Tennis-X Notes: Indians Want Paes Out, Mauresmo Retiring?

TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS

India’s Davis Cup team is refusing to play unless Leander Paes is ousted as captain…
ADHEREL
The only other player of note in the women’s singles game to hit two-handed off both sides, Marion Bartoli of France reminisced on Monica Seles being her hero after Seles’ recent retirement: “Monica has always been the person I have looked up to at all times,” Bartoli told Gulf News. “I’ve got posters of her everywhere in my room. But there are only a couple of these which are stuck on my room wall. She is so very special to me. I met her once and that was simply memorable. I was supposed to play against her once [at the 2003 Miami Open], but she withdrew with an injury. I miss that moment.”…

Amelie Mauresmo, who has won just nine matches since Wimbledon last year and dropped outside the Top 20, was thinking retirement after losing in the first round at Doha to a qualifier: “I want to keep on playing but at the same time I am wondering if it’s the right thing to do,” Mauresmo told L’Equipe in Doha. “Just as soon as I get the feeling back that I am heading in the right direction, I get another heavy defeat like that. It’s been like that for the last few months. Obviously at some point that leaves you wondering whether it might be best just to pack it all in. But we are not quite there yet. For the moment I still want to keep trying.”…

According to the Jewish Chronicle, “[Israel’s] Tzipi Obziler has withdrawn from next week’s Barclays Championships in Dubai after the authorities there refused to grant her coach a visa. Public relations fared no better in Thailand where Kuwaiti Mohammed Al Ghareb was instructed to withdraw through sickness from a match against Israeli Amir Hadad.”…

Gustavo Kuerten has taken a wildcard at Miami…

Roger Federer says he thinks Nikolay Davydenko is innocent of any match-fixing charges…

TENNIS WRITING 101 — From AFP at the ATP San Jose event: “Nishikori, who became the first Japanese player since 1992 to win an ATP singles title, also is in the field here on a sponsor’s exemption.” — Thanks for taking time off the French rugby circuit to cover tennis, but the term is “special exemption.”

13 women pulled from the tournaments in Doha and Bogota last week with injuries…

World No. 1 Justine Henin was named the Laureus World Sports Academy’s Sportswoman of the Year, beating out Yelena Isinbayeva, Carolina Kluft, Libby Lenton, Marta, and Lorena Ochoa. Roger Federer won the Sportsman of the Year.

Announcing their retirements in February are Dutchman Raemon Sluiter and American Paul Goldstein. Goldstein says he will work for a clean air company in San Francisco…