Tennis-X.com Notes: Sharapova Illegal Coaching
Posted on September 7, 2006DAILY TENNIS-X E-NEWSLETTER
A round-up of what's going on in the sport each morning in your e-mail box. 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. Less than a trip to Starbucks. The question is, how can you afford not to subscribe? 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 Roddick is back after his almost-year-long slump, and has now won five straight sets over Lleyton Hewitt following Wednesday night's straight-set beat-down...Playing before noon, Andy Murray won exactly one game in two sets against Nikolay Davydenko. Davydenko has played in all but one of all possible tour weeks this year, though the Russian is quick to remind people he's not getting to the finals like Roger Federer in every event...Tommy Haas has won his last two matches in fifth-set tiebreaks...Can you name the last time a Grand Slam match on center court went to a fifth-set tiebreak before Wednesday?...The Weather now looks good for Thursday and Friday...James Blake successfully backed up his quarterfinal Open run a year ago. Blake also saved 15 of 15 break points in his win over Tomas Berdych...The Bryans were up a set and a break when their rain-suspended match against Mikhail Youzhny and Leos Friedl resumed. An hour later their run of seven straight Slam finals was over...Rafael Nadal has never won a title in the U.S., reaching the finals at Miami in 2005...Has a player ever beaten the No. 2-ranked singles player then the top-ranked doubles team in one day? Mikhail Youzhny did it...Here's Andy Roddick Foundation -benefit star Lionel Richie: "God always gives you a great equalizer. He gives you 'Dancing on the Ceiling' and then he gives you Nicole." -- Wish he didn't give us either...From Andy Murray: "You can't say, you know, that a couple of points are gonna completely change a match." -- Uhh, yes you can...Nikolay Davydenko on why playing so many tournaments week-in and week-out is important: "Okay, how I do? I can prepare before -- preparation before big tournament. Yeah, for me, important to play some small tournament like New Haven, or Sydney or something like in Australia before Grand Slam. If I play good there, I come into. Like, it's happening. Like this year I play Sydney semifinal. Come into Australian Open, play quarters. That's was. Play Roland Garros. Win tournament before Roland Garros, play good Roland Garros. It was winning New Haven, feeling good here, it was playing good here. Because, like, I think confidence for winning tournament or play good. You come in for the next tournament, you have the same ball, same surface that was. And, okay, it was important to win first round in Grand Slam. That's where you play better and better."...During her two-tiebreak win over Tatiana Golovin, host broadcaster USA Network ran hilarious footage of Maria Sharapova's dad Yuri illegally coaching her from the stands, signalling her to eat a banana, then to drink a mysterious elixir from a small vial...Against James Blake, Roger Federer bids to reach his tenth successive Grand Slam semifinal and thus equal Ivan Lendl's Open Era record. Federer is on a 26-match winning streak against American opponents. Federer has reached the quarterfinals without losing a set, and no man has ever won the US Open without dropping a set, according to the USTA...James Blake is 1-7 vs. the No. 1-ranked player during his career...From tennis blogger Charlie Bricker: "It took about two games for me to fix on his opponent, 6-foot-2 Aussie Greg Jones, who not only hits in the 125-130 mph range with his first serve, but who throws in first serve kickers and first serve slices into the deuce court. You don't see that often from juniors, but this 17-year-old, who is being coached by the Australian pit bull, Wally Masur, is way out in front of the curve mentally. He won 6-1, 6-2 to move into the third round today against Donald Young. If the United States is thin on juniors who could reach the top-20, Australia is destitute. I asked one Aussie reporter here covering the Open what he knew about Jones and his one-word reply was, "Who?" Kids who have shot up to Jones' size tend to have growing pains, but this teenager moves smoothly around the court and has no trepidation attacking inside the baseline. He's extremely aggressive. After the match he explained that this is his first trip to the United States and that he's already begun to think that it might be to his advantage to move his training headquarters from Sydney to the U.S., though he might finish high school first."...From Eric Kay, a SPiN columnist run on CBSportsline.com, commenting on a sport he doesn't have a grasp of: "Now, Rafael Nadal is sexy. But Nadal's a soccer player stuck running baselines, not goal lines. Every French Open, Patrick McEnroe, Billy Jean King and Brad Gilbert feel the need to inform us of Nadal's first passion. Tennis is a paycheck to the Spaniard, not so much a Tiger-esque mission in life. Let's say for a second it is his passion. No next-great-one will come from Spain. Spain's a great place, it used to be the center of the world 500 years ago. But now it's known more for flaccid futbol and flan than it is for tennis. Plus, tennis' next-great-one can't be born on a clay court. We've tried that with Alberto Costa, Carlos Moya and Nadal. We hear the same thing over and over: They can't win on surfaces other than clay. It's like trying to make an argument for the NFL's Colts or Rams. It's tough to put the kitty on a team that plays a majority of its games inside on turf when you know the biggest games -- playoff football -- will likely be played outdoors and on grass." -- Newsflash Eric, Nadal and Moya have won major titles on hardcourt, and Nadal was just in the Wimbledon final. Back to writing golf and football...From Rismedia.com: "Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf, through their company Agassi Graf Development LLC, and Miami-based Bayview Financial LP, finalized an agreement to develop a luxury mountain project, Fairmont Tamarack, at Tamarack Resort, located in Donnelly, Idaho -- the nation's newest all-season resort. Fairmont Hotels and Resorts will manage the luxury hotel and residences, featuring two locations: a classic resort and spa located in Tamarack's village and a mid-mountain site."...From the AP: "Italian tennis player Giulia Casoni tested positive for a banned substance and has been suspended pending an inquiry into the case. Casoni tested positive for Formoterolo -- a stimulant used in asthma treatment -- at a tournament in the Adriatic resort of Pesaro on July 28, the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) said Wednesday."...Mikhail Youzhny has never won a hardcourt title, with both his career championships coming on indoor carpet...Amelie Mauresmo says the US Open, not one of her favorite Slams, is beginning to look OK: "Personally I'm getting used to it. Like the other night (against Serena Williams) -- the night session. I really started to love that and to enjoy that because it's true that you don't have the same atmosphere than in the other Grand Slams. But there is electricity going on. Before maybe I felt not so comfortable with that. I feel today it's really much, much better."
A round-up of what's going on in the sport each morning in your e-mail box. 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. Less than a trip to Starbucks. The question is, how can you afford not to subscribe? 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 Roddick is back after his almost-year-long slump, and has now won five straight sets over Lleyton Hewitt following Wednesday night's straight-set beat-down...Playing before noon, Andy Murray won exactly one game in two sets against Nikolay Davydenko. Davydenko has played in all but one of all possible tour weeks this year, though the Russian is quick to remind people he's not getting to the finals like Roger Federer in every event...Tommy Haas has won his last two matches in fifth-set tiebreaks...Can you name the last time a Grand Slam match on center court went to a fifth-set tiebreak before Wednesday?...The Weather now looks good for Thursday and Friday...James Blake successfully backed up his quarterfinal Open run a year ago. Blake also saved 15 of 15 break points in his win over Tomas Berdych...The Bryans were up a set and a break when their rain-suspended match against Mikhail Youzhny and Leos Friedl resumed. An hour later their run of seven straight Slam finals was over...Rafael Nadal has never won a title in the U.S., reaching the finals at Miami in 2005...Has a player ever beaten the No. 2-ranked singles player then the top-ranked doubles team in one day? Mikhail Youzhny did it...Here's Andy Roddick Foundation -benefit star Lionel Richie: "God always gives you a great equalizer. He gives you 'Dancing on the Ceiling' and then he gives you Nicole." -- Wish he didn't give us either...From Andy Murray: "You can't say, you know, that a couple of points are gonna completely change a match." -- Uhh, yes you can...Nikolay Davydenko on why playing so many tournaments week-in and week-out is important: "Okay, how I do? I can prepare before -- preparation before big tournament. Yeah, for me, important to play some small tournament like New Haven, or Sydney or something like in Australia before Grand Slam. If I play good there, I come into. Like, it's happening. Like this year I play Sydney semifinal. Come into Australian Open, play quarters. That's was. Play Roland Garros. Win tournament before Roland Garros, play good Roland Garros. It was winning New Haven, feeling good here, it was playing good here. Because, like, I think confidence for winning tournament or play good. You come in for the next tournament, you have the same ball, same surface that was. And, okay, it was important to win first round in Grand Slam. That's where you play better and better."...During her two-tiebreak win over Tatiana Golovin, host broadcaster USA Network ran hilarious footage of Maria Sharapova's dad Yuri illegally coaching her from the stands, signalling her to eat a banana, then to drink a mysterious elixir from a small vial...Against James Blake, Roger Federer bids to reach his tenth successive Grand Slam semifinal and thus equal Ivan Lendl's Open Era record. Federer is on a 26-match winning streak against American opponents. Federer has reached the quarterfinals without losing a set, and no man has ever won the US Open without dropping a set, according to the USTA...James Blake is 1-7 vs. the No. 1-ranked player during his career...From tennis blogger Charlie Bricker: "It took about two games for me to fix on his opponent, 6-foot-2 Aussie Greg Jones, who not only hits in the 125-130 mph range with his first serve, but who throws in first serve kickers and first serve slices into the deuce court. You don't see that often from juniors, but this 17-year-old, who is being coached by the Australian pit bull, Wally Masur, is way out in front of the curve mentally. He won 6-1, 6-2 to move into the third round today against Donald Young. If the United States is thin on juniors who could reach the top-20, Australia is destitute. I asked one Aussie reporter here covering the Open what he knew about Jones and his one-word reply was, "Who?" Kids who have shot up to Jones' size tend to have growing pains, but this teenager moves smoothly around the court and has no trepidation attacking inside the baseline. He's extremely aggressive. After the match he explained that this is his first trip to the United States and that he's already begun to think that it might be to his advantage to move his training headquarters from Sydney to the U.S., though he might finish high school first."...From Eric Kay, a SPiN columnist run on CBSportsline.com, commenting on a sport he doesn't have a grasp of: "Now, Rafael Nadal is sexy. But Nadal's a soccer player stuck running baselines, not goal lines. Every French Open, Patrick McEnroe, Billy Jean King and Brad Gilbert feel the need to inform us of Nadal's first passion. Tennis is a paycheck to the Spaniard, not so much a Tiger-esque mission in life. Let's say for a second it is his passion. No next-great-one will come from Spain. Spain's a great place, it used to be the center of the world 500 years ago. But now it's known more for flaccid futbol and flan than it is for tennis. Plus, tennis' next-great-one can't be born on a clay court. We've tried that with Alberto Costa, Carlos Moya and Nadal. We hear the same thing over and over: They can't win on surfaces other than clay. It's like trying to make an argument for the NFL's Colts or Rams. It's tough to put the kitty on a team that plays a majority of its games inside on turf when you know the biggest games -- playoff football -- will likely be played outdoors and on grass." -- Newsflash Eric, Nadal and Moya have won major titles on hardcourt, and Nadal was just in the Wimbledon final. Back to writing golf and football...From Rismedia.com: "Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf, through their company Agassi Graf Development LLC, and Miami-based Bayview Financial LP, finalized an agreement to develop a luxury mountain project, Fairmont Tamarack, at Tamarack Resort, located in Donnelly, Idaho -- the nation's newest all-season resort. Fairmont Hotels and Resorts will manage the luxury hotel and residences, featuring two locations: a classic resort and spa located in Tamarack's village and a mid-mountain site."...From the AP: "Italian tennis player Giulia Casoni tested positive for a banned substance and has been suspended pending an inquiry into the case. Casoni tested positive for Formoterolo -- a stimulant used in asthma treatment -- at a tournament in the Adriatic resort of Pesaro on July 28, the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) said Wednesday."...Mikhail Youzhny has never won a hardcourt title, with both his career championships coming on indoor carpet...Amelie Mauresmo says the US Open, not one of her favorite Slams, is beginning to look OK: "Personally I'm getting used to it. Like the other night (against Serena Williams) -- the night session. I really started to love that and to enjoy that because it's true that you don't have the same atmosphere than in the other Grand Slams. But there is electricity going on. Before maybe I felt not so comfortable with that. I feel today it's really much, much better."