Tennis-X Notes: ‘Dominant’ Williams, Cocaine-kissed Gasquet
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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
WHICH WILLIAMS SISTERS ARE YOU WATCHING? — Wall Street Journal with the headline “Advantage, Williams: As they enter the U.S. Open, Venus and Serena are stronger, faster and more focused than ever. How they came back from years of inconsistency to dominate the sport” by Matthew Futterman. Wha? Dominate the sport? Neither are No. 1 ranked; between Wimbledon and the US Open Venus had a 5-3 win-loss record with no titles, and Serena was 6-3 with no titles. Domination!
BLAKE GOES SERENA MODE — From the Connecticut Post: “NEW HAVEN — The sun was lost behind a sweltering wall of humidity as the clock ticked slowly past 11:30 in the morning on Stadium Court at the Connecticut Tennis Center…[Mardy] Fish was here, practicing for the upcoming Pilot Pen Tennis tournament, while his good friend [James] Blake, from nearby Fairfield, was just practicing, period. Commitments for his upcoming new clothing line, along with other appearances he’s scheduled to make next week in New York, are preventing him from playing in the tournament he’s won twice and created a fan phenomenon — the J Block — in the process. For Fish, who lost to Blake in the 2007 Pilot Pen finals, there are no commitments for clothing lines, no personal appearances, just tennis. And maybe, just maybe, that’s why Fish is climbing up the rankings ladder and Blake is going in the opposite direction…Blake pointed a finger at the ATP, blaming the schedule — there are 1000 Masters Series events (which are mandatory for Blake) in Montreal and Cincinnati before New Haven — as reasons for his inability to include the Pilot Pen on his calendar. However, in both 2007 and 2006, Blake played Montreal, Cincinnati and New Haven back-to-back-to-back before heading to the Open.”…
BOOTY BLOG — From the blog of ATP doubles player Eric Butorac: “It was the talk of the tourney at Indy last week [the World Team Tennis altercation between Leander Paes and Robert Kendrick] and I heard the story from Chuck Adams directly (the coach you see arguing with Paes on the court). He said that Paes announced the point before he hit Kendrick that “someone was gonna get hurt out here.” But apparently Kendrick was quietly calling Paes “slumdog” during the match, which is a little out of line. Also, I guess Kendrick told McEnroe that he was “serving body…Paes’ body” before he served. Not the best way to get tennis on TV, but they say any publicity is good publicity.”…
PULLS: Dominika Cibulkova withdrew from US Open with a rib injury…
It is sad when you have to go to Wikipedia to find a champions list for the WTA New Haven event because the WTA Tour website is so bad…
QUALIE LOSER — Frenchman Richard Gasquet, trying to rebound from his “cocaine kiss” ban-then-reinstatement, played the qualies in New Haven and failed to reach the main draw. “Physically, I was really tired because I stopped playing for two months and didn’t touch a racket,” Gasquet said. “I’m up here trying to practice for the US Open, and I’ll prepare harder next time,” Gasquet said. “I changed my life after that thing, so it’s hard for me to come back, and just to have been able to play tennis was good.” — Good luck against Rafa in the first round at the Open…
Andy Roddick on the height advantage of rising Americans such as John Isner and Sam Querrey: “If you just look back to the average height of a player now as opposed to 20 years ago, I was tall when I came on tour, and I think I’m extremely average now as far as height goes. So it’s going to be a big factor, especially for John, because he’s like Sasquatch tall as opposed to extremely tall. The thing that’s going to help Sam is he actually moves really well for someone who is (6-6). If they can develop that side of the game it’s only going to help them more. You can’t teach 6-7 or 6-10, but you can teach someone how to move better.”…
American Alison Riske has turned pro and will not be attending Vanderbilt. She lost in three sets to Yulia Fedossova of France in the first round of US Open qualifying after suffering from cramps…
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