Tennis-X Notes: Blake Folding Chair Act, Wooo Maria!
Posted on July 1, 2006DAILY TENNIS-X E-NEWSLETTER
Who cares if you need it or not, show your love for Tennis-X, contribute to the fund, only eight bucks for one year of daily tennis news! Pay as you go! You know you want to. Bring a friend. Preferably a girlfriend. Read what tennis industry insiders read each morning to get their heads around the latest news, insight and opinion on pro tennis. A year's subscription costs less than a meal and a pint. Get the Tennis-X Daily Dish in your e-mail in-box, even before it's posted on the web, by signing up for the net's most complete daily e-newsletter at http://www.tennis-x.com/subscribe.php
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Andy Murray got a nice raise in signing an extension to his sponsorship agreement with the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which began the partnership in 2004 when he was a junior...Is ESPN's Brad Gilbert just pretending to be drunk on-air? Props to Cliffy for putting up with that for almost a week now, with Brad even "shushing" Cliff on Friday...Tough year so far for SI.com's S.L. Price at Wimbledon -- lots of swings and misses for a writer who usually consistently hits the long ball...U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe, speaking to ESPN on James Blake's inexplicable collapse Friday, winning only one game over the final two sets: "I wish I knew. He got really down on himself and...the fifth set is all about guts and heart. He's got to look in the mirror a little bit, but James is too good a player and has showed too much in the past year to not be able to figure this out."...ESPN's Pam Shriver's insight into the Andre Agassi v Rafael Nadal match: "Well, I can tell you a lot of people will be watching. Grass is Nadal's worst surface and Saturday is an opportunity for Agassi to pull a rabbit out of his hat and take it to him." -- Mmmm mmm insightful. More from Shriver on the dispute that the women's product is not as competitive: "Justine Henin-Hardenne lost here in the first round last year. Which side is more in doubt this year, women or men? The most predictable thing in tennis is Roger Federer on grass. Is anybody complaining about his quick matches? It's like that with Justine, too. When she plays well, it's beautiful to watch. Stop picking on the women." -- C'mon Pam, picking as an example the Wimbledon match last year where Henin was playing with a hamstring injury, subsequently taking seven weeks off to heal it? Weak...From the AndyRoddick.com staff: "When asked to reflect on where American tennis was in relation to the French Open, poker buff Andy Roddick quipped, "We're playing a 7-2 off suit against pocket aces right now." Roddick's cool commentary made him sound like a total "you-gotta-know-when-to-hold-em" poker wiz. But the Bryan Bros. were cautionary, claiming they hadn't lost much money to Andy. "He's not that great. He thinks he's good. He's overrated. James Blake's the one. He's won like almost 35 grand this year. He plays the big stakes. He's smart. He waits it out. He plays those $5 tournaments. The winner gets like 10 grand. That's his second career. He doesn't play for free. We just play for like $5. He only plays for money." Blake himself said that Roddick -- who is tight with former World Series of Poker champ Phil Hellmuth Jr. -- is about a 6 on a scale of 10. "He has some work to do," said Blake with a smile."...Greg Garber pounding the keyboard for ESPN.com: "Justine Henin-Hardenne was serving for the first set against Anna Chakvetadze on Friday, hurtling toward another sub-30-minute frame, when chair umpire Roland Herfel interjected, "Stop! Stop! Stop!" A ball girl, feeling the extreme heat of the day, had swooned on the baseline. It took several minutes to hydrate her and administer medical attention. It was the only thing that effectively slowed Henin-Hardenne. Chakvetadze is a formidable player seeded No. 30 and ranked No. 34 in the world. Yet Henin-Hardenne swept her aside, 6-2, 6-3, in a tidy 66 minutes. For the record, Henin-Hardenne is 19-0 in Grand Slam third-round matches, a tribute to her focus and resolve -- and the precipitous plunge in talent past the top handful of players. There is almost always an air of predictability in the early rounds of a Grand Slam, particularly on the women's side. The top seeds play against qualifiers and players with rankings 100 places below their own. But this year at Wimbledon, the disparity has been enormous."...From the Andy Murray blog: "I realise my hair's a bit of a state but it doesn't really phase me too much. Why get a hair cut when you can just put a cap on? Its cheaper to buy a cap than pay for half a dozen haircuts a year! At 2 o'clock I had to do a 15 minute autograph signing session for the ATP. One guy came up and I had signed for him at Queens so many times. He came to the front of the queue and shoved about 10 pictures under my nose. I told him I had signed about 15 pics for him at Queens and then the guy from the ATP came up and yanked him away saying "This is an autograph signing session not a money making venture for you!" As I walked away some more people came up and asked for autographs and the guy is there again with his ten pics. I was like "No I've done loads for you...but I'll sign for 50% of the profits." Bet they end up on ebay. Had lunch. Back to the flat...no keys. No idea where they are. Maybe Natalie nicked them out of my bag when she was leaving her phone number! Chucked my bag over the security fence and went to Starbucks till my mum came up with another set."...John McEnroe, not too high on Andy Roddick right now, writes for the BBC that he is fodder for Andy Murray: "If Andy Roddick is not playing as well as we know he can, then Andy Murray is capable of pulling off a big upset in the third round at Wimbledon. Murray has played and beaten the American before, I was there at that match in San Jose and Murray outfoxed him. He needs to play that cat-and-mouse style again on Centre Court because Roddick doesn't really like that kind of play."...David Nalbandian was granted an early start request Friday at Wimbledon so he could watch the Argentine World Cup match...From the blogging Mike Bryan: "So we had a quick practice and then rushed from the court and went up to eat. We could look down to the courts and see the men's match. When we saw [Andrei] Pavel -- a baseliner -- serving and volleying on first and second serves we thought, That's a little weird. He called for the trainer and we said 'Oh, crap.' He catches the ball on his toss, shakes his head and we knew we were in trouble. We threw down a few bites of chicken and potatoes and were told we had 45 minutes to be ready to play. We needed to shower and do our grips -- go through our normal routine. So when we took the court we were hoping for a quick match because we didn't have a lot of food in our stomachs and we end up playing for four hours! We were thinking about making Wimbledon history by calling for a pizza at the changeover. One thing that saved us were the Powergel Gus (pronounced gooz) I had in my bag. There were about 15 and we went through them all. They are like straight sugar and carbohydrates and you're supposed to take one every 45 minutes, but we were sucking 'em down like candy. I'm still shaking now! We also probably ate 10 bananas out there trying to keep our energy level up."...From the old-school no-nonsense tennis writer Charlie Bricker: "Bethanie Mattek loves having a great time with tennis and clothes, but she's got to learn to pick her spots. Beth, this is Wimbledon. What are you doing with that get-up? Let me pass on a piece of advice once enunciated by Tom Landry, the great Dallas Cowboys coach: "Act like you've been there before." Even if you haven't been." -- C'mon Brick, that's been about the most exciting thing to happen on the women's side in week one...From the BBC: "Three hundred boxes of champagne which have a retail value of more than 90,000 (BP) have been stolen from the Wimbledon tennis tournament. Thieves posing as contractors collected the consignment on Wednesday night. When another lorry arrived to collect the champagne, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) realised the "contractors" were impostors. The boxes contained bottles of Lanson, which are sold for ?50 each. Police said there was "no breach of security."...Mardy Fish coach Todd Martin on the equal pay issue, type-chatting and answering fan questions on ESPN.com: "Got in trouble for this issue last year. However, my position has not changed. I think it would be fine if there was equal pay, but I think it is fine that there is not equal pay too. The men play much longer and (I am pretty confident) that they bring more fans in the grounds, but again, IF WIMBY WANTS EQUAL PAY...THAT WOULD BE FINE WITH ME."...From The Times' Alyson Rudd: "For a former champion, the Wimbledon crowds do not know quite what to make of [Maria] Sharapova, 19. Once a player has won the championship, they automatically qualify for either a much-loved status or a much-respected one. However, the No 4 seed is still so young, so feisty, so fresh-faced that you can never be sure if you are watching the finished article or a player in transition...as is always the case with Sharapova, the crowd was stunned by the grunts that do not really go with the dress and the golden tan. During the fifth game, the spectators on No 1 Court caught the giggles as Sharapova's grunts suddenly changed. "Whooo," she wailed, then self-consciously stopped as the laughter rang out."
Who cares if you need it or not, show your love for Tennis-X, contribute to the fund, only eight bucks for one year of daily tennis news! Pay as you go! You know you want to. Bring a friend. Preferably a girlfriend. Read what tennis industry insiders read each morning to get their heads around the latest news, insight and opinion on pro tennis. A year's subscription costs less than a meal and a pint. Get the Tennis-X Daily Dish in your e-mail in-box, even before it's posted on the web, by signing up for the net's most complete daily e-newsletter at http://www.tennis-x.com/subscribe.php
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Andy Murray got a nice raise in signing an extension to his sponsorship agreement with the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which began the partnership in 2004 when he was a junior...Is ESPN's Brad Gilbert just pretending to be drunk on-air? Props to Cliffy for putting up with that for almost a week now, with Brad even "shushing" Cliff on Friday...Tough year so far for SI.com's S.L. Price at Wimbledon -- lots of swings and misses for a writer who usually consistently hits the long ball...U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe, speaking to ESPN on James Blake's inexplicable collapse Friday, winning only one game over the final two sets: "I wish I knew. He got really down on himself and...the fifth set is all about guts and heart. He's got to look in the mirror a little bit, but James is too good a player and has showed too much in the past year to not be able to figure this out."...ESPN's Pam Shriver's insight into the Andre Agassi v Rafael Nadal match: "Well, I can tell you a lot of people will be watching. Grass is Nadal's worst surface and Saturday is an opportunity for Agassi to pull a rabbit out of his hat and take it to him." -- Mmmm mmm insightful. More from Shriver on the dispute that the women's product is not as competitive: "Justine Henin-Hardenne lost here in the first round last year. Which side is more in doubt this year, women or men? The most predictable thing in tennis is Roger Federer on grass. Is anybody complaining about his quick matches? It's like that with Justine, too. When she plays well, it's beautiful to watch. Stop picking on the women." -- C'mon Pam, picking as an example the Wimbledon match last year where Henin was playing with a hamstring injury, subsequently taking seven weeks off to heal it? Weak...From the AndyRoddick.com staff: "When asked to reflect on where American tennis was in relation to the French Open, poker buff Andy Roddick quipped, "We're playing a 7-2 off suit against pocket aces right now." Roddick's cool commentary made him sound like a total "you-gotta-know-when-to-hold-em" poker wiz. But the Bryan Bros. were cautionary, claiming they hadn't lost much money to Andy. "He's not that great. He thinks he's good. He's overrated. James Blake's the one. He's won like almost 35 grand this year. He plays the big stakes. He's smart. He waits it out. He plays those $5 tournaments. The winner gets like 10 grand. That's his second career. He doesn't play for free. We just play for like $5. He only plays for money." Blake himself said that Roddick -- who is tight with former World Series of Poker champ Phil Hellmuth Jr. -- is about a 6 on a scale of 10. "He has some work to do," said Blake with a smile."...Greg Garber pounding the keyboard for ESPN.com: "Justine Henin-Hardenne was serving for the first set against Anna Chakvetadze on Friday, hurtling toward another sub-30-minute frame, when chair umpire Roland Herfel interjected, "Stop! Stop! Stop!" A ball girl, feeling the extreme heat of the day, had swooned on the baseline. It took several minutes to hydrate her and administer medical attention. It was the only thing that effectively slowed Henin-Hardenne. Chakvetadze is a formidable player seeded No. 30 and ranked No. 34 in the world. Yet Henin-Hardenne swept her aside, 6-2, 6-3, in a tidy 66 minutes. For the record, Henin-Hardenne is 19-0 in Grand Slam third-round matches, a tribute to her focus and resolve -- and the precipitous plunge in talent past the top handful of players. There is almost always an air of predictability in the early rounds of a Grand Slam, particularly on the women's side. The top seeds play against qualifiers and players with rankings 100 places below their own. But this year at Wimbledon, the disparity has been enormous."...From the Andy Murray blog: "I realise my hair's a bit of a state but it doesn't really phase me too much. Why get a hair cut when you can just put a cap on? Its cheaper to buy a cap than pay for half a dozen haircuts a year! At 2 o'clock I had to do a 15 minute autograph signing session for the ATP. One guy came up and I had signed for him at Queens so many times. He came to the front of the queue and shoved about 10 pictures under my nose. I told him I had signed about 15 pics for him at Queens and then the guy from the ATP came up and yanked him away saying "This is an autograph signing session not a money making venture for you!" As I walked away some more people came up and asked for autographs and the guy is there again with his ten pics. I was like "No I've done loads for you...but I'll sign for 50% of the profits." Bet they end up on ebay. Had lunch. Back to the flat...no keys. No idea where they are. Maybe Natalie nicked them out of my bag when she was leaving her phone number! Chucked my bag over the security fence and went to Starbucks till my mum came up with another set."...John McEnroe, not too high on Andy Roddick right now, writes for the BBC that he is fodder for Andy Murray: "If Andy Roddick is not playing as well as we know he can, then Andy Murray is capable of pulling off a big upset in the third round at Wimbledon. Murray has played and beaten the American before, I was there at that match in San Jose and Murray outfoxed him. He needs to play that cat-and-mouse style again on Centre Court because Roddick doesn't really like that kind of play."...David Nalbandian was granted an early start request Friday at Wimbledon so he could watch the Argentine World Cup match...From the blogging Mike Bryan: "So we had a quick practice and then rushed from the court and went up to eat. We could look down to the courts and see the men's match. When we saw [Andrei] Pavel -- a baseliner -- serving and volleying on first and second serves we thought, That's a little weird. He called for the trainer and we said 'Oh, crap.' He catches the ball on his toss, shakes his head and we knew we were in trouble. We threw down a few bites of chicken and potatoes and were told we had 45 minutes to be ready to play. We needed to shower and do our grips -- go through our normal routine. So when we took the court we were hoping for a quick match because we didn't have a lot of food in our stomachs and we end up playing for four hours! We were thinking about making Wimbledon history by calling for a pizza at the changeover. One thing that saved us were the Powergel Gus (pronounced gooz) I had in my bag. There were about 15 and we went through them all. They are like straight sugar and carbohydrates and you're supposed to take one every 45 minutes, but we were sucking 'em down like candy. I'm still shaking now! We also probably ate 10 bananas out there trying to keep our energy level up."...From the old-school no-nonsense tennis writer Charlie Bricker: "Bethanie Mattek loves having a great time with tennis and clothes, but she's got to learn to pick her spots. Beth, this is Wimbledon. What are you doing with that get-up? Let me pass on a piece of advice once enunciated by Tom Landry, the great Dallas Cowboys coach: "Act like you've been there before." Even if you haven't been." -- C'mon Brick, that's been about the most exciting thing to happen on the women's side in week one...From the BBC: "Three hundred boxes of champagne which have a retail value of more than 90,000 (BP) have been stolen from the Wimbledon tennis tournament. Thieves posing as contractors collected the consignment on Wednesday night. When another lorry arrived to collect the champagne, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) realised the "contractors" were impostors. The boxes contained bottles of Lanson, which are sold for ?50 each. Police said there was "no breach of security."...Mardy Fish coach Todd Martin on the equal pay issue, type-chatting and answering fan questions on ESPN.com: "Got in trouble for this issue last year. However, my position has not changed. I think it would be fine if there was equal pay, but I think it is fine that there is not equal pay too. The men play much longer and (I am pretty confident) that they bring more fans in the grounds, but again, IF WIMBY WANTS EQUAL PAY...THAT WOULD BE FINE WITH ME."...From The Times' Alyson Rudd: "For a former champion, the Wimbledon crowds do not know quite what to make of [Maria] Sharapova, 19. Once a player has won the championship, they automatically qualify for either a much-loved status or a much-respected one. However, the No 4 seed is still so young, so feisty, so fresh-faced that you can never be sure if you are watching the finished article or a player in transition...as is always the case with Sharapova, the crowd was stunned by the grunts that do not really go with the dress and the golden tan. During the fifth game, the spectators on No 1 Court caught the giggles as Sharapova's grunts suddenly changed. "Whooo," she wailed, then self-consciously stopped as the laughter rang out."