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Poor decision WTA championship move a head-scratcher
Posted: Monday April 17, 2000 04:13 PM
The WTA Tour's decision to move the year-end championships from New York to Munich in 2001 was short-sighted at best. First, any prize money increase that Munich can offer will be offset by less media and commercial exposure. One also wonders what will happen if Monica Seles qualifies. After suffering her stabbing in Hamburg seven years ago, she has vowed never to play another match in Germany.
Mary's new coachMary Pierce may have reconciled with her father, Jim, who's effectively banned from the WTA Tour. But it's her younger brother, David, who's acting as her full-time coach. So far the results have been mixed. Pierce reached the semis in both Scottsdale and Indian Wells, but was upset in the quarterfinals of Amelia Island this past weekend. Still, according to Mary, not only does David know her game inside and out, he's also the toughest coach she's ever had. After Mary's opening match victory at Indian Wells, David was so disappointed with the effort that he ordered her back on the court to practice that night. "He tells it to me like it is," Mary admitted last week. "That's the only way to improve."
Moya back in shapeCarlos Moya has struggled for the better part of the past year with a nagging back injury. But just as the clay court season is upon us, the former French Open champ is on the mend. As recently as the Ericsson Open, Moya told me that his back was only 80 percent. Last week Moya took a late-entry wild card to the Estoril Open in Portugal and cruised to his first title of the year. "All I wanted was to finish a match with no pain in my back," he said.
The latest on AnnaThe status of Anna Kournikova's love triangle with Sergei Federov and Pavel Bure is shrouded in mystery. But the luminous tennis player may have tipped us off last week. Shortly after she defeated Nicole Pratt in the third round of Amelia Island, Kournikova excitedly asked tournament officials on which channel she could watch the NHL playoffs. Seems Federov's team, the Detroit Red Wings, were playing on TV at the time, not Bure's Florida Panthers. Sports Illustrated staff writer Jon Wertheim covers the tennis beat and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Be sure to read his Tennis Hot List and Tennis Mailbag every Monday.
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