Tennis News: December 29th

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Tennis News: December 21st

by mltennis 22. December 2008 07:04

Monday, December 22, 2008

BUSINESS NEWS

Editor's Note: We are on our Monday, Thursday publication schedule through December.
In order to give our staff a long Christmas holiday week end, our next issue will be Monday, December 29.
***
Blackman Moves Into National USTA Player Development Role and Benton to Replace Him at Maryland’s Junior Tennis Champions Program

Martin Blackman, Junior Tennis Champions Center program director since 2003, has accepted the position of Director of USTA Junior Player Development at the USTA National Training Center in Boca Raton, Fla., effective January 1. He will be responsible for identifying potential junior champions and for their training.
Ray Benton, an experienced executive in the tennis industry, has been appointed ceo of JTCC and the Tennis Center at College Park, Md. which is the membership club operated at the same site.
Benton’s career has included every facet of the business of tennis. He was a teaching professional for eight years and a college coach plus serving as the first National Executive Director of the National Junior Tennis League, which was founded by Arthur Ashe. In addition, he was president of ProServ, a leading sports management firm, and founder and operator of the Nuveen Tour, a worldwide senior tennis circuit featuring Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg.
The Champions Program, which started in 1999, is a not-for-profit organization, which offers financial aid to families who cannot afford the full price of tuition and coaching for the year-round program. The program has 80 students with a school on-site.
***
Tennis Participation Continues to Rise in USA

The USTA and TIA announced that tennis participation throughout the United States continued its growth on every measurable level in 2008, with more players (nearly 26.9 million) taking to the court this year than at any time in the past 15 years, according to the annual research survey conducted for the Tennis Industry Association (TIA) and the USTA by the Taylor Research Group.
The TIA/USTA study showed total player participation in 2008 grew by more than 7% from the previous year (25.1 million), continuing a trend that has shown a nearly 12% increase over the five- year period beginning in 2003 (24 million). In addition, total-play occasions increased by more than 13% to 603 million over the past year, up from 533 million in 2007 and a jump of close to 33% from five years ago (454 million).
The TIA/USTA study also determined:
• The percentage of frequent players (i.e. those who played 21 times or more during the year) rose to 5.62 million, up 7% from 2007 (5.25 million) and an increase of more than 23% from 2003 (4.56 million).
• The sport is retaining the players it has, as the number of continuing players is up 9% to 15.1 million from 13.9 million last year. A continuing player is defined as one who has played for more than a year.
• The percentage of new players rose 3%, to 5.91 million.
Additionally tennis ball unit sales, another important barometer of play frequency, have increased more than 15% since 2003 and are up again by almost 3% through the third quarter of 2008.
***
Players Expect to Keep Playing, but Pare Apparel Purchases, While Businesses Curtail Spending in 2009

The downturn in the economy since September 2008 has forced most tennis business and players to rethink their tennis expenses in the new year, according to TennisWire's "Spending Survey: 2009 Outlook."
When asked to compare the activities they did in 2008 to those they anticipated doing in 2009, tennis loyalists said they planned to "attend a pro tournament" (by a margin of 18 percent over 2008), "pay for private lessons" (4 percent increase), "attend a college event" (3 percent increase), and "compete in league/tournament play" (2 percent increase). Respondents expect to maintain their levels of participation in group lessons, clinics and programs like Cardio Tennis®.
The tennis activity with the largest negative change in 2009 was "purchase apparel (clothing, shoes)," which was down 12 percent from 2008. A slight fall-off (3 percent each) was predicted by players for "purchase equipment (racquets, balls)," "purchase other products (books, videos)" and "pay for court time."
Overall, players expect to participate in more tennis activities in 2009 than in 2008 by a margin of 5 percent.
"These results show that tennis is a lifestyle," says Liza Horan, editor of TennisWire.org. "Even in tough economic times when disposable income may be down, tennis enthusiasts are intent on playing and watching the pros. The sport seems to be an integral part of their habits and happiness."
Among the comments submitted by those who said their tennis spending will decrease were these: "We (as a family) hope to be able to play more, but getting new racquets/clothing may need to be curtailed due to loss of jobs in our family," and "I've just started to really get my game going so I'm super dedicated, but I may not take as many lessons next year."
One respondent, who said tennis spending will not decrease, commented, "Tennis is an important part of our family life. We intend to cut expenses elsewhere."
The survey of tennis businesses—primarily manufacturers, retailers and those on recreational side of the sport—found that the majority (80 percent) have adjusted their spending based on the economic conditions since September 2008. The most popular way of trying to combat economic forces was reported as "reduce operating costs (non-staff)," followed by "keep lower inventory levels." Decreasing advertising, increasing PR, and reducing salaried staff also were mentioned.
"Most tennis businesses are proceeding with caution in the down economy. They told us that they are 'tightening the belt' to run a leaner operation in 2009," Horan explains. "While most industry stakeholders are taking care with budgets, a few report a boost in business."
One respondent who works at an indoor facility in New Albany, Ohio, commented, "We've seen an increase in business this year, and we believe that is due to people wanting to do things closer to home, rather then travel during this time of year in order to save some money, but still have a good time."
Another survey participant said, "People are staying at home and spending their money on everyday activities that they can enjoy with their family. Our membership has increased."
***
The WTA’s Allaster Does the Work and Moves on Before the Spotlight Catches Up
By Charles Bricker

You’re unlikely to find a player in the women’s top 200 who hasn’t met or listened to a presentation by Sony Ericsson WTA Tour president Stacey Allaster.
But for the vast majority of those who follow professional tennis, this No. 2 executive in women’s tennis remains an astonishingly anonymous figure for someone who has achieved such high stature within women’s sports internationally.
If the lack of wide-ranging recognition irritates her ego, it doesn’t show. “I’m just happy to be here,” said the 45-year-old transplanted Canadian as she settled into an interview in her 15th-floor office in downtown St. Petersburg.
“We love it here. We miss family, friends and country. But it’s so close to go back to Toronto, we feel pretty connected to home.”
If CEO Larry Scott is the visionary and architect of Road Map 2009, the most expansive streamlining of scheduling and player commitment in the history of women’s tennis, Allaster is the one who did much of the grunt work.
It was no easy sell, convincing scores of players, many skeptical of any changes in their professional lives, that the prescribed changes would be ultimately the best thing for women’s tennis.
But Allaster came to the WTA significantly suited to do the job after spending years working as tournament director of the Canadian Open, where she dealt with both men and women players. That gave her years of listening to and solving demands from both players and corporate sponsors.
“The Road Map was about building a consensus,” she says. “We have to listen, educate and lead. You have to be flexible, but firm and consistent. We’ve had to make some very difficult decisions with the Road Map, but we’ve been very clear and we’ve told the players, if it doesn’t work, we’re going to change it. There’s no doubt there will be some tweaking along the way.”
When Scott was hired away from the ATP five years ago, major winner Lindsay Davenport asked, “Why do we need to hire someone from men’s tennis to run the WTA?”
Within two years it became apparent that the reason was that Scott was the best candidate for the job, but he spoke often of the need to bring a woman into a high executive position in the front office as well.
On Jan. 1, 2006, that became Stacey Allaster.
She’s a former Canadian junior and college player and sometime coach who found her niche in tennis administration at the Canadian Open.
She’ll spend next season not only hawking the progress of Road Map 2009 and looking for those inevitable tweaks that will be needed, but she’ll have some other major issues on her plate.
One is the advent of www.tennistv.com. For three years the ATP has offered video streaming of Masters Series events to fans computers. The WTA enters that field this year as a partner of the ATP with plans to show at least 150 matches from virtually all important tournaments, and possibly as many as 200 matches.
“This is the first initiative where the men and women have put their commercial rights in one basket,” said Allaster. “We’ve cooperated in other areas, but this is the first time in a business aspect.”
It very well could be the first step on a three- to five-year road toward combining the two tours.
Another impending problem could be the Williams sisters refusal to play Indian Wells, where they claim to have been subjected to racial taunts in 2001.
Road Map 2009 makes Indian Wells one of four major compulsory events for top 10 players, with suspensions possible for not playing.
“Like any player who doesn’t play a mandatory event, there are options,” said Allaster. “They will be asked if they want to go on site the week of tournament. They can say yes or no. If no, they’ll be given dates in the future when they work in the market to help that tournament, working with sponsors and tournament directors over a period of time.
“If they don’t make that happen, they’ll be suspended. We weren’t going to make an exception only for Venus and Serena. It’s a solution that applies to all players.”
***
Ivanovic Buys Vacation Home on Mallorca

Ana Ivanovic may have tipped her hands that she's serious about new boyfriend Fernando Verdasco by dropping 4.5 million Euros ($6.07 million) on a luxury hideaway house on the island of Mallorca.
The boyhood home of Rafael Nadal will also be a sun-seeker base for Serbia's French Open champion, currently ranked fifth. "The area is very peaceful, perfect for trainings and relaxing. I have always liked Mallorca: when I was 15, I used to come here to train," Ivanovic told her website.
"I will continue to live in Switzerland (Basel), but this is my other option for training, especially in winter when I can train outside."
Ivanovic and tennis hunk Verdasco have finally gone public with their romance as paparazzi caught them kissing passionately recently at the airport in Palma de Mallorca.
"We've known each other for three months and we are in no hurry, we are slowly getting to know each other," Versadco told Spanish media. "The most important thing is that we are getting along very well."
Ivanovic spent some of her December training period in Spain before flying south for her usual preparation for the Australian Open in Melbourne, where she has relatives in a city that she loves.
The couple will start the 2009 season together as both play the new ATP-WTA event in Brisbane.
***
Philippoussis Will be Back in Action for Australian Open Legends

Mark Philippoussis is set to make a comeback of sorts at Australian Open 2009 when he partners Henri Leconte in the 2009 Australian Open legends event.
Philippoussis is joining a star-studded line-up headlined by three former world No.1’s, Pat Rafter, Thomas Muster and Mats Wilander, who will also feature in a special ‘magic moment’ encore match of the 1988 final with Pat Cash.
Also in the draw is Swede Joakim Nystrom, Guy Forget and Mansour Bahrami, along with Peter McNamara, Paul McNamee, John Fitzgerald, Wally Masur, and Wayne Arthurs.
The Woodies, Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, Australia’s most successful doubles pair, are also participating.

***

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Bob Larson's Daily Tennis is published
Monday through Friday except Holidays
Monday and Thursday in November and December.
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Subscription rates are; $97USD a year,
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HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM MLTENNIS

by mltennis 18. December 2008 12:01

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Bob Larson's Tennis Celebs: December 18th Issue

by mltennis 18. December 2008 11:50

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Bob Larson's
TENNIS CELEBS

IN THIS WEEK'S ISSUE...

News
Tennis Shorts
WTA Scheduled To Play
Covers
Sightings
Appearing Soon
Money Mountain
He Said... She Said
Happy Birthday

NEWS

Nadal and Jankovic named 2008 ITF World Champions

The ITF announced that Rafael Nadal (ESP) and Jelena Jankovic (SRB) are the 2008 ITF World Champions. This is the first time that either player has received this honor.
The 22-year-old Nadal crowned a dream year by securing the year-end No. 1 ranking following his fourth successive Roland Garros title and first triumph at Wimbledon.
Jankovic becomes Serbia’s first Singles World Champion after securing the year-end No. 1 ranking in a standout year. She reached her first major final at the US Open, and won more matches on the tour than any other player, capturing four titles in Rome, Beijing, Stuttgart and Moscow.
The ITF’s selection of its World Champions is based on an objective system that considers not only performances at the Grand Slams, Olympic Games and respective tours, but also gives weight to performances in the two ITF international team competitions, Davis Cup by BNP Paribas and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, and the Olympic Games.
The ITF also announced that Daniel Nestor (CAN) and Nenad Zimonjic (SRB), and Cara Black (ZIM) and Liezel Huber (USA) are the 2008 ITF Doubles World Champions.
Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE) and Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA) are the 2008 ITF Junior World Champions. They become the first ever Asian players to receive this honor.
Yang clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking at last week’s Junior Orange Bowl, the final tournament of the season. The 17-year-old from Taipei captured his first major title at Roland Garros, and was also a finalist at the Australian Open and semifinalist at the US Open. He finished the season with a 20-7 record in singles and 25-6 in doubles.
Lertcheewakarn was the most consistent player on the girls’ circuit, capturing four singles and two doubles titles during the year. In doubles, Lertcheewakarn teamed up with Sweden’s Sandra Roma to win the Junior US Open, and was also champion at the pre-Wimbledon event at Roehampton. Her overall win-loss records for the year were 39-12 in singles and 31-11 in doubles.
The ITF Wheelchair World Champions are Shingo Kunieda (JPN) and Esther Vergeer (NED), with both players remaining unbeaten in singles all year.
The ITF World Champions will receive their awards at the annual ITF World Champions Dinner on Tuesday 2 June, in Paris, during Roland Garros.
***

Jankovic Claims to be in Her Best Shape Ever

World number one Jelena Jankovic has laid down the foundation for her 2009 season with several weeks of fitness training alongside former Mexican marathon runner German Silva.
Following a holiday in Hawaii, the Serb divided her time between Mexico and her US training base in Florida. "I just came back from Mexico where I was in high altitude and the emphasis was on my fitness," Jankovic told her home Belgrade media. 'I was doing a lot of running and spent a lot of hours in the gym trying to improve my strength and speed overall."
One of the knocks on Jankovic last season was her fitness, with aches, pains, scars and sniffles all a part of her matches. She's hoping to lower the drama level by starting up extremely fit. "I'm trying to get very strong and for next year to minimize my injuries as much as I can control."
Jankovic ended on the top spot after four titles in 2008, but has yet to win her first major. But she took aim at her next target, the Australian Open. "I hope to be ready and in the best shape ever by the Australian Open because my goal is to win. I believe in myself and I believe my time will come," said the smiling 23-year-old.
Jankovic will charge into 2009 at the top Hong Kong exhibition, the World Team Challenge from January 7-10, also marking the return of Maria Sharapova, who has not played since Wimbledon with a shoulder problem.
***

Federer Moves into Switzerland’s Wealthy Elite

Switzerland's 100-million-franc man Roger Federer has been noted as one of the 300 richest in his nation by business magazine Bilanz, with his net worth is estimated at between $100 and $160 million.
While he heads the all-time ATP prize money list on $43 million and rising, most of Federer's earnings occur off-court under the tutelage of IMG, which is said to have trebled his annual income to around $35 million.
The world No. 2 recently bolstered his bottom line in these troubled economic times, signing an eight-year contract with longtime clothing supplier Nike for a record $130 million.
While players complain about a long season, exhibition matches at $1 million a pop in the case of Federer can be quick little earners, according to the magazine, which total around six per year for the Swiss.
As a Swiss, Federer is ineligible for one of the lucrative tax deals offered to rich foreigners form sportsmen to entertainers to business men. But he did recently switch his fiscal canton to Wollerau south of Zurich, a lakeside locale favored by high earners.
***

Murray Won’t Leave Britain to Save Money on Taxes

Andy Murray can't hide his love for the United States - especially after reaching his first major final this season at the US Open. But the Scot insists that he won't follow the tennis trend up relocating himself to a lower tax nation, preferring to stay in high-priced Britain.
Despite the lure of generous tax regimes for sportsmen in Switzerland and Monte Carlo - to name just two close to home - the 21-year-old says he's not for upping stakes. Murray has a flat in London, while his mother lives north in the family home at Dunblane, Scotland.
So far in his rocket-ride career, Murray has earned more than $5.5 million in prize money alone. Sponsorships are generally thought to treble or quadruple total prize money over the life of a successful career.
"I like to spend most of my time at home around friends and family," Murray says. "I spent December training in Miami and a few weeks there during the year but, apart from that, I don't see myself going anywhere."
If he does stick to the decision, Murray will be bucking the trend among his European rivals.
Almost every French competitor of note lives in Switzerland on a cantonal tax arrangement, with some - like Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsong residing literally a few hundred metres from the French border in a Swiss village near Geneva airport.
There is an entire French tennis colony in Francophile Geneva, headed by wine-collecting Amelie Mauresmo.
***
Henman to Play Exhibition Match at Wimbledon in May

Tim Henman is expected to play his first public tennis match in almost 18 months on Wimbledon's Centre Court next spring but the former British no.1 is not contemplating a return to the tour and is only playing as a favor to the All England Club.
The former world no.4 and four times Wimbledon semi-finalist is set to play in an experimental match next May to test the workings of the new retractable roof that will be used at the Championships for the first time the following month.
A dress rehearsal' is needed to test out the complex atmospherics and climactic conditions inside the largely rebuilt stadium and Sunday, May 17 is the date chosen. As a crowd of 15,000 is also required the All England Club realized a big name was necessary to lure the public.
Seven times champion Pete Sampras is believed to have been sounded out on his recent trip to London to play in the BlackRock Masters at the Royal Albert Hall but is believed to have declined. John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg and possibly Andre Agassi are other names on the All England Club wish list.
Current players are unlikely to be interested as all will be concentrating on their preparations for the French Open on clay which is a totally different surface.
The roof, which will close in 10 minutes, should be fully operational by February. Details concerning the program of events on May 17 as well as timings and ticket sales will be announced later.
***
Philippoussis Moving Out of Tennis and Into Real Estate Investing

Mark Philippoussis appears to be channeling the energy he once devoted to his tennis into commercial house hunting in Melbourne as the two-time major finalist tries his hand at the property game.
With his days on court over in everything but name due to chronic knee injuries, the 32-year-old has returned to his childhood home to live for the first time in 15 years.
To make ends meet, the former millionaire playboy whose talent never truly hit its potential, is taking an interest in real estate. Where is he looking: "Anywhere where there's an opportunity really," he told local media. "I love homes and I love property, and am looking to get into property developing next year."
Philippoussis last played on the pro level just under two years ago, going down with another knee problem which required surgery at the Hopman Cup in Perth. He then re-injured his knee a year ago when he attempted to play for an Australian Open wild card.
While expecting to compete in a senior event last autumn, he withdrew from that also and pulled from a hybrid tennis battle of the generations to be held in Adelaide next month.
With time on his hands, the man they once called the Scud is game for anything. As proof, he even appeared well out of type on a tennis-inspired cooking product launch.
***

Murray Loves Training in the US and Promises to do More
By Charles Bricker

Running five miles along one of Miami’s beaches, Andy Murray is just another anonymous South Florida fitness maven, and, with the pre-Christmas temperature plunging back home in Great Britain, could he be in a better place?
Murray drove up the Atlantic coast Saturday to play at Mardy Fish’s annual charity event in Vero Beach looking happy, refreshed and well into his off-season plan to make himself into a greater physical presence in 2009.
"I’ve already put on three or four kilos (about nine pounds), but I started from a pretty poor base of fitness in the last year," Murray said. "I hadn’t done a whole lot of fitness work. I feel much better this year."
He’s doing daily 400-meter sprints as part of the whole weight training, stretching and running regimen, and there is the one long run on the sand on the weekend.
Improved endurance is the last piece of the puzzle that could take Murray from his current No. 4 to at or near the very top of men’s tennis.
He’s had two difficult problems with stamina this year, both times losing on the second day of back-to-back matches.
At the U.S. Open, the semifinal between Murray and Rafael Nadal was suspended in the third set by bad weather on Saturday, forcing Murray to come back Sunday and spend more physical energy and emotion to wrap up the win in four sets. Meanwhile, Roger Federer finished Saturday and had Sunday off, then won in straight sets against his Scottish opponent in Monday’s final.
Then, at the Masters Cup in November, Murray defeated Federer in an arduous round-robin match -- and one he didn’t need to win to advance to the semis -- but lost the next day to Nikolay Davydenko.
"I won’t know till tomorrow how much it took out of me," said Murray after he whipped Federer. He found out, and determined that he was going to raise his fitness in 2009 to give himself a stronger chance at winning back-to-back matches late in tournaments.
Running in Miami, no one is stopping him for autographs. No one is asking him to pose for photographs and that highly-valued privacy, combined with Florida’s great weather, has made Murray very comfortable in the United States.
"I’ve loved America since I was young," said Murray. "Since coming to the Orange Bowl (junior tournament in Miami) when I was 11 or 12. I’m going to train in Florida pretty much every December, and after Wimbledon, before the start of the U.S. hardcourt season.
"Pretty much every American I meet has a great-grandfather or parents or something that came from Scotland. Seems like Americans have a lot of ancestors there," Murray said, explaining the easy bond between Scots and Yanks. Could he ever see himself permanently establishing a training base in the U.S.?
Fish was sitting next to Murray during a brief Q & A session before they went on court for the charity singles exhibition. "Yes!" said Fish, trying to coax him up to Saddlebrook, where Fish trains with James Blake and the Bryan brothers. But Murray’s answer was no. "I’ve got my family back home," he said. But he’s still going to spend significant time in the U.S. training.
***

The Creative Bryan Brothers Solve Bob’s Shoulder Problems at Exhibitions
By Charles Bricker

Last year, after winning the Davis Cup in early December, the Bryan twins had eight exhibitions and this year they are only doing four. They didn’t want to cancel all their off-season charity appearances because of Bob’s lingering shoulder injury, but they've found an innovative solution.
"Truth be told, just to be safe, Mike is serving for Bob when they can get away with it and no one notices," said their father, Wayne Bryan.
That can’t have been easy, since Bob is left handed and Mike right handed.
Bob has been working hard in the gym. Mike, too. But Bob is especially taking care to lift small weights to strengthen around his left shoulder," said Wayne Bryan.
"The pain is down from a 10 to about a two. We hope to get it to zero.
"It’s not a serious injury to the shoulder. It is just tendonitis. But you have to work on it each day and manage the pain, or it could become more serious.
"He is playing as little as possible in early December and they will gradually pick it up after Christmas and go full bore in early January, getting ready for Sydney and the Australian Open.
"They will not play Chennai (pre-Aussie Open) to get more rest time and Bob may or may not play the mixed at Australian."
The mixed is important to Bob, who has four mixed doubles titles -- at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He needs only Australia to hit for the cycle, same as they’ve done in men’s doubles.
"The other adjustment Bob has made is to not take so many serves in practice. He’ll cut down a bit and try to take a little more time off each week, and practice a little less.
Now 30 years old, has one twin or the other ever thought of just retiring if the other could not continue playing because of injury? Have they become so accustomed to each other they wouldn’t feel comfortable with another full-time partner?
"Oh, they’ve joked about it a few times," said their father. "But never seriously considered it. I suspect if one was unable to play, the other would get another partner and go on. The injury twin would probably then become the coach."
***

Graf Sued by Former Agent

The former charmed life of Andre Agassi may seem to be crumbling, with his wife Steffi Graf now being sued by his own former manager and ex-best friend over a business deal gone wrong, likely due to the financial crisis hitting especially hard in the US.
Las Vegas media report that only a few months after Agassi and childhood friend Perry Rogers ended their business relationship - in the wake of Agassi's longtime money man being booted from the ATP board for being too sympathetic to outgoing boss Etienne de Villiers - Graf is now being sued by Rogers.
The conflict appears to be breach of contract, according to a lawsuit seeking $50,000 plus interest and legal fees for Rogers after acting as former great Graf's manager and agent for the past six years.
"I am both saddened and disappointed to learn that Perry has filed a lawsuit, and sadder still that he has sued my wife, Stefanie," Agassi said in a statement. "I remain hopeful that we will be able to resolve our business issues with minimal damage to our families and mutual friends."
Legal papers show that Graf had granted Rogers a 15 percent partnership interest in all of her business ventures, dependant on a certain investment account attaining a value of $20 million. That happened in January, 2007, which caused Graf to start the specified payments. But they were stopped ten months later, the papers allege.
The legal morass comes after a VIP resort real estate investment made in Idaho by Agassi and Graf also went under due to the credit crunch.
Agassi's latest project is trying to help in obtaining the Davis Cup tie between the US and Switzerland for his hometown.

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Murray Denies He is Leaving Fred Perry for K-Swiss

Andy Murray has hit back at reports that he was ditching his clothing deal with Fred Perry sportswear in the year Britain's greatest ever champion would have been 100 years old, to instead be lucratively clad in K-Swiss attire.
Many have speculated on the future of Murray's four year deal with Fred Perry – particularly as the company does not manufacture shoes. Earlier this year the world no.4, who has always worn adidas footwear, switched temporarily to Nike at Wimbledon. A projected $3 million deal with K-Swiss would have been very enticing.
K-Swiss of course manufacture both clothes and shoes and currently boast Mardy Fish, Tommy Haas and Anna Kournikova as their most visible clothes horses. A top five player sufficiently gifted to contest the sport's major prizes next year would have fit very much into the company's business plan but Murray insisted: "I will be wearing Fred Perry clothing next year. 2009 would have been Fred Perry's 100th birthday, and the company has a great range of clothes lined up for me."
Murray appeared at Mardy Fish’s fundraiser this weekend wearing Fred Perry and adidas.
***

HBO to Project the Game Way Beyond Madison Square Garden
By Liza Horan

In a significant move to expose millions of Americans to pro tennis and encourage thousands of youngsters to play the game, HBO signed on to broadcast the BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup [TennisNight.com] on March 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The invitational exhibition features Serena and Venus Williams, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic vying for $1.2 million in prize money and the inaugural Cup.
The event will be telecast live on HBO, which counts 40 million subscribers in total with sister network Cinemax, and via HBO on satellite provider DIRECTV, which reaches 17.3 million customers. In addition to viewing the event at home, the broadcast will be made available free to tennis clubs and facilities to tie into the USTA's "Tennis Night in America," which will promote youth sign-ups for recreational tennis programs in the spring and summer.
HBO was the TV "home" of Wimbledon for 25 years beginning in 1975, as well as the producer of documentaries on King and Arthur Ashe, among others, yet the BNP Paribas Showdown will be the first live pro tennis broadcast in years. It also ties HBO to grassroots efforts to promote tennis participation. In addition to driving program registrations, the USTA will commence the search for "America's Best Tennis Town" during the event. The winner of the contest to find "the most passionate tennis town" will be announced at the U.S. Open.

**********

WTA SCHEDULED TO PLAY

Upcoming schedules as of December 15, 2008
1. Jelena Jankovic - Australian Open
2. Serena Williams - Sydney, Australian Open
3. Dinara Safina - Hopman Cup, Sydney, Australian Open
4. Elena Dementieva - Auckland, Sydney, Australian Open
5. Ana Ivanovic - Brisbane, Australian Open
6. Venus Williams - Australian Open
7. Vera Zvonareva - Sydney, Australian Open
8. Svetlana Kuznetsova - Sydney, Australian Open
9. Maria Sharapova - Australian Open
10. Agnieszka Radwanska - Sydney, Australian Open
11. Nadia Petrova - Sydney, Australian Open
12. Caroline Wozniacki - Auckland, Sydney, Australian Open
13. Flavia Pennetta - Hopman Cup, Hobart, Australian Open
14. Patty Schnyder - Hobart, Australian Open
15. Victoria Azarenka - Brisbane, Sydney, Australian Open
16. Alize Cornet - Hopman Cup, Sydney, Australian Open
17. Marion Bartoli - Brisbane, Sydney, Australian Open
18. Anna Chakvetadze - Hobart, Australian Open
19. Dominika Cibulkova - Hopman Cup, Sydney, Australian Open
20. Katarina Srebotnik - Auckland, Sydney, Australian Open

*********

COVERS

**********

A Reminder to Our Readers

We wish to remind our readers that our all-day tennis newswire is available to all tennis fans.
Just go to www.tennisnews.com anytime throughout the day for the latest tennis news. We surf the internet all day and post links to stories in newspapers and electronic media around the world. “We surf the net so you don’t have to."

**********

SIGHTINGS

Rafael Nadal playing soccer in the 'Iker Vs Rafa' charity game at the Palacio de Deportes de la Comunidad de Madrid on December 16, 2008 in Madrid, Spain.

Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer, Carlos Moya attend the 'Iker Vs Rafa' charity game to help against Malaria photocall at the Palacio de Deportes de la Comunidad de Madrid on December 16, 2008 in Madrid, Spain.

Sania Mirza attending a ceremony during which she was awarded an honorary doctorate in Chennai on December 11, 2008. During the special convocation at the Dr. MGR University in Chennai, Mirza was awarded with an honorary doctorate.

Send your player sightings to: cort@tennisnews.com

**********

APPEARING SOON

**********

MONEY MOUNTAIN

2008 Prize Money Earnings

MEN (November 17)

1 Nadal, Rafael

$6,773,773

2 Federer, Roger

5,886,879

3 Djokovic, Novak

5,689,077

4 Murray, Andy

3,705,648

5 Davydenko, Nikolay

2,317,082

6 Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried

1,695,138

7 Simon, Gilles

1,425,489

8 Roddick, Andy

1,337,888

9 Del Potro, Juan Martin

1,322,497

10 Ferrer, David

1,170,008

11 Nalbandian, David

1,106,217

12 Soderling, Robin

1,059,966

13 Blake, James

1,027,141

14 Wawrinka, Stanislas

988,428

15 Verdasco, Fernando

977,961

16 Llodra, Michael

899,477

17 Robredo, Tommy

893,211

18 Monfils, Gael

889,581

19 Andreev, Igor

884,532

20 Lopez, Feliciano
865,779

WOMEN (November 17)

1

Williams, Serena

$3,852,173

2

Williams, Venus

3,766,315

3

Jankovic, Jelena

3,564,465

4

Ivanovic, Ana

3,119,640

5

Safina, Dinara

2,541,270

6

Dementieva, Elena

1,951,304

7

Sharapova, Maria

1,937,879

8

Zvonareva, Vera

1,777,675

9

Kuznetsova, Svetlana

1,771,119

10

Radwanska, Agnieszka

1,170,072

11

Petrova, Nadia

1,075,795

12

Black, Cara

919,940

13

Srebotnik, Katarina

907,145

14

Huber, Liezel

892,737

15

Chakvetadze, Anna

844,924

16

Medina Garrigues, Anabel

807,525

17

Zheng, Jie

771,469

18

Sugiyama, Ai

757,201

19

Azarenka, Victoria

754,857

20

Schnyder, Patty

752,974

**********

HE SAID... SHE SAID...

"I like to spend most of my time at home around friends and family. I spent December training in Miami and a few weeks there during the year but, apart from that, I don't see myself going anywhere." - Andy Murray speaking about his plans to keep his headquarters in Britain.

**********

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

December

Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario
18
1971

Chris Evert
21
1954

Brian Teacher
23
1954

Francoise Durr
25
1942

John Fitzgerald
28
1960

Patrick Rafter
28
1972

James Blake
28
1979

**********

Bob Larson - Publisher
Cort Larson - Editor
Bob Larson's Tennis Celebs is published weekly.
Delivery via e-mail to all countries is $47US a year.
Junior subscription rate $27
Bob Larson Tennis
P.O. Box 24256
Edina, MN 55424 USA
001 952 920 8947 (voice) or 001 952 920 8940 (fax)
E-mail address bob@tennisnews.com
Visit our website at: www.tennisnews.com

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Tennis News: December 18th

by mltennis 18. December 2008 07:22

Thursday, December 18, 2008

BUSINESS NEWS

Editor's Note: We are on our Monday, Thursday publication schedule through December.
***
Birmingham, Alabama to Host 2009 Davis Cup Tie Between USA and Switzerland

The USTA announced that the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex Arena in Birmingham, Ala., has been selected as the site for the 2009 Davis Cup first round tie between the United States and Switzerland, March 6-8. The indoor arena is expected to seat more than 17,000. Tickets will go on sale in mid-January.
Wilson is the official ball of the U.S. Davis Cup team.

***
Nadal and Jankovic named 2008 ITF World Champions

The ITF announced that Rafael Nadal (ESP) and Jelena Jankovic (SRB) are the 2008 ITF World Champions. This is the first time that either player has received this honor.
The 22-year-old Nadal crowned a dream year by securing the year-end No. 1 ranking following his fourth successive Roland Garros title and first triumph at Wimbledon.
Jankovic becomes Serbia’s first Singles World Champion after securing the year-end No. 1 ranking in a standout year. She reached her first major final at the US Open, and won more matches on the tour than any other player, capturing four titles in Rome, Beijing, Stuttgart and Moscow.
The ITF’s selection of its World Champions is based on an objective system that considers not only performances at the Grand Slams, Olympic Games and respective tours, but also gives weight to performances in the two ITF international team competitions, Davis Cup by BNP Paribas and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, and the Olympic Games.
The ITF also announced that Daniel Nestor (CAN) and Nenad Zimonjic (SRB), and Cara Black (ZIM) and Liezel Huber (USA) are the 2008 ITF Doubles World Champions.
Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE) and Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA) are the 2008 ITF Junior World Champions. They become the first ever Asian players to receive this honor.
Yang clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking at last week’s Junior Orange Bowl, the final tournament of the season. The 17-year-old from Taipei captured his first major title at Roland Garros, and was also a finalist at the Australian Open and semifinalist at the US Open. He finished the season with a 20-7 record in singles and 25-6 in doubles.
Lertcheewakarn was the most consistent player on the girls’ circuit, capturing four singles and two doubles titles during the year. In doubles, Lertcheewakarn teamed up with Sweden’s Sandra Roma to win the Junior US Open, and was also champion at the pre-Wimbledon event at Roehampton. Her overall win-loss records for the year were 39-12 in singles and 31-11 in doubles.
The ITF Wheelchair World Champions are Shingo Kunieda (JPN) and Esther Vergeer (NED), with both players remaining unbeaten in singles all year.
The ITF World Champions will receive their awards at the annual ITF World Champions Dinner on Tuesday 2 June, in Paris, during Roland Garros.
***
In an Effort to Avert Dissension, Argentina Names Vazquez Davis Cup Captain

There is no substitute for experience and it might take an extremely practiced and seasoned man to calm the potential powder keg that is the Argentine Davis Cup team. Therefore the appointment of 59 year-old Modesto "Tito" Vazquez for a second spell in charge to replace Alberto Mancini makes perfect sense.
Given the animosity that seems to have developed between the camps of leading singles players David Nalbandian and Juan Martin del Potro, a figure not even loosely connected with either player was required to act as peacemaker. For much of the last eight years Vasquez has been employed as one of the highly paid foreign coaches by Britain's Lawn Tennis Association so he has no affiliation with either man.
Recently Vasquez was brought home from London to Buenos Aires to fill the post of the Argentine Tennis Federation's Development Director so in effect this is an internal appointment. He was chosen instead of the better known candidates Guillermo Vilas and Martin Jaite and will work in conjunction with coach Ricardo Rivera.
The pair's first tie in charge will be at home against the Netherlands beginning March 6 and they will be intent of purging any of the bad blood that affected Argentina's defeat in the first-ever Davis Cup final staged in the country last month when the hosts lost to Spain.
AAT President Enrique Morea explained the decision when he said: "We have chosen two professionals with a lot of experience and long careers in tennis. It's an honor to count on Vazquez and Rivera. The AAT based its decision on the technical and leadership qualities of the two coaches."
Spanish-born Vasquez only played two Davis Cup ties for Argentina. He made his debut in April 1968 against Venezuala in Caracas, playing both singles and doubles. Two years went by before his only other call up, as only a doubles player against Chile. Argentina lost both ties but Vasquez ended up with a 50% record, winning two rubbers and losing the other two.
He was aged 37 when he was appointed captain for the first time in early 1986 and he began his tenure with three straight wins in the Americas Zone against Uruguay, Peru and Chile. A return to the World Group saw Argentina face the tough task of a trip to India to play on New Delhi grass and suffered a 3-2 defeat. Worse was to follow with a 5-0 whitewash by Czechoslovakia in Prague.
A 4-1 win over Ecuador in early 1988 was Vasquez's last win as captain and he was replaced by Alejandro Gattiker after Argentina lost 4-1 at home in Buenos Aires to an USA team spearheaded by John McEnroe and Andre Agassi.
Vilas in particular will be upset by the appointment. The former French and Australian Open champion dominates the Argentina Davis Cup record books with the most years and ties played as well as most wins in both singles and doubles. He has been regularly at odds with the Argentine federation but was honored at the recent final.
"I love my country and Davis Cup and if they needed me, I would help," Vilas said. "Every time the Argentina Tennis Association has to name a captain I feel drawn to the job. Now I'm going a step further and expressing publicly that I want to be the Davis Cup captain."
***
Spain Names Costa Davis Cup Captain

Alberto Costa knows what it is like to win the Davis Cup as a player. Now he is hoping to experience the contentment of doing the same as Spain's captain as he stepped in to take charge of the reigning champions in succession to Emilio Sanchez.
Just a month after the Spaniards - minus the injured Rafael Nadal – triumphed over Argentina in the supposedly inhospitable territory of Mar del Plata, the 33 year-old Costa was predictably given the job of maintaining his country's dominance.
Costa, known to most in the game as 'Hank', is currently coach to Feliciano Lopez, a key member of the Spanish team and will experience his first match in charge when the Spaniards begin their defense with a testing first round World Group match against Serbia at Benidorm from March 6-8.
"I accomplished a lot of my dreams as a player, winning at Roland Garros and now I've managed another one, becoming captain of our Davis Cup team," said the 2002 French Open champion whose deal is initially only for one year. "We're very ambitious. We want to keep working really hard and we want to win the Davis Cup again."
Costa was nominated for the job by Sanchez who had a three year term of captaincy after taking charge in October 2005. "Emilio did an incredible job and he's kind of left me in a bad spot," said Costa of his predecessor who intends to return to concentrating on his highly successful Barcelona academy and work in the Spanish media. "It'll be nearly impossible to better what he did."
Costa was a member of Spain's first Davis Cup winning team in 2000, losing out in five tempestuous sets to Lleyton Hewitt in the ill-tempered final against Australia in Barcelona. He also won 12 ATP singles titles during his playing career with his high point coming at Roland Garros eight years ago. As a Davis Cup player Costa had an 11-8 career record in 13 ties after making his debut in the spring of 1996 with two singles wins aged 20 against Israel.
His last tie was in March 2005 as a doubles player alongside Nadal as Spain lost out to the Slovakl Republic on the indoor hard court of Bratislava but probably his most memorable Davis Cup performance came in the 2002 semi final against the United States in Santander when he opened proceedings against Todd Martin and registered an impressive straight sets victory.
A succession of injuries caused him to officially announce his retirement from competitive professional tennis at the Barcelona event on April 2006.
***
HBO to Project the Game Way Beyond Madison Square Garden
By Liza Horan

In a significant move to expose millions of Americans to pro tennis and encourage thousands of youngsters to play the game, HBO signed on to broadcast the BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup [TennisNight.com] on March 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The invitational exhibition features Serena and Venus Williams, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic vying for $1.2 million in prize money and the inaugural Cup.
The event will be telecast live on HBO, which counts 40 million subscribers in total with sister network Cinemax, and via HBO on satellite provider DIRECTV, which reaches 17.3 million customers. In addition to viewing the event at home, the broadcast will be made available free to tennis clubs and facilities to tie into the USTA's "Tennis Night in America," which will promote youth sign-ups for recreational tennis programs in the spring and summer.
HBO was the TV "home" of Wimbledon for 25 years beginning in 1975, as well as the producer of documentaries on King and Arthur Ashe, among others, yet the BNP Paribas Showdown will be the first live pro tennis broadcast in years. It also ties HBO to grassroots efforts to promote tennis participation. In addition to driving program registrations, the USTA will commence the search for "America's Best Tennis Town" during the event. The winner of the contest to find "the most passionate tennis town" will be announced at the U.S. Open.
***
Multi-purpose Indoor Tennis Facility to Open at the USTA BJK National Tennis Center

The USTA announced that its state-of-the-art indoor tennis facility has been completed and is open to the public. The new $60 million, 245,000 square foot facility was funded at no cost to taxpayers through USTA financing and tax-exempt bonds.
The facility features 12 indoor courts and will allow the USTA to expand its existing tennis programs at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, home of the US Open, as well as provide an opportunity to add new programming for New York area tennis enthusiasts. Further, the world-class venue affords the USTA greater potential in its Player Development program, as the Association considers the creation of regional training centers in its quest to develop the next generation of American champions.
The new facility is a significant expansion and upgrade of the previous indoor facility located at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Three years in construction, the new facility now contains:

12 tennis courts on two floors
Modern locker rooms
State-of-the-art fitness center to support junior programs
Classrooms for after-school programs
A year-round pro shop
A new USTA Membership booth
New US Open retail space
A 15,000 square foot food commissary to support the US Open
Expanded US Open hospitality areas
A retail merchandise warehouse
***
USTA Player Development Names USTA Certified Regional Training Centers

The USTA named the first two USTA Certified Regional Training Centers -- The Junior Tennis Champions Center in Washington, D.C., and The Racquet Club of the South in Atlanta.
The USTA Certified Regional Training Centers will expand the USTA Player Development program’s reach throughout the country by partnering with academies, clubs and tennis centers that have a proven record of identifying and developing tennis players.
The USTA plans to name approximately a dozen Certified Regional Training Centers during the next five years.
In addition to continuing their already existing programs, the USTA Certified Regional Training Centers will now also host USTA training camps for players in their region ages 10-14. These players will be selected in conjunction with the USTA national coaching staff and their respective USTA Section Coaches Commission. The Centers also will help identify talent in players as young as 6-years-old, run QuickStart* tennis programs and host QuickStart tournaments for players 8-and-under and 10-and-under.
The camps will be staffed by the top coaches at the USTA Certified Regional Training Centers with assistance from the USTA national coaching staff. The coaches at the USTA Certified Regional Training Centers also will serve as an extension of the USTA Coaching Education program by working with and training the top coaches in their region and respective USTA Section. Additionally, the coaches will attend training sessions at the USTA National Training Center in Boca Raton, Fla.
The Junior Tennis Champions Center is located on 11 acres of parkland in College Park, Md. The facility features 27 courts, 12 indoor/climate controlled, 8 har-tru clay courts (4 indoor/4 outdoor) and the only two Roland Garros-style red clay courts in the Mid-Atlantic. Ray Benton is the ceo. Frank Salazar, Vesa Ponkka and Misha Kousznetsov are the coaches.
The Racquet Club of the South is one of the largest tennis facilities in the Southeast. The facility has 28 courts, with 26 lit, 8 indoor/climate controlled, 4 har-tru clay courts and 16 hard courts, and is the home of the RCA Tennis Academy. Steve Gareleck, Brian DeVilliers and Grant Stafford comprise the management team at the facility.
***
Jamie Murray to Link Up With Dusan Vemic

Jamie Murray's rekindled partnership with Minnesota's Eric Butorac will only be a temporary liaison. Instead, the 22 year-old Scot is viewing a long term link-up with Serbia's experienced Dusan Vemic.
Murray is committed to playing with Butorac at the Australian Open but the offer to partner Vemic, a semi-finalist at both the French and US Open this year, was too good to refuse. The pair will make their debut together in Brisbane and then play the Sydney tournament in the week preceding 2009's first major.
Vemic is ten year's Murray's senior and ranked seven spots below his new partner at 35 in the Stanford ATP Doubles rankings. He played three of this year's major tournaments alongside Bruno Soares who is linking up with the experienced Kevin Ullyett, another player that Murray sounded out as a potential partner.
"Dusan asked me to play with him," Murray said. "He did well in the grand slams this year. We know each other and we get on well. A partnership is something you work out – you have to find the right attitude to win, and the right strategy."
Murray's 2008 was largely a disappointment as things did not work out as planned with former doubles no.1 Max Mirnyi. The partnership was dissolved in September after the US Open and Murray said. "Going into the year, I had aspirations of doing well with Max, and being one of the top teams. But it never worked out, we never really clicked.
"We worked hard at it, but it didn't happen. Max felt under pressure when he was playing with me. He had played with some of the top players, and then he was playing with a young guy who didn't have much experience. I guess he felt as though he had to be the leader."
***
Murray Won’t Leave Britain to Save Money on Taxes

Andy Murray can't hide his love for the United States - especially after reaching his first major final this season at the US Open. But the Scot insists that he won't follow the tennis trend up relocating himself to a lower tax nation, preferring to stay in high-priced Britain.
Despite the lure of generous tax regimes for sportsmen in Switzerland and Monte Carlo - to name just two close to home - the 21-year-old says he's not for upping stakes. Murray has a flat in London, while his mother lives north in the family home at Dunblane, Scotland.
So far in his rocket-ride career, Murray has earned more than $5.5 million in prize money alone. Sponsorships are generally thought to treble or quadruple total prize money over the life of a successful career.
"I like to spend most of my time at home around friends and family," Murray says. "I spent December training in Miami and a few weeks there during the year but, apart from that, I don't see myself going anywhere."
If he does stick to the decision, Murray will be bucking the trend among his European rivals.
Almost every French competitor of note lives in Switzerland on a cantonal tax arrangement, with some - like Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsong residing literally a few hundred metres from the French border in a Swiss village near Geneva airport.
There is an entire French tennis colony in Francophile Geneva, headed by wine-collecting Amelie Mauresmo.
***
Henman to Play Exhibition Match at Wimbledon in May

Tim Henman is expected to play his first public tennis match in almost 18 months on Wimbledon's Centre Court next spring but the former British no.1 is not contemplating a return to the tour and is only playing as a favor to the All England Club.
The former world no.4 and four times Wimbledon semi-finalist is set to play in an experimental match next May to test the workings of the new retractable roof that will be used at the Championships for the first time the following month.
A dress rehearsal' is needed to test out the complex atmospherics and climactic conditions inside the largely rebuilt stadium and Sunday, May 17 is the date chosen. As a crowd of 15,000 is also required the All England Club realized a big name was necessary to lure the public.
Seven times champion Pete Sampras is believed to have been sounded out on his recent trip to London to play in the BlackRock Masters at the Royal Albert Hall but is believed to have declined. John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg and possibly Andre Agassi are other names on the All England Club wish list.
Current players are unlikely to be interested as all will be concentrating on their preparations for the French Open on clay which is a totally different surface.
The roof, which will close in 10 minutes, should be fully operational by February. Details concerning the program of events on May 17 as well as timings and ticket sales will be announced later.
***
Philippoussis Moving Out of Tennis and Into Real Estate Investing

Mark Philippoussis appears to be channeling the energy he once devoted to his tennis into commercial house hunting in Melbourne as the two-time major finalist tries his hand at the property game.
With his days on court over in everything but name due to chronic knee injuries, the 32-year-old has returned to his childhood home to live for the first time in 15 years.
To make ends meet, the former millionaire playboy whose talent never truly hit its potential, is taking an interest in real estate. Where is he looking: "Anywhere where there's an opportunity really," he told local media. "I love homes and I love property, and am looking to get into property developing next year."
Philippoussis last played on the pro level just under two years ago, going down with another knee problem which required surgery at the Hopman Cup in Perth. He then re-injured his knee a year ago when he attempted to play for an Australian Open wild card.
While expecting to compete in a senior event last autumn, he withdrew from that also and pulled from a hybrid tennis battle of the generations to be held in Adelaide next month.
With time on his hands, the man they once called the Scud is game for anything. As proof, he even appeared well out of type on a tennis-inspired cooking product launch.
***
The Creative Bryan Brothers Solve Bob’s Shoulder Problems at Exhibitions
By Charles Bricker

Last year, after winning the Davis Cup in early December, the Bryan twins had eight exhibitions and this year they are only doing four. They didn’t want to cancel all their off-season charity appearances because of Bob’s lingering shoulder injury, but they've found an innovative solution.
"Truth be told, just to be safe, Mike is serving for Bob when they can get away with it and no one notices," said their father, Wayne Bryan.
That can’t have been easy, since Bob is left handed and Mike right handed.
Bob has been working hard in the gym. Mike, too. But Bob is especially taking care to lift small weights to strengthen around his left shoulder," said Wayne Bryan.
"The pain is down from a 10 to about a two. We hope to get it to zero.
"It’s not a serious injury to the shoulder. It is just tendonitis. But you have to work on it each day and manage the pain, or it could become more serious.
"He is playing as little as possible in early December and they will gradually pick it up after Christmas and go full bore in early January, getting ready for Sydney and the Australian Open.
"They will not play Chennai (pre-Aussie Open) to get more rest time and Bob may or may not play the mixed at Australian."
The mixed is important to Bob, who has four mixed doubles titles -- at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He needs only Australia to hit for the cycle, same as they’ve done in men’s doubles.
"The other adjustment Bob has made is to not take so many serves in practice. He’ll cut down a bit and try to take a little more time off each week, and practice a little less.
Now 30 years old, has one twin or the other ever thought of just retiring if the other could not continue playing because of injury? Have they become so accustomed to each other they wouldn’t feel comfortable with another full-time partner?
"Oh, they’ve joked about it a few times," said their father. "But never seriously considered it. I suspect if one was unable to play, the other would get another partner and go on. The injury twin would probably then become the coach."
***
Donald Dell Joins Bionic Gloves

Donald Dell, the pro tennis player agent, U.S. Davis Cup team captain, Legg-Mason Tennis Classic co-founder and network TV commentator, has joined Bionic, sports’ leading glove technology company and makers of performance enhancing gloves. He’ll be personally involved in the grassroots level sampling and promotion of Bionic Tennis Gloves.
Designed by a leading orthopedic hand surgeon who has designed gloves for players in Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, U.S. Olympians and top collegiate athletes, Bionic Tennis Gloves’ patented technology improves player performance on the tennis court by enhancing gripping power, reducing racquet slippage, controlling moisture, supporting wrists and providing long-lasting durability. “I’ve used Bionic Tennis Gloves and have experienced the difference,” Dell proclaimed. “I believe Bionic gloves are going to change players’ minds about wearing gloves in tennis.”
The USTA Southern Section and the PTR have both embraced Bionic’s performance enhancing benefits and are promoting the gloves with their members. Dell will lead the way for broad acceptance, distribution, marketing and sales of Bionic Tennis Gloves in the tennis industry worldwide.
Bionic Gloves are from Hillerich & Bradsby Co., the 124-year-old family-owned manufacturer of Louisville Slugger baseball bats, the Official Bat of Major League Baseball.
***

We Hear—
--that a new tennis magazine, Tennis View, is being launched in Florida. It is a national tennis life-style publication for women and will be printed quarterly.
***
THIS WEEK
MEN
No events scheduled
WOMEN
No events scheduled
***
NEXT WEEK
MEN
No events scheduled
WOMEN
No events scheduled
***
Bob Larson’s Stock Report
Wednesday’s Stock Prices

Stock

Last

Change

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-.20

3.88

+.16

2.10

0.00

12.09

+.16

50.64

+1.00

Bob Larson Tennis Stock Index $87.91
* The index is based on the total value of one share of each stock we report daily.
***
Results
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Bob Larson's Daily Tennis is published
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Tennis News: December 15th

by mltennis 15. December 2008 04:26

Monday, December 15, 2008

BUSINESS NEWS

Editor's Note: We are on our Monday, Thursday publication schedule through December.
***
Six ATP Events Without Title Sponsors

The ATP has confirmed that six events on the revamped 2009 calendar – a figure that equates to 10% of the total – are trying to do the virtually impossible in the most testing of economic times and are still desperately trying to find a title sponsor.
Nevertheless there is confidence that companies will be found before the balls begin to fly. Most of these tournaments are currently refusing to go public although the family of world no.3 Novak Djokovic has secured the former Dutch Open for Belgrade because the event lost its sponsor. The far larger Paris Masters event at Bercy, that will become a 1000 Series next year, also lost one of its main sponsors.
Kris Dent, the ATP's London-based spokesman insisted two tournaments are "extremely close" to announcing new agreements although he would not be specific. But he did say: "We continue to have very encouraging discussions with a number of partners from different sectors.
"Plus we have events all around the world which means regional economic difficulties do not affect us in the way they might national associations or leagues."
Even though Mercedes is about to end its' 12 year partnership with the ATP this year, the German car manufacturers will continue to sponsor tournaments in Madrid, Shanghai and Stuttgart.
The search for a replacement is ongoing but nothing is likely to be secured until the announcement of Etienne de Villiers' replacement as Executive chairman. "We continue to have very encouraging discussions with a number of partners from different sectors," Dent said. "We are in a fortunate position that as a business we can afford to take the time required to get the right kind of deal for the ATP.”
"While clearly the current financial climate is an added challenge, we are very confident of finding the right kind of partner for the ATP at the right price for the ATP,"
***
Nottingham Becomes a Challenger Event

Nottingham, for several years the venue of a grass court tournament the week immediately before Wimbledon, has been downgraded in status and will now host a $50,000 Challenger event during the second week of the French Open.
The new Nottingham event, named the AEGON Trophy as part of the all-encompassing £30 million commercial partnership with the Scottish-based insurance and pensions company, will replace the now defunct grass court tournament played for many years at Surbiton in south-west London.
Paul Hutchins, the former British Davis Cup captain who officially stands down as the Lawn Tennis Association's Head of Men's Tennis at the end of the year, will be the event's Tournament Director.
The event, that features an ATP Challenger and an ITF women's event, runs May 30 thru June 7 and Hutchins said: "The AEGON Trophy will provide tennis fans in and around Nottingham with an excellent opportunity to watch world class tennis. The event has historically attracted a large number of top class players and I have no doubt that this tradition will continue next year."
Nottingham's City Council, who have invested a large amount of public money into the multi-courted Nottingham Tennis Center, were initially furious at the LTA's decision to do away with the traditional pre-Wimbledon date and make the much more established WTA Tour event on the south coast at Eastbourne a men's and women's tournament.
Now councilor Dave Trimble sounded in something of a placated mood as he said: "After the disappointment of losing the Nottingham Open to Eastbourne we were keen to work closely with the LTA and ensure world class tournaments continue at the Nottingham Tennis Center. Having just completed an extensive refurbishment of the Tennis Centre this is great news for customers, residents and tennis fans from across the region."
***
USTA Sets Playoff for Australian Open Women’s Wildcard
By Charles Bricker

The USTA has selected eight young women, all teenagers, to compete in a round-robin tournament beginning Monday at the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Florida for the exchange main draw wild card spot given the U.S. for the Australian Open.
Although 17-year-old Coco Vandeweghe, the U.S. Open junior champion, might appear the favorite to win the tournament, she probably will have to get past Vania King of Long Beach, Calif., 19, who has the most professional experience among the eight players.
The other six players, to be divided into two round-robin groups of four, are Lauren Albanese (19 years old), Madison Brengle (18), Gail Brodsky (17), Mallory Cecil (18), Christina McHale (16) and Asia Muhammad (17).
Tennis Australia and the USTA exchange a single wild card into each other's Grand Slam events.
***
Good Weather Predicted for Australian Open

Long-range forecasts call for pleasant weather, especially in Melbourne for the Australian Open from January 19. The official website is so confident, it's already recommending sun screen and hats for spectators around the grounds at Melbourne Park.
In a new wrinkle at this edition, the tournament will have its own weather office and forecasters on site, a practice already in place at Roland Garros, where rain is always a factor influencing play.
"Our crystal ball is a little more advanced these days so my educated prediction is that January will bring mostly sunny days for the fortnight of the Australian Open,” said the Open's weather guru Bob Leighton.
Predictions promise minimal rain interruptions over the fortnight. But weathermen hedged their bets by adding the possibility of some occasional thunderstorms.
Statistics show that since 1988, only 2003 was totally rain-free. And every year, save 1989, managed at least one day of 35C. "Eight of the last 15 Australian Opens recorded at least one day over 40 (more than 100 C) degrees,” added Leighton.
***
Murray Denies He is Leaving Fred Perry for K-Swiss

Andy Murray has hit back at reports that he was ditching his clothing deal with Fred Perry sportswear in the year Britain's greatest ever champion would have been 100 years old, to instead be lucratively clad in K-Swiss attire.
Many have speculated on the future of Murray's four year deal with Fred Perry – particularly as the company does not manufacture shoes. Earlier this year the world no.4, who has always worn adidas footwear, switched temporarily to Nike at Wimbledon. A projected $3 million deal with K-Swiss would have been very enticing.
K-Swiss of course manufacture both clothes and shoes and currently boast Mardy Fish, Tommy Haas and Anna Kournikova as their most visible clothes horses. A top five player sufficiently gifted to contest the sport's major prizes next year would have fit very much into the company's business plan but Murray insisted: "I will be wearing Fred Perry clothing next year. 2009 would have been Fred Perry's 100th birthday, and the company has a great range of clothes lined up for me."
Murray appeared at Mardy Fish’s fundraiser this weekend wearing Fred Perry and adidas.
***
Jankovic Claims to be in Her Best Shape Ever

World number one Jelena Jankovic has laid down the foundation for her 2009 season with several weeks of fitness training alongside former Mexican marathon runner German Silva.
Following a holiday in Hawaii, the Serb divided her time between Mexico and her US training base in Florida. "I just came back from Mexico where I was in high altitude and the emphasis was on my fitness," Jankovic told her home Belgrade media. 'I was doing a lot of running and spent a lot of hours in the gym trying to improve my strength and speed overall."
One of the knocks on Jankovic last season was her fitness, with aches, pains, scars and sniffles all a part of her matches. She's hoping to lower the drama level by starting up extremely fit. "I'm trying to get very strong and for next year to minimize my injuries as much as I can control."
Jankovic ended on the top spot after four titles in 2008, but has yet to win her first major. But she took aim at her next target, the Australian Open. "I hope to be ready and in the best shape ever by the Australian Open because my goal is to win. I believe in myself and I believe my time will come," said the smiling 23-year-old.
Jankovic will charge into 2009 at the top Hong Kong exhibition, the World Team Challenge from January 7-10, also marking the return of Maria Sharapova, who has not played since Wimbledon with a shoulder problem.
***
Federer Moves into Switzerland’s Wealthy Elite

Switzerland's 100-million-franc man Roger Federer has been noted as one of the 300 richest in his nation by business magazine Bilanz, with his net worth is estimated at between $100 and $160 million.
While he heads the all-time ATP prize money list on $43 million and rising, most of Federer's earnings occur off-court under the tutelage of IMG, which is said to have trebled his annual income to around $35 million.
The world No. 2 recently bolstered his bottom line in these troubled economic times, signing an eight-year contract with longtime clothing supplier Nike for a record $130 million.
While players complain about a long season, exhibition matches at $1 million a pop in the case of Federer can be quick little earners, according to the magazine, which total around six per year for the Swiss.
As a Swiss, Federer is ineligible for one of the lucrative tax deals offered to rich foreigners form sportsmen to entertainers to business men. But he did recently switch his fiscal canton to Wollerau south of Zurich, a lakeside locale favored by high earners.
***
Hewitt is in Intense Mode for Australian Open Preparation

Lleyton Hewitt has been resorting to every type of rehab activity including swimming, running, cycling and stair-climbing in an ironman effort to complete his recovery from summer hip surgery
The former No, 1 now ranked 67th after last playing at the Beijing Games, only picked up a racket a few weeks ago in preparation for his return for the Australia team at the Hopman Cup from January 3.
Hewitt told Sydney media that he has been training for up to six hours per day. "I actually enjoy it. If you're fit you're playing most weeks on tour," he said to the Sun-Herald. "So this is a good opportunity for me not just to look at the Australian summer, but also the 2009 calendar. "Hopefully, I can get my body in as good a shape as possible to see me right through next year. I was only at about 70 percent during the grand Slams last season."
Hewitt added: "It's tough to come back from any kind of surgery and especially with my style of game, with a lot of running, scrambling and getting a lot of balls back.
"I'm trying to strengthen the muscles around the hip again. The last couple of weeks have been getting better and better each day."
Hewitt will be competing at the Hopman Cup for the first time since 2004 after ending his feud with tournament boss Paul McNamee, who also ran the Australian Open.
***
Murray Loves Training in the US and Promises to do More
By Charles Bricker

Running five miles along one of Miami’s beaches, Andy Murray is just another anonymous South Florida fitness maven, and, with the pre-Christmas temperature plunging back home in Great Britain, could he be in a better place?
Murray drove up the Atlantic coast Saturday to play at Mardy Fish’s annual charity event in Vero Beach looking happy, refreshed and well into his off-season plan to make himself into a greater physical presence in 2009.
"I’ve already put on three or four kilos (about nine pounds), but I started from a pretty poor base of fitness in the last year," Murray said. "I hadn’t done a whole lot of fitness work. I feel much better this year."
He’s doing daily 400-meter sprints as part of the whole weight training, stretching and running regimen, and there is the one long run on the sand on the weekend.
Improved endurance is the last piece of the puzzle that could take Murray from his current No. 4 to at or near the very top of men’s tennis.
He’s had two difficult problems with stamina this year, both times losing on the second day of back-to-back matches.
At the U.S. Open, the semifinal between Murray and Rafael Nadal was suspended in the third set by bad weather on Saturday, forcing Murray to come back Sunday and spend more physical energy and emotion to wrap up the win in four sets. Meanwhile, Roger Federer finished Saturday and had Sunday off, then won in straight sets against his Scottish opponent in Monday’s final.
Then, at the Masters Cup in November, Murray defeated Federer in an arduous round-robin match -- and one he didn’t need to win to advance to the semis -- but lost the next day to Nikolay Davydenko.
"I won’t know till tomorrow how much it took out of me," said Murray after he whipped Federer. He found out, and determined that he was going to raise his fitness in 2009 to give himself a stronger chance at winning back-to-back matches late in tournaments.
Running in Miami, no one is stopping him for autographs. No one is asking him to pose for photographs and that highly-valued privacy, combined with Florida’s great weather, has made Murray very comfortable in the United States.
"I’ve loved America since I was young," said Murray. "Since coming to the Orange Bowl (junior tournament in Miami) when I was 11 or 12. I’m going to train in Florida pretty much every December, and after Wimbledon, before the start of the U.S. hardcourt season.
"Pretty much every American I meet has a great-grandfather or parents or something that came from Scotland. Seems like Americans have a lot of ancestors there," Murray said, explaining the easy bond between Scots and Yanks. Could he ever see himself permanently establishing a training base in the U.S.?
Fish was sitting next to Murray during a brief Q & A session before they went on court for the charity singles exhibition. "Yes!" said Fish, trying to coax him up to Saddlebrook, where Fish trains with James Blake and the Bryan brothers. But Murray’s answer was no. "I’ve got my family back home," he said. But he’s still going to spend significant time in the U.S. training.
***
Graf Sued by Former Agent

The former charmed life of Andre Agassi may seem to be crumbling, with his wife Steffi Graf now being sued by his own former manager and ex-best friend over a business deal gone wrong, likely due to the financial crisis hitting especially hard in the US.
Las Vegas media report that only a few months after Agassi and childhood friend Perry Rogers ended their business relationship - in the wake of Agassi's longtime money man being booted from the ATP board for being too sympathetic to outgoing boss Etienne de Villiers - Graf is now being sued by Rogers.
The conflict appears to be breach of contract, according to a lawsuit seeking $50,000 plus interest and legal fees for Rogers after acting as former great Graf's manager and agent for the past six years.
"I am both saddened and disappointed to learn that Perry has filed a lawsuit, and sadder still that he has sued my wife, Stefanie," Agassi said in a statement. "I remain hopeful that we will be able to resolve our business issues with minimal damage to our families and mutual friends."
Legal papers show that Graf had granted Rogers a 15 percent partnership interest in all of her business ventures, dependant on a certain investment account attaining a value of $20 million. That happened in January, 2007, which caused Graf to start the specified payments. But they were stopped ten months later, the papers allege.
The legal morass comes after a VIP resort real estate investment made in Idaho by Agassi and Graf also went under due to the credit crunch.
Agassi's latest project is trying to help in obtaining the Davis Cup tie between the US and Switzerland for his hometown.
***
Youngster Tomic in Hot Water with Australian Federation

Prodigy-in waiting Bernard Tomic is still not off the hook with irate Australian tennis authorities even after a public apology by his father. John Tomic said he was sorry for an outburst this month over linecalling which resulted in his teenaged son leaving the court mid-match at a minor event.
Pressure has been on both father and son, with memories of bad dad Damir Dokic still fresh. John Dokic apologized for hauling his 16-year-old off court during the disputes match near Perth.
"I am a father who wants the best in the world for my children," said the elder Tomic. "I realize that my actions have actually hurt my son, that hurts me deeply and I want to correct the situation which is why I am fronting here to apologize without reservation.
"I was wrong. All I want is for Bernard to be the best he can be as a person and as a tennis player representing the things he loves dearly, his family, his sport and his country."
Reigning Australian Open junior champion Tomic remains a subject of debate with Tennis Australia, with the federation still unsure if he will rate any wild cards over the approaching summer of tennis in the wake of the embarrassing incident.
His participation in the Australian Open is now said to be under discussion.
"John is aware that if he gets out of line and does something not appropriate that there will be the next step for us and that could range anything from the withdrawal of funding to sanctioning the participation of an event," said Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley. "Then if it continues, to even harsher discipline."
***
American Junior Domijan is no Longer Under the Radar
By Charles Bricker

Courtesy of Saddlebrook.com

Alex Domijan, whose parents must be among the most brilliant in tennis, didn’t achieve the U.S. junior double of winning the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl boys 18s tournaments back to back.
But he did extend his win streak to 15 before losing to fellow American Jarmere Jenkins in the semis at the Orange Bowl and, after three years of largely unnoticed improvement, has finally made a lot of people take notice of his talent.
"He’s really been under the radar because of how we moved him forward," said his father, renown renewable energy engineer Dr. Alex Domijan Jr. "He’s always been either No. 1 or No. 2 in the USTA junior rankings at every age group. But when he’s reached that high, we’ve always moved him up to the next age group."
If his results have been largely unnoticed, his body hasn’t been. He was already six-feet tall when he reached the semis of the Orange Bowl 14s in 2005 and he’s now listed at 6-foot-6, though his father says he’s closer to 6-foot-7.
He doesn’t talk a lot, on or off the court, but he quickly agreed that he’s the son of a couple of high-powered parents. His father, a professor of engineering at the University of South Florida in Tampa, just installed a couple of innovative, sustainable energy plants at sites in nearby St. Petersburg.
His mother, Dr. Anne Curtis, is the head of cardiology at USF’s school of medicine.
Their insistence on high educational achievement hasn’t been lost on Alex, who is a member of National Honor Society at Saddlebrook Prep. And school does, indeed, come first.
When Domijan was winning the Eddie Herr 18s two weeks ago, he didn’t stay at a hotel in Bradenton or Sarasota, near the tournament site. He was home at Saddlebrook, where he was up by 6:30 a.m. and off to school before driving 80 miles to play his matches at the Herr.
He’s a big kid with a big game – very aggressive from the baseline and trying to become more efficient coming forward, but even with his results this year, which have included two semis and a runner-up finish in three Futures events, the family is taking measured steps.
"We probably won’t play the Australian Open juniors and as far as professional tennis. . .we still don’t know. It depends on how well he’s progressing," said his father. "That’s still up in the air."
The Domijans are fourth-generation Americans who moved from New Jersey to Florida before Alex’s birth in Gainesville. His father, who coached for the legendary Harry Hopman, was his son’s coach most of his junior career, but has recently turned the job over to the cadre of coaches at Saddlebrook, led by Craig Boynton.
If there is a credo in the Domijan household, it’s "keep a straight line and don’t chase the points. That’s the bad thing too many juniors do," said Dr. Domijan. "Just focus on improvement."
Domijan’s run at the Herr and Orange Bowl pushed his ITF ranking to 32 and, though the USTA national rankings haven’t been updated, he’ll probably be No. 1 in the 18s, replacing Bradley Klahn of Poway, Calif.
***

We Hear—
--that French media company, Lagardere, is developing into a tennis management and staging events force and is said to be buying the tennis division from BEST, the former SFX tennis division and previously ProServe. That would also include Andy Roddick as a client; he is currently wearing a Lagardere patch on his shirts. Announcement could come as early as this week.
***
THIS WEEK
MEN
No events scheduled
WOMEN
No events scheduled
***
NEXT WEEK
MEN
No events scheduled
WOMEN
No events scheduled
***
Bob Larson’s Stock Report
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Bob Larson's Tennis Celebs: December 12th Issue

by mltennis 12. December 2008 08:18

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Bob Larson's
TENNIS CELEBS

IN THIS WEEK'S ISSUE...

News
Tennis Shorts
WTA Scheduled To Play
Covers
Sightings
Appearing Soon
Money Mountain
He Said... She Said
Happy Birthday

NEWS

Becker Likes Federer’s Chances in 2009

While the great and the good of the last tennis generation pass judgment on the game's current stats, there's no way three-time Wimbledon winner Boris Becker cannot chime in with his own opinion.
The German - despite not playing at the wrap-up to the senior season in London - gave the issue a quick "me-too" as he joined Pete Sampras and John McEnroe in predicting a quick return to lethal form for Roger Federer.
Becker belies that Rafael Nadal will have a limited shelf life at the No. 1 ranking, with his Swiss rival set to reclaim the top honor. "Federer has a good chance of coming back because Nadal plays a very physical game and has to watch his body a little bit now,"
said Becker.
"He cancelled at the Masters in Shanghai and the Davis Cup because of injury."
Becker insists that Federer, currently at his training base in Dubai to prepare for a fast start in 2009, will quickly find his feet in the New Year, doing that is some style by regaining his beloved Wimbledon title. "Roger had a rough summer and the Olympics wasn't great for him but I choose him to win Wimbledon," tipped Becker.

***

Murray and Butorac Back Together

Jamie Murray has decided to re-unite his once successful' Booty and Stretch' doubles partnership with Minnesota's Eric Butorac for the upcoming Australian Open after being unsuccessful with an offer to play alongside long-time top tenner Kevin Ullyett next year.
Ullyett, the 36year-old London-based Zimbabwean, had been on the look-out for a new permanent doubles partner after Jonas Bjorkman retired at the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. Teaming up with 22 year-old Murray would have been an easy fit as they have homes close to one another and won this year's Estoril event together in April.
However Ullyett is now committed to partnering the 6ft 8ins tall Brazilian Marcelo Melo in 2009 so Murray, who split with Max Mirnyi after the US Open and ended this year playing Challengers with British veteran Jamie Delgado, opted to team up again with Butorac.
Together the pain of left-handers had a successful run in 2007, winning titles in San Jose, Memphis and Nottingham. Murray then decided the time was right to graduate to a more experienced partner but his liaison with 31 year-old former doubles world no.1 Mirnyi was a disappointment, realizing just one title at Delray Beach.
"Eric and I plan to play Australia together and see how it goes from there," said Murray who has opted against joining his younger brother and world no.4 Andy in an intensive training activity in Florida for the next couple of weeks.
Murray currently stands at a career high 28^th place on the Stanford ATP Doubles Ranking while Butorac, who has played with no fewer than 19 different partners in 2008 events, is placed at 67^th.
***
Sampras Predicts a Long Dry Spell for American Men’s Tennis

Pete Sampras is predicting a long dry spell - perhaps four decades worth - until American men’s tennis again has the chance to dominate as it did during the last decade. One of the greatest to ever play the game made his grim prediction as he briefly returned to competition in London at the BlackRock Masters.
In the wake of his straight-set Group win over John McEnroe at the senior season wrap-up, Sampras said that the glory days of the US game will take a long time to return.
Sampras, 37 and No. 1 for a record six straight years 1993-1999, played in the golden generation along with fellow major winners Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Michael Chang.
With Andy Roddick (8th) and James Blake (10th) the only current leading Americans, at times look ready to get worse quickly. Sampras called the current situation a tricky time," adding: "The American media and the fans expect American champions and our guys to be No. 1, and when you don't get that people start complaining."
He said that Roddick and Blake have their work cut out. "It's tough to be compared to myself and Andre, Jim and Michael. That was a pretty unique crew.
"It's going to take maybe five, 10, 15 years for another crew of really good young Americans. It might not happen for 40 years - it's hard to say."
***

Davenport to Stay on the Tour—Retire Later

Three-time major champion Lindsay Davenport has opted to keep her career going strong at age 32, signing up for an entry in next month's Australian Open.
Officials of the 2009 event confirmed the participation of the 2000 winner as all 100 of the top men and women in the game registered to play from January 19.
Davenport had been having her doubts about carrying on 18 months after giving birth to baby son Jagger, yet winning four more titles in 2007 and early 2008 when she opted to return to the sport.
Davenport has played in ten previous editions in Melbourne. "We are really excited that she has entered," said tournament director Craig Tiley, "She's a world-class player and a great ambassador for our sport."
Davenport had a disappointing showing a year ago, losing in the second round to eventual champion Maria Sharapova.
***

Ken Rosewall Honored at Sydney’s Olympic Park

The state’s premier tennis stadium at Sydney Olympic Park has been named after Australian tennis legend Ken Rosewall. The site of the 2000 Olympics tennis event was crowned ‘Ken Rosewall Arena’ in honor of the Sydneysider and eight-time major champion.

In the Open-era (post 1968), Rosewall amassed 32 singles titles and 18 doubles titles. He is the second oldest player to ever win a title in the Open-era at age 43. Rosewall was also the second player, after Rod Laver, to pass one million dollars in prize money. His highest ranking in the Open era was world no. 2 on 20 April, 1975, but he was ranked no.1 prior to the advent of the computer rankings in 1973.

***
Serena Williams Pulls Out of Hopman Cup USA Team, Safin Will Represent Russia

The US has again been let down by Serena Williams, who pulled out of the upcoming Hopman Cup citing a hamstring injury despite being scheduled for three exhibition nights of tennis this week in the US.
James Blake will carry the colors for the US at Perth’s Burswood Dome along with substitute Meghann Shanghnessy, who came to the rescue last January when Williams failed to arrive in time to play in the first match.
Unpredictable Marat Safin has discarded his hasty plan to retire from tennis after another poor season. Instead, the streaky Russian will lead his younger sister Safina for Russia at Hopman Cup.
Safin had muttered vague threats about giving up the game as he approaches his 29th birthday after several seasons plagued by injury.
But despite his downbeat attitude last month at Paris Bercy, the two-time major champion and former No. 1 will soldier on as he begins at the eight-nation team event in Perth on the third day of the New Year.
The veteran will certainly get some solid help from his sibling, who rocketed into third in the world after a breakthrough season. Safin travelled to Perth in 2004 and 2005, losing all three of his singles matches in his last appearance to stand 2-4 at the special event.

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**********

TENNIS SHORTS

Clarifying John McEnroe’s Comments in London

"If common sense prevails, I shan't be back," said John McEnroe, the former Wimbledon and US Open champion who had won this London event four times and provided the back bone of senior tennis since Jimmy Connors stepped off the scene, "I think I have stretched playing here as long as I can," he said. "I'm down and almost out. I didn't even play bad, I just didn't play well when I needed to and it's not going to get any easier.
A John McEnroe spokesman explained to Daily Tennis News that John McEnroe's quotes, at the ATP Tour of Champions Masters tournament in London last week referred only to playing again, in singles, at the ATP Tour of Champions tournament in London.
Daily Tennis News regrets any confusion caused by our report that McEnroe was calling it a singles career.

**********

WTA SCHEDULED TO PLAY

Upcoming schedules as of December 8, 2008
1. Jelena Jankovic -
2. Serena Williams - Sydney
3. Dinara Safina - Sydney
4. Elena Dementieva - Auckland, Sydney
5. Ana Ivanovic - Brisbane
6. Venus Williams -
7. Vera Zvonareva - Sydney
8. Svetlana Kuznetsova - Sydney
9. Maria Sharapova -
10. Agnieszka Radwanska - Sydney
11. Nadia Petrova - Auckland, Sydney
12. Caroline Wozniacki - Auckland, Sydney
13. Flavia Pennetta - Hobart
14. Patty Schnyder - Hobart
15. Victoria Azarenka - Brisbane, Sydney
16. Alize Cornet - Sydney
17. Marion Bartoli - Brisbane, Sydney
18. Anna Chakvetadze - Hobart
19. Dominika Cibulkova - Sydney
20. Katarina Srebotnik - Auckland, Sydney

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COVERS

**********

A Reminder to Our Readers

We wish to remind our readers that our all-day tennis newswire is available to all tennis fans.
Just go to www.tennisnews.com anytime throughout the day for the latest tennis news. We surf the internet all day and post links to stories in newspapers and electronic media around the world. “We surf the net so you don’t have to."

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SIGHTINGS

Send your player sightings to: cort@tennisnews.com

**********

APPEARING SOON

December 12 - 14 Andy Roddick, John Isner, Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki in the Rock-N-Racquets tour to benefit The Andy Roddick Foundation. After Roddick plays Isner and Williams plays Wozniacki, Roddick and Williams will team up against Isner and Wozniacki. Louisville, KY: Friday, December 12, 7pm at Freedom Hall. Columbia, SC: Saturday, December 13, 7pm at Colonial Life Arena. Knoxville, TN: Sunday, December 14, 7pm at Thompson-Boling Arena. For additional information, please visit www.rocknracquets.com.

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MONEY MOUNTAIN

2008 Prize Money Earnings

MEN (November 17)

1 Nadal, Rafael

$6,773,773

2 Federer, Roger

5,886,879

3 Djokovic, Novak

5,689,077

4 Murray, Andy

3,705,648

5 Davydenko, Nikolay

2,317,082

6 Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried

1,695,138

7 Simon, Gilles

1,425,489

8 Roddick, Andy

1,337,888

9 Del Potro, Juan Martin

1,322,497

10 Ferrer, David

1,170,008

11 Nalbandian, David

1,106,217

12 Soderling, Robin

1,059,966

13 Blake, James

1,027,141

14 Wawrinka, Stanislas

988,428

15 Verdasco, Fernando

977,961

16 Llodra, Michael

899,477

17 Robredo, Tommy

893,211

18 Monfils, Gael

889,581

19 Andreev, Igor

884,532

20 Lopez, Feliciano
865,779

WOMEN (November 17)

1

Williams, Serena

$3,852,173

2

Williams, Venus

3,766,315

3

Jankovic, Jelena

3,564,465

4

Ivanovic, Ana

3,119,640

5

Safina, Dinara

2,541,270

6

Dementieva, Elena

1,951,304

7

Sharapova, Maria

1,937,879

8

Zvonareva, Vera

1,777,675

9

Kuznetsova, Svetlana

1,771,119

10

Radwanska, Agnieszka

1,170,072

11

Petrova, Nadia

1,075,795

12

Black, Cara

919,940

13

Srebotnik, Katarina

907,145

14

Huber, Liezel

892,737

15

Chakvetadze, Anna

844,924

16

Medina Garrigues, Anabel

807,525

17

Zheng, Jie

771,469

18

Sugiyama, Ai

757,201

19

Azarenka, Victoria

754,857

20

Schnyder, Patty

752,974

**********

HE SAID... SHE SAID...

"It's going to take maybe five, 10, 15 years for another crew of really good young Americans. It might not happen for 40 years - it's hard to say." - Pete Sampras speaking about when the American's may dominate men's tennis.

**********

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

December

Tracy Austin
12
1962

Dmitry Tursunov
12
1982

Stan Smith
14
1946

Vijay Amritraj
14
1953

Patty Schnyder
14
1978

Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario
18
1971

**********

Bob Larson - Publisher
Cort Larson - Editor
Bob Larson's Tennis Celebs is published weekly.
Delivery via e-mail to all countries is $47US a year.
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Bob Larson Tennis
P.O. Box 24256
Edina, MN 55424 USA
001 952 920 8947 (voice) or 001 952 920 8940 (fax)
E-mail address bob@tennisnews.com
Visit our website at: www.tennisnews.com

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Bob Larson's Tennis Celebs: December 5th Issue

by mltennis 5. December 2008 06:26

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Bob Larson's
TENNIS CELEBS

IN THIS WEEK'S ISSUE...

News
Tennis Shorts
WTA Scheduled To Play
Covers
Sightings
Appearing Soon
Money Mountain
He Said... She Said
Happy Birthday

NEWS

Nick Bollettieri Named Tennis News Person of the Year

Nick Bollettieri, the teaching pro who created the boarding tennis academy industry, has been named the Tennis News Tennis Person of the Year 2008, according to Bob Larson, publisher of Daily Tennis News.
Larson said Bollettieri is a natural choice to be named Person of the Year; he has been celebrating his 30^th anniversary as the operator of the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy.
Now known as the IMG Tennis Academies since buying the academy in 1987, Bollettieri has put his stamp and his personality on academies in Massachusetts, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, India and Dubai soon.
The tennis world is filled with current and former players who have trained at the Nick Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Ten players who would become #1 in the world have trained with Nick.
Bollettieri is known for treating all youngsters attending the academy as if they were his own, and tour players and tour player wannabes attend the academy for quality training. College coaches regularly call the academy for recruiting prospects as they move to increase the quality of their teams.
Bollettieri will receive his award, known as the Bellamy, named after the first recipient of the award, during the Indian Wells tournament in March.
***

Davenport to Decide Her Future This Week

Lindsay Davenport is due to decide this week the fate of her tennis career, setting an early December deadline for either a return to the practice court or a full-time gig in the nursery.
"I'll have to sit down more seriously and look at what I want to do in the future," admitted the three-time Grand Slam winner whose 18-month-old son Jagger is taking up more and more of her time.
"I need to be practicing by early December if I'm going to Australia for the Open (which begins January 19)."
One thing that might persuade the 32-year-old Californian to stick around for another season is the addition of more combined men's and women's events on the WTA and ATP in 2009. "Next year we have something like 10 or 12 combined events. As a fan that is really a win-win situation.
"A tennis fan enjoys the difference in the games between the women and the men. If you buy a ticket, I think you would like to see the top women and the top male stars."
Davenport has not played since an early loss with back pain at the US Open, though that has not stopped her from extra paydays in selected exhibitions in recent months.
***

Connors’ Agent Explains Arrest

Jimmy Connors has earned a rap sheet with police in southern California after his arrest for disruption last week during a heated university basketball game between UC Santa Barbara and top-ranked North Carolina.
The eight-time major champion copped the charges in court after refusing to leave a university facility near his home in the area. But his management says Connors was provoked when a man tried to pick a fight with the former bad boy of tennis three decades ago.
Connors' agent said he was arrested when he didn't leave immediately, and tried to wait for his son at the end of the game. Connors, who coached Andy Roddick until last February, was said to be "extremely disappointed and embarrassed" over the untoward incident.

***

Roddick is Quite Excited About His New Coach
By Charles Bricker

Andy Roddick was, as he put it, "so pumped up I want to get going now. Can you be here tomorrow?" Roddick asked his new coach, former University of California at Berkeley star Larry Stefanki.
"Hold on," Stefanki told Roddick on a Texas-to-California phone call. "I'm going to the Big Game on Saturday. This isn't like Texas vs. Texas A&M," Stefanki chided Roddick. "This is Cal vs. Stanford."
On Dec. 1, Stefanki, who could rightly lay claim to being "coach to the stars," will travel to Roddick's home in Austin, Texas, where they will begin preparing for what Roddick prays will be his best season. At the very least, an injury-free season.
And at the top of Stefanki's and Roddick's must-do list is improved service returns for 2009.
"Andy Roddick is the best server in tennis," said Stefanki, who is now coaching a fourth player who has achieved a No. 1 ranking (John McEnroe, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marcelo Rios are the others). "Not only does he have the biggest serve in the game, he gets 68 percent of his first serves in. He held serve 91 percent of the time.
"That's an amazing stat. He just doesn't get broken very often. But he's No. 20 on return of serve," Stefanki pointed out.
When the two men closed the player-coach deal, immediately after Roddick checked out of the Tennis Masters Cup with an ankle injury, they spoke about plans and tactics for 2009.
Stefanki told Roddick his backhand has improved "immensely." He told him how great his serve was. And then he explained that he's got to avoid falling into the trap of being nervous about service returns.
"Confidence is built on the right mechanics and having the right philosophy in your head," said Stefanki. "Andy, especially on second serve returns, needs to get more aggressive. Not necessarily going for everything, but not just sitting back and returning the ball.
"He's not a David Ferrer 5-foot-9 roadrunner. You've got to take more risks and unless you do you're not going to create that presence you want on the court."
Perhaps never was Roddick's service return more tentative than in the final stages of his second-round upset loss at Wimbledon to Janko Tipsarevic. If he's going to get back to the top five in the game, he needs to get the mentality that he can take risks on service return because any opponent is going to be lucky to break him.
He undoubtedly knows that, but sometimes there's no controlling player mentality at crucial stages of matches.
Roddick won 49, lost 18 this year, and will finish at No. 8. In the last six years, he's spent only four weeks outside the top 10, so there has been ranking consistency. Now 26, Roddick should be at the height of his game and he's counting on Stefanki to help him get back to the elite level.
It's a contract that calls for 25 weeks of travel for Stefanki. "I don't need to be in the front row at every tournament," said Stefanki. "But, I told Andy if he needs me for more weeks, I'm there."
Stefanki has just ended a three-year coaching relationship with Fernando Gonzalez, who reached No. 5 with Stefanki as coach and who was runner-up at the 2007 Australian Open.
Stefanki scarcely knew Roddick called he called to offer the job.
"A year ago, when Fernando made the Masters, we had dinner together -- me, Andy and his brother, John. So we started a couple of nights of that and talked about ATP politics. He had some interesting suggestions and he wanted to know what I thought.
"Then, this year, after he beat Fernando at the U.S. Open (6-2, 6-4, 6-1 in the round of 16), I told him, 'That was the best I've ever seen you play.' I think maybe that conversation stuck in his mind.
"This is very exciting for me. I'm absolutely overjoyed," said Stefanki. "I haven't been this excited in a long time, especially knowing he's even more excited about getting started."
But as overjoyed as Stefanki is, he was not missing the Cal-Stanford game. Alumni blood runs deep.
***

Jankovic Shows an Interest in Fashion Design

Jelena Jankovic may be following the off-court career path of the Williams sister by dipping her hand into fashion design in her native Serbia.
The world No. 1 participated in a recent fashion show in Belgrade, wearing a line of silk, leather and lace clothing she helped design for a Serbian company. "I really love designing. I do it in between tournaments or even during them if I have some free time."
Belgrade media said Jankovic was thrilled with her new project: "So far I have designed dresses, skirts and bags, but I would also like to do a swimwear line."
The show also included a wedding dress, which brought up questions about the 23-year-old player's private life. But Jankovic ducked queries about any plans to marry her Montenegrin water polo player boyfriend,

***
Becker and Former Fiancee Both Have Broken Hearts

Boris Becker and former fiancee Alexandra Meyer-Woelden give contrasting views of the autumn collapse of their three-month engagement, as both appear to be nursing broken hearts.
Becker said he was crushed in late October when he received three identical text messages from his fiancee telling him it was over between them. But "Sandy" Meyer-Woelden, 25-year-old daughter of the German's late manager, says it was not like that at all. She also pleads unhappiness.
"I did everything for this relationship. I am disappointed and hurt," the former model told German media. "I just want understanding, I have nothing to say in this emotional situation."
The pair were engaged over the summer when Becker presented here with a $200,000 ring and proposed on the island of Sardinia. They also attended Octoberfest in Munich in September, photographed in traditional Bavarian dress, after attending the US Open for a few days.
Swiss-based Becker, 41, mourned the end of the 83-day engagement: "We didn't manage to get the daily things to work. No third party was to blame or involved. Unfortunately we just couldn't get it to work."
***

As a Marketing Couple, The Agassis of Las Vegas Are Still Number One

The Agassi's of Las Vegas may have laid their competitive rackets down some time ago but Andre and Steffi – make that Stefanie these days – continue to be the most marketable couple in the sport.
We may now have Davis Cup winner Fernando Verdasco and French Open champion Ana Ivanovic, as a couple, but when the big companies want a name, they still turn to the mega-stars. So Swiss watch company Longines, who has had Agassi as an ambassador for their product since 2007, have also signed up Graf.
The winner of 22 major titles has been named as Longines 'Ambassador of Elegance.' Company president Walter von Kanel said : "Her excellence, her courage and her commitment to serve others are values that we also respect and promote."
Graf has recently been busy working for her foundation Children for Tomorrow. In a statement from the watch company she said: "I am looking forward to enter into a valuable partnership with Longines, which will also benefit my foundation. We share many values and a strong commitment for children in need."
***

Federer Has a Friend in An American Skiing Champion

Tennis ace Roger Federer has an emotional and faithful fan on the World Cup alpine ski circuit, with reigning season champion Lindsay Vonn a huge admirer. "Roger Federer is my role model," said the American skier from Minnesota.
"I cried when he lost against Rafael Nadal in the final at Wimbledon. My husband said to me, 'Are you serious? Come on, it's a tennis match', but I was so sad and just couldn't control myself."
Vonn says that she has already managed to snare an autograph from the Swiss. "My friend Maria was at an ATP event in Hamburg and she got him to sign a card for me: 'To Lindsey, warm greetings from Hamburg. Love, Roger.'"
Vonn and compatriot Bode Miller are hoping to emulate Federer's recent domination of the ATP after the skiers lifted the first American season title double last spring, the first time that has happened in a quarter of a century.

***

Murray Training at Bollettieri’s to Prepare for 2009

Andy Murray's 2008 has been an impressive tale but the world no.4 intends to be bigger, better and stronger by the start of his 2009 campaign that opens on New Years Day at the Capitala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi and then takes a short hop along the Arabian Gulf to start ATP action with the defense of his Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha, beginning January 5.
The 21 year-old Scot intends to punch six pounds heavier when the action begins. Just ten days after returning from the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, Murray is today setting up camp at Nick Bollettieri's Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida before beginning an intensive four weeks of fitness training in collaboration with his team of coach Miles Maclagan, fitness trainer Jez Green, conditioning guru Matt Little and physiotherapist Andy Ireland.
He said: "I don't think there is anything huge in my game to improve for next year, though I would like to be physically stronger than I have been this year. I'd like my recovery after a long match to be better. My game is there, it is just a question of doing it consistently through the two weeks of a slam."
Murray will face top opposition in both Abu Dhabi and Doha with both world no.1 Rafael Nadal and no.2 Roger Federer including the two events on the itinerary. Nadal made his debut in Doha in 2005, when he lost in the quarterfinals to Ivan Ljubicic while Federer is returning to the event for the first time since 2006, when he defeated Gael Monfils to successfully defend the title he had won a year previously.
"I'm sure that Federer will be desperate to get back to the no.1 spot, and he's still playing great and doesn't have a whole lot of points to defend in the early part of the year," Murray said. "Nadal has really pushed out on his backhand, and added a few things to his game, and [Novak] Djokovic is as solid as he ever was. So it's going to be interesting to see how everyone improves."
And improvement is paramount in Murray's mind despite raising his ranking from 22^nd spot at the beginning of April to a year ending fourth, picking up five titles during the course of the year. "If I'm going to put on six pounds or so I'll have to eat loads, because I'm training for five hours a day," said the player who will stop off in Britain only briefly for a family Christmas in Dunblane. "I'll be eating sushi, drinking protein drinks, eating those bars you have after a match. Mind you, my Gran is cooking Christmas lunch, so I don't think that will be sushi.
"The weight training I don't find so tough. It's more the running that gets to me. It's so tough, and you are pushing yourself on every session, but you get the rewards once you are back on court."
***

Murray Prepares for 2009 Including the Training Table

Andy Murray may avoid the traditional artery-clogging Scottish snack of a deep-fried Mars bar, but there is little else that the No. 4 won't be shoving into his mouth as he tries to bulk up tactically for the 2009 season.
Team Murray is now in Florida for several weeks of holiday training and fitness work. One of the goals of the US Open finalist is to put on a few strategic pounds as he prepares to mount an assault on the Top 3 of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
"If I'm going to put on six pounds or so I'll have to eat loads, because I'm training for five hours a day," said Murray, who will be supervised - and kept away from any late-night raids on McDonalds - by various traveling trainers on his payroll.
Muzza's diet is expected to be in line with generally accepted nutrition principles: "I'll be eating sushi, drinking protein drinks," he said, adding: "Mind you, my gran is cooking Christmas lunch, so I don't think that will be sushi."
Murray is looking for a bit of extra pop on his shots for the coming season after making his breakthrough in 2008 with two Masters titles and the finals in New York with Federer.

***

The Tours’ Decision Makers Are Getting Well-Paid

Big time tennis is all about money and the leaders of the game, both those who swing rackets on court and the executives who wear suits and make decisions in the boardrooms, are getting richer and richer. While both Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova moved nearer to the top of Forbes' illustrious list the head men of both the ATP and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour pulled in seven figure salaries.
Larry Scott, Chief Executive of the women's tour and widely tipped to one day become a Commissioner-like figure overseeing both the ATP and the WTA, earned $1.6 million last year, a 62 percent increase from his 2006 pay according to the Sports Business Journal.
Scott, whose pay check is tied in to revenue growth, is believed to be the highest paid executive in all of women's sport and in 2007 he made more than all but the top seven women players amassed in prize money. His second in command Stacey Allaster, earned $397,703 in 2007 while David Shoemaker, the tour's chief legal counsel who has been relocated to Beijing earned $339,337.
The soon to stand down Etienne de Villiers has only days left before finally clearing his desk as Executive Chairman of the ATP but is unlikely to face too much hardship while searching for a new job as he earned $1 million last year, a 33% pay rise from 2006. The ATP's board convenes in New York next week to make a final decision on de Villiers' successor.
Sports Business Journal used the group's tax return filed with the Internal Revenue Service as its source to divulge that de Villiers' salary was more than twice that of his right hand man and Chief Operating Officer Phillip 'Flip' Galloway who earned $495,275. In fact second on the mens' tour pay chart was the Chief Executive of ATP Properties Richard Davies who made $635,769.
Such figures however are eclipsed by the overall earning power of 27-year-old Federer and 21-year-old Sharapova who are the only tennis players to merit a place in the Forbes list of Top Paid Celebrities under the age of 30.
Reigning US Open champion Federer collected $10.1 million in prize money in 2007, raking in $25 million more in sponsorship pacts with Nike, Gillette, Mercedes-Benz, Wilson, Emmi, Switzerland's leading milk processor and Jura, the Swiss leader in automatic household coffee machines.
***

Sampras Adds an Exhibition Match to His Trip to London

Pete Sampras made the most of his current tennis trip to Europe, collecting some Christmas pocket money through an exhibition with Domink Hrbaty in the Slovak's hometown of Bratislava at the weekend.
With Sampras retiring in 2002, the pair last met on the ATP in 1998, with the American winning that match and their first a year earlier. It was no different in Slovakia as Sampras claimed victory over the No. 256 who is close to retirement.
Sampras is competing this week at the BlackRock Masters in London, a city where he last played in 2002. True to form, the 37-year-old from Los Angeles is reluctantly making a rare tennis appearance, always preferring to maintain his trademark low profile.
"I've always tried to be an ordinary person," came a familiar refrain from the seven-time Wimbledon champion and holder of the all-time record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles. "I used to be introvert who didn't show his emotions.
The former great told local media that he does not regret the fact that he failed to lift a career trophy in the clay of Roland Garros despite winning 64 ATP titles. "I'm satisfied with what I have accomplished," he said before heading to London and a meeting in a group match with John McEnroe which Sampras won 6-3, 6-4.
***

Cara Black Wonders if She Should Remain Zimbabwean

Each times she walks onto a tennis court Cara Black, one half of the world's leading women's doubles team, is given reason to question whether she is doing the right thing remaining stoically Zimbabwean.
Her playing partner and best friend, Liezel Huber, has taken on United States nationality and repeatedly insists it is one of the best decisions she has ever made in life. Black too qualifies for a different passport that would guarantee more lucrative tennis backing, in her case Australian after being married to Brett 'Moose' Stephens, the man who made Pete Sampras a fitter player, for more than two years.
But Black, the third sibling of a family that really put the constantly troubled state of Zimbabwe on the world tennis map, refuses to budge. "I'm not going to change nationality," insisted the diminutive player who turns 30 early next year and can look to her two Davis Cup stalwart elder brothers Byron and Wayne for help and advice.
"Liezel did so because she is married to an American and she has lived in America for the last 15 years. It's great to play with her. We have a great understanding of each other since we come from the same region. We are great friends off the court too. But I'm Zimbabwean and I love my country. I'm not at all influenced or tempted."
This year alone Black and Huber won nine titles including the US Open, their fourth major together and Black's fifth after winning the 2004 Wimbledon crown with Australia's Rennae Stubbs. In Beijing, Black represented Zimbabwe in the third successive Games after also playing in Sydney and Athens.
There was not a player ranked sufficiently high enough to warrant a place in the doubles draw but at singles she lost first round to world no.1 Jelena Jankovic. Houston-based Huber meantime went on to make the doubles quarter finals in partnership with Lindsay Davenport.
"It was a good feeling being part of the team," she said. "It felt good to have the national spirit hanging around. It would have been better with more medals. I hope we will do better next time and bring something home."
Last weekend, she conducted a coaching clinic in Harare, where several budding players came to learn from their role model: "I was inspired and impressed by the level of talent displayed. It was good to see that level of promise in spite of the economic and social situation in our country."

**********

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TENNIS SHORTS

Baghdatis Makes Another Coaching Change

Marcos Baghdatis has appointed his third coach in the space of just ten months after announcing he is to begin working with Frenchman Olivier Soules.
The Cypriot's world ranking, at its peak no.8 in August 2006 , has slipped from a year opening 16th to a current position of 98th. Much of the reason has been a succession of back and wrist injuries but since reaching the last 16 at Wimbledon where he lost out in a memorable five setter to Spanish Davis Cup winner Feliciano Lopez, the 23 year-old has not registered a solitary victory on the main tour.
Baghdatis did reach the semi-final of a Challenger in Orleans, France in September after deciding not to play the US Open and since then has suffered opening round defeats in Metz, Basel and the Paris Masters Series event at Bercy where he forced to retire in the final set against Sam Querrey.
The beaten finalist in the 2006 Australian Open began working with Peter Lundgren just before Wimbledon. The experienced Swede, who had previously coach such stars as Roger Federer, Marat Safin and Marcelo Rios, was newly free from a contract with Britain's Lawn Tennis Association and full of optimism about his new charge. But things clearly did not work out as well as expected.
Earlier in the year Greek Davis Cup captain Yiannos Hadjigeorious quit as Baghdatis' coach for personal reasons. Now the player who spent much of his formative years in Paris at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy has turned to Soules who was formerly coach to the French player Nicolas Mahut.
Mahut, currently ranked just four places ahead of Baghdatis at no.94 in the world, has in turn employed Lionel Zimbler who became available following Fabrice Santoro's recent retirement from the tour.
***

Jan-Michael Gambill to Open High Performance Tennis Academy

Jan-Michael Gambill, is opening a high performance tennis training center in Orange County California, near Anaheim.
The Gambill Tennis Academy is planned to offer a personalized tennis training program with the individual in mind working with a maximum of 10 high-level students in a non-boarding environment.
By remaining small in number the staff of coaches will work on individual bases with each player preparing and traveling with the player to tournaments. The goal of the staff is to train each player from the “inside out” and teach the player to problem-solve during competition.
Gambill expects tour players, both men and women, to stop in for a few days to a couple weeks to train before returning to the tour.
Gambill Tennis Academy is located at the Tustin Hills Racquet Club. The program has full and part time training options available. Information is available from Rob Gurden, email rob@gambilltennisacademy.com or by phone at (847) 529-8564.

**********

WTA SCHEDULED TO PLAY

Upcoming schedules as of December 4, 2008
No events held

*********

COVERS

**********

A Reminder to Our Readers

We wish to remind our readers that our all-day tennis newswire is available to all tennis fans.
Just go to www.tennisnews.com anytime throughout the day for the latest tennis news. We surf the internet all day and post links to stories in newspapers and electronic media around the world. “We surf the net so you don’t have to."

**********

SIGHTINGS

Todd Woodbridge playing in the pro-am prior to the start of the Australian PGA Championship at the Hyatt Regency Resort on December 3, 2008 at Coolum Beach, Australia.

Nicolas Kiefer at the match between Hannover 96 and Karlsruher SC at the AWD Arena on November 29, 2008 in Hanover, Germany.

Boris Becker at the Bambi Awards 2008 on November 27, 2008 in Offenburg, Germany.

Send your player sightings to: cort@tennisnews.com

**********

APPEARING SOON

December 12 - 14 Andy Roddick, John Isner, Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki in the Rock-N-Racquets tour to benefit The Andy Roddick Foundation. After Roddick plays Isner and Williams plays Wozniacki, Roddick and Williams will team up against Isner and Wozniacki. Louisville, KY: Friday, December 12, 7pm at Freedom Hall. Columbia, SC: Saturday, December 13, 7pm at Colonial Life Arena. Knoxville, TN: Sunday, December 14, 7pm at Thompson-Boling Arena. For additional information, please visit www.rocknracquets.com.

**********

MONEY MOUNTAIN

2008 Prize Money Earnings

MEN (November 17)

1 Nadal, Rafael

$6,773,773

2 Federer, Roger

5,886,879

3 Djokovic, Novak

5,689,077

4 Murray, Andy

3,705,648

5 Davydenko, Nikolay

2,317,082

6 Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried

1,695,138

7 Simon, Gilles

1,425,489

8 Roddick, Andy

1,337,888

9 Del Potro, Juan Martin

1,322,497

10 Ferrer, David

1,170,008

11 Nalbandian, David

1,106,217

12 Soderling, Robin

1,059,966

13 Blake, James

1,027,141

14 Wawrinka, Stanislas

988,428

15 Verdasco, Fernando

977,961

16 Llodra, Michael

899,477

17 Robredo, Tommy

893,211

18 Monfils, Gael

889,581

19 Andreev, Igor

884,532

20 Lopez, Feliciano
865,779

WOMEN (November 17)

1

Williams, Serena

$3,852,173

2

Williams, Venus

3,766,315

3

Jankovic, Jelena

3,564,465

4

Ivanovic, Ana

3,119,640

5

Safina, Dinara

2,541,270

6

Dementieva, Elena

1,951,304

7

Sharapova, Maria

1,937,879

8

Zvonareva, Vera

1,777,675

9

Kuznetsova, Svetlana

1,771,119

10

Radwanska, Agnieszka

1,170,072

11

Petrova, Nadia

1,075,795

12

Black, Cara

919,940

13

Srebotnik, Katarina

907,145

14

Huber, Liezel

892,737

15

Chakvetadze, Anna

844,924

16

Medina Garrigues, Anabel

807,525

17

Zheng, Jie

771,469

18

Sugiyama, Ai

757,201

19

Azarenka, Victoria

754,857

20

Schnyder, Patty

752,974

**********

HE SAID... SHE SAID...

"I cried when he lost against Rafael Nadal in the final at Wimbledon. My husband said to me, 'Are you serious? Come on, it's a tennis match', but I was so sad and just couldn't control myself." - World Cup skier, Lindsay Vonn commenting on her fan status of Roger Federer.

**********

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

December

Marty Riessen
4
1941

Brian Tobin
5
1930

Richard Krajicek
6
1971

Fabrice Santoro
9
1972

Mardy Fish
9
1981

Tracy Austin
12
1962

Dmitry Tursunov
12
1982

**********

Bob Larson - Publisher
Cort Larson - Editor
Bob Larson's Tennis Celebs is published weekly.
Delivery via e-mail to all countries is $47US a year.
Junior subscription rate $27
Bob Larson Tennis
P.O. Box 24256
Edina, MN 55424 USA
001 952 920 8947 (voice) or 001 952 920 8940 (fax)
E-mail address bob@tennisnews.com
Visit our website at: www.tennisnews.com

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Tennis News: December 4th

by mltennis 4. December 2008 05:23

Thursday, December 4, 2008

BUSINESS NEWS

Editor's Note: We are on our Monday, Thursday publication schedule through December.
***
Surprise, Arizona to Host 2009 Fed Cup Quarterfinal Between USA and Argentina

The USTA announced that Surprise, Ariz., has been selected as the site for the 2009 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas quarterfinal between the United States and Argentina, February 7-8. The matches will be played at the Surprise Tennis and Racquet Complex, which will be hosting a Fed Cup event for the first time.
The event is being organized, staged and promoted by the USTA, which will construct a
temporary stadium at the complex for the two-day, best-of-five match quarterfinal. Tickets will go on sale to the general public in mid-December.
Mary Joe Fernandez will make her debut as the U.S. Fed Cup captain.
Tennis Channel will present live daily coverage of the U.S. vs. Argentina Fed Cup quarterfinal.
***
German Federation Now Facing Another Major Problem

German tennis has suffered many body blows in the last couple of years, none more painful than the decision in favor of the ATP in this summer's court case over the Hamburg tournament. But now the future of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour's German Open in Berlin seems to be hanging in the balance.
The Qatar Tennis Federation bought the tournament from the financially embarrassed Deutscher Tennis Bund (DTB or German Tennis Federation) in 2004 on a deal until 2009. However the Qataris are now one year into a four year agreement to stage the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships in Doha and since the initial deal was agreed with the Germans, many changes have taken place within the Federation.
News reports coming out of Berlin on Monday suggested said that the Qataris may have lost interest in the event which is being downgraded in the new 2009 calendar. There are even suggestions the event could be moved from Berlin to Warsaw and there are allegations the Qataris have not paid several bills. Although the event is scheduled for next May, ticket sales have yet to open and the tournament website appears to be no longer available.
DTB chief Georg van Waldenfels admits to being confused by the latest trail of events while the WTA Tour also maintains it is in the dark. A spokesman for the women's tour said: "We have received no formal notice of any change. At this time there has been no request from the Qatar Tennis Federation to the Tour to move or sell the Berlin tournament for 2009."
Times are currently very bleak in German tennis following the glory years of Steffi Graf, Boris Becker and Michael Stich. The women's Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart is the biggest remaining event, with smaller men's events in Stuttgart and Munich, and the pre-French Open ATP World Team Cup in Dusseldorf. Not too long ago there were more than a dozen annual events including the cash-laden Grand Slam Cup in Munich and ATP's event of calendar championships for the world's top eight that was first staged in Frankfurt and then Hannover.
Following the decision of the court in Wilmington, Delaware, the Hamburg men's clay-court event, in which Qatar also has a 25% share, definitely lost its Masters status and was moved to a place in the calendar at a time when the leading players are focusing on the American summer on hard courts. Georg van Waldenfels said: "I hope the Qataris know that a lot is at stake for them as well."
And he received plenty of backing. German Fed Cup captain Barbara Rittner voiced her concerns for the Berlin event by saying: "The tournament was always special. Losing it would be very sad for German tennis. But what I have heard doesn't sound good."
Josef Minderjahn, speaking on behalf of the Rot-Weiss Berlin Club, where the tournament has been traditionally staged, maintained: "Qatar is one of the richest states on earth. They can't and won't afford to just quit here."
***
Davis Cup is The Most Far-Reaching Annual Sports Event on the Planet
By Liza Horan

You might not know it by the amount of coverage in American newspapers--rather, the lack of coverage--but Davis Cup is the largest annual international team sporting event on the planet. In other countries, the media is all over it.
While most Davis Cup finals attract 150 to 200 media from print, TV and radio, the Argentina-Spain final drew 500 media people. "Even in Mar del Plata," reports ITF Communications Officer Nick Imison, "we had to turn down around 100 media, and many outlets were restricted in the number of journalists able to be accredited."
Television coverage has rocketed in the last several years, too. The Argentina-Spain final drew 30 live broadcasters that covered 131 territories, and last year's U.S.-Russia playoff attracted 112 broadcasters that streamed coverage in 203 countries.
There's no doubt that the popularity of Davis Cup [DavisCup.com] has grown from its exclusive start as a U.S. vs. Great Britain playoff. More than a century into competition, the number of participating nations swelled to 127 in 2008. "Davis Cup has attracted over half a million spectators for seven of the last eight years, peaking at 594,309 in 2002," Imison says. "Ticket sales are very much dependent on the size of stadiums, and host nations in the World Group, so [they] can vary year to year. For example, the 2004 final in Seville had 81,000 spectators, while this year's final had around 30,000 due to the much smaller stadium (as the Argentines wanted to play indoors). "However, they could have easily filled a stadium three times the size."
Surely Argentina's choice of surface and court conditions--attempting to further ply a home team advantage beyond screaming fans--was based on the ability to pull out a win, even if it meant selling fewer tickets and turning away journalists. It was a spectacle covered thoroughly by both sides.
"All the major Argentine papers ran daily supplements in the run-up to and during the final," Imison says. "There was also extensive coverage in Spain. Even [four days after the event] there [were] front page stories in several papers on Rafael Nadal and the winning team presenting a replica trophy to the Spanish sports minister."
The ITF, which runs Davis Cup and Fed Cup, amped up its own exclusive coverage by launching a Spanish-language website [DavisCup.com/es] expressly for the final. The ITF says initial statistics show "unprecedented levels of visitors to the two sites over the weekend, says the ITF.
All the exposure is certainly welcome for BNP Paribas, which in 2002 added the Davis Cup title sponsorship and "Official Bank" position to its tennis involvement. The French bank support of the sport includes a 28-year sponsorship of Roland Garros. The list of Davis Cup partners features other "official" designees: Hugo Boss (outfitter of teams, players, VIPs, event staff, official and ball kids), Wilson (ball), Kia Motors (car), NH Hoteles (hotel), Rolex (timekeeper), among others.
No one's complaining about the increased media coverage--except those who don't receive a credential and the American fans who tend to get coverage online rather than through daily newspapers, even when the U.S. is playing.
***
Helfant Rising on The List of Candidates for ATP Top Job
By Charles Bricker

According to sources intimately familiar with the search for the ATP’s new chief executive officer, the front-runner is virtual unknown Adam Helfant, a 43-year-old Harvard Law School graduate who over the last 13 years with Nike rose to one of the corporation’s highest executive jobs.
Helfant left his $900,000-a-year job with Nike in September, 2007, but it was not immediately known why he left and calls to Nike officials weren’t returned.
Over the last couple of weeks, a number of well-known names have been mentioned as a possible successor to current ATP CEO Etienne de Villiers – Mark Young and Brad Drewett from within the ATP and Patrice Clerc, the former French Open tournament director who recently left the Tour de France.
Helfant, however, will come as a complete surprise to almost everyone. The fact that he is the front-runner at this point means only that he has been the most impressive of the eight candidates still under consideration by the ATP board of directors.
The job has not been offered, but research into his background has been, according to one source, extremely positive. In fact, the job may not be offered until the Australian Open in mid-January, when players will have a chance to meet with their Players Council and give input.
Why Helfant is getting such high consideration is a curious question.
He has no background in tennis, except that Nike sells a great deal of tennis clothing, including to clothing Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
One of the criticisms that led to lack of confidence in de Villiers is that he had no background in tennis and never fully understood the dynamic of blending his extensive world business background (Disney Corporation) with the complexities of dealing with international tennis players.
Looking purely at Helfant’s background in global marketing, he looks like a somewhat lighter version of de Villiers. And he wouldn’t be the first Nike executive to try to run a professional tennis tour.
Before former pro Larry Scott became CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour five years ago, the women hired Nike executive Kevin Wulff. His tenure, lasting slightly more than one year, was a disaster. He, too, had no tennis background.
It could be that the ATP board of directors is considering a two-pronged executive leadership with a strong tennis personality working with the CEO and reporting directly to the board.
That was essentially what the ATP had before de Villiers was hired three years ago. If they go back to that model, it could make Helfant a more attractive candidate to players who might insist on "a tennis guy" running the ATP.
Helfant began his executive career in the legal department of the National Hockey League, moved to Nike in 1995, became director of business affairs for global sports marketing in 1997, director of U.S. marketing in 2001, Nike vice president in 2003 and corporate vice president in 2004.
***
While This is The End for BlackRock Sponsorship, Is it The End For McEnroe?

Many may believe senior tennis currently stands at a cross-roads with BlackRock announcing the end of their three year deal to sponsor both the ATP Tour of Champions and the current year-ending climax, John McEnroe admitting that his impending 50^th birthday may be the ending cut off for his illustrious and fiery playing career, and Pete Sampras intent on only playing the occasional tournament.
However regardless of the current worldwide economic situation that is causing numerous sporting events to look nervously at their sponsors, it seems there is enormous interest in filling the BlackRock role.
In the past year former champions such as Stefan Edberg, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Michael Chang and Patrick Rafter along with Sampras have played events on the Tour of Champions and there is a distinct air of no panic amongst the hierarchy of IMG who run the 14 event series.
A source maintained that seven companies have already stressed a distinct interest in taking over from BlackRock, as tour sponsor – three in the United States, two in Britain and one each in mainland Europe and the Middle East.
There have also been overtures made by concerns in Asia, the Middle East and South America as well as Europe to set up new events and extend the tour. "There is unprecedented interest because of the eclipse of the Borg and McEnroe era with great players like Sampras and Edberg now playing," said the source.
"The requirements are tougher and of course we are a challenging time in terms of global finance but it seems as though the tour is going to grow. Currently all but two of our events are in Europe but the signs are we are going far more world wide."
The news will be gratifying to McEnroe who this year is contesting the London event for the 12^th and potentially last time. He succeeded Jimmy Connors as the standard bearer for senior tennis and repeatedly insists 'I have done my bit'.
Now with a younger generation of iconic names getting involved alongside the likes of other former Grand Slam champions such as Goran Ivanisevic, Sergi Bruguera, Thomas Muster, the competitive element is strong.
"With regards to next year, I think common sense should prevail," said McEnroe. "I turn 50 in February and have a commitment to play in Rio in March but after that things are pretty open ended. I'd like to play just a few short events but I'm not sure about week long tournaments. With regards to coming back here to play in London at the Royal Albert Hall again that's doubtful but it's tough because it is a very special place to turn away from."
***
The Tours’ Decision Makers Are Getting Well-Paid

Big time tennis is all about money and the leaders of the game, both those who swing rackets on court and the executives who wear suits and make decisions in the boardrooms, are getting richer and richer. While both Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova moved nearer to the top of Forbes' illustrious list the head men of both the ATP and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour pulled in seven figure salaries.
Larry Scott, Chief Executive of the women's tour and widely tipped to one day become a Commissioner-like figure overseeing both the ATP and the WTA, earned $1.6 million last year, a 62 percent increase from his 2006 pay according to the Sports Business Journal.
Scott, whose pay check is tied in to revenue growth, is believed to be the highest paid executive in all of women's sport and in 2007 he made more than all but the top seven women players amassed in prize money. His second in command Stacey Allaster, earned $397,703 in 2007 while David Shoemaker, the tour's chief legal counsel who has been relocated to Beijing earned $339,337.
The soon to stand down Etienne de Villiers has only days left before finally clearing his desk as Executive Chairman of the ATP but is unlikely to face too much hardship while searching for a new job as he earned $1 million last year, a 33% pay rise from 2006. The ATP's board convenes in New York next week to make a final decision on de Villiers' successor.
Sports Business Journal used the group's tax return filed with the Internal Revenue Service as its source to divulge that de Villiers' salary was more than twice that of his right hand man and Chief Operating Officer Phillip 'Flip' Galloway who earned $495,275. In fact second on the mens' tour pay chart was the Chief Executive of ATP Properties Richard Davies who made $635,769.
Such figures however are eclipsed by the overall earning power of 27-year-old Federer and 21-year-old Sharapova who are the only tennis players to merit a place in the Forbes list of Top Paid Celebrities under the age of 30.
Reigning US Open champion Federer collected $10.1 million in prize money in 2007, raking in $25 million more in sponsorship pacts with Nike, Gillette, Mercedes-Benz, Wilson, Emmi, Switzerland's leading milk processor and Jura, the Swiss leader in automatic household coffee machines.
***
Rinaldi and Pedroso named USTA Player Development National Coaches

The USTA announced that Kathy Rinaldi and Andres Pedroso have been hired as USTA Player Development National Coaches. Pedroso and Rinaldi will work at the USTA Training Center in Boca Raton, Fla., and will report to Jay Berger and Ola Malmqvist, Heads of Men’s and Women’s Tennis, Player Development. Rinaldi started December 1, while Pedroso will join the coaching staff January 5.
Rinaldi, 41, of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., was ranked as high as No. 7 in the world and is a former Top 10 player in both singles and doubles. Rinaldi served as coach of the U.S. Fed Cup team under Captain Zina Garrison in 2006 and 2008, and has served as the Touring Pro at the Breakers of Palm Beach, Fla., for 10 years.
Pedroso, 29, of Coconut Grove, Fla., He was a teaching pro at the Biltmore Tennis Center in Coral Gables, Fla., before serving as the personal coach to top American junior Rhyne Williams, who reached No. 10 in the ITF World Junior Rankings and won a USTA Futures in Pittsburgh at the age of 16 (the youngest player ever to win a USTA Pro Circuit men’s event) under Pedroso’s tutelage.
The new USTA Player Development unit has been created to identify and develop the next generation of American champions by surrounding the top junior players and young pros with the resources, facilities and coaching they need to reach their maximum potential.
***
Tennis Canada Mourns the Passing of Ted Rogers

Tennis Canada announced the passing of Ted Rogers, who at the age of 75, succumbed to a heart condition at his home in Toronto on Tuesday. Rogers was a visionary and successful entrepreneur whose work ethic and business savvy was unparalleled. In addition to Rogers Communications’ Cable, Wireless and Media divisions, the nationwide brand has come to be recognized as a sports and entertainment leader that provides live premier sporting events such as Rogers Cup tennis, Blue Jays baseball and National Football League games in Canada.
The marriage between Tennis Canada and Rogers Communications Inc. started in 2000 when Rogers Wireless became co-title sponsor of the women’s international event and the relationship has grown ever since. In 2004, Rogers Wireless was the lone title sponsor of the WTA event and one year later, cemented its place in Canadian tennis history by lending its name to both men’s and women’s tournaments, which rotate between Toronto and Montreal annually.
In July, Tennis Canada and Rogers Communications Inc. announced a three-year renewal of title sponsorship for both Rogers Cup events in Toronto and Montreal. Rogers extended the title partnership to include the 2011 Rogers Cup tournaments – the first year when the two events will be moved to the same week.
***
Sampras Adds an Exhibition Match to His Trip to London

Pete Sampras made the most of his current tennis trip to Europe, collecting some Christmas pocket money through an exhibition with Domink Hrbaty in the Slovak's hometown of Bratislava at the weekend.
With Sampras retiring in 2002, the pair last met on the ATP in 1998, with the American winning that match and their first a year earlier. It was no different in Slovakia as Sampras claimed victory over the No. 256 who is close to retirement.
Sampras is competing this week at the BlackRock Masters in London, a city where he last played in 2002. True to form, the 37-year-old from Los Angeles is reluctantly making a rare tennis appearance, always preferring to maintain his trademark low profile.
"I've always tried to be an ordinary person," came a familiar refrain from the seven-time Wimbledon champion and holder of the all-time record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles. "I used to be introvert who didn't show his emotions.
The former great told local media that he does not regret the fact that he failed to lift a career trophy in the clay of Roland Garros despite winning 64 ATP titles. "I'm satisfied with what I have accomplished," he said before heading to London and a meeting in a group match with John McEnroe which Sampras won 6-3, 6-4.
***
Berlin Might be Moved to Warsaw

Gulf oil money may be ready to pull the plug on the WTA Berlin Open, with the Qatar-funded event possibly set to be switched to Warsaw. The Polish capital lost its own tournament in the major WTA shake-up which will go into full force from January.
The German news agency dpa says that the potential move is another nail in the coffin of tennis in the country which once produced Boris Becker and Steffi Graf. Berlin was one of the events which suffered a downgrade in status, much in the same way that the ATP pushed the Hamburg Masters (also with part Qatari ownership) down to "500" status for next season and switched it over to July from May.
Qatar bought the Berlin tournament in a deal running 2004-2009, but appears to have lost interest after internal chances in their own tennis federation. Reports indicate that several invoices remain outstanding from the May, 2008 event won by Dinara Safina, the website is down and that advertising for the 2009 edition has yet to commence.
Dpa quoted German tennis chief Georg van Waldenfels as calling the situation 'confusing,' with the WTA failing to clarify. "At this time there has been no request from the Qatar Tennis Federation to the Tour to move or sell the Berlin tournament for 2009," the WTA told dpa.
Germany's tennis events have dwindled to women's Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart, a July ATP tournament in the motor city and a May clay tournament in Munich.
***

We Hear—
--that Wal-Mart is going to test raising the price of tennis balls from $1.99 to $2.29
***
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Tennis News: December 1st

by mltennis 1. December 2008 07:27

Monday, December 1, 2008

BUSINESS NEWS

Editor's Note: We are on our Monday, Thursday publication schedule through December.
***
London Senior Event to Begin Tuesday

John McEnroe will play Pete Sampras Wednesday evening in a senior event, in London in the BlackRock Masters Tennis at the Royal Albert Hall that begins Tuesday.
McEnroe, a four-time champion at the event, but at 49, the oldest man in the draw, said that his rivals should not underestimate him.
In Group A, McEnroe will play against the seven-time Wimbledon champion Sampras 37, the 1997 Wimbledon finalist Cedric Pioline and former British No.1 Jeremy Bates. McEnroe opens up against Sampras on Wednesday night.
In Group B, Edberg will take on Greg Rusedski, Pat Cash and Guy Forget.
The players in each group will all play each other, with the top player in each group contesting the final. Matches are played over the best of three sets, with the third set taking the form of a Champions' Tie-Break, in which the first player to reach 10 points and lead by a margin of two, wins.
The BlackRock Masters Tennis is the culminating event on BlackRock Tour of Champions, a circuit for former World No.1 players, major finalists and Davis Cup champions. Each event can also invite two wild card entrants of its choosing.
As well as the singles draw in London, a high-quality doubles field will also entertain the crowds at the Royal Albert Hall. Henri Leconte, Pat Cash, Mansour Bahrami, Peter Fleming, Jamie Murray, Mark Woodforde and Anders Jarryd are all scheduled to appear.
***
Hong Kong Event to Hold Line on Ticket Price Increases

Organizers of the Hong Kong exhibition next month led by Maria Sharapova, Jelena Jankovic and Venus Williams have vowed to hold the line on ticket prices.
Due to the world economic crisis, the "World Challenge" will bite the bullet on any price increases. The January 7-10 even is to mark the return of Sharapova to tennis after half a year out with a shoulder injury. She has not played since Wimbledon and has spent months rehabbing a right shoulder injury.
The 12-strong field will hold prices for spectators to the same level as in past years in hopes of keeping the Victoria Park stadium full. Prices are set to remain at the equivalent of $36 to $105.
"It's not cheap getting the players here," longtime Hong Kong organizer Terry Catton told local media. "We had intended to raise the prices by ten percent. But at that time the economic crisis had not really hit. We know everyone is going through rough times and we've decided to stick to previous prices for the fourth straight year."
Catton admits that the annual event has lost a few sponsors, mainly from the hard-hit banking and financial sector. The event offers 124 patron boxes with prices ranging from the equivalent of $16,750 dollars for a dozen seats to 2,850 for a six-seater.
More than 20 sponsors will be supporting the upcoming edition. The tournament donated more than $25,000 for the development of Hong Kong tennis from the 2008 event.
***
Argentina Searching for a Davis Cup Captain

Shell-shocked Argentina is set to name a new Davis Cup Captain by the end of the year as the proud nation vows that the disappointment of losing the final at home to Spain will not be repeated.
Alberto Mancini announced he was stepping down after four years following the 3-1 defeat by a visiting side missing the injured Rafael Nadal. And Argentine federation bosses say they will have a new man in place promptly, with the first round of the 2009 competition fast approaching in March against the underpowered Netherlands.
While refusing to name names, officials hint that those in the running could include Martin Jaite, trainer of David Nalbandian, and former player Gabriel Markus.
Federer vice-president Arthur Grimaldi called Jaite "one of the best candidates, and has possibilities. But there are several men who could be the next captain."
Officials also defended Nalbandian, who was fined $10,000 by the International Tennis Federation for refusing to attend a media conference after Spain took the lead with a doubles win.
"How many Davis Cup press conferences have we had this season, 30? Everyone was there. It was poor form for Nalbandian not to appear but he has also been shown no mercy."
***
Davenport to Decide Her Future This Week

Lindsay Davenport is due to decide this week the fate of her tennis career, setting an early December deadline for either a return to the practice court or a full-time gig in the nursery.
"I'll have to sit down more seriously and look at what I want to do in the future," admitted the three-time Grand Slam winner whose 18-month-old son Jagger is taking up more and more of her time.
"I need to be practicing by early December if I'm going to Australia for the Open (which begins January 19)."
One thing that might persuade the 32-year-old Californian to stick around for another season is the addition of more combined men's and women's events on the WTA and ATP in 2009. "Next year we have something like 10 or 12 combined events. As a fan that is really a win-win situation.
"A tennis fan enjoys the difference in the games between the women and the men. If you buy a ticket, I think you would like to see the top women and the top male stars."
Davenport has not played since an early loss with back pain at the US Open, though that has not stopped her from extra paydays in selected exhibitions in recent months.
***
2008 Recap of American Men
By Charlie Bricker

What kind of a season has it been for U.S. men?
The raw numbers say improvement over 2007, but when you look at the overall picture and balance the statistics with the reality of some disturbing losses in key tournaments, it looks more like a year in which the Americans merely treaded water.
They don’t look any closer to winning a Grand Slam than they were a year ago.
Two players will finish in the top 10 – Andy Roddick at No. 8 and James Blake at No. 10, which is a gain over merely Roddick in 2007. And there will be eight Yanks in the top 100, also an improvement of one over 2007. Mardy Fish had his best year. Roddick beat all three of the top three players — Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Young Sam Querrey won his first title and Blake beat Federer for the first time in nine matches to reach the semifinals of the Olympic Games.
But where the wins really counted, at the major events, there was only Fish’s minor breakthrough of reaching the quarters of the U.S. Open.
And the two other young prospects backing up Querrey, Donald Young and John Isner, failed to fulfill the promise they had shown a year earlier.
RODDICK: Up two spots over 2007 to No. 6 with a 49-18 record and three titles (54-16 and two titles in 2007). He reached the semis of the Australian Open, missed the French with injury and went out second round at Wimbledon, quarters at the U.S. Open.
His win over Federer to gain the semis at Key Biscayne was a watershed, but he followed it with a disappointing loss in straights to Nikolay Davydenko. Also on the downside, shoulder and ankle injuries which set back his consistency and a loss to Janko Tipsarevic at Wimbledon, which almost no one could foresee.
On the upside, in addition to his win over Federer, he won Dubai with victory over Nadal and Djokovic, and had a strong U.S. Open before going out to Djokovic in four. He’s now hired Larry Stefanki, who has the technical ability and temperament to push Roddick to his best year. At 26 he’s still nowhere near out of his prime, but when injuries set in, there’s always a worry that they can become chronic.
BLAKE: Up three spots to No. 10 with a 46-22 record (53-22 in 2007). No titles for the first time since 2004 and his disappointing Grand Slam performances continue.
He got to the quarters at the Australian in a very good first half of the season, in which he at one point won 23 of 29 matches.
But the rest of the majors he went second round, second round, third round. His win over Federer at the Olympic Games seemed to signal a turning point, but he never got any bounce out of the victory.
He lost to Fish in the third round of the U.S. Open and went 4-3 through the rest of the season, failing to come up with the points he needed to reach the Masters Cup.
Toughest loss of the year? Probably to Rainer Schuettler at Wimbledon, where he led two sets to one. His 11-9 third-set loss to Fernando Gonzalez at the Olympics semis was a close second-toughest loss.
***
Baghdatis Makes Another Coaching Change

Marcos Baghdatis has appointed his third coach in the space of just ten months after announcing he is to begin working with Frenchman Olivier Soules.
The Cypriot's world ranking, at its peak no.8 in August 2006 , has slipped from a year opening 16th to a current position of 98th. Much of the reason has been a succession of back and wrist injuries but since reaching the last 16 at Wimbledon where he lost out in a memorable five setter to Spanish Davis Cup winner Feliciano Lopez, the 23 year-old has not registered a solitary victory on the main tour.
Baghdatis did reach the semi-final of a Challenger in Orleans, France in September after deciding not to play the US Open and since then has suffered opening round defeats in Metz, Basel and the Paris Masters Series event at Bercy where he forced to retire in the final set against Sam Querrey.
The beaten finalist in the 2006 Australian Open began working with Peter Lundgren just before Wimbledon. The experienced Swede, who had previously coach such stars as Roger Federer, Marat Safin and Marcelo Rios, was newly free from a contract with Britain's Lawn Tennis Association and full of optimism about his new charge. But things clearly did not work out as well as expected.
Earlier in the year Greek Davis Cup captain Yiannos Hadjigeorious quit as Baghdatis' coach for personal reasons. Now the player who spent much of his formative years in Paris at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy has turned to Soules who was formerly coach to the French player Nicolas Mahut.
Mahut, currently ranked just four places ahead of Baghdatis at no.94 in the world, has in turn employed Lionel Zimbler who became available following Fabrice Santoro's recent retirement from the tour.
***
2008; A Great Year for Daniel Nestor

Daniel Nestor is playing the waiting game as his wife prepares for an early December birth for the couple's first child. But the elite Canadian doubles ace is also reveling in his second straight year-end championships after he and Nenad Zimonjic won the Masters Cup in Shanghai.
Nestor duplicated his effort from a year ago, when he lifted the trophy with former partner Mark Knowles of the Bahamas.
The winner of more than $7 million is keen to continue his momentum at age 36, with the goal of staying atop the ranking pile as the No. 1 team on the ATP the major priority.
"We were a bit inconsistent this season," the Canadian told home media upon his return from the season-ending event in China. "We would get really hot at times and cold at times. For the first three months of the year I didn't really win that much, so it's not like I'm defending anything for the first three months."
Nestor has played on year-end championship team three times including 2002 and 2004 with Knowles
But the transition to Zimonjic went well, with the Wimbledon title for the pair. "It was a little bit of a risk switching partners and it ended up turning out well," said Nestor. "Wimbledon was a title I was never able to win. And to finish the year No. 1 was pretty special, too.
He hopes the best is yet to come. "Even in singles, when I was older I started playing better. There's more maturity. I think every athlete plays better as they get older, it's just their body might not cooperate as much."
***
Cara Black Wonders if She Should Remain Zimbabwean

Each times she walks onto a tennis court Cara Black, one half of the world's leading women's doubles team, is given reason to question whether she is doing the right thing remaining stoically Zimbabwean.
Her playing partner and best friend, Liezel Huber, has taken on United States nationality and repeatedly insists it is one of the best decisions she has ever made in life. Black too qualifies for a different passport that would guarantee more lucrative tennis backing, in her case Australian after being married to Brett 'Moose' Stephens, the man who made Pete Sampras a fitter player, for more than two years.
But Black, the third sibling of a family that really put the constantly troubled state of Zimbabwe on the world tennis map, refuses to budge. "I'm not going to change nationality," insisted the diminutive player who turns 30 early next year and can look to her two Davis Cup stalwart elder brothers Byron and Wayne for help and advice.
"Liezel did so because she is married to an American and she has lived in America for the last 15 years. It's great to play with her. We have a great understanding of each other since we come from the same region. We are great friends off the court too. But I'm Zimbabwean and I love my country. I'm not at all influenced or tempted."
This year alone Black and Huber won nine titles including the US Open, their fourth major together and Black's fifth after winning the 2004 Wimbledon crown with Australia's Rennae Stubbs. In Beijing, Black represented Zimbabwe in the third successive Games after also playing in Sydney and Athens.
There was not a player ranked sufficiently high enough to warrant a place in the doubles draw but at singles she lost first round to world no.1 Jelena Jankovic. Houston-based Huber meantime went on to make the doubles quarter finals in partnership with Lindsay Davenport.
"It was a good feeling being part of the team," she said. "It felt good to have the national spirit hanging around. It would have been better with more medals. I hope we will do better next time and bring something home."
Last weekend, she conducted a coaching clinic in Harare, where several budding players came to learn from their role model: "I was inspired and impressed by the level of talent displayed. It was good to see that level of promise in spite of the economic and social situation in our country."
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Murray Prepares for 2009 Including the Training Table

Andy Murray may avoid the traditional artery-clogging Scottish snack of a deep-fried Mars bar, but there is little else that the No. 4 won't be shoving into his mouth as he tries to bulk up tactically for the 2009 season.
Team Murray is now in Florida for several weeks of holiday training and fitness work. One of the goals of the US Open finalist is to put on a few strategic pounds as he prepares to mount an assault on the Top 3 of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
"If I'm going to put on six pounds or so I'll have to eat loads, because I'm training for five hours a day," said Murray, who will be supervised - and kept away from any late-night raids on McDonalds - by various traveling trainers on his payroll.
Muzza's diet is expected to be in line with generally accepted nutrition principles: "I'll be eating sushi, drinking protein drinks," he said, adding: "Mind you, my gran is cooking Christmas lunch, so I don't think that will be sushi."
Murray is looking for a bit of extra pop on his shots for the coming season after making his breakthrough in 2008 with two Masters titles and the finals in New York with Federer.

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We Hear—
--that the names of finalists for the top ATP job being publicized are not really the top candidates.
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Bob Larson’s Stock Report
Friday’s Stock Prices

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