Girls, er, Ladies...

Three of the four Grand Slams, the most prestigious events in tennis, offer equal prize money to the men and women. But again in 2006, "old school" Wimbledon officials say on their lawns, men and women are not equal, and the throwbacks at the All England Club won't budge.

On Tuesday Wimbledon officials confirmed that the event many see as the pinnacle of professional tennis will again make the statement that the men's product is better than the women's, with the men receiving a slim $53,000 above the women's $1.117 million total.

"This issue is one of a judgment on fairness," said All England Club chairman Tim Phillips. "We believe that what we do at the moment is actually fair to the men as well as the women."

Phillips noted the men play best-of-five-set matches, compared to best-of-three-set for the women. One long-standing defense was that the men's product adapted to the slick surface with exciting serve-and-volley play, while the women play the same baseline style whether on clay, grass or hardcourt. But that has changed as Wimbledon officials have slowed the grasscourts over the years, giving baseliners a bigger advantage.

WTA officials, who have lobbied hard to get the final Slam holdout to cough up more dough, will now point their efforts toward a possible 2007 change.

"In the 21st century, it is morally indefensible that women competitors in a Grand Slam tournament should be receiving considerably less prize money than their male counterparts," said WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott. "Wimbledon represents so much that is good about modern British society, but inequality should not be part of the Wimbledon brand."

Massu Bakes Bagel in Opener at ATP Casablanca

Top-seeded Nicolas Massu exerted his will over German Michael Berrer 7-6(4), 6-0 to successfully open his campaign Tuesday at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Casablanca.

Other seeded players into the second round Tuesday were (2) Luis Horna (d. (Q) Peric), (3) Christophe Rochus (d. Behrend), (7) Daniele Bracciali (d. Patience), and (8) Gilles Simon (d. Hernych in three).

Moroccan wildcard Mehdi Tahiri represented Tuesday with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(2) over Austrian Oliver Marach, joined in the second round by fellow un-seeds Florian Mayer of Germany (d. (WC) Ouahab), and French wildcard Marc Gicquel (d. Tipsarevic).

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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
HEAD will produce a special ATP racquet line solely for the Chinese market...Juan Carlos Ferrero says he is playing just as well as when he topped the rankings: "I think I am playing as well as before. Whenever I play the top guys we have good matches. Last week in Monte Carlo, I played David Ferrer who is Top 10 and it was three sets. Last year I played (Roger) Federer (in Dubai) and had two match points and then at Wimbledon against him I played a really good match." -- In the coaching gig that's called the "good loser mentality," settling for losing close matches against good players, that won't get you anywhere J.C...adidas, told last May by the Grand Slam Committee that their three stripes logo was a "manufacturers' identification" and not a "design effect," has filed papers in court against the four Grand Slams and the ITF...Jurgen Melzer blogging for the ATP website: "You need only one word to describe the traffic here in Casablanca: chaotic. The most important part of the vehicle is definitely the horn. If your horn isn't working then you better not drive. If you tried to drive the way we drive in Europe you would crash every five metres. But there's no way I would rent a car and try to drive anywhere myself. I don't know if people go to driving school here but there don't seem to be any rules. They cut into lanes, run red lights and blow their horns all the time. You have to pay attention every second and there are so many cars it's a joke. Yesterday we saw an accident driving back to the hotel and we all said 'What a surprise!' The only consolation is that traffic moves so slow here that you're not in great danger of being injured in an accident. And people don't seem to care if they get a few dents and scratches on their cars...I played and won my doubles today with my countryman Julian Knowle. He seems very quiet bit he's actually one of the funniest guys I've ever met. He's always in a good mood and there is usually a little bit of sarcasm in his jokes...And now that he's stopped freaking out on the court we've been playing some good doubles. In the past if he threw in a couple of doubles to drop serve or something like that you could bet that he'd smash a ball out of the court. But these days he has mellowed."...Justin Gimelstob in Barcelona blogging for SI.com: "Sadly, when I look around the locker room, I don't see many of my compatriots. The only other American in the field is Vince Spadea, one of the few Americans who regularly head overseas early to prepare for the French Open. (Both of us were eliminated in the first round.) I'm sure many other American players would enjoy this event...All of the top American players, such as Andy Roddick, James Blake, Andre Agassi and Robby Ginepri, are under no delusions -- they are at a tremendous disadvantage on clay, especially against the elite clay-court players who grew up on the surface and are as comfortable sliding around on it as they are walking or talking. When confronted with the challenge of making their schedules, most Americans would prefer to rest up and take off some of the weeks of the clay season to be fresher for the more advantageous, fast-playing grass surface that immediately follows the French Open...Since the European clay season is the least successful for Americans, it's a logical time to take a brief respite. It's identical to some of the clay specialists taking their breaks during grass season and the beginning of the U.S. summer hard-court stretch. Tennis is too challenging, physically and mentally, to go the whole year without some calculated breaks." The Gimel-blogger also confirms that Martina Hingis is dating Radek Stepanek, the first sign of the apocalypse...Thomas Johansson speaking with Reuters on his eye condition: "I am hoping to back in Rome (on May 8) but am expecting to play in Hamburg. I still have some problems with the distance judgement and I'll go for another test in a week or two, it's likely I'll have to wear contacts. The eye will get better but probably never be entirely restored."...Justine Henin-Hardenne says on her website she is pulling from Warsaw: "I will see what my schedule shall be, there are perhaps things to alter. I cannot make a hasty decision, I will reflect, and decide what I will play before Roland Garros. Normally, it's Warsaw and Berlin, but it will probably be only one of the two tournaments. I often made very bad decisions for my calendar, and now I want to make the proper decisions; especially because of my health. I want to be physically healthy in the weeks ahead."