Tennis-X March Notes Wrap-Up

Justine Henin retakes the No. 1 ranking without playing at Indian Wells as Maria Sharapova comes up short of the title in only her third appearance in a tournament on the year without a title. Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova moved to a career-high No. 3 after the Indian Wells event...Roger Federer and Tiger Woods will both be competing in events in Miami this week, with both saying they will attempt to see one another in action...Guillermo Canas, Roger Federer's conqueror at Indian Wells, has won his first two qualifying matches this week at Miami...From Tennisnews.com: "Organisers of the Liverpool International Tennis Tournament, Northern Vision, announce today that former British number one and Davis Cup anchor man, Greg Rusedski, will enter the ATP event at this year's tournament, due to take place June 12th?17th at Calderstones Park, Liverpool." -- The ATP will also be interested to know that is one of their events that they apparently forgot to put on their calendar...Michael Chang is being lined up to coach one of China's top women's tennis hopes for the 2008 Olympic Games. Chang is already working with 21-year-old Peng Shuai according to the China Daily...From Tennis.com: "Aravane Rezai and her father Arsalan have been banned from using the tennis facilities at Roland Garros for two years after a violent incident involving Arsalan and French Fed Cup captain Georges Goven. Aravane will still be able to compete at Roland Garros during the two weeks of the French Open but her father, who serves as her coach, will not be allowed on the grounds."...Guillermo Coria will play the Marrakech Challenger in April...Roger Federer speaking with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa: "I am very far from being the best tennis player of all time. Of course I have clearly earned the praise and all that, but at times I wish people gave me a bit more time and said, 'OK, you do great stuff, etcetera, records, etcetera, but we will only evaluate you after the end of your career and only then look at whether you really were the best or even came close.' If I keep on like this for the next two years, then it looks like I will be (the best). But we are not going to see that for a long time. One must always look at the game this way -- if I stopped (playing) now, would I be the best player of all time? No, not a chance."...Mardy Fish has pulled from Miami with a shoulder injury...The Stella Artois Championships will be renamed The Artois Championships after the company introduced two new developments to the Artois family of beers 'La Famille Artois' -- Peeterman Artois, Peeterman Artois, a lager, and Artois Bock, a blend of three malts. Stella Artois has been the title sponsor of the ATP grasscourt event for the last 28 years, held at the Queen's Club in London June 11-17...Maria Sharapova on attending the Vanity Fair post-Oscars party: "That's probably one of the biggest parties of the year and everyone is made-up. Everything is gorgeous, everything is amazing. The only thing was they were serving In-N-Out Burgers. It seemed out of place, but that's OK...It's not my type of scene, but very cool to see. You have Madonna on one side, Gwyneth Paltrow on the other, and then you have Gwen Stefani. You're like, 'OK, I'm not used to this. This is not my type of world.'"...Guillermo Canas speaking with Tennis.com on being back on tour and appearing at this year's US Open after previously being banned from the site after a doping charge: "This one is so strange because if I have a good year, when I go back the same people who were trying to [prosecute] me, they'll kiss my balls. It's gonna be fun for me."...Former No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten on the Roger Federer vs. Pete Sampras debate: "Looking head to head, I thought Sampras had the better shot for me. As he [Federer] has been growing better and better, I'm sure he's getting close...By the record and the numbers, he's breaking down one after the other. I think -- in one or two years, he's going to be the best player in tennis ever."...The South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Charlie Bricker on the Roger Federer vs. Tiger Woods debate: "I can't weigh in on the question of who is the more dominant athlete, Tiger Woods or Roger Federer, because I don't consider golfers to be athletes. Golf is a great game, and so is billiards and bowling, and there may be athletes that play golf. But golf doesn't require athletic ability to play. Tennis does..."...James Blake, one of many players bucking ATP Chairman Etienne de Villier's desire to force the top players to play all eight of the Masters Series events on the new ATP calendar: "To make us play eight out of eight will be a very tough ask, especially all over the world. This all seems really harsh, we'll have to talk about it in Miami. It's still our tour, we're the players and we need to make the decisions that are going to benefit us. We need to make sure that we find a compromise, a middle ground." And Andy Roddick on the proposed penalization for players missing events under the new system, even with injury: "The whole goal is to keep top players in events. If they don't show up for one, you suspend them from another? I don't see how that's keeping your top players in events, we'll see how that works. You can't set it in stone, there are a lot of grey areas. You're gonna get suspended because you have a sprained ankle and they want an MRI as proof? You can't take injuries out of the equation when you're playing a sport."...Tennisreporters.net's Matt Cronin on the decision-making process at the round robin debacle in Las Vegas: "ATP CEO Etienne de Villiers actually called [Roger] Federer in Dubai during the controversy to get his take on the situation and the Swiss didn't appear sympathetic. de Villiers had first decided against ATP rules that [James] Blake should get through and then reversed himself. "Your problem, you know," Federer told the CEO. "I'm over here. He apologized. I think it's terrible what happened. I didn't decide anything, I was just listening."...Rafael Nadal speaking with The Times on leading the player resistance of the ATP possibly doing away with the Monte Carlo and Hamburg Masters Series events: "A lot of the claycourt players are unhappy. We have more players to talk to and we will see what we can do. It is a very important part of the season for so many players and the tournaments in Europe are the very best."...The WTA will announce at the end of March or early April its 2009 calendar in two weeks with Madrid and Rome, and Shanghai and Beijing contenders for the nine-day combined men's and women's tournaments, according to Reuters. The European events would take place prior to the French Open and the China tournament later in the year. Participation in the tournaments are to be mandatory for the top players...From LA Times tennis writer Lisa Dillman: "Larry Scott, chief executive of the women's tour, met with reporters [at Indian Wells] and painted an optimistic picture of his organization's efforts to revamp the 2009 tour calendar. He said progress has been made in negotiations with the U.S. Tennis Assn., which has held reservations about the changes. A less rosy view comes from the USTA. It owns the New Haven tournament and is a part owner of Carson, along with AEG. Those two events have not applied for slots on the 2009 calendar and USTA spokesperson Chris Widmaier said that, "Carson and New Haven will apply only when the remaining issues between the USTA and the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour are settled."...The Globe and Mail's Tom Tebbutt on struggling Argentines Guillermo Coria and Mariano Puerta: "The elite of men's tennis [were] gathered in the sunny California desert in Indian Wells, but two of their brethren [were] absent. Argentines Guillermo Coria and Mariano Puerta were finalists at the French Open in 2004 and 2005, respectively, and their cautionary tales are sobering. Coria had the 2004 final comfortably in hand, leading compatriot Gaston Gaudio 6-0, 6-3, only to suffer nervous cramps in his legs and lose a heartbreaker, 8-6 in the fifth set. Puerta, a surprise finalist in 2005, played an inspired match before losing 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-1, 7-5 to an emerging dynamo named Rafael Nadal. A look at the ATP rankings reveals Coria at No. 150 and Puerta nowhere because he was suspended in December of 2005 for a second drug infraction. News from Argentina is that they have been practicing together as they prepare to return to the tour. Coria has been out of action since last year's US Open mainly because of shoulder problems related to surgery in August of 2004. He plans to play the U.S. Clay Courts in Houston next month."...Croat Ivan Ljubicic on the changes in pro tennis: "ATP is always trying to do something new, trying to improve the sport. ITF is sitting there waiting [for the] ATP to do things and just kind of resisting on anything, any change. They never want to accept any changes, even the positive ones, like, I think super tiebreaker in doubles and stuff like that. But I don't mind testing things and trying things. The round robin, we tested it. We figured out it's not working, so we probably gonna get rid of it. I think in the future we gonna improve our sport, trying to improve it, not just, you know, sitting there and waiting to see what's gonna happen."...Nicole Vaidisova on her new sponsorship deal with Citizen watches and wearing a watch during a match: "Yeah, it's more like a fashion accessory. I like the diamonds in it, so I'm a diamonds person. So I like the way it glitters. But, I mean, sometimes you need to know the time, right, so..."...Andre Agassi and Marcelo Rios will reportedly play an exhibition in Chile on March 30, possibly to be shown live on ESPN...Roland Garros caved last week as the final Slam to get in line for equal prize money for men and women.