 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Be patient with the Tennis Channel Posted: Monday May 12, 2003 2:34 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim will answer your tennis questions every Monday. Click here to send a question. We have a pair of annual Player of the Week awards this Monday. For the women, Justine Henin-Hardenne continued her standout clay-court play, beating countrywoman Kim Clijsters in the Berlin final, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. In a weird match, the hyphenated one led 4-1 in the second set before promptly losing five straight games. She then saved three match points in the third. Says Clijsters: "[Justine] is the toughest clay-court player out there." ... Speaking of see-saw matches, Clijsters had to save several match points and mount a late rally to stave off a game Jennifer Capriati in the semis. Despite conflicting reports, Clijsters has indeed taken over the No. 2 ranking from Venus Williams. This, of course, means that it's not a given that Venus and Serena Williams will be in opposite halves of the draw in Paris. ... In Rome, unseeded Felix Mantilla, the Spanish veteran, shocked Roger Federer of Switzerland to win the Masters Series Rome. Mantilla snapped Federer's 12-match winning streak with a 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (10-8) triumph in the final. ...In doubles, Australia's Wayne Arthurs and Paul Hanley defeated the French team of Michael Llodra and Fabrice Santoro 6-1, 6-3 to win the title. How about a round of applause for Yevgeny Kafelnikov? The resurgent Y-Man took out Carlos Moya en route to reaching the semis of Rome before falling to Mantilla. Wasn't this guy supposed to be retired and playing canasta on a Black Sea resort by now? ... From the ATP newsletter: "Andre Agassi played tennis with Rome mayor Walter Veltroni at the Campidoglio to kick off the Telecom Italia Masters Roma 2003. Agassi presented the mayor with the racket he used to win the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston, which marked his return to No. 1 in the ATP Entry Rankings." ... Also courtesy the newsletter, here's James Blake's e-mail to GI pen pal Jim Richter from Rome: "I'm actually in Rome right now, but heading to Hamburg later today," wrote Blake. "I didn't do so well here, but that means I actually get to do some sightseeing. It's kind of weird that the places you remember and get to appreciate are usually the ones where you don't do well. So after I lost, I went to the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican. They were both just amazing. What Michelangelo did on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is just so overwhelming. To believe that one man could possibly be so talented is just beyond me. ... I'm just about the worst artist in the world, so I'm pretty much amazed by anyone who has a talent for that." Mario Ancic (aka Baby Goran), who is in the throes of a thoroughly disappointing 2003, parted ways with Sven Groeneveld and is in the market for a coach. Say, what's Bob Brett up to these days? ... Mary Carillo will join NBC as an analyst on the network's French Open and Wimbledon coverage and as a host and play-by-play announcer for NBC's unprecedented, 24-hour coverage of the 2004 Athens Olympics. ... In the latest chapter in the Dokic saga, Damir Dokic told an Australian newspaper that he is estranged from daughter Jelena. "I never want to see her again," Dokic père told The Sydney Morning Herald in a telephone interview from Belgrade, using his son, Savo, as an interpreter. "She left us. We don't need her. My wife speaks to her often, but I don't want to. I am angry at her. She did things that she was not supposed to. We brought her back here and did everything for her until she was 19. Then she chose that idiot [Enrique Bernoldi, her Formula One driver boyfriend]." ... Are you sitting down? Pete Sampras pulled out of TMS Hamburg. ... So did Andre Agassi, much to the dismay of tournament organizers. ... And so did Juan Carlos Ferrero, who suffered an arm injury in his semifinal match in Rome that will shut him down until the French Open. ... Speaking of the French, Martina Hingis will not -- we repeat: will not -- be playing. But she tells the 'Bag that she will be making an appearance at Roland Garros during the first week of the event. ... This chuckle comes courtesy of loyal reader Sarah W. of Canada. From the Lost in Translation Dept.: Check out the British version of John McEnroe's book You Cannot Be Serious. ... The North American Indian Tennis Association is holding its 28th national championships May 24-26 in Albuquerque. Players (and sponsors) who would like more information are encouraged to contact Vincent Knight at: knightvilaw.unm.edu. Question time ... Do you get cable or satellite TV? Yeah, me, too. But who gets the Tennis Channel? No one I know. Do you think the Tennis Channel will be worth it? If I was an investor, I would be concerned with the lack of advertising and marketing.
Lots of questions about the Tennis Channel, which launched a few weeks ago with a broadcast of the Lowell, Mass., Fed Cup tie. (Trivia: The first point in the Channel's existence was a Venus Williams ace.) The bad news, as you note, is that it's only available in a few select markets (San Diego, Palm Springs, Appleton, Wis.). But since officials acquired the rights to many events, many tournaments -- TMS Rome, for instance -- won't be shown on ESPN. The good news is that: a) it's off the ground; b) we are assured that deals are in place with four of the top 10 biggest cable providers, which bodes well for much broader distribution in the coming weeks and months; and c) early returns are that the quality of both the broadcasts and the matches making it to air have been first-rate. We'll say it again: Call your local cable operator and demand your TTV. Last week you mentioned the inequality of prize money awarded at Wimbledon. I don't think I understand the argument. If the women want the same amount as the men, shouldn't they also have to play best-of-five sets? Let's quit the complaining, ladies. The men routinely have to play four-hour marathons, while the women get by with their 50-minute cakewalks.
A lot of you wrote in making the same point. Here is our best-of-five rebuttal: 1. If this were only about playing three sets vs. playing five sets, at least give the women the opportunity to do the latter. If you don't give women the chance to work the hours, it's hard to make the "equal pay for equal work" argument. 2. In the women's game, the points tend to last longer, particularly on grass. So a three-set women's match may well feature just as much ballstriking as a men's five-setter. 3. The tournament executives don't even proffer the best-of-five argument. Instead, they offer their "research" about the prize money reflecting the interest level of vox populi. 4. Just among us friends, does anyone really want to watch either gender play tennis for five sets? 5. Since when is duration the benchmark for entertainment value? Is Personal Velocity (86 minutes; we recommend it) a worse movie than Glitter just because it was 18 minutes shorter? Are the Beatles' songs less esteemed than the epic stylings of Iron Butterfly? Is The Hours a worse book than Infinite Jest, even though the former is shorter than single sentences in the latter? (OK, don't answer that one.) Is a best-of-three Venus-Serena final of less inherent value than Lleyton Hewitt-David Nalbandian five five? With Wimbledon being so "Hootie" about the prize money, why doesn't the men's singles champ, in a symbolic gesture, just hand over the $61,845 it would take to even out the payoffs? How would Wimbledon react to this? Does any player out there have the guts to do it? I would think that $62K wouldn't be much of a sacrifice to show those "wankers" a thing or two about equality. Certainly the embarrassment they would feel would either cause them to hold fast and look even worse or to make a change. Regardless, it would be a good way to take action without someone boycotting the tournament.
I'm smiling envisioning this gesture, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it to happen. Among the men, there's still a lot of snickering about the quality of women's tennis -- the perceived lack of depth in particular -- and I'd be willing to bet that the majority of male players support unequal purses. What's more, with the evaporation of the bonus pool and the prospect of shrinking prize money, it is the rare male pro who can part with $62K without blinking. Maybe if Clijsters wins the women's title and Hewitt defends his crown, he'll take one for the team. Then again ... Everyone makes a big deal about Wimbledon not awarding equal prize money, but they seem to forget that the French Open does the same thing. We never hear any talk of people boycotting the French because of this, just Wimbledon. Why is that? What's the difference?
I think it's because Americans have it in for the British but have such an affinity for the French that they are willing to overlook Gallic foibles. Oh, je blague. Seriously, the French Tennis Federation should be lambasted as well. (Unlike the Brits, the number of credible French female pros renders the "polls show our fans prefer men" argument all the more spurious.) The difference is that the French suits are discreet about the different purses; the gents at the All England almost seem to flout their bias. On related note, his thoughtful letter was entirely too long to reprint, but Ted Ying of Laurel, Md., raised a fair point when he asserted that the women shouldn't be complaining since run-of-mill WTA Tour events throughout the year pay significantly less than respective ATP events. In short, doesn't this suggest that indeed the women's game is appreciably less popular? Notwithstanding questions about whether this really reflects what the market bears -- you could argue that the financial health of the women's game should be measured in Venus' and Serena's and Anna Kournikova's endorsement portfolios and not in terms of the purses at events, as corporate support manifests itself differently when you have transcendent stars vs. when you have unremitting parity -- the financial health of the tours is irrelevant here. At Wimbledon, the men and women are competing simultaneously. There are just as many women's matches as men's. Neither ticket sales nor television contracts are gender-specific. It's one big tent and it's simply wrong not to pay equally. I do agree with Ted on this point: If the WTA invested half the time and energy in finding a sponsor or cobbling together a better television deal that it does bemoaning the prize money disparity at Wimbledon, the women's game would be far better off. Consider why Pete Sampras actually might play the French Open. He has never won the event, and given his sizable pride and affinity for records, he'll want to. The past two years, there have been no real threats to win: Gustavo Kuerten is out of control right now; the Als (Costa and Corretja) are on career downs; Sampras has a good record against Carlos Moya; and Juan Carlos Ferrero would probably choke against Sampras like he did last year when faced with a Grand Slam final. Sampras has big-pressure skills, so he doesn't really need extra match experience to prepare him mentally. Playing lots of clay-court tournaments has never done him any good. So the way he might see it is, if he trains a lot, develops a good clay-court strategy, enters the French with some fresh legs, and gets lucky for a few weeks, he has a shot. And if not, then he has Wimbledon to look forward to, so he wins either way. What do you think of this surprise strategy?
It's a hell of a pep talk. But you forgot to add that all Sampras has to do is pick all six numbers correctly, and he could win Powerball the same weekend. The rest of the field indeed may be slouching toward Paris (you could add that Agassi is coming off a first-round loss in Rome and that Hewitt likely will have played only one tuneup on clay). But in his first tournament in nearly a year, Sampras ain't running off seven straight matches. Especially not on clay. Since last week's Mailbag was somewhat irksome (no more Hall of Fame garbage, pleeeaaaasse) and considering the competition in today's media for the attention of readers, I thought it would be interesting for you to tell us U.S. tennis fans (who do live in a bubble) who are some of the most popular male tennis players outside the United States? Do any have followings like Anna Kournikova's? I imagine Marat Safin would. On a totally unrelated note, who are the top five players on each tour whom no top player likes to see in his/her draw (giant-killer potential, but underestimated by average fans)?
A reader a few weeks ago submitted a poll in which Safin was the overwhelming favorite in the ATP's version of Are You Hot? If memory serves, Moya, Blake, Ivanisevic and Jan-Michael Gambill also warranted mention. Anna, however, is (was?) in her own league. No one brandishes banners reading "I hate tennis but I love Marat." Safin's Web site doesn't get more hits than amazon.com. And rest assured that Safin won't play on the show courts should he slip outside the top 50. (That out of the way, discuss for next week, Margarita: Does Safin make the Hall of Fame? Just kidding.) As for the darkhorse question, a feared foe to one opponent is a cakewalk to another. Surface makes a big difference. No one wants Paola Suarez in Paris, but if she's in your section of the Wimbledon draw, you're not in a panic. Still, here are five players the top seeds would just as soon avoid, in alphabetical order: MEN
WOMEN
Have you heard anything recently about whether Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf will indeed play mixed doubles together at the French Open? I haven't seen anything about this in weeks. Why would they want to do this, anyway? He should focus on winning the singles, without any distractions, and she risks playing below her standards, after all this time off.
Agassi made the fatal mistake of making plans without first checking with his wife. Last month in Houston, Agassi expressed skepticism that he could coax Steffi into it, and I've heard nothing since. (You can be assured that he would have been asked all about the pairing in Hamburg had he not pulled out on account of ... well, he pulled out.) I agree that if I'm Agassi and a) I have a real shot to win Roland Garros, and b) I have an extremely finite number of Slams left in me, the last thing I want to do it putz around in the mixed-doubles draw for two weeks. However, if Agassi and Graf played a round or two, it would be a great spectacle that would engender all sort of feel-good publicity for tennis. Long Lost SiblingsMarat Safin and actor Carlos Bernard, 24's Tony Almeida.
Pat Rafter and actor James Caviezel.
Jesse's worldFinally, speaking of Long Lost Siblings, we got a kick out of the following correspondence. Mark D., fresh from the Beverly Hills 90210 reunion show, we presume, sounds so much cooler in real life than his counterpart, Jesse Vasquez.
I have several stories of attending tournaments and being approached as if I were Pete. One little guy chased me around for an afternoon with Pete's playing card, asking for an autograph. I explained I wasn't the man and would try and get away. It became a Twilight Zone episode. I'd turn around and he was there ... everywhere. A language barrier kept us from communicating easily, and his persistence finally wore me down. I finally signed my own name and he happily went about his way. I myself have played for 29 years and love the game intensely, even using the same racket Pete uses (the similarities end there). As the years have stacked and the grays have sprouted, I hear the comparison less and less. Soon, no doubt, it'll be "Hey, aren't you Pete's dad?" Cheers,
Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim covers tennis for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
