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Being CEO means never having to say you're sorry?
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Given that the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) was formed to protect the interests
of male professional tennis players, and given that Etienne de Villiers, the current chief executive,
is frequently heard stressing the importance of marketing the top players, it seems
curious to witness the governing body become an accessory to the character assassination
of one of the tour's leading players.
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| 14 November 2007 |
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No news would be great news for tennis!
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If you think it's safe to venture back into the troubled waters of the pro tennis tours, think again,
folks! Cue the ominous music and the menacing dark shape slithering beneath the surface! No sooner
has umpire Cedric Mourier sunk his teeth into the hapless figure of Nikolay Davydenko than we become
aware of the horrible end to the career of Martina Hingis.
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| 2 November 2007 |
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Put up or shut up, Andy!
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When ATP officials quiz Andy Murray about his match-fixing allegations, they should
surely censure him for his lack of discretion if they fail to squeeze names out of him.
The governing bodies are fully aware that the integrity of the sport is jeopardised as much by
speculation as by hard evidence that players have been taking bribes to throw matches.
Click here
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| 10 October 2007 |
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Why can't the LTA cut some slack?
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The problem with having such paragons of virtue as Roger Federer and Justine Henin
at the pinnacle of the sport is that their style of behaviour, laudable as it is,
becomes the template for coaches nurturing new talent.
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| 27 September 2007 |
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Qatar's bumpy playing field
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Shahar Peer's inexorable rise up the rankings may present the WTA Tour with a headache
following the recent announcement that Doha, Qatar will host the 2008-2010 Sony
Ericsson Championships.
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| 6 September 2007 |
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Straight from the horse's mouth
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ATP officials, investigating suspicious betting patterns on a match involving Nikolay Davydenko,
have resolved to turn to Paul Scotney, director of security for the British Horseracing Authority,
in an effort to avoid the potential corruption of tennis by match-fixing.
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| 11 August 2007 |
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Lazy players squander Wimbledon surplus
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Tim Henman's recent rant about British tennis slackers should serve not only to provoke
the targeted freeloaders into acquiring a harder-edged, more competitive disposition but also
to remind the national association that it would be better served addressing the shortcomings at
grass-roots level than continuing to pump disproportionate amounts of funding into the elite
end of the sport.
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| 25 July 2007 |
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Hawk-Eye needs more carrots!
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Hawk-Eye may have been "killing" Roger Federer during the Wimbledon men's final but the All England Club
has hailed the introduction of the electronic line-calling system as a resounding success. "It's been an
overwhelming success and it will be here to stay," a Wimbledon spokesman announced. However,
Hawk-Eye's creator, Dr Paul Hawkins, has been forced onto the defensive by Federer sympathisers and
other assorted Luddites.
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| 13 July 2007 |
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Wimbledon's special friendship
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If it's true that individuals do more to promote peace than governments, the
renewed pairing of Indian Muslim Sania Mirza and Israel's Shahar Peer in
the Wimbledon ladies doubles event is a significant one despite the pair's
insistence that they are not making any kind of religious or political
statement.
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| 3 July 2007 |
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Laughter and adversity
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On the face of it, an insecure childhood set against the backdrop of a disintegrating
country spiralling into civil war would not seem to be the ideal blueprint for a career in
professional tennis. But the Serbs (Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic)
look anything but disadvantaged as they line up for the French Open quarter-finals,
outnumbering all but the Russians and the Spaniards.
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| 5 June 2007 |
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Federer and Nadal step up bloodless rivalry
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Roger Federer's victory over Rafael Nadal in the Hamburg Masters final should set pulses
racing in anticipation of the two locking horns in the 2007 French Open, but there is
something about the rivalry that has yet to rouse the passions of sports fans around the
world.
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| 23 May 2007 |
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Federer stalls on road to greatness
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Frustrated by repeated failure to outmanoeuvre Rafael Nadal and shaken by a series of prangs
involving Guillermo Canas and 53rd-ranked Filippo Volandri, Roger Federer is starting to display
symptoms of road rage as he negotiates his way to a French Open crown and tennis immortality.
Click here
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| 18 May 2007 |
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Killing with kindness
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Kim Clijsters won the US Open singles title in 2005 and the WTA Tour Championships singles
title twice (in 2002 and 2003). She also won the French Open and Wimbledon women's doubles
titles in 2003 and notched 34 WTA singles titles and 11 doubles titles during her
career. It's an impressive haul, but the popular Belgian is at pains to point out that
any summary of her career should include her six WTA sportsmanship awards.
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| 9 May 2007 |
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Yeltsin's sweet and sour legacy
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Boris Yeltsin's political legacy may be shrouded in controversy, but there can be no doubt
about the former Russian president's legacy to tennis. His enthusiasm for his country's cause
in Davis Cup and Fed Cup served as a significant catalyst for the Russian tennis revolution.
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| 25 April 2007 |
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De Villiers starts tennis "turf war"
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When ATP executive chairman and president Etienne de Villiers unveiled his plans for a 2009
restructuring of the ATP calendar, the former Disney executive must have felt a bit like Mickey
Mouse in the role of the Sorcerer's hapless Apprentice in Fantasia.
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| 16 April 2007 |
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Sorry seems to be the hardest word
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There has been much talk of public apologies and reparations for past grievances in
the news recently. The 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery has been one such
issue and, on a much smaller scale, there has been some controversy over the WTA Tour's
decision to make Indian Wells one of the four mandatory events for top-ranked players in
2009.
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| 30 March 2007 |
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Tennis brat finds true vocation
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All kinds of people get caught up in the cut-throat world of professional sport. Some are clearly
ego-driven and ruthless. Others, like Roger Federer, manage to effect a paradoxical mix of relentless
ambition and personal humility. Occasionally there are hapless victims of other people's vanity.
Formerly a ball-bashing teenage phenomenon who reached number two in the world rankings, Sister
Andrea Jaeger is now adapting to her new life as a Dominican nun in the Episcopal Church.
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| 14 March 2007 |
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Round-robin lottery in Las Vegas
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The 2007 Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas descended into farce when defending champion James
Blake was eliminated after the round-robin stage, reinstated and then finally eliminated again.
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| 5 March 2007 |
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Who's to blame?
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Western society may or may not be in the grip of a compensation culture. It makes no odds -
it's perceived to be. And that perception is enough to compel all kinds of organisations to
adopt extraordinary examples of risk-averse behaviour.
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| 9 February 2007 |
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On the rebound
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In 1988, the Australian Open switched from December to January, from Kooyong to Melbourne
Park, from grass to Rebound Ace, and reinvented itself as the fourth Grand Slam tournament.
Bigger crowds flocked to the new state-of-the-art venue and the event underwent
a glorious transformation. Abandoning the grass, however, sounded the death knell for home success.
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| 30 January 2007 |
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Uneven heat in Melbourne
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As with all open-air tournaments, rain is a problem for the organisers of the Australian Open,
but with retractable roofs over the two stadium courts, Rod Laver Arena and Vodafone
Arena, it is a manageable problem. The sun, however, gives them a big headache.
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| 15 January 2007 |
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Tennis: the people's game?
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It seems that national governing bodies are increasingly gripped by a lust for
success on the international stage at the expense of the game's development at
grass roots level.
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| 8 January 2007 |
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Click here for Talking Points 2008