Roddick Launches Cash Attack on ATP, Handling of Davydenko Incident

Duh!Totally agree with you andy. which is the lesser of evil.
Keep up the good work

B.

November 24th, 2007 at 4:55 pm

I think the difference between the 20 G and 2 G are that a player knows befoehand that if they miss a tournament, they will get fines. I assume there are guidlines that apply to every player. There are certain days of notice etc. ( I may be wrong but this is what I think).

Davydenko’s case was totally decided by the umpire at that moment and there was no basis to say he was tanking or not.

I think if Andy wants to protest the ATP fine for not appearig in a master series, he should find another way to justify it. Davydenko’s case is not a good one.

November 24th, 2007 at 5:21 pm

I learned a very important lesson in my life some time ago. Never try to gain anything by comparing yourself to another. If you want anything, go in with your own contributions and/or explanations. Bringing in a third party only hurts your position. At the very least, it may sound like whining.

November 24th, 2007 at 6:08 pm

Davy is a tank who should have already been dealt with swiftly. I don’t care what the mob has on him or what crazy threats he may live under. He is bad for the game. Somebody is digging in on this story right now. God knows money tennis is at death’s door if anything is uncovered.

November 25th, 2007 at 12:39 am

zola – it doesn’t sound as though he does want to protest his fine (“I have gotten used to it … put it on my tab”) merely make a point that within the current ATP system it makes more sense to turn up and tank a match than withdraw. Even if withdrawing gives you more time to rehab an injury and therefore a better chance of being able to participate in the next event.

November 25th, 2007 at 6:54 am

“I AM NOT here to say he did or did not try in that match”

That qualifying statement repeated again is enough to cast doubts that can always be present in such a serious yet very subjective judgment of ‘tanking’ (vs many other possible explanations for a decline in play). The dollar amount seems to reflect that subjective nature.

November 25th, 2007 at 9:46 am

I understand Andy’s frustration, especially given that he was taking time off from a Master Series event, tourneys that may be overrated in importance by the ATP, to get fit for the year ending championships and the Davis Cup. Why should he have to play in Paris when he had already cemented his place in Shanghai through the work he had done in other events throughout the year?

With that said, I also agree that the comparison to the Davydenko situation does not help his case. Using that as his defense only makes it seem like he is concerned with the amount of his fine, rather than with the fact that he was fined at all.

He should also understand that, regardless of how much you try to say that you are not judging, once you bring up a situation without being prompted to do so (i.e. the Davydenko incident)then you are expressing judgment whether you intend to do so or not.

November 25th, 2007 at 11:40 am

Andy usually finds something to complain about when he puts in a less than stellar performance. He just doesn’t like being in Europe – period.

November 25th, 2007 at 3:03 pm

Andy Roddick performs badly at most* tournaments in Europe, except the ones in London, e.g two wimbledon finals, and four wins at the London/Queens club.

* Take note jack45 ;)

November 25th, 2007 at 10:02 pm

Andy skipped the Masters’ series tournament knowing the consequences. Andy’s excuses and attack on the ATP are as weak as his serve and volley game.

November 25th, 2007 at 10:50 pm

d
when a player pays for the airfare and puts the time to go to a tournament and ‘tanks”, I beleive he is out more than a player who stays home and just doesn’t attend.

I don’t dispute that there are many things wrong within the ATP system. If Roddick wants to expose the system, he has to do it right. With reasons why a player should be allowed not to attend an ATP event. Dragging Davydenko into this doesn’t make his case stronger.

I have to go and chack the rules. I think players are allowed to miss a certain number of ATP events with legitimate reasons and with proper notice. If Roddick suddenly decided he wants to stay homeand protect his limbs, he has to either pay the fine or argue his case sensibly with ATP, presenting medical evicence etc., not by comparing himself to Davydenko. It isa very immature approach.

November 26th, 2007 at 2:18 am

d
sorry, I forgot to address the first part of your comment. Actually that’s the part that is so confusing. Does he or does he not want to protest the fine? If yes, then he should do it properly. If no, he should just leave it.

November 26th, 2007 at 2:22 am

My 2 cents:

1) Andy, would you like some cheese with that whine?

2) Andy, I understand the $20k fine even if you don’t. The ATP knows that ticket sales are based on who shows up. Top players draw fans and their fans expect them to come. There is a lot of advertising (programs, posters and such) prior to the tournament and when a top player pulls out, it appears that it’s false advertising. Maybe some tickets need a refund, if demanded.

3) Andy, your “20 large” comment is interesting. This sounds, to me, like you’re betting in your spare time. I hope this is not the case.

4) Davydenko fought his $2000 fine and won. Bad comparison. And even if he didn’t win, it’s still a bad comparison.

November 26th, 2007 at 6:39 pm

i can’t even process andy’s argument because he is so rich it is like me complaining about twenty bucks . . . who cares

November 26th, 2007 at 7:43 pm

Roddick is 100% right.

November 26th, 2007 at 10:09 pm

Who said life was fair?

November 27th, 2007 at 12:16 am

Roddick missed MonteCarlo, Hamburg and Madrid as well as Paris. I want to know if he was fined for all of them of just for Paris?

Players are allowed to miss one of the master series because of injury, fatigue, etc. No one will blame them. Mr. Roddick has missed 4 and when fined for missing one he is unhappy about it! I want to hear the whole story. How many days prior was the notice given and how many times has he done this throughout the year and how many times has been fined? what are the rules?

I agree with John(1). Davydenko had the decency to fight ATP and get his fine reversed. He never whined. I like Roddick and seeing him jumping up and down like a 2-year old for a fine, which looks legitimate more and more, is really sad.

November 27th, 2007 at 12:56 am

zola – I largely agree with everything you’ve said but I have a real problem with the ATP encouraging players who aren’t 100% fit to turn up and go through the motions to avoid fines (or qualify for bonus pool money in Paris!!)

Possibly the biggest mistake Roddick has made here is not realizing that people will take something he said in a blog and reproduce/discuss it.

Nobody’s talking about the rest of the blog – unless there are pigeon fanciers somewhere berating him for this: “I was walking down the street in New York a couple of weeks ago and there was a pigeon cruising around on the sidewalk…as normal the pigeon decided to fly away when we were walking a bit closer…the pigeon took off quickly and flew straight into a door next to the sidewalk… it made a huge thud, and it turned around flew off in the other direction as if it had 6 beers in it… swerving everywhere… I was dying laughing.. again I am sure you had to be there.”

November 27th, 2007 at 5:08 am

d
don’t get me wrong. I like Andy and maybe …but this is his blog and he has stated his opinion there. I think if he just talked about the fine and didn’t talk about Danydenko, at least I wouldn’t have reacted. I was very upset at that ridiculus fine to Davydenko and then reading Andy’s comments just didn’t make any sense to me.

I totally agree that if a player is injured or is not 100%, they should be allowed not to take part in a master series event. It is also true that tournaments sell tickets to people and lose money when players withdraw. So in late withdrawls, a fine should not be surprising.

To me the ATP season is too long. There are many events too close to one another. I see absolutely no sense in Paris master series just a week from Shanghai. So I would not blame any player who withdraws from a master series. or even from half of them.They lose points and prize money for doing that and to me that’s punishment enough.

Roddick can dispute the fine in a court or lobby to change the rules. Instead he decided to drag Davydenko into this and that’s what I did not like.-

cheers.

November 27th, 2007 at 12:32 pm

zola is a great example of how readers can completely miss the simple point that Roddick was trying to make and turn it into something more sinister because they don’t like the player.

November 27th, 2007 at 11:19 pm

THANK YOU FANFANS. A voice of reason at last. Roddick was NOT whining about the fine. He was NOT “dragging Davydenko” into ANYTHING. ALL he was asking was: ‘Is it fair to have a bigger fine for a legit withdrawal than a deliberate tank?’
NOT ‘It is fair for me to be fined 20G and Davydenko to be fined only 2G.’
SHEESH. Actually READ the post before going off on a rant, people.
And NO – I’m NOT a Roddick fan – before I get any “fan trolling” accusations. :-)

November 28th, 2007 at 3:51 am

Is it not possible to discuss something without receiving sarcastic remarks or accusations?

I am not an anti-Roddick. He is a fun guy and he can say things that i agree or disagree. He has stated something is his blog that was worthy of writing about it here with a comments column. why do some people want to deter others from writing their opinions, is just beyond me.

perhaps I have to say these again:
-Roddick has missed 4 out of 9 ATP master series ad has been fined for one. people buy tickets to come see the players and tournaments lose money when players don’t attend. Roddick has to provide information on how many times he has been fined and how many days before he gave notice. Then it is easier to understand why it happened.

– I can’t defend the ATP decesion to fine any player for “tanking” or “lack of efforts”. that’s very subjective and such a fine should not be there in the first place. Who says the umpire can decide whether or not someone is tanking and someone else is not? And yes, I agree, if it is determined through a better procedure that someone has thrown a match, the fine should be much higher.

In any case, this does not help Roddick’s case at all. he just made a lot of confusion by comparing his fine to Davydenko’s. I never saw him defending Davydenko against that ridiculus fine and now saying something like this just did not make sense to me.It was as simple as that.

November 28th, 2007 at 11:08 am

I’m not accusing Andy Roddick of whining, it’s just that he seems to be whining, but that’s only my opinion, not a fact proved in court. “$20 large” compared to $2,000 (is that small?)…I dunno. I’m not saying he did or did not whine about it, but if someone ever did whine in that way, why, I wouldn’t be so crass as to keep repeating that I wasn’t accusing them of whining. Oh I could go on, but if I did, you might get the impression that I was whining. Not that you’d ever accuse me of whining since you wouldn’t want to cast aspersions on my character when I was most vulnerable. ANDY: GROW UP! Resting up for the YEC was so transparent…not that I would ever accuse you of that lol…ok..ok..ok…I’m going to shut up not accusing Andy of anything. SHHHHHHH!!!

November 28th, 2007 at 1:31 pm

——————-
zola wrote- He has stated something is his blog that was worthy of writing about it here with a comments column. why do some people want to deter others from writing their opinions, is just beyond me.
——————-

Because you’re trying to turn it into something larger than what it is.

It seems to me that Roddick was merely stating that something is wrong with the fine system where he gets smacked with a 20K fine for trying to stay healthy. In essence, he should have done what Davydenko did – go to Paris, tank the match, and then he would have only been fined only 2K instead of 20K. See? It wasn’t that difficult to understand.

——————-
penise wrote- i can’t even process andy’s argument because he is so rich it is like me complaining about twenty bucks . . . who cares
——————-

Here’s another example of one who completely missed Roddick’s point. Something is wrong with the education system if basic reading skills are not applied.

November 28th, 2007 at 4:02 pm

Lenny wrote- ALL he was asking was: ‘Is it fair to have a bigger fine for a legit withdrawal than a deliberate tank?’
—-

Precisely.

November 28th, 2007 at 4:04 pm

agree andy. you got jacked! atp is getting as overbearing as major league baseball.

November 29th, 2007 at 9:59 am

Correct me if I am wrong, but I read an article which stated that the players are allowed to miss 4 masters tournaments. If this article was correct then Andy has every right to complain except for comparing his situation to Davydenko’s.

Andy needs to find a similar comparison of Master Series no-show by other players.

I remember in 2006 when Fed and Nadal played in Rome, the match lasted for approx. 5 hours and they both did not show up in Hamburg the next day. Perhaps he could find out what happened in that siuation. That situation is a bit closer to Andy’s than the Davydenko fine. But both Fed and Nadal had played at all of the other Masters tournaments and there were extenuating circumstances that made them miss Hamburg. By the way, Davydenko appealed his fine and it was cancelled.

December 4th, 2007 at 4:25 am

The instructor told me that the cure to having the racquet wobble on my shots was to hit the ball in the sweet spot. well, that is a no brainer
A few racquet changes didn’t do me any good and I figured that I’m always going to be off a bit on my contact point, so the only other
solution was to get a strong enough to fight the miss hits. A bit of reasearch brought me to the Gripstik wrist exerciser . No string and
weight stuff so easy to carry around in my bag. After about three weeks of following the guidelines(not much fun), I have noticed a definite
improvement in my gripping strength which translates to a more stable contact with the ball . I’ m able to overcome the torque of missing
the sweet spot much better than before. Racquet speed also seems to be increasing a bit because of the oveball increase in my wrist and arm
strength .

December 29th, 2007 at 7:13 am