Tennis-X Notes: Rafter Returns, Players Busted for Gambling
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
I’M BACK MATE: Former No. 1 Patrick Rafter will play competitive singles tennis for the first time in seven years after announcing that he will compete in the BlackRock Tour of Champions event in Graz, Austria, this week. “This year I have decided to get fit again,” Rafter said. “I train about five days a week which is gym, running, and some other interesting fitness techniques. I surf as much as I can as well. I understand quite a few of the players play the tournaments (on the BlackRock Tour of Champions) so while it would be great to win in Graz, I just want to play well.”…
ADHEREL
FINALLY NO. 1?: Rafael Nadal will become the new No. 1 next Sunday if he wins the title at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati and Roger Federer loses before the semifinals…
NEW ATP SPONSOR?: According to the Sports Business Journal, the ATP World Tour is in advanced talks with global insurance giant Aviva to take over the main sponsorship of the men’s circuit…
Blogger Cheryl Murray from TennisTalk at the ATP Toronto stop: “I should qualify that by saying that SOME ATP players are pigs. It just so happened that I ran into at least four players on Monday that have porcine tendancies. Judging by the reaction one particularly attractive journalist got, oggling is de rigeur on the men’s tour. I personally watched a German player look down this woman’s shirt TWICE. Poor form, Tommy. Very poor form.”…
France’s Mary Pierce is out of the Beijing Olympics with a knee injury…Marcos Baghdatis pulled from Toronto with a right wrist injury…Tatiana Golovin pulled from Montreal with a back injury…
Doubles specialists Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak were found guilty of betting on matches by the ATP. Cermak has been suspended for 10 weeks and fined US $15,000, while Mertinak has been handed a two-week suspension and a $3,000 fine. An ATP statement read: “An ATP investigation launched in November 2007 found that Mr. Cermak had wagered on tennis matches during a period dating from 9 September 2006 through 1 February 2007. Additionally, the same investigation found that Mr. Mertinak had wagered on tennis matches during October of 2006.”…
SERENA BOORISH ALL-AROUND? From SI.com’s Jon Wertheim: “In a perverse way, I was relieved that Serena was so typically sour and surly in defeat after the Wimbledon final. She falls in a close, well-played match to the defending champ — who, oh yeah, is her sister — and scarcely musters a word of praise. You know what? Good. It would be so distasteful and lame if Serena talked about Justine Henin’s “lucky” shots or her lacking performance against Katarina Srebotnik in Paris and then was all smiles when she lost to Venus. She might be boorish in defeat. But at least she’s consistently boorish!”…
From the Canadian Press on the upcoming Beijing Olympics: “Jelena Jankovic of Serbia has also played in Beijing, where she said a fine coating of soot covered her body during matches. “It was a quite dirty, quite polluted area, but hopefully they will do the best they can to clear it because sometimes it looks like it’s foggy,” she said. “It can affect your breathing.”…
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